The pandemic threw me into the deep end of creating online engineering content. At the time, students were simply happy with any video lecture content as many instructors struggled with how to convey engineering content in a remote setting. Exiting the pandemic, online engineering courses are here to stay. However, I have noticed the varied success of my students in the online environment. I was struggling with how to engage my students, and how to have them engage each other.
Now that I have worked through the Humanizing STEM course, I feel much more equipped to teach in an online environment. Specifically:
The course integrates the introduction and use of various media/software to engage students in an online environment.
The course provides data-driven conclusions of how we can engage our students successfully.
The course teaches and introduces terminology to allow teachers to effectively discuss the challenges of the online learning.
My goal moving forward is creating inviting courses for my students that incorporate a liquid syllabus, an interactive home page, and modules focused on the progression of concepts using bumper videos to support mircolectures and assignments. No more 1-hour lecture videos! Additionally, I will be integrating assignments where students engage each other in meaningful content and a variety of media. There is a lot of work to do, but it is good work! To the future!