Humanizing Online STEM Showcase
Michelle Beard, Math Professor at Ventura College
This site provides examples of instructional resources created in the Humanizing Online STEM Academy, a professional development program funded by the California Education Learning Lab and administered by the Foothill DeAnza Community College District.
Where I was:
I have been teaching community college math classes online for over 15 years, but I was never satisfied with what the course offered for students. Covid forced me to learn to do online teaching better. I attended all of the virtual conferences and workshops that I could find, and I learned so much. My online course offerings became so much better for students, and I felt that I was offering them a quality education. But, the humanzing piece of it was missing. I preferred hybrid courses because it combined the best of both worlds. But, I knew it could be done better online, and I looked forward to learning how to do that.
Where I am:
Being a student in an asynchronous course is one bonus to the Humanizing STEM class. I was able to see the challenges and benefits first-hand. I was waiting for my facilitators to get back with me on a question, just like my students wait for my responses. I was able to understand the joy of the assignment confetti, and the nervous energy associated with getting feedback.
The favorite thing that I have learned is how to create quality videos. My former videos have been thrown together to "make do." Now, I feel that I can create quality recordings with more ease. This will help me reach students who need video tools, along side of the text contained in Canvas pages. I am much more comfortable with YouTube and the options that it presents us in sharing accessible content. I also learned how to create valuable discussions and help students engage in an online setting. I will definitely be using Flip in my future courses!
Where I am going:
I am excited to move forward in a more interactive way. I want students to know my face, and I want to get to know my online student's face, mannerisms, and style of learning. Some of my colleagues comment on how online courses can be completely done by AI. While I realize the power of AI and challenges it presents to us as teachers, I look forward to engaging with my students and learning about them in a personal way. AI cannot duplicate the human touch. I look forward to tapping into the humanizing component so needed in online STEM courses.
Liquid Syllabus
I look forward to sharing this liquid syllabus with my students before the semester even begins. I will later add pages to the course syllabus, including the typical syllabus information. But, this document gives them a first impression and welcome to their online College Algebra course.
Course Card
The course card assignment caused me to look a little further for a relevant image. This is a picture of two students on my campus, working at the tutoring center I like the diversity of student gender, and the way that the students are engaging with each other in their learning. I kept the overlay in our school colors, so as not to draw attention to the individual faces but the community of learners at VC.
HomePage
It was good to get some more guidance and experience in playing with Canva. Having some great examples of other faculty hompages allowed ideas to sit with me until I could compile my own personal approach to greeting my students. Since this time, I have been regularly updating the homepage of my current courses to keep things fresh.
Getting to Know You Survey
The getting to know you survey will be presented to students in the introductory module. It will be their first assignment. I was glad to increase the quality of the questions, by asking a few new questions:
I may leave feedback in video format from time to time. Does that work for you or do you prefer only written feedback?
When you use Canvas (our online platform), will you mainly use your phone, a laptop, a computer, or something else?
Ice Breaker
The icebreaker is going to ask students to share something that they have been learning recently. I want them to realize that education needs to be done both inside and outside of the classroom. Each student will create a video in Flip, sharing a recent learning experience. Example are given including music, hobbies, sports, job training, etc...
Bumper Video
This video was created and used in my current College Algebra class. Students liked the quality and way that I could interact with them in giving instructions on preparing for an assessment. This take home assessment requires some creativity on their part, but clear directions needed to be shared, and the bumper video did the job perfectly.
Microlecture
My students are learning to work with conic sections. They normally do great graphing and finding equations, but the focus points always confuse them. I decided to make a short mini-lecture that would talk specifically about this aspect of their work. I did just two examples and highlighted the important parts. It was a short but effective way for them to have access to a normally, complicated concept.