🤔 Reflection:

In previous setting, the introductory module includes a brief course intro, syllabus, syllabus quiz, course calendar, and materials. These are all useful and crucial components that foster students; however, I thought this "welcome kit" could involve components that strengthen students' ability to recognize their own emotions and empathize with others. 

Given that the topic addressed in this course can generate negative emotions, it is important to build and sustain a caring learning community. Despite certain limitations due to its modality (fully online course), I made several changes to the introductory module, by incorporating pre-course survey form and asynchronous ice-breaking activity. 

🎬 Action: 

• Created a welcome forum 

• Pre-course survey to get to know more about learners' unique interests as well as their unique identities

🤔 Reflection:

Traditional discussion posts often require students to read and respond individually. However, when teaching the definitional challenge of terrorism, it is crucial for students to recognize that defining terrorism is a complicated social and political process. 

To foster this understanding through collective reflection, I designed the Week 1 discussion activity to engage students in collaboratively developing their own definitions of terrorism. Using interactive multimedia tools such as Slido and H5P, this process becomes visually and conceptually accessible, allowing students to see how diverse perspectives shape definitions. 

The goal of this activity is not for students to demonstrate prior knowledge, but rather to experience the complexity of defining terrorism and to engage meaningfully with their peers. Students can participate either through written responses or video notes, since the focus of this assignment is on achieving the learning outcomes rather than on writing or speaking proficiency.

🎬 Action: 

• Design the discussion assignment to foster individual and collective reflection

• Optimize access to materials and tools

• Use multimedia tools (slido, H5P)

• Allow various ways to engage in this activity

🤔 Reflection:

When teaching political science course, it is often challenging to teach students how to tie political science theories/concepts to the real-world examples. Students often find difficulties in interpretation and application compared to understanding the materials and retrieving key points. Given this, generative artificial intelligence (AI) can serve as a useful learning partner, by chopping this nonlinear process of learning into do-able small steps. In particular, I designed this reading + discussion assignment to make the reading and application to the real-world case more interactive by using Notebook LM. 

This discussion assignment functions as formative components of the course, helping students build the analytical and writing skills necessary for success on the major essay assignment. By treating each discussion as part of a larger process rather than a stand-alone task, students are able to work toward mastery through continuous reflection based on instructor's timely feedback and revision. In addition, students have options for choice and autonomy in terms of the contents (empirical case) to explore further.

🎬 Action: 

• Incorporate Generative AI to guide effective learning from readings

• Make discussion assignments part of the learning process, with the goal of achieving mastery in the larger assignment

• Provide options for choice and autonomy