Sitting here grading work from "Day 1" before students "show up" for Day 2. A simple post to say how much I LOVE the ability for students to turn in images, files, etc., through Google Forms. If they are logged into their account it makes it an easy "drop box" for work.

This is particularly useful as I want students to do work on hard copies at home, but turn in to me in a systematic, and organized way. It also keeps the system locked into Google Forms, which keeps with my goal of simplifying resources.

Click here for an instructional video on how to use this feature and see images from my grading process below today. I will be using student images as a catalyst for instructional videos next week as they provide great ways to discuss student misconceptions, etc. 

Today is the first day of live classes! In two hours I have learned a ton of stuff! Below are the three major lessons gathered thus far: 

• Students want the Q&A Document to be sorted with the most recent post at the top. I am not sure how to do this if I stick with the Google Doc application? I put a student in charge of figuring it out. Let's see what he comes up with! See screenshot below: 

Today we had short, 30 minute classes with our students to introduce them to our system. As stated here I will be asking students to work through three steps daily asynchronously (1. Check-In, 2. Lesson 3. Check-Out) that include pre-recorded videos and assignments WITHIN a synchronous time frame. 

As you can see above, if students need extra help during this time, they can can go to a Zoom room or a Google Doc where I have set up a table for a live Q & A. Ideally, students will go to the Google Doc and if they need extra, more personalized help, the can join the Zoom room (using the same link for all my classes all the time so I don't have to update).

I have received a lot of questions about the Q & A document and it's efficacy. Essentially it is a document where all students have editing privileges, can ask questions, I can answer them, and so can their peers. I like this format rather than any other form of quick, live, Q & A, for the following reasons: 

• You can have "meta" side conversations from questions with students using comments.
• The barrier to entry is LOW.
• You can use revision history to analyze use. 
• A catalog of questions is created that can be exported as PDF later. 
• Works on any device.
• More stuff I not thinking about. 

Below is a video of the Q&A document in action during today's mini class. Note: students are just asking random questions so that they know how to work the system. 

Not much to say today. I spent most of the day struggling with how to assess my students during this time. I hate assessment and I'm not good at it. Perhaps this is a moment to improve? 

So far the plan is to award 5 "points" for each day for the daily lessons as monitored by Google Form submission. 1 point fo the "Check In" 2 pts for the "Lesson" and 1 pt for the "Check Out". Participation only. Purely formative.  

On the last day of the week assign a summative "quiz". I plan on the using the built in quizzing feature in Google Forms for consistency (again, keeping the Extraneous Cognitive Load low), and also allowing for ease of open ended video response questions if needed, etc.

This is in replace of the built-in quizzing feature that our school's LMS provides. Again, my goal is, and always will be, to stay consistent with tools. Apologies for the lame post. More soon...

Keeping in the mind my reflection from Day-5 here regarding implementing a Design Thinking/Hackathon exercise around the current pandemic in my Engineering for Social Good course, I will begin by providing a few examples (see below) to students of various needs that have surfaced and innovations that are being developed to address those needs. My hope is such examples will inspire thinking as students embark on their own solution prototypes. (click here for a list of more design challenges). One idea is to start our own "Hackathon" in the spirit of similar ones like this, this, and this. 

Need: COVID-19 Symptom/Action advice
Innovation: Apple COVID-19 Screening application. 

Need: Door Handle Protection
Innovation: Hands-Free 3D Printed Door Openers 

Need: Hospital Inquiry Management
Innovation: AI Hospital Switchboard Control