Tech Set up for In-person MAT 230
Description
Course: MAT 230 – Calculus with Analytic Geometry II (Note: Aside from the class time duration, this set-up can be applied to another course using MAO, e.g. MAT 182 – Plane Trigonometry)
Modality: In-Person (Synchronous Attendance – In-Person or Virtual)
General approach: On a desktop (or laptop), I log in to a recurring virtual conferencing meeting for the course. On my tablet, I log in to the same recurring virtual conferencing meeting. I have a PDF of the slides or notes that I have uploaded in the Notability App and share my tablet screen on the conferencing software. While the tablet screen is shared, I can annotate the slides or notes on the Notability App. Everything on my tablet screen is shown to students joining virtually and projected on the screens in the classroom for students who attend in person. The class time is split between direct instruction and practice problems board work. For board work, students who attend virtually are in breakout rooms with a shared whiteboard. I rotate between these breakout groups and groups in the classroom.
Warm-Up board work: up to 15 minutes
Direct Instruction (note-taking and examples): 45 – 50 minutes
Break: 7 to 10 minutes
Board work: 70 to 93 minutes
Equipment
- Desktop (or Laptop) – PC or Mac
- Tablet and Stylus – iPad and Apple Pencil
- Projector and Screens
- Jabra Mic connected to Desktop
- Classroom Rotating Camera
Programs
- Annotation Software – Notability App (paid iOS app), Whiteboard App (free iOS app)
- Virtual Conferencing Software – Zoom
- Software to make Slides or Notes – MS Word, MS Powerpoint, LaTeX (using Overleaf) and then convert to Adobe PDF for upload to Notability or Whiteboard App
Reflection
What worked?
Since students are adults with responsibilities outside of the classroom, I have had several students toggle their attendance modality. Reasons for this included illness, religious holidays, and being out of town. This provided flexibility for students who otherwise would have had to miss class.
What can be improved?
Getting the students who attend virtually to participate during the board work problem sessions seems to be strongly contingent on student personality types. Sometimes students will engage with each other. Sometimes, students won’t. This has been the biggest challenge for me as someone teaching courses with multiple attendance options. For students with the means (or who can rent tablet technology from campus IT), some type of tablet and stylus will be beneficial for those who attend virtually so that they can easily share their work with other students (in-person or virtually) and me. These students tend to share their work.
Contributor
For more information, contact Gabriel Tarr (Scottsdale Community College) gabriel.tarr@scottsdalecc.edu
