Humanizing Online STEM Showcase
Patrick Staten, Mathematics Professor, Bakersfield College, Bakersfield, 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
I have been teaching utilizing the CANVAS learning management system since 2016. At this point, I have been able to make good use of the course management tools (Gradebook, Zoom, Discussions), maintain a sound course structure with modules, and upload videos to enhance the student learning experience.
Where I am
As of this writing, I am near the end of the six-week STEM Humanizing Academy experience. I have learned to humanize my CANVAS courses so that the students would feel more welcome. Students wold also feel more at ease in the online environment when they are able to navigate through the many course features. I realize at this point that in order to be a successful educator in this 21st century, I need to employ teaching strategies to reach all learners, be able to implement technology, be able to foster student relationships, be forward thinking, and be able to embrace change.
Where I am going
I feel that I am going well as a 21st century educator. I will always strive to seem improvements through my career. I realize that the key features of the 21st century education are learning through doing; equity, diversity, and inclusivity; community relationships; teacher professionalization; and technology. I will apply what I have learned to my future courses.
Liquid Syllabus
I see the Liquid Syllabus as a living document that is being shared with my students before the start of the course in order to make them aware that I am their math course instructor and that I am here to support them.
Course Card
This course card shows an overview of the Math B22L course information which includes the course name, course code, and the present course term. This course card contains the image of the required course textbook for this course. The image on the textbook is that of an elementary statistics application.
Homepage
This is the homepage to the Math B22L course. On this page are resources where I could add links, images, videos, and more, and then share them with my students. I feel that my homepage does serve as a kindness cue with the image of the welcome sign and that of myself dining at Me N Ed's.
Getting-to-Know-You Survey
As instructor, I see the survey as that of acquainting myself with my students and building rapport in the classroom, which includes increased student participation, student motivation about the class, and positive perception of the instructor.
Some of the questions I pose to the students include
What do you know about how you learn? What works for you? What does not?
What is the one thing that is most likely to interfere with your success in this class?
Create a Self-Affirming Ice-Breaker
As math instructor, I see icebreakers as being fun activities to help students get acquainted with each other. I can use the icebreakers to help acquaint students with course content and expectations. Icebreakers can also be designed to help warm up online learning spaces and orient students to the online environment.
Bumper Video
This is a short video designed to reach the students and increase awareness about the topic of Expected Values. This bumper video will set the stage for the content, so the student knows what to expect when they plunge into the lesson of Expected Values.
Microlecture
This microlecture is a short-recorded video presentation on the single topic of Solving Simple Equations. The purpose of this video is for student review of making sure both the expressions of the equation are equal by using the simple sign of "equal to" (=). Equations help in balancing out the expressions from both the sides with the use of the arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. In this course of Math B22L, students will use equations to solve the many math problems.