AC⚡DC Examples

Examples of Adaptable Course Design from Butte Faculty are below. The hastags are references from the AC⚡DC resources page. If you have additional examples to add to this page, please contact Suzanne Wakim.

Humanizing

Humanizing "leverages learning science and culturally responsive teaching to create an inclusive, equitable online class climate for today's diverse students" Learn more about Humanzing from Michelle Pacansky-Brock.

See the Humanzing Showcaes from Butte College faculty who completed a 6-week Humanizing Academy.

#Humanizing

Late Work Policies

Sample Late Work Policies from a Butte College workgroup.

#Late Work

Asian Art History Survey

Sara Smallhouse

For ART3 Asian Art History Survey, specific local Asian communities (Yuba City Sikh, Marysville Chinese, and Oroville/Chico Hmong communities) were incorporated by building “Cultural Connections.”  Through a series of Canvas pages, different cultural communities throughout the area could be tied to learning units by providing local context for cultures and art that might seem so distant while simultaneously validating the experiences and voices of communities that are often marginalized.   

#Culturally Responsive Teaching

Biology

Mandeep Grewal

Contacting your students before starting the course is an excellent way to humanize your class. Since teaching online, I have started sending a welcome letter to my students. I had thought that the welcome letter was only for online courses. But now, when I am face to face, I feel it is a necessary part of all modalities. In the letter, I send essential information, such as office hours. The office hours are not listed on the class schedules. Also, I've included my picture and brief information about my life and family. The letter also provides information about the start and end dates of the course and what students will do during the first week. They also find out about the material they would need for the class. Sometimes, students reply to my message and ask follow-up questions. I try to respond to their messages promptly to make them feel heard. This communication introduces me to my students before they meet me on the first day of class. Also, students feel more ready for the course.  

Link to example: welcome letter

#Humanizing #Liquid Syllabus

Melody Schmid

Introduction to Biology (BIOL 1) is a general education course. When we were reviewing the BIOL 1 SLOs, a couple BIOL 1 instructors discussed the question "How do we want a student that has taken BIOL 1 to be different from someone that has not taken BIOL 1"? This led to our new BIOL 1 SLO: Apply biological principles, critically analyze evidence, and summarize scientific conclusions to explain personal experiences and issues at the intersection of biology and society. I then asked myself how I could assess whether a student has met this outcome. I decided a project with a real audience (future BIOL 1 students, friends, family, community), instead of a paper or exam, would best allow my students to demonstrate this SLO. I then asked myself what content my students needed to learn in the lecture and lab activities of BIOL 1 in order to be prepared to complete this project and removed content from my course that did not support any of the course SLOs and refocused the course content on the biological principles needed to critically analyze biological evidence and summarize biological conclusions to explain personal experiences and issues at the intersection of biology and society.

Link to example: Synthesis Project

#Adaptable Assessment #Backwards Design #Authentic Assessment

When students feel welcomed and supported in a course I believe they are more likely to stick with the course through challenging circumstances. A Liquid Syllabus (Pacansky-Brock, 2014, 2017; Pacansky-Brock et al., 2020) eases pre-course anxieties with warm, nonverbal cues and hopeful language that demystifies what students need to know about your course to be successful in week one. It is a public, mobile-friendly website topped with your brief, imperfect welcome video (Humanizing Online STEM). I followed Michelle Pacansky-Brock's step-by-step instructions to construct my liquid syllabus. I send this online syllabus to my students 1 month (or as they register) and 1 week before the semester starts to welcome them to Introduction to Biology. 

Link to example: BIOL 1 Liquid Syllabus

#Humanizing #Liquid Syllabus

Introduction to Biology (BIOL 1) is a general education course. I accept late work and encourage multiple revisions in BIOL 1 because I want to center learning. It is not important to me when a student demonstrates one of our course SLOs, or how many attempts it takes. I want to that revision is part of the learning process. I believe the best way to learn is to explore, get confused, review feedback, and then revise. After exploring different alternative grading strategies, I decided to use specifications grading in my online BIOL 1 course. I plan to use standards-based grading in my hybrid BIOL 1 next semester. I recommend the @ONE Equitable Grading Strategies course if you are interested in exploring different grading strategies.

Link to example: Grading in BIOL 1

#Late Work and #Grading

Suzanne Wakim

I connect with students in my online classes with weekly reflection assignments.  These are short assignments (often just one or two questions) that easy and quick to grade. The benefit is that thyey give me an opportunity to connect with each student every week about something beyond just the course assignments. I've found that I get to know my online students much better than my f2f students because of these reflections. Students often comment how much they appreciate these reflections because it helps them feel heard and cared about.

Link to examnple: Weekly Reflections

#Humanizing

Computer Science

April Browne

The Modern Classrooms Project (MCP, n.d.) framework has three main focuses – blended instruction, self-paced structure and mastery-based grading. One aspect of this approach allows students to choose due dates based on a Level of support they want. Those who prefer little support get one due date a week and focus on the main projects only. This is traditionally for students who have some programming experience but is also helpful for students who master the content quickly because it removes barriers that are not needed for their learning.  Most students need moderate support so they have three due dates a week; they must complete the coding practice, but the video activities are optional. Students who need more support have daily due dates that break down the projects into smaller tasks and require video and reading activities. All students have access to all the content, their selection determines which tasks they get feedback on. This strategy allows instructors to have more time for students who need more support and removes barriers for students who need less support.  

#Modern Classroom Project