Speed10-Online content 'miner's - approaches to enhance student engagement, learning, and critical thinking
Online content 'miner's - approaches to enhance student engagement, learning, and critical thinking
David M. Harwood, Eyde Olson, & Gosia Mahoney
Author
06/11/2021
Added
7
Plays
Description
Student engagement and learning is enhanced through exploration and 'mining' internet content, specifically short videos shared and discussed asynchronously with peers. This approach enables students to follow their curiosity and invest in their learning across course-related themes in GEOL 125: Frontiers of Antarctic Geosciences. Students are exposed to a range of rich and visual content that brings Antarctica, scientific research activities, and topical subjects into clear focus. Students conclude each of four themes by developing high-level questions that enhance and focus student discussion boards, fostering enriched and shared learning. Students welcome freedom to explore topics of interest to them within the general flow of course material, and connections made between students with similar interests. The instructor regards well-developed student-generated questions as perhaps more important than the eventual 'answers', as the ability to frame complex questions is an important step in insightful critical thinking, and discovery of new knowledge. Students pursue what interests them, and instructors highlight and expand upon the best materials students bring forward. Teaching with student-identified content requires that instructors ‘let-go’ to build upon student curiosity, and add key foundational content in reflection and close-out summaries. These are developmental steps toward personal skillsets and joy in lifelong learning.
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [00:00:02.914][David Harwood] Good morning everyone.
- [00:00:04.060]I'm happy to be presenting here to you today
- [00:00:07.350]with my colleagues, Eyde Olson, and Gosia Mahoney.
- [00:00:10.540]I want to share with you some approaches
- [00:00:13.589]that we've taken in a course that we think has found
- [00:00:18.159]a lot of success in engaging students,
- [00:00:22.650]in engaging students to communicate with each other,
- [00:00:25.770]but also to drive their own learning in some ways
- [00:00:29.760]to create a space and situations
- [00:00:33.890]where they can advance their critical thinking processes
- [00:00:37.360]through here as well,
- [00:00:38.720]so the title here of online content 'miner's.
- [00:00:42.040]I guess it's appropriate for some geologists
- [00:00:43.880]to have that line,
- [00:00:45.100]but really sending students out into the online
- [00:00:49.151]to go find information, bringing it back into the class,
- [00:00:52.510]in what we think is kind of a fun, interesting way,
- [00:00:55.410]and this platform that we've used to develop this is
- [00:00:58.630]this course that I developed maybe a decade or so ago
- [00:01:01.730]called Frontiers in Antarctic Geosciences.
- [00:01:04.480]The course is, last semester was delivered online
- [00:01:09.680]and in person, synchronously delivering it
- [00:01:13.030]but also having all the materials available
- [00:01:14.780]for asynchronous availability for folks as well.
- [00:01:19.030]It's a three credit gen-ed class.
- [00:01:22.000]It's not a prerequisite for anything,
- [00:01:23.520]so there's not, let's say the burden of
- [00:01:26.235]of content in some ways.
- [00:01:27.860]We're pretty free to go
- [00:01:29.340]where we want with this content.
- [00:01:31.840]The overall theme of the class pretty much is
- [00:01:34.220]understanding how our planet works
- [00:01:36.520]and what the role of Antarctica is, central
- [00:01:38.949]to all of Earth's different interactive spheres.
- [00:01:43.200]Climate plays a pretty big role in this
- [00:01:44.840]as well as advancement of science.
- [00:01:48.509]The course has a certification there
- [00:01:51.030]for both ACE 4 and ACE 9 in the UNL system.
- [00:01:54.440]The two things I want to talk to you today about,
- [00:01:56.620]giving you examples of this,
- [00:01:57.650]is something we call Antarctic Theater,
- [00:01:59.570]which is where a lot of the online mining comes,
- [00:02:02.049]but also something called a Packback,
- [00:02:04.580]which is a purpose, a purchase app that students use.
- [00:02:09.610]We used it for the first time this last semester.
- [00:02:13.810]Now I did present two years ago
- [00:02:16.430]some aspects of the introduction of Antarctic theater.
- [00:02:20.040]The first one of these approaches I want to talk about
- [00:02:23.430]in the 2019 pedagogy and technology session
- [00:02:26.870]but I'm going to review that generally here
- [00:02:29.340]so you get a sense of how it works,
- [00:02:31.700]and it also then carries into the Packback approach
- [00:02:35.160]that we take, and listed down there on the bottom
- [00:02:38.004]are some things that I think we perceive to be
- [00:02:42.180]very beneficial towards student engagement,
- [00:02:46.600]learning, and them driving themselves towards,
- [00:02:50.369]you know,
- [00:02:51.640]places they never thought they were going to go
- [00:02:53.430]in terms of understanding science,
- [00:02:55.170]and engaging, and really controlling their own learning.
- [00:02:58.810]The other aspect here is Packback,
- [00:03:01.279]and Packback is a commercial program
- [00:03:03.879]launched by students at Illinois State University.
- [00:03:10.140]I believe it exists to awaken and fuel
- [00:03:12.460]the lifelong curiosity that is resident in
- [00:03:15.869]every student.
- [00:03:17.820]But here's some of the motivation
- [00:03:19.110]for why we took this approach, right?
- [00:03:21.470]Things have changed.
- [00:03:22.303]We live in a search engine culture.
- [00:03:24.500]Memorization is less important
- [00:03:26.140]than it used to be.
- [00:03:27.900]We are all able to outsource
- [00:03:29.770]to the digital brain that's online there.
- [00:03:32.230]What's important is how we use information
- [00:03:34.270]that's out there, right?
- [00:03:35.510]And that's kind of the key
- [00:03:36.400]to our success, and to progress.
- [00:03:40.590]Developing critical thinking skills for future careers
- [00:03:43.730]and for lifelong, being lifelong learners
- [00:03:46.481]are good things, which we think the
- [00:03:48.530]approach we're taking here
- [00:03:50.300]helps to foster that growth.
- [00:03:53.590]Sharing what we learned with others
- [00:03:55.506]and problem solving together
- [00:03:57.120]are also components of this.
- [00:04:00.060]Students did appreciate, they were
- [00:04:01.900]receptive to these methods.
- [00:04:03.180]They've loved the peer engagement.
- [00:04:04.860]They loved the freedom to explore
- [00:04:06.790]and to share their new knowledge.
- [00:04:09.800]So the first component of this,
- [00:04:11.130]this Antarctic theater approach,
- [00:04:13.670]there's so much information that's out there
- [00:04:15.430]at their fingertips and online,
- [00:04:17.919]from sources that they are
- [00:04:19.380]familiar with using anyway.
- [00:04:21.730]We have them 'mine' the web
- [00:04:23.180]for their own benefit, but they bring back
- [00:04:25.108]some great resources that they evaluate together,
- [00:04:28.609]and then they share with the rest of the class.
- [00:04:32.120]Students are drawn into this self motivating
- [00:04:34.170]learning environment, you know,
- [00:04:35.600]where they engage initially
- [00:04:38.349]on their own,
- [00:04:39.310]but then they share asynchronously
- [00:04:41.110]with their peers.
- [00:04:42.999]Passive exposure to visual new
- [00:04:45.470]content that's discovered
- [00:04:47.210]and shared, you know,
- [00:04:48.190]within their teams
- [00:04:49.090]leads to greater engagement.
- [00:04:52.390]This has the potential to enhance learning in many
- [00:04:55.240]many different disciplines.
- [00:04:56.470]Maybe you'll find that this
- [00:04:57.500]could be useful to you as well.
- [00:05:01.350]We've been working with in teams
- [00:05:03.190]of three or four students in this process.
- [00:05:06.250]And just looking at all of these resources through here,
- [00:05:09.020]a wealth of information out there,
- [00:05:10.840]available in the form of videos.
- [00:05:13.220]Now, even thinking about teachers
- [00:05:14.900]that are teaching outside
- [00:05:17.150]of their contents area,
- [00:05:18.560]I think there's great potential
- [00:05:21.280]for bringing in high quality videos initially,
- [00:05:25.290]even having students find those, bring them in,
- [00:05:27.530]and then the teacher can direct them with the content.
- [00:05:30.580]So here's some quotes
- [00:05:31.680]from some students in how they
- [00:05:33.116]enjoyed the video approach.
- [00:05:35.880]I often benefited from searching for videos.
- [00:05:38.170]I often got 'sucked in' and found myself
- [00:05:39.990]watching lots of videos because
- [00:05:41.860]there are so many interesting ones.
- [00:05:44.600]I really enjoyed learning about Antarctica
- [00:05:46.350]in a visual way.
- [00:05:47.520]It allowed us to search topics
- [00:05:49.520]we are personally interested in,
- [00:05:51.050]while also learning about the theme.
- [00:05:54.510]The opportunity to search for
- [00:05:55.770]my own videos made me engage
- [00:05:57.310]and look for some unique information.
- [00:06:00.810]So in this process, we cycle through
- [00:06:02.870]four different themes.
- [00:06:04.648]Each theme has four different categories.
- [00:06:07.819]The four themes are shown here, and the themes track
- [00:06:11.780]basically the same aspects and
- [00:06:14.390]content of the course,
- [00:06:15.510]first bringing a sense of place
- [00:06:17.190]in there with Antarctic scenery,
- [00:06:18.970]with things like,
- [00:06:19.803]where rock meets ice, right,
- [00:06:21.850]where ice meets sky,
- [00:06:23.130]or the ocean,
- [00:06:24.650]but trying to bring the Antarctica
- [00:06:26.500]into the classroom with some really great videos.
- [00:06:29.730]Next one, when we're talking
- [00:06:31.160]about the process of doing science,
- [00:06:33.080]this theme, humans on ice,
- [00:06:34.500]scientists, tourist, explorers,
- [00:06:36.595]having the students see themselves there
- [00:06:39.560]by things that these others are doing.
- [00:06:43.410]Theme C: 'Doing Science'
- [00:06:44.780]is really getting into
- [00:06:45.613]the tools of the discipline
- [00:06:47.350]and the trade.
- [00:06:48.900]How is science done?
- [00:06:49.960]What do the bases look like?
- [00:06:51.160]What kind of facilities are available
- [00:06:53.320]on research ships at the South Pole station?
- [00:06:56.050]What does that look like, for example?
- [00:06:58.050]And then finally, toward the end of the class,
- [00:06:59.490]getting into thinking about evidence for change.
- [00:07:02.310]What do we see in the past?
- [00:07:04.770]What do future projections look like as well?
- [00:07:07.770]And by this time, students are wanting
- [00:07:09.770]to take ownership of our planet,
- [00:07:11.400]you know, and reverse the course
- [00:07:12.950]that we happen to be on.
- [00:07:15.520]The process here,
- [00:07:16.713]it's a bit of a wordy slide,
- [00:07:17.546]but the process here is,
- [00:07:19.140]students individually search
- [00:07:21.190]for videos, finding four or more.
- [00:07:24.810]They propose those to their team,
- [00:07:26.570]their teams review those,
- [00:07:28.899]optimally three to five minutes in length.
- [00:07:32.380]The teams then review
- [00:07:33.570]when they pick and nominate
- [00:07:35.040]the best five videos
- [00:07:37.030]into a larger pool, you know,
- [00:07:38.940]with top ranked videos
- [00:07:40.250]from four other teams, right?
- [00:07:42.190]So progressively we're filtering out, you know,
- [00:07:44.430]the less good,
- [00:07:45.940]and the best of the best
- [00:07:48.076]rise up to the top.
- [00:07:50.940]Students then vote to select the best videos
- [00:07:53.310]in each of these four categories,
- [00:07:55.370]as we rotate through this two week cycle,
- [00:07:58.610]and then we dedicate one class period to Antarctic theater.
- [00:08:01.660]When I first started doing this, we would actually go
- [00:08:03.580]to the Ross Theater, the university,
- [00:08:05.740]Nebraska Lincoln's on campus theater,
- [00:08:09.330]and have the value of having, you know,
- [00:08:11.130]a big screen, big sound, etc. in that,
- [00:08:13.450]kind of made it a little bit special.
- [00:08:15.490]But when you think about
- [00:08:16.323]the content that these students are experiencing
- [00:08:18.970]without really even knowing that they're
- [00:08:22.219]experiencing so much,
- [00:08:24.470]it's kind of a passive way to go.
- [00:08:26.440]When they're searching for videos,
- [00:08:28.070]you know, I asked them to do eight,
- [00:08:29.560]maybe a minimum of twelve
- [00:08:31.040]maybe on average,
- [00:08:31.880]I asked them,
- [00:08:32.713]how many was the most they did?
- [00:08:34.280]Some students were saying they looked
- [00:08:35.810]at 25 for each one of these
- [00:08:38.160]or so,
- [00:08:39.120]then they're reviewing their team members' videos.
- [00:08:41.780]So they're seeing another 12.
- [00:08:44.130]Then they're voting on
- [00:08:45.150]half of the class' nominations, right?
- [00:08:47.580]So they're seeing another 20,
- [00:08:49.530]and then alternating the videos
- [00:08:51.874]coming from each half of the class,
- [00:08:53.610]they're seeing 6 to 8 new ones in that.
- [00:08:57.370]So for each of these themes
- [00:08:58.870]they're seeing 50 different videos.
- [00:09:01.350]I have not had a complaint yet
- [00:09:02.770]about how much time this might take
- [00:09:05.600]because they're engaged,
- [00:09:07.030]they're engaged wanting to do this.
- [00:09:10.170]So the process by which this matures,
- [00:09:11.904]we use these different programs here.
- [00:09:15.000]Canvas Discussions is where the
- [00:09:17.290]proposals are put forward,
- [00:09:19.060]where the review and discussion goes forward,
- [00:09:21.450]and where the nominations take place.
- [00:09:24.670]I'll walk you through each of these in turn.
- [00:09:27.510]And then the information is
- [00:09:29.160]arranged into Google Forms
- [00:09:30.930]where they can vote, then.
- [00:09:32.640]The links are all there.
- [00:09:33.550]It's very convenient for them.
- [00:09:34.870]It becomes pretty seamless.
- [00:09:36.720]Even for negotiating myself to organize this
- [00:09:40.380]it works pretty well.
- [00:09:41.790]The students vote, we then pull those
- [00:09:44.290]into a playlist on YouTube that's
- [00:09:46.760]sent out to the students in advance
- [00:09:49.154]so they can track it.
- [00:09:50.411]There are some sheets
- [00:09:51.720]that go along with this for comments
- [00:09:54.351]as they're watching different videos.
- [00:09:56.960]But just to make it easy on everyone,
- [00:09:59.140]including ourselves in pulling this together,
- [00:10:01.153]there's a template on Canvas, right?
- [00:10:04.030]And all the information that we need
- [00:10:05.900]to build the next phase of this
- [00:10:07.640]come with this proposal.
- [00:10:09.730]Some of that might look like this, right?
- [00:10:12.260]With the title of the video, the videos here
- [00:10:14.360]which you right click,
- [00:10:15.220]you can quickly get a link
- [00:10:16.180]to paste into the next one.
- [00:10:17.720]The title's there, the time is there.
- [00:10:19.860]And there's some justification as to
- [00:10:21.440]why the video caught their attention.
- [00:10:24.481]This 'like' feature within Canvas discussions,
- [00:10:27.350]you know,
- [00:10:28.183]is also very useful for communicating
- [00:10:29.300]between team members of what they like.
- [00:10:33.446]We then build a voting sheet here with Google Forms.
- [00:10:37.160]This is basically like a multiple choice question.
- [00:10:39.520]All the links are there,
- [00:10:40.580]direct and easy for them,
- [00:10:41.750]just click on a link,
- [00:10:42.583]you're in YouTube,
- [00:10:43.416]you're watching a video
- [00:10:44.600]to walk through these,
- [00:10:45.720]pick the best of each
- [00:10:47.020]of these different categories, right?
- [00:10:49.350]And then that's the information that we use,
- [00:10:52.546]the output from that to decide
- [00:10:54.980]which videos to show.
- [00:10:57.370]And because the class is split in half
- [00:11:00.450]students are not always seeing the same videos they've seen
- [00:11:03.610]as we progress through this.
- [00:11:06.460]So here's a YouTube playlist,
- [00:11:08.607]pretty easy to develop as well.
- [00:11:10.470]You just click 'add' to the playlist for this.
- [00:11:13.160]This is 'Theme B: Humans on Ice'.
- [00:11:15.810]And you can see, this is what we played.
- [00:11:17.230]I think maybe that was last year,
- [00:11:19.810]even crediting the teams that
- [00:11:21.510]found these videos in here.
- [00:11:23.581]Theme D through here,
- [00:11:25.870]we can see these different categories
- [00:11:27.750]and the different videos
- [00:11:28.710]which would be basically the theater session through there.
- [00:11:33.070]So students seem to like this.
- [00:11:34.530]They think they're not learning
- [00:11:36.870]but they are still learning a lot.
- [00:11:39.400]I really liked Antarctic Theater.
- [00:11:41.070]And the way it makes you go out and search
- [00:11:42.870]for educational videos and learn things that interest you.
- [00:11:45.910]So putting the learning and putting the students
- [00:11:49.130]in their own driving seat
- [00:11:50.450]of learning is something that they really appreciated
- [00:11:52.990]and having freedom to be able to do that.
- [00:11:56.100]So this segues then into the second part of this talk,
- [00:11:58.420]the other approach that we've been using,
- [00:12:00.080]that kind of builds in part on the Antarctic Theater.
- [00:12:02.820]And this is through a Packback, right?
- [00:12:08.051]And Packback into this is
- [00:12:09.150]really emphasizing the power of questions, right?
- [00:12:14.240]Preschool through high school.
- [00:12:15.860]You know, we're traditionally,
- [00:12:17.830]the traditional approach in education is
- [00:12:19.620]that we're taught to answer questions, right?
- [00:12:22.710]But not to ask them in that way.
- [00:12:25.800]In this class, we decided we were going to break the rules
- [00:12:28.530]and fuel curiosity through questions
- [00:12:30.390]on topics that are of interest to the students.
- [00:12:34.890]I'm confident enough in my understanding of the content
- [00:12:38.411]of what I'm teaching, wherever the students take me
- [00:12:41.250]I will know how to corral them back
- [00:12:42.900]to where I want them to go.
- [00:12:44.440]But they engage first,
- [00:12:46.750]even before content is delivered,
- [00:12:48.980]they stay with me, well, in a better way I think.
- [00:12:55.860]So this is the sales pitch I gave to the students
- [00:12:57.860]so they would follow this approach.
- [00:13:01.220]Learn to know and apply,
- [00:13:02.250]not just to remember.
- [00:13:03.650]Let your curiosity drive your learning.
- [00:13:05.850]Learn for the fun of it,
- [00:13:07.440]how it should build skills,
- [00:13:08.860]you will use it the rest of your life and work.
- [00:13:11.741]Questions are often more important than answers.
- [00:13:15.570]You learn more with a wrong answer than with a right one.
- [00:13:18.580]Answers can be wrong, but questions can't, right?
- [00:13:22.470]Every great innovation is born out of a great question.
- [00:13:26.270]So after hearing this they're scratching their heads
- [00:13:29.210]but eventually they came along
- [00:13:31.500]to see where we were going.
- [00:13:34.210]So here's the process.
- [00:13:35.290]This is the approach and how it works.
- [00:13:37.810]Students every week would post one question
- [00:13:41.426]on Packback, and they would
- [00:13:44.330]build and develop that question.
- [00:13:46.360]Students, other classmates would read those questions
- [00:13:49.300]and then comment.
- [00:13:50.570]The requirement was that students would post one question.
- [00:13:53.820]They would also post two good responses
- [00:13:56.310]by Friday to their classmates' questions.
- [00:14:00.274]Initially the Packback themes were related
- [00:14:02.680]to the assignments they had already completed.
- [00:14:07.330]The way that Packback works is
- [00:14:08.800]that artificial intelligence drives a lot of this.
- [00:14:11.470]It helps guide the students
- [00:14:12.980]to developing really great questions, right?
- [00:14:16.290]It coaches them on writing skills,
- [00:14:17.940]as I'll show you in a second.
- [00:14:19.520]It's assigned curiosity points
- [00:14:22.800]to the questions for those that are
- [00:14:24.350]really, really well developed.
- [00:14:27.220]50 curiosity points was the threshold
- [00:14:29.300]for full points.
- [00:14:30.670]30 curiosity points was the threshold
- [00:14:33.360]for the responses.
- [00:14:34.960]We lowered that down to 30
- [00:14:36.630]because it helped open up the conversation
- [00:14:38.380]and make it more free.
- [00:14:41.280]Gosia and I tried to stay out
- [00:14:43.460]of Packback in some ways,
- [00:14:45.270]guiding, phrasing, redirecting,
- [00:14:47.620]perhaps highlighting great posts,
- [00:14:50.800]but for by and large
- [00:14:51.790]we wanted this to be student space
- [00:14:53.600]where they would not feel
- [00:14:54.670]that they were being judged or evaluated, right?
- [00:15:00.340]Questions must be supported
- [00:15:02.840]with background for the contents
- [00:15:04.580]and explanation of why this
- [00:15:05.730]was of interest to them.
- [00:15:07.300]So we all know Bloom's Taxonomy, right?
- [00:15:09.930]What makes that question a good question?
- [00:15:12.010]Well, a good question is one that it can't just
- [00:15:14.730]be a yes or no answer.
- [00:15:16.760]Questions in this tier here
- [00:15:18.920]come in at around this level.
- [00:15:21.410]I asked the students,
- [00:15:22.280]I'm still, my sales pitch here.
- [00:15:24.220]At what level do you think your employer is
- [00:15:26.060]going to want you to engage on the job?
- [00:15:29.820]So building lifelong skills in this,
- [00:15:32.372]I put up this contract for them, you know.
- [00:15:35.190]Some things that I agreed to do was to create a safe
- [00:15:38.130]no judgment space for students' curiosity to bloom.
- [00:15:42.030]I would welcome bad questions because they eventually
- [00:15:44.170]become good ones regarding curiosity and expressed
- [00:15:48.050]wonder as highly as the right answer,
- [00:15:51.672]teaching how to ask great questions.
- [00:15:56.386]And celebrate the curiosity
- [00:15:58.240]and moments of wonder of the students.
- [00:16:00.340]But the students, as part of this
- [00:16:02.527]contract would need to engage fearlessly
- [00:16:03.450]in their self-learning and exploration,
- [00:16:06.970]stay on task with these things,
- [00:16:09.060]explore what interests them
- [00:16:10.390]and share that with others,
- [00:16:12.700]trust that this is good for them.
- [00:16:16.180]Enjoy learning, maximize your investment in school.
- [00:16:19.760]And importantly, here in the last one,
- [00:16:21.500]engage even when you don't know the answer,
- [00:16:23.670]and accept that not knowing is actually
- [00:16:25.510]part of the learning process.
- [00:16:29.300]Some general goals we set initially for Packback
- [00:16:31.570]was to build a sense of community,
- [00:16:33.280]particularly here during COVID time
- [00:16:34.720]this was important.
- [00:16:35.553]But to give students a safe space
- [00:16:37.320]where they could ask questions,
- [00:16:38.440]where they could interact,
- [00:16:39.290]where they could answer other students' questions,
- [00:16:41.020]where they could teach each other without
- [00:16:43.869]actually the instructor or TA involved in there.
- [00:16:48.160]Students were very engaged with this material,
- [00:16:50.380]as I'll show you in a bit.
- [00:16:52.240]The artificial intelligence of Packback
- [00:16:54.160]improved their writing skills.
- [00:16:56.210]One of them to learn how to speak
- [00:16:57.490]like geologists and write like geologists
- [00:16:59.640]as scientists.
- [00:17:02.530]Pursue questions that were of interest to them
- [00:17:04.528]and engaging students in the process of science.
- [00:17:08.730]So here's how the course structure for Packback worked.
- [00:17:11.770]We have nine different weekly postings
- [00:17:16.140]that were due of a question,
- [00:17:17.870]and then responses to other students' questions, right?
- [00:17:23.200]Students were asking questions about previous assignments,
- [00:17:27.250]like the first one that already had questions built
- [00:17:29.490]into this, there's 50 cool facts about Antarctica.
- [00:17:32.360]They were to pursue three of those in some greater depth,
- [00:17:35.240]find out information online
- [00:17:37.094]and also ask some questions about that.
- [00:17:41.620]So the first Packback was pretty easy.
- [00:17:43.850]What the students did was just pick one
- [00:17:45.360]of the questions they had already asked
- [00:17:46.940]and then develop it further, present that, share that
- [00:17:49.930]and then go and post some others.
- [00:17:51.850]You can see that the Antarctic Theater themes
- [00:17:54.690]are interspersed through here as well
- [00:17:56.830]as we would walk through them.
- [00:17:59.660]We also have a series of 13 blogs
- [00:18:02.130]from a science team in Antarctica.
- [00:18:03.930]So questions coming from reading those blogs,
- [00:18:07.230]making note of those.
- [00:18:08.700]And a really interesting thing
- [00:18:09.730]with this as well with each theater,
- [00:18:11.250]because it was two weeks for each theater to develop
- [00:18:13.650]until we actually saw the videos.
- [00:18:15.930]But I told them at the very start of each one
- [00:18:18.017]that there will be a Packback question coming from this.
- [00:18:21.230]So actually for three weeks, it was in their mind
- [00:18:24.363]behind the scenes, perhaps, but that they would be
- [00:18:28.019]in an inquiry mode here
- [00:18:31.450]at some point in the future.
- [00:18:34.220]Well, this is how this played out.
- [00:18:36.540]I'm really proud of this group of students
- [00:18:39.140]and staying with this,
- [00:18:40.920]the posting rate stayed pretty high.
- [00:18:43.470]We didn't launch it until the fourth week
- [00:18:46.300]just to give them a chance to get set up with things
- [00:18:48.920]and be able to comment back on the previous assignments.
- [00:18:54.000]And you can see that their
- [00:18:55.200]average curiosity scores stayed high through here,
- [00:18:58.750]compared to the national average
- [00:19:00.420]of Packback postings of 50.
- [00:19:03.844]This particular class stayed up there
- [00:19:06.760]around 70, 74 or so.
- [00:19:11.799]So blending artificial intelligence feedback
- [00:19:15.110]while the students are writing
- [00:19:16.770]really helped them improve their writing.
- [00:19:18.450]Let me just show you how this works here a little bit.
- [00:19:29.609]Yep. So Gosia and I would post the instructions
- [00:19:34.377]for this, and I can go in here and edit this.
- [00:19:38.497]The students once they post it can't edit it
- [00:19:40.550]but the instructors can.
- [00:19:42.330]And what you'll see in the instructions that I'm
- [00:19:44.980]trying to give here to spark their curiosity
- [00:19:47.610]to give them some direction,
- [00:19:49.800]when I would be typing through here,
- [00:19:52.290]curiosity, credibility,
- [00:19:53.590]communication, convention,
- [00:19:55.230]these scores would be increasing.
- [00:19:56.900]This circle would be completing.
- [00:19:58.240]You can see communication here is
- [00:19:59.610]only halfway through that.
- [00:20:01.780]Students could watch as they're writing
- [00:20:04.270]and see how things are improving for them,
- [00:20:07.132]for their score.
- [00:20:10.390]And then after posting those instructions
- [00:20:12.760]the students would post their questions, you know,
- [00:20:15.320]behind that with a general question
- [00:20:17.910]and then supporting information
- [00:20:21.381]for some of that.
- [00:20:25.310]For example, here's one student's question
- [00:20:29.940]as a citation in where she got some information,
- [00:20:32.730]and then other students are posting their comments
- [00:20:36.610]with sources and other information beyond that.
- [00:20:39.370]So an asynchronous discussion was going
- [00:20:42.790]on and actually thriving in this.
- [00:20:45.820]And it starts out by just asking a question,
- [00:20:52.010]clicking on this red bar right through here,
- [00:20:54.460]and you can already see
- [00:20:55.490]that the artificial intelligence is guiding them
- [00:20:58.060]with some tips, right?
- [00:20:59.850]Tips for writing, for developing your question
- [00:21:03.856]through there, guiding some information in here as it goes.
- [00:21:08.420]So the artificial intelligence is helping these
- [00:21:10.200]students improve their ability to write.
- [00:21:19.905]We can see those who received
- [00:21:22.720]the highest curiosity scores for this community.
- [00:21:27.400]Taylor, Leah, Tim, Samuel.
- [00:21:29.560]Samuel actually went way up here to the top,
- [00:21:32.850]top fourth highest, but he actually
- [00:21:35.430]showed great growth as he advanced through this.
- [00:21:37.680]It was interesting to see his name on both of those.
- [00:21:40.440]Taylor up here, just to show some improvement through this.
- [00:21:42.860]This was her first post from Packback, number one.
- [00:21:46.280]She got 64 curiosity points.
- [00:21:50.370]Her second or last post.
- [00:21:52.660]You can see it's that much more in depth.
- [00:21:54.500]She has some formatting, some bolding in here, a source,
- [00:21:58.150]a couple sources, a nice image in here as well.
- [00:22:01.620]And you can see she's got 96 points
- [00:22:03.420]really near the top of some of this.
- [00:22:07.678]I asked the question of
- [00:22:08.550]did the students' writing really increase?
- [00:22:10.440]Are they using more sophisticated language,
- [00:22:13.050]discipline specific vocabulary?
- [00:22:15.270]So here's Taylor's first four weeks of words.
- [00:22:19.485]And here's her last five weeks of words.
- [00:22:22.190]I haven't really taken a close look to see
- [00:22:24.730]how this has improved or not.
- [00:22:27.670]She's a top student anyway
- [00:22:29.440]but it would be interesting to see
- [00:22:31.160]in these different grade bands,
- [00:22:32.460]high, middle, and low,
- [00:22:34.490]what kind of improvement in there.
- [00:22:35.750]Great potential for studying this kind of thing.
- [00:22:39.170]Here's some quotes from some students in this.
- [00:22:41.940]I enjoyed using Packback and having conversations
- [00:22:44.220]with my classmates to see what they were thinking.
- [00:22:48.180]All the Packbacks were very engaging
- [00:22:49.820]and helped me learn more
- [00:22:50.750]about the course concepts
- [00:22:51.880]by doing my own research and
- [00:22:53.490]being able to look at what others researched.
- [00:22:56.480]I really enjoyed how we got to answer other students'
- [00:22:58.640]questions and learn from them.
- [00:23:01.520]I like how Packback made you think more
- [00:23:03.510]and formulate complex questions
- [00:23:05.620]to build our analysis of the material.
- [00:23:09.030]It was another activity we could do ourselves
- [00:23:10.980]without a specific format.
- [00:23:12.800]It forced us to think about
- [00:23:14.640]what we were learning in different ways,
- [00:23:16.600]and expanded our curiosity about the material.
- [00:23:19.100]I particularly liked that post through there.
- [00:23:22.610]So some things that we took away from this, right,
- [00:23:25.220]was that there was still high quality engagement
- [00:23:28.370]of the students by the end of the semester.
- [00:23:30.020]It actually surprised us that they stuck with this.
- [00:23:32.540]And we're still engaged.
- [00:23:33.910]I think that there was a social side to this course
- [00:23:36.890]this semester from Theater and Packback
- [00:23:39.410]even during COVID isolation
- [00:23:41.550]where they appreciated having the ability to engage
- [00:23:45.051]with each other here.
- [00:23:47.740]They welcomed this open learning format.
- [00:23:51.260]So just some kind of parting comments
- [00:23:53.230]through this: right answers only get us
- [00:23:55.310]to where we've already been.
- [00:23:56.680]That's revisiting knowledge
- [00:23:57.860]whereas great questions move us forward,
- [00:23:59.980]opening new potential.
- [00:24:02.350]It takes courage for teachers to let go of their classroom,
- [00:24:05.250]but the students are actually better for it.
- [00:24:08.070]It's about their learning, right?
- [00:24:09.790]So let them discover.
- [00:24:11.370]Bring content in after they've engaged.
- [00:24:14.170]Let them 'mine' deeply online,
- [00:24:16.200]bringing rich content
- [00:24:17.050]to their peers and to you.
- [00:24:20.270]I know I've benefited in my regular course delivery
- [00:24:23.080]because of material that students have brought
- [00:24:25.759]in to me, and students who might not engage
- [00:24:29.909]in person in the classroom may engage very well here.
- [00:24:34.700]So Packback and the Antarctic Theater,
- [00:24:37.480]these two approaches we've taken,
- [00:24:39.380]I think we've found
- [00:24:40.700]that students appreciate it.
- [00:24:43.140]They engage well.
- [00:24:44.430]They learn a lot.
- [00:24:45.730]We have a final reflection at the end of the course
- [00:24:48.080]and they really comment on
- [00:24:51.181]their welcoming of the freedom to engage,
- [00:24:55.230]to be guided in their own exploration through this.
- [00:24:58.940]Been wondering what Packback means
- [00:25:01.200]but it's basically flipped.
- [00:25:02.270]It's like 'backpack', but it's flipped,
- [00:25:04.480]and thinking about that as well, right?
- [00:25:06.530]It's about learning more than teaching,
- [00:25:09.455]asking questions rather than giving answers,
- [00:25:12.632]or student led instead of teacher fed.
- [00:25:16.920]So hopefully some of these approaches
- [00:25:19.190]of getting students out there,
- [00:25:20.340]getting them looking for information,
- [00:25:22.020]bringing that home,
- [00:25:24.200]like a scavenger hunt in some ways,
- [00:25:26.030]but then filtering through
- [00:25:27.519]the best of the material that comes in
- [00:25:29.860]and then building on that, you know.
- [00:25:31.710]Often I would be reflecting during lecture,
- [00:25:34.320]back to the Antarctic Theater videos that we saw,
- [00:25:37.930]because we shared that as a common experience.
- [00:25:40.890]To cite back to something that
- [00:25:44.602]we had shared in that.
- [00:25:47.450]So hopefully, yeah, you might be able to draw something
- [00:25:50.670]from this into your classroom, and yeah,
- [00:25:53.570]I think students will be,
- [00:25:55.000]would welcome the engagement
- [00:25:57.850]outside of a standard, you know,
- [00:26:01.420]content centered course.
- [00:26:05.490]Right. Thanks.
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/17140?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: Speed10-Online content 'miner's - approaches to enhance student engagement, learning, and critical thinking" allowfullscreen ></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments