MEDIA PROJECTS CHECK-IN

CMB Members Prepare for Fall Teaching During Covid-19

Dietz Stout / How Can We Try to Scaffold Experiential Learning Through Distance Learning?

  • Critical issue for Dietz and other members is how to really connect with students online.
  • Dietz is intending to do more group work with students, more collaborative assignments, new activities, and spend less time on live lecturing. (He wondered how successful Zoom mechanisms are for small-group discussions.)
  • Even if Emory goes back to in-person classes next Spring, “I might take some of the lessons from the online experience to enrich my teaching with more resources for students to engage with.”
  • Regarding research/online data collection, Dietz mentioned a project “assessing how much information is present in the sounds of stone toolmaking; how much does experience affect your ability to discern physical information from sounds?”

Hakwan Lau / Using Actors and a Video Editor for Online Undergraduate Course “Introduction to Brain and Consciousness” (prepared in 2019 for Honk Kong University Lectures)

  • Hakwan is planning to write and film an additional lecture on the relationship between consciousness and sociocultural awareness, as well as devise assignments for students to make the content more interactive.
  • He prefers keeping the class “semi-asynchronous”; students watch the video at home, and the class is entirely Q & A, with an emphasis on improving students’ ability to ask good questions. Occasional assignments pertain to the videos.
  • Dietz mentioned other methods of assessment (small-group discussions, followed by a report; calling on students individually, etc. Emory is not encouraging the use of exams because of proctoring difficulties.)

Tawni Tidwell / “The Art and Science of Human Flourishing” / Adding a Cultural Component with Camtasia / Facilitating Small-Group Interactions

  • Students seem to be more engaged when they see the lecturer presenting the material in, e.g., PowerPoint.
  • Tawni is using Camtasia, a screen recorder/video editor for multimedia presentations. A Blue Yeti or Samson Meteor
  • She is also trying to incorporate more small-group sessions and integrating contemplative exercises.

Chikako Ozawa-de Silva

Jeffrey Snodgrass

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