Portfolio Header Picture

Phys 5B: General Physics - Light, Electricity, Magnetism

Reflection on Instructional Change:

In my remote learning redesign, I mostly focused on making my course more interactive and interesting for the students. I have always struggled with interactivity, and with student engagement while teaching online courses. In the past, my students had also expressed concerns that it is hard to keep up with an online course and to know "what's due", as there are a lot of facets to online learning. So I started adding more guidance to the students, such as providing weekly overviews, list of "things to do", as well as creating weekly groups and discussion boards. I took a lot of different elements, and I am "mixing and matching" them in different classes that I teach.

After attending Side Car as well as general STEM Summer Camp, I enabled Google collaborations for the students, as well as several other tools: I use Labster and PhET simulations quite a bit, as well as some other videos and simulations. I have also added a few pages from the Commons, such as "Meet your instructor" and "Course expectations".

One of the most important messages I took away from the training is that there should not be surprises for the students in the Canvas course - the formula I use weekly is "boring, repetitive, predictable". While I do not want any of my courses to have these characteristics, I found that the students really like them when it comes to Canvas design. All of my Modules, with very few exceptions, have the same layout, and the students are used to it, and like it. I believe that this format also promotes equity - as everyone has the same expectations of the course and same understanding of what is required of them.

An example of a discussion board where students can ask each other questions

A screenshot of a Labster activity

An example of a Weekly Overview, serving to make sure that everyone has the same expectations

Post Side Car - Syllabus and Schedule

Pre Side Car - Syllabus and Schedule

Faculty Biography

I am a physicist and material scientist by trade, having graduated with a Ph.D. from UC Davis in 20015. I have been teaching Physics (and a little bit of Math, Chemistry, and Engineering) since 2003. I taught at UC Davis, ARC, CRC, FLC, and WCC, and I have been teaching at Sac State since January 2016 l. I am also doing a little bit of research with a group here at Sac State (superfluidity in liquid and solid helium) and at UC Davis (evolution of atomic-scale defect structures under applied stress). I guess I am just a science nerd :) But I also love reading, horses and fencing (I ride and fence semi-competitively).

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation NSF Hispanic Serving Institution Award 1832335. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.