Faculty Focus Volume 20 Number 1 March 2021
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Faculty Focus Volume 20 Number 1 March 2021 Contains Editor’s Note Online Lab Teaching Strategies articles by: William Dorner from a Community of Inquiry • Cesar O. Rivera Will Dorner is Instruc- (CoI) Perspective Cesar O. Rivera Cruzado and Cynthia Cruzado and Cynthia tional Specialist at Mejia Mejia the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning • Carissa Baker and manages several Mr. Cesar O. Rivera • Don Merritt, Todd Mc- of the communications Cruzado is a Culinary Mahon, Scott Pritchett, from that office, includ- Chef II Instructor who has developed and and Ron Slaughter ing Faculty Focus and taught in-person or • Arianna Davis the annually published Guide to Teach- ing at UCF. He earned his undergraduate virtual culinary labs • Sarah A. Norris for 300+ students each • Keri Watson degree in Creative Writing, Master’s in Rhetoric & Composition, and Doctorate in semester since 2006 at • Stacey Malaret Texts & Technology, all from UCF. UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Man- • Christina Cavage agement. • Aimee deNoyelles, e’ve seen many changes over the past Claire Knox, Chloe Wyear. Dr. Cynthia Mejia is Edmonson, Alicia an Associate Professor Hawthorne, Ann Mill- Despite the upheaval, faculty have made the and the Interim Chair of the Department of er, Julia O’Connor, most of the unique circumstances necessitated Foodservice & Lodg- Sarah Singer, Ladda by last year’s abrupt switch to remote instruc- ing Management at Thiamwong, and J. tion. University operations and faculty projects UCF Rosen College of Marla Toyne have continued, even if their methods might Hospitality Manage- • Gisele Canova, Patri- have shifted with the attendant need for physi- ment. cia Farless, Francisco cal distancing and Zoom meetings. Fernández-Rubiera, ince Spring 2020, experiential and labora- and Martha Hubertz Read the articles in this issue to get an idea of Story courses previously taught in the face- • Sharon Woodill how your colleagues have adapted to the condi- to-face modality were subjected to a rapid • Gregg Bucking- tions, as well as to see what new changes to ex- transformation to the online modality. At UCF ham and Stephanie pect on campus in terms of technology support. Rosen College of Hospitality Management, Krick lab instructors grappled with adapting the var- During this time, the Faculty Center is offer- ious components of our hands-on face-to-face Listserv ing reduced on-campus hours on Tuesdays and culinary labs to a new asynchronous modal- Sign up to receive Wednesdays in addition to virtual office hours ity, while at the same time providing a quality our monthly e-mail on Thursdays via Zoom. If you need support, learning experience to our students and ensur- newsletter. Please someone from our office is available for a ing high academic standards. As physical and visit the Faculty Center website for phone call or teleconference. Send us an e-mail temporal separation can generate feelings of instructions. at [email protected]. isolation among distance learners (Waterhouse et al., 2020), we were also aware that students’ Stay safe and healthy, and we hope to see ev- satisfaction and attitudes towards online edu- eryone on campus again soon! cation in our discipline and in general could be adversely impacted (Oregon et al., 2018). Thus, based on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison et al., 2010), we developed educational activities and compo- nents in the lab designed to make the learning experience more personal and engaging. Karen L. Smith Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning https://fctl.ucf.edu Vol. 20, No. 1 2021 The Community of Inquiry (CoI) represents an educational labs go one step further to include all forms of the presenc- process, creating a deep and meaningful collaborative-con- es (i.e., Cognitive, Teaching, and Social), which makes this structivist learning experience through the development of teaching strategy optimum if developed intentionally. Prior three interdependent elements known as the Teaching, Cog- research has revealed that interactive dynamic visualizations, nitive, and Social Presences (Garrison et al., 1999). Teach- such as videos and interactive recorded demonstrations, sup- ing Presence refers to the design, facilitation, and direction port students in regulating their own learning based on in- of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing dividual cognitive capabilities and needs, leading to greater meaningful and worthwhile learning outcomes (Anderson et learning efficiency (Sauli et al., 2018). The synchronous vir- al., 2001). Cognitive Presence refers to the extent to which tual culinary labs created at UCF Rosen College were pur- learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through posefully designed to include direct, constant, and simultane- sustained reflection and discourse (Garrison et al., 1999; Gar- ous interaction between the student and the instructor, through rison et al., 2010). Social Presence refers to the interaction questions, polls, chats, and other Zoom-enabled activities, between peers in a trusted learning environment who com- which fortified theTeaching and Cognitive Presences. municate and project through their individual personalities (Garrison et al., 2010). The most challenging form of engage- Synchronous virtual labs also help instructors to build real- ment in an online learning environment is that of peer to peer time and open communication with students, developing (i.e., Social Presence), underscored in a recent study examin- group cohesion, which is a key component toward achieving ing hospitality undergraduates’ impressions of an online lab the Social Presence within the CoI framework. Prior research (Orlowski et al., 2021). Using CoI as a theoretical foundation, in online learning has demonstrated that the Social Presence we ensured the Teaching, Cognitive, and Social Presences is critical for enhanced and sustained peer to peer collabo- were robust in order to overcome students’ feelings of isola- ration, that serves to establish relationships among students tion while bolstering the Social Presence, and therefore we and promotes a sense of belonging, highly important for developed two strategies for content delivery in the culinary learning, comprehension, and student retention. (Garrison & labs during the Spring and Fall 2020 semesters: (1) Recorded Akyol, 2012). More recent research has indicated that both Micro Lectures and (2) Virtual Labs. These strategies will be the Teaching and Social Presences correlate positively with described in more detail in the following sections. online students’ academic performance, motivation to learn, persistence to complete the course, satisfaction with online Recorded Micro Lectures courses and instructors, and intention to enroll in future on- Recorded micro lectures are videos of approximately 3 to line courses. (Prince, Felder, & Brent, 2020). In our online 7 minutes in duration where the instructor teaches the most culinary labs, the Social Presence was achieved through the critical points of a lesson. Micro lectures are flexible, and by use of a lab assistant who moderated students’ real-time ques- default, they incorporate the Teaching and Cognitive Presenc- tions, and fielded comments and anecdotes during the virtual es. Recorded micro lectures promote active learning through lab. For example, the lab assistant initiated and supported student engagement interacting with recorded material freely conversations between the students and the lab instructor us- and without time and space restrictions, permitting the student ing the chat tool, creating a collaborative learning environ- learn at his or her own pace. Recorded micro lectures used ment through purposeful and impromptu discourse, emulating in combination with reflective assessment activities, such that which students encounter during an in-person lab. Our as short embedded quizzes, and/or reflection assignments at experience with the development and use of these teaching the end of each lesson, promote constructive and interactive strategies during the subsequent Summer and Fall 2020 se- learning opportunities. These learning strategies consequently mesters seems to have generated student satisfaction with an guide the student to use higher order thinking skills, such as intentional CoI-based focus on the Social Presence (e.g., stu- critical thinking and problem solving, evoking the Cognitive dent engagement), evidenced in both internal measurements Presence within the CoI framework (Garrison et al., 1999; (SPIs) and an empirical study (see Orlowski et al., 2021). Garrison et al., 2010). Recorded micro lectures as an asyn- chronous tool allows students to receive information from References the instructor directly, creating a connection between the two, Anderson, T., Rourke, L., Garrison, R. & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing ensuring the Teaching Presence within the CoI framework, teaching presence in a computer conferencing Context. Journal of which is crucial to achieving the expected learning outcomes Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.24059/ (Garrison & Akyol, 2013). olj.v5i2.1875 Garrison, D.R. & Akyol, Z. (2013). The community of inquiry theoretical Synchronous Virtual Labs framework. In M.G. Moore (Ed.), Handbook of Distance Education Building on the notion of how CoI underscores the Cognitive (3rd ed., pp. 104–119). Taylor & Francis. and Teaching Presences in the recorded micro lectures, virtual FACULTY FOCUS 2 Vol. 20, No. 1 2021 Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T. & Archer, W. (1999). Critical