Humanizing Online STEM Showcase

Gillian Schultz, Professor of Biology, Foothill 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.

Prior to taking this course, I already had taken multiple courses and completed fairly extensive reading related to reducing the equity gap in STEM classes, Universal Design in Learning and pedagogical approaches to promote belonging in my classroom. I also had a pretty good understanding of how to make an approachable and engaging syllabus with my teaching philosophy and norms for my classes. While, I am pretty engaging in face to face classes, I was not sure of the best approaches to translating this to the fully online environment. Using the video/audio feature for both student submissions and providing feedback has always intrigued me but for some reason, I never quite had the nerve to do it myself of ask the students to consider it as an option. I have long provided a fair amount of feedback on many of my student's submissions but it is often more on the evaluative side of things and I have long known that I could improve it to help them get better with instructive/wise feedback approaches. Finally, while I have created many lecture videos for hybrid classes, I was always under the impression that they should be "perfect" and spent a lot of time trying to make them flawless.

Where I am.

I have learned that the liquid syllabus is a great way to introduce the course to students before the quarter starts. I have had a lot of doubts about the efficacy of fully online courses but I now know that research validates some online learning in STEM as a way to increase success and positive outcomes for underrepresented students. I still do not think that online courses are always best for everything (e.g. labs) but I now see that they are another tool in the kit for increasing retention and student success. Short bumper videos can take the place of the start of class chitchat and help to further connect with students in a personal way. I also like the idea of bumper videos for sticky concepts and I can see using those in all of my courses, regardless of modality. I also now know that I do not have to make perfect videos and this takes a huge amount of pressure and workload off. I still think that not all videos need to be super short. I taught a fully online course this quarter and many students commented specifically how much they liked my lecture videos (which ranged from 15-30 minutes).

Where I am going.

I plan on using bumper videos more regularly for start of modules and sticky concepts. I also plan on encouraging more video/audio submissions in future courses for classwork. For the few students this who did this, I felt like I got to know them better than some of the students who typed their answers. I also plan on continuing to grow my skills in providing more wise feedback with the three elements: referencing high standards, personal assurance and actionable steps.

View my Biology 45 Human Nutrition Liquid Syllabus

Liquid Syllabus

My Liquid Syllabus will introduce the main goals of the course, set norms for both the students and myself and also allow students to understand my motivations for my teaching style. My video introduces me on both a personal and professional level. It provides an upfront look at tips and techniques for success (which are usually hidden in a page in Canvas that probably never gets looked at 😁by students, so hopefully having it up front before they can see the full content of the course, this will encourage them to think about strategies they can use to start the quarter off on the best food. The liquid syllabus also provides links to campus resources that support both academic (e.g. counseling, tutoring) and personal (wellness, food bank) student needs that they can access ahead of time.

Course Card

I chose this course card for this course because it is an attractive, colorful and health plate of food and I am hoping that it will get students excited about learning about how to eat a healthier diet.

Homepage

This is a huge improvement over previous course Homepages that I have provided for students. I included a walk through of the orientation module, clear indicators of where they can find relevant content in their Course Navigation and how to contact me in both office hours and by appointment.

Getting to Know You survey.

I have already been using similar types of start of quarter assignments with my students for a long time. I think it is important to give them an opportunity to ask questions about my class and also to start thinking about what support they may need in the course to be successful (such as time management and working towards growth mindset).

Ice Breaker

I chose the Ice breaker option that was included as a template. I think that using the Flip and basically requiring them to respond via video may help me to feel more connected to them especially in an online class. I can also see using different prompts in different classes that is relevant to the particular course. For example in this class- what is your most memorable meal and why! I currently do this in written discussion posts, but this seems more engaging.

Bumper Video

This is a new idea to me - the bumper video for sticky content. In this video, I explain a very important but confusing concept in nutrition: what is a calorie? I am definitely going to create a series of these for the places where I KNOW most students get lost on specific concepts.

Microlecture

I created this video about how the process of science works and specific approaches to conducting science in a nutritional context. I explain how the standard representation of a linear process of science is inaccurate and introduce them to the Science Flowchart from the UC Museum of Paleontology Understanding Science Website indicating that the focus of all science is testable ideas (hypotheses) and that evidence can be both experimental and observational depending upon the questions being asked.

This site is by Gillian Schultz and is shared with a Creative Commons-Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 license. Creation of this content was made possible with funding from the California Education Learning Lab.

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