faculty – Page 3

College of Charleston Professor Alvaro Ibarra applied for and received one of TLT’s Ungrant awards in Spring 2015. He requested a Bushnell Range Finder with the funds he was awarded from TLT. He used the range finder over the summer in his work with the Brasov Archaelogical Projects in present-day Transylvania. Here, Professor Ibarra explains more about his work in archaeology, how the range finder was used, and how his research will benefit students this semester.

Alvaro Ibarra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Architectural History at the College of Charleston. He specializes in Greek and Roman art, architecture, and archaeology. His current research revolves around the strategic uses of Roman military installations on the frontier of the Roman Empire in eastern Transylvania.

Part of this current research project includes the examination of various passes in the Carpathian Mountains, vital lines of communication in the ancient world. In particular, accurate measurements of the width of these passes and first-hand experiential analysis of the terrain aids in gauging their tactical efficacy. These conclusions will help clarify the debates surrounding the Roman invasion of Dacia (present-day Transylvania) and Rome’s strategic use of occupation forces. Such a study is timely in the midst of America’s own occupation of foreign territories.

At the College of Charleston, students frequently experience the benefits of having professors pursuing archaeological endeavors. Active projects expose students to the processes of the discipline of archaeology; they are able to better understand how an idea develops and makes its way from the excavation site to their textbooks. Professor Ibarra will be lecturing on his current findings in his course “Imaging Warfare in the Ancient World” (ARTH 290) this fall.

BAP member, Jeremy C. Miller (S&ME Cultural Resources Management, Charleston) measures the width of the exit to the Tornu Rosu Pass near Boita, Sibiu County, Romania.

Members of Brasov Archaeological Projects are using the Bushnell Range Finder during the 2015 season to accurately measure the width of various mountain passes used by the Roman army in the conquest of Dacia (present-day Transylvania) in the 2^nd century CE.

There are three passes of interest this season through the Fagaras Mountains, the southernmost chain of the Carpathians. These entry points gave the Roman army access to the Transylvanian Plateau, the heart of the kingdom of Dacia. Only archaeological remains serve as evidence of Roman presence, and the extent of their use during the emperor Trajan’s campaign of conquest is up for debate. Textual accounts are fragmentary and sometimes contradictory.

Roman Fort of Arutela, Caciulata, Valcea County, Romania, 2nd to 3rd century CE.

Our task entails measuring the average width of the so-called Tornu Rosu Pass, a second unrecorded pass to the immediate east of the Tornu Rosu Pass, and the Bran Pass. These accurate physical measurements will be compared to geo-referenced data on three more entry points in the western Carpathians. The end result will be a quantification of the completed widths alongside analyses of topographical characteristics for each pass. This assessment will reveal patterns to help scholars better understand the decision-making processes of Roman military tacticians, particularly in campaigns involving mountain warfare.

The Bushnell Range Finder allows project members to accurately record data without having to risk life and limb in especially treacherous terrain. Strategic points atop heavily forested and craggy mountainsides and across the cliff sides of deep ravines in the unforgiving landscape of the Carpathian Mountains are now easily accessible through a welcome bit of technology.

BAP thanks TLT at the College of Charleston for their contribution to this ongoing investigation.

Alvaro Ibarra

Assistant Professor

Department of Art History

Events, Facilities, instructional technology, Pedagogy, TLT, Training Opportunities

Upcoming Fall Events in TLT

September 17, 2015January 31, 2023 Kaitlin

Faculty Open House

Friday, September 25

2-4 pm – Stop by anytime!

TLT Suite on JC Long 3rd Floor

Come enjoy light refreshments and enter for your chance to win fabulous prizes while also learning more about what TLT has to offer!

Join us as TLT’s Instructional Technologists showcase our services and demonstrate the latest and greatest educational technology tools. You will have the chance to experience Kahoot! and learn how you can utilize our 3D printer.

We hope to see you there! It’s a great opportunity to interact with people from across campus.

Fall Training Camp

October 19 and 20 (Fall Break)

Sessions offered all day

As you make your plans for the rest of the semester, keep in mind that TLT will be hosting Fall Training Camp over Fall Break. We will have two days of training sessions that focus on both teaching strategies and educational technology.

We will be offering 16 unique sessions in a flexible, conference-style schedule so that you can attend the sessions that interest you while still enjoying fall break! Each morning there will be online sessions you can participate in from the comfort of your living room. If you can make it to campus, you can join us for three additional face-to-face sessions each day. During the time slots, two training sessions will run concurrently, meaning that you have even more flexibility and choice in finding a topic relevant to your teaching needs. Session topics vary from demonstrating how to use technologies, including Blendspace and Evernote, to how to enhance your current teaching practices with new strategies, like gamification and concept mapping.

Lastly, don’t forget! We will be having another exciting school competition this fall! You may recall that the School of Sciences and Mathematics won the trophy for Spring Training earlier this year. It was a very close battle with the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance. Your attendance will help your school earn points in the competition. The school with the most points will win a trophy and other great prizes!

Visit http://tlt.eventbrite.com for a full list of sessions and descriptions. Space is limited so make sure you register soon to secure your spot.

Best Practices, Teaching Advice, TLT

Tips to Prepare Your Course for Campus Closures

July 28, 2015January 31, 2023 Kaitlin

As instructors, we try to anticipate problems and challenges that may come up in our courses. One thing we sometimes forget to plan for is weather and natural disasters. Do your students know what is expected of them in a situation when class must be cancelled? Of course it is impossible to predict whether our semester will go as planned, or if it will be interrupted by a single ice day or a long term emergency with a disruption to our College of Charleston services like email or OAKS. Jessica Smith, Instructional Technologist for School of Business, blogged about her firsthand experience with a class cancellation last semester. Though we cannot plan for these unexpected events, we can prepare for them. Here are 5 tips to help you prepare for a worst case scenario:

1) Include a statement in your syllabus.

Do you have a statement about cancelled classes in your syllabus? What are students responsible for if class is cancelled due to weather? This statement should include expectations, an alternate communication plan, and information about student responsibilities and adjusted assignment deadlines.

2) Determine alternate communication procedures.

It is possible that there could be a disruption to campus services like faculty email. To prepare for this unlikely event, make sure you keep a hard copy list of student emails, or save a copy of the classlist to your home computer. Other options that some instructors utilize for class communication, even under normal circumstances, include Twitter, Facebook, Celly, and Remind. It may be beneficial to set up these communication systems early in the semester as an experiment to see if it is a good way to communicate with your students.

3) Plan online methods of content delivery.

If multiple class meetings are cancelled, you will want to be familiar with technologies that will make it possible to deliver course content to students. This may involve finding existing media online or creating your own online lecture. The library has resources to help you find suitable media, and TLT is here to help you navigate the technology options for online lecture delivery. Some options include Kaltura, VoiceThread, and Explain Everything.

4) Know OAKS.

Assuming that all systems are functional on campus, but class is still not in session, you will want to be able to utilize OAKS. Do you know how to post content, embed videos, or create a dropbox for student assignments? If you feel that your OAKS skills could use a refresher, contact your instructional technologist to find out about upcoming scheduled trainings or availability for individual consultations.

5) Back up your files.

This is a no brainer. Make sure you are not reliant on access to the internet, OAKS, or email to prepare for your classes. Keep copies of important lecture or course materials on your computer or a hard drive.

If you would like more information about preparing for the unexpected, make sure you attend TLT’s training sessions on these topics. We will cover these tips in more depth. You can register here:

Face-to-face – http://www.eventbrite.com/e/preparing-your-course-for-the-unexpected-registration-17848961725

Online – http://www.eventbrite.com/e/tips-tools-for-teachingcommunicating-online-during-campus-closures-online-session-registration-17897123779

Accessibility, Best Practices, Distance Ed, Pedagogy, Productivity, Teaching Advice, TLT

TLT’s Top Tips for Time Management

July 1, 2015January 31, 2023 Amy Ostrom

What are instructors spending time on?

Below are the five most mentioned teaching behaviors identified in the research and from the feedback of online instructors. The ranking begins with the teaching activity that involved the highest time commitment, and descends from there. This is not a scientific analysis, but I included the list to provide an overview of the most prevalent online teaching activities (Van de Vord & Pogue, 2012).

Interacting with students: moderating discussion forums, responding to student emails
Evaluating student work: assignments, papers, discussion forums
Recording grades
Modifying and making changes to course materials and/or course home page
Addressing technical issues/course administration (not including grading)

Tips for Time Management

Handle it once.

Following the principles of the GTD (Getting Things Done) Methodology, manage items as soon as you can. For online teaching, this means doing things in a regimented format. When emails come in, if an answer or action can be done in less than 5 minutes…do it now. If It needs deeper thinking and reflection, mark it in a follow up folder or category before closing it. While reading discussion boards, keep a spreadsheet open so that you can grade as you go and make notes while reading to help keep your students straight. Grade as items arrive and space out due dates to cut down on last minute or end of term grading. Create blocks of time during each day to work on a particular item. For example, Mondays from 10-11 am I work on items strictly for the mentors. Everyday from 830-930 am I answer emails from participants about course related issues. Thursdays from 1-4 are spend grading specified assignments. Making this set schedule for yourself will make sure that you are allowing ample time to focus.

2. Respond to students efficiently.

If a student asks a great question via email, reply to them and ask them to post their question and the response to the class, but if more than one student has emailed about the same issue or set of instructions, then address the group as a whole with a news item, whole class email, or something else that will make sure that all students see the information. For example, if there is a procedural problem (students not knowing how to do something in a class) create a short video or screencast to walk them through the process.

3. Make Time Count.

If it’s something that a student won’t notice…don’t do it! If it’s something the students can do for themselves or with each other…delegate or provide opportunity to do it. For example, a Course Lounge or question forum will allow students the ability to answer each other. You can back this up by adding an “ask 3 before me” type policy so that you know they’ve tried to find help on their own first. To make this efficient, you need to mindfully not engage in what one professor called “Whack a Mole” facilitation, where as soon as a discussion post or a question comes up the professor logs in to answer it or replies immediately. Make sure you give your students that time to help each other or they will become accustomed to that immediate feedback and you’ll spend all your time responding to email.

4. Get Organized: Location, Location Location

Have your course follow a logical path so that not only you but your students also know exactly where to go and what to do. The easier it is to find something, the less time you spend looking for it! This is especially applicable to the syllabus. The more text heavy and exhaustive your syllabus, the less likely your students will be able to find what they need in the process. Try breaking your syllabus up into sections and bulleting information rather than using paragraph texts. Have your students engage in a scavenger hunt or quiz to show that they understand the key pieces of the document before the class gets too far underway. This will lead to less questions and less time emailing “it’s in the syllabus”.

5. Get Organized: Me, Myself, and I

Make sure that your workspace is organized and ready to go. This includes your computer! If you have a hard time finding files or folders on your machine, take some time to organize your files so that you can easily grab an item when it is needed. Keep a list handy of places you can go to for help. Obviously TLT is going to be number one (:)) but make sure that you add your librarian, CDS, CSL, and other campus resources and how to contact them.

6. Develop a routine and electronic minions

There are a lot of moving parts in an online classroom. Some can be automated, some cannot. First, make a list of all items that you need to do (that you know of) and due dates prior to the course starting. Identify any weekly activities and blocks of time you’ll need to answer emails, grade, respond to discussions, etc. If an item can be automated (for example, a news item reminder about a test that you want to go out on a certain date) go ahead and create the wording and release conditions before the class starts. In the immortal words of Ronco…set it and forget it! For those items that can’t be automated, create calendar reminders or use a task management tool that contains reminders like Asana.

7. #Unplugged

In honor of the TLT Lifetime DE Mentor award recipient Lancie Affonso, we bring you this most important tip. Unplug every now and again! Take some time away from the screen and technology to engage in the world. It is tempting to want to be logged in 24/7 when your students are in session, but taking some time to take care of yourself (and your eyes, back, and wrists) will benefit you in the long run as an instructor.

8. Use the right tools for the job.

Technology can do so much to help with time and task management, as well as automating parts of your responses without losing that personal touch. Talk to your instructional technologist about some of the options to help you with time, task, grading, and communication management for your online class. Check out this article on how to go about choosing the right tool for your situation: http://blogs.charleston.edu/tlt/2014/03/05/plan-attack-implementing-technology-instruction/

9. To Thine Own Self Be True

“Each person has a daily cycle when he or she is most alert; schedule that time for online work. Determine the best time of day to check and respond to email. Flag and prioritize emails. Realize that what is an overload for some instructors is not for others. Before accepting teaching assignments, look at the other assignments already accepted for that semester and consider whether the workload is too heavy. Factor in family obligations and planned vacations when considering personal work capacity. When planning for the future record notes each week in a teaching journal identifying thoughts about revisions for the next semester. Some fixes like broken links can be done on the fly during the current run, but others, like the rewriting of a section, need to wait until the students are no longer present. At the end of the semester, reflect on the notes and adjust as needed.”

10. Practice your online writing

Because writing is a major channel of communication in an online class, the importance of clear and concise writing of the course materials cannot be over-emphasized. If one student finds a sentence unclear, the instructor will need to spend valuable additional time responding to clarify. Five or ten minutes of additional time for polishing a message or task instructions before distributing or publishing may save hours in clarifying later. Have someone who is not familiar with an assignment read the instructions and see if it makes sense or if they could do the assignment with the information you provided. Keep a list of frequently asked questions and your responses. You can then copy and paste your responses or keep a running list published in a Google Doc that would get updated in real time for your students and would be easy to search for keywords.

11. Design with Accessibility in Mind

Too often faculty members will design an online course and then realise a semester later that they have a student with a disability in their courses that require accommodations (screen readers, subtitles, alternative formats, etc.) While it may take more time as you build the course, designing your course to be as accessible as possible from the start will save you more time (and you will reach more students) than trying to scramble after you get an accommodation request letter. Remember, it is easier to construct than to retrofit a class!

Assessment, instructional technology, Pedagogy, TLT, Web 2.0

Quick Audience Feedback with GoSoapBox

June 29, 2015January 31, 2023 Jessica Smith

If you’ve ever asked your students “are there any questions?” you’ve likely received blank stares and shrugs. Assuming this to mean everyone understands the content, you move on. But what if students aren’t sure how to articulate what they don’t understand? Or what if they’re too shy or embarrassed to admit they are confused? Or maybe you’re simply looking for a way to get greater feedback from and interaction with students during lecture? GoSoapBox could be just what you’re looking for!

GoSoapBox is an audience response system (a “clicker” tool) that works on any device that connects to the Internet. This tool allows you to survey the class for understanding, quiz them on content, and encourage discussion. The beauty of GoSoapBox is the simplicity of the user interface despite offering numerous features. For example, “Social Q&A” allows students to contribute ideas and up-vote the ones they like. This could be great for an exam review: students submit questions and vote for the ones they really want to spend class time discussing.

The “Confusion Barometer” is a super simple way to gauge just how well students really understand the material. Instructors can see a live graphical display of how many students are confused by the material being covered and can then adjust their teaching strategy as necessary. GoSoapBox also offers quizzing, polling, and discussion board features, which allow for short answer/open-ended responses.

Students can respond with their names or anonymously, so GoSoapBox can be used to monitor students as well as allow sensitive opinions to be freely shared. Instructors can even export reports in spreadsheet form to track student performance.

So why explore GoSoapBox instead of PollEverywhere? If you have a class of 30 students or fewer, GoSoapBox is free and provides features that Poll Everywhere doesn’t, such as the quick and easy “confusion barometer” and threaded discussions. It’s also a simpler interface so it’s quite user-friendly, while PollEverywhere can sometimes be clunky. However, if you have course enrollment of over 30 students, I would not pay for GoSoapBox; our site license for PollEverywhere provides a great audience response system for free.

Application: http://www.gosoapbox.com/

Platform: Web

Cost: Free for courses of 30 students or fewer

Tutorials: http://help.gosoapbox.com/

GoSoapBox Blog (for updates and tips): http://gosoapbox.com/blog/

instructional technology, iPad, Mobile, Presentation, Share, Video

Make Professional Looking Voice Stories with Adobe Voice

June 28, 2015January 31, 2023 Mendi Benigni

“Adobe Voice is a free iPad app that helps you create stunning animated videos in minutes.” Just “pick from over 25,000 beautiful iconic images to show your ideas (or choose from photos on your tablet).” Record your voice over the images, one image at a time. “Set the mood with a musical soundtrack and choose the perfect look with just one tap. Watch your story automatically come alive with cinema-quality animation and share it with anyone online.”

— https://standout.adobe.com/voice/

As I started exploring Adobe Voice I was impressed by how easy it was to use but I wasn’t sure what I would use it for. However, the more I played with it the more I realized that it has an enormous number of uses. Adobe Voice allows you to create a slideshow of sorts with icons, Creative Commons images, and text. You then add your voice to each “slide” as narration. Finally you embellish your project using themes that control the font, color, and transitions of your slides and background music to set the tone of the project. When your project is complete you share it by clicking on the Publish button and can easily publish it to the Adobe Cloud as well as social media, email and text.

Student Uses		Faculty Uses
Create a biography/autobiography Create how-to videos Recount a story Create an oral history Promote an event Create a public service announcement Promote an idea Tell what happened Teach a lesson		Record a lecture Create a personal introduction Recount a story Introduce a new subject Summarize a chapter

What I liked was how easy it was to use. I also like that it uses Creative Commons images and free music so copyright is not a problem. The sharing is super easy and the fact that you can share them privately is also very important when working with student projects.

What some may like less is that you can’t add any video. This isn’t a deal breaker for me and I know that it’s kind of outside the intended purpose of this app. The fact that you can’t use it without an Adobe ID is a bit of a drag for K12 (esp. K8) students. Not everyone wants their students to get these types of accounts. There may be a workaround for this but I didn’t investigate it further. The think that bothered me the most was the lack of ability to make basic changes to the project such as placement and font. I know for many this could be seen as a positive because it makes it easier to use and a bit more universal but if you are pretty tech savvy and like to control a lot of items in a project this isn’t the app for you. You can’t control the placement of the image or text boxes nor can you control font or alignment within the boxes. Again, not a deal breaker, just something to be aware of.

All in all I think this is a great, FREE, app to use as both a student or a teacher. Unfortunately, at this time it is only for iOS devices and I’m not sure if there is an Android version on the horizon.

Price: Free
Platform: iOS only

App Location:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-voice-show-your-story/id852555131?mt=8

App Tutorial:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iQOA8tHtNEGhr8BKA45A1_-7b45U4XKMsyMfiQkYJ6A/edit?usp=sharing

Assessment, Best Practices, instructional technology, TLT

Padagogy Wheel

June 9, 2015January 31, 2023 Laura Plotts

At the 2015 Teaching Professor Conference one of the sessions I attended was Topping Out on Bloom:Technology for Student Projects led by Ike Shibley. I found it to be very helpful when thinking about a technology assignment that encourages students to use Bloom’s. Below is a link to Dr. Shibley’s Obstacles/Opportunities table, questions for analysis of your course and the Padagogy Wheel which aligns Blooms with iPad apps.

TPC Shibley Topping Out on Bloom

1-1-1

Guest Post: Improving Exam Scores with Practice Poll Everywhere Questions

June 4, 2015January 31, 2023 Kaitlin

Our guest blogger this week is Dr. Kristin Krantzman from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Dr. Krantzman attended the Faculty Technology Institute in 2014. In this post, Dr. Krantzman recounts her experiences using Poll Everywhere to provide students with opportunities to work on practice problems during class.

Poll Everywhere is a program that allows an instructor to give interactive polls over the internet without requiring students to spend additional money on special equipment. I decided to try using Poll Everywhere as a supplement to my traditional lecture in two sections of the general chemistry course, CHEM 112. CHEM 112 is the second in a two semester introductory course that is taken by students in the sciences, and my enrollment in Spring 2015 was about 45 students per section. This course has an introduction to chemical equilibria, reaction kinetics, entropy and free energy. Fundamental concepts are applied to acid-base reaction, precipitation reactions and oxidation-reduction reactions.

A primary challenge in my course is that many of the concepts in the class are abstract and mathematical. As a result, many students do not immediately understand the material when it is presented. Students are focused at the beginning of class, but their attention decreases when they cannot follow what I am talking about in class. Students need to work out problems in order to learn the material. But, there are many topics to cover over the semester, and there is not much time in class for students to practice problems. Another problem is that the final exam is all multiple choice questions, but the practice problems that students do as homework in the textbook are short answer. I decided to give students multiple choice questions with Poll Everywhere as a way to engage students and allow for practice. I chose to do this because I thought that students would learn more if they were required to think about questions and respond in class. Students showed a greater understanding of the material and improved their ability to answer multiple choice questions.

Prior to class, I wrote the multiple choice questions in Poll Everywhere. One strategy I used was to post a Poll Everywhere question for students to work on as they entered into the classroom. Previously, this time was unused because I could not start class early and we had to wait for all of the students to get settled. This question was on a topic that we had covered in the previous class. This review reinforced student learning. In addition, I often gave students another question to answer, either halfway through class or at the end of class. After the students had answered the question, I displayed the response results. If the majority of students did not respond with the correct answer, I asked the students to discuss the question with each other and then respond a second time. After reviewing the responses, I went over the correct answer and explained why the other answers were incorrect. I chose to put some of the Poll Everywhere questions on the in-class tests, which motivated students to study them.

The students showed a dramatic improvement on the final exam, with average scores increasing by 7% from the fall semester. The students responded on the course evaluations that they liked the Poll Everywhere questions because doing them in class helped them understand the material. They also enjoyed the class more when I broke up the class lecture by having them work on questions that they had to actively work through.

My advice to other faculty is to have the answers to the Poll Everywhere questions count towards their grade and write this into the syllabus. Students could be given credit for answering questions even if they are not correct, which would reward students for attending class and actively participating.

1-1-1, Faculty Technology Institute, Innovative Instruction

Guest Post: Adapting lectures for a visually-impaired student and planning for new technologies

May 29, 2015January 31, 2023 Kaitlin

Our guest blogger is Robin Humphreys from the Department of Geology. Robin attended the Faculty Technology Institute in 2014. In this report, she details her experiences modifying lecture materials to meet the needs of a visually-impaired student.

Teaching introductory courses has many challenges, such as how to keep student attention in a large lecture hall, engage in meaningful dialogue with more than just the students in the front row, create assignments that are insightful and challenging but can be graded in a timely manner, etc. During the FTI workshop of Summer 2014 we were introduced to many different ways to use technology, such as Poll Everywhere, Kahoot!, and PowToon, in our classrooms to help overcome many of these types of challenges and create stimulating, engaging learning environments. After our week-long workshop, I left the course very inspired and excited to incorporate these new ideas into my introductory Geology lecture courses for Fall 2014.

What I did NOT anticipate was having a visually-impaired student – totally, 100% blind – in my class. So…how do I incorporate technology we learned from the FTI that requires being able to see, such as PollEverywhere, Kahoot, and Powtoon, into a format that is accessible to everyone, including someone who cannot see? Not only did I have to rethink how I presented the material (I primarily use PowerPoint and the Whiteboard for my lecture discussions), but now I had to design lectures and in-class activities for someone who cannot see me, the PowerPoint presentation, or the whiteboard. I quickly had to rethink my approach of using cutting-edge technology in the classroom and went for more of an ‘old-school’, low-tech, hands-on approach.

So, how do you describe the Grand Canyon to someone who has no depth perception or concept of scale? To help our student understand the basic concepts and principles of geology, I sought the expertise of Dr. Cassandra Runyon, who has been developing materials for visually-impaired people through her educational NASA workshops for over twenty years. Dr. Runyon created tactile models of the images from my lecture presentations, using an incredible variety of different types of materials (e.g. corrugated paper, beads, foam, felt, etc.). Below is an example using various beads to indicate different fossils within sediment layers in stratigraphic columns. While extremely time-consuming to make, these low-cost and most definitely low-tech models were very instrumental in helping the visually-impaired understand and ‘see’ how Earth works.

Materials for visually-impaired students

Additionally, I recruited several senior geology majors to help me both during class and outside of the classroom. During class, the geology seniors quietly explained the images or graphs on the PowerPoint slides as I was discussing the concepts. To help the visually-impaired student ‘see’ the slides, the geology majors would make simple sketches of the images, using a special type of drawing pad that would transfer the sketches into a raised format that makes it possible to ‘see’ via touch. Generating these simple tactile sketches in real-time was a very effective method of helping the blind student ‘visualize’ the concepts being taught. Outside of class, I provided the geology seniors with copies of my lecture PowerPoint presentations. The geology majors provided verbal descriptions of each and every image, graph, or video in every one of the PowerPoint slides, using the ‘ALT TEXT’ option provided in PowerPoint –an incredibly time-consuming task (see example below). I quickly realized by week two of the fall semester that I did not have the 6-10 hours it was taking for each of the Powerpoint lectures! Fortunately, I have a very supportive department chair, Dr. Mitchell Colgan, who allowed me to hire students to provide the PowerPoint slide alternate text accessible by screen readers. I was very grateful, as the ‘ALT-TEXT’ option in PowerPoint was very instrumental in helping our visually-impaired student understand the images and concepts.

Adding alternative text to PowerPoint slide

In all of my courses, I have the students take daily quizzes on the upcoming lecture material prior to each class period, in addition to in-class quizzes and/or activities on prior lecture material. These daily quizzes, both in and outside of class, have proven to be quite helpful in both student understanding and retention of the lecture material as I have noted increased exam scores and positive student feedback. I use the College of Charleston’s online learning management system, OAKS, as a tool for providing the lecture materials, readings, and online quizzes (see OAKS quiz list below). My visually-impaired student rarely had difficulty using OAKS and was successfully able to navigate the quizzes and course materials.

Screenshot of OAKS Quizzes, a tool that works with screen readers

I had planned on integrating the new technology learned during the FTI, such as Poll Everywhere and Kahoot!, for the in-class quizzes, but quickly realized these programs would prove to be difficult for someone who cannot see. I resorted to the old-fashioned paper-and-pencil method for my in-class activities instead. I hope to try the new programs, such as PowToon and Kahoot!, along with Poll Everywhere, in the Fall.

One of the other ways of helping our blind student ‘visualize’ was to provide models of the fossils we were discussing. However, many of our fossil samples and models are too fragile to be handled. Kaitlin Woodlief and I tried to make a 3D print of one of our dinosaur models (Triceratops), using the new 3D printer. This process had several issues, primarily with having to generate the 3D scan file, rather than using a file already made (see image below). We are going to continue trying to find ways to make 3D copies of these fragile models for the upcoming year.

In summary, while I was eagerly anticipating incorporating new learning technologies and strategies learned in the FTI workshop of 2014 into my Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 courses, I was not able to do so due to the presence of a visually-impaired student in my classes. I relied heavily on low-tech models and pen/paper for helping teach the visually-impaired student. I hope to incorporate the new technologies in my courses this fall (2015), even if I have a course with another visually-impaired student as some models and groundwork are already prepared.

Lastly, I want to point out how much I learned, and benefited, from the experience of teaching such a visual subject as Environmental Geology and Earth History to someone who cannot see. It was an eye-opening (pun intended!) experience and a challenge I found enormously rewarding!

1-1-1, Faculty Technology Institute, TLT

Guest Post: Playing games to engage students in a non-majors biology course

May 28, 2015January 31, 2023 Kaitlin

Our guest blogger is Kathleen Janech from the Department of Biology. In 2014, Kathleen attended the Faculty Technology Institute. This blog post is a report and reflection on implementing strategies and technologies from that workshop. Kathleen describes her endeavors to make her lectures more interactive through gamification, and she discusses moving some lecture content online to create time for activities during class.

I decided that I wanted to update one particular section of my Biology 102 course. This is a course for non-majors, and I chose to update the section of the course where I teach about animal diversity and evolutionary connections. This is always a section that students report that they enjoy, but as much as I love all of the diversity seen with animals, I have found that teaching it has become boring. I also used to have a 5 question section at the beginning of the exam on animal diversity, where they would see a picture of an animal for 30 seconds and then have to pick the correct identification in a multiple choice question. Although I like to think that this made them use the knowledge they had acquired, it seemed to just stress them out more about the exam, and being a summative assessment, came too late for them to correct their perceptions.

Therefore, I decided to try a few new things with my class of 35 students in the Spring of 2015. There were so many great ideas that we were exposed to during the FTI, but I had to focus on one area that I could really change in one semester. Overall, I tried to “chunk” my lectures more, and alternate the presentation of material with short videos or a discussion of a handout that they could take home. I would also post more lecture material on OAKS, resulting in a partially flipped classroom. A great advantage of this was that it freed up great amounts of time so that I could fit more activities into the class. The students could access my lecture material at any time, and go over it as much as they needed to, which is great for those who cannot write as fast as others.

In practice, I posted more of the background information on animals (characteristics that were in lists, which had made lecturing on them very boring) on OAKS, where students could access it on their own any time. With the available class time, I planned to try two ways of in-class formative assessment in the form of games. The first game that I tried was “Who Am I?” as a hook at the beginning of class. The students had a lot of material in their notes from class and from slides that they were supposed to have looked at on OAKS. I asked for 3 volunteers, one at a time. When each came to the front of the room, I taped the name of a classification category to their back (such as Phylum Mollusca, or Class Polychaete). They showed it to the class, and then had to turn back around and ask questions of the class to try and guess what category was on their back. Some advantages were that only volunteers were really “on the spot” at the front of the classroom, and the rest of the class could look at their notes to help them out. And it gave them some in-class time to actually try to use the information from their notes and work with it to apply it to something, instead of just waiting to be tested on it. Also, there was not a lot of prep required on my end, aside from writing up and taping the signs on their backs. The disadvantage was that I realized that I had to be very specific about the way they could ask questions of the audience, since I was trying to get them to use the categories that I had presented in class.

The second game that I tried was Kahoot! I used this at the beginning of the class as a hook or “kindling” to get them engaged in the topic. This was by far the biggest success of this section. One advantage of it was that the students really enjoy getting to use their devices in class (and it is a special treat since I do not usually allow devices to be in use during class time). Another advantage was that students were engaged because it was a competition, which they enjoyed, but also something that they could do anonymously so if they made a mistake they could learn from it without having to be embarrassed. Disadvantages include the fact that everyone needs a device on which to play, and not everyone will always have one (they were not penalized if they could not participate), and this took a lot more preparation time for me to get questions ready and make sure that they were good questions. Since Kahoot! was a formative assessment, it let the students know where they were with the material.

Students commented that they really liked my “chunking” strategy – they appreciated seeing short video clips of the different animals and examples of behavior, since it really brings the colors and movement alive, and it helped to break up the lecture. They also noted that they liked having the links to watch later. The “Who Am I” game was not as popular, maybe because I did it earlier in the unit and none of them knew the material yet, and they felt like they were on the spot. The Kahoot! game was really popular. They liked the anonymity, and it was suggested that we play it more often to keep up with all of the material. They liked the competitive aspect and the fact that it was interactive for everyone. Many students commented that they thought they knew the material, but after playing they could see where they needed to do a lot more studying.

In the future, I am going to try to incorporate Kahoot! from the start in all my classes. And, if I prep it far enough in advance, I can include images as part of a question, which will be great and especially applicable for this animal section. I hope to use VoiceThread to free up more time in class for activities and games. I would like to try to work on a “lecture organizer” structure that could be a handout or drawn on the board on the first day of class, in order to help students categorize and prepare for unfamiliar material. In addition, I might try to using Poll Everywhere at the beginning of the class as “kindling” to see how much background information they already know about a particular group, or with a video when I want them to guess what animal I have shown. This would be great to see how much they already may or may not know about many of our local animals. I am going to continue to try and rethink sections of my courses, and incorporate more new ideas. I know of one place in my Biology 111 course where a flipped classroom model would work really well, so that is what I will work on next in the fall.

Thank you, FTI and TLT, for lots of great new ideas!

Tag: faculty

Guest Post: Archaeology meets Technology in Transylvania

Upcoming Fall Events in TLT

Tips to Prepare Your Course for Campus Closures

TLT’s Top Tips for Time Management

What are instructors spending time on?