How I teach

A photo of me doing what I rarely do--lecturing

I was recently asked about how I teach. Obviously, teaching is something I do daily, and I do give it a fair amount of thought, but I’d never been asked this all-encompassing question before—or at least not for a long time. It got me thinking about how I actually do teach, and how I create a learning environment in which learners can learn.

How do I teach?

The person asking the question offered a few prompts to help focus my thinking. The following are my bullet-point responses to his questions.

What strategies do you use to get and keep students engaged in class?

• Active learning: What better way is there to learn, other than by doing, and learning from your mistakes while doing?
• Flipped learning: Let’s apply new knowledge and skills during class, when questions can be asked, and save the lower order of Bloom’s taxonomy for individual learning outside the classroom.
• Learner-centered teaching: Teaching and learning is about enabling the learner to learn, not about enabling the teacher to teach.
• iClicker learner response system: This and similar tools provide a great way to provide (anonymous, if desired) responses and feedback in the classroom.
• Check in surveys throughout the semester: Giving the learners opportunities to reflect on how their learning is progressing during the semester, and what you might be able to do to create a better learning environment can be powerful for both learner and teacher.
• Reflection papers: Like the check in surveys, creating opportunities for learners to reflect on what and how they are learning is powerful.
• Specifications grading (and exploring ungrading): Points are not the only way to represent what an individual has learned. I’ll even go further and say they may be a bad way to do so. I’ve found specifications grading to be a much better option and have recently been dabbling with ungrading. I've previously posted about specifications grading.
  

What strategies do you use to get and keep students engaged in community and to develop an identity within your class? (That is, to encourage engagement in campus life or contact outside class, i.e., studying together.)

• Pair-programming and group work: Have learners work together on a regular basis in class, and the relationships will inevitably flow to outside of class.
• Small group discussions: Taking time to share opinions and understanding with others—and listening to their point of view—opens a communication channel.
• Immersive learning: Learning while doing, and satisfying others needs in the process is a tremendous motivator.
• Expert of the Day: Asking learners to complete work on their own before class, and then serve as a teaching assistant during class helps reinforce their learning. It also provides multiple opportunities to interact with others.
  

What strategies do you use to lecture or otherwise deliver course content effectively?  

• I try to avoid lecturing! I’ve found that talking about a topic for an extended period of time seldom is productive. Learning by listening is not near as productive as learning by doing.
• Flipped learning: See above.
• Active learning: See above, again.
• Discussion (mostly Socratic): For teaching things other than skills, discussion is great—especially if I can avoid stating my personal opinions, but rather provide an environment in which the learners critically think about their own ideas and understanding, share that with others, and learn from others.
• Disability awareness and accessible Canvas course site: If you have challenges accessing the course site—for any reason—your learning opportunities are going to be diminished. Every learner deserves full access to every learning opportunity.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusivity: Understanding what others bring to the classroom provides opportunities to reduce or remove barriers to learning, as well as providing rich opportunities for all to learn.

How do you think about course design (syllabus, sequencing, assessment, assignments, activities, etc.)?

• I think about Understanding By Design (Wiggins & McTighe), but admittedly seldom am successful at fully implementing it due to the time I provide myself. I need to do better.
• I keep Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in mind: If I do something to help one learner, I likely will help many others.
• I tie course activities/learning outcomes to workforce competencies (NACE): Beyond content knowledge (which may become obsolete, given time), learners also need to learn and recognize non-domain transferable skills. Anything I can do to establish the relationships between class activities and workforce competencies will be a good thing.
• I have a very long, but “warm,” supportive, learner-focused syllabus: My approach is to incorporate useful (non course) content into the course syllabus in the hope that the learner will discover some other content while they’re looking for the first thing.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusivity, and having an accessible Canvas course site: See above.

How do you balance rigor with flexibility?

• Rigor is an interesting word! (See www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rigor.) Brief definitions follow:

1. harsh inflexibility in opinion, temper, or judgment: severity
2. the quality of being unyielding or inflexible: strictness
3. severity of life: austerity
4. an act or instance of strictness, severity, or cruelty
5. a tremor caused by a chill
6. a condition that makes life difficult, challenging, or uncomfortable
7. strict precision: exactness
8. obsolete: rigidity, stiffness

Based on those definitions, I’m not sure I want rigor. (I’ll admit I don’t have a better word at the moment, however.) Obviously, I do want learners to learn, and want a reliable way to measure that learning.

• Specifications grading: Beyond what I’ve said above, and elsewhere, Specs grading encourages learners to work on assignments and projects until learning occurs, rather than measuring the learning at one predetermined moment in time. I teach so others can learn, not so that I can assign a grade.
• Open/flexible assignments: Having flexibility in assignments can provide options to the learner, and greatly reduce the temptation to copy someone else’s work. If your project is different than someone else’s, you can’t do exactly the same thing. You can share ideas and learn from each other, however.

To what extent, and how, do you keep up with discussions in your field about pedagogy?

• Conferences: I attend and present at as many as I can. Some of my regulars include:

• SIGCSE (ACM Special Interest Group on CS Education)
• CCSC:MW (Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges: Midwest)
• Lilly Conference on College Teaching
• The Grading Conference

• Blog and Twitter: I tend to use my blog and social media to be reflective about my academic life and experiences. I also learn from others who do the same thing.
• Professional development:  I’m very fortunate to have a university that is focused on ensuring every faculty member has an opportunity to be the best they can be. I’ve taken advantage of many of these opportunities.

What are the most common barriers to learning for your students? How do you approach these barriers?

• Fixed mindset: If you don’t think you can do something, you’re probably right. I fight this by being supportive, encouraging, and affirming. I also strive to dd “yet” to their vocabulary, as in, “I can’t do it yet.”
• Life gets in the way: Learners often struggle because of “life.” I provide Oops Bits to the learners for them to “spend” when they need to submit something late or miss a class. I’m also flexible with due dates when learners have extreme circumstances occur in their lives.
• Lack of preparation prior to the course: Sometimes learners come into my class without a specific skill or knowledge. To help these learners, I often offer recurring/scheduled office visits. Depending on their need, I may also refer them to our Learning Center or online resources.
• Lack of preparation during the course: To encourage learners to continue to prepare for the course all semester, I administer reading quizzes, offer recurring/scheduled office visits, and refer them to our Learning Center or online resources.
• I tell struggling learners: I will work at least as hard as they do to help them learn the material, thus communicating that they must try, but I will be right there with them.

Let's share and learn

If I were to ask you how you teach, what would be your response? Would it be similar to mine, or completely different? What do you do that works for you and your learners? Please share; let’s learn from each other.

Pondering HIPs and faculty

Recently, while writing a manuscript for a book chapter submission, I was reflecting on High Impact Practices (HIPs) and how they provide significant educational benefits for learners who participate in them, and as a side benefit to the educational institution, it tends to increase retention of the learners.

It occurred to me that it would be interesting to turn the tables a bit and view faculty in the learner role for HIPs. Might/do HIPs have similar benefits for faculty as they do for learners? Might participation in them increase the likelihood the faculty would stay? Ball State University's current strategic plan encourages/expects all learners to participate in a HIP during their time at BSU. Should we encourage/expect faculty to participate in HIPs every so many years? How might that enrich the faculty experience, and by extension the learners with whom they interact?

From personal experience, I can offer the following anecdotes about how I've experienced HIPs.

• Undergraduate research: I’ve not done much true research with undergraduates, but I have mentored a few independent studies and honors thesis. In each instance, I learned something, along with the learner. Might I have learned it on my own? Maybe, but likely not, in most instances. Obviously, I have the research I've done that fits this category, as well.
  
• Service learning, community-based learning: Years ago, when I conducted my first immersive learning course, I went into it with an interest in diversifying the computer science (CS) profession by getting middle school learners interested in CS. In the process of conducting the CS4MS+ project over the years I have gained a growing understanding and passion for what it is like to teach in the K-12 world.
• Global learning: A decade ago, in 2012, I developed and mentored the Computer Science, Education, and History study abroad course. My wife and I led five learners to Scotland, England, and Ireland to visit computer science-related (historical) sites, and learn about higher education and culture in those countries. I’m sure I learned at least as much as the learners did. I also gained a much bigger and more accurate world view than I had before the trip.
  
• Diversity: As mentioned in the Immersive Learning point above, I have a passion for increasing the diversity in CS. Over time, this has expanded into not only a concern for CS diversity, but the whole diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ball of wax, in general. If there is a DEI training/workshop/event, there is a good chance I’ll be (to use a faculty friend's phrase) “one of the usual suspects” present.
• Learning communities: I’ve participated in many different Faculty Learning Communities and have come out of every one of them better than I went in. Some have significantly changed how I teach and interact with learners. In fact, one of them led me to the opportunity to draft the book chapter, that prompted my reflection on HIPs, that evolved into this blog post.
  
• Collaborative assignments and projects: Some of my most satisfying experiences have been working with other (often non-CS) faculty to mentor an immersive learning project, write an article, or present a paper or workshop. Significant friendships have developed from these experiences, and I’ve gained new insights from the cross-disciplinarity of the experiences. I’m currently working with a linguistics professor on the book chapter I've mentioned.
• Internships: During the summer of 2011, I participated in an externship with the Indianapolis Airport Authority, and came away from the experience with a much better understanding of what employers are wanting in recent graduates. I've incorporated some of the knowledge into the courses I teach, and I'm working with the department to implement some bigger changes curriculum wide. I’ll also note that I came to teaching in higher education with nearly three decades of industry experience, something most faculty do not have.
• ePortfolios:  Although I've not required any learners to develop an ePortfolio of their work, nor have I done that for myself, this blog and my academic website are decent approximations. Reflecting on one's experiences and capturing them for later review is a very beneficial thing.
  

Could I teach courses without having any of those experiences? Certainly. Would I be the same teacher I am today without them? Absolutely not! I have significantly benefited from my participation in those experiences, and thus have much more to offer the learners with whom I come into contact. Has my participation increased my desire to stay at BSU. It's hard to say what might have happened had I not participated in those experiences during the last dozen years. What I can say, is that they provided significant enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment and worth. It seems like that could have contributed to my choice to stay at BSU.

OK. That’s far enough going down that rabbit hole for tonight; I have a book chapter to finish. I’m going to pop back up, and let someone else chase the rabbit for a while, if you so choose. Let me know if you catch it!

Also, let me know how HIPs have impacted you.

Image credits:
High impact: https://stock.adobe.com/search/free

Creativity as expressed in HONR 296 final projects (spring 2022 edition)

I previously wrote about the creative ways learners in my spring 2020, fall 2020, and spring and fall 2021 Honors College courses (HONR 296) exhibited and documented their knowledge and understanding of the course's material. The course title is "Computer Science and Algorithms to Live By." The course final project, in summary, was to create a tangible artifact that recorded their responses to the course’s essential questions, as it related to their chosen major(s) and/or minor(s). In this post, I am showcasing the creativity of twelve spring 2022 learners who were willing for me to share their work.

I encourage you to read to the end of this post and click on all the images and links to experience the full breadth of how these students understood computer science and algorithms to impact their current and future lives. In the interest of brevity, I have not provided any commentary about them, but rather have provided a brief description and an image or link for you to investigate further.

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Kaila Brack developed an info-graphic in which she describes how computing technology and algorithms have completely changed the field of nursing. By answering the essential questions, she discuss how patient care has been improved, as well as some of the downsides to the rapid increase of technology in hospital settings.

Sammy Bredar wrote a children’s book about the advancement of technology in society. The story's introduction reads:

There are three groups of characters in this book, which include the Elders, the Computers, and the Humans. In the book, a handwritten manuscript explains to her grandchildren, who are a typed novel and a printed newspaper, how technology changed her world. The plot of most of the book is the grandmother’s personal account of the history in “The Town” which is full of residents like pencils, pens, papers, and other non-technical objects who live comfortably in their technology-free neighborhood, working each day for the benefit of the Humans.

Lillian Brown wrote a short story which is a modern adaptation of the popular book My Side of the Mountain. It is written as a series of journal entries. She writes as Sam Gribley about his adventures after he runs away to the mountains. The purpose of the adaptation is to show how technology touches every part of our lives and can be both a help and a hindrance.

Hanna Cheek created a crossword puzzle as an interactive way to showcase the relationship between real life experiences in a social work/counseling setting and the content explored throughout this course.

Claire Close created an info-graphic that takes a deeper dive into the connection between algorithms that we use in our daily lives and the field of police work. She suggests that when we work to understand one aspect of policing, a new situation arises, causing us to reevaluate what we've already learned.

Chloe Fields dives into the changes computer software has made on hand drawn animation. Two animations were made; one using paper, pencil, and highlighter and one using the current industry standard for hand drawn animation, Toon Boom Harmony. By comparing these different ways of executing the same form of animation one can see the differences algorithms make on the medium.

Elysa Goldberg wrote an academic-style journal article to address the course's essential questions. In it she wrote: 

Regarding how much we should let technology do for us, it is important to find that balance of communicating through technology or computer-generated resources compared to human-to-human contacts especially when dealing with something as real, vulnerable, and sensitive as our emotions thoughts and feelings. I think if it came down to only working with bots to help with psychological issues, that would really create a sense of disconnect.

Eva Kopsolias wrote an algorithm for successful improvised comedy. Her full algorithm is available, but here is the start of it.

1. START with one person interacting at a time:
1. Pick a topic from the following:
1. An object in the room
2. A childhood memory
3. Something that happened or was said that day
2. Create a story from said topic. Just have fun and let it flow naturally.
3. Establish the setting or context and leave the response to your partner. DO NOT give context and a punchline in one monologue.

Madeleine Mills-Craig created a presentation about making a book. She stated:

Books are a version of a computer that stores data and allows humans to retrieve and then process it. To make a book, one must have the supplies and must be able to put the book together in sequential order. The process of creating a book affirms the stance that algorithms are created because of all the different techniques used to create a book. Today, the algorithm to make a book is much more complicated than in the past, when pages sewn together could be classified as a book, but today, most books have a cover, title, byline, endpaper, etc.

You can watch a brief video of her making a book.

Rosa Reinhard performed an analysis of anamae. In her presentation she stated:

Throughout this course, one major question that came up was "How much is technology influencing us?" In order to answer this question, I created a computational problem related to the question and within the anime Psycho Pass. To examine this computational problem, a case study of the anime Psycho Pass was done by 1. watching the entire anime through the lens of the five essential questions 2. note anything that was related to the problem through the anime’s setting and character choices, and 3. identify how the anime answers the problem. For a computational problem that asks more of a what if and a should type question rather than a how or what, having an anime whose setting is entirely related to the problem allows for a case study to be performed and analyzed.

Nicholas Stoll wrote a computer program using the Python programming language that provided an interactive way for elementary-aged students to combine technology into a humanities context, as the quiz questions can be easily changed.

Kathleen Welch created an info-graphic that provided a compilation of how the course questions related to her environmental management major.

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So, there you have it. Twelve different responses to the same prompt. Leaving an assignment open (as opposed to strictly defined) provides the learner an opportunity to explore their passions, and thus they are likely to engage with the assignment more fully. It also makes the evaluation of the assignment a lot more interesting, since the submissions are not cookie cutters of each other, and I often learn something new as well. Learner-centered teaching for the win.

What interesting assignments have you had? Describe it in a comment below.

Image credits: All images were provided by their creators.

It's all her fault; my programming start

I graduated from Willowbrook High School (Villa Park, IL) in 1975. The photo to the left is from my senior yearbook. During my time there, I was active in the band all four years, where I played the tambourine in the marching and pep bands, when I wasn't playing clarinet in the band. (I still have both instruments, but haven't played either in years.) I also took the usual compliment of academic courses. One course in particular is worth mentioning in this post: Computer Programming.

If my memory is correct, the 1974-1975 school year was the first year the Computer Programming course was offered. The first half of the year we learned the Basic programming language (the original Basic, not today’s Visual Basic), and then moved on to Fortran by the end of the academic year. The class was taught by Judith Sims, who taught both Mathematics and Computer Programming that year. We typed our programs on a teletype machine (shown at right) that created a record of it on yellow punched tape. The teletype machines were connected to a computer at some Illinois university, but I am not sure what one. In retrospect, Willowbrook was well ahead of the time; many high schools have only started offering a computer programming course in recent years. Little did I know how fortunate I was at the time.

During the fall of 1975, I attended Manchester University (at that time it was Manchester College) in North Manchester, Indiana. I graduated from Manchester in the spring of 1979 with a BS in Social Work, and an AA in Computer Applications.The photo to the left is from my senior yearbook. (The hair didn't change much.) I started with no major in mind, ultimately declaring Social Work, after a few semesters. However, I kept taking the occasional computer class from Dale McCauley (where I started using 80-column punched cards, shown below) to fill out my course schedule each semester, because I enjoyed it in high school. At some point, I think in my junior year, I realized if I took a couple more specific computer courses, I’d satisfy the AA requirements. (I still have many of my programs on punched cards!) During my time at Manchester, I learned the FORTRAN, COBOL, RPG and APL programming languages.

Soon after graduation, the opportunity to interview for a computer programming position presented itself, and I started my first professional job on July 1, 1979 at the N.G. Gilbert Corporation (which later merged with Townsend Tree Service Co. Inc.), in Muncie, Indiana. I was employed by that company for 28 years, starting as a computer programmer, and leaving as the Information Services Manager, when the position was eliminated in October 2007. I enjoyed those nearly three decades getting a computer to do what the company needed. While at Gilbert/Townsend I used the Fortran, RPG, and COBOL languages, and learned the Protos programming language and database management techniques, while transitioning from punched cards, to terminals, to PCs, networks, and the WWW.

After a few months of job and soul searching, I decided to go back to school. In January 2008, I enrolled at Ball State University (Muncie, IN) and started work on a Computer Science master’s degree—at the age of 50! The hope was to make myself more employable. God was watching over me, as within less than a week's time, I decided to apply to graduate school, was accepted, and was offered a graduate assistantship that provided tuition remission, and a modest stipend. While at BSU, I learned the Java, JavaScript, HTML, and Python programming languages.

Midway through my graduate coursework, I came to realize that I enjoyed teaching, and shifted my thinking that direction. I had taught the occasional night course at the Muncie, IN campus of Ivy Tech a few decades earlier, so teaching was not a totally foreign concept to me. As I was completing my master’s degree in the spring of 2010, the opportunity to interview for a full-time contract teaching position in the Computer Science department at Ball State presented itself. This spring, I’m completing my twelfth year teaching full time at BSU. Despite my enjoyment of working in industry, I’ve found during the last dozen years that I enjoy teaching even more. The photo to the left is one that Kinsey Reese took of me yesterday for use in BSU publications. (The hair has changed a bit. It's now white, longer, and pulled back. Oh, and I've a beard.)

Since serving as a university professor, I’ve had the privilege to interact with thousands of learners and spark interest in computer science, as well as life-long learning. I’ve been able to conduct research, and present my results at conferences, both domestic and international. (The photo to the right is me presenting at ICER 2010 in Aarhus, Denmark, my first academic conference presentation.) And it all got it’s start at Willowbrook High School nearly 50 years ago in Judith Sims' computer programming course.

For the last year or so I've tried to locate Judith Sims to let her know that it’s her "fault" I've ended up where I am today, and to let her know that I appreciate that. Having just been named an Institutional Winner of the Mid-American Conference Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success, I think she'd be pleased. Unfortunately, I've not yet been successful in locating her. If you happen to know her, let her know. If you happen to know someone who might know her, please let them know. 

If you've not reached out to a teacher to tell them thank you for helping you get to where you are today, take time to do that now. It may be your only opportunity to do so, and will mean the world to them. Trust me.

Photo credits:
Teletype by Rama & Musée Bolo, CC BY-SA 2.0 FR, via Wikimedia Commons
Punched card by Pete Birkinshaw from Manchester, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
School/university logos owned by the respective school/universities

Creativity as expressed in HONR 296 final projects (spring and fall 2021 edition)

I previously wrote about the creative ways learners in my spring 2020 and fall 2020 Honors College courses (HONR 296) exhibited and documented their knowledge and understanding of the course's material. The course title is "Computer Science and Algorithms to Live By." The course final project, in summary, was to create a tangible artifact that recorded their responses to the course’s essential questions, as it related to their chosen major(s) and/or minor(s). In this post, I am showcasing the creativity of fourteen spring and fall 2021 learners who were willing for me to share their work.

I encourage you to read to the end of this post and click on all the images and links to experience the full breadth of how these students understood computer science and algorithms to impact their current and future lives. In the interest of brevity, I have not provided any commentary about them, but rather have provided a brief description and an image or link for you to investigate further. They are not listed in any particular order.

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Jacee Harwell wrote a children’s book expressing her understanding of algorithms. You may read about Courtney the counselor in this PDF of the book.

Reece Malchow created a model of a hamburger and related it to the course material. She explained in a supporting document:

For my final project, I decided to do a hamburger. I plan on being either an Englishprofessor or a GED instructor when I get older, so I wanted to do something fun associated with English. In elementary, when you learn about how to structure sentences, it’s taught by thinking about the structure of a hamburger. The top bun is the topic sentence, the lettuce, hamburger, cheese, etc is the evidence, and the bottom bun is the conclusion or closing sentence. 

Maddie Barber created an info-graphic describing her responses to the courses’ essential questions as they intersected with accounting.You may view the entire PDF. 

Susan Fleshman created a poster illustrating how the course material related to exercise science. Her description:

The purpose of this project was to visualize the ways in which physical therapists and their patients can be described as computers. This answers the essential question of "what is a computer", as well as touching on the other essential questions.

Emali Grose is working to convert a vacant building in Warsaw, Indiana into a “live, work, play” style of space. The goal is to create a positive environment for the community to gather at, as well as increase retention of community members.

Blake Chapman used his journalism skills to create a photo illustration of his understanding of the course material. He provided this description of it:

This photo illustration visualizes the most important concepts we discussed throughout the semester including sorting, loops, and game theory. In journalism, photo illustrations are used as descriptive feature images to make stories that involve complex subjects more digestible to readers.

Katelyn Mitchell created a set of presentation slides to convey her understanding of the course material as it relates to criminal justice. In an accompanying essay she wrote:

In criminal justice, professionals respect and uphold values of equal justice under the law, access to justice, honesty, integrity, accountability, public safety, openness, and partnership. Even though criminal justice is considered to be a hands-on field, technology plays an important role. From using 5G networks to communicate across land, air, space, and sea to using digital algorithms to reconstruct faces, technology has made substantial advancements in the field.. 

Jimmy Stueve developed an algorithm to write trombone music. He collected data from the class, fed that into his algorithm, and produced the music. His description follows:

This project seeks to answer the question, “can a simple algorithm write music?” A simple blues jazz solo was generated and performed. While the solo is surprisingly effective, it does not include a personal element that we expect in quality music.

Maarten Bergsma Recorded a quick-start tutorial video about using Grasshopper 3D. Towards the end of the video he addresses the course's essential questions.

Janardhen Jayavel developed a Python program to create a picture collage made from two separate images. This shows an idea of how photography could be related with computer science.

 

Katie Darlage created an animal caretaker checklist as an example of an algorithm. She structured it to look like a daily to-do list for a zookeeper at a fictional zoo, and she wrote about different events that happened throughout the day in various comments sections, relating those daily events in some way to the course's essential questions. For example, she had this comment on the "Enclosure Cleaning" page:

"I feel so bad for Nessie, cuz she gets startled by the glass scrubbers so easily. The amount of times I’ve seen one scrubbing its way into her field of vision before making her jump and swim off in a flurry… I’m sure she doesn’t enjoy the fact that they move on their own accord, and I don’t quite blame her. But hey, having a little robot scrub the glass instead of one of us spending time doing that is way safer and easier for all parties involved."

This story directly relates to the use of computers, as well as some social issues related to computers, since it discusses a motorized scrubber - a computer utilized for safer and more efficient cleaning - and mentions Nessie's aversion to more independent technology that many people also struggle with right now.

Alex Storz created a video about sun-tracking system for solar panels. She wrote:

Alternative energy sources are becoming critical elements of a sustainable future and are constantly advancing in efficiency and design with new data and technologies. The minor addition orienting motors to PV panels helps to maximize their energy production by up to 30% annually. As PVs and other renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly prevalent forms of architectural accessory, these new technologies allow for dynamic systems that push the boundaries of what facade and aperture can mean.

Justin Koren created an algorithm to help him better predict the March Madness bracket. He built a data base where of ten years of the March Madness tournament, and then built a simulation that would predict the winners of the brackets. The predictions are based off of their seed, their region, their historical records in the tournament, and how well they played during the current season.

 

Brooke Walter created a lesson plan as well as a game board. The project combines history and computer science together by using a board game. The board game encourages students to act as a computer and use these principles while also using their historical knowledge. Students will be able to look deeper at how computers work through the components of this board game as well as reflect upon what they have learned.

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So, there you have it. Fourteen different responses to the same prompt. Leaving an assignment open (as opposed to strictly defined) provides the learner an opportunity to explore their passions, and thus they are likely to engage with the assignment more fully. It also makes the evaluation of the assignment a lot more interesting, since the submissions are not cookie cutters of each other, and I often learn something new as well. Learner-centered teaching for the win.

What interesting assignments have you had? Describe it in a comment below.

Image credits: All images were provided by their creators.

Thanks COVID-19, but you can leave now…

As it did for all teachers, starting mid-March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed how I interacted with the learners in my courses and the learning environment I was able to provide for them. Although different each successive semester, these changes carried forward through spring 2021. In the following paragraphs, I briefly describe the pandemic's impact on my teaching and the pedagogical changes I made each semester.

General themes

There were a few overarching themes during the last year that are not specific to any one semester. During this time, I recorded a higher percentage of incompletes for learners, especially for the spring 2020 semester. All students ultimately completed the course work in a timely manner. I discovered the possibility of conducting “office hours” via Zoom, as opposed to meeting with learners in my physical office on campus. This opened up the possibility of being much more flexible about my availability to offer help, as I could do it from “anywhere.” This is something I carried forward, even after distancing restrictions were lifted. I have become much more compassionate and considerate of learners’ life circumstances. One example of this is providing flexible due dates for assignments and projects. I also had a higher percentage of learners absent than usual, due to illnesses and their need to quarantine after being in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID. I accommodated them with a more flexible attendance policy. I discovered that Zoom breakout rooms are a reasonable substitute for small group discussions in the classroom, and that they are even better when I use the random room assignment to mix up discussions..

Spring 2020

With Ball State’s pivot to emergency remote learning (due to the pandemic) effective March 16, 2020, I suddenly shifted from teaching four face-to-face, in-person courses, to having all of them online. Although I had previously taught a few sections of CS 110 (Introduction to Computer Science and Web Programming) asynchronously online many years prior, this was a substantial change in course delivery for me.

I decided to meet synchronously with my three sections of CS 120 (Computer Science 1) via WebEx each Monday during the normally scheduled class time to orient the learners and make sure they understood what I expected of them for the week. I quickly learned that—because of my use of a flipped learning environment—this course would transition fairly well to emergency remote learning. The class time previously consisted of learners working in pairs to complete a programming task (with myself and teaching assistants present to answer questions), so they were already used to working somewhat independent of direct instruction from me during class time. I recorded very brief videos introducing each remaining activity (which I made available through Canvas, our learning management system), that replaced what I would have delivered in person at the start of class. I also transitioned the in-class chapter quizzes and exams to quizzes/exams in Canvas. Normally, these would have been closed-book, but since I had no reasonable way to enforce that, I chose to make them open-book, but timed-limited. I’m sure a few learners benefited from the open-book policy, but I did not observe a significant increase in exam grades.

My HONR 296 (Computer Science and Algorithms to Live By) course was a bit more challenging to transition, due to half of the time previously being discussion-based and the other half hands-on activities during class time, usually in small groups. I chose to meet with the learners synchronously via WebEx each week for half of the class time to facilitate discussion and provided detailed written instructions for them to follow on their own to perform what would have normally been the in-class activities. All things considered, this worked fairly well, given the circumstances.

In all courses, there was a very small number of learners who were not able to meet with the class during the scheduled synchronous meetings. I made accommodations, as needed, for these learners. I also made myself very available for online “office hours” via WebEx, meeting with learners whenever they had a need, provided it fit in my schedule, which it generally did. I received comments from many students that my courses had transitioned the best of any of the courses they were taking that semester.

Summer 2020

BSU required all summer courses be taught online during 2020, with the expectation that they would be delivered asynchronously. I requested that I be able to teach CS 222 (Advanced Programming) synchronously online and was granted a waiver to do so. I had concerns about how the course would translate to online delivery and considered the synchronous online delivery to be as close to in-person, on-campus delivery as possible. As it turned out, due to the heavy use of small group activities (which translated into breakout rooms reasonably well) and scheduled team work days, this approach worked better than I expected.

Fall 2020

During the fall semester, I taught two section of CS 222, my immersive learning course (Computer Science for Muncie (and Surrounding) Schools (CS4MS+)), and HONR 296. I taught both sections of CS 222 synchronously online (again, I had to request for a waiver to do so), while the other two courses were taught in-person on-campus. Since I had taught CS 222 synchronously online during the summer, I simply made some minor adjustments to my delivery of the course, based on my summer experiences. Even though CS4MS+ and HONR 296 had social distancing requirements in the classroom, instructional spaces were available for me to use so that the entire class could meet at the same time. I made minor adjustments in delivery of these two courses so that learners could maintain social distancing requirements.

Starting fall semester, the university provided us access to Zoom, as well as WebEx. I chose Zoom moving forward.

The major impact the pandemic had on the courses I taught fall semester was that the CS4MS+ learners were not able to physically meet with the community partner teachers and students. Although not ideal, we managed fairly well utilizing Zoom meetings to meet with the school administration and teachers but did not have any opportunities to interact with the students.

Spring 2021

Similar to the previous semesters, spring 2021 continued to bring changes. I taught two sections of CS 120, two sections of CS 239 (Social and Professional Issues), CS4MS+, HONR 296, and mentored an Honors College learner on their honors thesis. All courses were taught in-person, on-campus, with the exception of the honors thesis and HONR 296, which was delivered asynchronously online at the request of the Honors College administration. Similar to fall semester, instructional spaces were available to accommodate all learners in the course at the same time.

So the room could be utilized at its normal capacity, we installed clear protective barriers between the computer work spaces in the room where CS 120 met. Normally, CS 120 heavily utilizes pair programming, where two learners share one computer to develop solutions to daily in-class activities, but this was not feasible with COVID protocols. I still had the learners work in pairs, but on separate computers. Thus, it was more of a consultant role than pair programming, but still seemed to work acceptably well.

I normally use small group discussions in CS 239 and was pleased to find the learners could still hold discussions even while maintaining the appropriate distance from each other. Once again, the CS4MS+ learners were not able to physically meet with the community partner teachers and students, although they did arrange for a few Zoom presentations with some of the middle schools’ students during their classes.

HONR 296 was the major change for spring semester, as it was the first time I delivered the course asynchronously online. Since I finished HONR 296 online during spring 2020, I had previously reworked a few of the in-class activities. I updated the rest of them so that they could be completed individually, or with roommates or family members, etc. I also shifted what would have been in-class discussions to Canvas discussion boards. Not being able to have the learners present their final projects to the rest of the class is my only major disappointment. In retrospect, I could have had each learner record (audio or video) their presentation and shared the recordings with all other learners. I believe the course is better taught in-person in a classroom, but the asynchronous online delivery worked much better than I expected it would. I am willing to teach it in that modality again, if needed.

In summary…

The last year of teaching has been an interesting, tiring, exciting, and learning experience. I did not experience any failures but did discover a few things I could do better if I were to do them again. Not that I want to experience another year like I just did, but I am thankful to have had the opportunity to learn from it.

Were it not for the fact that I had to do some things differently, I likely would not now know that holding office hours via Zoom is very viable, and perhaps even better than sitting in my office waiting for learners to show up. Nor would I have realized that I can deliver a course online by using breakout rooms to facilitate what would have been small group discussions in the classroom. I was forced to further explore the use of Canvas discussion boards and modules and now understand their use and worth, especially for asynchronous on-line courses, but have thoughts about how I can use them in other modalities as well.

But the most significant impact the pandemic had on me is that I am now a much more compassionate and understand human being, teacher, and mentor, and am willing to try to better understand the life experiences of my learners so I can do what I can to make the learning environment more equitable for them. So, thanks COVID-19 for changing me. But you can leave now. Please!

What was your experience teaching during the last year? Share them in the comment area below. 

P.S. The above photo is a picture I took of my office the last day I was on campus in March 2020, before being exiled to my home. I used it for my Zoom virtual background to make it look like I was sitting in my office. It was one small way I could provide a bit or normalcy for those I was meeting with, although it did confuse a few people who know that I should not be in my office at the time. Included in the picture is the container of lemonade mix I mentioned in my Of lemons and lemonade on Friday, the 13th of March, 2020 post.

Creativity as expressed in HONR 296 final projects (fall 2020 edition)

Last summer, I wrote about the creative ways learners in my spring 2020 Honors College course (HONR 296) exhibited and documented their knowledge and understanding of the course's material. The course title was "Computer Science and Algorithms to Live By." The course final project, in summary, was to create a tangible artifact that recorded their responses to the course’s essential questions, as it related to their chosen major(s) and/or minor(s). I am reporting about the creativity of the fall 2020 learners in this post. 

The fall 2020 learners ended up creating visual art (3), writing a computer program (1), writing an essay or report (5), writing a journal article (1), creating or arranging music (2), developing a PowerPoint presentation (5), writing a script (1), writing a short story (1), and recording a video (3). I asked all of the students if they were willing for me to share their work. Ten of them responded positively, and the rest of this post is devoted to showcasing what they produced.

I encourage you to read to the end of this post, and click on all the images and links to experience the full breadth of how these students understood computer science and algorithms to impact their current and future lives. In the interest of brevity, I have not provided any commentary on them, but rather have provided a very brief description and an image or link for you to investigate further. They are not listed in any particular order.

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Bobbie Burton created a string and nail composition of a human brain meant to explore the connections between computer science and psychology. She also provided a report explaining the connections. An example of the connections she drew includes the following.

My artifact depicts a computer (an outline of the human brain), inputs from the environment (circles of nails beyond the borders of the brain), and connections between these pieces (string connecting all of them together) that go into information processing.

Caitlin May wrote a report taking a look at the essential questions from the perspective of a future wildlife biologist using anecdotes, current events, and other evidence. Part of her report conclusion states:

In conclusion, the widespread introduction of technology to the field of wildlife biology has brought innovation, but also disruption. Though many forms of technology and algorithms have positively influenced the field, such as the use of trail cameras for anti-poaching efforts, the use of these same devices by the public has begun to create a public relations issue. How can this issue be resolved? The solution lies within the problem: engaging the public.

Cameron Keough wrote an essay exploring algorithms and teaching social studies. In the essay he stated:

Applying this to broader student development, the habits and concepts that serve as “Algorithms” in the field of social studies can become a foundation for students so that they may be responsible, caring citizens. ... As algorithms and computing continue to advance the internet, we need to keep in mind elements of “computational kindness” and truth so that we can all work and collaborate more effectively.

Erin Thomas created a woodwind quintet arrangement of the song, "I Hear a Symphony," by Cody Fry. She was able to detail and explain how the process of creating this arrangement addressed the course's essential questions relating to computer technology and algorithms. You may listen to her arrangement here.

Cassie Pomierski created a digital art piece which explored the course’s essential questions by encompassing several examples of what computer science looks like in a work place environment, and how humans use and discover algorithms without always being aware of it. Since we talked a lot about connecting computer science topics to our future careers throughout the semester, she wanted to incorporate a work environment into her image that demonstrated how humans utilize algorithms to complete tasks aside from simply using a typical computer device.

Kameron Rogers wanted to create something that was visually engaging while adequately answering the essential questions of the course. His major, Data Analytics, is about gathering data and communicating it to clients in a user-friendly way, so he thought it was fitting that his final artifact would aim to achieve the same goal. Watch his fast-paced video here.

Eli Skokeland wrote a machine learning computer program that uses a video camera to "read" the letters of the YMCA dance by recognizing a human body in the four poses. Try running his program here.

Carlie Merriweather responded to the course's essential questions in the form of a scientific journal article titled "Computer Science As it Pertains to Psychology" wherein she explored the points of intersection between psychology and computer science and, ultimately, the relationship between the two. An example follows.

How do we use algorithms in our daily lives? Psychology and computer science agree on this point, in that both fields generally hold that we use algorithms/behaviors daily. However, computer science is concerned more so with the “how” we carry out algorithms/behaviors whereas psychology is concerned with the “why.”

Rachael Garland, being a Telecommunications major, wanted to be able to create some type of video to represent her understanding of our class’ essential questions. She compiled several sources to create one coherent video that touches on the development and impact of both computers and algorithms. She explains the basics of each topic, but she believes the visuals are the most important part of this project as they could easily stand on their own and do the topics justice. You may watch her video here.

Cassie Moreau developed a presentation wherein she related computer science and algorithms to her major of exercise science. Although she stated there are many positives about technology, she wondered if there may be job shortages because of technology replacing people.

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So, there you have it. Ten different responses to the same prompt. Leaving an assignment open (as opposed to strictly defined)  provides the learner an opportunity to explore their passions, and thus they are likely to more fully engage with the assignment. It also makes the evaluation of the assignment a lot more interesting, since they are not cookie cutters of each other, and often I learn something new as well. Learner-centered teaching for the win.

What interesting assignments have you had? Describe it in a comment below.

Image credits: All images were provided by their creators.