Trial and Error

Hello again everyone!

Well, the process of going textbook free has certainly not been dull!  : )

These last few weeks have been busy prepping not just the textbook free course but all of my fall courses.   I have found that in order to get things accomplished I needed to divide and conquer.  I created a schedule and some deadlines so that I could focus my energies and move forward with all of the projects I needed to complete.  This has worked out really well for me.  I have also found that working on other things while working on the textbook free course was a really good idea.  Time away working on other things has allowed me to return with fresh eyes and see the things I needed to change and things I could improve on.

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to be creating audio lectures for the students.  This process has been very fun and I believe will ultimately be very helpful for the students.  I have limited my "mini lectures" to 15 minutes or less so that the students can quickly listen and then move on to other course related things. I used a simple Voice Recorder app on my iPad to do the recordings.  It records the files as MP4s which I converted to MP3s just to be on the safe side.  I then emailed them to myself and saved them on my work computer so I would have a back up if needed.  Finally I uploaded them into the Moodle course.  The whole process is very simple.  The app will also allow you to send them to yourself via Dropbox, which I know many people are using right now and will allow you to access the files on any device you have Dropbox attached to. The lectures themselves cover what I feel are important topics that we might not have time to cover more thoroughly in class.  I listened to some open access lectures and even watched some on YouTube to get a feel for what I liked and what I didn't.  Ultimately I decided that what students seem to respond to with me the way I break things down and use simple examples and humor to illustrate a point.  Given that I recorded the mini lectures in the same way I would have delivered them in a classroom.  This makes the lectures a little more informal than some people may be comfortable with, but for me it felt like the right way to go.  I will be collecting anonymous feedback from the students about all aspects of the course and one of the things I will be asking about is whether the audio lectures should be more formal.  When I finally have the course set up in Moodle I will give you access to it so that you can listen to the mini lectures and get a feel for what I did with them.

Let's talk structure.  I have set the course up in such a way that students will be required to complete assessments (homework) before coming to class.  These assessments will vary from class to class.  Sometimes it will be as simple as finding a news article that connects to the reading materials for the day.  Sometimes it will be more detailed, creating a power point of definitions to share with the class.  I am hoping that the variety of assignments will keep them engaged.  When they come to class they will submit the completed assessments.  If a student comes to class without their assessment for the day completed they will not be allowed to participate in the group activities for the day but they will be have to stay and complete the missed assessment in class and they will lose the points attached to that assessment.  Those who have completed the assessment should enter the room with a certain level of understanding of the days subject matter so we can get right into the good stuff.  There will also be 4 group presentations spread out over the 16 weeks.   There will be 5 groups of 5 for each presentation and the group members will shuffle with each new presentation.  As it is set up each student will ultimately work with 19 of the other 24 class members in a group by the end of the semester. The group presentations are designed to both engage the students more thoroughly with course topics and with each other.  Finally, there will be two exams, one at the midterm and one at the end of the semester. 

The work load for the course is substantial but is not too much different from the overall work load of the class before going textbook free.  What has changed significantly is what the student must do before coming to class.  Instead of requiring simple reading the assessments require the students to engage with the materials both inside and outside of class.  In theory this should lead to a deeper understanding and better classroom discussions.  But that is only a theory.  I am looking forward to testing all of these things out and then tweaking them in future semesters.  This also gets back to something I mentioned in my first blog which is that I expect to make significant changes to the course after running it this first time.

I'm hoping to blog again right before the semester begins so that I can tell you a little bit more about what is in my course.  Also I'll be opening the course up to you all so you can see what it actually looks like for the students.  : )

Hope your summer is still going well.  Only a few more weeks until the semester begins!!