Some of my aims for the Fall 2016 semester were to record my lectures and upload them to
youtube, to embed simulations in my classes for student use, and to consider Affordable Learning
Solutions (ALS).
First, from my participation in the DISCOVERe course in the summer at Fresno State, I had planned to
use the Explain Everything app so that I could record my lectures and upload
them to youtube for students to review.
This at first was quite a daunting task, but something I thought might
be beneficial to students. However,
after about five weeks of recording the lectures I stopped due to a number of
issues. Students appreciated it more
when I would use the physical boards in the classroom, as there was better
readability from the boards than the tablet projection. Students could also
easily refer back to previous examples I had completed on another board when
solving the next problem. Further, as an
instructor, my writing on the Explain Everything app was not particularly tidy
and there was limited room to write on each slide. More concerning however, was the lack of connection
I felt with students compared to previous semesters. In using the tablet, I made less eye contact
with students and was focused more on writing on the tablet. It felt like the tablet that I was holding
was acting as an instructional/physical barrier between the students and I. After five
weeks of using the tablet, I felt that I could recognize less students in the
classroom than I had in previous semesters.
As a result of these issues, I stopped using the tablet for my
explanations and went back to a combination of the classroom boards and Google
Slides. I think this was helpful in that
quite a number of students commented positively on the change. Having reviewed my youtube uploads, most of
the videos were viewed less than 50 times by students (I had 122 students!), despite the links being
provided to students through Blackboard.
I still think Explain Everything is a good app, but I would only use it in
future when I cannot meet students face-to-face.
Second,
an improvement I wanted to make in my lectures through the DISCOVERe program
was to embed simulations within student activities in class. I used several simulations throughout the
semester (PhET simulations, Molecular Workbench, ChemCollective) and students generally
responded positively to using these simulations. Tablets are fine in the classroom as long as it is mostly the students using them and not the instructor! Despite providing scaffolding
to guide students through important features of the simulations, some of the
simulations were still somewhat challenging for some students to figure out.
However, I was proactive in moving around the room and helped students address
such issues. My initial use of these simulation activities has been valuable
for student engagement, but I will continue to consider ways to improve the
scaffolds I use with these simulations.
Lastly, as part of an aim for
Affordable Learning Solutions for students, I recommended free books for
students to use as a substitute for the prescribed text and also moved homework
from an online homework system requiring a payment (from students) to Blackboard.
I feel that such changes did not negatively impact student outcomes for
the class, but students did appreciate the option of not having to pay for a
textbook or for an online homework system.
Over
the course of the Fall 2016 semester, I spent considerable time determining
effective ALS for my courses through discussions with certain faculty,
discussions at the department level, and discussions with staff in the Center
of Faculty Excellence at Fresno State. As a result of
these discussions, I have made a number of substantial and important
changes to the course for Spring 2017 semester. We are:
(a) trialling a
free Introductory Chemistry textbook from OpenStax. The material in this textbook is better
organized than the previous textbook the students used.
(b) moving away
from a fee-paying online homework system as a homework tool, instead using end-of-chapter
Diagnostic Assessments for students to determine where they are having difficulties
with the course material. This change
alongside the change in textbook will save students $141. I also hope it will encourage students to
concentrate on communicating the process through which they solve problems
rather than just the solution. I will
also receive better insight into student thinking as an instructor.
(c) removing the
use of iClickers and instead having students upload PDF documents of their
lecture notes to Blackboard as part of their participation. An issue I had from
Spring 2016 and again for Fall 2016 was that some students would not
satisfactorily participate in the iClicker questions and would select any
response, as they were not accountable.
This switch to a lecture notes upload should hopefully result in better
student engagement in class. Again, like
the Diagnostic Assessments, the participation uploads will give better insight
into student thinking and where they may have difficulties with the material.
(d) using
Concept Maps/Mindmaps to encourage students to make effective connections
across the different topics for the course.
A concern I had during Fall 2016 was that the material can at times be very
fragmented and that students struggle to realize how all the material links up. Concept Maps/Mindmaps should help students
develop more coherent conceptual frameworks for the topics.
(e) using
Discussion Forums to encourage students to ask questions and to also answer
questions from their peers. Students
often send me e-mails that I think would be better suited to a Discussion
Forum, as many students have very similar questions. As such, I am encouraging students to post
such questions to a discussion forum so that the responses are visible to all
students.
