ITLC Response to Distance Learning amid COVID-19

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Jennifer Ackerrman

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Mar 15, 2020, 3:26:56 PM3/15/20
to AMATYC-ITLC
Dear ITLC,

What an unexpected and overwhelming time for faculty as our colleges respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that many ITLC members provide tech support to their faculty, I wanted to start a discussion about a collective response. Specifically,
  • How can we support each other?
  • How can ITLC help other faculty, near and far?
  • What are you doing in the short term and long term?
  • What are your plans for assessment?
  • Can we create a document or list of resources to share with faculty who are less comfortable with technology?
For starters, here's a link to a webinar that Maria Andersen conducted on Friday 3/13/20, along with some other online resources, that you may want to share with your faculty:

As a collective group, members of ITLC have such a wealth of knowledge that we can share through AMATYC and at our individual colleges. How can we help other faculty and their students be successful with learning at a distance?

Thanks,
Jennifer

Cathleen Rossman

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Mar 15, 2020, 7:57:03 PM3/15/20
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Thank you for starting this discussion! I wanted to do the webinar but had a conflict, so I appreciate this link. 

As far as the questions, I'll share what my institution is doing so far. 

We are offering support via email within our department.
Someone might have a question such as how to reach out to students without giving out a private phone number, because typically the office phone was used. One suggestion included a Google Voice number. Several of our faculty are simply discussing best ways to reach out to students (email, announcements on Blackboard that we use for LMS). The whole college has some Facebook groups that we use to share ideas and information as well. Our school uses WebEx and Mediasite already for video conferencing and creating videos. 

Our school has moved to online for the rest of the semester, so our short term plan is to get through the first week or two using the current online software, and then develop a long-term plan. That will include determining what to do about assessments!
So far for that my ideas include have fewer proctored assessments. Offer students (so far) a choice of going to the testing center (as long as they remain open) or using ProctorU. Many of our students struggle with access to internet and computer, so I am concerned that those won't be good options for everyone. I've tried to let my students know that Spectrum is offering to help student families for 60 days with internet access. That's another short-term solution that might work for the term, at least. 
Someone brought up the idea of take-home assessments but there are a lot of concerns with that (not using Proctor U), so if there are ideas, I look forward to hearing them!

As far as a list of resources, I know a K-12 group started a Google doc, so perhaps the same can be done here?

Again, thanks for starting this conversation - I look forward to seeing & sharing with my colleagues the ideas we gather. 

Jon Oaks

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Mar 16, 2020, 7:38:50 AM3/16/20
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Hi everyone,

I think that a Google Doc of resources would be helpful. I think that we have to remember, though, that teaching online classes is different from teaching classes that have been moved online. My face-to-face students did not sign-up for an online class, and so I'm not going to hold them to the same expectations. And most people are scared right now and have responsibilities at home and things to think about that are way beyond what is going on in the class.

Although I don't teach Quantitative Literacy or Math for Teachers right now, I think about them a lot and how there aren't necessarily as many resources to teach those classes online. One thing I'd be interested in is resources specifically to assist instructors in areas where as much online material might not be available.

My plans for assessment? This is what I told others in my department: Trust your students. Some students would try to cheat even if the test was given in class. A few things you can do to minimize cheating is to use pools of questions, randomize the order the questions and answers for each student, change the names in the problem, etc. I'm going to advise against timed assignments in this case because, again, your students did not sign up for an online class and so they might be doing their tests from home with interruptions from others in the background. And, ask yourself if you really need to see your students' work. Having them figure out how to upload their work and send it to you one way or another just creates another barrier for them to complete the assignment. You already have seen your students' work and know your students' work ethic. I trust that you do.

Now, I understand my sentiments might be different for those courses on quarters, late-start classes, etc., when they aren't as far into the semester, but I still think that having some trust in our students is important. There are studies that show that the students' tests grades will still be +/- 10% of what their grade would have been on in in class assessment. In any case, if you think something fishy is going on, contact the student individually. But remember that most of our students are honest hard-working people and this is just as hard on them as it is on you.

Thanks,

Jon

Jon Oaks (백승찬)
Professor of Mathematics, Macomb Community College
AMATYC Midwest Regional Vice President
KAAN Webmaster



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George Hurlburt

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Mar 16, 2020, 7:58:53 AM3/16/20
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Jon,

I agree with everything except the importance of students showing their work.  I say this to protect the students.  If you’re testing through an online system, and the student makes one little mistake, the system will give them a 0.  If you could see the work, you might give them 4 out of 5. 
Our students live on partial credit.  If you take that away, grades will go way down.

 

George

 

George Hurlburt
Professor of Mathematics
Corning Community College
1 Academic Drive
Corning, NY  14830
607-962-9324

Jon Oaks

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Mar 16, 2020, 8:16:08 AM3/16/20
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George,

I forgot to say that this semester I've been giving my quizzes all online using a mastery-based model. The students must get 100% on every quiz or else their grade is a zero for the quiz. However, I give them ten attempts to get 100%, and if they have questions, they can always email me for help, but they must show me their work and then I'll point them in the right direction.

What I've found actually (based on my students who have taken other classes from me in the past compared to this semester) is that they've only passed in the past because of the partial credit. So, I realized I was doing them a disservice by allowing them to continue to get -1 point here for missing a negative sign, -1 here for forgetting to distribute, etc. However, when the stakes have become higher (they must get 100% within 10 attempts, and they can ask me if they really get stuck), I've found they've started to pay closer attention to their work and stop making as many of those minor mistakes. Perhaps I'm wrong on this front, but I think it has helped boost student confident too since it's the first time some students have ever gotten an 'A' on any math assignment.

Jon


Jon Oaks (백승찬)
Professor of Mathematics, Macomb Community College
AMATYC Midwest Regional Vice President
KAAN Webmaster


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Barbie

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Mar 16, 2020, 12:07:18 PM3/16/20
to Jon Oaks, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC
All,

A couple of things:

1) Those of us on quarter systems,at least in Oregon, are just facing down the barrel of finals week. And then will start the new term using "remote instruction" which, as Jon points out, is not quite the same as online classes. We, as everyone, will also be doing this with our own families at home making demands on our attention, not just our students'.

2) Would my.amatyc.org be a better forum for this conversation than email?

3) I am teaching a quant lit starting in 2 weeks. Not the first time I've taught such a course, but the first time I've taught it here. I don't know the ins and outs, the flow, the student makeup. Jumping in remotely without meeting the students will be tough. Besides that, my students will not reliably have computers at home, and our public libraries have closed for the foreseeable future, so the students will be placing a lot of technological demand on their phones. We are teaching such topics as logic, financial math, probability, statistics, and optional topics such as exponential growth and proportional reasoning. I'm thinking all of this (though some financial topics will be a stretch) can be explored using various models and reliable news reports online about coronavirus and the rumors and facts surrounding it. Instead of a pile of high-bandwidth videos, I'm considering spending our first three weeks exploring lower-bandwidth news articles and online models. I think we can introduce the vocabulary and motivate almost all of the course topics this way.  Will the students view this as interesting or would they would rather this class be an escape from the public conversation? 

4) I had already planned to use an online homework system as well as google sheets assignments in this class, hopefully integrated into our LMS somewhat seamlessly. These may be tough for my students on their phones, but I'm not seeing much alternative there. 

5) I also have done some mastery-grading this term in one of my classes, and I find that it does indeed change the way the students strive -- though the experiment will not be complete because of the disruption to finals week. However, I have also very recently been burned (in the same class), having trusted a student who appears (though I have no proof) to have blatantly abused that trust. So right now my student trust levels are at a local minimum. :-( 

Barbra

Feldon, Fred

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Mar 17, 2020, 7:37:38 PM3/17/20
to Barbie, Jon Oaks, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC
Hey, Google Groupers  --  Since Coastliners are all experts at online teaching and learning the instructional part is a no-brainer for us... What's driving us mad is fears of exposure and school closures reducing our proctoring network now force us to move exams online. We normally do in-person proctored by a human show your work for authorship verification and authentic assessment. Here's our concerns.
  • Online exams aren't equitable. Some students will be honest, some will cheat. And it's really, really easy to cheat.
  • Proctorio captures video and audio but will faculty really watch hundreds of Proctorio videos? Because Proctorio AI flags all head and eye movement as possible cheating.
  • How do students show their work? How do we offer partial credit? Do we really have to look at hundreds or thousands of cell phone pics or PDFs?
  • Exams will be compromised. Notes, screen shots, cell phone pics will immediately circulate.
  • What if some students don't have equipment such as web cam? Or appropriate workspace or Internet?
  • It's a slippery slope. Once online exams are allowed, some students, faculty and administrators will expect it to continu
But these are extraordinary times and we're gonna roll with it. Many faculty are creating and loading exams, question by question, individually, into Canvas and requiring work and steps to be shown using the math editor. That is commendable. I myself am doing the following because I use PearsonMyLabMath for everything:

Students open their Canvas course. Go to Quizzes. Begin Quiz (which is their Midterm Exam). That signals Proctorio to begin. Then they open new tab and go to MyMathLab. Find their Midterm. With MML I can generate infinite variation and scramble question order different for everyone. Submit Quiz. They go back to Canvas. Answer one question which is just confirming academic honesty that yes, they did their own work. Click Submit Quiz. That stops Proctorio. Done. I think this will work for me!  --  Fred

P.S. We might as well use this opportunity for a math lesson! Check out 3Blue1Brown super-duper video on exponential and logistic growth and epidemics. It does end on a positive note.

Fred Feldon
Professor of Mathematics
Co-Chair Department of Mathematics
Coastline Community College
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
ffe...@coastline.edu

"It doesn't matter if my classroom is a little rectangle in a building or a little rectangle above my keyboard. Doors are rectangles. Rectangles are portals. We walk through." Kathi Inman Berens
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Moss, Cindy

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Mar 17, 2020, 7:48:00 PM3/17/20
to Feldon, Fred, Barbie, Jon Oaks, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC

Hi Fred,

 

I like the idea of using Proctorio but not sure how I can expect my students to pay for something mid semester they were not prepared for and my college won’t foot the bill. Any suggestions for the money issue? I thinking about using Zoom to watch them myself.

 

Thanks,

Cindy

 

Professor Moss

Skyline College

San Bruno, CA

http://accounts.smccd.edu/moss/

Deeanna Antosh

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Mar 17, 2020, 7:57:12 PM3/17/20
to Moss, Cindy, Feldon, Fred, Barbie, Jon Oaks, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC

Hi everyone,

 

At Blinn College, we use HonorLock.  HonorLock allows a third party extension for things like MyMathLab. So a student goes to HonorLock within our lms, goes through the system check, authenticating ID, etc. Then navigates to their exam within MML.  HonorLock records video and audio.  They do not do live proctoring but use AI.  When a student flags enough, a live proctor steps in to check on them.  Once the test concludes, they exit HonorLock. 

 

From the instructor side, we see in HonorLock all the flags in red, yellow, green format.  We see ID verification.  We have all the video, audio, chat recording with live proctor if they step in, and personally my favorite a transcript of all sounds/words used.  Ex: Red flag raised if anything like “Siri” or “Alexa” is said.

 

Students are required to do a 360 room scan including demonstrating to me in the room scan a blank dry erase board. I do not allow scratch paper. The dry erase board must also be wiped clear and shown before exiting the exam.  I do take some time reviewing for dry erase board scans on the first two exams. There is a penalty (10 points) for not demonstrating clean boards.  Secretly, I haven’t checked as closely after a few exams, because an email or two with a general reminder of the penalty has deterred some.

 

HonorLock has an audio alert if a student attempts to use another device to search an exam question provided you preload your questions.

 

Is this the solution for everyone, no. There are always kinks and of course the cost involved.  In addition, it is still possible to cheat and there are test security issues. 

 

We are still in discussion with HonorLock regarding fees for the massive number of exams transitioning from face-to-face to online. 

 

Deeanna Antosh

Deeanna...@blinn.edu

 

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Deeanna Antosh

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Mar 17, 2020, 8:22:20 PM3/17/20
to Crowder, Nathan, Moss, Cindy, Feldon, Fred, Barbie, Jon Oaks, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC
As a matter of fact I do. The math department uses proctorU prior to honorlock.  We used the live proctoring.  Students would have to pay. 
Disadvantages of proctoru compared to honorlock were 1) cost to student, we have an institutional agreement with honorlock but the cost is paid with a distance Ed course fee at much less 2) scheduling in advance with proctorU was required so that could staff.  Our students not always the best planners and may be more procrastinators haha. 3) there was the immediate support provided like honorlock.  Honorlock support for student and instructor is far superior 4) personally I think the artificial intelligence flags are better than the live proctor from proctorU particularly the scanning of the id.

 We did look at proctorio as well before choosing honorlock but I don’t have experience with it. 

I’m happy to try to answer any other questions. 

Note: I’m not getting paid by honorlock. It just felt like I needed to say that. 

Deeanna

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On Mar 17, 2020, at 7:14 PM, Crowder, Nathan <ncro...@nwacc.edu> wrote:



​Sounds somewhat similar to ProctorU.  Anyone have experience with both and can shed some light?

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Moss, Cindy

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Mar 17, 2020, 8:35:36 PM3/17/20
to Deeanna Antosh, Crowder, Nathan, Feldon, Fred, Barbie, Jon Oaks, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC

Deeanna, do you know the cost for Honorlock? Proctorio is $15 per student for one year or $5 per test.

 

Cindy

 

Professor Moss

Skyline College

San Bruno, CA

http://accounts.smccd.edu/moss/

 

Deeanna Antosh

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Mar 17, 2020, 8:48:58 PM3/17/20
to Moss, Cindy, Crowder, Nathan, Feldon, Fred, Barbie, Jon Oaks, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC
Right now I think HonorLock is $5 per test.  But not 100% sure 

Deeanna

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On Mar 17, 2020, at 7:35 PM, Moss, Cindy <mo...@smccd.edu> wrote:



Jon Oaks

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Mar 17, 2020, 9:43:49 PM3/17/20
to Deeanna Antosh, Moss, Cindy, Crowder, Nathan, Feldon, Fred, Barbie, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC
Here is a website I found describing how to cheat with Honorlock (and it doesn't sound very difficult): https://www.reddit.com/r/UnethicalLifeProTips/comments/ckf3fu/ulpt_need_to_cheat_on_a_proctored_online_exam/ 

There are also websites showing how to cheat with ProctorU
(this one with tips from a ProctorU employee)

With that being said, I looked up Proctorio and the comments were along the lines of "It's hard to cheat" and "Do not cheat; it will catch you."

Just some things to think about.

Jon 
 
Jon Oaks (백승찬)
Professor of Mathematics, Macomb Community College
AMATYC Midwest Regional Vice President
KAAN Webmaster


Moss, Cindy

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Mar 17, 2020, 9:51:54 PM3/17/20
to Jon Oaks, Deeanna Antosh, Crowder, Nathan, Feldon, Fred, Barbie, 'Kathleen Offenholley' via AMATYC-ITLC

I have seen these already which is why I have never used them. All my online classes have mandatory (in person) proctored exams either from me or somewhere else if they are away. Whatever I decide to do my passage rates will probably be the best ever this semester.

 

Cindy

 

 

Professor Moss

Skyline College

San Bruno, CA

http://accounts.smccd.edu/moss/

 

Jennifer Ackerrman

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Mar 18, 2020, 12:51:01 AM3/18/20
to AMATYC-ITLC
Quick response to Barbra on the my.amatyc.org forum - I think it's still in gamma testing and hasn't been set for a complete rollout. More importantly, it's only accessible to AMATYC members whereas I believe this group includes some adjuncts and high school teachers. However, I should post a message there to direct anyone who is interested to this group! Thanks!

Also, for Jon Oaks, do you have time to provide a few more details (perhaps in an email to the midwest region as well?) on how you implement your mastery-learning quizzes? My colleagues are interested but asking for more information than I can provide (beyond the 10 tries to get 100% or they get a 0%).

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts as I'm finding them very helpful!

I completely agree with Jon that moving an in-person class to a digital format is different, in essence, from an online course. I'm very fortunate that I've been using a flipped format so my students are already comfortable with watching videos. I had my first synchronous class session this past Thursday (heading into our spring break this week) and attendance was just as good as my normal, in-person class. I emailed them a worksheet for our activity and spent the entire class time going through it on the whiteboard. My students responded so positively! I plan to continue that format and am spending time this week learning how to incorporate a kahoot or other activities.


As I said to my colleagues, be kind to yourselves!!
Jennifer

Foth, Robert

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Mar 18, 2020, 12:36:47 PM3/18/20
to Jennifer Ackerrman, AMATYC-ITLC
What are people doing if they are trying to proctor the FTF courses, but you have large groups of the student population without webcams and possibly without strong enough internet access?


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Graser, David

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Mar 18, 2020, 3:59:38 PM3/18/20
to Jennifer Ackerrman, AMATYC-ITLC

Nothing like a pandemic to cause us to really think about what we do and how we do it in our online classes.

 

A little history about me…

 

I went kicking and screaming into required proctored testing. For twenty years I focused on individual or group projects as my main assessment in all of my classes…F2F and online. As more and more colleges offered proctored testing to their students and students from other colleges, I relented and made 50% of each of my classes proctored exams.

Over the last few years I have focused more and more on creating OER materials for the main classes I teach, Math for Liberal Arts, Finite Math, and Business Calc. Our focus at YC has been to create workbooks with Guided Examples/Practice Problems for students to complete. In a typical class, students watch videos/in person lecture and create notes and do problems in their workbooks. Then they do homework problems in our math system Derivita using the work they put into their workbooks. I also ask them to submit some of the work on the practice problems by taking a picture of them and submitting in a Canvas Assignment. There are also many technology assignments and discussion assignments, but the main parts they are assessed on are the written problems from the workbooks and the Derivita problems. This makes up 50% of their grade. The other 50% is proctored exams.

 

Reality in light of COVID…

 

The assignments will remain to be the same, but I now need to realize that they may not be able to do proctored exams. Even though our testing center may remain open with incorporated social distancing, other testing centers my students rely upon may not be open. For me, trying to proctor via ProctorU, HonorLock, ect. Is a financial burden to the students or to the College. My solution needs to be something else.

 

I am designing a series of open assessment based on open pedagogy principles. Essentially, the students create learning materials for the course to help other students (current and future) learn the content. Since my students have been working from the workbooks, they are well acquainted with what a Guided Examples and corresponding Practice Problem looks like. Asking them to create their own is not a huge stretch (see attached pdf for an example). My motivation to have students create their own examples is that they know what they don’t know and what the obstacles are…who better to create even better examples. Also, in liberal arts math my composition of majors changes every semester. If I had done this last semester I would have expected a lot of guided examples centered around athletics since I had a lot of baseball and soccer team members. This semester my entire class is nursing majors so I expect I will see a lot of Guided Examples on medical topics.

 

The first set of Guided Examples I am asking them to do comes from the midterm exam that I just returned.

 

  • Assignment 1 – Identify a problem on the midterm you had trouble with. Find the section and objective in the workbook that this problem corresponds to. Outline a guided example based on the problem and submit a proposal to develop this guided example.
  • Assignment 2 – Create a rough draft of the Guided Example with the problem and solution using the workbook as a guide.

 

This accomplishes two purposes. It forces them to review their midterm and figure out what they had the most trouble with as well as correct those problems.

 

Later pairs of assignments will have them do the same thing for each of the chapters in the workbook. At the end of the semester, I will select a proposal from each students and ask them to complete a finished product with a guided example, practice problem, and solution to the practice problem. This submission will be the “final exam” for the semester. I hope to get three pairs of these assignments done during the last half of this semester.

 

With all of my nursing students and coronavirus news, I expect a lot of related examples in the sections on contingency tables, exponential growth, as well as finance problems (how long will it take to pay back the airline bailout?).

 

I realize that this is not equivalent to an exam. However, I think it has a lot of benefits that an exam does not provided. In my initial discussions with students about this, they really have bought into the idea of improving the learning materials and sharing them (with proper credit of course). With all of the stress my students are feeling, using alternate assessments that are not high stakes is very beneficial. I do not need to add to their stress…many of them are servers in local restaurants and you can guess how that is going. At the end of all of these open assignments, I think I will have enough information to assess their understanding of the course information…maybe even better than when I use exams since this will require more student contact than I currently get in my online courses.

 

I had originally thought about doing this in the fall with one course. With the changes we are seeing due to COVID19 I have moved it up. I would welcome any comments and suggestions to help me anticipate issues that might come up. After all, it is “open pedagogy”…

 

Fred: I’ll bet this approach does not surprise you…back to “projects” I go!

 

Dr David Graser

Professor of Mathematics

Yavapai College

928-776-2108

Office Hours: TTh 9:15-11am in 4-105 or Zoom

Zoom: MAT 142 Tues 7-7:45pm, MAT 172 Mon 7-7:45pm, MAT 212 M 7:45-8:30pm

 

From: amaty...@googlegroups.com <amaty...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Jennifer Ackerrman
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 9:51 PM
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Subject: Re: [amatyc-itlc] Re: ITLC Response to Distance Learning amid COVID-19

 

Quick response to Barbra on the my.amatyc.org forum - I think it's still in gamma testing and hasn't been set for a complete rollout. More importantly, it's only accessible to AMATYC members whereas I believe this group includes some adjuncts and high school teachers. However, I should post a message there to direct anyone who is interested to this group! Thanks!

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sample_guided_example.pdf

Feldon, Fred

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Mar 18, 2020, 5:58:01 PM3/18/20
to Graser, David, Jennifer Ackerrman, AMATYC-ITLC
Yes! David you continue to lead the way in project based learning and real life, contextual problem solving. Kudos to you!  --  Fred

Fred Feldon
Professor of Mathematics
Co-Chair Department of Mathematics
Coastline Community College
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
ffe...@coastline.edu

"It doesn't matter if my classroom is a little rectangle in a building or a little rectangle above my keyboard. Doors are rectangles. Rectangles are portals. We walk through." Kathi Inman Berens
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Jon Oaks

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Mar 22, 2020, 3:29:15 PM3/22/20
to AMATYC-ITLC
Jennifer,

I love your enthusiasm at all times! :)

Regarding my Mastery-Based Quizzes:

A little background: this all started because one student complained that she thought the amount of partial credit I awarded on a quiz was "unfair." I told her I would give her another chance to do the problem, but that I wasn't going to give her credit for a problem she got incorrect. She didn't want to redo the problem, but still insisted that the amount of partial credit awarded was "unfair." So, I decided that on all future quizzes, the grade would be 0% or 100% with no partial credit awarded at all. Because, remember my only intent to begin with was for her to get the problem correct, which is why I offered her another chance to do the problem. However, although no partial credit is awarded, I give 10 attempts to get 100%.

Then, it also dawned on me that partial credit is the reason why some students have passed my classes in the past. I had a student who started in my beginning algebra class. She's always been a 'C' student. I wasn't doing the mastery quizzing at the time. She has since taken Intermediate Algebra as well, and this semester, she's taking my pre-calculus class (yes, I'm really proud of her for continuing on in mathematics). On her first quiz, she emailed me several times about a question that she kept getting wrong. It turns out she was entering an 'x' value when the question was asking for the 'y' value. She took the quiz 8 times before she realized she was reading the problem incorrectly. She has since started paying closer attention to the details because she doesn't want to take the quiz over and over again, and is now one of the "A" students in my class (indicated by a 100% score on an in class test).

What happens if a student gets to 10 attempts, but doesn't get 100%? No, I don't automatically give them a zero at that point, but I do force them to ask me for help before they get an 11th attempt, and I've then never had any student not get 100% at that point. And the number of times this has happened at all has been minimal (4-5 times total over the two semesters I've been doing this). This is because I do encourage students to email me if they have any questions on their quiz and I do try to point them in the right direction. However, I typically still only get 2-3 students who even end up asking any questions at all.

In addition to mastery-based quizzes, I have in class and homework assignments. The in class assignments are usually group work problems that I check before they leave for mastery. Any homework assignments are just 1-2 problems that I have the students turn in and if they don't get it correct, I hand it back and let them try it again. Because it's only 1-2 problems at a time, I don't find this very laborious to deal with.

Yes, I do have tests. However, this semester I decided to allow students to make YouTube videos of a problem that they got incorrect on an exam to show me that they've mastered the problem, and then I would give them the credit for that problem back. I gave students time to review their incorrect answers on their own, and then think about which problems they were now the most confident that they would be able to solve correctly. Then I passed a sign-up sheet around the class and had them sign-up for which problems they would like to make a video for. Then I randomly assigned the problems to each student based on which ones they signed-up to redo. I will say that only about 50% of the students completed the video assignment. Given that it was a chance for the students to show mastery on exam problems that they got incorrect while getting credit back, I thought they would jump at this opportunity. I suspect that if I wouldn't have assigned the problems to each student that the response completion rate would have been even lower. So, I am going to just hypothesize and count it as a success for now.

I know this isn't 'true mastery based learning,' as the only way for me to do that would be to redo the in class test until each student showed mastery, but I've tried that with a 'derivative rules quiz' in a Calculus 1 class a few years ago and it didn't end well. I told the students that we would have a 'derivative rules quiz' at the beginning of every class until everyone got 100%. After 4 weeks of giving the derivative rules quiz at the beginning of every class, there were still some students who had not gotten 100%. So, I stopped doing it because it just didn't feel right at that point.

So, how do I do the Mastery-Based quizzes? I would like to give a full disclosure that the quizzes (as opposed to the in class tests) are all online in the homework system that my college uses for this class (please ask me privately if you want to know the specifics, as I want to be spared the grief from mentioning a commercial product). I make sure that the students receive questions from a pool, and that the order and answer choices are randomized for each of the 10 attempts. This is the best I think I can do given the online situation. However, for those of you who are concerned, I do know that most of my students are not cheating. There are rarely weeks when the students get 100% on the first attempt, and even when they do, they tend to be the students who have logged the most time doing the online homework before taking the online quiz. So, I can see the relationship.

Another side note: Be clear in what your standards for mastery are for your students. For example, for the online homework assignments for my Calculus 2 class, I actually counted mastery as 95% and not 100% because I found getting that last 5% correct was sometimes becoming too time consuming for some students. However, I still counted mastery on the online quizzes as 100%.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone. I wouldn't say I'm an expert in Mastery Grading by any means. However, there is (at least for now) a Mastery Grading Conference scheduled for this summer near Grand Rapids, MI, that I'm planning to attend. If anyone is interested, the link to register is: https://www.masterygrading.com/. Also, I would also caution to say that I wouldn't start this NOW. There are definitely too many other things going on right now to try something now, especially midstream. And don't do it if you don't think it is right for you and your students. There are certain things I don't ever see myself doing, such as teaching a flipped class, because I'm just not comfortable with teaching in that format myself. And I know that it would show for my students. Also, some of you know me well enough to know (especially some of the KYMATYC folks), that I don't ever want to teach trigonometry ever again if I don't have to. I just don't have the passion to teach trigonometry and so I know that it would show for my students.


Regarding another note that I saw about webcams and Internet access:

I am viewing this as very uncertain times and that many of our students are scared that their basic needs will not even be met right now. My college didn't even have a true plan up until 1-2 days ago. As of now, I know my college is closed to everyone (except for essential staff, which includes the college police), until at least April 5. However, our classes are officially online through at least the end of this semester. However, if it is safe to reopen after April 5, the college will open the library so that students can use the computer labs.

So, for the time being, the college has set-up a laptop loaner program, and the students can pick up the laptop at the college police station. They also have 'drive through' WiFi available on campus. I do know that some of the local cable companies in my area are offering free WiFi to students. So, my hope is that between the laptop loaner program and the opportunities to get WiFi, that most of my students will be able to log on at some point.

However, my thought is already this - since I already know many of my students have not been able to log on, this means that they likely aren't even aware of the laptop loaner program. Usually I would have a letter sent to their home, but no one is on campus until at least April 5 for mail delivery. And faculty do not have direct access to student addresses or phone numbers - only the email address that was on file at the time the student registered for the course, which might not even be their email address and could be a parent's email address, etc. So, I won't be able to have contact with my of my students at all for the foreseeable future.

If I were to hold synchronous online sessions, even if I recorded them for the students who could not attend - I wouldn't want to be one of the students who finally get Internet access 3 weeks from now and see hours and hours and hours of videos I need to watch. So, that is what caused me to make the decision to make pre-recorded lectures instead. So, that they are shorter (most of the time) and hopefully won't be as overwhelming for those students without Internet access when they finally are able to come back online.

Anyway, for as much as I hate email, I feel I've likely said too much at this point.

Take care, everyone! :)

Jon Oaks (백승찬)
Professor of Mathematics, Macomb Community College
AMATYC Midwest Regional Vice President
KAAN Webmaster


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Feldon, Fred

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Mar 22, 2020, 5:20:49 PM3/22/20
to Jon Oaks, AMATYC-ITLC
Hi, All  --  Coastline students and faculty luckily have experience and expertise in online teaching and learning. Our quandary is now assessment. Previously everything was online except midterms and finals. Those were paper and pencil, show work, proctored by a human for authentic assessment. Not anymore!

Our math department of about 30 FT and PT faculty are all experimenting with different methods. Me, personally? I'm doing everything in MyMathLab: discussions, announcements, emails, instruction, homework, quizzes, etc. So I have students go to Canvas, activate Proctorio (all CA college students use it free), then go into MyMathLab, take their midterm (which is infinite variation, scrambled question order, show work for partial credit). Then close everything, and I have to review it all. That's the hard part, the time-consuming part. I have created some videos to share what I'm doing. I may change things up for the final but who the hell knows what things will be like in 8 weeks, right? Thanks for all your input, everyone. Keep it coming!  --  Fred

Fred's Video for Instructors  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Z6bwC_nGE
With school closures temporarily halting in-person proctored exams, we move exams online. Here are step by step instructions.
Fred's Video for Students  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TZtWNzHoU0&t=1s
How to use Canvas, MyMathLab and Proctorio to take math exams online from Professor Feldon at Coastline College.
Fred's Video to Practice Showing Work Online  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGRRxdMbAKw
How to show work in your online math exam to earn partial credit.

Fred Feldon
Professor of Mathematics
Co-Chair Department of Mathematics
Coastline College

Fountain Valley, CA 92708
ffe...@coastline.edu

"It doesn't matter if my classroom is a little rectangle in a building or a little rectangle above my keyboard. Doors are rectangles. Rectangles are portals. We walk through." Kathi Inman Berens
From: amaty...@googlegroups.com <amaty...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jon Oaks <jonn...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2020 12:29 PM
To: AMATYC-ITLC <amaty...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [External] Re: [amatyc-itlc] Re: ITLC Response to Distance Learning amid COVID-19
 

Moss, Cindy

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Mar 22, 2020, 5:23:39 PM3/22/20
to Feldon, Fred, Jon Oaks, AMATYC-ITLC

Hi Fred,

 

Is Proctorio really free for all CA colleges? They told me it was no longer free. Do you have a contact person?

 

Cindy

 

Professor Moss

Skyline College

San Bruno, CA

http://accounts.smccd.edu/moss/

 

From: amaty...@googlegroups.com [mailto:amaty...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Feldon, Fred
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2020 2:21 PM
To: Jon Oaks; AMATYC-ITLC
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [amatyc-itlc] Re: ITLC Response to Distance Learning amid COVID-19

 

Hi, All  --  Coastline students and faculty luckily have experience and expertise in online teaching and learning. Our quandary is now assessment. Previously everything was online except midterms and finals. Those were paper and pencil, show work, proctored by a human for authentic assessment. Not anymore!

 

Our math department of about 30 FT and PT faculty are all experimenting with different methods. Me, personally? I'm doing everything in MyMathLab: discussions, announcements, emails, instruction, homework, quizzes, etc. So I have students go to Canvas, activate Proctorio (all CA college students use it free), then go into MyMathLab, take their midterm (which is infinite variation, scrambled question order, show work for partial credit). Then close everything, and I have to review it all. That's the hard part, the time-consuming part. I have created some videos to share what I'm doing. I may change things up for the final but who the hell knows what things will be like in 8 weeks, right? Thanks for all your input, everyone. Keep it coming!  --  Fred

 

Fred's Video for Instructors  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Z6bwC_nGE

Image removed by sender.

With school closures temporarily halting in-person proctored exams, we move exams online. Here are step by step instructions.

Fred's Video for Students  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TZtWNzHoU0&t=1s

Image removed by sender.

How to use Canvas, MyMathLab and Proctorio to take math exams online from Professor Feldon at Coastline College.

Fred's Video to Practice Showing Work Online  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGRRxdMbAKw

Image removed by sender.

Feldon, Fred

unread,
Mar 22, 2020, 5:38:55 PM3/22/20
to Moss, Cindy, Jon Oaks, AMATYC-ITLC, Bob Nash, Blair, Shelly
I believe it is free for all? Or maybe just for colleges in the CVC-OEI (CA Virtual Campus online education initiative)? My two suggested contacts are Bob Nash from the CVC and Shelly Blair Dean of Innovative Learning at Coastline. I have CC'd them on this email. I hope they will not get bombarded with AMATYC emails.

On another note, Cindy I have read some of your latest posts on the CA Community of Practice for Online Math. I really wanna talk with you further about scanning student work. My Cell is (949) 246-7152. Call or text me?  --  Fred

Fred Feldon
Professor of Mathematics
Co-Chair Department of Mathematics
Coastline College
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
ffe...@coastline.edu

"It doesn't matter if my classroom is a little rectangle in a building or a little rectangle above my keyboard. Doors are rectangles. Rectangles are portals. We walk through." Kathi Inman Berens
From: Moss, Cindy <mo...@smccd.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2020 2:23 PM
To: Feldon, Fred <ffe...@coastline.edu>; Jon Oaks <jonn...@gmail.com>; AMATYC-ITLC <amaty...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [External] RE: [] Re: [amatyc-itlc] Re: ITLC Response to Distance Learning amid COVID-19
 

Moss, Cindy

unread,
Mar 22, 2020, 7:59:09 PM3/22/20
to Blair, Shelly, Feldon, Fred, Jon Oaks, AMATYC-ITLC, Bob Nash

Hi Shelly,

 

Do you know if it would be only for colleges that are part of the CVC–OEI or all CA colleges?

 

Cindy

 

Professor Moss

Skyline College

San Bruno, CA

http://accounts.smccd.edu/moss/

 

From: Blair, Shelly [mailto:sbla...@coastline.edu]
Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2020 4:56 PM
To: Feldon, Fred
Cc: Moss, Cindy; Jon Oaks; AMATYC-ITLC; Bob Nash
Subject: Re: [] Re: [amatyc-itlc] Re: ITLC Response to Distance Learning amid COVID-19

 

Hi,

I have heard they are considering bringing it back. Waiting for final confirmation 

Sent from my iPhone



On Mar 22, 2020, at 14:38, Feldon, Fred <ffe...@coastline.edu> wrote:



With school closures temporarily halting in-person proctored exams, we move exams online. Here are step by step instructions.

Fred's Video for Students  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TZtWNzHoU0&t=1s

How to use Canvas, MyMathLab and Proctorio to take math exams online from Professor Feldon at Coastline College.

Fred's Video to Practice Showing Work Online  --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGRRxdMbAKw

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