Humanizing Online STEM Showcase

Eric King, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Sierra College, Rocklin, CA

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.

Reflections

Where I was.

Before taking this course, I was someone that wanted nothing more than to have students succeed, feel welcome in my course, and to not have anxiety over taking a fully online class. However, I was creating my course through what I felt could accomplish these goals, rather than what would actually accomplish them. I would try different things semester to semester, some of which succeeded and some of which were less effective. I knew I was doing a good job teaching online, but I knew I could do better.

Where I am.

I am now someone that has begun to understand all of the multitude of things that are needed for students to feel warm and welcome in my asynchronous courses. I am trying not to feel overwhelmed with all the different tools we can use, all the different techniques that are available, and all the studies that indicate what methodologies work. I feel like I have gotten a good start on creating my humanizing course and it is something I can be proud of. I also feel like my course for next semester will do a good job welcoming my students.

Where I am going.

I have nowhere near begun to figure out how to best implement all of the techniques learned in this course let alone master them. I will start by implementing what I have learned in this class for the start of next semester, including my liquid syllabus and ice breaker assignment. The most important topic I will begin with is bring in the kindness cues of social inclusion. From there, I will slowly, but steadily, transform my lecture content to be more in line with what the students need to succeed. I will create microlecture, bumpers, and humanizing assignments.

View my liquid syllabus

Liquid Syllabus

The purpose of this liquid syllabus is to alleviate some stress and fears from the students before the semester starts. It immediately humanizes me to students that might be worried about an online class. It explicitly shows them what they need to accomplish in the first week, so they can be prepared for a new semester. The liquid syllabus established trust with the student using the "pact". I lay out my expectations for the student while also explicitly letting my students know what they can expect from me. That way we can accomplish the class as a team.

Course Card

Some students tend to be scared of a science course and I want to start with a friendly message. Collaboration is shown through the figure, which is hopefully warm and welcoming because it shows two people happy doing "science" i.e. working together.

Homepage

My course homepage is to the point, providing students with what they need to know. It also first and foremost introduces me through a picture, which allows students to see my as a human being. It tells the students a little about myself, how to contact me, and where to begin in the course.

Getting to Know You Survey

My getting to know you survey serves two main purposes. It lets me get to know the student while also showing the student that I care about their needs. For example, I ask the student if they prefer text, audio, or video feedback on the homework. What I find most important is my question where I ask the student to sum up how they are feeling about the course in 1 word. This will help me to identify students that would most benefit from extra help and contact over the course of the semester.

Ice Breaker

The purpose of this self affirming ice breaker is to allow students to share stories and bring them closer together through empathy. This assignment asks students to find one object that represents one of their core values. They then share that object with the rest of the students. Because this can be a difficult task, I take part with the students and utilize my new kitten as my object. The students can watch this first and hopefully be less stressed about the assignment.

Bumper Video

Students often have a hard time with a specific assigment in the class where they have to turn DNA into RNA and a protein. It is probably the hardest assignment they have to do. The purpose of the video is to highlight this assigment in a quick 2 minute video. Getting to see the assignment explained by me and the general method to complete will hopefully be the jumpstart the students need to proceed.

Microlecture

This microlecture introduces the concept of tracking biological traits through pedigrees. The learning objective is to recognize and understand the different components of the pedigree while also showing students how to interpret hemophilia in a British Monarchy family tree. I expect this to improve my student's learning experience because this is often a tricky subject for the students. So hopefully they utilizing this to pause, rewind, and watch multiple times to help understand this concept.

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