Brokk Toggerson has been awarded 3rd Place (Bronze) / $500 prize from the first-ever Department of Higher Education Open Educational Resources Olympics for his work on the Physics 131: Forces, Energy, Entropy and Physics 132: What is an Electron? What is Light? open-source textbooks. These awards were established to honor the extensive accomplishments of of public higher educators statewide. Winners were selected by a sub-committee of the OER Advisory Coucil. The first and second place winners were from community colleges meaning that Brokk Toggerson was the only awardee from a research university.
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Embedding Discord Into Moodle
Prior to the Spring 2020 semester, I used to use the Piazza platform for asynchronous communication among my students. However, they have since moved to a different economic model. They used to be free, but now there is a cost to either the institution or the instructor. The other alternative is that the students are frequently reminded to contribute. On top of this annoyance, the student-contribution model lacks certain key features such as the ability to lock the platform during an exam.
Thus, starting in Spring 2020, I began to seek alternatives. My first thought was the professional communication tool Slack which I tried during the Fall 2021 semester. However, this simply did not take off. I did not get the same level of engagement that I was used to with Piazza. When I polled the students, they mentioned that “it was just one more platform to keep an eye on.”
With this feedback in mind, I wanted to find something that would integrate with Moodle, the UMass Learning Management System. The “Enhanced Moodle Forum” (then in beta) seemed to meet the need, and I tried that during Spring 2021. However, participation was still not what I expected/hoped it would be.
In both of these fall semesters, when my official efforts at a asynchronous communication platform, were falling flat, my students independently setup a Discord server. In both cases, the Discord was more active than my official platforms. Thus, for the Fall 2021 semester, I decided to try Discord. Most of my students were seemingly already on it. As I investigated further, I discovered WidgetBot (https://widgetbot.io/). This bot allows for a Discord server to be embedded within another webpage. Folks can even comment directly from the webpage without a Discord account. Discord + WidgetBot, therefore, seemed to meet all my needs: an asynchronous platform that students will actually use and can be embedded within Moodle thereby reducing the number of platforms students must check. The result, screenshot below, has been quite successful.
Reflections on Back to In-Person Instruction and the Importance of Breaking Expectations
Last week, on September 1st, UMass Amherst resumed in-person instruction for the Fall 2021 semester. While I, of course, had some trepidation about having 300 people in a large lecture hall with the Delta-variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus circulating widely, I cannot describe how happy I am to return to the classroom. In addition, the restoration of in-person instruction after such a long hiatus offers new opportunities for what I consider to be one of the most important goals of the first few meetings of any course: breaking expectations.
Continue reading Reflections on Back to In-Person Instruction and the Importance of Breaking ExpectationsA Veritasium Video on the Learning Styles Myth
This video, from one of my favorite educational YouTube channels, takes on the learning styles myth. I have found this myth to be very harmful in my own classes: students end up having a fixed mindset about their ability to learn physics for which they use the learning styles myth as a support/excuse. I really wish that we could do away with this myth and present all information in all the modalities that support that type of information to help all learners do their best.
A Review of Mask Types for Sound Quality
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has instituted a mask mandate for the start of the Fall 2021 Semester. The mandate goes into effect today (August 11th) and will be reviewed in mid-September. During this mandate, masks will be required in all public indoor spaces which includes faculty members who are actively teaching. Making sure that you are clear in speech is critical, particularly in large lecture halls. To that end, Heath Hatch and I did some tests on various types of masks. I am posting the results here for folks’ reference.
Overview of the Mask Types
Mask #1: A Simple Cloth Mask
This is a simple cloth mask. I like these for simple around-town use as I find them comfortable and, due to their crush-ability, easy to carry around.
Pros:
- Comfortable (at least for me).
- Easy to breathe.
- Easy to wash.
Cons:
- Falls off your face when talking!
- Some people find the closeness to the face uncomfortable.
- Only one layer of fabric.
Mask #2: A More Elaborate Cloth Mask
This mask has two thinner layers and a metal piece for the nose.
Pros:
- Stays on face while lecturing.
- Comfortable.
- Easy to breathe.
- Multiple fabric layers.
Cons:
None really.
Mask #3: A Cone-Style KN95
This is cone-shaped KN95 mask. The particular brand (no brand endorsement implied) is Bio-th which was permitted under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization.
Pros:
- Stays on face while lecturing.
- Stays away from face while talking, making articulation easier.
- Easy to breathe.
- Tight seal.
- Kn95 by FDA EUA.
- Folding makes it easy to carry.
Cons:
- The tight seal makes it a bit of a jaw workout to talk. Your jaw will be tired by the end of the day at first.
Review of Sound Quality
We tested the masks in the empty Hasbrouck 20 lecture hall. The lecture hall has a concrete roof and floor with brick walls and hard-plastic chairs resulting in a lot of echo. Given that the room was empty, we are not sure that the results will be representative when the room is full, but we cannot find that out until the students come back!
Summary and Recommendation
My Pick: Mask #3 – A Cone-Style KN95
This particular mask was the overall winner. The mask stayed on while speaking and the cone shape resulted in the clearest voice while using a microphone in the empty Hasbrouck 20.
Mask #1, the simple cloth mask kept slipping off the nose while talking and Mask #2, the more sophisticated cloth mask, had noticeably muffled sound quality.
Future work and mask equity
The opacity of the mask results in students obtaining less information because they cannot see the instructor’s lips. This is particularly true for Deaf and other students with hearing difficulties. I plan to try a mask with a clear window in the future to see if this feature works and its impact on sound quality.