Principles of Biology Lab
Initial Snapshot
Dr. Brenner approached the Digital Studio in attempt to enhance student engagement and learning for his Principles of Biology Lab. The course is quite huge consisting of 400 students and 12 teaching assistants. A couple of the issues Dr. Brenner noticed were around student engagement and a lack of pre-lab knowledge.
Recommendations
Since it’s impossible to be in 12 physical places at once, the Digital Studio team worked with Dr. Brenner through an easy process of creating a series of Pre Lab Videos. These videos would allow all 400 students to be engaged visually and aurally by Dr. Brenner with clear instructions on how to conduct various lab experiments and observations. The videos were also intended to provide students aide with pin pointing content versus sifting through lengthy text.
Outcomes
- Students are mentally primed when they arrive with regards to what they’re about to do in lab.
- Students have been empowered with a new sense of confidence.
- There has been a large increase of positive student feedback.
- Dr. Brenner transformed his 400 students into a learning community by enabling them to be produce time lapse videos of plant movement and share their results.