For ANSC250, the class in which I UTA for, we meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10-10:50AM. During these times, I get the opportunity to see my faculty advisor, Dr. Balcom, teach her interactive lessons to the classroom of ANSC250 students. I mention the term “interactive”, because Dr. Balcom utilizes a unique teaching style she terms as a “flipped classroom” model. This setup allows students to prepare in their pre-class reading and assignments to form a basis for the activities they will perform in groups within the classroom setting the following day. Dr. Balcom takes classroom opportunities to expand on what the students have read previously as their basis for the subject and then provides multiple opportunities where the class can interact with the professor and their peers in various activities.
This “flipped classroom” is a perfect example of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It entails multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement. Dr. Balcom uses clicker questions, online pre-class reading assignments, in-class participation points, group work, real-life scenarios, pre-class quizzes, think-pair-share exercises, videos, guest speakers, and animals (yes real animals) to class. Each class I have sat in on has been unique and the students never know what to expect. This specifically ties in the UDL principle of multiple means of representation. Dr. Balcom assigns about 4 pre-class readings accompanied by a video or two before each scheduled lesson. Then, Dr. Balcom expands on what the students have previously read/seen in class for the first 1520 minutes of lecture. All those examples combined cover representation in the forms of visual aids, hearing a lecture, and reading relevant material.
When it comes to the second principle of UDL, Dr. Balcom continues to excel. She engages students through multiple means of expression in the everyday classroom setting. The great thing about her, is that she doesn’t rely on one mode of expression or even two or three for that matter. She likes to keep things changing so students can excel in and out of the classroom when it comes to assessing companion animal care. Every class, she includes at least one form of expressional exercises. So far Dr. Balcom has used think-pair-share where she lists a question and allows students a few minutes to think it over and talk to the people next to them, so they can then share their findings with the entire class. She has also used various inclass written exercises for participation points where the last 510 minutes of class is used to complete these. The final example I am going to uses for this second principle of UDL is when Dr. Balcom assigns the class into groups of 3-5 people to answer questions by posting to a discussion on the ELMS canvas website. Of the few examples that I have provided on the second UDL principle, each uses different senses and techniques to get the job done of teaching and ultimately learning the material.
The final principle of UDL is one in which I think Dr. Balcom most excels at, and that is the principle of “engagement”. She has found that hands-on experience provides the most potential for students to participate and remain engaged while learning. She easily accomplishes this through the multitude of experienced guest speakers she invites to class as well as animals for different demonstrations. What student can say that they have animals every week in the classroom as part of a teaching experience? That is what is extremely unique about the course ANSC250. We had a dog in class yesterday for a demonstration on handling and restraint. And just last week we had an American Kennel Club (AKC) certified dog to go over a real-life scenario of common health concerns in companion animals and to engage students in recommending health care preventatives. Dr. Balcom has also given surveys out on ELMS for extra credit in order to get feedback from students. They always respond with expressive compliments on their maintained engagement in and out of the classroom due to the uniqueness of this Scholarship in Practice course.
When it comes to evaluating Dr. Balcom as a professor, I believe she exudes almost all of the qualities we went over in the first week of this education course. Dr. Balcom definitely shows that she cares about the students and will listen to their concerns. Recently, students have been having trouble with the online pre-class quizzes, especially when it comes to calculating nutritional requirements. Dr. Balcom in turn has offered more practice problems available online in the form of extra credit after we went over all the student difficulties in class with calculating these requirements. She often will say “hint, hint…” in class when she wants students to put emphasis on a certain topic when it comes to the exam. This explicitly allows students to know what Dr. Balcom will be specifically looking for on exams. Out of all my professors I have had at the University of Maryland, Dr. Balcom is one of few who everyday demonstrates and expresses her feelings for her students and ways to make the class a more enjoyable experience. In all honesty, Dr. Balcom’s continued modifications to her courses and ongoing enhancement of class material leaves me to question where exactly I would recommend applying more UDL in her class. If I had to suggest a modification to the course for the purpose of enhancing UDL however, I would suggest to Dr. Balcom that she should utilize PowerPoint presentations in a lecture format in order to represent material in another way. This semester, Dr. Balcom has moved completely away from utilizing a PowerPoint presentation in a traditional lecture college hall to using solely “flipped models”. Although I think this is better learning tool, it does however limit students who learn best through auditory and written visual aids for lectures. I don’t think this would be a terrible idea to suggest to the professor; in fact, I think it would be beneficial to Dr. Balcom when she is teaching more difficult topics such as health management or facility design. All in all, I think she is a scholar professor and I have greatly enjoying my time as one of her UTAs.
This “flipped classroom” is a perfect example of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It entails multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement. Dr. Balcom uses clicker questions, online pre-class reading assignments, in-class participation points, group work, real-life scenarios, pre-class quizzes, think-pair-share exercises, videos, guest speakers, and animals (yes real animals) to class. Each class I have sat in on has been unique and the students never know what to expect. This specifically ties in the UDL principle of multiple means of representation. Dr. Balcom assigns about 4 pre-class readings accompanied by a video or two before each scheduled lesson. Then, Dr. Balcom expands on what the students have previously read/seen in class for the first 1520 minutes of lecture. All those examples combined cover representation in the forms of visual aids, hearing a lecture, and reading relevant material.
When it comes to the second principle of UDL, Dr. Balcom continues to excel. She engages students through multiple means of expression in the everyday classroom setting. The great thing about her, is that she doesn’t rely on one mode of expression or even two or three for that matter. She likes to keep things changing so students can excel in and out of the classroom when it comes to assessing companion animal care. Every class, she includes at least one form of expressional exercises. So far Dr. Balcom has used think-pair-share where she lists a question and allows students a few minutes to think it over and talk to the people next to them, so they can then share their findings with the entire class. She has also used various inclass written exercises for participation points where the last 510 minutes of class is used to complete these. The final example I am going to uses for this second principle of UDL is when Dr. Balcom assigns the class into groups of 3-5 people to answer questions by posting to a discussion on the ELMS canvas website. Of the few examples that I have provided on the second UDL principle, each uses different senses and techniques to get the job done of teaching and ultimately learning the material.
The final principle of UDL is one in which I think Dr. Balcom most excels at, and that is the principle of “engagement”. She has found that hands-on experience provides the most potential for students to participate and remain engaged while learning. She easily accomplishes this through the multitude of experienced guest speakers she invites to class as well as animals for different demonstrations. What student can say that they have animals every week in the classroom as part of a teaching experience? That is what is extremely unique about the course ANSC250. We had a dog in class yesterday for a demonstration on handling and restraint. And just last week we had an American Kennel Club (AKC) certified dog to go over a real-life scenario of common health concerns in companion animals and to engage students in recommending health care preventatives. Dr. Balcom has also given surveys out on ELMS for extra credit in order to get feedback from students. They always respond with expressive compliments on their maintained engagement in and out of the classroom due to the uniqueness of this Scholarship in Practice course.
When it comes to evaluating Dr. Balcom as a professor, I believe she exudes almost all of the qualities we went over in the first week of this education course. Dr. Balcom definitely shows that she cares about the students and will listen to their concerns. Recently, students have been having trouble with the online pre-class quizzes, especially when it comes to calculating nutritional requirements. Dr. Balcom in turn has offered more practice problems available online in the form of extra credit after we went over all the student difficulties in class with calculating these requirements. She often will say “hint, hint…” in class when she wants students to put emphasis on a certain topic when it comes to the exam. This explicitly allows students to know what Dr. Balcom will be specifically looking for on exams. Out of all my professors I have had at the University of Maryland, Dr. Balcom is one of few who everyday demonstrates and expresses her feelings for her students and ways to make the class a more enjoyable experience. In all honesty, Dr. Balcom’s continued modifications to her courses and ongoing enhancement of class material leaves me to question where exactly I would recommend applying more UDL in her class. If I had to suggest a modification to the course for the purpose of enhancing UDL however, I would suggest to Dr. Balcom that she should utilize PowerPoint presentations in a lecture format in order to represent material in another way. This semester, Dr. Balcom has moved completely away from utilizing a PowerPoint presentation in a traditional lecture college hall to using solely “flipped models”. Although I think this is better learning tool, it does however limit students who learn best through auditory and written visual aids for lectures. I don’t think this would be a terrible idea to suggest to the professor; in fact, I think it would be beneficial to Dr. Balcom when she is teaching more difficult topics such as health management or facility design. All in all, I think she is a scholar professor and I have greatly enjoying my time as one of her UTAs.