Portfolio-Tom Savage | Chemistry | Student Engagement | Virtual Labs

CHEM6B: Introduction to Organic and Biological Chemistry

Reflection on Instructional Change:

One aspect of remote learning redesign that I strongly considered was whether to provide a significant synchronous component of the course.  Because I value live interaction with students and because I appreciate how students learn by interacting with each other I decided to present both the lecture and virtual laboratory as synchronous sessions.   During synchronous lectures I regularly break to ask students to solve problems and they provide answers in the Zoom chat box.  However lecture sessions are also recorded to provide flexibility in case synchronous participation is a hardship.  Routinely I have 80-85% of the students participating in the synchronous lectures.  The synchronous virtual laboratories are structured to maximize the opportunity for students to interact with each other.  After a brief introduction, students are put in breakout rooms with 2-3 other students to help each other complete the exercises for the virtual laboratory.       

The major engagement tools that I have employed are the chat box and the breakout room functionality of Zoom during virtual labs.  I tried Zoom polling but I found that it wasn't particularly flexible and that I could get better feedback through the chatbox.  I found the breakout rooms particularly helpful to let students assist each other and to provide a smaller group setting that I could join where students are more open to un-muting and asking questions.  I also considered Labster exercises but decided that the exercises weren't particularly well-aligned with the learning objectives for my course.

The principle way I promoted equity is to be sensitive to the different learning situations of the students in the course, recognizing that there is likely considerable variation in the quality of internet access and the amount of privacy and freedom from distraction in the students' learning space.  Thus I had no expectation that students have their camera on during class, recorded all Zoom lectures (while encouraging synchronous attendance) so that students could access the lectures asynchronously should they need to, and was very lenient with due dates and other deadlines in recognition of the challenges students were experiencing during the pandemic.

 

Example of a poll question.  I would use the chatbox to get responses.

Virtual lab exercise example (1st page).

Schedule flexibility for students

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Faculty Biography

Dr. Savage is a plant biochemist that has been teaching at CSUS since 2004.  His classes include biochemistry courses at all levels, from lower-division GOB courses supporting Kinesiology and Health Science majors to upper-division and graduate courses supporting Chemistry and Biological Sciences majors.  Dr. Savage also has an interest in the relationship between science and issues of social concern, and teaches a critical thinking class in the CSUS Honors program "Science and the Public Good."

 

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.