Watering Two Plants With One Hose: Protocolization of Progress to Promote Practical Resource Sharing

Cohort
2020
Fellow(s)
Initiative Type
course
professional development opportunity
supplemental resource
Initiative Theme
Curriculum Redesign
Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Audience
Faculty/Instructors
UT Austin Undergraduates
Project Focus
Improving Teaching and Learning
Institutional Resource

When I first became faculty at UT Austin, I inherited an existing course; for a variety of reasons, I felt the need to overhaul all of the lectures. This process, however, proved time-consuming and I found myself unable to complete all of the lectures as originally planned prior to the start of the semester. Moreover, even the lectures that I did overhaul continued to have flaws and I was growing increasingly frustrated with the continued inadequacy of my lessons, despite devoting considerable time and energy to them. This was disheartening and my other responsibilities (e.g. research; scholarship; service) were starting to suffer at the expense of my efforts to be a better teacher. I realized that I had to set limits on the time I could devote to teaching. This required a growth mindset that emphasized progress over perfection, coupled with improved time management skills. I began to set explicit limits on how much time I had to spend improving my course content before launching it and correcting the errors that inevitably remained after class. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and I rapidly had to transition my class online, I started to attend various in services, workshops, courses, and conferences geared at improving online instruction. While enriching, I found many of these opportunities were time-intensive and left me without a clear path forward that would be manageable amidst my other responsibilities. I began to reflect on the initial time-saving strategies I employed shortly after transitioning to my faculty role. With relatively little time or effort, I was able to transition the rest of my content online following spring break. I began to consider not only how to further implement these strategies in my own course, but also whether this approach could be more formally operationalized to help other faculty members improve their own courses. Moreover, as I adapted my work routine in response to the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders and subsequent social distancing guidelines, I began to feel isolated. The value of my involvement with on-campus groups including the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Provost’s Teaching Fellows (PTF), Experiential Learning Initiative (ELI) ambassadors, Online Education Task Force members, and my peers in other teaching-related groups became increasingly apparent.

Impacts from This Initiative

Osier Bitmoji

Bitmoji Database

Date
Fellow(s)

As part of their PTF initiative's goal of creating protocols and resources to better streamline the creation and regular updating of course materials, Osier created this Bitmoji Database to keep track of the icons they use throughout their course materials and slides to create consistency and systematize their creation and editing processes. This Database can be used as a template for other instructors who are interested in using Bitmoji or other icons and symbols in their course materials, and once copied can be easily edited to fit the individual instructor's needs.

Airtable Logo

Trauma-Informed Course Auditing Checklist

Date
Fellow(s)

As part of their PTF initiative's goal of creating protocols and resources to better streamline the creation and regular updating of course materials, Nico Osier created this Trauma-Informed Course Auditing Checklist in Airtable to streamline the process of ensuring their lectures and course materials are responsive to research-backed best practices in trauma-informed teaching. Osier's Auditing Checklist was designed with Nursing and Health Sciences courses in mind, but can be adapted for instructors in virtually any field.

Airtable Logo

Stock Images Database for Healthcare Representation

Date
Fellow(s)

As part of their PTF initiative's goal of creating protocols and resources to better streamline the creation and regular updating of course materials, Osier created this Stock Images Database in Airtable to collect sources of free, online images featuring a broader spectrum of body types, skin colors, and other key elements which are vital to medical education.

Stock Images Database Presentation Slide

Creation and Use of a Stock Images Database (OpenEd 2022)

Date
Fellow(s)

Nico Osier presented about the Stock Images Database developed as part of their PTF Initiative at the 2022 Open Education Conference. Themed Rise to Action, the conference took place on October 17-20, 2022 and was completely virtual. Osier presentation titled "Creation and Use of a Stock Images Database to Make Lectures More Diverse and Inclusive" and also featured several student researchers.