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.
I'd been teaching an online class for several years before the pandemic hit. The course had been developed by a now-retired Art Education faculty member and so it was really well designed. It had great peer-to-peer activities, learning materials of varying types and in accessible formats - lots of the things that have historically been considered best practices for online teaching. I did very little over time to update it, as it seemed to be working well as far as hitting learning outcomes went. I did see, however, that some students really struggled in the online environment, even with this thoughtfully-designed class. I wasn't sure how best to help them.
I so very much enjoyed this opportunity to take a deep dive into new ideas and strategies for helping support students online! The Humanizing STEM Academy was intense, and I certainly don't feel as if I've come close to mastering any of these new tools I've added to my teaching tool kit. I have, however, identified some very meaningful ways to "not be a robot" and to move beyond solid content and toward a more thoughtful and connected idea of what an online classroom can really look like.
I will continue to teach fully online for the foreseeable future, and I am planning on rethinking all of my of classes through a humanized lens. I will refine and adapt many of the ideas I've explored here. I'm particularly excited to develop new bumper videos and microlectures, and to think much more deeply about how I communicate with my students immediately before and at the start of the semester. I'm certain the organization of my Canvas sites will look very different from here on out as well! All in all, the Humanizing STEM experience has significantly changed how I think about teaching - online and in all modalities.
The liquid syllabus was one of the most interesting new ideas I explored during the Academy. I enjoyed thinking about how to deliver "nuts and bolts" syllabus elements in a way that feels much more personal - and personable - to students.
I've often relied on the first day of class for establishing rapport with my classes, and have struggled with how to do that effectively online. The liquid syllabus offers me a new way to think about initial contact with my students, and how best to invite them into our time together in a more accessible and friendly way.
I've seen course card images in Canvas but hadn't ever thought to use one before. I enjoyed thinking about how to "personalize" my class in this way.
I wanted to use a contemporary art image, and in particular, one that would "carry" in this format. An image of abstract art seemed good to me visually, but wouldn't necessarily help with humanizing my class!
I originally used an installation view of Allan McCollum's "Collection of Forty Plaster Surrogates" but replaced it with Byron Kim's "Synecdoche" - a work that deals with ideas around the theme of Identity, and which I will show to my students during the week we discuss that theme.
I love the simplicity of the humanized homepage. Figuring out what to offer students as they first log into our Canvas site has been an ongoing challenge for me. Finding a balance between offering them the materials they want and need, while not overwhelming them right off the bat, is so important. I've also thought about all of the variation they experience in their classes, as instructors organize materials in their own specific, idiosyncratic ways.
The homepage structure here is so extremely straightforward. Welcome! Here's me saying hello in a short video! Click this button to get into our material! I'm looking forward to deploying this format in my classes for the initial landing page view.
I've done some version of a start-of-the-semester survey for years. Mostly because my classes have a large number of GE students as well as majors, and I've wanted to get a handle on what experience they have with my discipline coming in. I haven't thought about it from the perspective of "humanizing" and so I've now had an opportunity to consider that and to add questions that connect to those ideas.
I think the most important humanizing addition is the question "Are there any things you would like to share with me that you're concerned about in terms of being successful in this course?" This will allow me to note any students to keep my eye out for. I am planning on looping back to them as needed, to check in a few weeks in to class, to see how they're doing. Their answers to this question will allow me to personalize that communication in a new way.
I also like my question asking about their ability to attend our regularly scheduled Zoom session - "Are you able to make our regularly scheduled synchronous sessions on Mondays from 3-4:20?" I add to that question a note: "(No need to justify yourself here. You won't be penalized if you can't. I'll offer up asynchronous activities for those who can't attend, so that you can get your participation credit. Again, this just helps with my planning.)" This is a new format for me, and I hope this indicates to them my flexibility and care for their time and mental/emotional capacity as it pertains to taking my class.
My ice breaker asks students to share a piece of artwork that they encounter in their everyday life. I think this is a great way to allow them to show off something they care about, and will also allow me to get a sense of their interests and experiences with art.
The posting I made as an example also highlights that I collect art made by students - I think this emphasizes my own less "elitist" attitude about art, which I hope makes them feel more comfortable with our class content overall.
My wisdom wall is fairly straightforward in that it asks students to give advice to a future, incoming student in this class. That "what do you wish you'd known" question is always interesting, I think, and inevitably leads students to reflect on what they've accomplished over the course of the semester.
I also like that I prompt the idea of "what exciting thing do you want to let future students know they're going to experience in this class?" I will enjoy hearing those responses, and I'm expecting that will help me in future class design. I will be able to emphasize those things that students consistently find to be especially important about my class content.
My bumper video introduces the major, scaffolded assignment for this class. I really like the idea of presenting the project in various formats - this video will supplement the standard written assignment sheet I will provide as well.
I think offering up various ways to explain what is a fairly complex, multi-part assignment will likely help students understand the purpose, process and various elements of it better, and will hopefully lessen any anxiety they may have about it.
The microlecture introduces students to the concept of "Post Modernism" - a complex conceptual idea in art that we will discuss at great length over the course of the semester. The video connects to one of the Art Department's most important learning outcomes for Art History:
Distinguish and comprehend diverse forms of visual culture in their aesthetic, historical and cultural contexts using discipline-specific terminology and concepts
The goal is to intro/help students better understand the concept of "Post Modernism" so that they can apply it to the works of art that we discuss in class.
