Humanized Online Teaching Showcase
Kevin Muster, Associate Professor, 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.
During covid, the acting classes were also online. It was easy to include video and have zoom sessions with students. Once we got back in person, the only class that stayed online was Theatre Arts Appreciation. This course was much more difficult to have a felt presence in, as it was heavy on the textbook and and discussions and did not have assignments where scenes would be performed.
Where I am.
With the simple addition of the welcoming video, I believe students will feel more of a connection to their teacher. I tried to keep it simple and not do a lot of professional history, while also not going into great detail about my family (I rarely post photos of my wife and kids on social media to keep their lives private). I also think the opening survey is a good way to get to know how to best help them and hopefully make them feel like their unique circumstances matter.
Where I am going.
I think that the bumper videos and microlectures will be implemented in each weeks module. I will probably add some personal tidbits into these to make them even more welcoming more akin to lectures in class. Even though everything is asyncrhonous, I think also adding the options for students to communicate via audio or video will greatly increase their feeling of being a part of a whole.
Liquid Syllabus
Canvas can feel pretty stale and cold. Using google sites allows more of the teacher's personality to come through.
The liquid syllabus is such a great way to show the students that you care about their success. I know many (if not most) classes that my kids take online have virtually no presence before day one.
I plan on adding a few more personal "optional" videos as well, if the students want to go down the rabbit hole of seeing my journey through theatre and film.
Course Card
For my course card, I included a picture from a production of Homer in Cyberspace. It was a very large cast of more than 30 students with a vast multicultural representation. It also shows various mediums, from video, to live staging.
Homepage
I tried to keep my homepage simple and welcoming. Little things like the exclamation points at the end of the "Welcome.." line, adding parenthesis in places for a more detailed explanation of what they will find by clicking on the links, and a video introducing them to my professional and personal life. The resource and Q&A links should help them associate the individual class with the college as a whole.
Getting to Know You Survey
By having questions that have nothing to do with the textbook or specific material that will be taught during the course, I am hoping that each student will feel like their unique voice matters. Even somethig as simple as how to pronouce their names can help them feel included. Also, giving them an option of bringing up anything that wasn't covered can help with participation.
Wisdom Wall
I try to explain to the students that their journey can also be a part of another person's journey. The things that they have learned, the things they wish they had learned earlier; these can help future students succeed in the class. Hopefully, realizing this will expand their sense of community.
Bumper Video
I tried to approach this video with the intent of making the students intrigued about what they would be learning. I began by asking questions about who Stanislavski was, and why we should care. As the video moved on, I encouraged them to take notes when viewing the course video so that they could use it for the quiz that would be due at the end of the week.
Microlecture
This microlecture fits in with the textbook reading for that week. It addresses slo "Assess the historical, artistic, social, and philosophical in which theatre exists".While the textbook is broad in scope on this subject, I am hoping the microlecture will give them a specific example of how this can affect their current culture and what it may have looked like through the hundreds of years it has been performed.
The Humanized Online Teaching Academy is adapted from the Humanizing Online STEM Academy, by Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Mike Smedshammer, and Kim Vincent-Layton. This website was created by Kevin Muster and is shared with a Creative Commons-Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 license.