1. Acquire a fundamental knowledge of “how animals work” 2. Recognize how prior and new knowledge relate to current/future work 3. Appreciate the importance of animal physiology 4. Understand how to collect, integrate, and communicate information 5. Exercise responsibility and teamwork.
After the semester ended, I finally had some time to reflect upon my teaching pre-COVID and during the pandemic. Over the summer, I spent many hours thinking about the course structure and what we would revise for our next offering of the course. As the COVID pandemic continued to rage throughout the fall semester, my colleague and I decided that we would teach our animal physiology course fully online for the spring 2021 semester. And we just learned that due to a spike in COVID cases after Christmas in the Houston area, classes at Rice will be fully remote at least until mid-February. During the pandemic last spring, throughout the summer and fall, and now with classes starting in just two weeks, one key question has guided me as I work on this course: “What do I really want my students to learn about animal physiology?” How were we assessing student learning? During the spring 2020 semester, student learning was assessed in multiple ways including individual exams, group exams, a semester long team project, homework, reading quizzes, reflections, etc. Although these mostly formative assessments and the team project require a great deal of effort and time from the students, exams contributed to 70% of the total grade for the course; the team project accounted for 20% of the grade, and all other assignments (e.g., homework, quizzes, reflections) were worth just 10% of the grade. Although there were short “mini exams” every other week, some students still became stressed and anxious when taking the exams, even though they demonstrated an understanding of course material in class discussions and on homework assignments. Once the pandemic forced us to remote instruction, we did modify the exam format to give them more time to take the exam online than they would have had in the classroom; they had a flexible window so they could choose what time/day to take the exam; and the final exam was “open resources.” And we dropped a third exam based on a research article since we lost about two weeks of instruction. We were not overly concerned about cheating since all of our exam questions are short answer format and typically require application and/or synthesis of foundational knowledge to answer the questions (i.e., you can’t just Google the answer). Overall, student performance on the exams did not change much from pre-COVID to during the pandemic. Still, this weighting of assignments seemed imbalanced to me, with too much emphasis on student performance on exams. I started thinking about how I could shift the weighting of assignments to better reflect student achievement of learning goals. For example, the semester long team project, where students create a fictional animal (1) and showcase their animal during the last week of classes, requires students to understand integration of body systems as well as explain how the systems work together (or don’t) and recognize tradeoffs and physiological constraints. Shouldn’t this creative outlet that requires the highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy count as much towards their course grade as exams? What about all of the other work they do inside and outside of class? How did I intentionally redesign my course with strategies to promote student success? Never having taught a course online before the spring 2020 semester and not being sure how to help students cope with additional stresses caused by the pandemic, I attended or participated in numerous webinars, such as the National Institute on Scientific Teaching SI Happy Hours (https://www.nisthub.org), the APS Institute on Teaching and Learning Virtual Week (https://www.physiology.org/detail/event/2020/06/22/default-calendar/institute-on-teaching-and-learning?SSO=Y), and the APS Webinar Series – Physiology Educators Community of Practice (https://www.physiology.org/detail/event/2020/07/23/default-calendar/physiology-educators-community-of-practice-webinar-series?SSO=Y). Support and resources from the Rice Center for Teaching Excellence (https://cte.rice.edu/preparing-for-spring-2021#resources) have been invaluable as I redesign my course. In an article submitted to Inside Higher Ed about helping students in times of trauma (3), Mays Imad said, “As teachers, we don’t simply impart information. We need to cultivate spaces where students are empowered co-create meaning, purpose and knowledge — what I have termed a “learning sanctuary.” In such a sanctuary, the path to learning is cloaked with radical hospitality and paved with hope and moral imagination. And it is our connections, the community of the classroom and our sense of purpose that will illuminate that path.” How can I create a “learning sanctuary” in my classroom environment? What approaches can I take to minimize stress and maximize engagement for students? Here are some strategies I’ve adopted for this upcoming semester to promote student success as we teach our animal physiology course fully online:
How will I know if my students learned animal physiology?
1. What impact has something you learned had on your own perceptions? 2. What long-term implications did a specific discovery/piece of information have on you/on society?” 3. What is one or more specific thing that you learned about animals this semester that you will never forget? I love reading their reflections where they share what they learned in our course. Here are a few of my favorites from the spring 2020 semester:
Even in the midst of a pandemic, I feel confident that my students not only learned physiology but also gained an appreciation for the importance of studying animal physiology. After taking this course, most if not all of them would agree with me that “Animals are Amazing!” And that is what I really want my students to learn about animal physiology. NOTE: All protocols were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Rice University (Protocol FY2017-294). References 1. Blatch S, Cliff W, Beason-Abmayr B, Halpin P. The Fictional Animal Project: A Tool for Helping Students Integrate Body Systems. Adv Physiol Educ 41: 239-243m 2017; doi: 10.1152/advan.00159.2016. 2. Gopalan C. Effect of flipped teaching on student performance and perceptions in an Introductory Physiology course. Adv Physiol Educ 43: 28–33, 2019; doi:10.1152/advan.00051.2018. 3. Imad M. Seven recommendations for helping students thrive in times of trauma. INSIDE HIGHER ED, June 3, 2020; https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/06/03/seven-recommendations-helping-students-thrive-times-trauma. 4. McLean S, Attardi SM, Faden L, Goldszmidt M. Flipped classrooms and student learning: not just surface gains. Adv Physiol Educ 40, 47-55, 2016; doi:10.1152/advan.00098.2015.
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What do I really want my students to learn about animal physiology?
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