| Instructors | Claire Trottier |
| Course | MIMM 214 – Introductory Immunology |
| Department/School | Microbiology & Immunology |
| Enrolment | 309 |
| No. of teaching assistants | Three at 45 hours each |
| No. of TEAM or TEACH students | 6 |
Strategy goal(s)
My goals in the emergency transition to remote teaching were to 1) ensure that the absolutely necessary learning objectives were still me, 2) assessment requirements and expectations be modified to allow maximum flexibility for students in a difficult situation, 3) reassure students that I am aware of the difficulty of the situation and that I will be responsive to needs
Description
I reviewed the remaining content and classified what was “must know” from what was “nice to know” and cut down to the most essential content. I recorded lectures in 10 minute chunks. I included more personal messages for each lecture to acknowledge the difficult situation. I tried to bring moments of levity and humanity, even having my kids help out with an activity I usually do live with student in class. I kept some active learning activities that I usually do which students could pause to think. I modified grade distribution, deadlines, and requirements for assessments. I created “covid19 supplement lectures” – short optional lectures that connected the course content (immunology) with emerging data on Covid-19 (one of the key learning outcomes of the course is to “Conclude that immunology is an evolving field where much remains to be understood”. I consulted with my TEAM and TAs on all changes being made to obtain feedback and tweak my approach to meet the student reality. I held open drop-in zoom office hours for students to come ask me questions. I created an open-book long-answer final exam in collaboration with my TAs and newly hired Graders, and used the Crowdmark platform to deliver it.
Comments
The use of Crowdmark for the final exam was a huge success and I hope to be able to continue using this form of examination going forward, even when we return to normal. It allowed me to measure much deeper levels of knowledge and understanding than an MCQ. With more time I would modify my lecturing to include more opportunities for feedback and interaction. In an emergency situation I did not have time to develop better ways to engage students. My Zoom drop-in office hours were not well-attended. In Winter 2020 I hope to be able to organize some live moments with breakout rooms for students to interact on a regular basis.