tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43807335757622693672024-02-20T19:12:09.826-08:00Science, Food, Etc.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-18488271359027078482016-03-17T12:05:00.003-07:002016-03-18T05:56:38.686-07:00Where does scientific society money go, and the future of open-access<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There's been a bit of a storm on <a href="https://twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> recently about PLoS, open
access, and scientific societies. One underlying issue seems to be what the
"return on investment" is from publishing in different venues.</div>
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I've held leadership positions in 3 major societies over the
past 5 years (<a href="http://evolutionsociety.org/" target="_blank">Society for the Study of Evolution</a>, <a href="http://www.genetics-gsa.org/" target="_blank">Genetics Society of America</a>,
and <a href="http://www.theaga.org/index.htm" target="_blank">American Genetic Association</a>), so I re-examined the reports I got from
those societies to compare/ contrast. I won't present exact numbers here, since that's
inappropriate and since I'm looking at a single year's report
(2012 or 2014) for each society rather than a multi-year running average.</div>
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All three societies were (at least as of those reports)
financially quite healthy, each with reserves well over $1 million that produce
some investment income. All three, at least in those years, were saving more
than spending. Much of society yearly income in all cases was from their flagship journal (and specifically institutional subscriptions of that journal). I should add-- while colleagues are often critical of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/16/universities-get-poor-value-academic-journal-publishing-firms" target="_blank">price gouging</a> by publishers like <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/" target="_blank">Wiley-Blackwell</a>, well over half of the
proceeds from publication may go to the scientific societies, <b>so we scientists & scientific societies are
the gougers</b>. (The publishers are just our hit-men.) The annual conferences produced a very small net profit for two societies (SSE,
and GSA, though the latter sometimes loses money in some specific organismal
meetings in specific years) but a net loss for the third (AGA, which keeps
an outlay for the conference in its yearly budget).<o:p></o:p></div>
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What do they spend their journal income on? Clearly some of it is used to keep publishing cheap for scientists. All societies have some other shared expenses like stipends for some editorial (or occasionally officer)
positions, travel for the board/ council members, etc. In the year I examined, SSE
spent a lot on student awards (over $100K on students
alone) as well as some on other awards, various educational initiatives and annual meeting symposia. More
recently, SSE has taken on large expenditures for funding outreach efforts and a workshop for trainees on preparing for diverse careers. GSA maintains multiple staff (some
shared with other societies) so most of the expenses went there, but the staff work
on their journals, spearhead education & outreach efforts, communications &
policy activities, etc. GSA also gave out <a href="http://www.genetics-gsa.org/awards/" target="_blank">various awards</a> both to distinguished established
researchers as well as trainees, as well as funds for the diverse expenses
mentioned above (e.g., board travel). AGA spends a ton on "<a href="http://www.theaga.org/news-detail.php?news=11" target="_blank">special event awards</a>" which fund workshops and symposia at other meetings, and also
spends on its own annual conference. AGA also more recently started sizable
"<a href="http://www.theaga.org/news-detail.php?news=10" target="_blank">Ecological, Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics (EECG) Awards</a>"
for graduate students and postdocs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The flagship journal from each of these three societies
(<i><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1558-5646?globalMessage=0" target="_blank">Evolution</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.genetics.org/" target="_blank">Genetics</a></i>, and <i><a href="http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/" target="_blank">Journal of Heredity</a></i>) is not open-access, but an
open-access option can be purchased for a particular submission at the time of acceptance. Uptake on that is low-- I think under
20%. Each journal makes or will make their old issues freely available online
(<i>Evolution </i>does not currently but will do this for issues >2 years old
beginning in 2017). Publication costs are moderate (<i>Genetics</i>) or even waived
for short papers in these journals (<i>Evolution </i>for members, <i>J Heredity</i> for
everyone).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here's what these journals and societies do now-- they get
large sums of money from institutional journal subscriptions (which cost $500-$1200 annually) and use those
funds both to make publication cheap to the scientific community and to provide
several services (including grants) for the scientific community. Libraries
pay in order to grant access to their communities. What this means,
by definition, is that access is not "free", and if a reader does not
use one of these libraries (e.g., they do not work for a big university), then
they have to wait perhaps 2 years to see this published science or have to pay a one-time
use fee.</div>
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The open-access movement argues this setup is unacceptable.
Federal grant dollars often support the research (let's focus on federally funded USA-based scientists and USA-based readers for simplicity
here), so as a citizen who "paid" for the research with their tax
dollars does not get instant free access to the results of that research, but
has to either wait 6 months to 2 years (depending on journal) or pay again to see sooner.
Even that is not exactly true always, given the growth of preprint servers like <a href="http://arxiv.org/" target="_blank">arXiv</a>
or <a href="http://biorxiv.org/" target="_blank">bioRxiv</a>-- the core science may be available immediately and free, but the edits
from the peer review process and copy-editing are not. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Could these society journals go full open-access? Sure, but it's
non-trivial since the funding currently garnered from libraries would be cut. With
such a great drop in income, there would be two choices: raise prices elsewhere
(by hefty open-access fees for submissions and/ or making conferences more expensive so they
are profit-generating) and/ or cut services (i.e., reducing student
grants, education/ outreach activities, and/ or funding workshops for
trainees). Some institutional libraries may still also support open-access publishing
(e.g., <a href="https://scholarworks.duke.edu/open-access/cope/" target="_blank">my institution provides such funds</a>), but these funds are often limited
and run out (e.g., as of when I'm writing this in March 2016, my institution's open-access funds for fiscal
year 2015-2016 are already depleted). <o:p></o:p></div>
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How does PLoS manage? PLoS doesn't provide all the same
services to the community that a scientific society does. I say this not as a criticism of PLoS-- they
function solely for publication (and do it extremely well) whereas societies
now function for facilitating publication while also providing diverse other
services. I'm thrilled PLoS is running a profit now-- they are providing a
valuable vehicle for publication and have been leaders in the move toward
openness in science. They are also a business, so they <b><i>need </i></b>to run a profit--
again, our scientific societies are all running profits, too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Basically, we have set up a situation where any major move
to open-access by a profitable society journal bears risk of a major reduction
in other services to which the community has grown accustomed. Is this risk worth it? Here, I will go out on a limb and
give a personal opinion rather than just an "option." I would argue
yes with a caveat. I feel that societies have no greater obligation than to
maximize the dissemination of science, even if that means accelerating access
by 1-2 years. Giving out student grants or funding workshops & outreach
events-- those are all very valuable, but their impact is typically limited to direct
participants. The "potential" impact of accelerating access to all
the literature (both inside and outside the scientific community) seems greater
to me. Making science available immediately is the democratization of knowledge. Further, moving to open-access removes the community's reliance on libraries, which has always been a source of financial uncertainty-- it provides the opportunity to go to what I think may be a more stable model, even if less lucrative. The caveat I would add is that there would have to be support for publication
costs for scientists with limited grants... I would hate for science to not be
able to be published in X journal because the research team did not have (sufficient)
funding. I realize the consequence may be <b>some </b>reduction of other society
services (and certainly I would not advocate those going to zero), but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I realize not all will agree with my opinion above, and I respect that the other side is quite valid. I also do NOT argue that a move by society journals to open-access be taken hastily-- clearly, we need to assess the potential financial consequences and be prepared to react if there will be some losses. Nonetheless, I hope this stream of consciousness is useful or at
least thought-provoking. Please feel free to disagree, but please be nice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-22814579219887765822016-02-21T05:50:00.000-08:002016-02-21T05:50:00.365-08:00Dear Reviewer 2...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Dear Reviewer 2:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I thank you for the review of my manuscript, though it was
rather brief. I understand you think this "isn't the strength of advance
necessary to publish" in the journal to which I submitted, but why did you
take 6 weeks to decide this when the advance was described in the abstract,
which you saw before agreeing to review? I would have been happier with more
feedback on why you think this is "obvious" since I could not find
other papers saying it, at least in this context. Could you please point me to
some examples? With more detail, I could have discussed this with the grad
student first-author, when she sat across the table from me with eyes puffy,
red, and watery and tried to think about whether academia is a good fit for her
in the long-term after receiving such a snippy review. I guess you were busy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dear Reviewer 2:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I thank you for the review of my manuscript. I appreciate
that you think my conclusion is not yet rock-solid, and there are more
experiments to be done. I agree-- I said this myself in the manuscript, too. On
the other hand, this already took 3 years of work by multiple people, and the
inference is quite strong, far more likely than the alternatives. I did send
this to a discipline-specific journal rather than a broad journal, too. Might
there be some value to disseminating this idea and the support garnered so far now
(as well as appropriate qualifiers), so others can learn of it and think about
it? My grant is up for renewal, my collaborator is up for tenure, and the
postdoc who did the work is on the job market. The next experiment that you say
is needed requires another 3+ years and hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it
may not even work. I guess none of that matters more than only 100% rock-solid interpretations
getting published.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dear Reviewer 2:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I thank you for the review of my grant proposal. I see you
have lots of concerns. You say you think my approach won't work, but people use
it all the time for studies like this-- I cite many such papers in the Methods.
I thought I listed the potential outcomes and interpretations, too, but you
didn't comment on that table-- did you see it? You also note that it's unclear
how well results in my system will extend to other systems. Is that not true
for any experimental study in any system? Isn't that the value of having many
studies on any phenomenon, and then doing a meta-analysis later? I wish you had
elaborated on these facets before submitting your review-- I could then relay them to the people I'm
laying off so they know why they're losing their jobs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dear Reviewer 2: <o:p></o:p></div>
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I thank you for the review of my grant proposal. Your
comment that the advances from it would be "incremental" stung a
little. No one has tested this hypothesis before, ever. What hurt even more was
that you described why it's incremental in such vague terms-- did you actually
read what I proposed, or did you write your review based on the Aims page? Those
things you said are "well known" are indeed well known, but that's
not what I proposed to examine-- I was digging much deeper assuming those to be
true. You also criticized my proposed data analyses as "simplistic"
but did not elaborate what you mean-- are they failing to test the hypothesis
merely because they are simple? I worked on this proposal for months, even
missing out on a vacation with my wife & kids, but I confess, I feel like
you flipped through the proposal in minutes before writing this review. I guess
I'll miss the next vacation, too, as I try prepare a new proposal and divine what went wrong with the last one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dear Reviewer 2: <o:p></o:p></div>
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I know you feel you are doing your duty to improve science. I
know reviewing is a thankless task and takes away from more visible progress,
like doing your own science. I know other reviewer 2's have stabbed you from
behind their cloaks of anonymity, and perhaps you even think one of them was me
(and you may be right). I know you think your science is better than how it's evaluated
and better than some science that gets published/ funded. Perhaps you think
that your lab's science is better than mine. Maybe. But please know this. Some
of my results may seem "obvious" to you, and some may still be
incomplete/ in-progress. I will try some risky projects, and some of my results
may not extrapolate. I'm merely human, just like you. And I have been reviewer 2. But I'm going to try to
remember all of these experiences so as to try to not be "just like
you" in the review process. In that regard, I thank you for reminding
me of the human face behind scientific products.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p>(Note: These are all based on experiences over many years, not very recent events.)</o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-22463317831022362222014-10-15T10:41:00.001-07:002014-10-15T10:41:26.809-07:00When do we REALLY have too many PhDs, and what then?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWRDFfW6ZfQYoNzXRpPZeJ3aJnrdOh3jj5Rjvy-aPDS09n14w_2MQuB5_3BVsx0Vxhoe0-ZNnLVfg6OG3of6olYTpqvF_8WNteC22xb6YZVNAgEs5Lqxf1yxvfUCJfV86duGZ0wId6vYY/s1600/TooManyPhDs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWRDFfW6ZfQYoNzXRpPZeJ3aJnrdOh3jj5Rjvy-aPDS09n14w_2MQuB5_3BVsx0Vxhoe0-ZNnLVfg6OG3of6olYTpqvF_8WNteC22xb6YZVNAgEs5Lqxf1yxvfUCJfV86duGZ0wId6vYY/s1600/TooManyPhDs.jpg" height="238" width="320" /></a></div>
Recently, NPR ran a suite of stories (<a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/09/09/345289127/when-scientists-give-up" target="_blank">sample1</a>, <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/09/16/343539024/too-few-university-jobs-for-americas-young-scientists" target="_blank">sample2</a>) on biomedical PhDs either leaving academia or not having academic jobs available to them. I teach a class to entering PhD students, and many of them expressed concern about both the general fear being propagated by these stories as well as fear regarding their own prospects post-PhD.<br />
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Meanwhile everyone with or pursuing a PhD has an opinion on the value of a PhD, whether there really is a crisis of too many PhDs, etc. Some describe a virtual <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2012/nov/23/running-science-ponzi-scheme" target="_blank">pyramid/ ponzi scheme</a> that's existed for decades, <a href="http://caseybergman.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/the-logistics-of-scientific-growth-in-the-21st-century/" target="_blank">wherein growth in number of scientists in general or PhDs in particular is unsustainable</a>. Others persistently argue that "<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/sep/15/university-producing-too-many-science-phd" target="_blank">The skills ... are useful in many professions, and our society needs to be more, not less, scientifically and technically literate.</a>" Still others say that the system should continue to take in many PhDs since <a href="http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e04901" target="_blank">we never know which will be the most successful</a>. (I suppose there's an implicit "... and to hell with the losers who don't get the jobs they anticipated" in this last point of view.)<br />
<br />Elements of truth exist in each, so let's start with facts, then statements of the problem, and finally possible paths forward.<br /><br />1) <b>FACT</b>-- right now, most science PhDs will not get tenure-track university jobs (for whatever reason). The figure I see often for biomedical sciences is ~15% nationwide. It's easy for elite universities to assume that <i><b>THEIR </b></i>graduates will fall into that fortunate 15%. We recently collected data for Biology PhDs from Duke University, specifically seeking ones that were not in postdoctoral stints. For our program, indeed, the fraction of non-postdocs in tenure-track jobs was around 50% over the last decade. Of the rest, a subset were in non-tenure-track jobs, and the rest had diverse careers-- research scientists, editors, writers, scientific sales, etc. Hence, even from elite private research I universities, a large fraction of the science PhDs will not get tenure-track university jobs (for whatever reason).<br /><br />2) <b>FACT</b>-- research faculty have an intrinsic conflict-of-interest in considering whether there are "too many" PhDs. We faculty are judged by our productivity, which is partially (wholly?) associated with the talented trainees we bring into our labs. Turning down the tap of incoming PhD students could reduce our potential productivity, and thus our research program & career advancement prospects. <br /><br />3) <b>ARGUMENT</b>-- <b>there must be SOME hypothetical "maximum" number of PhDs</b> after which point there are substantially more PhDs than necessary to fill jobs requiring that level of training. One of the points used against this argument is a general "more education is good". Sure, if time & money were no object, then yes, perhaps everyone could benefit from a PhD. Similarly, some sell the skills that one gets in a PhD as "useful in almost any profession." This is clearly true in a trivial sense-- pursuing a PhD is more valuable than sitting at home and watching <a href="https://www.netflix.com/?locale=en-US" target="_blank">Netflix</a> for 6 years. But for someone who'll be either a base-level staff scientist or general administrator (or perhaps leaving science entirely), does it make more sense to get a PhD, or to spend 2 years on a masters degree and 4 years advancing their experience (and stature) within their chosen career that does not require a PhD?<br /><br />So, with the above points in mind, I ask the first question. When do we REALLY have too many PhDs? Have we already passed that point? Are we coming close?<br /><br />Here's some data (albeit crude) from a few years ago separated by country:<br /><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110420/full/472276a.html">http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110420/full/472276a.html</a><br />Note, for the US, they mention specifically "Figures suggest that more doctorates are taking jobs that do not require a PhD."<br />
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Some faculty toss out the word "industry" as a solution to the small number of tenure-track positions available, as though companies are struggling to get PhDs and these are easy jobs to snag (and as though these faculty even know what "industry" means). While <a href="http://www.npr.org/2014/10/14/356045138/college-facilities-strained-by-boom-in-petroleum-engineering" target="_blank">some areas</a> may be booming, many biomedical industry jobs too are quite competitive, and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-pushes-for-more-scientists-but-the-jobs-arent-there/2012/07/07/gJQAZJpQUW_story.html" target="_blank">some PhDs who TRY to go into industry have difficulty getting in the door</a>.<br /><br />With that in mind, I ask the second question-- what do we do when we really do have too many PhDs? Turn down the pipeline at that point? It would already be too late for those who went through the pipeline that we purported to be mentoring. Some have argued we should reduce support for postdocs, but I think that is foolish since it "strands" people who already invested in a PhD.<br /><br />Here are my thoughts on solutions, and I argue that these need to happen now, not later:<br /><br />A) It's nothing short of criminal for graduate programs and advisers to fail to prepare students for diverse career possibilities. Some trainees may even <i><b>prefer </b></i>(gasp!) a non-academic route, not because it'd be any less competitive but because they prefer the work. How do we prepare such students? Some of the skills overlap between some non-academic and academic positions, such as project management, creatively thinking about science, rigor in science, some hands-on techniques, etc. But some aspects are not emphasized in PhD programs because they're less critical for securing research faculty positions than for other careers--developing a portfolio of writing pieces aimed at the general public, interfacing and networking with industry representatives, getting "real" teaching experience (a TA-ship is not "teaching"), etc. <br />
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We must engage students early in their PhD training to think seriously about their directions and advise them on how to best-prepare for their chosen routes. Implementing only a "one day workshop on diverse careers" is a pathetic solution to a real problem. The <a href="http://myidp.sciencecareers.org/" target="_blank">myIDP questionnaire</a> is a good starting point. Longer-term programmatic solutions need to be in place, as well as individual faculty efforts. For example, I now insist all of my PhD students get trained in at least rudimentary computer programming/ bioinformatics-- this is useful to them in many careers and certainly broadens the careers from which they can choose post-PhD.<br /><br />What I say above is necessary but perhaps not sufficient-- it assumes there are enough non-academic (or non-tenure-track) positions for all PhDs.<br /><br />B) We must invest more in <a href="http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2012_03_30/caredit.a1200036" target="_blank">Masters programs</a>. I'm a big advocate of the PhD having great value, but a research thesis MS also has value, brings more breadth to one's education and job prospects, and requires far less time. <br /><br />The last is potentially the most controversial:<br /><br />C) PhD granting institutions may need to begin a serious discussion about scaling back the number of PhD students they admit. I stress that the elite research universities should take the lead in this and not presume that Northeastern West Virginia State University (a fictional school) should scale their PhD program back before, e.g., Yale University does. I'm not positive that the community is at the point that we must scale back PhD student numbers, but dismissing this option without a serious discussion and exploration means we're waiting for the catastrophe to happen before we are willing to even assess. Let me reiterate point #2 above-- <b>we faculty at research universities have an intrinsic conflict-of-interest</b>, so we should be even more vigilant to make sure we're not sacrificing those we claim to be mentoring.<br /><br />Finally, let me close with a note to current PhD-seekers and postdocs.Yes, a lot of your mentors (including me) had it easier than you do. But don't despair prematurely or give up. <b>There are still jobs out there, both academic and non-academic.</b> Pick the direction you want to go (academic or non-academic), find out what you need to do to both secure and succeed in that direction, and pursue it wholeheartedly. Get advice from both formal and informal advisers-- <b>take initiative on asking for this advice</b>. Don't stop pursuing your dream because <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/09/16/348715880/a-scientists-journey-from-beer-to-microbiology-to-bourbon-making" target="_blank">NPR interviewed someone who gave up a similar dream and is doing something different</a>. At the same time, diversify your portfolio. Build some skills that may open what you perceive as an appealing "plan B." The reason isn't for assuming you won't get your plan A job, but is because it's always better to have options than not. And don't overly fear being actually "unemployed"-- while clearly a handful of PhDs have struggled to get "any" job, <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf14310/" target="_blank">the statistics on unemployment for PhD-holders</a> are not so bad-- certainly they're far better than for those who had a college degree only. It's almost unequivocal that you got (or will get) <b>something </b>for that time investment in a PhD. In the meantime, if you hear people who've held faculty positions for a decade or longer saying nothing's really different, just know that your successes will have been harder fought than theirs. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-49121501936568069282014-01-03T06:02:00.000-08:002014-01-06T05:14:38.025-08:00Putting College Under the MOOC Microscope<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Another year draws to an end, but not before <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/12/31/258420151/the-online-education-revolution-drifts-off-course" target="_blank">yet another"MOOCs aren't as good as college" story slips into the media (NPR, in this case)</a>. Amazing
insights are present there, like that MOOCs don't provide as much personal,
face-to-face interaction as one can potentially get in a college class. Wow, no
one could ever have figured that out. Also, a very small fraction of people who
sign up for a class (requiring in some cases literally one button-click of a
mouse on a website) don't view all the lectures or complete all the
assessments. Well, blow me down. And the conclusion in the article? "We
have a lousy product."</div>
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<br /></div>
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Lousy??? I'm really fed up with the anti-MOOC movement,
especially when it comes from within academia. Despite my snide sarcasm above,
I do appreciate that much of this continued MOOC pushback is a response to the
MOOC overhype that both preceded and overlapped it. What many MOOC dissenters
seem to miss is that most MOOC advocates (including myself) never argued they
are a "replacement" for a college education and experience. No way--
not even close. The media and a very few zealots played that line up, and they
were wrong from day 1.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But let's turn the tables a bit. Let's put "in-person"
college experiences under the microscope used for MOOCs. Before that, we must
realize that we cannot compare completion rates for a college class and a free
online product that fails to provide credentialing. Especially for
introductory-level science courses (the kind I teach in genetics and evolution),
the vast majority of students in college attend classes for credentialing rather
than to satisfy a keen interest in the specific topics. A few months ago, I
asked a room full of college students in a workshop, "How many of you look
forward to 2 or more of your classes most weeks?" The answer-- <b>one</b>. Keep
in mind all of the students there take 4-5 classes at a time, so the vast majority
do not look forward to even half of what they're signed up for. Again, they are
signed up for most classes because they're "required", either
directly or to fulfill some sort of requirement or credit. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">If the students fail to complete the "in-person" college class, not only do they fail to
fulfill the requirement and fail to get the credit, but they often have the
black-mark of an "F" or a "W" on their permanent record.
That's simply untrue for MOOCs in all respects-- if you dislike a MOOC, you
simply stop watching without consequence.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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How can we compare these experiences fairly then? MOOCs are
like what students would be willing to look at as "extra," and with
no consequence for failing to complete. I looked up some statistics from my
on-campus class last spring as a comparison-- every week, I provided online
resources (often podcasts or pdfs) that were truly "extra"... the
resources were available on the same webpage as required materials for each
week, and the resources complemented what was discussed in the lectures. There
were 452 students enrolled. The very first such resource was viewed 100 times. How
does this (100/452) compare to the MOOC criticism of "About half who registered for
a class ever viewed a lecture"? Again, these were students already in a
college class on this subject, and it was material pre-identified for them as
relevant. If you look at the supplements from the end of the semester, the
views are in the low single digits (potentially just reflecting the times I'd open
the files to confirm they uploaded). How does this compare with the MOOC
criticism of "completion rates averaged just 4%"?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don't blame these on-campus students for the low uptake at
all. They have career aspirations (in my case, mostly pre-med), and frankly,
we've placed them into a situation where their grades matter more than what they
care to learn about. If they spend time viewing my supplementary materials,
that time is not spent studying for organic chemistry or physics. For every B
or lower grade they get, their choices of medical schools become more limited,
so they need to triage. And maybe they don't even really care about my topics,
but they're forced to take my class by major requirements. None of this is true
for MOOCs. Further, <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2013/12/grades-what-are-they-good-for.html" target="_blank">as I've argued previously</a>, many college classes effectively
focus on stratifying students (the essence of a "curve"), and far too
little ensuring that all students who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i>
to be engaged and learn are successful in doing so. MOOCs don't concern
themselves with stratification at all-- it's all about engaging and learning
for an interested audience. I wonder if college was once that way, centuries
ago.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back to MOOCs, let's drop the percentages and look at just
the final numbers. I'll use mine as an example, but I suspect you'd get similar
numbers in any of them. <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/geneticsevolution" target="_blank">My MOOC</a> ran twice. Even if we pretend that only those
students who completed every assessment and got a passing grade at the end were
the only ones who reaped any benefit, that number still comes to ~4000
students. 4000 people from around the world quantifiably learned about genetics
and evolution as a result of this MOOC. Presumably there are other students who
didn't complete it but found some part of the experience personally rewarding
or engaging, and they have a greater appreciation for the topic. And best of
all, none, NOT ONE, of those 4000+ "had" to do it-- this was
quenching a thirst for knowledge, not jumping through a pre-MCAT or
biology-major hoop. I'd like to see more "lousy products" like that
in the world. How many of those students enrolled would have gone to a local
college instead to satisfy this particular thirst? My guess is less than 1%, if
any. Finally, I like the thought experiment of what would happen if I just told
my on-campus class from day 1, "You'll all get A's no matter what,"
(obviating the credentialing)-- how many would still be in my classroom three
months later? How many years would I have to run my on-campus class under that
condition to get 4000 students to have continued to month 3 of my class? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, MOOCs were overhyped. They are no panacea. They don't have face-to-face interactions with knowledgeable faculty and able other students. They don't
invalidate college or provide a serious alternative. They don't provide
"education for all." Most of the enrolled students already have
higher education, so MOOCs' contributions to equalizing opportunity are limited
(if for no other reason than because of variable internet access). And they are
misused by some reckless college administrations. But before we cast any more
stones at MOOCs for what they "aren't", let's have colleges take a serious look in the mirror
themselves at what they've become, and see how badly their faces have broken out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Personally, MOOCs have helped me see deficits in
standard on-campus college experiences. I think the overall college experience
needs to be rethought in a big way. It's NOT that I think MOOCs are better or
are replacing college, but they highlight college's obsessions with course
requirements, with grades, with credentialing, and with hoops of various sorts
in the on-campus experience. Unlike on-campus college classes, MOOCs are
hoop-free and purely educational: people enroll because they think they want to
learn the subject being taught, and they continue in the class if and when they
stay engaged in the material and seek to commit their time to it. What a
concept that would be for an on-campus introductory science classroom.</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-46652456345983609812013-12-20T06:47:00.000-08:002014-10-15T10:54:07.140-07:00Grants and the measure of a scientist's 'worth'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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All academic scientists worry about grants. In my weekly
lunches with other faculty, that is often one of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the first points they raise as a source of
concern. I anxiously await now a score (if any) from my most recent <a href="http://nih.gov/">NIH</a>
submission. Some colleagues of mine reported either euphoria associated with
their recent <a href="http://nsf.gov/">NSF</a> funding or sadness with recent NSF declines. Part of the worry is
about keeping the science going that we want to do. Part is about not laying
off good employees. But sadly, a big part is "image" to the
university and to peers. Administrations (and often peers) ask frequently about
how big particular grants are and then implicitly or explicitly rank the
faculty member based on that amount.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We use dollar amounts of grant funding to assess faculty all
the time: for hires, yearly performance raises, tenure and promotion, etc. Part
of this is reasonable-- grant funding is competitive, so in an ideal world,
someone who has good, creative ideas for feasible, high-impact research should
acquire grant funding more easily than someone who lacks such ideas. Further,
virtually no research is "free"-- one needs salary for themselves and
their labs. That research may be subsidized by the university (as part of our
"9-month" salary and TA-ships for students), but it's still not free.
Hence, we need money to sustain our research.</div>
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<br /></div>
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That said, many readers will agree we've become too grant-obsessed
in our assessments at all levels. New faculty members are immediately dubbed
"successful" or "hotshots" if they acquire funding early,
whereas early publication of high-impact research in a big journal often has a
lesser effect. I recall once (I'll be vague for confidentiality) when 2
assistant professors were up for tenure simultaneously. One had multiple papers
in the most premier science journal and multiple others elsewhere, and with a consistent
publication rate along his years, but had acquired very little funding. The
other acquired federal funding early but didn't publish anything until they put
out a small number of papers in the year they were up for tenure (and none is
journals as prestigious as the first). The faculty tenure vote was more
strongly favorable for the second than the first, citing
"sustainability" as a concern for the first.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Let me use an analogy. Funding is like gas to make the
engine of research run. However, comparing faculty based on grant dollars is
like comparing two cars in how far they'll go based on how much gas is in their
tank. Many scientists are like <a href="http://www.toyota.com/prius-plug-in/#!/Welcome">Toyota Prius plug-ins</a> (beyond their interest
in reducing emissions)-- yes, they need gas, but they can go very, very far
with a small amount (~58mpg). Other scientists may be more like an 8-cylinder
Chevrolet Camaro (~14mpg), or even a coach bus (~6mpg). There is even empirical evidence that very heavily funded labs, on average, produce less per dollar than mid-sized labs (<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101116/full/468356a.html">ref</a>).</div>
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<br /></div>
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Again, research isn't free, and sustainability is a concern,
so we should not ignore funding. However, I will argue that IF we are to use grant
dollars as part of a measure of evaluation, <b>we should simultaneously consider
that investigator's track record of "research efficiency per dollar"</b> (like gas
mileage). <b>How many impactful new insights have they published per dollar?</b>
Shouldn't we be in awe of those who publish high impact work while using up
less taxpayer money (and thus leave more for other research)? Shouldn't we
consider research sustainability not just by how much you have, but how well
you'll do in the inevitable situation in which you have little research funding?
There are multiple ways to publish in <i><a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/">PLoS Biology</a>, <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a></i>,<i> </i>or <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html"><i>Nature</i></a>--<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>two are "scale" (you do something that's
slightly creative but on a grander scale than anyone else has done before--
clearly expensive) and "innovation" (you come up with a truly creative idea and
test it-- perhaps not expensively). It's time we spent more effort giving
attention and reward to the latter of those two approaches, especially now when
grant dollars are preciously limited.</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-23362283435363879572013-12-02T03:13:00.003-08:002013-12-03T00:34:10.354-08:00Grades (What are they good for?)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Teachers (college or K-12) always complain about grading,
and perhaps even more about student whining about grades (see <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html" target="_blank">this example</a>). Biology professors,
for example, often complain about <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/top-5-reasons-t/" target="_blank">students who intend to go into medicine being"obsessed" with grades</a>. Given the challenges of the grade-awarding process,
I've been reflecting on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why </i>we grade
lately, and I welcome thoughts from all of you. Personally, I find that this
question segues into a more fundamental question of the purpose of formal
education.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6H0PzDVbkni9fMku2jJycXPxRqp-Qi3tGxZm3Ipn9h8vwYwls8_gN92aIBZzqBPY0n3CbAiu3-olMPyuHKUD1QdfS3utfd-J1JyZxAY0wfiVRl7a6FpTTjIcoOJy6TdaiTmE-Z7z6lc/s1600/pen-162124_640.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6H0PzDVbkni9fMku2jJycXPxRqp-Qi3tGxZm3Ipn9h8vwYwls8_gN92aIBZzqBPY0n3CbAiu3-olMPyuHKUD1QdfS3utfd-J1JyZxAY0wfiVRl7a6FpTTjIcoOJy6TdaiTmE-Z7z6lc/s320/pen-162124_640.png" width="295" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most teachers would quickly suggest that we give grades to
assess student understanding of the material covered. Some students appreciate
virtually all the nuances of the material (and thus get an "A"),
others have a very basic understanding (perhaps getting a "C"), and
still others fail to understand the material (grade "F"). <i>The grade
thus provides feedback to the student and to the institution about how well
they grasped the material covered</i>. Fair enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, let me follow with another question-- why do teachers
teach material to students? Presumably, it's because the material is
worthwhile, and it is thus desirable for the student to learn it. If the
purpose is for students to understand and appreciate the content, then an
"F" indicates a failure not just of the student but of the teacher's
purpose as well. If we desire students to learn something and they fail to do
so, then <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">both</i> student and teacher roles
have failed (irrespective of whose "fault" that failure was). In this
regard, our system is counterproductive to its purpose in that, if one or more
students fail to learn material covered, the response is to stick an "F"
label on the student and simply move on. Given there may be numerous reasons
the student failed to grasp the material (including bad timing or perhaps a teaching
style that did not work well), <i>why would we not let students take more
opportunities to learn a given body of material, assuming learning the material
is indeed valuable</i>? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we talk about "tests", we think of tests in
schools with grades. Here's a different example-- a driver's license test. This
test is worthwhile-- it provides training that may even save the life of the
awardee and gives certification of their ability. There are no grades to it-- a
student passes or fails to get the certification only. If they fail two times
and later master the material to pass, there is no consequence of the original
failed attempts, since they are irrelevant-- all that matters is the student
has now mastered the valuable material. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our "grade-obsessed" system has an entirely
different purpose-- the stratification of students. This stratification may
reflect effort or ability, though we can never be certain of the relative
weighting of the two in the outcome. Some of the stratification may be
arbitrary, too, as some students may have been ranked low directly as a result
of having one particular teacher (whose teaching style did not work for them)
and not another. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coming back to the example of premedical students, it's
again unquestionable that medical schools use grades as one of their most
prominent criteria for admission (along with others, such as <a href="http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/grading.htm" target="_blank">MCAT</a> score, rigor
of coursework, letters, etc). By awarding grades, undergraduate professors
facilitate their stratification of applicants. I think it's safe to argue that,
all else being held constant, every non-A reduces an applicant's probability of
admission to top-tier medical schools, even if only slightly. The same truth
holds for undergraduate admission-- all else being equal, every non-A in high
school reduces the applicant's range of schools to which they may get accepted
(and the associated financial aid). How can we blame students for seeming grade-obsessed when faced with this reality?<br />
<br />
Basically, I think the current system focuses too heavily on innate ability
and luck, and gives too little to people who are willing to strive
hard but were incompletely successful in their first attempt, the latter of which I think is a big predictor of eventual
success. I see no reason why, like driver's license tests, we don't let
people try to re-learn and re-test, as those people may in the end
actually understand the topic just as well or better, but have
demonstrated perseverance. In fact, with the current system, there's
frequently virtually no reward to going back and trying to understand
better what you didn't understand in the first place-- totally
contradictory to our stated goals. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I find these facts to be very disturbing. I did not enter
the educational enterprise for the purpose of stratifying students-- I would
prefer that students actually learn what I teach. Some colleges allow grades to
be optional for some or many classes, but even some of the more famous examples
people cite (e.g., <a href="http://www.reed.edu/academic/gbook/acad_pol/eval_student.html" target="_blank">Reed College</a>) still record grades in the end.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can the situation be fixed? I think any solution would
involve a radical change in how education works. My first thought was that we'd
follow the driver's license example and report specific competencies. For
example, students in a transmission genetics course could get certified for
competency in their understanding of meiosis, recombination, genetic mapping,
heritability, Hardy Weinberg genotypes, etc. However, that approach merely moves
the problem-- what if someone only grasps these concepts at the most basic
level, and then moves on as though certified with full understanding/
competency?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Honestly, I think the solution (which itself has
numerous problems-- see below) is to separate the process of teaching from that of
assessment/ stratification. This solution may be more feasible now than in
years past, given the growth of resources available electronically. We can have
still assessments in classes, but they'd be more for the students to
self-assess and not for permanent records. A student would finish any genetics
class they like (live, online, self-taught from books, whatever), and when they
feel they are adequately prepared, take a "for-the-record"
assessment. These assessments may only be taken once every semester or once
every year, so they can't just keep taking it weekly. However, students can
retake the assessment after the waiting period, up to some maximum number of
times (maybe 3-5).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What are strengths of this approach? For teachers, they
focus on teaching and not on grades. They are no longer involved in the
stratification process-- their only goal is to help students learn the
material. Students would better accept that "we're on the same side"
with respect to learning with such a change. Again, teachers should still
provide extensive in-class assessments for students to practice, but the grades
of those tests are informational only. For students, there are two large
benefits. First, they can learn however they feel works best for them. Those
who prefer live, standard classes can do those. Those who prefer online classes
can take those. Second, it provides students with a "marketplace" of
opportunities. Some teachers may be known to focus on particular subsets of the
material (specialties or areas of research). They can learn those areas from
those teachers, and go to other teachers to learn other specialties within the
scope of the assessment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The approach has major weaknesses, though. Students would spend
a lot more time researching class options and outcomes rather than just taking
"the genetics class offered this semester at my school." They may
also be sick or upset on the day of the test and have to wait a year to repair
a weak grade from a single test (though this may already be true for heavily
weighted final exams). For teachers/ professors, they give up control of tests.
Much as we complain about grading and grade complaints, I suspect we'll
complain more about the standardized test not focusing on what we think is most
relevant. We'll probably also get pressure from students (and administrators)
to match course coverage to that of what's likely to be on the test, and professors
will immediately scream that their academic freedom to teach whatever and however
they like is being impinged upon. (K-12 teachers already encounter this issue
with state scholastic requirements.) Finally, there's the question of who
actually makes these tests. I don't see that this solution is feasible,
honestly, as the negatives are huge.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Are we stuck with the current system, where teachers' roles often
devolve to presentation, assessment, stratification, and moving on*? Or are
there alternatives? I welcome feedback from readers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
* Footnote: I realize that many teachers do a lot more than
"presentation", including but not limited to one-on-one mentoring of students outside the
classroom, and including on material no longer being covered in class.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-70706502711583499352013-11-03T04:53:00.000-08:002013-12-02T22:40:55.326-08:00Should societies facilitate making scientific meeting presentations publicly available?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The answer always <i><b>sounds </b></i>simple and obvious initially, yet
it never seems to pan out that way, and the problems always come down to <i><b>money
</b></i>and <i><b>career advancement</b></i>. The value of science comes not from doing experiments but
from relaying the results and interpretations of completed studies. Science has
<i><b>no </b></i>value while it sits in a lab notebook or on a laptop's hard drive-- it has
value when others can see it, use it, test it, and expand upon it, so knowledge
is shared. Shouldn't we make our results as publicly available as possible,
and as early as possible? Further, our research was sponsored by federal funds
ultimately deriving at least in part from taxes-- it was done on the backs of
our friends and neighbors. How can we justify not maximizing its speed of
impact?</div>
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You may think I'm talking about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access" target="_blank">open</a>- or free access to
refereed scientific journal publications, or to deposition of scientific
pre-prints to services like <a href="http://biorxiv.org/" target="_blank">bioRxiv</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/" target="_blank">arXiv</a>, or <a href="http://haldanessieve.org/" target="_blank">Haldane's Sieve</a>. The argument certainly
can apply to both of those activities, but I'm actually talking about something
different. I'm talking about scientific presentations at conferences.</div>
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I have a proposal that I'd like to raise with one of my
scientific societies in a few weeks-- one that was discussed in <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-go-to-conferences.html" target="_blank">an earlier blog entry</a>. It
sounds simple-- the society should facilitate recording (with permission from
the presenters) contributed talk presentations and put them in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank">YouTube</a> or
equivalent. This has been done successfully before for smaller meetings (see <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/aga2012recomb/" target="_blank">this conference</a>). Let's also facilitate having presenters (again, with their consent/ permission) upload
posters to a free online site (e.g., <a href="http://f1000.com/posters" target="_blank">this one</a>). What better way to maximize impact and speed of
sharing? Anyone in the broader community can watch the talks and learn the
exciting new ideas, potentially long before a final manuscript is ready, much
less a refereed publication. And for conferences with multiple concurrent
sessions, this allows the possibility for attendees to see talks they'd missed--
who wouldn't want this?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiudilWgUW8w-69Z4Vr13qpbEQTS-Q3zxCEDPaMVmJMccMAGWZg4ggd-jBt3DZtE7rnGGGlFypTKxxzDJ5yETgfwbMm_ia6HGEnkyJNj_tFklrxuwtUbEAtdFKlYQmEw6ux3oDJYKE-PRw/s1600/camera-1840_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiudilWgUW8w-69Z4Vr13qpbEQTS-Q3zxCEDPaMVmJMccMAGWZg4ggd-jBt3DZtE7rnGGGlFypTKxxzDJ5yETgfwbMm_ia6HGEnkyJNj_tFklrxuwtUbEAtdFKlYQmEw6ux3oDJYKE-PRw/s200/camera-1840_640.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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It's not contentious in some sense, since it'd all be
voluntary. If you don't opt-in, it doesn't happen. If you don't want to share
for whatever reason, then fine, don't. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
talking with several colleagues, though, it seems the idea of a society even
<i><b>facilitating</b></i> this effort is at least potentially contentious. Many concerns were
raised:</div>
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1) Would such presentations online constitute
"publication" and thus prevent the author from being able to publish
the final version of these results in a refereed journal? Most journals in my
field would not be so ruthless, but some journals especially in
biomedical areas, are ruthless (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_journals_by_preprint_policy" target="_blank">this list of journals/ publishers and their policies onprepublication of manuscripts</a>). From the publisher standpoint, they want the
press associated with the findings (hence "money"), and they thus manipulate scientists by
limiting their ability to translate the work into refereed journal publications
(hence "career advancement"). The concerned ask-- by providing this
service to facilitate recording, is the society potentially hurting some of its
members?</div>
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<br /></div>
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2) Would such online presentations potentially open the
facilitating society or conference organizers to damages or lawsuits if the
presenters fail to consider copyrights? Many scientists are careless in
grabbing images from <a href="http://images.google.com/" target="_blank">Google image search</a> (irrespective of copyright) or failing
to get proper permissions to show figures from work published in
non-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access" target="_blank">open-access journals</a>. If the society or conference organizers
"sponsor" conference recordings, could they be sued (hence again,
"money")? Or perhaps a junior scientist may make an off-hand negative
comment about an established scientist's work, and be penalized in some way
(hence again "career advancement" concerns)?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3) Would allowing a fraction of the conference to be posted
online make it so fewer people elect to attend the conference in person,
thereby devaluing the conference ("career advancement" for all
participants) and potentially also causing the sponsoring societies to incur a
financial loss ("money")?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4) Would ruthless others attempt to "scoop"
results by copying the work or rushing a related experiment, particularly affecting junior scientists who generously opted to have their
presentations shared ("career advancement")?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5) Would people see yet misuse the results without fully
understanding the context the way the presenter does?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Again, a seemingly simple idea, but many complications. The
discussion is worth having. I'll give my answers to the five criticisms above,
though there are others I won't go into.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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On #1-- I have two replies. First, it's rare at least in my
subfield. Second, I think the community should take a strong stance of not
publishing in journals that elect to have such ruthless behavior and
demonstrate such an antagonism to scientific dissemination (their purported
goal).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On #2-- I think there is reason to be cautious and to give
guidance to presenters on proper attribution/ permissions. That said, I find it
hard to believe that, short of airing clips of popular movies currently in
theaters, there would ever be retribution sought more severe than a demand that
something be removed from the internet in a specified timeframe (which can be
done). On the junior scientist issue, that issue is potentially
"better" if the content is taped, since he/she is likely to be
correctly quoted rather than potentially misquoted as having said something
worse than they actually did.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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On #3-- The biggest benefit of conferences is not sitting
passively in talks-- far from it (see <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-go-to-conferences.html" target="_blank">this blog</a>). I'd never skip a conference
because a fraction of the talks were online. Further, I can't imagine, at least
in the near-term, that more than 20% of a very large conference would opt-in
given the concerns associated with #2 above and #4 below.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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On #4-- This is an issue for every conference presentation,
irrespective of whether online or not. People have cellphones with cameras, so
if they are so ruthless, they can snap a picture of the poster. They can take
detailed notes at talks. I totally acknowledge that it's a greater concern when
the material is made so much more accessible (though it also potentially allows
clear documentation of when they had presented this work and thus their
primacy). So yes, this is a concern, and merits consideration by participants
in whether to consent to taking this risk in exchange for sharing their
results. But I think they should be allowed to make this decision for
themselves rather than having the society paternalistically decide not to
permit the option.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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On #5-- People misinterpret the context of results from
fully documented peer-reviewed journal publications all the time-- it's hardly
a unique problem. This concern was raised repeatedly in the context of trying
to stop the now-<a href="http://datadryad.org/pages/jdap" target="_blank">mandatory sharing of data used in published papers</a> in my field. While I'm sure this happens, bluntly, I've
always found this criticism as a reason for not sharing to be uncompelling, and condescending to one's colleagues.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I invite readers of this blog to submit their own
thoughts. Maybe I'm totally wrong in my responses, or maybe there's even zero interest in this as a service. Is
offering the <i><b>OPTION </b></i>to record talks at a conference and make freely available a
good idea? Same for submitting posters to an open repository? Do the concerns
outweigh the benefits, and am I just being audacious by pushing this idea? Comment very welcome!</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-68514333640861132642013-06-07T19:06:00.003-07:002013-06-07T19:06:48.851-07:00On "super-professors" and the MOOC pushback<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVWfzNk9w2odfzIGuTNk3zmrd_IfPZnfg102xPsjKjK4CK48TdIwwN0KVbK_vCMlBwAf7_DIGmYGcWEpzm1KxKlhyZ2dCDbLQmtQt8Vyd-59zUhkmvUmbPzlitzFWgkBx_SrZr_pedpU/s1600/super.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVWfzNk9w2odfzIGuTNk3zmrd_IfPZnfg102xPsjKjK4CK48TdIwwN0KVbK_vCMlBwAf7_DIGmYGcWEpzm1KxKlhyZ2dCDbLQmtQt8Vyd-59zUhkmvUmbPzlitzFWgkBx_SrZr_pedpU/s1600/super.jpg" /></a>As with all new things that receive a lot of (arguably
"too much") positive press, the backlash necessarily ensues. So it is
now with MOOCs. Early, simplistic pushback came in the form of noting the
lack of the student-professor interaction possible in a live
classroom (e.g.,<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/grading-the-mooc-university.html" target="_blank"> this <i>NY Times</i> article</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/04/23/178623872/making-the-most-of-moocs-the-ins-and-outs-of-e-learning" target="_blank">associated NPR interview</a>). As
statistics came out on the early MOOCs, attention focused heavily on poor
completion/ high "failure" rates (e.g., <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/01/pf/college/free-online-courses.moneymag/index.html" target="_blank">this <i>Money </i>magazine article</a>).
The most recent negativity is different and warrants more attention, highlighted
recently in <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/The-Document-Open-Letter-From/138937/" target="_blank">a letter by San Jose State University professors to a MOOC-teacher</a>.
Specifically, there's an assertion by several in academia now that professors (or, as negative writers
like to hyperbolize, "super-professors") who teach MOOC courses are
providing a tool that reckless universities are using to dismantle departments,
reduce costs by hiring cheaper, non-expert teachers, etc. I find this last
criticism the most troubling, since it's leveled by colleagues and possibly
friends rather than random writers (e.g., <a href="http://moreorlessbunk.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/thats-not-my-department-says-wernher-von-braun/" target="_blank">this blog</a>, or the rather scathing comments
at the bottom of <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/mooc-professors-claim-no-responsibility-for-how-courses-are-used/43881" target="_blank">this blog</a>).<br />
<br />
I'll present my thoughts on each of these, in turn. Honestly,
I think the first two arguments display naiveté of how MOOCs are used by the
majority of users, but the last merits extensive discussion and continuing
dialogue-- I think now that both sides (including mine) had overly hasty responses
before.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">On fewer interactions
and/ or lower quality of MOOCs relative to regular college classes:</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My initial reaction to this was a mere,
"Duh!"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course there's more
potential for student-professor interaction in in-person classrooms and campuses than via MOOC. I'd
be surprised if anyone thinks taking a set of MOOCs is equal to "having a
college education." I've certainly not heard any professor say that the MOOC version of their class was "equivalent" to interacting with them directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also have not
heard of thousands of high school students who previously planned to go to
college deciding now that they don't need to and will just take some MOOCs.
This latter non-effect is punctuated by noting that most MOOC students are
older, and many already have college degrees.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">On the high "failure"
rates:</b> This is partially the fault of MOOC-participants (venues, faculty,
and colleges) "overselling" enrollments. For example, my first MOOC
iteration peaked at 33,000 enrolled students, yet something like 2000 got
certificates of completion. These numbers are totally deceptive-- the first is
fictitiously high, and the last is fictitiously low. The "33,000" is
the number of people who clicked a link to "enroll". When you
"enroll" in a college class, you commit funds and time to doing the
entire thing, and you anticipate a grade that will help or hurt your
probability of subsequent advancement. For MOOCs, you may "enroll" just
to see the full syllabus-- it's more an expression of <b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">potential</span> </b>interest than a commitment in any way. Given you may
enroll months before the MOOC even comes online, it may be just a way of being
added to the e-mail list about the class to possibly peek in on it later.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Related to both of the above criticisms-- MOOCs present
college class material, but MOOC viewers, by and large, are often just curious
people, not people choosing it as an alternative to college. They want to peek
at what's offered, perhaps not with much more thought or intention than when
you change the channel to see what's showing on <a href="http://www.tntdrama.com/" target="_blank">TNT</a>. Do you "fail" a
MOOC if you don't watch all the videos or complete the assessments? Only in the
same way you "fail" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_%26_Order" target="_blank"><i>Law and Order</i></a> on TNT if you end up turning it off
after 40 minutes. I'll give a few personal examples-- I signed up for two MOOCs
over the past few months: <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/usefulgenetics" target="_blank">Useful Genetics</a> and <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/behavioralecon" target="_blank">Irrational Behavior</a>. I signed up
for Useful Genetics just because I wanted to see the coverage and style in
which it was taught. I watched one complete video, a few pieces of others, and a
few Discussion Forum threads. That was all I wanted out of the class-- did I
"fail" it? Technically yes, I was enrolled and did not complete the
assessments, but in reality, I was neither "truly" a student in it
nor did I fail it. For Irrational Behavior, I did one assessment and watched
the first three weeks of videos, but I got busy after that. The class is over
now, but I downloaded all the remaining videos and intend to watch (many of)
them sometime later. Again, did I "fail" it? You decide.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">On MOOCs dismantling college
classes: </b>Perhaps I was naive myself, but I never imagined this would arise
as a criticism of professors offering MOOCs. As discussed in <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2012/12/teaching-massive-online-class.html" target="_blank">a prior blog entry</a>,
the main reason I embarked upon a MOOC was to motivate myself to record videos
in order to offer my on-campus students a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teaching" target="_blank">flipped class</a>" experience.
This type of format is normal for humanities (presumably few or no literature
professors spend entire periods reading Shakespeare to enrolled students), but
they have traditionally been less common for introductory science courses. My
impression, as discussed <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2012/12/teaching-massive-online-class.html" target="_blank">in another blog entry</a>, was that the flipped class
format, leveraging the MOOC for videos, was an asset for my students. Indeed, I
naively thought other faculty may "want" to use a few of my MOOC
videos (or any others) rather than go to the trouble of creating their own.
Keep in mind I spent literally hundreds of hours preparing the MOOC-- why
duplicate efforts?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I won't speak on the San Jose State University incident,
since all of it is second-hand to me. I will say that I think college
administrations are doing their students a disservice if they do any of the
following things:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) replace knowledgeable, long-term faculty with a MOOC</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2) replace knowledgeable, long-term faculty with a MOOC+TA
(or MOOC+short-term faculty, or MOOC+ out-of-field, long-term faculty)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3) overburden faculty by asking them to teach more courses
and pretending it's less effort since the courses can be associated with MOOCs</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4) in any way "dictate" to faculty that they must
teach with specific formats.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Basically, I think MOOCs should be available for any
existing faculty to utilize <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">if they see
fit</b>, but in no way "forced" upon faculty or as an excuse for
dismantling departments from maintaining expert, long-term faculty. I think all
parties agree on these points.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, if administrations dismantle departments, is it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also</i> the fault of the MOOC provider or
MOOC instructor? Therein lies the point of potential disagreement. My
word-choice was poor (and perspective initially quite naive) in my quote in the <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/mooc-professors-claim-no-responsibility-for-how-courses-are-used/43881" target="_blank">Chronicle's blog</a>: I do bear responsibility for what happens with what I put out on the
web. If I put a recipe for how to make agent orange on the web, and a kid gets
sick or hurts others with it, I certainly bear blame. The analogy others used
about atomic bombs also has some merit... if I had put out something <b>that
</b>destructive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, let's explore these analogies all the way then. Is
there a "good" use for agent orange? Do atomic bombs help most people?
All the critics casually avoid the single biggest flaw in their arguments and
analogies: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">millions of people around the
world use MOOCs in very constructive ways to advance their knowledge and
understanding</b>. In contrast, to my knowledge, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not one university has made any alteration to their faculty structure
or imposed anything upon their faculty in response to my MOOC, yet thousands of
students worldwide have completed it</b>. Some of these students who completed
the MOOC report changes in career direction or world perspective directly in response
to this educational opportunity (e.g., <a href="http://moocnewsandreviews.com/learning-genetics-and-evolution-online-coursera-review/" target="_blank">this report</a>, as well as MANY that have
e-mailed me directly or written reviews of the course online). Somehow, these positive effects get swept under the rug
by MOOC critics with their sweeping castigations and ridiculous analogies to
atomic bombs or other weapons.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Further, MOOC critics often dance around the desired outcome
of their critiques-- a sign the criticism may not be fully defensible. If MOOCs
have such a net negative effect on the world and MOOC professors (or so-called "super-professors")
are complicit, why aren't the critics being explicit in telling us, "Stop
offering this free education to the world." I <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">could</b> continue to offer a flipped class to my Duke students with
the videos I've already made, but stop offering the videos to anyone outside of
Duke University (or distribute them myself directly only to colleagues who swear
to never share their existence with administrators). What of the MOOC students?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmWXh17C1Bg" target="_blank">Watch this video</a> to meet a few. Then, tell me-- why should I deprive Richard
the train-driver in Sheffield (timestamp 12:55) from pursuing his interest? What about Aline, the
high school student in El Salvador (timestamp 32:36) whose school <b>never</b> teaches genetics or
evolution? Getting a "true" or "full" college education is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not an option</b> for them right now, so
they should get... nothing? Or maybe throw them a few links on the web and tell them to go to college? And what about the millions
of other Richards and Alines? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Would
critics really suggest that, because some university administrations are
reckless in their actions, millions of people worldwide who are benefiting from
MOOCs (and using them in the purest academic sense) should not get this
resource any longer?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I really do sympathize with the concerned professors (to whom
I'm being somewhat rude by referring to them merely as "critics" here).
Faculty jobs are in jeopardy, including faculty that are doing a better job
than their MOOC replacement. Some colleges are making decisions that are
financially positive but pedagogically terrible. If the concerned professors
have specific <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">suggestions</i></b> for me (rather than <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">accusations</i></b>), I'm eager
to listen. I'm quite willing to write letters to deans or provosts about the
importance of MOOCs in general and mine in particular NOT being used as
substitutes for courses or mandates for faculty. I'm happy to ask both my
institution and <a href="https://www.coursera.org/" target="_blank">Coursera</a> to help with these efforts as well. I'm happy to even
bring the topic up with the scientific societies to which I belong and hold
leadership roles (e.g., <a href="http://cms.gogrid.evolutionsociety.org/" target="_blank">Society for the Study of Evolution</a>, <a href="http://www.genetics-gsa.org/" target="_blank">Genetics Society of America</a>, <a href="http://theaga.org/" target="_blank">American Genetic Association</a>), to see if perhaps we could write
something on behalf of the societies or take other constructive actions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nonetheless, some of the residual criticism seems to be coming
primarily because the early MOOC professors 1) tend to be from so-called
"elite" universities and 2) received a lot of positive press. I won't
deny these facts-- I am fortunate to be employed at what is perceived to be an
elite university. It's true that many of the public perceive MOOCs as good <b><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because</span> </b>they are offered by these elite
universities, and I understand that faculty at colleges not-perceived-as-elite
find the availability of my course (and other elite-university MOOCs) potentially
threatening as a result. I've also received extensive positive publicity for my MOOC efforts
(as well as the recent negative publicity I mentioned above), though I stress
that, contrary to many insinuations, I've <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">neither
received one penny in compensation from my MOOC nor any reduction in my on-campus
teaching load</b>. I fully acknowledge that there are many more effective and
engaging teachers than me or other MOOC professors in many colleges that are
not offering MOOCs, and I'd tell anyone debating between having a class taught
by an in-field professor (irrespective of college) vs. my MOOC (with or
without a TA) to do the former. It's ludicrous to say that a course is
"better" solely because it's offered from a Duke or Harvard than a
San Jose State or Western West Virginia Community College. I was a student at the
<a href="https://www.wm.edu/" target="_blank">College of William and Mary</a> (certainly not Ivy League), and I'm very proud of
the education I received there. Rather than further castigating MOOCs and MOOC faculty, perhaps we can work together to fight misperceptions, given we all agree they're untrue?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now is the time for us to balance the (over)exuberance from
early MOOC publicity with the concerns raised about MOOC misuse. I ask that my critical
colleagues avoid gross hyperbole like
suggesting that my words or actions show "gross indifference to the
welfare of nearly everyone else in their profession". In
return, I promise to be more aware of the misuse problem and to engage with
faculty in how we might mitigate such misuses of MOOCs by reckless college administrations.
But, I ask that further discussion of negative effects be balanced-- even if
those not fond of (or negatively affected by) MOOCs don't rave about the
benefits of MOOCs, at least don't insult
me and the millions of MOOC students out there by pretending those benefits
don't exist or that the MOOC professors are solely delivering online courses
for money, glory, or the title of "super-professor."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-23712709948225755302013-05-04T14:38:00.000-07:002013-05-05T04:54:37.309-07:00Flipping with a MOOC-- A very new approach to teaching for me<!--[if !mso]>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
This semester (spring, 2013), I integrated my on-campus <a href="http://duke.edu/" target="_blank">Duke University</a>
class (which I've taught twice before using a "traditional" lecture
format) with my online class (which I'd taught once before via <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/geneticsevolution" target="_blank">Coursera MOOC</a>),
both bearing the title "Introduction to Genetics and Evolution."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My on-campus class had 453 students, while
the online one peaked at 27,000 enrolled (though MOOC enrollment figures are
misleading).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Needless to say, I was more
than slightly nervous about this experiment messing up, given the number of
students who would be affected!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
initial reaction is that the integration (via "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teaching" target="_blank">flipped classroom</a>")
was a success and thoroughly enjoyable by me (I'll have to wait to see the
formal course evaluations before I know how much most of the students liked it),
but I learned some lessons for future iterations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>FORMAT</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Duke students had more expected of them outside of class
than in my prior course iterations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Prior to every class period, Duke students were expected to watch 3
videos (average ~15 minutes each) in Coursera bearing 80-90% of the primary
"raw information content" that I expected them to learn from the
course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This content is what I delivered
in years past via traditional lecture format in class, but now students had to
set aside ~45 minutes before each class period to get it, perhaps longer if
they needed to replay segments or stop to think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Following the videos, the students had to take a graded
preclass quiz, formatted similarly to their in-class tests and of comparable
difficulty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The purpose was two-fold:
for them to identify areas of misunderstanding or gaps in their knowledge, and
for me to see what students struggled with from my lectures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last question of the quiz was a
free-response, "What did you find interesting or confusing?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I reviewed their progress the night before
class, and their answers guided the slides I'd make for the class period.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I set aside the first few minutes of the class period for
students to collaborate in completing the preclass quiz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that, I spent ~10 minutes going over
areas of misunderstanding based on the preclass quiz performance and free
responses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bulk of the class period
was devoted to students working in self-selected small groups on ~7 ungraded practice
problems designed to help them integrate and apply the concepts from the
lectures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The teaching assistants (TAs) and I would walk
around the room and engage the students to see what problems they were stuck
on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the end of the class period, I'd
go over the answers, and then spend ~5-10 minutes presenting a practical or
medical application of the concepts related to the lecture, or recent primary
research building from it (the remaining 10-20% of "information
content"), often building on what students said they found interesting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Besides that, the rest of the class format was as before--
the students had a weekly problem set to complete, weekly laboratory sections, a
few other online practice problems, and three open-book, in-class tests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The class period activities were also
recorded and made available to any students who couldn't make it due to
illness, travel, etc. (again, just like before).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>WHAT WORKED</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most of the class's students who answered the informal mid-semester
and end-semester course surveys indicated they were pleased (and often
pleasantly surprised) with how well the flipped class format worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students did not have to initially assimilate
the primary class material at 8:30am as previously, but could work at whatever
time of day was optimal for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
could also easily pause at any time, or immediately replay anything they
missed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most reported that the in-class
reinforcements were helpful for them to really understand the material and to
perform better on assessments (see figures below).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most appreciated the "reactive" and
"interactive" nature of the class, where the class period content
responded directly to their areas of interest or confusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Some students told me that the format forced them to study as they went along, such that they noticed they barely had to study right before the tests since they'd already done so much along the way. </span>A handful said they liked the online discussion
forums, and found the elaborations by either Duke or online students on some of
the material helpful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>Figures</i> </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Important note: these informal evaluations were done online, so they were not biased in being completed by just the subset of students who regularly came to class. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7tNI6Bb7XYhxd9xU6UyPbhUfWp1SVZbK7Pu-UQG_uV5GnPMN41WkG851tDje3co8yeCXGvYjWwSawGJD6aGJoxmGRjDqQe5fFdPPzGTWw40Ao2spVYy2jTxF919umIEtvC4pAx4uBQk/s1600/Fig1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7tNI6Bb7XYhxd9xU6UyPbhUfWp1SVZbK7Pu-UQG_uV5GnPMN41WkG851tDje3co8yeCXGvYjWwSawGJD6aGJoxmGRjDqQe5fFdPPzGTWw40Ao2spVYy2jTxF919umIEtvC4pAx4uBQk/s320/Fig1.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<h5>
Fig 1: Response to question: Did you find that the in-class presentations and
exercises were useful and reinforced concepts and approaches from the recorded
lectures?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(For scale, 1 was never chosen,
and 2 was chosen twice)<br />
1 = NEVER, 2 = RARELY, 3 = SOMETIMES, 4 = OFTEN, 5 = ALWAYS</h5>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPniVYIh2clIYEJlWA5g-JPzQ4kyCL2-pWOC24ZpCVJOY0eaV23qD-JLyVrPFnGa40AqbeN2H3L3570JyRsCCY0LlNFLFTb1txY3mApduGccZGWx2ze4a8naPthcsprOEMHzwIw4igas/s1600/Fig2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPniVYIh2clIYEJlWA5g-JPzQ4kyCL2-pWOC24ZpCVJOY0eaV23qD-JLyVrPFnGa40AqbeN2H3L3570JyRsCCY0LlNFLFTb1txY3mApduGccZGWx2ze4a8naPthcsprOEMHzwIw4igas/s320/Fig2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<h5>
Fig 2: Response to question: Did you find that the in-class activities provided
you with additional practice that improved your performance in assessments
(e.g., problem sets and tests)? (For scale, 1 was chosen twice, by the same
people who put "2" in previous question.)<br />
1 = NEVER, 2 = RARELY, 3 = SOMETIMES, 4 = OFTEN, 5 = ALWAYS</h5>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even some of the more critical students appreciated the
outcome of the class format-- one person said snappishly, "Of course we
did better on the tests-- we had to work harder."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'll just say "true."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In terms of my feelings, I perceived that the students <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really
</i></b>understood and interpreted the material better than in either previous
course iteration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I added more
challenging concepts than I had covered in previous years, and I was impressed
that the students seemed to really understand them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was also impressed that some areas of
common misunderstanding from previous years just didn't seem to come up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I should emphasize-- these are all my
perceptions, not quantitatively confirmed conclusions with statistical
significance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, the class did better
on the first test than I've ever seen in my career teaching.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, it was just a lot more fun for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A traditional class is like a performance--
you get up on stage and do it, with the only feedback being quizzical looks,
laughs, or the very rare hand up for a question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was truly interactive-- I started the
class period by giving students <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what they
asked for</i>, and then spent much of the rest of the period in one-on-one or
small group discussions about the material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I like teaching for the interactive nature of meeting people and
watching them get excited, interested, or at the very least "more knowledgeable"
about a subject, and this format really allowed me to experience those pieces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also really, really helped me learn what
concepts students understood and what concepts need new forms of presentation
for future class iterations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As my
colleague <a href="http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/Physics/faculty/gauthier" target="_blank">Dan Gauthier</a> in Physics said about his flipped class, "I've
never felt more attuned to my students' understanding."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>WHAT WAS LESS-THAN-IDEAL</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of the students were unhappy with the added workload of
having to watch ~1.5 hours of video each week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I personally don't find that unreasonable given the small amount of
other outside-class work that was expected of them-- I am confident many
humanities courses assign more than that in readings each week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here was perhaps the most critical response I
received on the format: "While the flipped class format benefits many of
my fellow students, this format hinders my learning. In a normal class, I would
go to lecture and take notes and such, and then do whatever work was required
of me, but no more; I normally take a minimalistic learning approach, does as
little as possible to succeed. As such, I do not normally watch the online
lectures because I find that doing so is more time consuming than just glancing
over the lecture slides to find the information needed".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, this was a minority opinion
(and, in my opinion, one unbefitting of a student at Duke University or any
college/ university).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One negative I did anticipate was that a fraction of the
students fell far behind (especially between test 1 and test 2) and did not
really catch up in a timely manner to do well on the later tests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If one fails to watch the lecture videos before
class, there really is no point to coming to class since the student would be
just lost on the material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that
point, it can become self-reinforcing-- a student falls behind, and the work
needed to "catch up" is greater than in a traditional class, possibly
making them more likely to further procrastinate and fall further behind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A possibly related negative I did NOT anticipate was a drop
in class attendance... attendance probably was consistently at or below 50%
after the third week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My previous traditional
classes were all recorded, so it was not uncommon for people to skip and
presumably just watch the recording of my video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We often had 50-70% attendance in the
traditional classes, unlike the <50% with the flipped class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was surprised that the fraction of the
class that <b>now</b> didn't come to class (one day after a late basketball game dipping to ~20%), even
though it seemed like there was "more" reason to come than before
since the in-class piece was not basic content just-as-easily assimilated by
video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few students I talked
with cited two reasons 1) the increase in overall amount of outside-class work (the
fact they already had to spend 90+ minutes a week on the material made some students
less likely to spend even more by coming to class), and relatedly, 2) some simply felt confident with the material from the video, and would thus skip
the reinforcement and application in-class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The negative here is that, for a fraction of these skippers, this confidence was
unfounded-- I warned students that the test 2 material was more challenging
than test 1, and despite my repeated warnings, there was a noticeable drop in attendance
after the high performance on test 1 (and proving my point, a 10-point drop in
average grade).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The one class format element that I think
"flopped" was the few minutes at the beginning of class for
completing the preclass quiz in the classroom-- almost no students ever did
this, and most people just arrived 5 minutes late for class to skip that piece.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>OTHER SURPRISES</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The biggest surprise to me was the absence of correlation
between class attendance and grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
three test grades were very highly correlated with each other despite the
differences in mean, but there was <b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">no
clear association between which students came to class and student test
performance</span>.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, upon further
consideration, this result ties in with what I
mentioned above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the students
who felt they had a good handle on the material just from the primary content
delivery in the video recordings didn't come to class (or didn't come
regularly).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the absence of
correlation suggests that <b>many of them were right</b>-- they <b><i>did</i></b>
understand the material well enough from the video lecture that in-class reinforcement may
not have had a noticeable effect on their assessment performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, some of the people who came to
class were those who struggled with the material the most-- their coming was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">a good thing</b>, since they had
more practice and better performance as a result.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Some </span>of the students with whom I interacted in the
class had clearly watched the video lectures, and were still struggling to
assimilate the content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, my hypothesis is
that the format, even with its sparse attendance, served to homogenize student
performance-- basically "almost everyone" in the class did well in
assessments, either due to intrinsic high ability (or prior background) but perhaps
little or no extra practice in class, or potentially lower ability (or less background) but
with a lot of extra practice in class.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Obviously, many students who came to class also had high ability and good prior background, too-- I certainly don't mean to imply that only struggling students attended class. Some came regularly just because they were very interested in the material, too. Similarly, I know many students who performed poorly yet rarely or never came to class.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I recall <a href="http://polisci.duke.edu/people?Gurl=&Uil=1552&subpage=profile" target="_blank">our forward-thinking university provost</a> chatting
about this a year ago at an informal dinner-- that with flipped classes, "everyone
might do well" in the class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Some of the literature also says this format "levels the playing field" of classes. </span>The grade improvement opens the much stickier question of the purpose of grades (which I shall
pose but not pursue)-- are we truly grading to assess how well students can
understand and apply the material (wherein it's fine for the whole class to
have A's), or are we also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">trying</i> to
distinguish students with higher intrinsic ability from others?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Personally, I have no intention of
"toughening" my class solely to "counter" high student performance on
what I think are perfectly fair and reasonably challenging tests-- doing so directly
violates my philosophy of the purpose of teaching and needlessly alienates students. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(Quick note: my question about "all A's" was rhetorical-- not all my class's students received A's... there were many who did not achieve high grades.)<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My other surprise was the general absence of engagement of
the on-campus students in the online Discussion Forums associated with the
online class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of my Duke students
said they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">looked</i> in the forums, but
even though I offered the Duke students extra credit for posting in the forums,
80% of the Duke students <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never </i>posted
in the forums, and most of those who did post made 5 or fewer short comments or
questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A handful really engaged with
others in the forums, but <10 students total.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>WHAT I MIGHT DO DIFFERENTLY</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the absence of a significant association of test grade
with attendance, I know at least some students skipped class to the detriment
of their performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was partially
my fault-- in the canonical flipped class format, there are in-class
assessments with stable student groups that are assigned by the instructor,
<i>thus forcing students to attend and be accountable to their classmates and themselves</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I deviated from this format because I
anticipated (correctly, I think) that a lot of students would miss classes each
day due to illness, family travel, student activities, and sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not want to be in the position of
having to judge daily whether particular absences were "excused" or
not for tens of students.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I'm considering next year is to have one group-activity
question graded each class period (or once per week).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there are 14 such activities, perhaps I'd allow
them to keep their highest 6 grades of the 14 only.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hence, one has to show up to the class at
least that small fraction of the time to get the grade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I would then <b>not </b>accept any
excuses-- any sports- or activity-travel, or any illnesses, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">have to</b> come out of the "8 dropped
grades."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This may seem like an
exceptionally low bar, but my goal is to get students to come to some classes
such that they have the opportunity to assess for themselves whether coming to
class is helping their understanding and test performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the answer is no, then so be it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just don't want them to "assume"
that coming to class is unnecessary without having experience with trying it. I'm still deciding if this is a change I'll employ or not...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>SYNOPSIS</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although requiring a <b>TON </b>of upfront work, this experience
has definitely changed my view of teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As I commented in a <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2013/05/teaching-and-educational-role-of.html" target="_blank">prior blog post</a>, I feel now that, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">as faculty become less "lecturers"
and more "facilitators" in the classroom, they work with the humanity
of students rather than treating students as consumers of prepackaged products</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Teaching this class was very, very enjoyable. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Further,</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> these
students are interesting and talented people, many of whom are spending tens of
thousands of dollars to be at an elite university, and are receiving some classes in a format of not much greater value than what could be found online.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My statement is <u>not</u> to suggest that the total
college experience is what happens in the classroom (clearly untrue),
nor that the students themselves are incapable of obtaining more from traditional lecture classes by taking the initiative to engage professors directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, my goal this semester was to add as much value as possible to the in-class
experience by making it visibly dramatically more than what is available freely
online-- far more opportunities for interaction, extensive reinforcement, "going
further" with the material, etc. (in addition to the laboratory sections,
of course).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope that the vast
majority of the students viewed it as successful and beneficial... I guess I'll
find out, to some extent, when I get the formal evaluations back!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thoughts and feedback welcome!<br />
<br />
<b>LINKS</b><br />
<a href="http://today.duke.edu/2013/02/flippedclassroom" target="_blank">Article in Duke Today</a>, February 11, 2013<br />
<a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/02/26/flipping-classroom" target="_blank">Editorial in Duke <i>Chronicle</i></a>, February 25, 2013<br />
<a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/03/05/duke-students-use-coursera-flipped-classroom" target="_blank">Article in Duke <i>Chronicle</i></a>, March 5, 2013<br />
<a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/03/27/college-dead" target="_blank">Article in Duke <i>Towerview </i>magazine</a>, March 27, 2013 <br />
<a href="http://sites.duke.edu/writing101_09_s2013_sk312wp2_jfw142/" target="_blank">Student project on flipped class discussing this one in particular</a>, April, 2013<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-15853620725066579152013-05-02T13:16:00.002-07:002013-05-03T07:50:51.224-07:00Teaching, and the educational role of the university in the 21st century<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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When I went to college in 1988-1992, my experience was similar
to how many science-oriented students experience college today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went to classes, wherein a professor stood
in front of the room and told us facts and perspectives about their
subject.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In most biology courses, my
role was clear-- listen, take notes, and occasionally (genetics, especially),
learn approaches to solving particular kinds of problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students asked questions occasionally, but probably
over half the class never asked the professor a single question all semester, and
no one had the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">audacity</i></b> to ask the professor questions after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every</i> class. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may have asked the teaching assistant a
few questions, but these TAs were often only marginally more familiar with the material
than the students they oversaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Honestly,
much (though not all) of this so-called learning involved rote, short-term
memorization of facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we students
got something wrong on an assessment, it was our fault for not having
understood the material from its single presentation (irrespective of how well
it was presented or not reinforced).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The world is different today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are very few facts in the world that I
cannot find in mere seconds using my computer or smartphone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virtually everything known is accessible to
the world on the internet, though there are also a lot of misunderstandings on
the internet portrayed as facts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I see it, universities have two potential educational roles
in this new era (I'm not addressing research roles here).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first is a service role to the community.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Universities have always been the
storehouses of knowledge and understanding, but it's both arrogant and
short-sighted for universities to perceive this role as exclusive to their
students or in-field colleagues, particularly given the amount of public funding
that they receive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>University faculty
can serve their communities and the world by providing or
"authenticating" facts, evidence, and diverse perspectives in their
study areas through the internet and other media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A university's role in dissemination is not
symbolic of arrogance-- university faculty are regularly consulted by the media
to interpret new findings or perspectives in their areas given their expertise
and training, and this role is merely to be more pro-active.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The public's interest for such reliable
sources is there-- if one is diagnosed with cancer, would one prefer to just
Google "cancer" and look up information on whatever site comes up
(perhaps "homecancerremedies.com")?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or would one prefer to get information from the <a href="http://www.cancer.gov/" target="_blank">National Cancer Institute of the NIH</a>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Presumably the
latter, and this example illustrates the public's perceived value of
"authenticated" information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Similarly, if I wanted to learn about genetics or psychology or
economics or art history more broadly, I'd love to take a free online course
(or "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course" target="_blank">MOOC</a>") from a practitioner who has an advanced degree in the
area and was hired by a university as an expert in that area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither of these features guarantee that the
information will be presented coherently or that the presenter won't be wrong
or that there aren't better resources, but it's a safer way to start the road
to learning than a random internet search.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>MOOCs are not the only means of public dissemination, but they are a
good one that is both effective and engaging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Freely providing knowledge is not only an important gesture by
universities to their communities, but arguably an obligation, and it can also facilitate
learning of their on-campus students (see below).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second role I discuss is the university's primary one-- to help
their enrolled students learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This learning
can no longer be rote, short-term memorization of facts-- such
"learning" trivializes the role of the university relative to the
internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, we need to engage
with students directly, and in a manner that far exceeds what is possible
through the internet or free online MOOCs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our courses need to go beyond fact dissemination-- we need to engage
students both individually and in groups to assess how well they are interpreting
and applying the concepts we're presenting them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom" target="_blank">flipped class</a> is one means of achieving
this goal-- students get the primary content in some way outside the class
period, and their understanding is assessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This assessment step is critical-- students learn what elements of the
material they didn't correctly interpret or apply the first time, and faculty receive
feedback to correct frequent student misinterpretations and misapplications in
their presentations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The faculty then
spend the class period clarifying areas of confusion directly in response to
the student feedback, and then reinforcing true understanding of the material
with new problems, applications, and engaging discussions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The format forces faculty and students to
interact bidirectionally in the learning process, and this bidirectionality has
obvious benefits both to student understanding and faculty teaching strategies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's also personally satisfying for both
parties, <b>as faculty become less "lecturers" and more "facilitators"
in the classroom, they work with the humanity of students rather than treating students
as consumers of prepackaged products</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Relatedly,
I've become a firm believer in "open-book" assessments, too, for two
reasons-- 1) the world is essentially "open-book" so assessing in a
situation where simple facts cannot be quickly checked is (usually) unrealistic,
and 2) it forces the faculty member to produce questions that are not merely regurgitation
of facts presented in the course, and thus better assess student
"understanding" on a higher level.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
None of what I've said above is novel or revolutionary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, many faculty and students are too comfortable
with standard lecture formats for our classes (especially in the sciences and
social sciences-- less-so in the humanities and interpretive social sciences)
and are resistant to changing the roles, particularly given the upfront work
involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While our time is limited, the
goal of all universities (both students and faculty) should be to promote the
best learning possible, so isn't this worth the investment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, a lot of people view MOOCs as a
threat to our universities-- we're giving away for free what students paid thousands
of dollars to receive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some have said
that MOOCs are a means for the "elite" universities to secure their
position and displace others by disseminating content possibly (and often
incorrectly) perceived <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to the broader public
as "better" than what a good state or liberal arts school may
provide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I argue that, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">if colleges or universities fail to provide
opportunities for MUCH more mentoring and learning in their on-campus classes
than what happens in topically equivalent MOOCs, they're wasting their
students' time and money</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MOOCs can
educate the public and can be a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tool</i></b> to enhance or supplement
available on-campus classes, but they are no replacement for an on-campus
undergraduate education should be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Times have changed, and forward-thinking universities are beginning
to change accordingly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's up to
universities and their faculty to keep up with these changing times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If universities don't change quickly,
prospective students will soon figure out which schools are least likely to provide
a return on their investments...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-44031382946585104972012-12-20T07:40:00.000-08:002012-12-20T10:25:45.174-08:00Teaching a MASSIVE online class<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooc" target="_blank">MOOCs</a>" (Massive Open Online Courses) are
certainly garnering a lot of attention, and I just finished my first iteration
of one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I taught <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/geneticsevolution" target="_blank">Introduction to Genetics and Evolution</a> in the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/" target="_blank">Coursera </a>platform from October 10 through
December 17.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prep for this online class
was pretty close to 20 hours/ week from mid-August until October 1, and then
took a little less time when the class actually started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's fun to reflect on the experience now.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Why MOOC?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://ai.stanford.edu/~koller/" target="_blank">Daphne Koller</a> has a <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html" target="_blank">compelling video</a> on the importance of
free online courses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a great
thirst for knowledge by the broader community outside the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Tower" target="_blank">Ivory Tower</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of us in academia take for granted what
we see every day-- seminars by world experts, access to all the published
literature in our areas, brilliant colleagues who've spent decades pondering
particular problems and finding innovative solutions to them, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But most of the world doesn't have this
access, and they are busy making their own livelihoods such that they can't
commit to the cost and time associated with hanging out at colleges and universities.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I came into the project because I was interested in the
"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom" target="_blank">flipped classroom</a>" model, wherein the professor assigns recorded
videos for "fact transmission" and then spends the class period interacting
with the students in activities designed to reinforce and elaborate the
material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought, "Hey, this is
an opportunity to record the videos, and I can use them both for the MOOC and
for my class."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had <i><b>no </b></i>idea at the
time how much I'd love the MOOC experience.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>The class</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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The class lasted 10 weeks, and it had weekly problem sets, a
midterm exam, and a final exam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My class
enrollment started on the first day right at 30,000 students, increased to
33,000, and then ended around 28,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, that overstates the true participation-- about half never
watched the first video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Signing up
takes 2 seconds online, so presumably half signed up thinking this could be fun
but then "life got busy."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There's no course credit per se (just a pdf statement of completion at the end), so
there was no drive to complete or even formally drop the course if one is busy or lost interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Participation steadily declined over the
time, as expected given that surely "life got busy" for many people,
and/ or a subset decided the content wasn't what they expected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A fraction of the class "audited"
and thus would watch lecture videos but not complete the online assignments-- the
numbers completing assignments also dropped each week.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0bdkMVCOu02HSCeSgchMPjNPSdzybU0OKTA0q2JTBmWh6fi7BRKUiWSRx_U1HoOUMmVh1OJTalmJo5uBGFv0LUxDwatB7rZ5jpvyQfqiIAVpc4sWeOLCxt70jDp2kaw_R6vshXapOuXg/s1600/videos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0bdkMVCOu02HSCeSgchMPjNPSdzybU0OKTA0q2JTBmWh6fi7BRKUiWSRx_U1HoOUMmVh1OJTalmJo5uBGFv0LUxDwatB7rZ5jpvyQfqiIAVpc4sWeOLCxt70jDp2kaw_R6vshXapOuXg/s1600/videos.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Hardest part</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Recording the videos wasn't too bad... I got better at it as
time went along, such that it took only slightly longer than if I was giving
regular lectures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The worst part was finding
free re-use images and/ or obtaining copyright permissions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My slides were very image-rich, and replacement
with such images and/ or obtaining permissions was an enormous undertaking (not
just for me, but especially for my colleague in this project, Justin).</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Surprises for me</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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1) <b><i>I LOVED teaching this class.</i></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had no idea if I would enjoy it-- I feared it'd be distant
and unrelatable, and I had no idea what the students would be like or how much
I'd feel like I interacted with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the end, I felt I had near-constant interaction through the online Discussion
Forums (see below).</div>
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<br /></div>
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2) <i><b>The diversity of students</b></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any way you slice it, this was a broad
group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ages of the ones I know of range
from 9 to 86 (and those are ones who stuck it through to the end).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They're from all walks of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They're from over 120 different countries,
with only ~1/3 from the USA (and very few from China, surprisingly).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They formed study groups in Portuguese, Russian,
Dutch, Norwegian, Greek, and more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I'd occasionally
paste their posts into <a href="http://translate.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Translate</a> to get an idea of what was being said...)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are hard-core academics-- there were
other evolutionary genetics professors watching to get ideas for their classes,
there were people who were far stronger at math than me (and would write friendly
yet constructive "gripes" about imprecisions in my presentations), and
there were academics from other disciplines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But some had no college degree, hadn't been anywhere near a school for decades, and were just
truly eager to learn.</div>
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<br /></div>
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3) <i><b>Depth with which the material was viewed.</b></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Go figure-- when tens of thousands of people
go over your lectures, they find (and report) a lot of errors, mis-statements,
imprecisions, unclear pieces, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I've
got my work cut out for me over break fixing a lot of those, but I'm glad to
have had the lectures so thoroughly "vetted" by this broad
audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's testament to how carefully
people were watching!</div>
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<br /></div>
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4) <i><b>Extreme enthusiasm by the students.</b></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
often felt like I was the owner of an ice cream store giving away free ice
cream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The constant expressions of
appreciation for the opportunity to learn this material and of excitement about
the material itself in the discussion forums was so stimulating and personally rewarding
to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My on-campus students are also
generally enthusiastic, but this took enthusiasm to a whole new level... these
people really, really wanted to learn, and grades/ assessment/ credentialing was
very secondary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I received many
e-mails over the course of the class thanking me for presenting the material in
an accessible way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'm not so delusional
to think the whole class loved the experience-- surely some who dropped were
less enthusiastic and/ or disliked the material's coverage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I received <i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">very</b> </i>little negative feedback (unlike with on-campus classes), so the
perception of enthusiasm is not merely a byproduct of larger numbers meaning
larger numbers of enthusiastic students.</div>
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<br /></div>
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5) <i><b>Discussion forum participation</b></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was very nervous about this-- go to the
bottom of any <a href="http://www.cnn.com/" target="_blank">CNN </a>article, and the discussion forums are vicious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there's an article about how cute puppies
are, there'll be 100 posts below it blasting that they're not so cute, that
kittens are cuter, and that reading the article wasted a few precious seconds
of their life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I feared the same for the
class, and anticipated the need for heavy, constant moderation.</div>
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<br /></div>
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However, by and large, the Discussion forums were extremely polite
and constructive-- very little moderation was needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when an <a href="http://www.discovery.org/p/208" target="_blank">anti-evolution Discovery Institute affiliate</a> posted criticisms of the class and its material, he
remained mostly respectful (even if totally wrong, in my assessment) in his
posts in the class's Discussion forum (though significantly less respectful in his <a href="http://darwins-god.blogspot.com/2012/10/mohamed-noor-evolution-is-true-because.html" target="_blank">personal blog</a> entries).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most Discussion forum posts fell into five
broad categories: a) discussion of course material or assigned problems,
framed so students work together to get to a full understanding, b) discussion of
material from outside the class but related, such as news items or personal
observations, c) technical issues needing resolution, d) expressions of appreciation
for the class (<i>it really surprised me how many of these appreciation posts there were</i>), and
e) general socializing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I'll continue on
the next one below.</div>
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6) <i><b>Community</b></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's
no other word for it-- a sense of community was built in the Discussion forums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People in the class became
"friends" in the forums, and honestly, I feel like many of them are
my friends, too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From elegant class notes
shared by "Soma" to kind thoughtfulness by "Sallie"
working through the material to the ever-enthusiastic commentaries by "HP"
to "Ozgur" who created a super-helpful 'calculate your grade'
spreadsheet to "Andrea" who was gifted at elaborating the underlying
aspects of the weekly problem set questions to "Richard" answering
people's questions or providing amusement, etc.--<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this was a community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are so many more people I could/ should
mention, and although I've never met any (actually I was fortunate to meet delightful
"Lynn" this week), I feel like I know many of them, at least a
little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved how they'd even
sometimes tease me about some of my mannerisms or things I'd say repeatedly
("leverage" is a great word!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I'm a bit sad the Discussion forum is closing, since it means I won't "see"
many of these interesting people again, and I'm hoping the same sense of
community is built in future forums.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(By the way, I've only used first names or initials above-- if any of those mentioned see this and want me to delete those and replace with a pseudonym, I'm more than happy to do so-- just shoot me an e-mail.)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Personal thoughts</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I <b>LOVED </b>teaching this class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The participants asked me great questions that enhanced my understanding
of the material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They provided great
links and resources that I'll employ in the future. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And frankly, it was fun!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I especially enjoyed peering into the
Discussion forums multiple times a day, and frankly, I can't fathom why
everyone wouldn't want to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are hundreds of people talking about your presentations and their content all
the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If "ears are
burning" is an expression of what happens when someone is talked about,
mine are doubtless beyond the ash stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The group's enthusiasm for this material that I love was so infectious--
how can one not be drawn in?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/geneticsevolution" target="_blank">Next iteration starts soon</a>-- January 4, 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My on-campus class will be in the mix
alongside the online students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
students this round set the bar pretty high, so I'm hoping it's as successful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enrollment right now is a good deal lower
(13,540 today), but I'm hoping it'll still be active and constructive.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I must close by heartily acknowledging my new friend and collaborator
in this project, <a href="http://library.duke.edu/apps/directory/staff/6997/" target="_blank">Justin Johnsen</a>, who worked full time (40+ hours per week) on
this project from mid-August until the end of November, and has pitched in
periodically since then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also got
extensive assistance from <a href="http://cit.duke.edu/about/staff/lorch/" target="_blank">Chris Lorch</a>, <a href="http://cit.duke.edu/about/staff/novicki/" target="_blank">Andrea Novicki</a>, Colin Rog, <a href="http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/Biology/jkfnoor" target="_blank">Julie Noor</a>, and
others (especially at <a href="http://cit.duke.edu/" target="_blank">CIT</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This project
would never have been as successful without all their help.<br />
<br />
Related links:<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dmWXh17C1Bg" target="_blank">Google Hangout with student participants</a> (48 min, starts at timepoint 2:30)<br />
<a href="http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/president-coursera-experiment" target="_blank">Article by Duke President Brodhead on the class</a><br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/nov/11/online-free-learning-end-of-university" target="_blank"><i>Guardian</i> article by a class participant</a><br />
<a href="http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/style/2012/12/i_enrolled_in_a_coursera_mooc.html" target="_blank">A participant's blog post</a><br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-60496080634819173822012-06-21T12:04:00.000-07:002012-12-28T10:10:31.379-08:00Wherefore and what from scientific societies?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do you contribute to a scientific society (as a member or
otherwise), and why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many scientists
don't bother maintaining memberships, thinking the only benefit is getting a
journal to which their institution already subscribes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most people don't even think about what scientific societies
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best answers I have heard are "manage
the journal", "organize meetings", and/ or "give out
awards."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many societies do some or
all of these three things, but I think most academics are unaware of the
backdrop, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the importance of the financial
linkage to the journals and conferences</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Scientific societies are sometimes funded largely by profits from their
journals and meetings, though some funds also come from membership dues,
donations, and grants (the relative proportions vary greatly by society-- e.g.,
some take a yearly loss on their meetings).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The revenue funds are then used for maintenance of those same activities
as well as distributing a variety of awards (most often for students but
sometimes for workshops), outreach activities, and overhead/ staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some societies also engage in activism,
promoting the merits of their discipline to the public or politicians, including
drafting statements about controversial topics (e.g., stem cell research,
evolution education) and arguing why scientific research is a good public
investment (see also <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-how-government-funding-of-science-rewards-us-taxpayers/2012/06/20/gJQApDmJrV_story.html" target="_blank">this article</a>, that's not by a scientist).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These societies are, and operate like, non-profit
organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the revenue
source is a little different-- rather than relying exclusively on donations, the
yearly conferences and journals provide potentially larger and more consistent
funds to maintain these activities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, let's think for a minute-- what would happen if we
changed the model to one resembling most non-profit organizations?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if society journals exactly "broke-even"
to the publishers, making them cheaper in which to publish and subscribe but
eliminating the revenue to societies?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What if we then asked PI's to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">donate</i></b> to their societies to fund the
grants, outreach, and activism efforts?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There's a fundamental problem-- "donations" cannot be billed
to grants, so we'd have to donate out-of-pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This problem is apparent in why people often
refuse to pay memberships to get reduced publication charges, even when the
reduction is greater than the cost of membership-- publication charges come
"from the grant" and memberships come "from checkbooks."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, societies with an associated journal get funds from
journal publication and subscription charges (and sometimes from conference
registrations), and use those funds in a "charitable" way to meet the
goals of the group, including distributing extensive student research or
achievement awards, maintaining communication among scientists via conferences,
and providing outreach to schools and the broader public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, there's some overhead too, like funding
the travel of the scientific officers to meetings, but these officers rarely
receive any compensation beyond "expense reimbursement" for what ends
up being days of work each summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are typically minimal (and often overstretched) staff, too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This should be food for thought in choice of publication
venue, personal society memberships, personal journal subscriptions, recommendations
to your university about journals in which to subscribe, and choice of
conferences. Memberships in societies (e.g., <a href="http://www.sigmaxi.org/" target="_blank">Sigma Xi</a>) really do directly give back to your community, in addition to getting you a journal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Subscribing to and publishing
in SOCIETY journals (e.g., <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291558-5646" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evolution</i></a>,
<a href="http://www.genetics.org/" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Genetics</i></a>, <a href="http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of Heredity</i></a>) brings money back to your students,
colleagues, and community, whereas publishing in NON-SOCIETY journals often fails
to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, attending SOCIETY
meetings potentially gives flexible funds back to an organized group with similar goals,
whereas attending other meetings only does so indirectly, if at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Food for thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I'll note that I'm not unbiased, though, as I have served and currently serve
in many societies myself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-50458239386109258642012-05-19T07:43:00.000-07:002012-05-19T11:01:19.020-07:00Why go to conferences?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Summer conference season is around the corner! I especially
encourage people to participate in the upcoming <a href="http://www.theaga.org/2012" target="_blank">American Genetic Association conference in Durham, NC, on recombination</a>.
But that aside, why do we go to conferences?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To see the talks?</b> A
little (field dependent). A good talk is
sometimes very powerful and exciting, and it can be a great way to see exciting
work that may not come to print for another... oops, there's the problem. For another 6 months? It is nice having the "preview",
but far from essential. For many (albeit
not all) talks in my field, I'll see the print or online publication before the
next year's conference, if I haven't already even been asked to review the
associated manuscript. Obviously this isn't true across all fields of subfields. Talks also often
oversell, since they're not subject to the same sort of peer review. Caveats can be omitted, controls may not even
have been done yet, etc. They're exciting
on the one hand, but they're not "bankable" on the other the way many
publications are.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To present research?</b> Yes,
especially for junior scientists but somewhat for all. We need to maximize routes with which we
disseminate our results, and we also can all use more practice doing it in
public forums. Presenting is a great way
to get informal feedback, too, pre-submission: much nicer to have someone
tell you that you didn't consider X alternate explanation in a meeting (so you
can address it) than to have your manuscript to <i><a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/" target="_blank">Science</a> </i>rejected on that basis. Giving a great talk can make a postdoc more
competitive, too-- I recall many faculty meetings about job searches where
someone said, "I saw her give a talk at X meeting, and it was really
great."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For the informal interactions?</b> Yes!
This point ties in with the feedback I mentioned above... not only do we
get feedback on what we present, but we can talk with colleagues about all sorts
of projects and ideas, potentially even forming new collaborations over coffee,
meals, or "beverages." Yes, we
could do this by phone or e-mail, but this forum provides a more "captive
audience" for a long time-period not (or less) distracted by their ongoing
college duties, and with tons of other experts around as well who can weigh in. This is, in my opinion, the single biggest
advantage of in-person conferences.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For the free goodies from vendors?</b> ABSOLUTELY!
But I won't dwell on that one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I were to propose two pieces of advice:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1) Let's make as many talks/ posters as possible publicly
available.</b> Let presenters opt-in to have
their talks videotaped and put on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank">YouTube</a>/ <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/" target="_blank">UStream</a>. Submit your posters to <a href="http://f1000.com/posters" target="_blank">F1000 Posters</a>. These are all free. Make it so those who couldn't come to the
meeting because of cost, family obligations, or even being environmentally friendly
in avoiding needless air travel still able to see the research that was
presented. Make it so those attending can see some of the concurrent talks they missed. Obviously, opting-in would be
voluntary, but organizers can minimize the barriers to it and encourage it. I know some will decline this option for fear of being
"scooped", but some will jump at the chance of more dissemination to their colleagues and the public.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2) Don't do the freshman-dorm thing of walking around with
your labmates or buddies for the whole conference!!! </b> If multiple people from a lab are going,
don't let them share rooms with each other... force them to room with someone
from another university. Similarly, while
it's nice to "support" your labmate by going to their talk, I'd
personally prefer my lab folks go to the concurrent talks I couldn't attend to
tell me what I missed. And most
importantly, encourage the shy but excellent junior scientists to go meet other
movers-&-shakers in their field, both senior and other junior-- their PIs
should facilitate this, but anyone can take the initiative to help.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Happy conferencing this summer, y'all! Comments welcome, as always, even if
critical.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-3146564525902013162011-11-27T11:07:00.000-08:002011-11-27T11:14:33.795-08:00Publication/ Dissemination<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> 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mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">I just finished a full draft of my book-- it's basically a "how-to" guide for new academic faculty on their broad yet poorly defined jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A lot of the posts in my blog here have been inspired by working on particular associated chapters (e.g., "Teaching", "Managing Others").<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It's been a really fun project putting this all together, and I've had stimulating conversations & exchanges with many people about some of the issues raised.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As I am about to send the draft off to the publisher (<a href="http://www.sinauer.com/">Sinauer</a>) for review, I have to think-- how many people will buy this?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Should I have just put it all as a pdf on the web?<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The underlying question is broader and relates to how we disseminate knowledge and ideas in science today.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I would have been OK with just putting the entire treatise on my website, but my assumption is that <span style="font-weight: bold;">very</span> few people would have ever downloaded and read it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My thought was that sending it to a book publisher gives it a "seal of approval" of sorts, demonstrating that someone else thought this collection of ideas was worthwhile.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Indeed, Andy Sinauer will certainly send it to reviewers, just as he did with the initial book proposal, and I'm sure I'll be asked to revise based on their feedback.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The downside to getting this seal of approval is simple-- rather than being able to get these ideas for free, anyone interested would then have to pay money, hence reimbursing Andy for costs and hopefully providing a small profit.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Both e-copies and hard copies will be available, and although both will certainly be cheap (assuming the book passes peer review), neither will be free.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Hence, my assumption is that more people will read the contribution when they have to pay for it than if they downloaded it for free on my website.</b><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yes, I'm ignoring the obvious fact that Sinauer will likely do more marketing of the contribution than I would have if it were merely posted on my website.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The analogy to scientific publication is obvious-- I can post results of scientific experiments on my website, but no one would pay them any mind relative to whether I published them in an outlet requiring both peer-review and expense (by me if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access">open access</a>, by subscribers/ universities otherwise).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Thus, we put great emphasis on peer review, to the extent that we don't feel contributions without it have much value.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The irony is that we all complain incessantly about the rigor of peer review-- how poor products slip into top journals while excellent contributions are delayed or rejected because of unreasonably high expectations by reviewers.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"></span>But are the times changing?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Blogs, tweets, etc., abound, and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/"><span style="font-style: italic;">PLoS One</span></a> changed the face of science publishing by removing the emphasis from reviewers' assessment of value to only their assessment of execution and description.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What if scientific results and their associated discussions were posted in bulletin-board formats?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Is the world ready for such as a means of dissemination and acceptance, or would such results be presumed to be overstated and/ or flawed?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There's already so much assumption of honesty in science (e.g., we don't demand that results be replicated by other teams before publication)-- is this really such a big leap?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Indeed, <a href="http://arxiv.org/">arXiv</a> already publishes unrefereed works for math and physics.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Many journals also already allow commenting on studies-- maybe this will eventually morph into a <a href="http://mofood.yelp.com/">Yelp</a>-like review system of contributions:<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">-From Jones:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>5-stars to the Smith lab for output #42431-- Really loved the rigor of their demonstration of speciation by reinforcement in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Drosophila ananassae</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The angle with looking at relative abundance of the two species was an excellent addition and sealed the result.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">-From Clark:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>3-stars to the Smith lab for output #42431-- Loved the study's execution, but they failed to cite two other papers that used the same approaches.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">As always, comments very welcome.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And please do wish me luck with the book-- I'm hoping the reviewers don't trash it because they disagree with specifics I suggested but instead see it as it (and this blog) is intended: "a starting point for discussion."</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br 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font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >There are a lot of <a href="http://twitpic.com/63lcfq#.TkNexXe6Yc5.facebook">stereotypes</a> of university faculty (many of which are even contradictory).<span style=""> </span>But I'm wondering if I could solicit help from y'all about some of the more amusing extreme faculty "morphs".<span style=""> Most of these are not limited to academia-- you may encounter these in completely different settings. </span>This list is something I'd like to incorporate into a comic that'll be part of the book I'm working on, but I'm happy to acknowledge you for good ideas. (Also looking for a good artist, if you are or know one.)<span style=""> </span>Here are a few morphs I came up with, many from long-past experiences.<span style=""> </span>I should emphasize that the descriptions are <span style="font-weight: bold;">hyperbole</span>, and NOT necessarily even remotely based on anyone I know at Duke.<span style=""> Further</span>, I carry elements of <span style="font-style: italic;">many </span>of these traits myself.<span style=""> </span>If you add or comment, please try to be nice/ tactful, even if teasing.
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">HALL-TALKER</span>: Prof you never see actually doing work, but seems to be always standing in the hall (or worse, in your office) talking.<span style=""> </span>Seems to even roam the halls trying to find the next person with whom to talk.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">ABSENTEE</span>: Prof who is either traveling or works from home so much that most of their colleagues forget that they even work there.<span style=""> </span>Their students may have forgotten them, too.<span style=""> </span>Everyone looks startled when they walk into their laboratory or into a faculty meeting-- "Who is that?" someone asks.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">CONSPIRACY THEORIST</span>: Prof who always questions your motivation when you ask even the simplest questions, and always suspects that the administration is out to mess with them (often also believing in pots of gold that the administration is hiding via leprechaun enchantment).<span style=""> </span>"Why are you asking about my day?<span style=""> </span>Did the dean put you up to that?"</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">ATTENTION GRABBER</span>: Prof who always seems to be the one rambling to the media about every topic, irrespective of whether it's remotely within their specific area of expertise.<span style=""> </span>Rather than 15-minutes of fame, they seem to have months of it.<span style=""> </span>They're very often quoted in press releases, and may keep a <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/">blog</a> that is periodically seen by the public (ahem...).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">COMMITTEE MEETING LOVER</span>: Prof who always suggests creating a subcommittee to discuss topics in more depth-- also talks <i style="">ad nauseum</i> in every meeting without adding insights.<span style=""> </span>Often circles a single point for 20 minutes that could be made in 3 sentences, and still never hits the point directly.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">INEFFICIENT COMPLAINER</span>: Prof who will spend hours writing exaggerated complaint letters and e-mails about problems that would take minutes for them to avoid or fix themselves.<span style=""> </span>"Dear Mr/Ms University President: Yet again, when I came to the parking lot, I saw a discarded piece of paper, not properly recycled.<span style=""> </span>I think this is another demonstration of your incompetence as our leader (see page 6, appendix C)..."</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" > </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">RECLUSE</span>: Prof who looks awkwardly at you when you pass them in the hall, arrives late and/ or misses/ skips most meetings, and is always eager to get back to their office/ laboratory to their seemingly very private obsession with their study topic.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">SPACE CADET</span>: Energetic, sometimes rambly, prof who has the long-term memory of... can't think of a good example, and I think that happened last week, too, and ... wait, what was I talking about again?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">DEER-IN-HEADLIGHTS</span>: "What???<span style=""> </span>Did you say something???<span style=""> </span>Aaaaaaack-- I missed it!<span style=""> </span>Again!"<span style=""> </span>(OK, this may be just about all faculty, especially new ones.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" Times New Roman","serif";font-family:";font-size:12pt;" >
<br /></span></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-49291622305274272552011-07-19T17:07:00.000-07:002011-07-19T17:11:47.349-07:00"Defending" a PhD<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> 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mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">I had the pleasure today of attending a stellar PhD defense by a student who did a rotation in my lab back in spring, 2006.<span style=""> </span>That rotation involved several months of really intense work, and resulted in authorship on 3 really good papers.<span style=""> </span>I loved watching that student present the outstanding product of his dissertation research over the past several years, even though he chose a different lab than mine in which to do that dissertation research.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">But it got me thinking- why and how do we "defend" PhDs?<span style=""> </span>Could we make the process better?<span style=""> </span>Where did the word "defend" even come from-- who is "attacking"?<span style=""> </span>Presumably, a main point of the defense is to convince an audience and a committee that the work was worthwhile-- both tackling important questions and coming up with compelling answers.<span style=""> </span>Defenses typically have the "seminar" followed by the "closed session" with a dissertation committee, and it is the latter that actually decides if the student passes.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In cases like today's defense, the "closed session" that followed the public talk was not especially helpful.<span style=""> </span>As in many good defenses, the committee felt obliged to ask questions and sound critical of tiny nuances even though they all thought the product was excellent.<span style=""> </span>The student, meanwhile, is exhausted after the public defense and has to suffer through this "hoop".<span style=""> </span>Perhaps a few pearls of wisdom or insights come up from the committee, but many such pearls will be forgotten amidst the ensuing celebration.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Worse yet, what happens when a defense is less-than-stellar?<span style=""> </span>What happens if, at the closed session, major gaps are identified in the work or in the student's understanding?<span style=""> </span>I think the answer is "usually nothing."<span style=""> </span>In principle, such gaps should have been found in the "last committee meeting before the defense", but it's VERY common for many facets of dissertation projects to be incomplete at that stage, or holes to not be totally apparent because the committee doesn't have a fully elaborated document.<span style=""> </span>Similarly, we expect advisors to prevent such awkward situations, but this doesn't always happen.<span style=""> </span>This is bad for the student (who has an incomplete product and may be less competitive in applications), it's bad for the advisor (who either accepts a less-than-ideal product or assigns someone else to complete it), it's bad for the university (who's 'seal-of-approval' is stamped on an incomplete product), etc.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Here again, like so many things in graduate education, we have <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2010/11/crazy-idea-for-revamping-phd-program.html">procedural inertia</a> that fails us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What are the alternatives?<span style=""> </span>Let's start by going over the problems.<span style=""> </span>One problem we face is that we don't want to humiliate students by having them give a public "ending" talk and then not allow them to leave afterwards.<span style=""> </span>Another is that there's little or no "check" on changes to the dissertation (or associated research) after a defense.<span style=""> </span>Finally, we create a situation where the student has to simultaneously prepare for a major public seminar as well as an evaluatory defense from their committee.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What if we instead had the closed session first, long before the public seminar has been announced publicly?<span style=""> </span>The student presents the committee with a full draft dissertation and presents the work orally in much-abbreviated form (instead of the typical "closed session").<span style=""> </span>If there are holes in the experiments or analysis, the student will have some time to correct them (see below).<span style=""> </span>Based on the closed session, the student is given a "pass" or "provisional pass" or "fail."<span style=""> </span>Assuming a "pass" or "provisional pass", at a date no less than 2-4 weeks after the closed session, the student presents the public talk.<span style=""> </span>Just before the public talk, the student also gives the committee the revised dissertation, noting what was done in response to their concerns (which may also be covered in the public talk).<span style=""> </span>The committee attends this public talk already knowing that the work is solid and at least provisionally approved, and they just ensure that their concerns are addressed either in the talk or in the revised document.<span style=""> </span>At that point, the committee signs off on the dissertation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">This splits the defense into two temporally separated pieces, swapping the traditional order, and it avoids the awkwardness of public shame if a student actually doesn't produce a satisfactory product in their first attempt.<span style=""> </span>It gives the committee the chance to approve the final product (which bears their signatures of approval).<span style=""> </span>And it gives the student more time to work on the public talk vs. the written dissertation separately.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are problems with this approach, too, but I'd love to hear people's thoughts and/ or other ideas.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-73605690405637371542011-04-01T07:28:00.000-07:002011-04-01T07:34:05.130-07:00How Should I Teach a "Big" Class?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> 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mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--><p class="MsoNormal">This semester was a teaching milestone for me- first time using PowerPoint for a whole class, first time having >110 students (enrollment was <span style="font-weight: bold;">293</span>!), first time teaching basic genetics, first time trying to involve active learning, and more.<span style=""> </span>I team-taught the new Bio102L introduction to genetics & evolution course with another professor, with my lectures focusing primarily on genetics and molecular evolution but a few lectures in other topics (evidence for evolution, speciation, etc.).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">With only two lectures left, and feedback from mid-semester evaluations, I have a lot of thoughts on the experience, and I'd love feedback from all of you on your experiences either as a student or as a teacher.<span style=""> </span>I'll split my nine comments into three areas: what I thought went well, what surprised me (in some cases requiring changes), and things where the jury's out.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">WHAT SEEMED TO WORK OVERALL (in my opinion- the students can speak to it better!):</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">1) <b style="">Low-stress assignments</b>, especially daily pre-lecture quizzes they can retake based on their assigned reading.<span style=""> </span>Many students have told me they appreciate having these, as they help them understand better what it is from the assigned reading I want them to walk away understanding.<span style=""> </span>Even if they don't actually read the material, they're at least exposed to a few specific ideas (and questions/ answers) before class begins.<span style=""> </span>A minority commented they felt it was an unnecessary "hoop", but far more commented favorably than negatively.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">2) <b style="">Technology</b>.<span style=""> </span>The students and I seem to both appreciate having a) videotaped lectures available online, b) PowerPoints available online, and c) assessments (quizzes & problem sets) easy to take at their own schedule on Blackboard (and automatically graded for us).<span style=""> </span>Use of technology has also alleviated some of the burden from me, in that if a student asks me a question that was covered in class, I can give a shorter answer and also refer them to, "See slides 5-8 of my February 2 PowerPoints."<span style=""> </span>Finally, I've really enjoyed using my <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/">iPad</a> for lectures- see <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2010/12/ipad-for-professor-why-i-love-it.html">my other blog post</a> about that.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">3) <b style="">In-class feedback system</b> (via <a href="http://www.polleverywhere.com/">PollEverywhere</a>).<span style=""> </span>When you ask a class "How many people think A is the answer?" and get 20 hands up, and then ask about "B" and get 1 hand, does that mean that 95% of the class understands?<span style=""> </span>What about the 200 people who never raised their hands?<span style=""> </span><a href="http://www.polleverywhere.com/">PollEverywhere</a> has been great for me both to have the students engage in the material besides just listening to me drone on and to get an idea of REALLY what fraction of students understand (especially when I added an option that says "I don't know" to every poll).<span style=""> </span>Because these polls are done anonymously, response rates are closer to ~60-70% of attendees rather than the usual ~10%.<span style=""> </span>The polls take little time, and students discussing possible answers with their neighbors helps them hear a different way of explaining the material.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">4) <b style="">Spending time talking with students one-on-one</b>.<span style=""> </span>This was a huge personal benefit for me- I arrived to class 30 minutes early every day, chatting with whoever was there, and tried to walk through all the lab sections each week to interact a bit more one-on-one.<span style=""> </span>I got a ton of very valuable feedback on what was clear vs. unclear, what things the students liked vs. didn't like, etc.<span style=""> </span>Additionally, part of what I like about teaching is getting to know these interesting students- a few actually sought me out, but by walking around and chatting directly, I got to know more of them, and I really enjoyed that.<span style=""> </span>I also did various activities with many that were very enjoyable, like <a href="http://www.studentaffairs.duke.edu/osaf/flunch">flunches</a> and other outings.<span style=""> </span>They're a really fun group of people!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">WHAT SURPRISED ME:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">5) <b style="">The premed stereotype was dramatically exaggerated</b>.<span style=""> </span>~80% of the class are premeds.<span style=""> </span>I heard "horror stories" from professors who taught other introductory, required classes for premeds about students attacking each question on a test trying to get more points, constant accusations of unfairness, general rudeness, etc.<span style=""> </span>Frankly, I didn't see that at all.<span style=""> </span>There were times when students pointed out alternate interpretations of questions, but it was always done politely, and frankly, many of the times they were correct.<span style=""> </span>When I disagreed, I got a very polite, "I see your point- thanks anyway."<span style=""> </span>Other students expressed concerns to me about their grades, but again, very respectfully and with an eye to what they can do to improve performance in future tests rather than special favors.<span style=""> </span>On my test, the grades ranged from 50-100, so it wasn't that everyone got an A either.<span style=""> </span>My point here is not that these horror stories didn't happen in the other classes, but that there's been too much overgeneralization to "premeds" as a whole.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">6) <b style="">If I think I "COULD" split something into multiple slides to explain better/ more thoroughly, DO IT!</b><span style=""> </span>There are many concepts I thought would be straightforward, yet at the last second, I extended their coverage into more slides just to be sure.<span style=""> </span>Almost invariably, even with expanded coverage, I still should have used more slides and more explanation.<span style=""> </span>I think my lecture introducing recombination between Drosophila mutations went over poorly, and I had to devote much time in reviews and in one-on-one question/ answers to make up for my poor presentation initially.<span style=""> </span>Since then, anytime I hesitate for even a second on whether to expand a discussion, I err on the side of expanding.<span style=""> </span>It's also important to do it <b style="">in slides</b> and not just verbally, as the students study from their downloaded slides (and may have missed something I just said verbally).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">7) <b style="">Have multiple people read over all problem sets/ tests</b>.<span style=""> </span>This wasn't a huge issue for my material, but there were questions that I worded confusingly (or for which there were multiple interpretations) where I had to go back and give credit for alternative answers.<span style=""> </span>When this happens, it's stressful for the students and more work for me, so it's really important to have diverse people (including non-native English speakers) read over the problem and test questions.<span style=""> </span>I didn't do enough of that initially.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">WHERE THE JURY IS OUT:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">8) <b style="">Open-book & open-notebook quizzes/ problem sets/ tests</b>.<span style=""> </span>We adopted this approach to remove the focus from "Do I have to know X fact?" to real understanding, interpretation, and implementation by the students.<span style=""> </span>I liked this, and some students liked this.<span style=""> </span>I received two kinds of concerns, though.<span style=""> </span>One was stress-level: some students really worried that having "open book" tests meant the tests would be extraordinarily difficult.<span style=""> </span>The other was that they worried they may not retain the material as well when needed in the distant future (e.g., for the <a href="https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/">MCAT</a>).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">9) <b style="">Class timing/ bonus slides</b>.<span style=""> </span>It was extremely difficult for me to prepare material, especially involving some active learning, and know it would take exactly 1 hour 15 minutes.<span style=""> </span>Part-way through the semester, I adopted a new strategy of "bonus slides."<span style=""> </span>Basically, I'd aim for a 55 minute lecture.<span style=""> </span>If we finished it early, I had some slides of more practice problems or discussion questions.<span style=""> </span>If we finished those too, I had some more slides about "bonus material" that's related to what we covered but for which the students were not responsible- basically showing off-shoots that are of "general interest."<span style=""> </span>It <span style="font-weight: bold;">seemed </span>to me that these last ones were often enjoyed by the students the most- perhaps because they didn't feel pressured to write things down and really just listened for entertainment.<span style=""> </span>But I didn't get any formal feedback on that overall strategy.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I welcome your thoughts and feedback from personal experiences!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-18970556314173720902011-02-13T09:15:00.000-08:002011-02-13T09:18:18.321-08:00Lab management thoughts<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> 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{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">It's <span style="font-weight: bold;">graduate recruitment season</span>, and we see lots of bright-eyed, optimistic prospective students coming through to visit.<span style=""> </span>They've mostly had experience with research and are excited about science.<span style=""> </span>But one obvious question often stumps them- what do you want to "get" out of graduate school?<span style=""> </span>Many say things about mentorship and learning a lot of science and how to do it.<span style=""> </span>The vast majority really don't know, though, beyond that they love science and want more.<span style=""> </span>When asked what specific skills they'd like to acquire, they focus entirely on research or teaching and never mention "management."</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I've posted in this blog before about <a href="http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2010/11/crazy-idea-for-revamping-phd-program.html">how many standard graduate programs fail to adequately prepare students for many aspects of their job</a>, beyond doing great science and sometimes grant- or paper-writing (which are obviously crucial).<span style=""> </span>One of the biggest missing pieces that would be helpful irrespective of their final career is training in management.<span style=""> </span>Some PhD students or postdocs will have supervised an undergraduate or two, and may have helped train new staff members.<span style=""> </span>But formal training in management is basically nil in most programs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Nonetheless, new (and old!) faculty struggle with management all the time.<span style=""> </span>I've told new faculty that, for me personally, that's the area that causes me to lose more sleep than any other area directly associated with the job- more than teaching, getting grants, publishing papers, getting an experiment to work, etc.<span style=""> </span>Some aspects one learns quickly, like being active in communicating both good progress and concerns early.<span style=""> </span>Many (hopefully!) learn the big lesson of never to talk about other lab people's performance, especially concerns thereof.<span style=""> </span>One of my biggest lessons was to schedule formal one-on-one time with everyone in lab, and if the meeting is short, then so-be-it, but at least a clear opportunity for communication is present and frequent.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Still, the transition from being "one of the lab" to being "the boss" is abrupt, and requires conscious behavioral modification.<span style=""> </span>Jokes or teasing that were acceptable as a student or postdoc can be taken FAR more personally or worse.<span style=""> </span>Similarly, you shouldn't just blindly Facebook-friend everyone who joins the lab- the relationship is too unequal for that (it's debatable whether you should accept a friend-request initiated by them, but I have been doing that).<span style=""> </span>Generally, your opinion is taken with far more weight- some will not tell you if/ when they disagree. <span style=""> </span>Further, frankly, there will be times when the lab folks just won't want you around because they don't want to have to be "on guard"- and they may not make that clear to you, so you should be careful not to overly insert yourself into their downtime.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I still struggle with this, even now 13 years into being a faculty member.<span style=""> </span>The tone also changes with time, I think, particularly as your aging creates more distance between you and the increasingly relatively younger members of your lab.<span style=""> </span>One aspect I find hard is dealing with disparity: some people in lab want to interact with you a lot, while others less-so.<span style=""> </span>The apparent solution would be to adjust to individual's desires (to the extent you can with your available time), but this can create time inequities that are perceived as "favoritism", even if not initiated by the faculty member.<span style=""> </span>Clearly, one has to make a conscious effort to be fair to all lab members in terms of professional and guidance-related opportunities, but informal interactions can be beneficial to the student and faculty member and may not happen equally to all students.<span style=""> </span>In years past, I've had some lab members feel like I interacted preferentially with one person, when it was, at least partially, <span style="font-style: italic;">that one person</span> who actively sought me out.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Other situational issues also arise.<span style=""> </span>What do you tell lab people when someone is fired (or gently asked to leave)?<span style=""> </span>Do you literally say nothing, even when they ask?<span style=""> </span>How much do you let lab people know about your current funding, given that it's obviously zero-sum?<span style=""> </span>How about celebrating successes- if one person has many of them, do you reduce celebration of those successes so as not to make the less-successful-recently folks feel bad?<span style=""> </span>There are standard responses, like "It's a success for all of us when any do well," but we have to acknowledge we're also human and sometimes fall into negative emotions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I'm curious from others of you- what challenges have you encountered (either directly or through observation)?<span style=""> </span>Any advice to share?<span style=""> </span>I should confess that I'm writing a full formal piece on this subject now, and if you convey a great thought, I may write you directly to ask permission to mention it!</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-45019766203538967712010-12-25T17:48:00.000-08:002010-12-26T05:34:06.133-08:00The iPad for a Professor- Why I Love It<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> 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Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">It's been interesting to watch FaceBook today- MANY of my FaceBook friends got iPads for Christmas, and a decent number got somewhat similar items (e.g., Kindles, Nooks).<span style=""> </span>Not too surprising given the iPad was originally released in April of this year.<span style=""> </span>I got my iPad in early October.<span style=""> </span>Even though I don't use a Mac, I love it- not just as the "new techy trendy toy" (which I fully acknowledge it is that too!) but as a functional part of my work and play.<span style=""> </span>Let me say upfront- I don't think iPads are for everyone.<span style=""> </span>It's neither a laptop replacement nor a smartphone replacement, and yes, no one "needs" to have one- we all got by last year without them.<span style=""> </span>But here's how I use mine and why I like it, primarily in the context of my job.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">GIVING PRESENTATIONS</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I use my iPad for many kinds of presentations, ranging from classes to invited talks, and it works fine (just need that ~$30 VGA adapter).<span style=""> </span>If you want full animations like from a laptop's PowerPoint, the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Keynote</span>" app works pretty well and can import PowerPoint files created on your computer.<span style=""> </span>A few graphics or word sizes may need minor tweaks after importing, but the tweaks are fast, and the iPad is far lighter and subtler (literally looks like a leather-covered notebook in the folder I use) to carry to your talk than a laptop.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Personally, I favor the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">2Screens</span>" app over Keynote.<span style=""> </span>This app leverages something that's harder to do on a laptop: you can actually use the tablet nature of your iPad.<span style=""> </span>It will present PowerPoint, Keynote, or pdf files as well (albeit without animation), but you can also "draw" directly on your presentation (using finger or stylus).<span style=""> </span>So, when presenting a Punnett's square, your original file can be just the blank square, and you can manually draw in various combinations during the talk, like from an overhead projector.<span style=""> </span>Or you can temporarily make a blank screen for drawing and come back to where you left off in your PowerPoint.<span style=""> </span>Plus, you can save right then and there what you drew.<span style=""> These are features I intend to use a lot when teaching genetics next year. Further, i</span>f you want to show something off a webpage, the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Expedition VGA browser</span>" app works great, and you can switch between it and 2Screens in under a second.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">ATTENDING SEMINARS</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I take my iPad to seminars I attend to take notes, just like a lot of people do with paper pads/ notebooks.<span style=""> One </span>advantage I have is that I can insert things into my notes wherever I want- something that wasn't clear may become clear later in the talk, and I can edit what I wrote earlier on the spot (rather than scribbling in tiny writing in the margins).<span style=""> </span>Here's the bigger advantage for me- if I have a question, I sometimes Google it right there in the seminar and find the answer (or find why the question isn't even appropriate, saving myself from looking dumb).<span style=""> </span>Sure, you could do all that with a laptop, but few people take laptops to seminars since they're clunky and the typing is noisier.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">If using the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Notes</span>" app, you can have it sync with your GMail, and it automatically saves everything in a GMail folder called "Notes."<span style=""> </span>Months or years later, you can search your account to find which seminar talked about X topic that you vaguely remember- something not possible with a paper pad.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">COMMITTEE MEETINGS</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I take my iPad to all sorts of committee meetings- student committees, university committees, etc.<span style=""> </span>For student meetings, I save the student's progress report in the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">GoodReader</span>" app right when they e-mail it to me.<span style=""> </span>The night before the meeting, sometimes while reclining in bed, I'll read the committee report, make notes (you can add notes, highlight, whatever, and if you want, export the pdf), etc.<span style=""> </span>Then, at the meeting, I have the document sitting there with my comments in the iPad.<span style=""> </span>If a question comes up at the meeting, or someone vaguely remembers a relevant figure from a publication, we can pull the publication up right then and there in the meeting using "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Safari</span>" (the default web browser).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For university committees, documents tend to be saved in Blackboard, and the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Blackboard</span>" app (finally upgraded this month to be allowed to run in the background) is very fast and efficient.<span style=""> </span>Again, I tend to take notes in the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Notes</span>" app.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Somedays, I find that the only time I have to deal with some urgent work-related e-mails is while walking between meetings (or in the 2 minute break between consecutive meetings), and the iPad gives me a reasonable platform with which to do this using "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Mail</span>" or the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">GMail</span>" apps.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">AT HOME</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I have learned to read pdfs of publications now using "<span style="font-weight: bold;">GoodReader</span>", as mentioned before for committee reports.<span style=""> </span>I don't tend to keep these files permanently (since I can always download them again), but I like going through them on GoodReader, annotating them, and keeping them on the iPad through the "journal club" or whatever other discussion.<span style=""> </span>If I did want to keep the files longer-term, it'd be trivial to e-mail or download them (yes, with annotations) to save on my actual computer.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But life isn't all work.<span style=""> </span>Often, in the evenings, my wife and I will watch a TV episode on the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">ABC Player</span>" app, or stream something from "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Netflix</span>."<span style=""> </span>Yes, we could do this on a laptop, but laptops are hot and bulky to keep with us while reclining in bed.<span style=""> </span>At mealtimes, I've looked up recipes on "<span style="font-weight: bold;">AllRecipes</span>"- even some slightly more obscure things (tonight I looked up "eggplant with garlic sauce") are in there.<span style=""> </span>If I'm bored, I'll read the news on the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">CNN</span>", "<span style="font-weight: bold;">BBC News</span>", or "<span style="font-weight: bold;">NPR</span>" apps, or weather on the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Weather Channel MAX</span>" app, all of which are really slick on the iPad.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">IPHONE APPS</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Keep in mind that the iPad will run all the iPhone apps, too, including thousands of games and utilities.<span style=""> </span>Personally, I use "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Alarm Clock</span>", "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Skype</span>", "<span style="font-weight: bold;">WorldMate</span>", etc. when traveling, <span style=""> </span>and I occasionally pull up "<span style="font-weight: bold;">DukeMobile</span>" here in Durham to check bus routes, balance on my DukeCard, or whatnot.<span style=""> </span>I meet with people in my research team every week, and our meeting agendas are in Google Docs, which is super-easy to pull up, view, and edit on an iPad (either from Safari or directly from the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Google Mobile</span>" app).<span style=""> </span>If you're helping someone remotely (like a parent) troubleshoot problems on their computer, "<span style="font-weight: bold;">TeamViewer</span>" will allow you to see what's on their screen and help them fix it (though they have to install it, too, but it's free for you and for them).</p><p class="MsoNormal">And, of course, it's also a giant <span style="font-weight: bold;">iPod</span>, so save your music, movies, podcasts, etc., to watch/ listen.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">WHAT IT DOESN'T DO</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The iPad is not a laptop or desktop computer replacement.<span style=""> </span>You can buy the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pages</span>" word processor and edit Word-style documents, but it'll not be as quick/ comfortable as doing so on your computer.<span style=""> </span>You won't want to do any significant table editing or statistics on your iPad either.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Nor is the iPad a smartphone replacement.<span style=""> </span>I can't imagine carrying that big thing while walking around a town and trying to use the "Map" app to find where to go.<span style=""> </span>I wouldn't want to use the many coupon apps on it, since again, it's big and bulky, whereas my iPhone fits in my pocket or holster really nicely.<span style=""> </span>And I definitely wouldn't want to pay a data plan for it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It doesn't have flash.<span style=""> </span>Yes, I wish it did.<span style=""> </span>But it's no tragedy that it doesn't for my uses.<span style=""> </span>It just slightly limits the videos I can watch from the web on it, all of which I can see on my desktop or laptop anyway.<span style=""> </span>Nor does it have a camera, but again, my smartphone does.<span style=""> </span>The iPad doesn't do "everything".</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And there are "competitor" products.<span style=""> </span>Personally, I think none of the ones out right now are serious competition given the number and quality of apps available for the iPad.<span style=""> </span>That may change in 1-2 years, but this was not meant to be a purchase to last forever.<span style=""> </span>Computers are often nearly obsolete in under 4 years, and I expect similar for devices like the iPad.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">FINAL THOUGHTS</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Still, the iPad is lighter than most laptops but with a bigger screen/ keypad than a smartphone, and does a lot of the functions of both along with a few of its own.<span style=""> </span>It's extraordinarily simple to use.<span style=""> </span>The battery is great- lasts far, far longer than my laptop battery.<span style=""> </span>It boots up from off in under 30 seconds or from standby in 2 seconds.<span style=""> </span>It switches very quickly and easily from "portrait" to "landscape" view. <span style=""> </span>It doesn't get very hot when running even for a very long time (though that may be the leather case insulating it).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Although people made fun of the name a lot when it first came out, for me, the only thing it totally replaced is a "pad" of paper that I would carry around (though I do now use my laptop less, too).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Do I "need" an iPad?<span style=""> </span>No.<span style=""> </span>I got by fine before I had one.<span style=""> </span>However, does it enhance my ability to work and play more efficiently (or with greater enjoyment)?<span style=""> </span>Weigh that question against the cost, and you can decide for yourself.<span style=""> </span>For me, the answer was, and still is, yes.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br />PS- And no, I didn't write this blog entry on my iPad. :-)</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-23804427448316054292010-12-23T07:38:00.001-08:002010-12-23T07:43:16.078-08:00Is our grant peer-review system the "best of all evils"?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> 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mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">'Tis the season.<span style=""> </span>No, not that one- like every year at this time (and two other times each year- once in May and once in September), many of us get a stack of grant proposals to review.<span style=""> </span>I just got my stack yesterday and haven't glanced at them yet.<span style=""> </span>For those of you outside the science research community, researchers spend months preparing these proposals (12-15 pages in length, plus several more pages of budget, resume, and other nuances).<span style=""> </span>They agonize over minutia like whether to cite X or Y paper, whether to talk about contingency plans in detail or to present an air of confidence in the approach, whether to present the fine experimental details or save space for more justification on the value of the study to the field, etc.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">After these months of work, three or more other anonymous scientists ("reviewers"/ "panelists") read over the proposals- rarely spending more than a few hours on any one in particular (and frighteningly sometimes less).<span style=""> </span>They write a critique- strengths and weaknesses of the work (kudos to <a href="http://grants.nih.gov/grants/peer_review_process.htm">NIH</a> for forcing reviewers to actually mention the strengths).<span style=""> </span>The work is discussed in a meeting with ~20 other scientists who have not read the proposal.<span style=""> </span>And finally, it's given a score.<span style=""> </span>Then, in large part using that score, the funding agency decides whether to fund the research or not.<span style=""> </span>Odds of funding are around 10% (don't nitpick- this is close enough).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Most of the ones I read are from people like me- university professors.<span style=""> </span>So, my question is this- is this really a good use of our time?<span style=""> </span>And if not, is there a viable alternative, or is this "the best of all evils"?<span style=""> </span>Let's think of how many person-hours are used in proposal preparation and proposal review.<span style=""> </span>Some of it is definitely worthwhile- forcing the scientist to carefully plan his/ her research and think of what would be the highest impact rather than status quo.<span style=""> </span>The presentations often help guide the subsequent publications in thoughtful ways.<span style=""> </span>Similarly, reviewers benefit by getting a broader view of the field and what kinds of research people are doing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But there are downsides, even beyond the time commitments of all the parties involved.<span style=""> </span>We all know a few outstanding scientists who seem incapable of writing decent proposals for many different reasons.<span style=""> </span>We also all know that there are some who are great "salespeople" but may be lacking on scientific follow-through or rigor.<span style=""> </span>The present system strongly favors the latter over the former.<span style=""> </span>There's also a general "risk aversion" that comes across in peer review, despite extensive efforts by funding agencies to prevent this.<span style=""> </span>But, if only ~10% of proposed research will be funded (for reference, in a two-day grant review meeting, this may be ~6 proposals), reviewers sometimes have a hard time suggesting that something that "would be very cool but might not work" get funded over something that "would be kind-of cool but will for-sure work."<span style=""> </span>Peer review is also far from perfect- many good proposals get sunk because a reviewer misunderstood something or had a different perspective on what is useful than the proposer.<span style=""> </span>Finally, and frighteningly, university promotion and tenure decisions often seriously consider funding success- seeing it as a quick surrogate to how the community views one's research.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Scientific publishing has gone through major revolutions in the past decade, first with a push for "open-access", and more recently a decision that the merits of science should be sometimes judged historically (the essence of <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.plosone.org/static/information.action">PLoS One</a>): all work that is scientifically valid should be published and history will decide what was most useful.<span style=""> </span>Obviously, public funds (remember- the public funds all this with taxes!) are more precious than whether something is published or not, so a direct analogy is not possible.<span style=""> </span>But is there another way?<span style=""> </span>Or is this really the best of all evils?</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-70252063921723770772010-12-08T15:41:00.000-08:002010-12-08T15:45:53.295-08:00What's the next "big thing" in evolution?This is the type of question people ask all the time. Indeed, our Monday seminar speaker asked my opinion on this question in our one-on-one meeting. I'd be curious what some of you folks think. I gave a talk on this, specifically with respect to speciation (my research focus), at the <a href="http://www.linnean.org/">Linnean Society of London</a> last September.<br /><br />Immature subfields thrive on dichotomies, and then they mature with realization that there are always exceptions to the "rules" (if "rules" even existed). For my evolution colleagues, think about these classic or even recent dichotomies- classical or balanced school? Does natural selection or genetic drift shape DNA sequence variation? Did species evolve via sympatric speciation or allopatric speciation? Is divergence driven by regulatory changes or amino acid coding changes? Case studies always come up to show "at least one" case of the putatively rarer type.<br /><br />We then grow a little bit to ask about "relative frequencies." The question is sometimes then reworded slightly to "which is more important", but even that's a can of worms- is "rare" equivalent to "unimportant"? Surely not. Does it really make us rethink things if one happens 80% of the time vs. 20%? Or even 95% vs 5%? (I might concede 99.99% vs. 0.01%.)<br /><br />Further maturation sometimes goes to, "What are the conditions that favor X over Y?" or "In what species/ types of genes/ networks/ whatever do we see X being more abundant than Y, and what does that tell us about their differences or trajectory?" thus changing the discussion from pattern-based to process-based. However, although these questions are more mature, they rarely grace the top "magazines" (<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a> and <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html">Nature</a>) in which we often strive to publish. Instead, the magazines favor the primitive dichotomies, especially when the underdog theory can be demonstrated. A few years ago, an editor from Science magazine asked me what she should seek out. My answer was, "I don't know, but please DON'T publish another marginally stronger proposed case of sympatric speciation." (They actually did, the next year.)<br /><br />Obviously, I'm overgeneralizing. There have been many very interesting observations in evolutionary biology that didn't fall into the dichotomization trap or follow the path I described. Elegant models have been developed and later strongly supported or conclusively falsified. And Nature and Science do sometimes publish "mature" results. But what IS the next big thing? Personally, I am skeptical it would be "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Extended-Synthesis-Massimo-Pigliucci/dp/0262513676">an extended synthesis</a>", as some have argued. I also doubt it's obvious in other recent "buzz-topics", like "evolutionary medicine" (which is useful but I don't see it as a paradigm change).<br /><br />So, what is it? Thoughts?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-39867810682275007282010-12-02T06:04:00.000-08:002010-12-03T04:40:57.145-08:00Science and the publicOn the one hand, I'm fuming over the Majority Leader-Elect's website asking for <a href="http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/Review.htm">"citizen review"of National Science Foundation grants based on the abstracts online</a>. Presumably this will be used as an excuse to cut NSF funding by a commensurate amount. All researchers like myself who work on topics to which the public can be uninformedly "reactive" (e.g., evolution, sexual reproduction, species formation) are obviously shocked and worried.<br /><br />On the other, while not dwelling on the obvious deficiencies (being generous) of this idea, let me put out a thought for comment/ discussion. Do we, as scientists, do enough to inform the broader public about the importance of our research, or scientific research in general? The NSF and NIH ask that we have a short "public relevance" statement in our grant proposals, but I know that many of us put little or no energy on this statement (and frequently leave it as a few sentences packed with impenetrable jargon, possibly ending with "including humans"). Obviously, scientists are not a uniform group- some spend a ton of time speaking in public forums and are otherwise engaged with their local or national communities. However, my uninformed guess is that such scientists are in the minority- many of us rarely escape the ivory tower, and some even get resentful at having to justify "valuable basic research" to the "lay public" or even to colleagues doing applied research.<br /><br />Similarly, we often complain bitterly when school board members take stances against ideas we know to be true. But how often do we present those facts "we know to be true" to the broader public, hence educating well-intentioned but misguided school board members? Heck, how often do we even vote in school board elections, except when reacting to a crisis?<br /><br />We know science. We know it darn well. Politicians and school board members don't know it nearly as well, and it's unreasonable to think that they would. We can say they should just leave us alone, but they won't (and shouldn't)- their, and everyone's, tax dollars fund the science that we do. It's incumbent on us, those who know science, to make the impact of science far more clear to the public. We can do this through: 1) taking those "public relevance" statements in our grant proposals far more seriously, 2) maintaining websites that actually explain what we do and why anyone should care, 3) being pro-active in reaching out to schools and public presentation forums to provide resources & lectures, 4) becoming engaged in our community through informed voting and writing to politicians, and 5) many, many more possibilities. Yes, our time is limited, and academic scientists often work 50-60 hour weeks already. But we have to do it, and there are resources to help us (here's the plug for our university science writer, especially if as great as ours here at Duke!). Irrespective, we can expect a lot more misguided (again, being very generous) proposals like this one to cut funding to research. Let's just put some effort at minimizing their impact.<br /><br />Thoughts? Comments?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-82001852522685087832010-11-29T16:35:00.000-08:002011-02-13T17:33:37.324-08:00Crazy idea for revamping the PhD program...<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">We still run Biology PhD programs basically the same way people did 20-30 years ago. Professors offer graduate classes in their areas of specialty, often formatted not terribly different from advanced undergraduate classes. Students very often struggle to find graduate classes in which they're interested either to fulfill a requirement or to learn SOMETHING besides what they're doing in lab. The efficacy of these classes, especially those "concept-centered", is often low... the students "learn" a lot the same way they did in undergrad, where a ton is covered of which very little is directly relevant to them, and the portion that was relevant would have been picked up anyway through independent reading. Meanwhile, we largely fail to train PhD students at skills or concepts they will actually need: 1) grant-writing (there's an exception with one class here at Duke), 2) what it really takes to run a lab, 3) developing and giving lectures in a class, 4) outreach and speaking to the public, 5) career options besides becoming a clone of their PhD advisor.</span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Why? Because we (faculty) are lazy is why- if it worked for us, it's "good enough." I'm currently floating a proposal with various folks in Duke Biology for a three year "PhD roadmap" that I'd love to get feedback on. Here's the outline. The objectives were to come up with a roadmap that would do all this while not being overly onerous or annoying to the students or faculty. In this vision, all pieces could be "optional", but this overall plan would be laid out as a suggested roadmap- with the exception of the year 1 spring class (for which we'd need the full cohort to participate for it to work).</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:11pt;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">Year 1-</span></span></span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />Fall: A) Take "tools" coursework (e.g., statistics, programming, Matlab)</span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />B) Take “tutorial” course(s) based on interests rather than the usual concept-courses. We'd ask in-residence faculty to set aside time to do a course or two wherein they just meet with 2-5 students every week (or every 2 weeks) for an hour or two to talk about papers in an area of mutual agreement. Basically, PhD students take the initiative to tell faculty what they want to learn/ cover, identify faculty with that expertise, and then </span><span style="font-family:arial;">meet with them in small groups to cover that material informally through directed readings and discussions (NOT PowerPoint lectures!). Ideally, it would be mutually beneficial, as the faculty member could use it as impetus to read some of the papers in a stack on their desk (or virtual stack in their RSS feed reader)</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" > <br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">C) Take Bio307 Grad School 101 course (half-semester, 1 hr/ week).</span></span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />Spring: A) Student-driven journal club/ presentations (presentation dates organized in fall). This course would meet twice a week: Tuesdays are class-like presentation by student on a contentious topic of their choosing (graded by peers on clarity, comprehensiveness, etc., of their presentation</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >), and </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Thursdays, students read and discuss a recent paper relevant to Tuesday's class.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" > The student's temporary advisor would attend to give feedback, answer questions which the student doesn't know, etc., but the student is giving the presentations.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br />The purposes of this class are: have students intensely research something IN WHICH THEY'RE INTERESTED and then present it (no better way to know a subject); real lecture-style presentation experience; NSF pre-doctoral fellowship preparation before year 2; increasing self-sufficiency.</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" > It'd be required, but very low effort except that which hopefully they're very interested. There'd be no tests- if it's not your presentation week, you just show up, listen, and provide feedback/ discuss.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />B) Can also take more tutorial courses based on interest.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Year 2-</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Fall: A) outreach activity on topic of interest: must reach people outside college/ university setting (K-12 activity/ presentation, or public presentation, or something else). Use creativity, and present something in a way people not in the field (e.g., your grandmother) will understand.</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">B) Can also take more tutorial courses based on interest.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Spring: grant-preparation class, like that currently offered in UPGG? Good timing for DDIG or NRSA prep, since due in fall of year 3</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Year 3-</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" >Fall and Spring: A) Each semester, student identifies a "mentor" besides their advisor and meets with them for an hour every other week to talk about the job and maybe "witness" parts. This type of mentorship currently happens in J Reynolds' class on college teaching. Preferably, one of two semesters, student identifies someone NOT in the department to take on this role (med school, teaching position, industry, government, etc).</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />B) Take Bio308 course on career options (good place to find people who could be mentors, half-semester, 1 hr/ week)<br /><br /></span> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4380733575762269367.post-53044455407605796782010-11-29T16:31:00.000-08:002010-11-29T16:35:21.996-08:00What's with this whole blogging thing?So, I post all the time on Yelp about local restaurants. I occasionally post on other blogs about science or academic procedures (e.g., in various PLoS sites). Is there interest in a merger of the two, and is there more generally benefit or interest in having such a blog? I'll play with this for a while and see if there's interest, cross-posting on FaceBook since there's already a group seeing what's there. Comments/ thoughts/ suggestions from bloggers or blog-watchers welcome!!! (Especially as to whether to do this such that it can be seen by the >250 students in my class next semester...)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03212628642283844865noreply@blogger.com0