Sample ACUE Portfolio De Laine Cyrenne | Psychology • Active Learning • Discussions | Final

 

PSYC 107:  Controversial Issues in Psychology

Reflection on Instructional Change:

The Fall 2020 semester is the first time I would be teaching this course asynchronously on-line.  When taught face-to-face, there is a large interactive component, with students responding to prompts in small groups and then reporting out to the larger class.  I wanted to retain the active learning component as much as possible in the on-line environment.

Two of the ACUE modules were particularly useful in the redesign from F2F to online - groups and discussions.  In order to maintain community, students were placed into groups based on their responses to a Qualtrics survey during the first week of class.  As per the ACUE recommendation, they were grouped based on preferred time/day/method of communicating.  The teams were then asked to meet and complete a "Team Contract" to help them focus their commitment to the class and to the team.  During the 4th week, teams scheduled 15 minute Zoom sessions with me to discuss their contract and team roles. 

I modeled the course discussions on the "Observe and Analyze" exercises in the ACUE course.  Additionally, the modules on Planning and Facilitating Effective Discussions helped with the richness of the responses from the students.  In the Zoom sessions, students have indicated how much they like the discussions and learning different points of view from their peers.

Screenshot of

Sample student response and reply to Discussion prompts.

Yay!

 

Practice and Reflect on: Planning Effective Online Discussions Download Planning Effective Online Discussions

Faculty Biography

As part of a peer community, I feel we are all passionate about reaching our students and helping them transition successfully through university. Along the way, we also learn how to be more effective educators by collaborating with colleagues, sharing tools, techniques and strategies that help engage students in learning. I have been teaching at Sac State since Spring 2012 and have been active in both shared governance on campus as well as various CTL programs, including the Summer Teaching Institute, Faculty Mentoring Faculty, PLCs and Open Educational Resources.  My research area of interest is Behavioral Neuroscience, specifically sex and age differences in sensation-seeking.

This work was supported by  the CSU Office of the Chancellor and Sacramento State Division of Academic Affairs.