In June, during the third Undergraduate Educator Network (UEN) webinar of the year, three faculty members provided examples of how they increase active learning and are able to get quick feedback on student understanding by incorporating electronic tools in classrooms. The UEN webinar webpage includes the recording of this webinar, “The Use of Technology to Teach Toxicology and Related Disciplines,” as well as the recordings and presentation slides for the other two webinars, “Education and Enrichment Activities for Educators” and “Having It All: Teaching, Research, and Service At a Small Liberal Arts College: A Toxicologist’s Perspective.” The series was moderated by Joshua Gray of the Undergraduate Education Subcommittee.
In the most recent webinar Angela Slitt, University of Rhode Island, discussed the use of Twitter® in her “Grand Challenges” course designed to engage college freshman in the problems of toxicology and how to communicate toxicology to the broader community.
Christine Curran, Northern Kentucky University, discussed several rapid response systems including clickers, quizzing systems included in campus-wide course content software packages, and even some low tech methods such as colored cards.
Emily Notch, of Dartmouth and Western New England University, compared two free polling platforms, Socrative and Poll Everywhere, which she has used in her classes and at the In Vitro Luncheon at the 2014 SOT Annual Meeting. She also highlighted how she used the exit polling at the conclusion of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) group activities.
The Undergraduate Education Subcommittee welcomes feedback on the value of these webinars for toxicology faculty and is developing plans for the next year.