Designing Courses as Sustainable Learning Communities that Extend Beyond Higher Education
In teacher education, very few successful technology-driven communities exist where members work together to seek solutions to everyday problems. In 2021 we investigated Teacher Candidates’ (TCs) interactions in a synchronous online STEM Technologies course with an embedded anonymous Reddit community. This session will present a design case for social media learning communities (SMLC) in university courses. We'll discuss our lessons learned and collaborate with attendees to plan effective courses with sustainable social media learning communities for all students.
Marvin is a third-year dual degree student at The Ohio State University pursuing a PhD in Educational Psychology and a Master of Learning Technologies. He is a first-generation university student and he taught Mathematics and Computer Science which molded his research interests in classroom technology integration, instructional design, curriculum development and teacher technology training especially for persons in underrepresented populations.
Liz Trolli is a Program Manager at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy. In her role, she coordinates the experiential experiences for second and third year pharmacy students in the institutional health system setting. Additionally, she creates and maintains course design for several classes. She works to tie wellness themes throughout her class to encourage burnout awareness and healthy school/life balance. In 2014 Trolli was awarded the Distinguished Staff Award by the University. Recently, she was awarded a grant to attend InstructureCon through ODEE, a conference focusing on the new LMS utilized in Carmen. She was able to implement some of the tools into her course upon her return. Additionally, she was accepted into the 2017-2018 Course Design Learning Community as part of a Teaching Fellowship. Through her research she is hoping to implement modification to her evaluation tools for student experiences. Previously, Trolli spent seven years as the Residency Program Manager at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Department of Pharmacy. She received her Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts from The Ohio State University.
Matthew is a third year student studying STEM Education at Ohio State. One of Matthew's passions is developing a curriculum and teaching strategies that eliminate academic and social disparities between virtual and in-person learning. In the future he hopes to implement such practices into his own high-school classroom.
Ashlyn Pierson is an assistant professor of STEM education. She earned her Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, specializing in Math & Science Education and Learning Sciences & Learning Environment Design. Her research merges theory and practice by using design studies to explore the interplay between disciplinary STEM practices (such as scientific modeling and computer programming) and students’ everyday practices and diverse linguistic resources. Ashlyn’s research is grounded in her experiences as a high school math and middle school science teacher in Nashville public schools.