Want to excel in an online summer course during a global pandemic? You came to the right place. In this post, I’ll review what ENG 333 class is about and offer some tips and tricks that you can use to keep yourself afloat in what will be a very fast, informative, and productive 5 weeks.
About the Course
Many of you have probably (and hopefully) read the description for this course but allow me a moment to give my own personal take on what I think this course entails. This section of ENG 333 is designed to help upper-level undergraduate students who plan on pursuing careers in scientific research learn how to communicate better about science to the public, to their fellow scientists, to advocacy groups, and to funding agencies.
Scientists are increasingly called upon to explain and advocate science to diverse groups as is readily apparent in current discussions about COVID-19, stay-in-place orders, and the biochemical nature of the virus. This course will provide training in writing, speaking, and visual presentation skills to help students communicate their research findings in a variety of formats. Students will also learn how to effectively edit and critique their work and others’. We will focus on writing and communicating to various audiences—both professional and general—to sharpen students’ abilities to translate scientific research clearly and effectively across different contexts; such skills will translate naturally into writing for scientific journals, for grants, and for presentations at conferences.
Tips and Tricks
I don’t know how many of you have taken online courses in the past (because I know that I never did in undergrad), but I want to establish a few expectations for how this is going to work before we get too far along. Online courses come with their own risks and rewards, and I hope that the following tips will 1) better prepare you for what those entail and 2) curb some of the possible risks before they happen.
- Be respectful. Respect is absolutely necessary for navigating online coursework and correspondence. Every person who logs on to the Moodle forum, offers constructive criticism, or requests peer review is first and foremost an actual person. Many studies have shown that people respond more vehemently online than they ever would in face-to-face communication. When you speak to each other or to me, remember that there is always a person on the other side of the screen. Questions and criticism are fine, but be sure to direct your commentary to the work that was done rather than the personal who did it.
- Make a schedule. Many of this course’s materials including its assignment deadlines are located in at least 3 locations: the syllabus, the website/course calendar, and the Moodle. We will move very quickly during these 5 weeks, so I highly recommend that you find a way to remember your deadlines. I’ve embedded a link to the Google calendar on the Calendar page so that you can add the course calendar to your personal one.
- Read MA assignment guidelines first. The assignments on the website are listed in order of due date, but you should read the ones marked “MA” before you begin the unit’s other assignments. On the website, MA stands for Main Assignment. Here, I offer the rationale behind what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. All of the other assignments for that unit contribute to the MA in some shape or form. For example, the Annotated Bibliography will help you write the Micro-Literature Review. Read these instructions early in the week (preferable over the weekend) so that there is ample time for me to answer your questions.
- Treat this course like it’s a work-from-home job. When I was in undergrad, I took two summer courses back-to-back: one in SS1 and one in SS2. The topics? Organic chemistry I and II. The professor who taught both of those courses described the workload like this. In a normal semester, you enroll for 15(ish) credit hours per week. But those 15 hours are literally just showing up, sitting down, and probably scrolling through something on your laptop for an hour or so while someone else talks. In many cases, the real work happens outside of lecture when you’re doing homework, working in the lab, writing up reports, studying for tests, etc. In summer courses, a 15-week semester is compacted down to 5 weeks, but you’re still expected to do the same amount of work and learn the same amount of material in both. This means that you should be dedicating at least 15 hours per week to the course.
- Ask questions. In a face-to-face classroom, you can usually throw up your hand at some point to ask a question as it pops into your head. Or if you don’t quite understand what’s expected of you, you can meet with the instructor after the lecture to request clarification. Online classrooms rarely allow for this kind of spontaneity because everyone is working asynchronously. I’ve tried to sidestep this issue somewhat by instilling the Virtual Office Hours Chat, but it is still up to you to reach out to me when you have questions. I would recommend that you read over all of assignment guidelines for the week before you delve into assigned readings. Try to understand why you’re reading the articles that I assigned and how they can help you make your deliverables. I can’t help you if you send me an email 3 hours before an assignment deadline requesting clarification. Please read over the guidelines well in advance so that you can email me your questions with plenty of time for me to answer them. For more information about what to expect from email communications, please review my email policy.