Melanie Bedore

School of Earth, Environment and Society

Course

ENVSOCTY 4US3 | Sustainable Cities | 45 students

Their story

Since the switch to online learning, students have told me about the many time-consuming obligations that compete with our courses for their attention: Paid jobs, volunteer work, family caring duties, their own illnesses, applying for work and graduate school, all while trying to practice self-care. In light of these realities, I provided options for varying degrees and modes of student engagement without sacrificing the intellectual rigour of my courses. In ENVSOCTY 4US3 Sustainable Cities, I used the following strategies to provide students with 1) as much (or as little) engagement with their peers and I as they wished, and 2) as much scheduling flexibility as possible:

• Asynchronous, recorded lectures

• Optional, ungraded weekly tutorials for students who thrive with discussion-based learning (these were recorded and posted for all students). Six students attended on average

• Daytime and evening office hours

• A learning portfolio assignment with flexible prompts and personalized, formative feedback

• My office hours were underused, so in weeks I0 and 11, I offered 15-minute sign-up “Consultation meetings” to discuss students’ final assignments. I had energizing conversations with 18 students (40% of the class).

• Weekly video greetings using the Announcement tool on Avenue to Learn. Our family dog, Sweetpea, a French bulldog/Boston terrier mix, was often the star of the show while I discussed the upcoming week’s content and assignments. Students told me they loved her seeing her and appreciated the videos.

Helpful support: I am grateful to my teaching assistants in all of my classes, the MacPherson Institute for continuing to promote professional development and training during this unprecedented time, the Faculty of Science for its support, the incredible CCT and Avenue faculty support folks for their training and cheerful troubleshooting help, the staff of SEES and Director Bruce Newbold for his support.

Please direct your inquiries to: bedorem@mcmaster.ca

License

Good News Stories in Online Teaching in the Faculty of Science Copyright © by A collaborative initiative between MacPherson Institute & Faculty of Science. All Rights Reserved.

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