Center for Teaching & Learning Shu-Min Liao (Statistics)

What activities will you employ at the start of the semester so that you can:

○ get to know your students

○ they can get to know you

○ they can connect with their peers

I’m planning to implement 3 practices BEFORE the first day of the semester:  

1) Sending an WELCOME EMAIL the week before 8/24, with the course SYLLABUS attached; I’m also thinking to ask students to take a Syllabus Quiz or do a “Syllabus Reconnaissance Activity” on their first day.

2) Creating an INTRODUCTION FORUM also the week before 8/24, and post my own introduction video/project as the first post. Ideally, I would like to find a fun & easy way to create an introduction project using some simple programing/coding software, to get students warmed up for learning R (a statistics software).

3) Post the first “Sunday Morning Video” (see more details below) on 8/23 to get students “warmed up” for their first synchronous class on Monday, 8/24; it’s also a good way to remind them about what to expect on Day 1.

What strategies will you embed within your course throughout the semester to reinforce this sense of community?

I’ll continue building and strengthening the connections between students and with me through two ways:

• Sunday Morning Videos – Every Sunday morning I’ll record a very short video to share with my students what on my mind that day, highlight some students’ efforts in engagement and contributions to the course, and then remind them about upcoming activities and assignment deadlines. I’m also thinking/debating if I should add something I would call it a “Life-Skill Challenge” weekly to help/encourage my students spend some time to take care of themselves during this crazy time. 

• Study Groups – I’m planning to form students into some study/supporting groups of 6-8 students, based on their majors and interests, in which students will need to support and care about each other through the semester! I also like the idea of Zoom Study Room being discussed recently and plan to ask students in the same study group to work (at least) two times per week together. If I’m lucky enough to get a TA for this course, I would like to ask the TA to join those group study hours, at least partially. (Looking forward to more details about how to set up those.)

How will these strategies for community building respond to the potential modes of instruction you may employ this fall (in person/remote/both)?

I’m going to teach STAT230 remotely for the fall, and building a positive and strongly-bound community is absolutely essential and critical for a successful experience, both for my teaching and students’ learning. This is definitely the most important component and challenge for my teaching in the fall, and the main reason I signed myself up for ACUE training this summer. The introduction forum will serve as the first place for students to get to know me and each other beyond our names and basic identities. Welcome email and weekly Sunday Morning Video will allow me to show my personalities to students and help them feel welcomed and cared by me from the beginning to the end of the semester. Following the same study group through the semester should help students feel settled with their peers who will learn next to them and go through ups and downs with them.

My deeper desire is to find a way to help students realize that everyone has their unique strength to offer to the group and we can always learn something good from each other. I would particularly appreciate if someone can provide some guidance and tips on this front. 

How do these strategies relate to and support your overarching goals for student learning in your class?

The main learning objective of STAT230 is to help students develop data analysis techniques and skills so that they will feel comfortable to analyze different types of data from their own research and later courses. Data Analysis in the real world setting often requires a lot of collaborations with people of different backgrounds, so it’s my hope that through those strategies and practices, students can learn an effective and efficient way to help build a positive and caring environment for their learning - work and grow with others, care about each other, respect each other’s strengths and differences, contribute individual strengths to the group work while feel comfortable to (and know when to) ask for support and help from others. It’s my belief that student active learning would occur naturally once they feel belonged and cared by others.