Service

Healthful Living, HES100 OER Book

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to work with my mentor, Joann Pell, on our OER book. We created four new modules and revised a module. Working on this project was an incredible learning experience. In addition to conducting a great deal of research, I learned about how OERs and grants work. Joann and I made a great team. We divided up the tasks, had frequent check ins, and proof read for each other. We decided to share our OER content using Google, our library resources page, and Canvas. Having all of our readings, lessons, assignments, and overviews in a shared Google drive makes it possible for us to make changes and update the content everywhere we have shared it.

Working on the OER was definitely a labor of love. Joann and I spent much more time than we estimated, but we are happy with the results. We are are currently working on converting all of the modules that we did not update into Google for consistency and easy updating. I would like to work out a rotating schedule for updating the units so I can keep all of the content and resources current and up to date.

Department Website

To communicate with students about all of the COVID changes, the Psychology department created a beautiful website. We loved the idea, so we reached out to Julie Morrison who graciously shared her template with us. Louise So and I modified the website template to share information from our department and meet the needs of our students. It was such a success in the Summer and Fall that we updated website for Spring. I am brand new to website creation. Through this project, I learned how to add picture carousels and implement creative layouts. We have been tracking the analytics and there has been a steady stream of people visiting our site. I will continue updating the site each semester, and I hope it will enhance our communication with students and potential students.

Fitness and Wellness Website

Packback Questions: Perspectives from Three Instructors

I piloted Packback Questions in the summer and had a really great experience, but it was a challenging adjustment. I had to change my approach to online discussion and give up control which was difficult. In a typical online discussion, I ask the question, respond to my students, and guide the conversation. In Packback, the students ask the questions, and I demonstrate my presence by praising and featuring posts. While my students did an outstanding job with this format, it was difficult for me to take a step back and recognize that I was still engaging, just in a different way.

Polly Laubach asked me to share my experience along with Beth Eyres and Fernando Romero at the Packback Questions: Perspectives from Three Instructors CTLE event. I can't say no to Polly, so I agreed. I discussed the challenging transition, explained how I have used the questions my students post in Packback to guide instruction, explained how I use the weekly insight report to increase engagement, and shared feedback from my students.

I find presenting on Zoom/WebEx really challenging because you can't make eye contact or see the facial expressions of your entire audience. While I was presenting, I felt uncomfortable. I need to learn strategies for presenting to large groups in this format and practice so I feel comfortable. As times change, I will likely need to use Zoom/WebEx more frequently, so it is important for me to develop the skills I need to present effectively.

Phoenix Union Advisory Council

I was invited to attend the site council meeting for Phoenix Union High School District's Sports Medicine Program on November 17th. The meeting was held via Zoom. I was surprised that Dr. Lisa Lewis, my department chair, and I were the only attendees that were not employees of Phoenix Union High School District. Since we were the only outsiders, we had the opportunity to talk about our program and our new partnership with NAU. The teachers seemed really interested which was exciting.

We also offered to host a virtual field trip to market our program and provide a quality experience for their students. The Sports Medicine Director, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Laura Avila, and I met on November 23rd to brainstorm ideas for a virtual field trip. We are going to film short video demonstrations that will be followed up with live virtual question and answer sessions. I like this idea because we will be able to reuse the videos, but I will miss the excitement of hosting a field trip on campus and having face to face interaction with the high school students and teachers. I am looking forward to creating the videos and I am pleased that we can maintain the connections with our high school partners virtually.

Department Blueprint Courses

Last year we piloted blueprint courses and the announcement feature was extremely helpful. Instead of emailing out an announcement for each instructor to post in their individual courses, I can post an announcement and push it out to every course. I made three separate Blueprints for the Fall (one for EXS, one for HES/WED/ REC, and one for PED), so I can post relevant department announcements to each of those areas.

We used the blueprints during COVID-19 to keep our students updated and inform them of campus resources. During the rapid shift to online, I was able to help our adjunct PED instructors by creating assignments in the blueprint and sharing them to all of their PED courses. I also helped share information and the survey for the P/Z or A-F grading options at the end of Spring semester.

At the end of each semester, I seek feedback from my department and make changes to the Blueprints to make them better. The Blueprint courses have been an effective way to enhance communication with our students.

Deer Valley Unified School District Advisory Council

I had the opportunity to participate on Deer Valley Unified School Districts CTE Program Advisory Council and on DVUSD's Sports Medicine Advisory Council. In both meetings, I had the opportunity to share information about our program and the skills, knowledge, and traits we would like our future students to possess.

The CTE Program Advisory meeting included all of the CTE programs, so it was a large group and I did not feel as though my insight applied to all of the CTE programs. In contrast, the Sports Medicine meeting was a small group and all of participants work directly in my field. During this meeting, I had the opportunity to discuss our partnership with NAU and to talk to the sports medicine teachers about opportunities for collaboration. We discussed hosting field trips in the future and ideas for connecting with DVUSD students virtually through videos and web meetings. I would like to maintain our relationship with DVUSD to market our program and provide additional learning opportunities for their students who are interested in the field.

eCourse Committee and Sub Committee

I have been participating in the eCourse committee and acting as the Fitness and Wellness Department's eCourse coordinator. I really enjoy having the opportunity to meet regularly with other online instructors to discuss difficulties, share best practices, and brainstorm solutions to common challenges. With the shift to online due to COVID, I had the opportunity to attend optional summer meetings and stay in the loop. I was also able to help my colleagues prepare their courses in Canvas and my department prepare the modified online schedule.

I participate on the "Brown Bag Lunch" subcommittee. As a team, we have planned and led a series of one hour training sessions to share strategies and problem solve. I attended each of the "Brown Bag Lunch" training sessions as either a presenter, a participant, and/or a note taker. These events have an informal and small group atmosphere where I feel comfortable sharing.

Strategies Grading

I had the opportunity to help the CTLE review submissions to the Strategies for Effectively Teaching Online course and provide feedback to instructors. I started by reviewing the Strategies for Effectively Teaching Online training course and I was truly impressed with the organization, engaging elements, variety, and resources that were included. I believe this course is a great example of a quality online course. I took a few ideas from the course to incorporate in my online classes including the layout of the objective pages and a Padlet discussion. I then met with Meghan Kennedy to discuss the goal of each assignment and receive her tips for grading. I really appreciate her knowledge and insight, so our conversation was a wonderful learning experience for me.

While reviewing the submissions from faculty, I saw excellent examples of syllabus verbiage, greetings, assignments, and online tools. I also had to articulate constructive feedback and share ideas with instructors that needed extra guidance. Several of these instructors expressed gratitude and a few reached out to me for additional support, so I believe my feedback was helpful. It was interesting how much the tone varied from instructor to instructor. Some instructors were very warm and inviting, while others were formal and businesslike. As a reviewer, I preferred reading the warm and inviting submissions. As a student, I would feel more comfortable participating and asking questions if my instructor was approachable and made me feel welcome. I always try to create a warm and welcoming environment in my own online classroom and seeing this contrast definitely supported my approach. I will be copying some of the strategies that I saw for setting a positive tone in an attempt to make my online classroom welcoming and inviting.

Peer Quality Review

In the Fall, I had the opportunity to participate on the Peer Quality Review team reviewing MAT103. After the course developers completed a self-reflection of the course, the other reviewer, Lori Walk, and I each reviewed the course individually using the Quality Matters Rubric. Lori Walk and I met to summarize our feedback and then we met with the course developers to provide feedback and suggestions.

I learned so much from this process. The math course I reviewed had an excellent Instructor Introduction page that included a neat visual diagram with pictures and embedded an OER book into Canvas seamlessly. When I was providing feedback, I asked about the tools used to create the visual introduction and embed the OER resources. I would like to incorporate these ideas to enhance my own courses.

I really enjoyed having the opportunity to work with Lori Walk. When we were comparing notes, she had noticed positive attributes and areas for improvement that I had not considered. Her insight encouraged me to reflect. I also enjoyed her approach to providing constructive feedback. Before we shared the summary document with the course creators, she took time to tell them that their course passed the review and that we both thought the course was great. Her approach of starting with good news and a compliment helped alleviate the course developers' stress and made our conversation really pleasant. The course developers understood from the beginning that we believed their course was great and that we were providing suggestions for making the course even better. I will be participating in Peer Quality Reviews again this Spring, and I will use Lori Walk's strategy to keep our discussion positive and productive

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