Teaching Labs Online in 2020

By Brittany Greenwood

Teaching a laboratory course online during 2020 has had it challenges. It was much more difficult to teach students how to properly align a microscope and perform other various laboratory techniques online as neither I, nor the students, had access to the equipment necessary. Attending the GTC meetings this quarter has been extremely helpful as I have learned multiple strategies for teaching online from the book “Motivating and Retaining Online Students: Research-Based Strategies that Work” or by listening to the experiences of other teaching assistants. There were several strategies I learned that I plan to implement in future quarters, whether for my own research and studying purposes, or to benefit the students that I will be teaching. Some of the techniques or tools for student engagement that my colleagues found useful included having Zoom polls, breakout rooms, a Zoom study hour for students before exams, Kahoot! games, and surveys at the midway point of the quarter to gather feedback. I have already used Zoom polls and breakout rooms but I am planning to launch a survey halfway through the quarter to gather feedback from the students to see what is and what isn’t working for them and to see if there are other approaches they would find more useful. Additionally, I plan to have a Zoom study hour before exams, so that the students can work together and to create a better sense of community within the course. By attending the weekly GTC meetings, I have discovered many tools or techniques that I could utilize to improve my ability to teach, which is something that I am always striving to do.