Prajna Dhar highlighted in School of Engineering Newsletter
Focus on our Colleagues
This month Dr. Molly McVey was pleased to highlight a few of our awesome Engineering faculty and share how they have adapted to this semester and how things are going. From our department, Prajna Dhar was featured (see below). Dr. McVey said that if you are a faculty member who would like to join the MS Teams group for Engineering Flex Teaching Support, sign up here. Also feel free to email her (mollymcv@ku.edu) or schedule a consultation for teaching support!
Prajna Dhar, C&PE
Class and Format: C&PE 211, Material and Energy Balances, 103 students.
Course is taught using cohort hybrid model- lectures and worked out problems are posted for review asynchronously, while the class time is used for active learning. Students may come to class once per week to ask questions facilitated by their GTAs during active learning, online twice per week in addition to an online calculations lab. Students not in-person attend a synchronous Zoom session that is facilitated by the instructor on all three days.
Technology: Zoom, Blackboard, Teams, Gradescope
Changes to the Course: I turned each topic of the course into a module containing a 10-15 minute lecture video, a very detailed example problem, in-class problems, and homework problems. I created an infographic for each week that reminds students what needs to be done for each topic, and when it is due. I now use Teams for small group meetings and problem solving, use Zoom to facilitate the online portion of students, and hold office hours via Zoom or Teams. I also use Gradescope now for homework problems and exams. I am spending more contact hours with students than during a normal semester. In previous years, students were not required to watch the lecture videos before class, and the in-class problems were not graded. A Normal Week from the Student’s Perspective: Prior to coming to class (in-person or online), students much watch a 10-15 minute lecture video and review a worked out example problem. In class, I take questions on the content of the video and example for the first 10-15 minutes, do a readiness assessment quiz via Zoom poll, and then students work on an in-class problem that must be turned in within 24 hours. The problem is turned in and graded via Gradescope. Finally, the "calculations lab" is an online meeting each week where I work through longer calculations/problems. Students may watch this as an example of how I would think through and solve more involved problems before they start work on their homework problems for the topics discussed in the Calculation Lab.
Bright Spots: Several students have reached out, unsolicited, to offer thanks and appreciation for the work that I am doing to facilitate their learning in this environment. Students have emailed me or dropped in to online office hours just to tell me that it is clear I care and want them to learn.
Challenges: Motivating students to make sure they are keeping up with the material while making sure their mental health is taken care of, and they are not overwhelmed is a challenge. More generally, I also think there needs to be more communication with students and their parents about the “value” of the education that is being provided in this environment. I think it needs to be clear to students that often what we are offering them in this online or hybrid environment is not a commodity and something they can just go and get elsewhere. They are often getting MORE contact time with us, and more effort and focus is going into teaching than ever before. So it bothers me when I hear criticism about the "value" students or parents are getting, and I think it should be communicated more clearly. Something you've Learned this Summer/Fall: I am still making good progress on my research by carving out time each day to work on it even though teaching is overwhelming. Unfortunately, this is coming at the expense of self-care and family time. I've learned that I can still succeed at all that is being asked of me but it is coming at a price to me, personally.