Humanizing Online STEM Showcase
Nell Papavasiliou, Engineering Instructor, Ventura College
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.
I taught online during the pandemic and then went back to in person teaching as soon as possible. During the pandemic, I attended workshops and made videos as best as I could. When returning to the classroom, I decided to use some of my pandemic videos to flip my Electric Circuit Analysis class. Using the class time to solve problems in Electric Circuit Analysis was successful, so I decided to make videos and flip my Engineering Statics class. I used the same techniques that I had previously used for making videos. I used one tool and did not experiment much!
Where I am.
An instructor with much more impressive video making techniques and tools. I learned a great deal of tools from this course and have been able to use them. I also have been reminded of all the humanizing things that make an impact when teaching both online and in person.
Where I am going.
To create better online content in my flipped classes. I have a full-set of videos that can be better. I am going to create a set of bumper videos for historically sticky points that often need more clarification. This provides students another resource to clarify tricky concepts. I am also inspired to create a more humanized online presence to match my in-person self..
Liquid Syllabus
This is my first experience using a Liquid Syllabus and it took me a while to completely understand how valuable it would be. With the tools presented in the Humanizing Online STEM course, the visual aesthetics of all my online content will be improved, starting from the very first electronic contact with students.
I have improved my welcome video and using one page to include all the information that is needed before the start of the semester makes an easy one stop shop for my students. This is a big improvement to the welcome e-mail that I have sent out to my students in the past. The advantages are that everything they need to know is in one place, it is organized, and it has a human touch!
Course Card
Being mindful of the images that I select for my course cards was not something I was doing prior to this class. I selected something that represented the class content and did not consider the people that would be taking the class.
I use thumbs up in my in-person classes a great deal to gauge understanding of a topic or consensus on something so I really liked this image. I think this is welcoming because a thumbs up means either agreement or great job. I want to encourage my students as they go down their engineering path, it is a hard path and the more thumbs up cheering them on down that road, the better! I specifically looked for an image that had different skin colors to make sure that everyone is equally encouraged (and perhaps encouraged to give a thumbs up to each other as well!)
Homepage
My redesigned homepage is simple and clear. It directs students to the initial weekly module and will continue to serve as a home base for students throughout the semester to keep us all on the same page.
There are links for help and technology resources, so that students do not have to hunt for these items within the course Canvas page.
Finally, my contact information with a photo of me is included. Next to it, I outline when students can expect to hear from me in response to their email or call.
Getting to Know You Survey
I had used a Getting to Know You Survey in the past and have found it useful for connecting with students and learning more about them. New things that I have embraced since taking the Online Humanizing STEM class include giving the students the option to record video or voice.
Much of what I have learned during this journey is that choice is important to students. Giving them options to adapt learning to their preferred mode, options as to how to communicate with instructors, and options with regards to completing their assignments empowers them to be their authentic selves. It reinforces that we are grateful that they are here to learn.
Wisdom Wall
I love the idea of a wisdom wall. Students learn so much from each other. I see it in my in-person office hours and have been challenged with how to facilitate that in an online space.
I am planning to use the Welcome Wall assignment in my in-person Materials Science and Engineering course this fall. It is a reflection on their work on a research paper. While I believe that students will gain a great deal from reflecting on their experience, I am also looking forward to reading their wisdow as this is the first year that I have required a research paper. It has been a semester long effort scaffolded into different assignments. I am interested in their feedback and their own reflections on what they've learned through the process.
Bumper Video
Passive sign convention is a fundamental concept at the very beginning of an Electric Circuit Analysis course. It is also one of the most confusing concepts to students as they start their study. Much like learning a language, this convention is critical to speaking 'Electric Circuits'. Making sure that all students are on the right track from the beginning and providing them a Bumper Video to reinforce this important concept is critical to them starting the semester of Electric Circuit Analysis with confidence.
I am using the Bumper Video prior to a quiz to reinforce the concept before they are assessed in a low stakes manner.
Microlecture
This microlecture is about drawing Free Body Diagrams for Engineering Statics. This is a fundamental concept and a starting point for most Engineering Statics problems. The identification of forces and solving a rigid body for applied and normal forces is one of the student learning objectives of the course.
While I had already been making short videos that covered only one concept instead of hour long lectures, I hadn't been thinking of my presence in these videos. I added my face to the bottom right side of the video at the beginning to incorporate a human touch to the content.