Humanizing Online STEM Showcase

Rev. Dr. Karen D Moore

Cerro Coso Community College

Reflections

Where I was.

It was exasperating to have written lectures for students in online classes. The lectures were either too long or too concise. In an on-the-ground class, it is easy to stand at the door and greet the students with a handshake or fist bump on the first day. By the end of the first or second week, it was then possible to know all the students by name and recognize them off campus. How to connect and know the students in an online class is a pervasive and nagging question.

Where I am.

The humanizing Academy provided some very simple ways to get to know students, to empathize with them, and made it much more personal, by eliminating the traditional methods of grading, lecturing, and communicating only by email.

Where I am going.

Now is the time to make the change to little video or auditory messages with students. The micro lecture is wonderful. The micro lecture isn't just a video of the lecturer's face with closed captions, it takes us back to the old school days when lectures included stick figure drawings on the chalkboard. Now the micro lecture can include graphics that help to demonstrate or illustrate parts of the lecture. Further, the micro lecture can include music so that the student doesn't have to listen to his/her earbuds, but there can be some soft but challenging background music to stimulate the student's thinking. The class provided free online sources which can be available to the students as well. Those online sources helped to stimulate ideas for using programs installed on the software provided by the school. YouTube definitely makes it easier to include closed captions, and with a little editing, a video can be fully accessible.

Liquid Syllabus

My liquid syllabus provides a simplified syllabus with information on how to be successful throughout the semester. It provides personal and professional information about myself and my teaching philosophy so that my students can begin to establish trust. This syllabus contains a course pact, which demonstrates that I care about my students' learning before the course begins.

Click Here for My Liquid Syllabus

Course Card

This image of people around the world is symbolic of all the worldwide religions. It will be used for Phil 161 Introduction to Religious Studies.

Homepage

My humanized homepage includes several engaging points. First, my horse Blue is a beautiful blue roan that is looking right into the camera. Horses are very beautiful, especially when you see them running across a field. Second, it provides my contact information. Third, it ends on a positive note, of having a great semester together.

Getting to Know You Survey

This survey is offered to the students at the end of the first week of the semester. The students will receive points for participating. The survey will help me to gather information about each and every student. With the info, I can alter some of the assignments, and lectures to help facilitate student learning.

Wisdom Wall

In this case, the Wisdom wall is an end-of-the-semester assignment for students to complete. It will be used to introduce the next semester’s students to the class. It will be used by me to reexamine and evaluate new ways to be instructing students using humanizing methods, which essentially means we will all be learners, helping each other to help other students.

The Wisdom wall could also be used during the semester. Students are required to do two oral presentations, and they always get nervous about that. A Wisdom wall could be very beneficial to the students the following semester.

Ice Breaker

This video is an icebreaker for Introduction to Religious Studies. It is intended to encourage students to get to know each other, as the instructor shares her own story.

Bumper Video

World religions vary in their prayers, sacred texts and rituals. However, walking a labyrinth is an ancient tool for meditation that is found in the major religions of the world. So the students are asked to walk a labyrinth. This Bumper video provides directions and historical information as well as images of people of various faiths and locations walking a Labyrinth. It also tells them where they can find a labyrinth. Keep in mind, a Labyrinth is not a maze with walls and dead ends. A Labyrinth has one way in and one way out of it.

Microlecture

This Video briefly differentiates between the Academic study of religion and the devotional study of religion. In the end, it gives directions to the student to complete an assignment. It is two and a half minutes in length.

Creative Commons License

All material created by Courage to Resist, and shared publicly via our website, is made available under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

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