Writing Focused

In Fall 20, math courses transitioned to a Live Online format versus traditional online. Faculty spent the summer frantically learning technologies and strategies through workshops, brainstorming sessions, and social media. Math faculty also trained one another on Zoom/Webex, NearPod, and Whiteboard.fi with a common goal -  to learn and implement new tools in the virtual environment to keep students engaged; increasing student success and persistence.

Peer Lead Focus and Learning Review

Monitoring student engagement and learning during class & providing feedback is tough due to lack of time. One way to do this is Peer lead learning review; it monitors engagement and provides feedback.

The class was divided into six groups of four students; one student acted as a peer leader. The peer leaders were rotated after 3 weeks, allowing each group member to act as a peer leader.

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The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate an environment to determine whether or not it encourages interaction among tutors and faculty. Prior to the intervention in Spring 2020, tutor and faculty interaction was low during pre-semester meet-and-greet sessions; the sessions were conducted in a panel format with tutors comprising the audience. The Spring 2020 session, however, was held in a small-group format, and informal feedback was positive. Formal tutor survey results showed that the small groups enabled more flow of conversation as well as deeper connection.

See attachment.

Knowledge retention and transfer are at the core of what we do. It is evident that all students learn in different ways. However, if students are asked to DO something in the process of learning they will not only retain the information but rather be able to comprehend how it is applied to the real world. In addition, as the students start to report out to the class the instructor can listen to the responses and clarify or demonstrate the material to ensure long term retention success. For more information not included in this write up, please attachments.

See attached. 

One of the student learning outcomes of this class is to discuss current industry events. It is difficult to assess discussing events and generally the whole class doesn't participate in discussions equally. By creating a writing assignment to discuss and analyze events I gained a strong means to measure an SLO and both writing and critical thinking. The assignment was a good way to start off the class and to get student engagement for the day.

Time from subject matter in class to attend the 2019 Spring Student Success Fair was worthwhile.

 

When teaching Abnormal Psychology I have a number of student outcomes beyond course competencies:  Critical thinking about mental health and mental illness, paradigm shifting, and reducing or eliminating mental health stigma.  I use an extremely high contact and time intensive teaching style in this online class to attempt to achieve these outcomes.

Program review is a mission-critical strategic planning process and is one critical element of accreditation.  In past years, some departments chose not to complete a program review, while others only did the bare minimum.  Some did stellar work.  Part of the completion problem was length, along with question redundency, and a lack of accountability for its completion.  This year the program review process was redesigned to foster collaboration and accountability between writers and reviewers (Deans/VPs) and to reinforce the application of strategic data for the program.

As a math instructor at EMCC for 16 years, I have always believed students must practice.  They have to do 20+ problems outside of class in order to be able to DO problems on exams/quizzes.  From working with physics and chemsitry faculty over the years and seeing what they do with journals, I have been hesitant to try this.  "Math is different.  Math is skill based, and you don't get good at this unless you practice over and over again," I would think to myself.  It took me 16 years to get to this "aha" moment, and I am so excited about this.

This semester I am provided a sample of a successful paper submitted by a 1st year student last semester to test the idea that identifying a peer who succeeded with similar challenges will provoke greater effort and ultimately greater success. For the full background on this CATS please see "Will Providing a Peer Sample Motivate Growth?"

Need:  Streamline 1st 4 weeks of Differential Equations.  Create clearer expectations, journal instructions, MATLAB directions, problem sets, and activities.  Alleviate student confusion.