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This time around, I tried a case-based approach to teaching. So the class is an occupational
health class and the topic is occupational health issues and instead of a more sort of
didactic presentation, I gave them a week ahead of the scheduled class, for that topic
I gave them a case to read - a clinical kind of based case. It was a welder who was getting
sick from welding fumes. Then they had to answer, with questions - so it was a case
with questions that they had to answer ahead of time. They got some reading materials around
that, so some Internet resources, including links to health and safety regulations and
WCB because that was part of the question material and also I gave them a sort of abbreviated
three or four page kind of maybe 15 slide PowerPoint that really summarized workers
compensation regulations, some welding issues and things. So it was kind of some background
information for them. So they had that material ahead of time and the case. And then they
were instructed to read the case, read the background material, answer the questions
on BlackBoard and then comment on each others' answers and I wanted the class to have answered
and commented by about midweek. The class is on Friday, so I was asking them by Wednesday
to have their questions answered and try to comment on each others' answers. And that
worked quite well, it generated a lot of discussion and they raised some questions themselves
about certain issues that came up. There was intentionally some, you know, potential for
discussion and sort of argument for one way or the other built into the questions and
so that did generate good discussion online. They raised some questions that were very
interesting and sort of thoughtful online kind of to me, indirectly. So I made notes
of those questions, I made notes of some of the issues that were discussed and I came
prepared then to remind them this is kind of some of the questions they have and some
of the discussions they had and everyone was comfortable sort of diving right in to a discussion
about the topic in class because they had discussed it online already, so I kind of
used the questions and the issues they brought up as a guide in class to guide the conversation.
But really, they took the conversation and led it themselves. The main reason I tried
this method was because the topic for the week was WCB and OHS regulations, which is
spectacularly dry content. So I wanted something a little more involved and interesting and
to generate discussion on something that would typically not be that, you know, interesting
necessarily, or come across as a little more dry traditionally. I thought that would be
a good way to engagement them, a good way to get them thinking ahead of time and come
prepared to class to discuss and it just seemed to ultimately make more use, valuable use
of the in-class time, because we could spend time discussing interesting issues that arose
out of the information and not the information itself. I just felt, subjectively, that there
was a lot more discussion, the class was much more interactive, they seemed stimulated,
they seemed lively, very interested. On the evaluations later, I asked them specifically
and they found it much more interesting and useful and just allowed them to sort of elaborate
and ask questions. It was just very positive feedback. So a concern I had with this approach
in the back of my mind is always are they going to do it. You know, are they going to
actually do this over the week and be prepared? I do have a participation score as a small
percentage of my overall mark, so this does ... they are aware that I take participating
in this activity into account when calculating that score. So that's part of it: there's
some motivation in that respect. But I do send out a reminder and they did participate
for the most part. You know, there's always a few students that don't or forgot or didn't,
but again there's ways of keeping track on BlackBoard. And once one person takes the
initiative and answers the questions, then others start to comment. And once others start
to comment, then others start to comment on the comments, and especially if someone comments
on your answers, then you're obliged to reply, so it kind of snowballed a little bit and
they all started talking amongst each other. So it worked out quite well. There's always
a few that don't participate, but there's a way to keep track of that. For sure, I'm
going to use this on the same module for now on, every year, and I'm going to incorporate
it into at least one other lecture this year, as in 2013, and likely expand it even more
into some other classes. So I just felt that it was very useful and the students liked
it, so I'll be using it for sure.