April 13, 2026 | By Shayleah Jenkins
Nikki Handley begins her corequisite algebra course at Odessa College with a discussion question asking students to share facts about themselves, like where they are from and where they see themselves in ten years. But taking a cue from the Collaborative, she also encourages her students to write about challenges and other commitments they are juggling. This activity, Handley explains, helps foster a sense of belonging for students, who are able to see that their classmates face similar challenges.
Handley has been teaching mathematics at Odessa for 25 years, but she is always looking for ways to improve what she’s doing to help her students. Using materials developed by Collaborative researchers, Handley incorporated prompts, videos, and discussion questions into her hybrid course to help students reflect on how they learn and to plan their learning throughout the course.
“All of the pieces that I would need were there,” Handley said, speaking at the DREAM 2026 conference in Portland, Oregon, on March 3. “I was already using discussion boards, but [the Collaborative’s] were a little bit meatier than mine were, and so it was an easy fit.”
Despite the increasing popularity of online learning, remote and hybrid courses pose challenges for students. They can find it difficult to stay motivated and engaged with course materials and on track to finish assignments, especially in courses with minimal face-to-face instruction. To help address these challenges, the Collaborative has developed a Self-Directed Learning (SDL) Instructional Model with simple strategies that target belonging, metacognition, and other SDL skills students need to succeed in online courses.
The strategies aim to strengthen SDL skills by incorporating videos on growth mindset, student experiences, and time management into coursework, assigning prompts that spark reflection on the learning process, and providing structured opportunities to connect with peers.
For Chey Natividad, having Handley as a teacher turned a dreaded math class into a valuable and comfortable learning experience. After taking a break from college, Natividad took Handley’s hybrid corequisite algebra class to complete her prerequisites for the college’s sonography program.
“I was super nervous to take that class because math is very hard for me, and I had just put it off for so long,” she said.
Throughout the course, Handley assigned prompts for students to respond to, asking them what they felt they mastered that week and what they felt they needed help with. Natividad said these prompts helped her create a learning plan and prioritize how to spend her study time, which eventually made her feel more secure in the class.
Odessa College is one of nine colleges that partnered with the Collaborative to inform, develop, and test the strategies in the SDL Instructional Model over the last four-plus years. Along with Natividad and Handley, Odessa student Neyeli Dominguez, faculty member Ariela Lange, and Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness Brian Jones joined the Collaborative at DREAM 2026 to share their experiences with using the Instructional Model.
Dominguez is currently taking prerequisites for the nursing program. She was also placed into Handley’s hybrid corequisite math course to refresh her memory of math after a 15-year break from college. A single, working parent, she is familiar with balancing competing priorities. But managing her own learning on top of her caregiving responsibilities was a new skill set she had to develop.
“I hadn’t been in school for a very long time,” she said, “so I didn’t have any knowledge of how to study or time management.”
Dominguez said the SDL prompts helped her plan her studying time around her work instead of cramming studying in just before assignments were due. It was also helpful to see that she wasn’t the only one who was still figuring things out.
“I thought I was going to be the only one struggling because of my age gap,” Dominguez said. “But it helped me see that I wasn’t the only one struggling.”
Lange, a professor at Odessa who teaches an eight-week, hybrid mathematics course, also incorporated the strategies and continues to use them in both her online and in-person sections. Implementation was easy enough, she found.
“What was challenging was giving the students the reason why we would do certain strategies, certain assignments, so that they can see the benefit,” Lange said.
One activity that Lange adopted from the Instructional Model continues to help with this. Each term, near the end of her course, she asks students to write a letter to a future student reflecting on what they did in the course, how they managed their workload, and what they learned about themselves as students. She then removes their names and shares their answers with incoming students.
“It helps the students at the beginning of the term realize that they can do this as well,” Lange said.
Another strategy that Handley finds helpful for students is assigning reflection prompts before and after course exams. She asks students about their study plans before an assignment or test: Did you attend office hours? Do you know where my office is? How long do you plan to study? After the assignment or test, she asks students to reflect on whether they’re happy with the grade they received, whether it was higher or lower than expected, about any mistakes they made, and ways they might do better next time.
The strategies help students take control of their learning and avoid making the same mistakes again and again, she said. “One thing I added to the Collaborative’s suggested journal prompt was the definition of insanity, you know, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Collaborative researchers encouraged instructors to adapt the strategies and activities in the Instructional Model to fit the needs of their courses. Jessica Mislevy, a researcher at SRI Education who leads the Collaborative and spoke at the DREAM session, said there is emerging evidence to suggest that there “could be benefits from targeting, or potentially matching the strategies to students based on where they’re coming in at and their needs.”
Both Handley and Lange continue to adapt and use the Collaborative’s strategies in their in-person and online courses, particularly the strategies that strengthen students’ time management skills and motivation. And both Dominguez and Natividad continue to use the skills they learned beyond their introductory math courses.
“Sometimes we have this mentality that, ‘I’m not able to be successful in this because I’ve never done it,’” Dominguez said. “However, doing the growth mindset , it teaches you that it doesn’t matter where you’re starting as long as you are engaged in the courses and with your peers and your teachers—that you are able to grow in that area.”
“I think mindset has a lot to do with it,” Natividad added. “So, mentally, I was ready, and then given these tips and tricks, it just kind of added fuel to my fire.”
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Tags: Instructional Strategies Online Learning Postsecondary Learning