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Submitted by Serge Levesque
What challenge, problem or motivation inspired you to make one small change?
I wanted to provide better support to students working on their lab projects
Tell us about your one small change:
Working with the Hub team, we produced a series of short video demonstrations to bridge information gaps that were not clearly defined in student workbooks. Here is an example of one of these videos:
What was the result of your one small change?
I saw an immediate increase in student autonomy while working in my 2nd year electrical lab. I had more time to focus on student evaluations and feedback as opposed to dealing with recurring operational issues.
Where did the idea for QR codes come from?
It came up in a conversation with the Manufacturer representative for the Lab Equipment we are using. I had mentioned that we needed to update and edit their current workbook. The workbook we had been using had several technical errors and had been poorly translated from another language. It was due for a revision, but the original author had since passed away, and the original manuscript was nowhere to be found.
I knew we needed to make some changes to address the gaps in the technical information the students needed to be able to work through their lab projects. Every semester, I kept encountering the exact same questions, over and over again. I understood that with the technology and resources here at Cambrian, it was simply a matter of engaging with the right people to make the idea become a reality.
The conversation evolved from there as I spoke to Jeff Tranchemontagne and we pulled Laura Killam into the project as she had previous experience with QR codes. It was truly a collaborative effort, that has reaped some positive changes in how the students are working more independently in their lab work, and I see how students are progressing through their lab work much more rapidly than in previous years.
I am very happy with the results thus far, am planning to have a whole series of demonstrations I want to capture on video in the near future. They will act as study material for students, for what many consider to be very dry learning material from a textbook.
