What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2020 COVID Edition)

I write these “what I did during my summer vacation” posts every year, and I know there’s a certain sameness to them. Well, not this year! *heavy sigh*

To a large extent, I was ready for the pandemic. The first mention of an “unusual flu” caught my eye in the news in late December. I had paid close (horrified) attention to the SARS outbreak almost 20 years ago, and lived through the (fairly frightening) H1N1 pandemic (yes, it is classified as a pandemic) in 2009. During the latter, I stood in a line of hundreds of people for hours with my family to get immunized. My youngest daughter was still a baby. It was a sobering experience.

After that, I made sure we had a good supply of hand sanitizer, much of which I still had when it was otherwise impossible to find this spring. I dug into closets and cabinets, surprised to find how many containers remained after 10 years. I even had the foaming dispenser in my university office. So when the situation began spiraling out of control in China, I began to prepare. Let me be clear that I did stockpile important supplies, but I did not hoard anything. (What’s the difference? Stockpiling implies that you are storing things that you will later use; hoarding suggests that you have so much, you will never need or use them.)

Remember the whole toilet-paper shortage thing?

I spent early March getting ready for remote delivery, reading reviews of high-quality mics and webcams. By the time in-person classes were “temporarily suspended” on March 13, I already had a lecture video ready to go for my class on the 13th. How seriously did I take this? Let’s just say that some people treated the movie Contagion as entertainment--I took it as a training film.

Being the designated household IT guy, I had to help my wife set up her Zoom meetings and troubleshoot my kids’ Google Meetings for school. I upgraded our home internet, doubling the speed. Knowing that I’d be spending even more time than usual sitting at my computer, I tried to make my setup as ergonomically correct as possible. (Are you feeling sore after being at your computer for too long? Check out the recording of the Faculty of Rehab Med’s webinar on five tips to create a healthy workspace.)

This is what you get when you leave your phone
lying around and tell your kids not to touch it.

After rounding out the challenging Winter term, I was plunged immediately into Spring term with only a day or two to prepare. I learned a lot, very quickly, from being dropped into the deep end. My colleagues also rallied in an amazing way. I’ve been in more teaching-related meetings via Zoom in the past two months than in the past two years. (Thanks, too, to students in that spring term class who were incredibly patient, understanding, and gave great feedback.)

With spring term over, I could finally relax, right? Do what I heard that other people were doing during the lockdown? Binge-watch The Witcher? Learn how to knit? Sing opera to my neighbourhood? Nope. As usual, I worked. Among other things:

• learned about and prepared for more remote teaching (note that there is are important differences between emergency remote teaching and online learning)
• served as external examiner for an MSc student
• Zoomed (it’s a verb now, right?) with colleagues across the university on an interrupted research project evaluating and redesigning a cognitive aid used in neonatal resuscitation

It has been a difficult time--for me, as for everyone. What do you do when the daily routine you have relied on has been shattered? You mourn the old one. And you create a new one. Having a defined structure to the day helps. You don’t have to decide what to do. You don’t have to burn through your precious, limited motivation and willpower. You just follow your routine. Every day, I get out of bed, shave, get dressed, have a coffee (not in that order). Spend the morning working. Take a break and make lunch for my kids. Eat lunch standing up. Go back to work. After the first wave crested, we were even brave enough to order food delivery (however, we treat the packaging like it’s radioactive).

Although I had a lot of work to do, I didn’t want life to pass me by, either. I won’t have this opportunity together with my kids again, so I wanted to make the most of it. In the evening, after spending too much time at our computers, we’d all go for a walk as a family. (There were so many great supportive chalk messages and pictures on driveways.) Then we’d watch a movie together, like Trolls World Tour, Onward, Hamilton, Batman Begins. Or play board games. Or Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

My memories of this time will include making Dalgona coffee (a.k.a. quarantine coffee or covid coffee). All the baking (pretzels, cupcakes, cheese buns, banana bread, nalysnyky, green onion cakes, and so many cookies).

Nalysnyky: Ukranian cottage cheese-filled crepes. 

And the “vacation” we had: a day trip to Lacombe. My old home town only had only one active case of COVID-19, so it felt very safe--like we were on a pandemic-free planet. (Yes, we all wore masks the whole time.) We did some shopping at the Lacombe Centre Mall, including scoring two dozen cannoli from Sweet Capone's. It turns out that after five months, the whole family was shopping-deprived.

Cannoli: Italian cream-filled pastries.

Now, I can feel the weather turning cooler. There are more leaves on the ground. Yeah, it’s time. Time to go back to work and school. But it’s going to be strange going back without leaving the house.

I know that many people are struggling--emotionally, financially, and not least of all, health-wise. My family has been lucky, and careful. I now have five different face masks, among them an X-Men one and a Ravenclaw one. I don't have these because they look cool. My wife is a front-line health care worker who is concerned for her patients' health, and for her own and her family's. My kids haven't given their auntie a hug in five months. I haven't come closer than 2 metres to my elderly parents; I don't want to give them a virus that could kill them. We've all lost things this year, but maybe we've also gained some perspective...on what's important.

Stay safe, everyone.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Remote Delivery

What a long strange trip it's been. TBH, it hasn't even been that long--just 3 weeks at this point. But it seems like forever ago that UAlberta announced that it was "preparing" to move to online delivery of courses (it was actually March 12). To show how fast things moved, literally the next day it was abruptly announced that classes were suspended, and then the day after that we were told to move to "remote delivery" of courses. (Note that remote teaching is not the same as online learning.)

Although it was announced that in-person classes were suspended on "lucky" Friday the 13th of March and were to resume with remote delivery on Tuesday, March 17th, I was prepared for this. Having kept an eye on the effects of COVID-19 across the world since late December, I already had a webcam for my office computer, and bought a new microphone right before they sold out across the city and online. My mic is a Blue Yeti Nano. (It's not the Wirecutter's top pick, but it's cheaper, smaller, and still pretty good--and way better than a crummy cellphone or laptop mic. Why spend money on an expensive mic instead of an expensive HD webcam? Research has shown that impressions of content are strongly influenced by audio quality.)

The green ring means we're go!

Because I've never recorded my lectures or taught an online, hybrid, or blended course before, I also had to decide on lecture capture software. The plan was to go through some of the different options, evaluate them, and pick the best. But because the landscape was changing so fast, I wasn't able to do that--I just went with the one recommended by my colleague Dr Jenn Passey: Screencast-O-Matic. I bought it the day before Loom (one product on my shortlist) announced they were offering their product for free to educators. The day after that, IST announced that they were making some lecture capture tools available for free: Stream2 (which I had never heard of), and Zoom (which I knew had serious existing privacy and security issues). Again, things were moving fast.
 
If I had waited, I wouldn't have had to spend any money and I could have carefully weighed the pros and cons of all the options--but I couldn't wait. It was important for me to have continuity for my classes. In a time of uncertainty, I wanted students to be able to rely on me. I hope I've been able to make the transition from in-person to remote teaching as smooth as possible.

 Note to my kids: daddy's busy!

UAlberta's The Quad blog recently featured some work-from-home photos of UAlberta employees. It was interesting to see the diversity of setups people have. I'm lucky to have an actual home office. Some people are working at their kitchen table, rec room, or in their windowless basement. Although that might get the job done, the ergonomics of it makes me cringe. (Here's a checklist for your desk setup, courtesy of Edmonton-based ergonomic company EWI Works.)

I miss being in front of a class, experiencing the energy of students. One law professor went viral with the Zoom videos of him teaching to a Pinocchio doll in an empty classroom. I'm comfortable doing my lectures in front of my computer, but like the law prof I'm not alone. Somehow I've managed to accumulate a variety of, um, companions? Apparently my wife has a thing for buying me cute hedgehogs (no, I don't know why). The blue M&M on the right is actually a computer screen cleaner. And then there's Hack & Slash for some '90s nostalgia.

Say hello to my little friends.

Next up, I'm teaching a spring class that's going to be remote delivery. I don't know what's going to happen come September. That seems too far in advance to even consider. Until classes resume in person and life gets back to normal, take care of yourselves!

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2019 Edition)

One of the challenges I face when I write this post every year is how to tie together a bunch of very different things with a common theme. I think I've actually got one this year: fixing things.

One of the things I've fixed is: myself. Summer is when I try to schedule all of my medical checkups (complete physical, dental checkup, eye exam, etc.) so they don't get in the way of teaching. This year, I had even more substantial things on my schedule: gastroscopy and gum tissue graft surgery (yup, that's exactly as much fun as it sounds--good thing I like soup and pudding). So hopefully I'm patched up enough to keep going for another year.

My house is also starting to show its age; problems are sprouting up everywhere. Last year, we needed a new roof--class 4 impact resistance, because we kind of get hail every summer. This year, in no particular order, I had our new furniture fixed (after waiting 10 months for parts), replaced the seals and springs on a leaky bathroom faucet, replaced a malfunctioning toilet, got our wonky garage door adjusted, found out our electronic air cleaner was dead, repaired a hole in the siding of the house that was letting in water, replaced the front panel and igniter switch on my grill, installed a dryer vent cover (stupid birds were nesting in the vent--again), reattached a broken closet bar, replaced my ergonomic computer keyboard, fixed a shower head, replaced our dead microwave oven, replaced the sump pump hose that my neighbour ran over with her lawnmower (?), replaced our old vacuum, got the piano tuned, tried (unsuccessfully) to have Rogers fix a problem with my cell phone call display, got my soffits repaired, and replaced the expired CO detectors in the house. Whew!

Yup, it's a toilet. Bonus: it uses much less water than the old one.

Bird nest remains. Stupid birds!

In terms of work, I fixed things by rebuilding my PowerPoint slides from scratch for my behaviour modification course. I had already decided to switch my slides to widescreen format. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as clicking Design - Slide Size - Widescreen (16:9). Sigh. That meant I had to do it manually, with hours of copying-and-pasting. As I was going through every single slide, though, I was able to notice some content that needed updating, or could be worded better, or images and videos that should be replaced with higher-resolution ones. I also modified the slide theme (what can I say, design is important to me). I'm happy to say that my slides have never looked better--and I know a lot more about structuring PowerPoint slides for easier changes in the future. (Like what, virtual reality slides? I dunno.)

I also had to prepare for the changeover from iClickers, which are no longer officially supported on campus, to the IST-designed ePoll. I ran a pilot in my spring PSYCO 367: Perception course with no major problems, so I will be rolling out ePoll this fall in my big classes. I'm a little bit nervous about that (fingers crossed!).

There were also a few teaching-related seminars I attended in August, including the CTL Teaching Institute, and the Faculty of Science's Back to Teaching seminars.

Happily, my summer wasn't all work. Sadly, the summer weather was crummy in Edmonton. We tried to escape it by going on family trips, but the cold and rain followed us. I'll skip the boring details here, and leave you with these pics. (If you want the boring details, be sure to ask me in person!)

Mountain trip! Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, the view down Banff Avenue (in Banff, FYI)

Discovery Canyon in Red Deer (too cold & rainy to try it). Wildlife.

Treats! The yummy cannoli at Sweet Capone's (Lacombe),
and the ice cream selection at the snack bar at Aspen Beach (Gull Lake).

Why aren't you studying?

The Academic Misconduct

For me this past academic year was a bad one for academic misconduct, a general term that refers to a number of violations of the Code of Student Behaviour. These include cheating, inappropriate collaboration, plagiarism, and substantial assistance. This year, I had three cases that were sent for review (the most I’ve ever had in one year).

I am obligated to send these cases to the Faculty because making decisions about academic misconduct (and academic sanctions) is beyond my pay grade. When I notice something suspicious, I am required to document my findings and send them to a higher authority. No, not God: the Faculty of Science Associate Dean (Undergraduate), who then forwards the case to the discipline team, which includes a Special Advisor (Discipline) in the Faculty of Science, to determine whether there has been a violation of the Code of Student Behaviour.

The Academic Offenses
Obviously, for reasons of privacy, I cannot say much about the particular cases, or give any information that may identify the offenders. However, it is informative to look at what got these students into trouble. In all three cases, the common thread was that students misrepresented others’ work as their own. More specifically, in all three cases, there were passages from published works that the student either failed to attribute to the original authors, or did a poor job of attribution.

In all three cases this year, there were numerous incidents of direct quotes (or poorly paraphrased near-direct quotes) from other sources that appeared in the student’s written work. Including direct quotes is not inherently bad, and won’t necessarily get you in trouble. (In scientific writing, it is considered poor practice to include direct quotes; in a paper for an English class, on the other hand, direct quotes from the source material are used to support an argument.) When a student submits a paper, it is assumed that they are handing in their own work--with the exception of passages drawn from external sources, which must be clearly indicated as such. It may be that it’s an oops! moment. A student just forgets to put in quotation marks, or misses citing a source. You know what? That’s still academic dishonesty. If it happens once in a paper, it’s more likely to be forgiven than when every page contains substantial passages from someone else’s work that are not cited. In the cases I dealt with, there were many, many problematic instances--dozens, in fact. Don’t underestimate your instructors; we are pretty finely attuned to the difference between the writing of an undergraduate and that of a career academic, and the more there are, the more likely we are to find them.

The Academic Sanctions

In two of the cases, the penalty was that the students were given a mark of zero on their assignments. In the other case, however, there was a particular combination of factors that resulted in a harsher penalty of a failing grade and a comment of Failure Due to Inappropriate Academic Behavior added to the person’s transcript. This is not something you want on your transcript, whether you’re applying to graduate school, or for a job. It does not look good.

Although I don’t have any insight into the mind of the Deans, some factors that are known to affect the severity of academic sanctions include:

• previous history of academic dishonesty
• the level of the course and student (first-year vs. fourth-year; the latter are expected to be fully knowledgeable about what constitutes academic dishonesty and how to avoid it)
• the nature of the offence (a couple of slip-ups, or widespread copying-and-pasting)

The Prevention
One reason why cheating occurs is that a student doesn’t know they are doing it. An easy way to address this is to develop skills in citing, quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing. The Centre for Teaching and Learning has a collection of brief videos to help you learn these skills, and introduce you to academic culture.

Another reason given for cheating is that students run out of time to do a proper job. To avoid a time crunch, start early. There’s loads of good advice on how to avoid procrastination. Students in my classes know the details of every assignment in the term on the first day. You could start working on your end-of-term paper on the first day of classes! Okay, I realize that’s not practical. So I gave my class a soft deadline: they are to email me their choice of term paper topic by the mid-point in the term. In this way, I am making them start to think about their paper well before it’s due. (What’s a soft deadline? There is no penalty for not submitting it--but students will get an annoying reminder from me.)

Cases of academic misconduct make me cranky, for different reasons. First, in cases of willful misconduct, the student thinks they can get away with it. That’s a gamble I wouldn’t take. My teaching assistants and I are pretty sharp--and TAs get a mercenary glint in their eyes when encountering suspicious activity.

Second, it take a lot of time to write up a misconduct report. Two of the cases this year took me 10 hours just to go through the papers line-by-line and determine which sentences were plagiarized. Then it was another couple of hours to write the letters to the Dean. All this took time away from marking term papers, which is literally my busiest time of year. I will not be feeling any kindness or sympathy when I write up the academic misconduct report.

Finally, thanks to the vast majority of students who maintain their academic integrity, and earn their grades the hard way!

Why aren’t you studying?

The Podcasts

It is an amazing golden age of podcasts. By some estimates, there are over 660,000 shows, and 28 million episodes. (Ironically, iPods themselves are fading away, with only the 6th gen iPod Touch left.) There's a lot of content to choose from, and I definitely have my favourites.

	Far and away, the best podcast out there is Freakonomics Radio. It's a podcast, it's a radio show, it's a blog, it's books--all about the hidden side of everything. Yes, it's about economics, but it's not boring. Topics frequently intersect with psychology (think behavioural economics). Okay, sometimes the business-centred episodes drag a bit. I just listen to them at 2x speed.
	Next, the Jim Hill Media Network. The man himself is a walking encyclopedia of Disney/theme park/media history--his knowledge is astounding. Reflective of that, he does six regular podcasts: - Disney Dish (fantastic podcast with Len Testa, the algorithmic wizard behind TouringPlans.com) - Universal Joint (all things Universal Studios theme park-related) - Fine Tooning (on animation media) - Marvel Us Disney (an uneven-quality podcast on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, due to Hill's often ill-prepared co-host) - Looking at Lucasfilm (pretty mediocre look at Star Wars and Indiana Jones, again mostly due to a sub-par co-host) - I Want That (on Disney merch, which I am not into)
	Binge Mode: Harry Potter is a podcast that has been going through the HP books, movies, and other media in excruciating detail--just the way I like it. The co-hosts Mallory and Jason are entertaining and emotional (in a good way). This isn't just another boring podcast of a couple of people chatting aimlessly; they are literate and have done a stunning amount of research. Re-reading the books? This is your perfect companion. I have not been binging on it--the sheer volume of information requires some time to think about. They've finished with Harry Potter now, and have returned back to being about Game of Thrones, if that's your thing.
	Gastropod is a podcast about food through the lens of science and history. Although I'm not super-interested in history, if it's about food, I'm in. (I've even read some of their suggested books on food and history, OMG!) Plus, of course, the science. Kudos to Cynthia and Nicola on their meticulous research. Wouldn't you want to read about The Secret History of the Slave Behind Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, or The Truth is in the Tooth: Braces, Cavities, and the Paleo Diet? How about Who Invented Mac and Cheese? Yes, please--I'm having seconds!
	Podcasts are obviously about sound, so how about a podcast all about...sounds? Twenty Thousand Hertz is about the sounds that surround us; the ones that we probably don't think a lot about. From the Emergency Alert signal to the THX Deep Note (a two-parter!) these short episodes will make you think more about your everyday soundscape (although it would be kind of ironic if you're listen to this podcast walking around with earbuds in).
	Did I mention that I'm not really into history? I'm not. But I am a big fan of journalist Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast. What that means is that I am into entertaining stories, told well. Gladwell is a consummate storyteller, so this series on overlooked stories-behind-the-stories plays to his strengths (as opposed to his frequent mangling of science in his books). Some of the stories he deconstructs are familiar, some are obscure, but all are worth a listen.
	Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to Light the Fuse, a podcast dedicated to all things Mission: Impossible. I've written before about my fondness for the James Bond movies, but a lot of them haven't exactly aged well. There are many cringeworthy moments of cultural and sexist inappropriateness. So M:I fills the void nicely. I loved the 60s and 80s TV shows (not to mention the movies), and this podcast has rekindled that. The hosts are a journalist and a director whose enthusiasm is contagious. Plus, they've managed to get interviews with some amazing guests, like Brad Bird (director of M:I - Ghost Protocol.

What are your favourite podcasts?

Why aren't you studying?

The Classroom Technology

 

See this screen? I have come to hate this screen. Let me take you through the journey of why...

I teach in “smart” classrooms. (Ugh, I hate that term. It just means there are computers and projectors. Computerization should never be touted as “smart” or “intelligent.”) Classroom computers are vital to teaching, allowing instructors to run PowerPoint, use iClickers, show videos, and a myriad of other things. If there are problems with the classroom computers, it impairs the classroom experience for everyone. In the worst case, it brings everything to a crashing halt (foreshadowing).

Having used computerized classrooms since they were first introduced, I have a lot of experience with them. That means having a lot of experience with failures, as they’re called in the human factors literature. Here’s an example. In recent years, the classroom computers were not set up to boot like the normal computer you have. At boot time, the classroom computers load an “image”. That is, they do not load Windows 10 from a hard drive inside the computer, they load it completely from scratch over the local area network. There are a number of reasons for doing this, including security. (We wouldn’t want another computer security breach, would we?)

But here’s the problem with this approach. If (when?) the local area network goes down, the classroom computer will freeze. Now, if it was a typical computer, it would still run. That is, I would still be able to continue showing PowerPoints and keep on teaching--I just wouldn’t have Internet access. But with the network image approach, the classroom computer is dead, and basically class is over. (Or I could use the whiteboard, in classrooms that actually have one. Or I could use the document camera. These options are awkward, and obviously very limiting.)

In July, IST announced upcoming “summer upgrades” based on VMware Horizon to classroom computers. According to the blog post, these so-called were being done “To improve efficiency and effectiveness...faster boot times for users, provide access to current technologies (Windows 10, Office 2016), and provide increased security.” First, I hate when a change is called an “upgrade.” This was not going to be an upgrade; really, it was a downgrade. Here are some of the specific issues:

• The computers were already running Windows 10 and Office 2016, so the upgrade was not going to provide something that previously did not exist.
• Applications would now be run not on the computer in the actual classroom, but on a virtual computer running on a server across campus.
• Classroom computers would no longer be able to play actual DVDs, despite having a DVD drive. If you want to play a DVD, you would need to ask for a portable DVD player to be brought to the classroom. (Not all instructors know exactly when they will need to play a DVD; some of us play things off DVDs in nearly every class. This is an inelegant, cumbersome workaround, known in computer jargon as a kludge. It is a derogatory term.)
• Using “large files such as video clips... through their USB key will experience extremely poor playback performance and is not advised” (emphasis in original). Er, WTF? I spent hours over the summer converting my content on DVDs to digital files, and now they won’t work? And how large is “large”? I asked that question, and never got a response.
• IST recommended playing videos off YouTube. So I spent more time uploading my DVD video files to YouTube, only to have them rejected because they contained copyrighted material. No shit.

In August, I tried out their new system in a computer lab on campus. It did not go well. Even though I followed their recommendations (which now included Google File Stream, which streams content from Google Drive), videos stuttered and audio was out of sync with video. The iClicker application just crashed over and over.

Last semester did not go well. Almost every video I showed in class stuttered--some just froze completely for a solid minute, as did even PowerPoint. (There’s nothing like twiddling my thumbs in a class full of hundred of increasingly restless students staring at me while I nervously mumble, “It’ll start up again. Soon. Probably.”)

Every colleague who I talked to complained about the new system--they brought it up even if I didn’t. Not a single person liked it; not a single person had anything good to say about it. I guess some feedback made its way back to IST, who finally released an email on September 14:

IST has made technical changes to the way we deploy operating systems and applications to centrally booked classrooms and computer labs, and we apologize for the frustrations the issues have caused. We are working diligently to find solutions to common issues that are impacting podium computers in the classrooms. We do have mitigation strategies in place and want to ensure we apply the right solution going forward.

Due to technical complications uncovered during the upgrade, we will be restoring a number of targeted classrooms back to their original state starting Friday, September 14, 2018, in order to improve the instructors’ overall teaching experience in these classrooms.

We are aware there are still ongoing issues arising in classrooms. We are actively working on solutions to ensure you are able to utilize classrooms to their full capability.

The rest of the email is basically a list of the problems with either a) we’re-working-on-it language, or b) claims that everything should work. Both of these are, obviously, not helpful in any way. And sadly, the “targeted classrooms” did not include rooms for my two biggest classes.

That is why I hate the VMware login screen at the top of this post. First, I have to log in with my UAlberta credentials, then I have to enter my UAlberta email address, then I have to log in to Google Drive with my UAlberta credentials again. And if I want to get into eClass, I have to log in one more time. That's four times that I have to enter my UAlberta credentials. (If I look stressed and frustrated at the start of class, now you know why.)

Despite my complaints and kicking and screaming about how awful they've made the workflow, IST did...nothing.

But then, at the end of November, IST did something. They sent around a Classroom Technology Survey. From the email:

This survey provides an opportunity for you to help influence decisions as IST plans for the future needs of our centrally managed classrooms. In particular, we would like to know how you use the technology in the classrooms and what technology issues you encounter while teaching.

What is this? At long last, IST has actually started to consult with stakeholders on the deployment of classrom technology. By January, IST had compiled a list of “functional requirements” based on the survey results, and I was asked to meet with the Manager and Project Coordinator. This is the first time in 25 years of teaching that I’ve been asked to provide my input on the technology provided in classrooms.

There were some issues with their requirements. Like “Ability to set up and be ready to teach within the 10 minutes between classes”. Sometimes I have to run to class from a seminar or meeting; often the previous instructor has not logged out and is still standing in front of the computer. I need the computer to be ready in 5 minutes--no, less than that. Another one: “Having the latest version of MS Office”. Classroom computers currently have Office 2013 installed; the “latest version” is Office 2016. Or actually, the continually updated Office 365 insider fast build is. (No, I certainly do not want to be running beta builds of software in a classroom.)

The bottom line for me is that I just want the classroom computers to work. The best technology is the one that gets out of my way and lets me do my job. As part of my meeting with IST, I suggested that they should also consult with another important stakeholder group: students. We'll see what happens with that. In the meantime, your continued patience and understanding during in-class technical glitches are appreciated.

Why aren’t you studying?

Update: 7/19/2019
Just got a memo from IST. They're rolling back the classroom computers to the way they were before, effective this September. That means all the time and effort I spent to make my lectures work with VMware is now out the window. Argh! So now I have to go back to using a USB drive?

I have mixed feelings about this. Clearly, rolling out VMware was a mistake. (Whose mistake is not clear. Would IST buy this enterprise solution without planning its capabilities in our IT environment? Would the vendor oversell its capabilities?) I'm glad I won't have to deal with the embarrassing freeze-ups in the middle of class anymore. But I did like using Google Drive as a sort-of backup (which I will continue to do). Now I'll have to run my lectures from my USB drive. I just better not forget it in my classrooms (again). But that's another story...

The 25 Years: The Skills

I taught my first class 25 years ago: it was PSYCO 354: Foundations of Cognitive Science. The regular professor, Dr Michael Dawson (who was also on my PhD advisory committee), was going on sabbatical and chose me to teach his course. My emotions included surprise (that he didn’t pick one of his own graduate students) and terror (at having to teach an actual course in front of actual students). Lots of terror.

Fortunately for me, Dr Dawson generously gave me the slides that he used to teach the course. Back in 1994, “slides” did not mean PowerPoint--it meant actual slides. Like in a slide projector. I remember lugging the 20-pound projector to and from the classroom in Tory twice a week. But carrying heavy objects was the easiest part of teaching the course. I was completely on my own in terms of teaching--I hadn’t taken a single seminar, read a book, or anything related to teaching. In fact, I figured/hoped that teaching would NOT be a big part of my future.

Cut to today. Aside from the occasional research study, teaching is what I do. It’s all I do. Wanting to do the best possible job, I have invested a lot of time and effort into developing my skills. Being a half-decent instructor at one of the top 5 universities in Canada takes a lot of work, and an incredibly diverse set of skills. Here are some of the tools in my toolbox:

The Content:

As a psychological scientist, I have to know what’s what in the field of psychology--not an easy thing when global scientific output doubles every 9 years. In fact, it’s impossible: there is too much to know. Although a lot of my knowledge is targeted to the courses I teach (behaviour modification, cognition, perception, human factors & ergonomics), there still is the moving target of introductory psychology.

The PSYCO 104 course cuts across most (but thankfully, not all) of the field of psychology. How could I possibly consider myself an expert in the history and methods of psychology, neuroscience, behavioural genetics, and consciousness? At least there’s overlap with my knowledge in perception, perception, and memory from my other courses. But I still struggle to keep up with current thought in motivation and emotion.

Albert Einstein was reported to have said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.” That’s how I feel--even about subfields in which I’m supposedly an expert. There’s always more to know...

The Pedagogy:

Pedagogy, according to the Google, refers to “the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.” In other words, How do you teach? As a scientist, the way is clear: apply evidence-based pedagogy. Of course, that means keeping up with another whole set of research literature. I am thankful that psychology intersects with learning theory directly, so it’s not too much of a stretch. But understanding how teaching and learning work is not exactly “my area.”

Over the years, I have applied all kinds of pedagogical best practices. Active learning? Check. Hybrid learning? Yup, dating back to 2000 in fact. Learning outcomes? Ever since day 1, back in 1994. Way ahead of the curve on that one. I don’t think of myself as a leader when it comes to pedagogy--I’m just trying to be the most effective instructor I can be. But I’m getting to an age where people are starting to see me as some wise old sage. If I can pass on my knowledge to help my colleagues, so much the better. I have tried to do some original experimental research on the scholarship of teaching and learning myself, but it’s hard to find the time. Which reminds me, I need to write up some of my research into a paper when I have a spare moment...

The Presentation:

Both behind and in front of the scenes, I rely on Microsoft Office to help me get the job done. I start with Word, developing learning objectives, writing outlines, and then lectures. It seems silly to say that “I have Word skills.” It’s taken over 20 years, but I am finally able to grasp the subtleties of styles, headings, and macros.

Next come the two formats students see: I convert lecture content into both HTML and PowerPoint, formatting as necessary. I use Notepad++ to hand-code HTML, with CSS and some limited Javascript. I’m on HTML 4.01 (strict) now, and am contemplating the pros and cons of moving to HTML5. Although I’m still struggling with PowerPoint (especially customizing slide masters and layouts), I’m able to embed Flash objects

For some technology components, I’m at the mercy of third parties. In many of my courses I use iClickers. The software that runs the polls has changed a lot since they bought Reef and integrated it into their existing software. I have to keep on top of what has been updated or changed. Likewise, UAlberta’s eClass (running the open-source LMS Moodle) gets regular updates, which rework the UI. Yup, I’ve got to learn how that works, too. Just when I think I’ve know how to use something, it gets changed. iClickers will no longer be supported later this year, so there’s a replacement I’ll have to spend my summer figuring out. Yay.

The Everything Else:

The final component is the glue that holds all of the above together: organizing and planning. If I cannot organize all of the above in a coordinated and comprehensive way, and if I cannot formulate a plan to deliver on my learning objectives, I will not be an effective teacher. There are a lot of great tools that help me with time management, from checklists to online calendars to an early PDA back in the day (a Handspring Visor, which I still have somewhere).

This list is not meant to be a boast about all the mad skillz I have. Partly, it’s a reflection on all of the skills and abilities that I have developed over my career. But I also wanted to show a behind-the-scenes look at the work and effort that goes into delivering a course that students may not realize.

Why aren’t you studying?