The challenge: Before the pandemic, I taught face-to-face, in a hands-on environment, so my incorporation of digital tools was limited. But that all changed in the spring of 2020, and trying to deliver content online as well as learning how to use so many new-to-me tools at once was overwhelming.

The fix: I took a few steps back and began to focus on a few things and applied the same filter to all the new ‘tech’ I was trying to incorporate. “What’s working best for me right now?” “What are students engaging with most frequently (and easily)?” This ‘reset’ let me focus on what was working for my students and led me to produce better content. In the CAD class I was teaching remotely, I came up with small, bite size ‘Tasks’ and made screencasts of what I was expecting my students to try and posted the videos to YouTube. I would then use our ‘class time’ to troubleshoot or problem solve along with individual students as needed.

The win: By using these small ‘Task’ videos, students could work at their own pace, pausing or replaying parts of the video if something wasn’t clear, as needed. This greatly reduced the number of questions in class and allowed me to be more helpful to more members of the class. I continue to use this type of delivery for my CAD classes to this day.

The challenge: During the pandemic, we were required to teach chemistry lab courses online.  Students who normally would spend up to 28 hours in the lab environment now needed an equivalent learning experience in their home environment. Planning and ethical decision making were needed to ensure no student was excluded or negatively impacted by the revised remote lab model.

The fix: I investigated various digital tools and home-based alternatives to create lab activities that were aligned with the course learning outcomes.  MS Forms allowed me to survey students as to what tools they had access to in their homes. Selected activities from Labster (digital chemistry lab simulator), Royal Society of Chemistry lab simulations, Collisions (game-based chemistry web-learning – no longer available), PhET (interactive simulations for STEM learning) and smartphone apps (Apple and Android) were used in combination with digital videos from YouTube creators or me. Each of these digital tools brought something different to the experience and topic. For the assessment portion of the lab, H5P was used for quick formative learning checks, BB assignments/quizzes were used to capture lab evidence and discussion.  Digital cameras were used to take pictures of student work (model, kitchen lab work, math calculations).

The win: By using a carefully created plan with a variety of digital tools selected for their relevancy, ease of use, lack of cost to students, and overall appeal were integrated into cohesive lab activities.  Students were able to explore experiential chemistry and achieve learning outcomes for the course. These tools and labs have been shared with other faculty teaching STEM courses.