Campuswire Featured: SOC-2070 at Cornell
Success Stories and Best Practices
Welcome to Campuswire Featured, where we’ll be sharing success stories, best practices, and testimonials from our professors, TAs, and students.
First up are Professor Peter Rich and Pamela Meyerhofer at Cornell University (our second largest campus).
Peter is using Campuswire for all of class communication in both of his classes this semester (a sociology elective course with 105 students and a required introductory statistics course with 60 students). Pamela is the graduate teaching assistant in the statistics course working with a team of seven undergraduate teaching assistants. They sat down with me to share their Campuswire experience:
“My relationship with my TAs and students has improved because we’ve consolidated our communications on one platform.”
“Campuswire has made it so much easier to allocate my time… I answer one question and all 20 students with that question see it. For me, Campuswire is a time saver.”
Before Campuswire, which other tools were you using for class communication? And how is Campuswire different?
Peter: “Typically, I’ve conducted communication in class using email. It was very inefficient because students couldn’t see the responses that other students were receiving.
I had planned to switch Piazza, and I had workshopped that in a different course. When I saw the interface that Campuswire has, specifically the ability to do both direct messaging and create posts in one place, I decided to try it.
And I was really happy with Campuswire. It created a centralized place for communicating with my class. That was really valuable.”
Pamela: “I have really enjoyed using Campuswire as a tool this semester. Peter and I now have a reputation on campus for being Campuswire evangelists.
In the past, we relied on the class website or the LMS. I’ve tried Piazza before, and found it confusing. Students haven’t really engaged with it… I’ve never had a class that successfully had a discussion forum, regardless of the tool, before Campuswire.”
What was the learning curve like with Campuswire?
Peter: “It was actually really quick. I showed examples in class of how to respond, how to ask questions, how to upvote. I think that there is even more nuance that my class and I never really explored.”
What do you think the differences were that made Campuswire more effective than other tools?
Pamela: “We made this class an email free class. Neither Peter’s email nor my email is on the syllabus. Campuswire is the only way to communicate with us. Once the students started using it, they really liked it. They got their questions answered a lot faster.
In the past (without Campuswire), they would have to email me or Peter and wait for us to respond. With Campuswire, whoever checks first can answer the question.
We also have seven undergrad TAs in this class, so we have a whole team of people checking Campuswire. Students get answers a lot faster than just emailing one person and waiting for that person to check their email and then have enough time to respond. That’s made a big difference.”
Have you noticed your students using Campuswire in any unexpected ways? Have they started engaging with the course or with their classmates differently?
Peter: “In my Social Problems course, students would post articles and ask if anyone else had any thoughts about the ideas presented in the article. In some cases, students would actually post their reading notes and solicit feedback: ‘Here’s what I got from the reading, does anyone have anything to add or change?’”
Pamela: “One thing that was really useful is that you can link to the answer of another question if a similar question is asked twice instead of repeating myself. The largest drain on my time as a TA is answering the same question 30 times.
Campuswire has cut down on that A) because students can see if their question has already been asked and answered before posing it and B) instead of repeating yourself in an email, you can just link to the question that has the answer.”
Is there one way you can point to that Campuswire has improved your teaching or made things easier for you this semester?
Peter: “My relationship with my TAs and students has improved because we’ve consolidated our communications on one platform. This allows for universal communication, rather than reaching out to individual students.
An interesting, unexpected, improvement to note is that Campuswire acted as a kind of release valve when I was running out of time to cover a concept during class. When I’m not able to complete everything that I’d planned in a lecture, I can direct my students to read through the rest of the slides and post any questions on Campuswire where I can respond to the class collectively..”
And the Campuswire team has been really responsive… I was a little bit nervous that I was taking a risk, but I’m glad I went with Campuswire. It had a net positive effect on my semester.”
Pamela: “I would say that as an academic, Campuswire has made it so much easier to allocate my time.
By not having student emails in my inbox, I can check my inbox to email a coauthor and not get pulled into teaching responsibilities… On the flipside, if it’s TA time, I don’t open my email. I just go to Campuswire and I can focus and engage with students there. It is really helpful to keep teaching time from intruding into research time and vice versa.
Also, I don’t have to respond to 20 emails — I answer the question once and all 20 students with that question see it. For me, Campuswire is a time saver.”
Are there ways you could see yourself expanding the way you use Campuswire in future courses?
Pamela: “I’m TAing a class in the Spring that I’ve TAed before, and that class has about 100 or 120 students in it, and so my inbox can get really unmanageable really quickly. I’m hoping to use Campuswire there instead.
I’d love to online video office hours, similar to Facebook Live or Zoom. Ideally, the students would see a notification that I am live and can join the video chat to ask questions.” (SEE NOTE BELOW!)
Peter: In addition to the feed and rooms, I’d like to use Campuswire during lecture — posting a multiple-choice poll or asking for a short response to an engaging prompt. That would help me to make my courses more engaging and consistent with active learning goals.
(Good news! We’re building Campuswire Live and Campuswire Lectures for exactly these use cases — those tools will ship in March 2020. Stay tuned here for updates as they arrive and check out our roadmap…)
Thank you to Peter and Pamela for taking the time to chat and share their Campuswire experience with us!
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As always, reach out with any questions or feedback (brian@campuswire.com) and stay tuned here for product updates, news, and more Campuswire Featured.
