By Malia H Adamson
Dr. Kari Gali, Assistant Professor of Education, has been at Dixie State University (DSU) for about four years. Dr. Gali has a background in special education but has recently been teaching general elementary school education. Outside of work, Prof. Gali spends most of her time with her family. She loves reading, walking outdoors, and cooking and eating good food. She also loves Korean dramas and enjoys watching them in her free time.
The Movement to an Online Teaching Experience
In the spring of 2020 when the pandemic began, there was an abrupt and immediate shift to online teaching. Prof. Gali felt that she, like many others, had not been prepared and that many of the methods that she used during that semester were inadequate for online teaching. As a result, Dr. Gali dove into online teaching techniques to find a more effective way to teach. She wanted to engage her students in the learning process whether they were online or learning through Hyflex teaching. Dr. Gali researched online course structure, learned how to write effective questions and tests in a Hyflex or Online environment, found new activities that could be completed in the online classroom, and learned about how to get students engaged in these environments. Prof. Gali wanted able to gauge how much the students were learning and what they were falling behind on. That way, she could go over it in class and prevent students from falling behind despite the learning situation.
New Techniques and Technologies
One of the ways that Dr. Gali accomplished this goal was by using Flip Grid. Flip Grid is a social, video-based classroom that Prof. Gali utilized for her teaching. In the program, the students record themselves answering a question for a prompt and post it, and then students can reply to their classmates in video form. Dr. Gali reported that the students have really enjoyed it because they like being able to do something more face-to-face with their classmates rather than type to each other through a discussion.
As well as this, Dr. Gali started using a program called Jamboards, which is a program that is offered by Google that allows you to work as a group at the same time on a single brainstorming board. You can add text, images, post-it notes, and whatever else you want to add to be able to collaborate together. She uses Jamboard to interact with students during the class, and as a great side effect, it allows her to create these slides of notes on a topic that they have all contributed to and can look back on later. It has been especially helpful in a hybrid classroom because the program updates in real-time, so both the students in the class and online can be working together and contributing in the same environment. There is also a laser pointer, so Prof. Gali can point out what they are talking about and communicate it easily to the rest of the class.
The last main area that Dr. Gali focused on improving after this shift was her quizzes. She wanted her quizzes to be more engaging and unique for the students. Instead of using quizzes as a rigid set of questions and answers, she wanted them to be able to share and apply what they had learned from the readings, videos, or audio from the section. So instead, she had them submit feedback using a format called “SPUNKI”. S stands for something that surprised them, P was something that was puzzling, U was something that they understood after the reading, N was something that was new information, K was something that they already knew, and I was something that they found interesting. This format helped the students to engage and identify with what they were learning in class and during their own study time.
“Hi Dr. Gali! I just wanted to send you a huge thank you! Yesterday my principal came in and observed my class and gave me great feedback on things that you really helped me with while I was in the program. Thank you so much for your help in the program! Because you took the time to help me better my skills in classroom management and how to keep control of a class, my principal asked if he can send in other teachers to watch and see how I do it. Something he mentioned that he was really impressed with was my teacher presence. I know that is something you helped me gain and I am beyond grateful for your help!”
“Dr. Gali is very knowledgeable in the area of Psychology. You can tell she loves teaching and presenting the material. I always felt like I was a valued member of the class and really enjoyed this course.”
“Dr. Gali was an incredible resource for this course. She knew her stuff really well and had experiences that tied in with what we were learning. She adjusted assignments and meeting times to our needs and was very flexible. She was available for us when we needed her and she really cared about us and made that apparent.”
“Dr. Gali always made sure that learning occurred and provided students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding. She was fair and always tried to be sure to adjust when students made suggestions to improve the course and learning outcomes. One of the best teachers I have ever had.”
