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.
Before this course, I taught my online anatomy and physiology course as really a small side, job. There was absolutely no humanizing component in my course syllabus or on the homepage. It is very much student motivated and teach yourself driven. Seeing the examples and the new techniques I can use made me realize how much my students are missing out. I also have been teaching online at Cerro Coso for 12 years and have not really updated my course to reflect the vast increases in technology and resources available to online courses now in 2023. I came into this course having absolutely no expectations and to be honest, not really knowing what I was signing up for. It was the stiped that piqued my interest and also I thought it would be nice to have some tools to improve my course (little did I know how many tools I would learn!).
Currently, I am feeling a bit relieved that this course is over! It required a lot of work each week and I am looking forward to getting those hours back. That being said, I am so proud of myself for what I have learned and done. I showed my husband some of the videos I made and really feel like I have a strong grasp of You Tube (which I NEVER would have learned prior to this course). I also am amazed at the other tools I used that I never knew existed (Screen-o-matic, Adobe Express, Google Pages). I also had never started a Zoom meeting on my own before! I can now say I now how to use all of the above listed tools confidently. I especially love that I know how to embed a video directly into my course page from You Tube using the ecryption code! (It seems like a very big deal to me!). I did have one really hard weekend with this course--poor Sumaya got my frustrated email-but after I stepped away and came back, I figured it would quickly and felt so accomplished. As I am writing this, I still have to put the finishing touches on my microlecture, but am looking forward to using it in the next course I teach.
In the next semester, I intend on using all of the cool resources I have created! I will most definitely send out an email two weeks before course starts with a link to my amazing liquid syllabus. I also intend on switching my intro to the course assignment to the "getting to know you survey". I will try and post a couple of videos over the course of the semester to check in with the students. I am not ready to completely overhaul my course, but intend on slowly improving it. I will use my bumper video for the extra credit disease assignment and the microlecture to aid learning on one of the more difficult systems we learn about. I am also going to try and check in more with the students (although I do check in weekly with them currently). This course also has reminded me that everyone experiences online learning in different ways and to try and add multiple methods of learning. Thank you all for this course!
My Liquid Syllabus link is going to be emailed out to my student two weeks prior to the start of the course so they have all of the information they need. I have never used a liquid syllabus before and feel that it will add excitement to my students who are about to take the course and hope to decrease any anxiety about what to expect. I will also attach the actual syllabus with the course schedule to that email. Hoping this liquid syllabus will allow the students to get to know a little bit about me before the course starts.
I had this image as a course banner prior to doing this course. I think it represents that everyone's bodies are different, but the same internally. It also highlights different body systems which we explore in this course.
I am hoping that this course homepage makes the student feel welcome and "warm" inside. I tried to use welcoming colors and a big smiling picture of myself. I do feel like my liquid syllabus is the most kind resource we created in this course, so hoping students click on that link immediately (if they have not opened it in the email I send them before course). I also tried to not put too much information on the homepage to make it less overwhelming. I tried to keep the images neutral in color and the text very straightforward.
My Getting to Know You Survey lives on the course homepage. It is one of the first resources (links) the students will see when they click on the homepage. My favorite questions that I ask are "What are you hobbies/what do you do for fun?" and " Why are you taking this course?". I try and include fun examples that apply to reasons why students are taking the course to make them feel welcome and special. It is also nice to know the ages of the students in my class, as I often have many high schoolers taking the course. Sometimes, this is their first time taking an online class, so I can be a bit more lenient/understanding with assignments.
Here is a tour of my wisdom wall! It allows students to connect with each other in current and future courses by seeing how they changed over the course of the semester. It also allows camaraderie, as students can see that they are not along in their feelings/sentiments in taking an online course!
This is my bumper video to help explain how to do the extra credit assignment. It focuses on giving the students' tips on topics they might choose from and makes the assignment a little more fun! Also, it discusses a little bit about some challenges I have faced in the past with difficult concepts and makes me seem more human :)
This microlecture focuses on demonstrating how the neuromuscular junction works to start a muscle contraction in the muscular system. It is one of the more challenging concepts, but serves as a great example for how all neurons are able to cause excitability of tissues. It aligns with the student objective of understanding the general principles of anatomy and physiology and terms used. I expect that by watching my lecture and the video imbedded in the presentation that students will be able to more firmly grasp and visualize how the NMJ works. Plus, there are some cool clinical correlates to talk about as well :)
