Beason-Abmayr co-teaches BIOC 335 with Dave Caprette (in the background).
BIOC 335 students make use of the SCAL@R setting.
When it comes to inspiring students to take responsibility for their own learning, Biochemistry and Cell Biology lecturer Beth Beason-Abmayr keeps changing the rules of engagement. “I was using clickers in a traditional stadium-seat classroom,” recalls Beason-Abmayr, “and it was still challenging to keep their attention. I used to give [students] the slides and then they would tell me they couldn’t always remember what I was had said about particular slides.” So she began considering how to add an audio recording of her lecture to the slides for students to review after the lecture. Thinking through these early video solutions enabled Beason-Abmayr to later “flip” her classroom by providing lecture clips [in short videos] before class rather than after. She now uses videos as pre-homework for her lab courses, BIOC 311 and BIOC 111.
Flipping the classroom is one way to really involve students in the material, but it also helps combat afternoon fatigue. “You don’t have to have a SCAL@R space; I’ve tried using clickers, having students write out a calculation, and having them talk to their neighbor about a topic when they are sitting in a traditional lecture hall. It isn’t as easy but it can work. Sometimes, I just have them get up and move.”
BIOC 335 students enjoy their flipped classroom, although their pre-homework consists of reading and research rather than watching videos.
“I even asked students if they wanted me to get rid of the lecture part of our BIOC 311 classes and just focus on the lab activities.” The students responded that the theory part was still important. “They wanted both,” she shrugged. Around that same time, Dean of Undergraduate John Hutchinson organized a teaching symposium, bringing Robert Beichner from North Carolina State University to talk about his own SCALE-UP classes. Beason-Abmayr remembers that February 2011 symposium clearly. “Several of us [Rice faculty] were interested in trying the new SCALE-UP format. Liz Eich and I taught the Pilot courses for SCALE-UP at Rice in Fall 2011. I came up with “Student-Centered Learning at Rice” (SCALAR) in late spring 2011 and someone else added the ‘@’ symbol.”
SCAL@R vs Flipping the Class
BIOC 335 students prepare to answer their first "clicker" question.
SCAL@R only means that the learning space is set up in a non-traditional way, one that easily facilitates group discussions. Rice instructors can flip a classroom without a SCAL@R space, and they can use a SCAL@R space without flipping their classroom. But Beason-Abmayr is doing both simultaneously. “The reason I flipped the lecture is because the students still need the background material. The reason I chose a SCAL@R space is to get the students really engaged in their learning, really connecting to the material.
Students voted on the correct answer with their clickers, but the graph indicates their choices span all the options.
Beason-Abmayr heeded advice to limit videos to a maximum of five minutes. ” I took existing 50-minute lectures and broke them down into three to five sections. I used the slides I already had and just taped my voice, but I’m a perfectionist and I’d re-record anything that had background noise in it –from computer beeps to planes flying overhead.” Students responded positively, telling her they would rather watch 20 short videos than a single hour-long lecture. And her perfectionism paid off. “I’m still using videos that I made that first semester,” she smiles.
Videos as Homework
Watching the videos is counts as pre-homework. Students watch about three videos per week before their classes although there are usually more videos in the first week of the semester, when clips include course requirements like the honor code. Rather than recap the recorded content in class, Beason-Abmayr asks a question that was covered in a video and student respond using their clickers. These portable devices allow a participant to respond to a question. Beason-Abmayr requires clicker participation but does not grade clicker responses. One student told Beason-Abmayr at the end of a semester that she’d “gotten every clicker question wrong, even when the class was allowed to resubmit answers, but she had learned the material so much better by making mistakes that ‘didn’t count’ [against her grade].”
Students discuss their votes; there is only one correct answer. Then they will vote again with their clickers.
Beason-Abmayr admitted enjoying the class better when students got questions wrong. “I like it when they all get a question wrong,” she smiles. “This is a good question,” she tells the class, “now let’s figure out why it is the wrong answer.” It also reminds the professor that regardless of the teaching method and environment, students often struggle with the same concepts year after year. “Using the clickers shows me that this semester’s students have the same issues, the same types of problems in the same areas or with certain types of data as last year’s students,” and she shapes the class activities to focus on the problem areas.
Asked if she can tell which students have not watched the videos before coming to class, she just laughs and says, “Oh, yes. They look dumbfounded when the first clicker question appears.” If asked about the videos, students are usually honest and admit they didn’t watch the clips. But what makes the pre-class homework really stick is ‘discussion Mondays’ when the small groups are talking through the material they watched or read. “Students don’t want to look bad in front of their peers,” confirmed Beason-Abmayr. “They don’t want to sit there while everyone else is talking [about the material], but if they try to jump in without knowing what was covered, that’s even worse.” The key [to successful video viewing assignments] is using short clips. “And not seeing my face,” added Beason-Abmayr with a grin. “They just see the PowerPoint slide and hear my voice.”