Humanized Online Teaching Showcase
Carey Kidd, Associate Faculty, Butte Community 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.
Before COVID pandemic lockdown, I was a face-to-face instructor. During the lockdown, I became an online teacher and I believe a better teacher of adding on the benefits of online lectures and assignments. My college encouraged its faculty to take this Humanizing Online STEM Academy with a stipend. I knew there was more I could learn to refine my online craft and this Academy seemed an excellent opportunity to learn more.
Before joining the Academy, I had a working knowledge of Canvas and felt I practiced many of the Humanizing elements described in the Academy course. However, my video and audio skills were minimal as I did not feel comfortable being in front of a camera or speaking into a microphone. I had not engaged in any of the many technological tools shared in this course. I did not have a liquid syllabus, "bumper videos" or a Wisdom Wall”. I did have Zoom micro-lectures, a Getting to Know You Survey and Icebreaker on Canvas that I’d prepared for my online classes. My Welcome email sent to students before the first week of class functioned similarly to the “Home Page without the convenient links
Where I am.
After taking this course, I learned about numerous free technology tools to make welcoming videos, concise and focused lectures, and interactive assignments. I enlarged my humanizing language and attitudes such as High/Low Cultural Context, Imposter Syndrome, Warm Demander, Wise Feedback, Storytelling and Dependent vs Independent Learners. I discovered technology tools such as ScreenPal, Flipgrid, Adobe Express, and learned how to upload/caption YouTube videos. I now know how to embed videos so they are easily viewed on a phone—not “copy/paste links” as I have done in the past.
I developed sophisticated humanizing activities I can implement in my classes such as the Wisdom Wall and bumper videos. These interactive tools allow students to express who they are as a person through their contributions in the course as well as interact with their fellow students through the Discussions online. Creating a liquid syllabus that is cell-phone-friendly is a valuable welcoming way to inform students about my course—and it’s fun—definitely an upgrade from my standard online syllabus. Also, the welcoming Home page is an upgrade with convenient links for students to find assignments (modules) and resources. The Student Voices project shared my colleagues’ interviews with a student about the student’s online learning experience and was valuable knowledge to me because it affirmed my practice of regular instructor communication, flexibility and compassion.
Where I am going.
With these new tools and enhanced humanizing vocabulary, I will definitely continue using what I've learned to improve my courses, both online and in-person. I think of myself as a student centered instructor and "humanizing" fits my teaching philosophy. I've professionally embraced the changes to math curriculum in the last few years because of AB705. The technological tools I learned will hopefully assist students to overcome their anxiety about college math—because math is fun! I will continue to be empathetic to my students and continue to allow them flexibility as I have also experienced the difficulties of balancing work, family and life. I plan to continue applying the humanizing elements discussed in this class so that students will feel valued and motivated to give their best effort throughout the semester.
Liquid Syllabus
The liquid syllabus is a student’s first introduction to me where I hope they see I am human, approachable, and genuinely interested in their success in the class. It’s a friendly overview of the course. There are several elements including a welcome video, a list of expectations for both the student and myself, my teaching philosophy, a Week One to do list, and several resources where to get help. This should help the student orient themselves even before the course begins and hopefully see I wish to be a partner in their learning.
Course Card
Once a student logs in to Canvas, the first thing they see is the Course Card. I chose the image of a circle of hands to represent a collaborative inclusive attitude with math symbols and Max Escher's lizard geometric tessellation because this is a math class.
We were asked to include images of diversity/equity and the different hands reflect the diversity of the students in my class. Hopefully, students will feel welcomed by the “inclusiveness” of my Course Card. My previous Course Cards were colorful artistic curvaceous fractal images which were diverse and reflected the “chaos of math and nature".
Homepage
Once the student clicks on the course card, they come across my Humanized Homepage. This page is meant to be invitingly welcome, but not overly informative. A welcome video is included where I share with my students that I'm happy to have them in my course and hopefully excite them about the course. The Home Page includes user-friendly links to the course and resources to make it easy for a student to maneuver in the course’s website.
Getting to Know You Survey
The "Getting to Know You" survey is assigned in the first week of the course. By conducting the Survey at the start of the term, I hope to quickly and effectively connect with students who show signs of needing extra support later in the term. There are several questions that will help me to better know who each student is, along with a variety of preferences. Along with their name, pronounciation of their name, and preferred form of communications, I ask questions like:
§ What was the last math class you took? Where? How long ago?
§ What is the one thing that is most likely to interfere with your success in this class?
Responses of the students will allow me to better understand the needs of my
students both on an individual level and collectively as a whole class so that I
can be a more effective instructor.
Wisdom Wall
A Wisdom Wall is a collection of "learning stories" recorded by students in previous semesters to pass on their experiences to current students. I will use it at the beginning of the course, to help ease student fears and perhaps prepare them for what’s ahead in the course. At the end of the semester they post their own advice. By recording their advice, (power of student voices) students reflect on their growth over time and recognize what they did to navigate through the challenges of the semester. Listening to other students' advice, students see that other students have similar struggles and perhaps identify new strategies for overcoming them. This stimulates metacognition and growth mindset where students are “verbalizing” what they’ve experienced/learned and are exposed to other students’ strategies.
Bumper Video
A Course Bumper is a brief, visually-oriented video (1-3 minutes) that serves an instructional purpose in your course. I chose the concept of the Normal Curve and Empirical Rule which are the basis for inferential statistics. The video defines the normal curve and its relationship with the Empirical Probability Rule. It describes their development and some of their uses.
This video is a precursor to mathematical applications. Normal Curve and Empirical Probability Rule are abstract concepts and may be confusing for students, so I hope the video can clarify a bit of that confusion.
Microlecture
A microlecture is a short recorded audio or video presentation on a single, tightly defined topic per our Academy. Its positive aspects are the inclusion of motivating images, animation and colorful pens. Plus, a microlecture can be re-recorded many times until it meets my OK and then used “permanently” online.
As part of my campus’ SLO's, the Pythagorean Theorem is required, so I chose the Pythagorean Theorem which calculates the lengths/distances of a right triangle. The formula uses squares and square roots which may require a calculator and some algebra to perform. It is a practical formula used in many occupations.
As motivation, I included a brief history of Pythagoras and for review I discussed right angles. My video is just over 9 minutes with graphics demonstrating different concepts. This video is a complete lecture on the topic. A student can watch it as many times as they like. I plan to use this video in my Nature of Mathematics overview course. I also hope that students enjoy the short visual lecture video to improve their learning experience.
