Author Archives: Ayanna K. Alexander-Street

Ayanna’a Midterm Project

Hi All! Sorry I missed out on the class today…I’m toiling away at the lab, and I also forgot to publish my draft. I welcome any and all suggestions on how to flesh this out!

Overview:

I teach large lecture format classes, of 110-160 students per section. We have auditorium style seating, and my class has been condensed from a two-session per week, 1.5 hour lecture, to a single 3 hour session. In order to make these lecture courses more interactive, we have introduced clickers—which the students did not like, because it was yet another piece of equipment that they must purchase in addition to their textbook. We had another alternative, Learning Catalytics, which was an option from our textbook publisher, using student’s cell phones, tablets or laptops to respond to questions. The limitations of this system: we may only use the program if we have a book contract with this publisher, and this platform does not allow the instructor to choose questions to present to the class, questions are random from a large pool. Another road block was CUNY-made: we realized when we attempted to have the entire class log in to wireless at the same time, that the lecture hall could not support more than 30 people at one time (ridiculous for a class that seats 160). Apparently this issue has been fixed, but we haven’t tested this out yet.

We are incorporating more peer led learning in the sciences, and I want to find a way to incorporate this in a class with my restrictive seating layout and limited class time. I would like to create a platform which will allow instructors to post either open ended or multiple choice questions to the class, and for students to have the ability to respond or engage in an interactive chat with other students and the instructor.

My Personas:

1. Professor PowerPoint: These instructors teach large format lecture courses, but desire a way to make students more engaged in the course, and want to encourage critical thinking . The instructor would like a web app which would not be linked with any particular textbook/publisher, can be customized with content from any text, or original content, and will allow the instructor to create quiz sessions catered to the needs of the class.

2. Sleepy students: Students will be able to answer quiz questions, chat and brainstorm with the Professor and peers, all from their own seat, and on their own device. No purchase codes from publishers or additional accessories will be required to use this app.

Use Case Scenario:

Classroom use, this will be created for large lecture hall courses, but may also be useful for small courses or labs.

The tool will allow for students to use their personal devices to answer quiz questions provided by the instructor during a lecture class.

Full-Fledged Version:

In my full version of this app, it would work on both Mac and Windows, students would be able to access the fully functional app on a phone or tablet as well.

The instructor would have the ability to begin a quiz session with the full class, or direct the students to break out into group discussion sections.

The app would record students’ attendance and participation. The instructor will also have the ability to capture the content of the chat.

The app should be able to work with exam creation software (like Wimba Diploma) to create quizzes.

How much time? 

If I can build upon an existing app (example: Converse—thank you Prof. for the find!) it may be a much easier build. I would need to learn how to make the changes to configure the app to my specs. I approximate that with a dedication of at least one full work day per week, I may finish within a year to one and a half year’s time. If I am able to obtain a grant to hire a consultant, which the Converse inventor does, this process should be completed much faster.

Stripped-Down Version:

We could move forward with the functionality of question/answer and chat. The group function could be added at a later time.

How much time? 

I estimate that the timeline will still be at least 8 months for a stripped down version of this web app.

Wikipedia Edits Traced to 1 Police Plaza

With all the talk we have been having about Wikipedia editing…A friend tweeted this article about anonymous edits originating from 1 Police Plaza IP addresses, made to Wikipedia pages about stop and frisk, Eric Garner, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Alexian Lien (the man who was accosted by motorcyclists—some off duty NYPD while on the West Side Highway with his wife and child in the car). What do you all think? Harmless or trying to rewrite history?

Here is the link to the article. It’s been reposted on other sites as well.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/03/8563947/edits-wikipedia-pages-bell-garner-diallo-traced-1-police-plaza

Ayanna’s Project Ideas: Active Learning in Large Lectures

Hello All!

I’m late in posting, 1. because I missed our first class, and 2. I’m posting right before class so that no one feels that they have to write responses—it’s been great, a week with just reading! I hate to take that away from everyone.

I teach large format Biology courses, my main course is Anatomy and Physiology. In a good semester, I will have 230 students in my class, in a bad semester, 350+. We meet in lecture halls which seat 150 students at a time.

A challenge is to encourage active learning and class discussion in such a large course. Some students tend to dominate in class, others are shy and intimidated to speak up when responding to questions. Having class discussion groups is a nightmare due to stadium seating, and the noise level in a class of 150 can be intolerable.

We currently have “clicker” type software, using the students’ smartphones to respond to questions, but we can only use multiple choice questions. I would like to have the students complete clinical critical thinking problems instead, and to brainstorm with other members of the class, in a time efficient way, that would not require them to leave their seats.

Idea 1: Create a texting platform, similar to YikYak, which would allow the students within the lecture hall to create online discussions to the questions. The instructor would be able to see the contents of the chat as it is occurring. If the instructor presents multiple questions, we could find a method to divide the students into groups, and they would discuss their problems over the chat. The instructor could decide if the students would present their findings, or there could be a class-wide discussion following each chat session to talk about some of the comments. Unlike YikYak, the entire session would be captured for the instructor to later review if they like.

Idea 2: This is a fun little idea for my high school outreach summer program students. I will admit I got this idea in part from my husband, as Google visited his office the other day and brought goodies. Our department has a green initiative to reduce the amount of hazardous waste produced by our large format classes, so we have moved from dissections to virtual cadaver model programs–which requires students to purchase a code from a publisher to use. In our summer high-school outreach programs, they have an option to take a general bio or anatomy prep course, and it would be nice to provide students with this software option, but it is not cost-effective. If we could create a cadaver dissection app for these students, and add (this was my husband’s idea) Google Cardboard, to make it a virtual reality cadaver app, I think this would be a lot of fun and be a good learning tool for students at this level.