Summer Webb, Biology, Grossmont 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.
Like many, I was hurled into online teaching during the beginning of the pandemic. It was overwhelming navigating the basics of online teaching for the first time let alone making an online course a warm and encouraging experience for students. I felt like I got some great remote teaching training during that time, but still felt like something was missing. I strongly connect with students in face to face classes, but found it more difficult to do so online.
After completing the academy, I have expanded my knowledge of what it means to be an inclusive educator. I really enjoyed learning about the free and easy tools available for making online resources and content more accessible and student friendly. I feel excited and ready to implement all of the different strategies I learned about and also understand they really do make a difference.
I plan to incorporate all of what I have learned in this course into any class I teach whether it is online, hybrid or face to face. I think many of these tools can be implemented for face to face classes where students sometimes don't take full advantage of the online resources available to them. Teaching online has not been my preferred mode, but this class has made me more excited about teaching online - as I also crave the human aspect of education!
I plan to incorporate the Liquid Syllabus into all of my classes moving forward. I think it will really help students feel more comfortable about the class and have less stress at the start of the semester. I also really like that they will have the opportunity to get a sense of who I am before the first day. Having all of this important information in one organized and visually appealing document demonstrates to students that you care. Every college course should have one of these!
This will be the course card I use for my class. Learning that the course card can have an impact to students was unexpected. Before, I had a beautiful image of the kelp forest with a school of fish, but the learning content from the first week really illustrated the importance of representation early on in the course - before it has even started. For this reason, I chose this image of a scientist from a minoritized group reaching out onto the reef. I will continue to keep what I learned about the course card in mind for other courses and be sure to give extra thought to the images I select.
I enjoyed making the Homepage for my class, but still feel that it is somewhat a work in progress. The image from Canva really makes it more polished. I have a welcoming photo of myself taken during a field trip for the class in the hopes of exciting students for what is to come. Friendly tone/language like "I'm excited to have you in class!" and "Start here!" help deliver kindness cues to students as well.
I am excited to incorporate this assignment into all my classes. Taking the Survey as a student in the Humanzing STEM Online Academy made me feel excited about the class and like I had already accomplished something right at the start. I also liked that it allows a chance for the student and instructor to connect on a personal level rather than strictly over academics. For these reasons this serves as a kindess cue for students.
I am very interested to see how this develops over time. I think it will be really fun to have a kind of time capsule of students who have completed my class! Students at the community college are looking for opportunities to connect, but often are busy juggling many responsibilities, so this assignment is a great way for them to feel a sense of community.
This bumper video introduces Unit 1 of the course. There are four units total in my course. In the past, each unit has an introductory module in Canvas with information in a paragraph students are directed to read along with an image. I plan on converting each of these Unit introductions into these bumper videos. I think students will be way more excited about them and it is more refreshing and fun to watch these than read a paragraph.
This microlecture helps students understand the difference between phytoplankton and zooplankton. This video can help students study, and allows them the opportunity to think about how the two groups are similar without directly being told the answer. This is foundational to understanding marine food webs and ecology.
This site is by Summer Webb 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.
