Developing online courses can be an overwhelming experience, but Kathleen Pigg and Brenton Scott wrote a blog post that gives you some insight into their transition from traditional to online courses.
Our adventures in the transition to digital format.
- Kathleen B. Pigg and Brenton D. Scott, SoLS
Plants & Civilization (PLB 302) is a course that explores the wide range of how we grow, eat, build with, discover, exploit, modify and imitate synthetically the plants and plant products that are essential to our world and our survival.
The course has always lent itself to a lot of in-class activities, e.g., "activity days" when we bring in real things (tropical fruit juices to test, herbs and spices to identify, chocolate of varying % cocoa, knitting needles, crochet hooks and yarn, drop spindles), group projects (e.g., "create a farm", "create a menu") and guest lectures (e.g., on herbal medicinal tea, xeriscaping, coffee roasting, etc.) As the internet became an increasing presence in everyone's lives, we started adding more and more online activities, starting with "20 questions" a wide ranging online discussion board. We went from objective exams to broader-based essays, and homework assignments based more and more on online sources.
In May 2015 we ran the first 6-week online version of the class.
Major things we learned:
What worked?
Our adventures in the transition to digital format.
- Kathleen B. Pigg and Brenton D. Scott, SoLS
The course has always lent itself to a lot of in-class activities, e.g., "activity days" when we bring in real things (tropical fruit juices to test, herbs and spices to identify, chocolate of varying % cocoa, knitting needles, crochet hooks and yarn, drop spindles), group projects (e.g., "create a farm", "create a menu") and guest lectures (e.g., on herbal medicinal tea, xeriscaping, coffee roasting, etc.) As the internet became an increasing presence in everyone's lives, we started adding more and more online activities, starting with "20 questions" a wide ranging online discussion board. We went from objective exams to broader-based essays, and homework assignments based more and more on online sources.
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| Short Lecture Videos |
In May 2015 we ran the first 6-week online version of the class.
Major things we learned:
- Shorter lectures or segments are best for presenting topics (5-10min)
- Example: https://youtu.be/kwjutJh6O90
- Do this by making a concept map of what you want students to learn, and then check it off as you go.
- Find short YouTube videos that illustrate or explain something you want to cover
- Example: https://youtu.be/ZuDJaUb7tHok
- Include activities that get students to relate what they are learning to their everyday life.
- Example: https://youtu.be/P2yKHmOa5G8
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| Student Diary Project |
- Generally, reworking the lectures into shorter segments based on our learning goals worked pretty well. Figuring out what to focus on and what to strip away in order to streamline lectures was not difficult, but it was very time consuming. This was partially because the Powerpoints for this class are so image intense.
- We were happily surprised at the quality and breadth of materials available online. We ended up mostly using short YouTube videos (around 10 minute maximum), rather than editing segments from longer ones. We list our "top five" on the Conference Poster.
- Students were fairly good at engaging in online discussions but we would like to determine the best way to host live online discussion sessions with students
- Students were not interested in online office hours, which were not mandatory.
- There were technical issues with the video taped lectures we would like to have had time to fix.
- It is difficult to cram such a diverse course into a 6-week course, therefore, we would like to develop student-produced lecture topics as part of the course.
- We want the students to make more of their own videos as projects.
- We want to film our own “documentary style” interviews and segments to replace Powerpoint based lectures. Students found Youtube videos in this style more engaging.
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