Humanizing Online STEM Showcase
Sumi Sukumar, Engineering Instructor, 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.
Although my goals for an online classroom were clear, I needed some strategies, tools and techniques that reflect my intent to online learners. I have been looking at various programs that could provide me a comprehensive toolkit to be able to implement what I intend to design. I was particularly looking for video creation skills and techniques to build student rapport with a variety of learners to the same extent that I am able to do in a face to face setting. I wanted to acquire at least some researched and time-tested skills rather than experimenting every bit. I had the skills to organize the content for a smooth flow but needed tools to increase humanized student participation and interaction.
Where I am.
Participating in the Humanizing Online Academy has greatly enhanced my knowledge pertaining to effective online course instruction. I have acquired skillset on online instruction tools, developed new strategies to engage students with the online content and to implement a humanized approach in my outreach and feedback delivery to students.I have already started providing audio and video feedback to students in my classes. With these, I hope my online courses are more accessible, equitable and engaging for all students.
Where I am going.
This program has not only given me the skills but allowed me to experience them as a learner, as the program has been modeled after the practices being taught. I got to experience, learn and practice all these techniques. I feel fairly confident with the skills that I have acquired to be able to go look at my course redesign through a much improved lens. In addition, I have realized that these skills are very interesting to me and I want to look for avenues to further them as much as possible to make my classes a rich experience to students.
Liquid Syllabus
The liquid syllabus is a new concept that I learned through this academy. I see that it can be a great way to establish a rapport with students even before formal course commencement.
I used to send out a welcome email to students to this effect, but using this google site allows to add images, videos, organize and communicate much more like a human than a welcome email could possibly do.
It also makes it easier for students to return to the site for answers to their questions rather than having to fish through their emails. I believe it promotes a pleasant and smooth onboarding experience to the course by providing students the ropes of trust and partnership to hold in an organized and caring manner.
Course Card
I chose this image as I wanted to have a course card which served as a warm and welcoming invitation to the course, inclusive of gender and ethnicity, particularly in Engineering where there is a clear imbalance at this time.
In addition I wanted to indicate that this class focuses on collaboration and team skills that models after the Engineering work in industry. I also thought the image displayed the fun, hands on, and exploratory work nature of this class as they embark into the study of the Engineering discipline.
As I learn my way around Canva, I plan to splice multiple image ideas to create an image that is even more robust and symbolic in communicating the values of this course while keeping the learning environment warm, friendly and enjoyable.
Homepage
Some of the goals that I had for this page is as follows:
To serve as a warm and friendly greeting upon first login, sending cues of kindness and social inclusion to the students through an image. This is followed by a brief and casual welcome video and a message to introduce myself to them beyond this classroom and give them some tips to navigate this class. Through this video, I also convey to them that I believe and support their success, particularly to the ones who may be feeling apprehensive about their success and capabilities.
Along with providing this information, I provide them with instructor contact information and a calendar. This can act a token of support and partnership to having a strong head start into this class. And lastly, I leave them with a clickable button that can ensure their navigation, lands them on the first module, which is the orientation module.
Getting to Know Survey
The Getting to know you survey is created within the orientation module for this class. This survey is created with an intent to communicate to the class that I earnestly intend to get to know them and willing to communicate with them on their terms. Upon accessing the survey, the students are provided with the purpose of this survey and the confidential nature of the survey.
The questions are designed with the purpose of understanding student preferences for how they would like to be addressed, the best way to reach them, the mode of feedback preferred and to gauge their learning style, support level required and confidence for this class. This can provide for a genuine and equitable instruction that suits the student. As part of this survey, the students are also encouraged to provide audio and video inputs as feedback.
Ice Breaker
This is an activity where students share something about themselves /their core values/ experiences etc. so as to foster empathy for these different life experiences brought into the learning environment.
This activity is achieved using the Voice Thread asynchronous video/voice app, integrated into Canvas. Students are asked to make an initial post about themselves and then asked to comment on a peer’s post that resonated with them. This is intended as a way to break the ice by acquainting each other of the shared vulnerabilities, so that students could be mindful and supportive of each other in their future interactions throughout the course. This also allows for me to know their background, perspective to effectively adjust and support their learning needs.
As a way of leading this discussion, I have recorded the instructions to this activity as a video post, and my contribution as an audio comment to give students a flavor for both types of commenting methods.
Wisdom Wall
This activity is designed to give a growth mindset approach to learning. It is intended as a way to foster metacognition by connecting students with spoken reflections of their learning and portrays ability as a growth process, as opposed to a fixed characteristic. At the end of the semester, students are asked to reflect upon how they felt about the class in the beginning of the semester (the feelings of nervousness or anxiety that they may have experienced) versus how they feel now and share some of the strategies that they employed to overcome their fears. They are asked to reach out and inform words of wisdom to the next group of students. This activity is implemented using the Voice Thread asynchronous video/voice app, integrated into Canvas.
Bumper Video
Learning the Engineering design process is one of the key objectives to the Introduction to Engineering class and for any of the Engineering discipline majors for that matter. Although the steps are not complicated, students sometimes have trouble remembering them in sequence. Therefore applying the steps in the process to a day to day common activity can aid students' learning experience on this topic and help them remember the sequence and steps in order. This is what my course bumper video has tried to achieve by solving the steps in engineering a yummy dinner for the family.
This bumper video doesn't dig deep into the technicalities, but instead employs a straightforward example to apply engineering design process to it.
Microlecture
Yet another key learning objective, for the Introduction to Engineering class, is to provide insight into the tools and technology used in the field of Engineering. To this end, to exercise their prototyping skills, a 3D modeling CAD tool named “Onshape” is introduced in this micro lecture. This video talks students through the hardware and software requirements to run this tool, walks them through different parts of the user interface, acquaints them for where to get help when stuck and directs them through account set up. Following this micro lecture, students will be geared to create their accounts and navigate through the interface to copy the steps to create a simple solid prototype using Onshape.
Having this lecture in video format can help students with varying capabilities to learn to navigate the new environment at their own pace without pressure. They also have the means to watch things as many times as needed to fully comprehend it.