Humanized Online Teaching Showcase
Irma Gonzalez Cuadros, Child Development 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.
My online courses already included YouTube videos (some from me, but most from some others that I could find in YouTube. I relied on "Studio" to create my own videos with PowerPoint lectures. It was much easier since it was all in one place. My videos ranged between 15-20 minutes (much longer than necessary), and I already knew how to embed videos and edit Closed Captions. I have been comfortable working with Canvas, yet, there were many things I wanted to learn, such how to humanize more my course, adding padded images, create shaded boxes, buttons for links, and other course designs. This was the reason why during the Spring and Summer of 2023, I decided to take steps to humanize my courses and try to challenge myself to do much better than I was, in regard to technology. Thank you Humanizing Academy!
Where I am.
Four courses have made a significant difference for me. Three of them are from @ONE (Equitable Grading Strategies, Equity and Culturally Responsive Online Teaching, Advanced Techniques in Canvas) along with the Humanizing Academy have provided me the tools that I needed to upgrade my teaching practices and to provide my students' with a better opportunity to engage in learning. I am in the process of updating my Child Development course. I am more comfortable creating video to humanize my courses!
Where I am going.
My next step will be to continue applying changes to humanize the courses I teach. I am eager to continue learning about humanizing education through technology. The field is always changing and so I plan to continue to focus on upgrading my skills.
Liquid Syllabus
I plan to use my liquid syllabus to give my students a welcoming message, and to let them know some details about the course. Some students will be ready to check it out, and some others may wait until the first day of class. It does not matter as the purpose of the liquid syllabus is to reduce anxiety for students who may need to know in advance of the first day of class.
I also plan to use the liquid syllabus as an opportunity to build relationships with students. For them to get to know me and to show my human side, and for them to ask questions if needed.
Course Card
The images selected for my course card relate to the theme of my course: Child Development. My class addresses diverse issues from the prenatal stage to the adolescence stage. I thought of using images of children from diverse backgrounds and levels of ability. Thank you Pexels for making my search such an easy task!
Homepage
My homepage had a good design. It was not long, but it had the course syllabus embedded in links (from hidden pages) in Canvas. It was not overwhelming at all. However, after learning on the humanizing academy, I learned a new way to host the course homepage and I plan to adopt this new model for my upcoming courses. Learning to do buttons, using Canva to create the banner, and using YouTube to embed a video provide some kindness cues for my students to feel welcomed into our class!
I personalized this website adding my favorite quotes in shaded boxes, which shows the most important topics I am passionate about.
Getting to Know You Survey
This survey includes 8 questions that allows me the opportunity to get to know my students and to make some notes in Canvas, so I can remember their preferred name and pronouns. It also helps me to understand how my students access the course and the way they prefer me to leave assignment feedback. In the past, I have provided video feedback to students, however, I never asked them how they preferred to receive feedback.
The survey provides kindness cues as it intends to collect information on specific ways to support each student, so the way that I interact with my students is tailored to their needs avoiding an instructor focused approach to center it ion students' needs.
Ice Breaker
I chose to do the Flip Ice Breaker. The theme I chose was "A Treasure in your Hand." It's a great topic to introduce to each other and start building community among each other. The purpose is for students to share their name, their pronouns and to have an object that fits in their hand that they treasure (care about). The value may be sentimental, so it does not have to be anything fancy. Students must respond creating a Flip response to the prompt and then reply to two classmates.
This ice breaker serves as a great conversation starter, and helps me and other students to learn how to pronounce names and to learn about their preferred pronouns, so I can use them respectfully through the semester. I created my own Flip intro so they do not find an empty prompt, and so it serves as an example. It also supports students to learn about each other and find things in common with others.
Bumper Video
The bumper video was created to introduce a module using Adobe Express. In this case the video introduces Module 2, Theories of Child Development. I plan to develop an intro video for each module with Adobe Express (for continuity) and the goal will be to introduce the learning objectives and the topics addressed in the module, so my students know what to expect as far as content. It's intended to make students feel welcomed and to have my presence as they open the first page of the module.
Microlecture
This micro-lecture has the goal to introduce a concept: teratogens, and also to introduce some of the most common teratogens. it's a concept that will further lead students to explore a specific teratogen and create a persuasive letter with the information they find through their research.
While the assignment was not introduced in the micro-lecture (because the assignment comes later in the module), it provides a base of knowledge for students to figure out how teratogens affect the baby in the womb. In addition, it provides an opportunity to humanize my course through this video-lecture.
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 Irma Gonzalez Cuadros and is shared with a Creative Commons-Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 license.