Week 5: Practicum Reflection for Module 1 (part 2)

Image Credit: @Learning in Hand

Welcome to the second week of Module 1 for the Microbiology practicum reflection. The second week of any of the modules is always a busy one, but module 1 always seems to be a little more busy with students getting used to the work and expectations within each module.

Students have been spending the week responding to fellow classmates (and myself) on the initial discussion posts they recorded last week, working through the material, and completing labs and quizzes. About 10% of the class has already fully completed the module, while others are moving at a slower pace. This is fairly common from my previous experience. I have been busy helping navigate students in the virtual lab (I have mentioned in previous reflections that there is a learning curve), downloading the Lockdown Browser, and helping them through the material. Also, a large portion of my time has been responding to student discussion posts to help guide and facilitate the discussion.

Keeping Students on Track

Image Credit: P. Williams / Made with Toon Doo

One of the biggest challenges of teaching online is making sure to keep students on track. While some students are very diligent, there are some students who only want to log in on the day assessments are due. This can be frustrating because these students tend to do poorly in the course because they need to be spending a lot of time studying and working within the course. Module 1 is more challenging because students are just starting the work and underestimate the time it will take to complete the module. This is a 6 contact hour course (3 hours dedicated to lecture and 3 hours dedicated to lab each week). This means that students need to spend at least this much time just completing the work (not counting the standard study time) to learn the material. The labs themselves tend to take students the full three hours (more if the students has issues with the lab or needs to correct procedural errors). Students also have to study and learn the material for a closed book, closed note quiz (which is timed). This requires a lot of study time and preparation. When a student fails to log in on a regular basis, they tend to do poorly and/or do not have enough time to complete the assessments. I do my best to keep them updated. I try to find a balance between student responsibility (making the students accountable for their own learning) while still giving them some reminders to help keep them on track. I like to post comics to gently nudge the students along while providing them a reminder that work is due. Students tend to like these reminders. This, however, still requires the student to log in to the course to see the announcements. For very important announcements, I will also send an email notification to tell them an announcement is there, but I do not like to over use that option.

Image Credit: P. Williams from CCC Faculty Portal

If I have a particular student who is not logging in, I have two big things I can do. One, I can send them email reminders or call them to do a personal check in. I will usually try this one time and see if that helps the student improve logging in and completing that work. If this does not work, I will move to my second option. I have the ability to flag the student in our advising system. We have a system (AVISO) where I can flag students for various reasons (failure to attend, failure to complete assignments, and other personal issues). The staff in our Student Success Center will get that notification and work to contact and meet with the student to address their needs and advise them. It can be a daunting task to get students to log in and do their work. In the end, it is up to the student. But, I will always do everything I can to try and help these students along.

Working Through the Labs

Image Credit: P. Williams

Another big aspect of my week is helping students work through the labs. These virtual labs are pretty challenging and students really have to work hard to earn a high grade. The lab takes off for not following directions, completing the wrong steps, and asks them a series of questions that they will only be able to answer if they do the lab correctly. Students have opportunities to redo the lab if it is done incorrectly, but sometimes students to not choose that option. I have never understood why students will not redo a lab to earn a better grade, but that is something that occurs frequently.

At first, I thought the lack of retakes was due to not being clear in my instructions, but I make announcements, put it in the instructions, and email students who have low grade. Still, no matter what I do, I have many students who will not redo the lab. Al large portion of this week has been dedicated to grading labs, troubleshooting with students in the lab, and trying to get students to complete the lab. In the image above, you can see there are students who have not started, some that have started, and several that finished. I will continue to keep up with students throughout these last few days to try and get them to complete their labs. But... it can be tough with two classes of 30 students each.

Facilitating the Discussions

Image Credit: P. Williams

Another aspect of my week has been managing discussions from students. In my courses, the discussion is student led, but I spend a lot of time facilitating and monitoring the posts. I have been very pleased with using Voice Thread for our discussion posts. I think it is working really well and students are really participating in the discussion. At this time (we still have a few days left in the week) we have over 2 hours of class discussion on this topic alone (see image to the left). The topic we are discussing this week deals with a prion disease (that is 100% fatal). We discuss this in the first module because we are learning about different microbes that can cause disease and this discussion will introduce them to a type of microbe that is rare and dangerous for the population. It really gets students interested because it is a non-living microbe (basically  it is a protein that causes disease). So, students are very interested in learning about something that is so strange. It really introduces them to the strange and fascinating world of microbiology. 

Image Credit: P. Williams 

Another aspect of the discussion beside monitoring and facilitating the discussion is trying to get students to submit the discussion. In Voice Thread, there is a button students must click on (a big, blue "Submit Assignment" button. Even if the student makes the posts as requested, if they do not click that button then I cannot grade the discussion post for that student. This means that I have to send reminders to students and try to get them to remember to go in and click that button. Luckily, Voice Thread has an option to email the students who have not submitted the post. So, I send the message to students to remind them to click that button. The only problem is that students must remember to check their email to see these reminders. I will also post a reminder in the announcements area of the course on Saturday to hopefully allow them to see that they may be missing a step in the process. 

Wrap Up

As you can see, I spend a lot of time trying to make sure my students have  a smooth experience in the course and try to make sure that the students feel supported. While I am constantly looking for ways to improve, I really work hard to make sure students have the best possible experience while taking my online courses. I am still looking for better ways to reach out to my students and to make sure they have all that they need to succeed. One of the things that this program has taught me is that it is a never ending search for better ways to reach out to students. Incorporating Voice Thread was one of the ideas I got from this program and it has really improved communication in my course. As my time is coming to an end in this program, I am continuing to use what I have learned to make improvements in my courses. I am excited to continue my reflective process throughout this semester to discuss how this program has helped improve my courses. As we continue this journey, I hope to discuss more ways I have improved and continue to improve my online science courses.

Here is to another week in this journey. Now... on to week 6. There will be a lot of grading next week... due to the end of module 1. So... here's a shout out to the coming busy week.