Humanized Online Teaching Showcase
Cheryl Battles, Adjunct Faculty, Butte College
This site provides examples of instructional resources created in the Humanizing Online Teaching Academy, a professional development program at Butte College, funded by the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy & Practices grant from the California Community College Chancellor's Office.
Reflections
Where I was.
The pedagogy I learned thirty years ago was advanced for the time: student-centered, theory-backed, responsive-based. We flipped the script before that term existed, and for years it has served me well. It's important to me to keep developing my teaching, so of course I have kept up with pedagogical developments, like honoring diversity, learning to create UDL assignments, and developing inviting online courses. But in order to do that, I need to be involved in projects like this. While I desire to be as warm and welcoming, and as equitable in my teaching as possible, it's not intuitive to me. I can't completely put myself in the shoes of all my students because their experiences are unique--in short, I'm not them. So I need to be taught.
Where I am.
What I wanted was to learn how to be more directed and purposeful in practicing equity in the live and virtual classroom. I want to ensure that students who might have endured marginalization do not encounter that in my classes; I also just want them to enjoy learning, and get the most they can out of the experience. This Humanizing Workshop has taught me all sorts of new tricks, has enlightened me with the pedagogical reasons for what we do, and has offered me more ways to do it, so that I can implement everything I have learned.
Where I am going.
I will always want to keep improving, and I'm excited to see how these changes and improvements will manifest in future classes. I intend to keep practicing the new tools I've learned and to incorporate the new pedagogy, particularly things like being a warm demander with actionable demands built in to my emails and feedback, into all of my online classes. And while I do so, I'll be able to continue to compare what happens in the classroom, in a live setting, to what happens asynchronously, so that I can develop the best online presence possible.
Liquid Syllabus
I start with a picture of me laughing as my husband kisses my cheek because it's a warm and fun vibe. I want people to know that while the class is about logic, emotion is still valuable to me. The "Welcome" video is a quick tour of my office, an imperfect space and an imperfect video, illustrating human error, perhaps a little vulnerability.
Following the templates and examples we've been offered, I chose next to give the "First Week of Class" info, with a link to the Canvas login, followed by the materials needed for that first week. "How the Course Works" is next, and then the diversity and engagement information. I borrowed the eloquent and accessible rhetoric from previous Humanizing sites, and fortuitously, my teaching philosophy fit nicely into this toborrowed tone.
I re-used a photo from the Homepage of me for the "Contact" section so that it would be consistent. The "Pact," "Goals" and "Advice for Success" were all informed by the more formal syllabus on the class site. I've always had a section of "Advice" by previous students in my syllabus, and I chose to include it because then it isn't only my voice here. I'm trying to consistently but subtly emphasize the togetherness established earlier on the page.
Course Card
I wanted an image that would quickly encapsulate the notion of togetherness, as in, "we're in this together." English classes, especially rhetoric ones, can be daunting because they focus so intently on logic, and I want to dispel fears as well as instill harmony between and amongst students. Just the other day I had a student remark in an email, "Good thing we're going over all the steps together as a class." That's the attitude I'm trying to impart.
The hands are identifiably of different shades of skin on purpose. Of course I want everyone to feel welcome, and when you only have hands, rather than faces, I think it might be easier for people to envision themselves in that position. Also, I just find the image of hands--what we work with and how we touch others--as inspiring of creativity and productivity.
Homepage
This video to the left is a Canvas Studio product, and as such it allowed me to use the screen-on-screen tool. I appreciate being able to show people (especially students) what is happening on the page I'm describing, and Canvas Studio makes that really easy.
My Homepage has a light tone, using a picture of balloons as the first image, because many people are stressed out by the notion of logic being the main part of class. I want to offer a space that is welcoming, accessible and that calms anxiety.
To be most warm and welcoming, I borrowed the phrase "guide and instructor," and the sentence: "I'm so grateful you are in this class." I felt those were lovely ways to express a welcoming atmosphere.
Getting to Know You Survey
I hope that the questions, which are focused on personal information like how to pronounce their names and what pronouns they use and how they best learn, impart a clear sense that they--as individuals--are important to me. That importance should translate into kindness cues.
I also included some questions that will help me in a practical sense, like knowing if it's okay to leave video or audio feedback for them. It's so much easier to impart subtleties and be supportive in video, but also, it's simply quicker to leave video feedback. And this translates into more, and more useful, feedback.
Ice Breaker
I'm hoping students will learn the Flip tool and be able to share with me and each other their videos. I've never asked for video before, and Flip is new to me, so I'm still learning how to teach it, but I believe that it will be a highly useful tool.
One thing I am trying to develop more of in my classroom both online and in person is a wider understanding of "writing" and the UDL that will help many students succeed. So, using video could be transformative for some students in their writing projects that are spoken.
This Icebreaker asks for students to interview a few friends or family members and to post the one word each person uses to describe them best. Then, they read each others' posts and find one or two to respond to based on interest or similarity in their chosen words. Because it's an English class, words that encapsulate a person's personality or behaviors seems appropriate.
Bumper Video
In my class I have two assignments that use TED Talks. The first informs the second, and in person this is easy to explain. It has been extremely difficult for online students to understand the process and steps from one assignment to another. Thus, I wanted to create this video so that this confusion wouldn't keep creeping in. So this sets up an assignment, and in particular, it helps to clarify the differences between the two TED Talk assignments and answer a lot of questions that I've noticed many students have.
I love that I can make this sort of video, with effects, soundtrack and a unifying style/color palette. I plan on keeping the color palette as a way to help students organize their thoughts and their work, since so many instructors do things differently than each other online. This I hope will help them identify my class form their others effortlessly (even subconsciously).
Microlecture
This microlecture explains deductive validity and invalidity, teaching how to create valid syllogisms and spot manipulative syllogisms (learning objective #4). This concept seems to be easy for students when they see examples, but is more difficult when only reading about it. I do have a page of notes that includes numerous examples that augment the textbook's presentation of these concepts. However, I believe that having this video, which walks students through those notes and the accompanying assignment, will help most students tackle the concepts with more confidence and clarity.