By Carina Butterworth, May 26, 2021
I haven't had an opportunity to write a blog in a bit, but I've seen activity on my page, so I know I needed to get on it! I'm now back into working for a few days to get prepared for the fall. This is something that so many people don't see that goes on in the background when teaching courses. Yes, I have taught many of my classes for 8 or 9 years now, but every year there is more to do. Here's my ongoing list every spring as I try to improve my courses:
1) Resource Editing
Editing any resources I've created is probably the most tedious of all the tasks. Every assignment that I create, every project, every rubric, every powerpoint, every video, every set of instructions, etc. is always in need of editing. I might have a spelling error in the powerpoint, a number wrong in an example, or said something the wrong way in a video... I need to go back and correct that. So, if you think, I need to edit 90 sets of powerpoints, over 150 videos, 40 different assessments, and 6 exams.
2) Resource Updating
In the world of Geomatics, nothing is static. Our technology is changing all the time, different resources are available to download and use as open source data, and software is changing regularly. I consider this a separate section from the editing because the editing is fixing, where this one requires courses, learning, and possibly professional development in the form of workshops. So, if you think that I need to teach a course, but they changed the workflow method in a software that I use, I need to learn the software well enough to troubleshoot it within two months. Any new equipment that we use in our classes is another new equipment with firmware that I need to learn and figure out. Sometimes, I only use a certain type of equipment once in my class, so it requires a refresher every year on how to do it. Of all things, resource updating takes the most amount of time for my courses.
3) Assessment Reassessing
In comes the world of academic integrity, part A. How can I, one instructor, find ways to help engage my 100+ students so much that they don't want to copy someone else's work? I am always looking to my previous year to reflect on how it went and what I can do differently. This often requires a complete redesign of my assessments. For example, last year, I had 10 small assignments and an activity book for my one class to hand in. I changed my mind for this coming year and made it into 6 assignments of the 10 (my students can choose which ones they want to do), plus a booklet of activities that they need to complete in class. I had to design all my activities in a way that they can be done both in class and online, just in case of any event. Also, I change how my projects are designed and ask different questions within the projects every year. This is also a challenge because I allow my students to choose their own topics - which means I need to be able to help in any situation of troubleshooting, if need be (see Resource Updating).
4) Academic Integrity and Scholarship
Teaching research in adult education is an evolving area of study. It excites me to learn more about different ways to teach different topics, how to engage students, how to design my courses in ways that are exciting, engaging, and still teaching what I need to teach. There are always new ideas to try, new activities to implement, and new pedagogical methods to attempt. Every year, my students are guinea pigs for something new. I love the feedback from them and it helps me create my own teaching scholarship through reflection. This summer, I intend on submitting an ethics application for my own teaching reflections for publication - especially in the authentic assessment area. This is an area that requires a lot of discussion and brainstorming, so it is also more of what I am doing during my time away from the classroom.
5) Other
Oh, I better not forget the accreditation boards. Between having to find examples of assignments, providing a thousand details about how I grade them, providing them my updated CV, how long I've been teaching, volunteering time, and my right arm (kidding, but seriously), I spend hours preparing documents about my courses for the accreditation boards. Of course, each board has different requirements as well, so that makes it a lot of fun too. There are also reports to get in to my supervisor, reports for the committees I'm on, ethics courses to take, and anything else that someone might need me to do. And meetings! Oh, the meetings! I swear we have meetings to book other meetings. There are so many other ways to generate a conversation... but I won't get into that here. I'll make that another blog post.
These are the things on my mind this year and the things that I am working towards. I can say that I still work 10 hour days trying to get these done before heading off for a break. I'm almost there though... Then on to my PhD during my spare time!
"Too many scholars think of research as purely a cerebral pursuit. If we do nothing with the knowledge we gain, then we have wasted our study. Books can store information better than we can--what we can do that books cannot is interpret. So if one is not going to draw conclusions, then one might as well just leave the information in the texts.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings