I have always shared an introductory video and information, as well as a link to the course in an email that I send out to students a week before the course starts.  I am delighted to have the liquid syllabus because the format is much more attractive and easy to follow than the email, and it will be easier to share on into the future.  There is a welcoming course banner and a video introducing myself to help the students feel comfortable and know I am approachable and happy to help them.  I also encourage students to contact me and share my contact information, as well as letting students know exactly when the class starts and what to expect.  I also include images and a bit of a preview of the course to pique their interest.  Finally I share links to student resources, making them easy to find for the students.

I have had a gif of a running mountain lion on my course card for a while now because it is attention-grabbing, beautiful, and ties into many of the important concepts in the class (conservation, genetic variation, population dynamics).  Now I have added the heart and label about biology including a mild pun on the meaning of the work biology.  My intention is that the course seems inviting and fun right from the Canvas dashboard!

I always had a welcome video on my homepage that I update each week with weekly video messages, but the banner and quick links are great new additions from the Academy.  As well as changing the video each week, I will change the link on the button in the 'This Week's Work' box.  After participating in this Academy, my homepage is much more attractive and easy to navigate.  It also has additional resources for students that I never put there before.

I am excited about the new questions I added to my survey.  I also changed the location of the survey in my course from page 9 to page 2.  After taking this Academy, and taking a Get-to-Know-You survey as a student, I realize that taking such a survey right at the start and hearing back from the teacher about your responses is a great way to feel invested in the course, and also get a sense that the teacher is present and cares about students and their learning.

Food is rich in culture and enjoyment so this is an icebreaker activity for my students to introduce each other to the other members of their group by talking about special food in their lives.  It is on Flip so they can easily see who all their group mates are and look at all the submissions.  I made an example submission in video format, demonstrating that videos are informal and do not need to be perfect.  In the instructions, I encouraged the students to make their own videos but audio-only submission is also an option for those who can't make videos (or really don't want to).

This bumper video is to help students know what they will be doing in their seedling experiment.  It will appear at the beginning of Module 6, when the students will start to plan their experiment.  The purpose of the video is to give the students a simple and positive overview of what they will need to for the experiment. I think it will be helpful because it is challenging to coordinate a group experiment in an online class. Every semester some students blow off the experiment.  I think they may do this because they get confused and don't want to figure out all the details. My hope is that a welcoming overview will help get them over that 'hump' of effort to figure out what they need to do.

Levels of biological organization is a very important concept that underpins much of the learning in this class. It is not complicated or difficult, but it is key in order to have the correct perspective for future topics.  For instance, one important topic is about biological macromolecules.  Students can be lost here if they don’t have a sense of where molecules fit in biology.  We use the levels throughout the course and this microlecture defines them all and is a handy reference to come back in case of questions.