John Wallace: Okay, so this short orientation video is about active learning classroom environment. I use active learning in my classes, even though it's now zoom. I'm still doing active learning and i i think that
John Wallace: It's just fair to you to let you know now before you've started class. How very extensive and how very much of the since I put on active learning
John Wallace: It affects every aspect of the of the class. So the, this is not electric course there's you will have to be doing quite a bit in the way of assignments.
John Wallace: I think that I averaged perhaps two assignments for every session, sometimes three so that by the end
John Wallace: We just did a summer classes, six weeks summer class that meant 24 times I think there were 85 assignments. By the end of that class. Most of the assignments are simple and
John Wallace: They're just if you're there in the room and you're participating the assignments finished you get credit for it.
John Wallace: So it's not like there's a that's all homework type thing. But generally speaking, I'm asking you to work with material in some way rather than listen to me talk about material.
John Wallace: And when you do that, I feel it's good for you to get credit for that. So it'll be an assignment so that it goes into the record books is, yes, I was there. Yes, I did it and you get credit for it so
John Wallace: Although it may seem like a lot of assignments and it is a lot of assignments. It's not a lot of hard assignments.
John Wallace: That being said, I think almost all students will say that my classes have too many assignments.
John Wallace: Except for me. And I think I don't ask you to do. I don't like busy work. I don't ask you to do things that I don't think are helpful for you.
John Wallace: But I do ask you to work with the material constantly. And so what this does is that you have to keep up with the reading. You can't put it off and do it later because there'll be due to due dates on all of these assignments.
John Wallace: And you have to actually do the reading. And although I don't usually assign a lot of reading
John Wallace: Some students feel that it's a lot of reading because they actually have to do all of the reading that I assign rather than skim through it or skip some of it so
John Wallace: The other three classes this semester. It is definitely the EA 105 class that has the most reading to it. That's a full textbook. We read it cover to cover.
John Wallace: And it's, I don't know if it were if it were a traditional book, I believe, it'd be about 400 pages long, but I'm not sure I did the calculations. Once a couple of years ago, but I don't remember them somewhere between 304 hundred pages if it were just sitting out on a bookshelf.
John Wallace: So,
John Wallace: The. So I guess the, you know, in short, what I'd like to say is that if you thought that this class could be a class that you can
John Wallace: Kind of
John Wallace: Occasionally engage into maintain a grade that just won't work. It's, it's, you're going to have to be there all the time doing all of the material. Basically, in order to succeed in this class.
John Wallace: Because of the nature of how I teach. So know that ahead of time. And if that doesn't work for your schedule, you should look for something else.
John Wallace: The. The other thing is that my definition of what it means to be active is quite broad.
John Wallace: And I will point you to the document because it's a little bit too complicated to say in the video, but it basically has to do with
John Wallace: How you acquire and prepare for learning how you practice with the material and the analysis you generate based on those things. So it's a three phase aspect and what that means for example, it just as an example, is that if you thought there was supposed to be an assignment.
John Wallace: And yet. You haven't heard from me at in my definitions active learning you email me and say, I thought we were supposed to do this assignment, what's going on, rather than hope that I have forgotten about the assignment and
John Wallace: Relieved just a bit of the to do pressure because if you're active in your desire to learn, you will actually want to learn, rather than one to avoid learning
John Wallace: And so that is a that's it gives you a sense of how I think about. How about the word active in this case it is you your deployment of your intellectual curiosity and energy towards learning
John Wallace: And it shows up in the care and how you prepare for something and the energy you bring in practicing the skills and what sort of analysis, you can produce based on on having done that.
John Wallace: Okay, just so you know.
John Wallace: Join my class, you don't have to do things. Well, you just have to do things period that's that's pretty much it. Okay, enough for now.
John Wallace: Just you have been forewarned. It can be fun and it can I think it's satisfying to most students, but it is busy my classes are busy. There's no doubt about that.