An Interview with Christopher Swift
Christopher Swift
Can you speak to how students reacted to the O.E.R. course? We’re curious if O.E.R. influenced your pedagogy/teaching style in any way.
My students are receptive to the O.E.R. format through OpenLab; most have probably used OpenLab in other classes. Over the last couple of semesters I have simplified the design of the OpenLab site so that readings are more accessible. I now embed the reading links directly into the course schedule. Problems arise when students need to take extra steps after clicking on a link. I sometimes ask them to log into CT databases to access materials and often students won't follow the directions for signing in and searching databases. I will often require that they do a little bit more work finding appropriate sources, but I will usually get students who have trouble logging in or understanding how to use library databases. This is a bit of a surprise since most of my students are nearing the end of their college careers (it's an ID course, so I get a lot of seniors completing requirements). It's seems curious (and apparent) that many of our students have never accessed a single library database once in their many semesters at CT.
O.E.R. has transformed my teaching. My Theater History course now runs like a well-oiled machine. The course is much more organized and assignment design is more engaging and more clearly articulated. Students understand the requirements from the beginning of the semester and although there is sometimes grumbling about the amount of work, ultimately they don't have legitimate complaints because the material is easily accessible and the assignments are very carefully designed and explained.
What was the most memorable part of the O.E.R. Fellowship for you?
The most memorable and informative moments of the Fellowship were the collaborative sessions. I learned quite a lot from speaking with other Fellows and learning about their strategies and approaches to teaching.
How has the process of redesigning your course on the OpenLab been?
The process is ongoing. I modify the course every semester. I change areas of focus, revise reading and video assignments, and play around with the quiz/exam structure (which is never easy to get perfectly right). O.E.R. has freed up my teaching so that I can curate each historical module to fit the themes of the course and the capabilities of the students -- and make changes to improve the course every semester. I usually switch out one or two learning modules every semester (replace medieval theater with Javanese puppetry, for instance).
How do you imagine this open course will evolve over time?
Eventually I need to figure out how to move everything onto OpenLab. I still need to use Blackboard Gradebook and Discussion Board, and it's much easier setting up Exams on Blackboard than on OpenLab. I haven't figured out how to set up weighted gradebook on OpenLab (although I hear there is a plugin) and sometimes I use Discussion Board on Blackboard because it allows me to hide posts written in response to prompts, and only reveal these posts after each student submits their own. Often on OpenLab if I have an open discussion going, students simply rewrite other students' answers when they haven't done the reading.
What has stuck out to you the most as far as student feedback you’ve received?
Last class, after a student had completed her presentation (and thus all her work in the class) she said (this is almost word-for-word): "Professor, I have to admit that I would rather take five science classes rather than this one. It was a lot of work and really difficult for me, but I learned a lot. Thank you." This particular student is an "A" student, but not because she came into the course with special skills. She had no theater or architecture background. English was her second language. But she worked hard and stayed engaged with the material. The success rate for students in this course is much higher than any other course I have taught at City Tech, both in terms of retention and grades. And the students work really hard to achieve success.
We’d love to hear more about how O.E.R. is impacting your work now.
I began this project in Theatre History before doing the O.E.R. fellowship, but I was already following some O.E.R. principles and teaching on OpenLab.
Christopher Swift mentors student projects at City Tech that explore relationships among texts, historical technologies, and innovative uses of media in performance. As an O.E.R. Fellow, Swift created a learning and resource platform for History of the Theatre, an interdisciplinary course with Architecture Technology. The interactive story map The City Performs provides a geospatial history of performance in New York City and was developed with students from the course.