The Course Hub is a meta-platform for aggregating resources for a given course across a variety of platforms including WordPress and Moodle. Below is a screencast showing how the Course Hub has been used in courses this fall.
What: Clickers (personal polling devices) in a large lecture class
Who: Catherine Combelles, Assistant Professor of Biology
Class: BIOL0145 Cell Biology and Genetics
Technology Used: Personal Polling Devices (Clickers)
Number of students: approx. 70
Learning objective: To monitor the students’ understanding of concepts covered in lecture and promote peer learning and discussion.
Description of use: Catherine used the clickers for every lecture from day 1 to the last day of classes, and throughout the duration of each lecture. At the beginning of each lecure, she started with a question that tested their understanding of concepts from the past lecture or on their readings for the day. She would then pose between 3-4 more questions depending on the lecture content that day. Continue reading
Technology used: NetLogo
Course: BIOL0140 Ecology and Evolution
Learning objective: Allow students to experimentally investigate evolution through a computer simulation
Reason for using the technology: After using EcoBeaker in their labs for several years, Professor Matt Landis and his colleagues wanted to try a different simulation model. Because EcoBeaker is proprietary software, the instructors weren’t able to answer students’ questions about how the model worked. They also weren’t able to fix software bugs. Using NetLogo allowed Matt to build and modify the model to directly address pedagogical needs. Continue reading
