Synchronous Online Learning

Teaching a class online requires teachers to find ways to shift to student-centered approaches, a process I've been working on in my face-to-face classroom this year.  There is significant evidence that students learn physics best from lessons based on discovery learning, where they are asked to construct their own knowledge rather than absorb information from lectures.  I've significantly reduced my use of lecture, instead providing students with open-ended lab experiences and opportunities to work together to find strategies for solving problems.

As I've started thinking about what online learning may look like for a physics class, my biggest hurdle is not to envision what student-centered learning may look like, but to find ways to replicate meaningful lab experiences when students do not have access to the kind of equipment in a typical science classroom.  There is evidence that simulations can provide a meaningful substitute for traditional lab activities and websites such as PhET and the Concord Consortium provide free, high-quality simulations that make it possible for online science teachers to give their students worthwhile labs.  With some creativity, simulations could be supplemented with labs using materials that students can find at home.

As part of my shift to constructivist, student-centered approaches, collaboration has become an important part of my classroom.  Many of the collaborative activities I've been using would be well-suited to synchronous meetings.  For example, I've borrowed the approach to cooperative group problem solving developed by the University of Minnesota's physics education group.  In this process, students take on set roles such as manager, recorder, and skeptic to collaborate on solving context-rich problems too difficult to solve independently.  This process benefits from all members of the group focusing on the problem and sharing ideas in real-time.  Each group would need their own space to work, which could easily be accomplished through the use of breakout rooms in many web conferencing tools.

Another tool that would translate nicely into synchronous meetings are the sense-making discussions many physics teachers conduct after labs.  I've made limited use of these so far, but the idea is students share their results and observations, then have a discussion to come to an agreement on the big ideas contained in the activity.  In the classrooms where teachers do this well, students question each other, argue about the meaning of graphs, and build off each other's observations to reach a final consensus.  While this process could work on a discussion board, the immediate feedback of a real-time discussion can lead to more engagement in this type of discussion, making it a good fit for a synchronous meeting.

The last activity I'm considering for a synchronous meeting is a version of Kelly O'Shea's Mistakes Game.  Rather than providing solutions or correct answers when her students work problems, she has each group put their solution to a problem on a whiteboard with at least one intentional mistake.  The groups them present their solution to the rest of the class and their peers ask questions to make the mistake clear.  This process can lead students to a deeper understanding of their misconceptions, but requires real-time give and take that simply cannot be replicated asynchronously.  The main challenge would be finding a good way for students to display, and change as they discuss, their solutions.  One option would be to have students simply use a sheet of paper and a webcam, then mark corrections with a different colored pen or pencil.  Depending on the web conferencing tool, it may also work for students to upload a photo of their solution, then use markers built into the tool to make changes as the group discusses.

Designing an Asynchronous Lesson

Over the last few weeks, I've been developing an asynchronous lesson on refraction aimed at high school students.  Now that the lesson is nearly complete, its time for me to self-assess and reflect on the quality of what I've done.  I'll be doing this using two different tools.  First, I'll be looking at the rubric that will be used to evaluate my lesson as part of the course.  Second, I'll see how my lesson stacks up against the Common Core instructional practice guides.

Course Rubric

Content: My lesson includes all of the items the rubric is looking for.  The landing page includes an introduction that provides a student-friendly overview of the lesson objectives.  I also included a teacher information page that lists the learning targets my school district uses, the Minnesota state science standards, and the Next Generation Science Standards this lesson addresses.  Throughout the lesson, I included links to resources to support the lesson.

Learning Styles: There is significant evidence that students learn science best by doing science, so this lesson does favor kinesthetic learners.  Students spend most of the lesson playing with a simulation to make observations and determine important principles of refraction, but also will be completing a real-life lab using materials most should have at home.  These activities should also appeal strongly to visual learners since the simulation provides conceptual enhancements that make the underlying process of refraction visible.  My lesson includes two short presentations that should reach auditory learners and I included links to good articles for students who would prefer to read about the topic.

Engagement: In this lesson, as well as interacting with the simulation, students will be participating in discussion boards and using an online quiz that provides immediate feedback.  This lesson is intended to require students to be very active learners, which should promote a high degree of engagement.

Adaptive/Assistive Technologies: This is an area I struggled in.  I'm planning to add captions to the video presentations to support students who have hearing loss.  The big challenge in this lesson is how to support students with significant vision impairment.  While a screen reader will make the text accessible, it will be difficult for a visually impaired student to get the full benefit of the at-home lab or the simulation, especially since the observations are extremely visual.  I did some research to see how others have approached this problem, and most have the blind student work with someone who will explain what is happening in a lab or simulation.

Assessments: This lesson includes both formative and summative assessments.  In the formative category, students will post to a discussion forum about their initial observations in the simulation, as well as about the at-home lab they will be completing.  Both sets of posts will give me a chance to spot and, if necessary, correct, any confusion.  In addition, students will complete a Minds on Physics module from the Physics Classroom.  These modules provide multiple choice questions with an emphasis on a deep conceptual understanding and opportunities to develop mastery of a concept.  At the end of the lesson, I have two summative assessments.  To ensure students have developed a conceptual understanding, they will need to photograph or record an example of refraction from outside the class and explain what they see in a blog post to share with the class.  To make sure they understand the formula, students will need to complete a screencast explaining how they determined the index of refraction of an unknown material within the simulation.

Common Core Instructional Practice Guides

I examined my lesson against the grades 3-12 ELA metrics to see how my use of reading compares to Common Core Standards.  Many of the Common Core criteria specifically related to reading are poorly addressed by this lesson.  That does not mean, however, that the lesson is a bad one.  It simply means that I would have to be very aware of how the lesson fits within the larger unit and make sure that those reading criteria are met elsewhere.

Complexity of Texts: I use a limited amount of text in this lesson, but it is appropriate to high school students according to the Lexile scores I found, meeting the first two criteria.  Many students would benefit from using close reading strategies on these texts, but will not require varied purposes in reading.

Range of Texts: The texts included in this lesson would serve the purpose of keystone texts, grade-level appropriate materials that require close reading for full comprehension that provide a basis for additional reading.  To meet the full criteria for range of texts, other materials would need to be used in addition to those in this lesson.

Quality of Texts: The texts used follow informational text structures, which CC says at least 50% of the materials must be.  The materials used in the lesson should help students to develop a deep, clear knowledge of refraction.

Text-Dependent and Text-Specific Questions: Since the readings are not a major focus of the lesson, there are not questions specifically tied to the texts, though a clear understanding of the readings will support students in completing the questions in the Minds on Physics module and the at-home lab.  Other texts would need to be used during the unit to meet this criteria.

Scaffolding and Supports: Limited scaffolding is provided specifically for the reading since the texts are not a major focus of the lesson.  The presentations should provide some prior knowledge to students beginning the readings, but no specific pre-reading activities are used.  Again, additional texts would need to be used during the unit to truly meet this criteria.

Writing to Sources: Students have several opportunities to write during this lesson.  First, as part of the discussion posts, starting with the initial exploration with the simulation and later with sharing observations and explanations from the at-home lab.  In both cases, students will be connecting their writing to evidence in the form of observations.  Second, students will be writing a blog post in which they explain how a photo or a video they took demonstrates refraction.  This will require them to connect to material learned from the readings and presentations earlier in the lesson.

Speaking and Listening: The discussion forums will provide students with some opportunities to build on each other's ideas as described in this criteria, even if the conversation is via text rather than voice.  Students will also have the opportunity to use academic language and to communicate effectively in the screencast they will be creating as one of the assessments.

Language: While grammar and language conventions are not specifically addressed, the focus on sharing and trying to explain observations will mirror the kind of communication that is expected of a working scientist.