Teaching with Technology Portfolio:
Technological Innovations
Recordings of Commonly Missed Questions
In teaching Math 036WEB (Insights into Mathematics Online), I am faced with challenges unique to the online learning environment. I cannot go over homework with students as I would in traditional face-to-face office hours. Instead, I use ANGEL's report capabilities to pinpoint the questions that cause the most problems on the weekly assessments. Then, I use Blackboard Collaborate (our virtual classroom) to create recordings where I go over these commonly missed homework problems. This way students can see and hear me work through the problems as they would if they came to "traditional" office hours.
Click on the image below to view one of my "Commonly Missed Questions" recordings.
For on-campus classes, I also want to provide feedback for my students, especially on the homework where they are first learning the material. It is unusual to grade every question on a homework set. In order for the students to get feedback on all of the homework problems, I upload an answer key onto ANGEL. On the answer key, I give fully worked solutions so that the students can see how to solve the problems and where they went wrong if they got the question incorrect.
Click on the images below to see the full homework set and answer key.
Click on the images below to see the full homework set and answer key.
Doodle Polls
When teaching an online class, I hold numerous live lectures throughout the semester. These reviews are held in our virtual classroom via Blackboard Collaborate and allow my students to "meet" each other and interact as a class in a way which is lacking in discussion forum posts and email messages. Because the live lectures provide a rich source of interaction, I want as many students as possible to be able to attend. However, due to the nature of online classes, my students may be spread all over the country or even the world, meaning not everyone is in the same time zone. In addition, many online students are "non-traditional students" who have full time jobs or other commitments that keep them busy during the day. Finding a common time for live lectures is difficult (if not impossible). When I first started teaching online, I just picked a time to hold the live lectures. However, this proved to be an inefficient method of choosing a time that works for a majority of the students. In order to find a time that works for as many students as possible, I now use Doodle polls to give the students a choice of dates/times. Then, I hold the live lecture at the time that works for the most students. It isn't a perfect solution (there are always some students who cannot make the live lecture and must simply watch the recording instead), but it has increased the number of students who attend the live lectures.
Below is an image of the Doodle poll I used to select the time for the introductory live lecture for my Summer 2014 course.
Student Introductions
As an instructor, my main goal is to help my students learn and gain an appreciation for mathematics. Part of helping students succeed is making sure they have a supportive learning environment and feel comfortable coming to me with questions. In order to promote open lines of communication, I feel it is important to get to know my students. In the past, I've done this by asking them to fill out a "getting to know you" form (either handing it out in class or posting it to ANGEL and asking the students to send the completed form to me via email). Filling out the form is completely voluntary and all information is kept confidential.
Click on the image below to view the full form.
For the past few semesters, I've changed the way I handle student introductions. Collecting forms gives me valuable information about my students, but doesn't help the students get to know each other. In order to promote a more collaborative learning environment, I create a forum post on Piazza where I introduce myself and ask the students to share a bit about themselves as well. This style of introduction allows the students to comment back and forth among themselves, helping them get to know each other. I've noticed that when the students begin the semester with these types of conversations, they are more likely to ask/answer questions on our Piazza page. This community feel is especially helpful for the online courses I've taught where the students will never meet face-to-face in a traditional classroom.
Below is an example introduction post for my Summer 2014 section of Math 036WEB.
Below is an example introduction post for my Summer 2014 section of Math 036WEB.