Bordering Asian America(s) (College Course)
Bordering Asian America(s):
Syllabus and Activities
I have experience providing synchronous and asynchronous learning online, whether in fully remote classes during the pandemic or as blended learning in traditional classrooms.
Below are examples of content and activities from my most recent course, an introductory undergraduate course to Asian American literature, which I designed and taught in person as an upper-level seminar of 21 students at Pennsylvania State University in Spring 2023. In the SRTE (Student Rating of Teaching Effectiveness), which is feedback given by students about how well the course increased their understanding of the topic and how well the instructor promoted a meaningful learning experience, the course received the highest possible rating (median and mode of 7 on a scale of 1-7).
All content was hosted on Canvas, a popular education LMS.
Audience: Upper-level undergraduate students, including older non-traditional students
Responsibilities: curriculum design, instructional design, visual design, facilitation
Tools Used: Canva, Padlet, Jamboard, Google Forms, Canvas
Course objectives
Exerpt of weekly schedule
Final project instructions
Final project activities
Screenshots of select pages from course syllabus.
Online Course Components
Course Archive
I embedded a Padlet board into the course home page on Canvas, which the class could use as a visually engaging archive of activities, handouts, and slideshows from our in-classroom lectures and discussions.
Screenshot of class Padlet (embedded into Canvas LMS). Some images removed in case of copyright infringement/privacy concerns.
Weekly Block (Slide) Assignments
Instead of weekly quizzes to keep students accountable for completing the readings/assigned work, there were weekly "Block" assignments that were designed to take a few minutes of their time. These short online assignments were intended as building blocks for developing their understanding of texts, which they could draw on for our class discussions.
These Block assignments were usually available as collaborative Jamboards linked in the Padlet course archive, to which students could add their own slides in response to the assigned prompt.
Example Jamboards used for Block assignments. Some images removed in case of copyright infringement/privacy concerns.
Utilizing the Canvas LMS
The Canvas LMS was also used for tracking attendance, accepting assignment submissions and sharing feedback, sending weekly announcements, and hosting unit modules where students could find PDFs of readings.
Example Canvas weekly announcement.
Content Design
Lecture Slides
I like to invest time in creating visually interesting slides and designing fun class activities, as I believe these can make learning more enjoyable and effective. I usually used Canva to design my lecture and class discussion slides, which featured visual components related to the topic at hand.
Example: select slides from a class discussion of a short story. The second slide shows a list generated by students during the class discussion, which I took notes on and uploaded to the course archive.
Example: select slides from lecture and activity on writing thesis statements, preparing students for their midterm exam. The third slide shows a record of ideas generated by students during the class discussion, which I took notes on and uploaded to the course archive.
Example: select slides reflecting on Unit 1, featuring a Google Form survey and games designed to review unit content.
Instructive Handouts
Content creation for this course also involved producing clear and informative writing, whether for class announcements, assignment prompts, individual student feedback, or handouts and guidelines.
Example: handout explaining the final paper assignment, with detailed instructions, guidelines, suggestions, and deadlines.