Elizabeth Wall O’Brien (Scholar Programs)

A little more about your class:

I used the innovation with my section of First Year Seminar students in a pilot program offered to general admissions students who began their first freshman semester in January 2023.

The issue you’re addressing:

I was addressing the need to adapt my teaching methods to promote student engagement in an online version of my January 2023 first year seminar. This group of students was very different from the students I typically teach at Hunter College.

Tell us a bit more about your teaching innovation:

I created a student self-assessment survey that I gave to students after my class went remote (I had foot surgery in mid-March). The purpose of the survey was to get the students to think about what they wanted to get out of the course and to think about steps they could take to promote attainment of their goals in the course.

Instructions for Self-Reflection Survey and some sample questions, next to multi-colored hands raised with the text: ‘Your voice matters.’ — Student self-assessment survey given to students after class went remote.

Your initial takeaways:

I initially braced myself to read survey responses that indicated that the students just didn’t want to be in the class. I got the opposite. Many students confirmed that they were struggling with the transition to the college workload (to be expected) and the responses demonstrated the most students recognized the opportunity presented by the class.

Suggested “podcast pairing”:

I listened to all of the podcasts and was especially inspired by:

Cate Denial on “A Pedagogy of Kindness” (Tea for Teaching podcast)