Teaching on University Science Degrees

[astsapp]

Are there any others out there who are trying to incorporate modern teaching techniques into science teaching? How do you get other staff involved? Are there only social scientists interested in this type of course? A lot of questions, I know, but I am feeling quite lonely in the science world of learning 🙂

Caroline

[Jo-ann Larkins]

Hi Caroline,

I’m a statistician / mathematician attached to the science department at a regional campus of a big Australian mutli-campus uni. A lot of my colleagues are trying cool things with modern technology particularly with our off campus students. For example, the chemists have created a series of videos for occupational health and safety induction and to show students how to use instruments and do basic techniques 9I.e. using a pipette).

Jo-ann

 

 

[Ulrike Proske]

Hi Caroline and Jo-ann,

I’m a geologist teaching two courses on Natural Hazards at the ANU in Canberra, Australia.  The most useful web-based tools for my courses are online animations and videos as well as some interactive programs that let the students explore e.g. fundamental principles in physics. There are so many great resources out there that help me visualising my lecture contents 🙂

I also use a web-based platform provided by ANU via which I provide lecture notes, recordings and newly published articles for the students. That works really well, too, and students find it very accommodating.

A teaching colleague told me that he has used online role-play  in postgraduate teaching and he thought it went really well especially when teaching students science communication and discussion skills.

Ulli

[KevinWallace]

Hi all,

This seems like a suitable group for me – I teach on a Foundation Degree course at an FE College which has a small HE department. We have a good Virtual Learning Platform to post lectures and for discussion points etc,… which is handy but not all that ground-breaking.

The IT that I am most interested in right now is using ‘clickers’ – each student can select a response on a remote control to answer various questions asked of them. I have not actually used it yet but have seen it demonstrated and hope to include it next semseter. It allows an immediate response that can be graphed on the projector – i.e. allowing the students to vote for what topic should be covered next week or rate their understanding of a topic pre- and post-lecture. The latter example is really handy as a formative assessment tool to rate the lecture and  the students learning.

[philtubman]

clickers are a really useful tool for science teaching. you might find some of this video useful (19-20 mins-ish) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYiI2Hvg5LE

 

[LucindaMayor]

Hi all

I teach paramedic science to 3rd year students on campus and a degree conversion program to employed diploma qualified paramedics off campus/online. With both courses I use a learning management platform and the incorporate the use of the virtual classroom for the online group.  The virtual classroom sessions are recorded therefore the online students are able to view the lectures and discussions at their leisure. Anecdotally I have found the use of this media has improved student retention and participation in learning activities. Although I believe the pedagogy for online student needs to be altered in comparison to the pedagogy for the on campus cohort. Informal student surveys relating to the incorporation of the virtual classroom has provided very promising results which is now in the process of being formally researched

 

I am new to higher education joining the discipline 3 years ago after 22 years as a paramedic and 10 years as a clinical instructor mentoring the paramedic graduates through their first 12 months of employment as a paramedic.

 

Clickers are also used with our discipline for the on campus cohort with very positive results in both improving GPA and in student feedback. Although I have no included them in my sessions as yet.

 

[astsapp]

I went to a training day with our department yesterday and saw some great things using screencasts and clickers to get the students to engage. This sounds liek a good area to explore.

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