Undergraduate Lecture Complete!

I was the last one of the class to present my lecture to the undergraduate class. Overall, I thought it went pretty well minus a few bumps along the way. Throughout the day I was vomiting and struggling with the flu. I threw up literally at 7:20pm and had to log in at 7:30! But thankfully I did because by the time the lecture actually began I felt much better. The first issue that I ran into was that once again my webcam would not cooperate. I had messed with it before to make sure it was enabled and working and it was fine but once it was time for class, it would not work. So one downside was that the students were unable to put a face to my voice. I made a short powerpoint to help keep me on track with my topic, which was “Faculty Calibration.” When actually discussing the topic I used an infographic that I had made. I noticed while presenting it that I had two spelling errors on it, so that was slightly embarrassing.  I referred to two of the students blogs and had them discuss them and then I split the class into 3 groups where they were given a scenario and some questions to answer. I loved how easy it was to move from one break out room to another. After discussing the breakout sessions my carmenconnect shut down and said there was an “error.” I panicked and had to re log in three times before it finally worked. I missed a little bit but was thankful that Rachel was available to cover.  I had found a humorous Youtube video about rubrics to play and I thought it would be entertaining and a little better than just listening to me talk. However, while Rachel and I were getting ready in the beginning we discovered that if I played the video on my computer or if she would, everyone could view it but could not hear it. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t show the video to the class. Towards the end when I was reviewing and asking questions, Rachel’s Carmen shut down and she missed a few minutes. I worried a little because she was not there but she made it back right when I finished up. Besides all of the technology bumps, I was happy how it went. I would say my biggest weakness was minimal class interaction.  I wish I would have asked more questions or gave the students more time to participate. It was hard when I would ask questions and there was silence, it just made me want to talk and move on. One thing that I really enjoyed was the fact that two of the degree completion students were two of my previous students. One had graduated from Owens while the other was a graduate from Rhodes. Seeing their faces made me much more comfortable because I had lectured their class before and had them in clinic a bunch so I was thrilled to see them! I would say my strength was my organization with the presentation. I had made an outline of what I wanted to cover and what points I really wanted to make.  After reading the students blogs I had to make some changes  because their reactions to the articles they had to read were quite interesting. Everyone was in support of faculty calibration and stressed how important it was but their opinions were different than that of myself. But I guess that is what makes a class interesting when everyone has different views and thoughts about a topic.  Overall I thought it went good and was a great learning experience for myself and hopefully for the students!