Tonight I curled up with a sick toddler and watched another 2020 Lilly Conference session. The title caught my attention: “Extensive use of Guest Lectures for Enhanced Student Engagement” by Drs. Danielle Collins, Heather Maness, and Iske Larkin from the University of Florida. They presented on their online courses on aquatic animal health. This unique program enrolls undergraduates, graduate students, veterinary students, and professionals. The three online courses are similar in their design: lectures to watch online, reading materials each week, homework or quizzes, term papers, and Q&A sessions that happen every two or three weeks. To enhance networking, sessions are recorded and speaker contact information is shared. Importantly, for evaluation, there are numerous opportunities for student feedback during and after the semester, including an end of semester anonymous discussion board. The courses are designed to mainly feature 25-30 guest speakers coordinated by Dr. Larkin. I can’t imagine the logistics to coordinate recordings, Q&A live sessions, and updates from experts in the aquatics health field. Dr. Larkin not only collects presentations and coordinates the courses but also creates assessments! The Q&A sessions are recorded but synchronous live sessions, participants earn extra credit. The aims of this beautiful presentation with fantastic photographs were to present data on the evaluation of the course from 2011-2019, for a total of 1120 students in three courses. Dr. Collins spoke about the analysis and coding of the qualitative data from eight years! Discussion post feedback was analyzed, and three main themes emerged. Students valued learning from experts in the field. The second positive theme was that students were stimulated by lecturer diversity, appreciating the different experts and material. Students did struggle with lack of lecture style continuity, but this theme was found only in 11/280 comments. The majority of participants identified the intended benefits of extensive use of guest lecturers. One concern voiced by the presenters was the low attendance at synchronous sessions. They mentioned being explicit about expectations and a course introduction that helps with buy-in could be useful. The logistical considerations for course such as these are considerable! Addressing presenter expectations early on, including sharing of slides and length/format of session, is very important and needed early on. An added challenge is how to update presentations and encourage guests to update. Overall the feedback by participants seems to indicate they value the guest diversity and expertise. I have been thinking about having several guest speakers for the BIT 295 Biotechnology and Sustainability course, and now have some new considerations for planning this! I have to make sure the expectations for guest presentations are clear and will likely have to create all the assessments and a study guide to help students identify learning objectives and critical points. I enjoyed this session and the beautiful slide design. The work involved in scheduling and streamlining all these guests for three courses is intimidating; however, students perceive the benefits of variety and networking with existes. I hope we can offer a similar, but smaller, component of guest experts in 295!
