Resource Links: Part 1

March 16, 2020 / Bill Reynolds, PhD / Tags: aggregated, discipline, covid, connectivity, resource, video grading, grading

Teaching Science

From Kara Lefevre: Wanted to share this resource that I use: HHMI BioInteractive has fantastic, free online tools that are great for teaching biology, ecology, and environmental science including virtual experiments, learning about data analysis, etc: https://www.biointeractive.org

Teaching Math

AMTE is collecting resources for teaching math online on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pg/AMTE.net/posts/?ref=page_internal

Another math-oriented site with some posts about teaching with Zoom: https://primusmath.com/2020/03/14/suddenly-teaching-with-zoom/

Searchable spreadsheets that provide resources by discipline

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bPp_3EIu1nRtha-yD5pfR85Ar3D0R6tP7ykrJtGXixg/edit

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sVI7O3FrFzQFyeiYUQzsGvJWnWMxPY-NedI1kio_OpY/edit#gid=499998950 (spreadsheet that is sortable by discipline)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bETUv-mk1R3zLhiGCCPw8s9ahGvVUKje4kjHY6CkXgE/edit#heading=h.1e7mzr6sqwlp

Grading (from Katie Johnson with an endorsement from a listserv colleague

Katie: I wanted to share with you that Gradescope Complete will be free for the rest of this semester. It is a great alternative to Canvas’s speed grader if people want students to submit hand-written work. If you do a blog post about electronic assignments, it would be a great option! (Katie also found a deal on Zoom for those who are interested. She found a promo code (HAPPY50) and got the first month half off (only $7.50). Microsoft Teams is another video-conferencing option that Lucas Center staff are using, and we can get you up and running with it if you’d like help.

From a listserv member about Gradescope

I used Gradescope last semester for the first time and I doubt that I'll ever go back to grading paper quizzes and exams. Basically, you scan quizzes and exams that students have completed into pdfs and then grade them online. There are a number of useful features, like the ability to change points on rubric items after grading (so you don't have to curve an exam unless you want to), detailed reports on performance by question, and no need to get paper to TAs for grading. If the instructor wishes to set it up, students can also see their graded exams online (that is, passing exams back is done online) along with an explanation of the scoring. Students can then request a regrade.

In the current environment, students could take a quiz or exam, do a lab report, etc., and then scan it, and upload it into Gradescope for grading. One unexpected benefit to me is that it was much quicker to develop a rubric the corresponded to student answers and scoring (typically by

question) is quicker as well. Gradescope apparently can group common formula answers into groups and grade them together. That is, one set of students answered a math question with 2x+y, another with x+2y, and then you grade these two groups. Gradescope has videos on YouTube that explains it nicely and looks like Crowdmark does too.

Connectivity for students who don't have it

FCC agreement stating that providers will waive late fees, not cutoff service for lack of payment, and open hot-spots.
Comcast COVID-19 response: offers free WiFi for 2 months to low income families plus all Xfinity hot-spots are free to the public during this time
Charter Free Internet offer for 2 months
AT&T COVID-19 response: offers open hot-spots, unlimited data to existing customers, and $10/month plans to low income families
Verizon COVID-19 response: no special offers, but following the FCC agreement.
Sprint COVID-19 response: follows FCC agreement, provides unlimited data to existing customers, and, starting Tuesday, 3/17/2020, will allow all handsets to enable hot-spots for 60 days at no extra charge (I expect others will follow).
T-Mobile COVID-19 response: follows FCC agreement, plus unlimited data to existing customers, and, coming soon, will allow all handsets to enable hot-spots for 60 days at no extra charge (I expect others will follow).