In Episode 138 of The A&P Professor podcast for anatomy & physiology faculty, host Kevin Patton discusses some new thinking about organelle function, why decorative animations are not a good idea in our teaching slides, news about Wendy Riggs and the 2023 HAPS President's Medal, why I don't like timed tests, resources for AI in the curriculum, and why micro-credentials are our friends. With all that, how is that we left out any mention of carbaminohemoglobin?
00:00 | Introduction
00:50 | Wendy Riggs Wins Big
04:173 | Curricular Resources for AI
08:55 | Timed Online Tests
24:12 | Micro-credentials for Professional Development
31:53 | Dancing Organelles
40:13 | Distracting Animations
43:44 | Staying Connected
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Research is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought. (Albert Szent-Györgyi)
Wendy Riggs Wins Big
3.5 minutes
At the 2023 HAPS Conference, Wendy Riggs, a College of the Redwoods educator, presented a workshop on alternative grading (mentioning 106 on ungrading 😊). Wendy was awarded the prestigious HAPS President's Medal 🏅 for her contributions to anatomy and physiology education. Check out her YouTube videos for A&P and biology topics.
★ 2023 President's Medal Was Presented By President Eric Sun to... (Wendy's award announcement) AandP.info/c2p
Ungrading With Standards-Based Grading | A Chat With Staci Johnson | TAPP 106
★ Alternative Grading (a Slack group that discusses alternative grading) alternativegrading.slack.com
★ Wendy Riggs YouTube channel youtube.com/@wendy-riggs
★ Visit HAPS theAPprofessor.org/haps
Please rate & review The A&P Professor—it helps others decide whether to give us a try! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
<Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>>Kevin Patton:
Albert Szent-Györgyi, the Nobel Prize-winning (00:00):
undefined
scientist credited with discovering vitaminC once wrote, "Research is seeing what everybody
else has seen and thinking what nobody elsehas thought".
>>Aileen Park: Welcome to The A&P Professor, a few minutes (00:17):
undefined
to focus on teaching human anatomy and physiologywith a veteran educator and teaching mentor,
your host, Kevin Patton.
>>Kevin Patton: In episode 138, I discuss AI resources for (00:28):
undefined
faculty using decorative animations in ourslides, new thinking about organelles, timed
online tests and professional developmentmicro-credentials.
(00:50):
As I'm recording this, I just got back fromthe annual HAPS Conference, the 2023 conference
in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and as usual,it was a wonderful experience. I learned a
lot, reconnected with old friends and colleaguesand young friends and colleagues, and I met
(01:10):
new friends and colleagues and well, it wasthe usual good time at HAPS. And part of that
usual good time was a workshop that I wentto, presented by my friend Wendy Riggs, who's
from the College of the Redwoods in NorthernCalifornia, and she was talking about alternative
grading. It was entitled Adventures with AlternativeGrading. And she went into a lot of detail
(01:35):
about some experiments that she recently madein her own courses with alternative grading.
And if you've been listening to this podcastfor any length of time, you know that that
is also an interest of mind. As a matter offact, she mentioned one of our episodes, that
is episode 106, where I talked to our mutualfriend Staci Johnson.
(01:56):
And Staci was talking about un-grading withstandards based grading and some experiments
that she had made in that realm and experiencesthat she had. And so thank you, Wendy, for
mentioning the podcast and a specific episodethat you got a lot out of. And so you might
want to go back and check that episode, andthere's lots of resources for alternative
(02:21):
grading if you're interested in this. AndI'll put a few of those to get you started
in the episode notes. Oh, and one other thingabout Wendy that I want to mention that I
almost always mention when I'm introducingWendy to a new fan, and that is, she has an
amazing collection of YouTube videos thatshe has produced for her students in A&P and
(02:46):
biology and related topics. And I often refermy own students to Wendy's collection of YouTube
videos.And so you can get there by going to youtube.com
@wendy-riggs, that's W E N D Y, dash Riggs,R I G G S. But the real reason why I'm mentioning
(03:10):
Wendy Riggs and the HAPS Conference this yearis that during the HAPS business meeting,
which we have live at every in-person HAPSconference, our current president, Eric Sun,
also a friend, had the opportunity to awardthe annual President's Medal and he awarded
(03:33):
it to Wendy Riggs for the many things thatshe does for our organization and for teaching
anatomy and physiology in general. It's notjust the alternative grading thing or the
workshops that she does. There are many otherkinds of service and kinds of things that
(03:54):
she has contributed to A&P teaching. And Ericrecognized that this year with the HAPS President's
Medal, which is a very prestigious honor.And so I want to honor Wendy and congratulate
her on winning the President's Medal. Cheers!Artificial intelligence, AI. I'm almost tired
(04:23):
of hearing about it, but you know what? Ihave to hear about it because going forward,
it's going to be part of my life and especiallypart of my life as an educator. And that's
true of all of us. We cannot ignore it. It'salready part of the fabric of teaching and
learning. And the more we know about it andthe more we know about how to understand it,
(04:47):
how to interweave it in what we're doing andhow to look at it, I think the better off
we are and the better off our students are.And I recently ran across a set of resources
that is in the process of continuing to becollected and curated for us out at Stanford
University. It's called CRAFT, and I havea link for it in the show notes.
(05:14):
CRAFT stands for curricular resources aboutAI for teaching. Again, that's curricular
resources about AI for teaching, or CRAFTis the acronym. And when you go to their website,
you'll notice that they kind of summarizewhat they call enduring understandings and
(05:36):
essential questions that they're thinkingabout when they're curating these resources.
And I'm going to read those to you becauseI think they're very informative and really
kind of tell you what's going on here. Pointnumber one is, AI is involved in many different
parts of our modern lives. Being knowledgeableabout AI is not limited to being able to use
(06:04):
math and write code to build AI.The second point is, modern AI relies heavily
on data created by humans. Relying on humanproduced data allows AI to do a number of
surprising things. But because AI is onlyas good as the data that it uses, and data
(06:27):
is a simplification of the world, it alsohas limitations. And then point three states,
AI can amplify and accelerate the work ofexisting systems. This can be both positive
(06:47):
and negative. Even though modern AI has impressivecapabilities, humans still bear the ultimate
responsibility for ensuring that AI is designedand used in ways that are beneficial to all
people. Now, as I was scanning through theresources that they're currently offering
(07:12):
in this collection, I noticed that they takethe position that teaching students about
AI, how to use it properly, is something thatwe should be doing and that we can be doing
by tucking it into the little nooks and cranniesof our course.
They're not asking us to take our A&P course,for example, although this set of resources
(07:38):
was really built for all kinds of educatorsfrom high school through early college, in
all different disciplines, but thinking ofit as an A&P instructor, we don't need to
add learning objectives necessarily in ourcourse about AI. And we don't necessarily
need to add some kind of module or sectionof our course about AI or anything big. We
(08:05):
just tuck it into those little nooks and cranniesas we do with so many other things that we're
teaching students about how to take a practicaltest, how to do their assignments, how to
do their lab activities and explorations andall of that.
And so it gives us some ideas for how to tuckit in, and you can scan through there and
(08:29):
find all kinds of different resources andprobably at least some that are going to fit
your style and your course and the way you'rethinking about AI. Or it might get you thinking
a little bit differently about AI, and thatmight be good too. So go ahead and look in
the episode notes for links to these resources.A topic that has come up in a lot of recent
(08:58):
conversations I've had with other A&P facultyis the idea of tests, especially online tests,
and that could be a test within a face-to-faceclass, but some are all of the tests are given
online, or it could be within an online coursewhere all of the tests are given online. The
topic that has come up regarding them frequentlyactually over several recent conversations
(09:23):
has been the idea of timing those tests andthe importance of at least in the mind of
some, the importance of making sure that theonline tests have a tight timeframe and time
limit so that academic dishonesty doesn'toccur. And theoretically, that is a way to
(09:46):
limit opportunities for cheating. If you limitthe time available, then the person really
needs to have it in their brain and practicedenough that they can easily retrieve it at
a moment's notice that, okay, this is theanswer to that question, this is the answer
to this other question.Here's something that's answered to yet another
(10:07):
question, and we can just go through it rapidlybecause we know it so thoroughly and we've
practiced retrieving that information enoughup till that point that we don't need to look
elsewhere for anything else, and thereforewe won't be tempted to cheat because we already
know it. And not only that, we won't havethe opportunity to cheat because of that time
(10:28):
limit. We're going to have to stop at somepoint, and we don't want to stop before we've
had an opportunity to answer every singlequestion on that test.
So yeah, that makes a lot of sense except,well, how reflective is that of the real world?
I guess it does reflect the real world tosome extent. If we think of the real world
(10:53):
as a board exam and that's what we're preparingstudents for, for their nursing exam or some
other kind of board exam, then well, yeah,okay, being able to retrieve knowledge quickly
in that moment, yeah, that's a valuable thing,but I'm not sure the best way to get there
(11:14):
is that at every instance during the trainingprocess that eventually someday will lead
to a board exam.I don't know that every one of those has to
be reflective of the board exam context itself.I think as long as it's preparing students
for that eventuality, then that's okay. Andnot only that, but what about after the board
(11:38):
exams when it's real, real life? When we'rein a clinical situation? Don't we find that
that is most often collaborative? Don't wefind that when we're stuck, we pull out that
little note card in our pocket or pick upour little device and look it up on our various
(12:03):
databases that we have access to for clinicalinformation? Don't we pull aside a colleague
and say, look, I've never done this procedurebefore, or I've never seen this kind of case
before? What do you think about it? Or wedo actual formal consults with other health
professionals. There's all of that. We maygo look things up and so on.
(12:25):
I want my health professionals to go lookthings up because I want them to have the
best answer possible to address whatever myclinical situation is as a patient. And so
those times tests, they sort of rub me thewrong way for that reason. But another reason
(12:47):
that they kind of have me wondering is thatthere are a lot of reasons why students can't
come up with the right answer right away,that are okay. We've talked a lot on this
podcast in previous episodes about some studentsbeing considered neurotypical and some being
(13:10):
considered neuro-atypical. And we know thatsometimes there are students that can solve
a problem, but they need a little extra timeto solve a problem. I don't know if you've
had this experience, but I'll bet you have,because I have this experience a lot. When
I'm asked to provide accommodations for studentswith challenges, almost always, I'd say 90
(13:36):
something percent of the accommodations thatI get requests for that are passed along to
me by our various agents in the college thatmanage this sort of thing, almost all of them
are accommodations for extra time on a test.There are multiple kinds of challenges that
benefit from having a little extra time, maybea lot of extra time, on a test. Almost all
(14:02):
my tests are untimed. As a matter of fact,in my regular A&P course, my two semester
A&P course, even though a lot of my testswere online and untimed, totally untimed,
they could stop and come back the next dayand work on it some more and stop and come
back the next day and work on it some more.The only limit was there was a timeframe of
(14:24):
a number of days, maybe a week or a week anda half where it was available. So yeah, you
had to have it done by a week and a half.But even then, I would give them opportunities
to have that deadline extended if they reallyneeded to.
And I've tried different ways of doing that.Sometimes I had a free parking pass that they
could use. Sometimes they just had to askme and I would open it back up for them. There
(14:48):
are many different ways to implement thatkind of a process. I guess they truly were
untimed. But I also had a midterm and a finalexam, which were a more traditional kind of
test where they're on paper and they weretimed, except I eventually got to the point
(15:08):
of making sure that they were designed ina way that even students with challenges,
they had plenty of time.So if most students could finish it in, let's
say 40 minutes, but everybody had an hourto do it, then really everybody had time and
a half sort of, right? So I kind of builtthem that way so that really, a student didn't
(15:30):
have to go through those steps of making anappointment over in the testing center and
making sure that there was a copy of the testthere, make sure there was somebody there
to proctor it, and then I wouldn't be availableto answer questions like I was with other
students.And there's some ways around that too, but
they're a hassle for both the instructor andfor the student. And not only that, but many
(15:54):
students with challenges don't want to besingled out that way for a different kind
of testing situation. They want their challengesto be anonymous and hidden, and I can't blame
them for that. I think that that helps a studentwhen they don't have to, when they're not
forced to be outed that they have a particularchallenge or some kind of challenge. So there's
(16:22):
that aspect of it, but I think it's sort oflike, I think what one of the underlying principles
of Universal Design for Learning, anotherwhole topic will cover some other day on some
other episode. But an underlying principleI think of that approach is that if we design
our courses where everyone has access, theneveryone benefits.
(16:46):
There are some students that wouldn't typicallyqualify for accommodations that can benefit
from a little extra time on the test, maybenot on every test, but when they need it,
they need it. And if it's already there, it'salready built into the system, it's already
baked into the course, then they're goingto do okay because that's not going to be
a problem for them when they do have a daylike that because they're sick or they have
(17:11):
a topic like that that they just find reallychallenging to understand and just need a
little extra time to think things throughor work things out on their scratch paper
or whatever it is that's requiring them totake little extra time. So in my view, extra
time is a way of providing another avenueof inclusion, another way to include all students,
(17:40):
and maybe not on every test, but I think manystudents are going to need that on some tests.
So why not bake it into all the tests in thecourse, having untimed tests? Now, I got away
from timed to tests a long time ago for areason that has nothing to do with inclusion
(18:02):
or equity. It has nothing to do with helpingstudents that need accommodations. Not that
those things weren't important to me, butthat's not what caused me to stop timing my
test. I stopped timing my test because, well,I was trying to do timed online tests before
the technology was really able to do thatwith a large number of students, at least
(18:26):
the technology we had on our campus. Becauseat that time, I think a lot of folks didn't
think that we really needed much bandwidthin our internet connection, and we really
didn't need a lot of space on our server ora lot of efficiency on our server, even though
we had installed a learning management systemthat could do online tests.
(18:48):
Oh, only a few students are going to be usingit at a time. Well, we soon found out that's
not true. And I was one of the ones that taxedthe system by having a large number of questions.
You may recall that in my online test banks,I have randomization, so there's many, many,
many questions there, and they're randomlychosen by the learning management system for
(19:13):
each item. So each item might have five or10 or 25 different items to choose from, and
then it moves on to the next one, the nextone, the next one. So it keeps hitting that
server. And in the early days, our servercouldn't handle it and it would shut down.
And then everybody was locked out of the testand nobody had a positive testing experience,
(19:34):
including me. And so it was advised, our learningmanagement system wrangler, who's still around
with us these days and is a very wise person,chatted with me about these issues and told
me, Kevin, I can't make the server work better.Not yet, not now. We have to tackle that in
(19:56):
some other context on some other day.What are you going to do now? Why don't you
think about just taking the timing off ofyour test so that not all the students are
hitting the server at the same time? Let themspread it out a little bit and then the server
won't crash, and that would be great for allof us if the server doesn't crash. And so
(20:22):
I did. I thought, oh, I can't do that. Ohmy gosh, there are these things in my brain
that I can't unlock that says that the onlyrigorous and honest and useful way of doing
a test is if they're a time to test. That'sjust the way it's done. And so I had to break
(20:43):
that part of my brain and loosen it up, andI did because I felt like I was forced to.
And once I did, oh my gosh, I am so, so gladthat that happened because I realized that
that timing was an artificial barrier thatunnecessarily added burdens for my students
in taking their tests. And not only that,it unnecessarily excluded some students and
(21:10):
maybe excluded all students on certain tests.So I'm bringing this up because, well, it's
on my mind. I've been talking about it withpeople lately, and so I thought I'd bring
it to you and maybe this can help loosen upsome little locked in concretized part of
your brain, and maybe you can start experimentingwith longer times on your test or no times
(21:36):
on your test. And not only online tests, butmaybe even in class tests.
By the way, I want to circle back to thatfor just a moment because I forgot to mention
this before, and that is on my in-class exams,one strategy I've used is to design the exam
so that they can be taken in a shorter amountof time than I actually have in the room.
(21:58):
And that usually works a hundred percent ofthe time. But another strategy that I've tried
that has worked really well is to tell studentsthat here's when we have to leave the room,
because there's always another class comingin. Might be my class, might be somebody else's
class, might be who knows what is going tobe used in that room next. So I can't allow
(22:20):
a student to just stay in there forever takingtheir test. So if you cannot finish in the
allotted time, then tell me that as you turnin the test and we will work it out. Now,
I don't go into detail about that becauseI don't want them to necessarily know what
I'm going to do, partly because I don't knowwhat I'm necessarily going to do in every
(22:45):
case.It depends on the day and the time and where
we're located and so on. But usually whatI can do is if a student says, you know what?
I just zoned out there for a while, I havea migraine, whatever, then I can say, okay,
can you finish it now? And if they say yes,and I'll say, okay, walk with me and we'll
(23:08):
walk and we'll either find an empty classroom,find some other space. If we're close to where
my office is or conference room or something,we'll set it up there and I'll let them finish.
If not, then we'll make an appointment forthem to finish at a later time. And so, use
your imagination. There are probably a numberof different options that you can come up
(23:31):
with at that point. And you know what? I don'treally recall a time when I had to do that.
There probably were a few times when I didthat, but I don't recall a time doing that.
So even if you have a huge class, and I'vehad classes up to about 300 students at a
time, even in a huge class, you're not goingto have a lot of students taking you up on
(23:53):
that. They want to get done. And if they canget done, they will get done within the allotted
time. And something else to think about too,all kinds of possibilities here once we start
allowing our brains to go down that path,all kinds of possibilities open up.
In case you forgot, or in case you never knewthis, I offer digital micro-credentials in
(24:20):
the form of a badge or a certificate, whicheveryou prefer, or both for any of the podcast
episodes that come out in this podcast. Andnot only that, at theAPprofessor.org, I also
have online video seminars. And of coursewe have The A&P Professor book club, and reading
(24:41):
any of those books that are recommended inthe book club can also earn you a digital
credential. I mentioned those digital credentialsat the end of every episode to remind you
to claim yours because if you've listenedto an episode, well then you can earn a digital
credential. And back in episode 87, I talkedabout digital credentials sometimes called
(25:04):
micro-credentials in our course. And I'veused those in courses, for example, in my
Pre-A&P course, they have 10 modules thatthey have to work through, and they get a
badge for each one of those.And so when they leave Pre-A&P, not only have
they refreshed some important topics of biologyand chemistry that they need to know before
(25:28):
they get to A&P one, and that enables themto be successful in the A&P one. They not
only have that course on their transcript,they have those badges in their digital backpack
that anyone that they display them to cansee them and see that yes, that person is
competent in protein synthesis. That personhas achieved the basics of introductory genetics.
(25:55):
That person has some basic understanding ofbiological molecules, any of those major topics
that in groups or concepts that we talkedabout in Pre-A&P, so that's a digital credential.
Well, in The A&P Professor world, the digitalcredentials are for continuing professional
(26:17):
education to demonstrate that you have someexposure to, some understanding of, that you've
thought about different major topics suchas the use of micro-credentials.
You could go into our education system, youwould go to theAPprofessor.org/education,
(26:39):
and you would be able to look through whatthe different opportunities are for badges
and so on. But really, almost anything youdo at theapprofessor.org can earn you a micro-credential.
For example, if you had listened to episode87 and it's not too late, episode 87 still
(27:00):
exists, and you can go in there and listento it and learn something about micro-credentials.
And when you do, you just click the littlelink in that episode page or in the episode
notes if you're listening in like a podcastapp or some other kind of audio app, you can
find that link and it'll take you there andit'll take you to a form that you fill out.
(27:25):
Say, okay, it'll already have listed whatthe episode is, and then it'll ask you some
questions, first of all to verify in sortof an affidavit that you have listened to
it, and then you do a little very brief reflectionon what you learned or what you understand
(27:45):
from that episode.And then you'll get your credential. And then
there are links to explanations of how youcan display those credentials, where you can
get a backpack to put those, a digital backpack,virtual backpack, it's not heavy at all because
it's virtual, where you can put these badgesand certificates. All of that learning that
(28:07):
you're doing, not only in the theAPprofessor.org,but this is a growing trend. And so I'm hoping
that, I'm encouraging, I'm saying right nowto organizations like HAPS and AAA and APS
and other organizations that offer professionalcontinuing educational or professional development
(28:31):
opportunities, especially those that are somewhatinformal like workshops at a HAPS conference
or seminars at AAA meeting or readings inadvances in physiological education, any of
those things. I would encourage you peoplewho are organizing that and doing that, to
(28:55):
offer badges, offer micro-credentials so thatpeople can demonstrate that they've done those
things.Now, continuing ed in clinical areas have
done that for years and years where they'vegiven credit for reading a journal article
or for listening to a podcast or for attendinga workshop or a seminar or reading a book
(29:17):
or any one of those things that you can getmicro-credentials for, for example, in theAPprofessor.org.
And the more organizations and the more peopleoffering those kinds of professional development
opportunities do that, the more we can keeptrack, and this is where I was headed this
whole time of battling on about micro-credentials,is it offers us a way to keep track of what
(29:43):
we're learning. This came up recently witha longtime friend of mine who was sort of
busily catching up with his micro-credentialsin general, but that included the ones related
to the podcast. And he said, well, it's becausehe's been considered for a continuing contract.
So it's sort of like his institution's versionof tenure, I guess, where they get a longer
(30:09):
contract. But I've also had this conversationwith other friends who have used it when they're
going up for a promotion, they've used itwhen they're getting their CV ready because
they're looking for a different position,a new position. There's lots of reasons to
pull this stuff together and get it onto yourCV. If for no other reason, and I can see
(30:33):
myself doing it this way, is a lot of us havea requirement that every year we have to sort
of demonstrate what we've been doing thatyear in a variety of different areas, including
service to the school, service to our profession,continuing professional education, things
(30:54):
like that. Well, these badges can be a goodway to keep track of that and not only keep
track of it, but demonstrate it that look,here is a certificate, here is a badge that
says I did this.The badges that I provide also stipulate how
many hours of work that are behind each ofthose badges. So you could total those up
(31:15):
and present that as well. So I just want tothrow this out there as a reminder that there
is this thing called micro-credentials, andit is available at theAPprofessor.org/education
for any of the things, any of the professionaldevelopment activities that I offer through
the The A&P Professor. But also, let's encourageour organizations and other folks that provide
(31:40):
these professional development opportunities,let's encourage them to get on the bandwagon
so that we can get badges anywhere that we'redoing that professional development.
One of the overarching concepts of human anatomyand physiology is that it changes. That is,
(32:02):
our understanding of it changes, and thereforeour teaching and learning of it changes. We
have to be constantly learning anatomy andphysiology. And I know that many of us have
this notion that, well, anatomy is finished.Physiology, yeah we're still discovering some
things, but anatomy's all been worked out.Well, that's not really true. There's many
(32:24):
different aspects of what we think we knowabout anatomy that are still being worked
out, even gross anatomy. But an area of anatomythat certainly is nowhere close to being worked
out is microscopic anatomy. When we look atcells and tissues and interactions between
them, we can see clearly that, oh, we havepart of the story. And I don't know, there
(32:50):
are days when maybe we think we have the wholestory, or at least somebody has the whole
story, that science as a whole has the wholestory.
But that's not true. That's not even closeto being true. There's a lot more to discover.
A while back in episode 126, I talked about10 things that we forget to tell students
(33:14):
about cells that they kind of need to knowto have that idea that there's more to cells
than we see at a glance. And some of theseare newly discovered ideas. So for example,
just a very basic level, I mentioned thatit's important for students to know that cells
(33:39):
are not multicolored like they are in thetextbooks and online resources, and even in
journal articles, those color codes and stainsand various lighting techniques and so on,
those are all to help us see them better.But that's not really what a living cell looks
(33:59):
like in real life as it carries on its business.And another aspect that I think we forget
to emphasize with students is how importantthe cytoskeleton is to pretty much everything
the cell does, and its whole entire structureis really organized by the cytoskeleton.
(34:20):
And we kind of set that aside as sort of anot important thing when actually that maybe
one of the most important things that studentsreally should understand about a cell. And
we often set aside this idea of molecularmotors. Yeah, we talk about the effects of
them from time to time, but do they reallyknow that there are tiny little motors made
(34:42):
of a molecule or two that are pulling andpushing things around in the cell, that it's
not just happening on its own? That's whatanimates the various organelles of a cell.
Well, speaking of organelles, there have beena couple of recent articles that have come
out that are emphasizing something about organellesthat is fairly newly discovered. When I say
(35:09):
fairly newly discovered, I mean over the lastfew decades we've developed a clearer and
clearer understanding of what's going on enoughthat we now know that we know hardly anything
about this topic, and that is the topic oforganelle to organelle interactions.
Now, we know of some interactions betweenorganelles within a cell, but there are many
(35:33):
others that we've only recently discovered.One group of interactions, and it really is
a group of many different kinds of interactionsthat's happening in the cell is between mitochondria
and the endoplasmic reticulum, the ER. Andwe don't normally talk about that in a beginning
biology course or in our A&P course when we'rereviewing the basic structure and function
(35:56):
of a cell or anywhere along in our coursedo we really talk about how mitochondria can
and do and often do connect to Er. That wasdiscovered accidentally when researchers started
pulling apart cells and isolating organelles,and they kept getting ER that had mitochondria
(36:19):
stuck to it. And it's like, oh, man, our techniqueis not too good, it's causing the mitochondria
to stick to the ER. Well, no, those mitochondriawere stuck to the ER at least for that moment
in time when that process was happening, whenthat cell was sort of captured and processed.
(36:39):
And we now know that those are important interactionsthat are happening there that apparently,
and one author describes it as kind of a dancewhere the mitochondria are coming in contact
with the ER, they connect, they're actuallytethered there at least momentarily, and then
they release, and then they come back againand they're released, they come back again.
(37:01):
For example, some lipids that end up in themitochondria that we never knew really how
they got there. Well, now we know they'recoming from the ER. So yeah, maybe one of
the reasons why the mitochondria are connectingto the ER is to pick up some lipids and then
they leave and then they pick up some morelipids. But there are other kinds of interactions
(37:23):
that we're working out there too. And I don'twant to get into all the detail of that because
that's not my point here.And I don't think all of those details necessarily
are important for our telling of the storyof anatomy and physiology for our students.
But I think bringing up the idea that thereare many kinds of interactions that you won't
take time to discuss in your course, but they'rehappening there and that there are many undiscovered
(37:47):
interactions among many organelles in thecell, even though the most studied is between
mitochondria and ER. It's the most studiedup till this point. There are many other organelle
to organelle interactions that we've eithernot discovered yet or they haven't been studied
well yet.And as we study them, we're seeing that there
(38:08):
are opportunities for disease mechanisms tohappen. We know that when just about anything
in a cell or beyond, that is outside a cellwithin a tissue or an organ when it's supposed
to work one way or when it usually works oneway in a healthy situation and then it stops
(38:29):
working that way because something is brokenor something is missing or something is being
blocked or any one of a number of things thatcan go wrong, that's when we start seeing
disease happening, disease processes happening.So we know that a lot of our students, they're
going into health professions. A lot of mystudents over the years of gone into nursing
(38:51):
and related professions, and they often comein and like, why do I need to know about cells
if I'm going to be a nurse? Why do I needto know about what ER does if I'm going to
be a nurse? Well, when mistakes happen, forexample, in this interaction between mitochondria
and ER, that may be the basis of some veryimportant clinical conditions. And when I
(39:17):
say important, I mean important to the clinician,things that they're going to run into, things
that they need to deal with that are goingto help them understand that condition better
and eventually may help the health professionalunderstand how any treatments or therapies
that they're employing with that patient work.So the more we know about cells, the more
(39:39):
we know about clinical medicine, the morewe know about pharmacology and the more reason
there is for us to know that stuff if we'regoing to be working in a clinic. I'm just
fascinated with cells in general, maybe youare too. And so you might want to take a look
at the links that I provided to you so youcan look at this somewhat newer part of the
(40:01):
story, and maybe we can all together startfollowing what happens with these organelle
to organelle interactions.You may already know that I have a regular
newsletter that goes out, I should say haltinglyregular newsletter that goes out that has
(40:24):
updates in science and education for anatomyand physiology faculty. In each of the issues
I have between five and 10 items that I'vefound in online journals and magazines and
social media and lying there on the floorand just anywhere I find things that are of
(40:46):
interest, whether it has to do with scienceupdates or teaching updates, education updates,
I collect it and I put it in that newsletter.And one that I ran across recently, it's actually
a couple of years old, but just recently noticedit. And that is a journal article from Advances
(41:07):
in Physiology Education. And the title ofthis article is Decorative Animations Impair
Recall and Are a Source of Extraneous CognitiveLoad. Now, when it mentions decorative animations,
it's talking about animations that we putinto, let's say a teaching slide, but it could
(41:29):
be some other kind of teaching object likean online webpage that we have in our course
or all kinds of possibilities.But let's imagine a slide. And so on that
slide, maybe we don't have an illustrationof the concept that we're explaining at that
moment, but we decide we want to put somethingvisual there, and that's not a bad idea, but
(41:53):
we need to be careful about how distractingthat is and whether it's going to add to the
cognitive load of the student as they're lookingat that image and still listening to you or
listening to a narration of what's going onin the story at that particular point in the
story. And the point of this article is thatif it's merely decorative, then maybe we don't
(42:20):
want an animation, especially an animationthat is going to be to distracting, because
what's going to happen is that's going tobe recalled by a student instead of the concepts
that we want the students to recall. So thosedecorative animations get in the way, they
(42:40):
impair recall, and probably a mechanism ofthat is that they tend to be a source of extraneous
cognitive load.In other words, they're distracting the student.
They're like a squirrel over there. Oh look,it's a squirrel. It's a squirrel. Well, we
don't need to worry about that squirrel. Whatwe need to focus on is the concept that that
(43:04):
slide is trying to help us understand. Themore and more extraneous cognitive load we
have, the harder it is for a student and harderit is for us too, to really focus on the main
idea that we need to be focusing on so thatthat moment in time, that time and effort
(43:25):
that we're spending to learn right then isgoing to work for us and not be a waste of
time and effort. So if you want to know moreabout this and what they found, I have a link
in the episode notes, as usual. So go aheadand check that out.
In this episode, I discussed a lot of differentthings. I started out by congratulating Wendy
(43:50):
Riggs on her HAPS President's Medal. Hey,if you know Wendy, why not take a moment right
now to send her a quick note of congratulations.I also shared a repository of resources to
help college faculty deal with AI in our curriculum,which is curated by Stanford University. And
(44:10):
we looked at the use of decorative animationsin teaching slides and why they may not be
a good choice. We glimpsed an emerging trendin thinking about how organelles and our cells
interact with each other. And I talked abouttimed and untimed online tests in the A&P
(44:32):
course. And yes, there's more. Of course,we discussed micro-credentials as a way to
keep track of our professional developmentgrowth.
And you know what? There are links. Thereare always links. If you don't see links in
your podcast player, go to the episode notesat theAPprofessor.org/138. And wherever you're
(44:59):
scanning the episode notes, you can find alink to claim your digital micro-credential
for listening to this episode. And pleasecall in with your questions, comments, and
ideas at the podcast hotline. That's 1-833-LION-DEN,which is 1-833-546-6336. Or send a recording
(45:22):
or a written message to podcast@theAPprofessor.org.And do me a favor please, let one colleague
know about this podcast before you move onto your next thing today. I'll see you down
(45:45):
the road.
>>Aileen Park: The A&P Professor is hosted by Dr. Kevin Patton, (45:46):
undefined
an award-winning professor and textbook authorin human anatomy and physiology.
>>Kevin Patton: Past performance does not guarantee future (45:54):
undefined
results.
undefined
scientist credited with discovering vitaminC once wrote, "Research is seeing what everybody
else has seen and thinking what nobody elsehas thought".
>>Aileen Park: Welcome to The A&P Professor, a few minutes (00:17):
undefined
to focus on teaching human anatomy and physiologywith a veteran educator and teaching mentor,
your host, Kevin Patton.
>>Kevin Patton: In episode 138, I discuss AI resources for (00:28):
undefined
faculty using decorative animations in ourslides, new thinking about organelles, timed
online tests and professional developmentmicro-credentials.
(00:50):
As I'm recording this, I just got back fromthe annual HAPS Conference, the 2023 conference
in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and as usual,it was a wonderful experience. I learned a
lot, reconnected with old friends and colleaguesand young friends and colleagues, and I met
(01:10):
new friends and colleagues and well, it wasthe usual good time at HAPS. And part of that
usual good time was a workshop that I wentto, presented by my friend Wendy Riggs, who's
from the College of the Redwoods in NorthernCalifornia, and she was talking about alternative
grading. It was entitled Adventures with AlternativeGrading. And she went into a lot of detail
(01:35):
about some experiments that she recently madein her own courses with alternative grading.
And if you've been listening to this podcastfor any length of time, you know that that
is also an interest of mind. As a matter offact, she mentioned one of our episodes, that
is episode 106, where I talked to our mutualfriend Staci Johnson.
(01:56):
And Staci was talking about un-grading withstandards based grading and some experiments
that she had made in that realm and experiencesthat she had. And so thank you, Wendy, for
mentioning the podcast and a specific episodethat you got a lot out of. And so you might
want to go back and check that episode, andthere's lots of resources for alternative
(02:21):
grading if you're interested in this. AndI'll put a few of those to get you started
in the episode notes. Oh, and one other thingabout Wendy that I want to mention that I
almost always mention when I'm introducingWendy to a new fan, and that is, she has an
amazing collection of YouTube videos thatshe has produced for her students in A&P and
(02:46):
biology and related topics. And I often refermy own students to Wendy's collection of YouTube
videos.And so you can get there by going to youtube.com
@wendy-riggs, that's W E N D Y, dash Riggs,R I G G S. But the real reason why I'm mentioning
(03:10):
Wendy Riggs and the HAPS Conference this yearis that during the HAPS business meeting,
which we have live at every in-person HAPSconference, our current president, Eric Sun,
also a friend, had the opportunity to awardthe annual President's Medal and he awarded
(03:33):
it to Wendy Riggs for the many things thatshe does for our organization and for teaching
anatomy and physiology in general. It's notjust the alternative grading thing or the
workshops that she does. There are many otherkinds of service and kinds of things that
(03:54):
she has contributed to A&P teaching. And Ericrecognized that this year with the HAPS President's
Medal, which is a very prestigious honor.And so I want to honor Wendy and congratulate
her on winning the President's Medal. Cheers!Artificial intelligence, AI. I'm almost tired
(04:23):
of hearing about it, but you know what? Ihave to hear about it because going forward,
it's going to be part of my life and especiallypart of my life as an educator. And that's
true of all of us. We cannot ignore it. It'salready part of the fabric of teaching and
learning. And the more we know about it andthe more we know about how to understand it,
(04:47):
how to interweave it in what we're doing andhow to look at it, I think the better off
we are and the better off our students are.And I recently ran across a set of resources
that is in the process of continuing to becollected and curated for us out at Stanford
University. It's called CRAFT, and I havea link for it in the show notes.
(05:14):
CRAFT stands for curricular resources aboutAI for teaching. Again, that's curricular
resources about AI for teaching, or CRAFTis the acronym. And when you go to their website,
you'll notice that they kind of summarizewhat they call enduring understandings and
(05:36):
essential questions that they're thinkingabout when they're curating these resources.
And I'm going to read those to you becauseI think they're very informative and really
kind of tell you what's going on here. Pointnumber one is, AI is involved in many different
parts of our modern lives. Being knowledgeableabout AI is not limited to being able to use
(06:04):
math and write code to build AI.The second point is, modern AI relies heavily
on data created by humans. Relying on humanproduced data allows AI to do a number of
surprising things. But because AI is onlyas good as the data that it uses, and data
(06:27):
is a simplification of the world, it alsohas limitations. And then point three states,
AI can amplify and accelerate the work ofexisting systems. This can be both positive
(06:47):
and negative. Even though modern AI has impressivecapabilities, humans still bear the ultimate
responsibility for ensuring that AI is designedand used in ways that are beneficial to all
people. Now, as I was scanning through theresources that they're currently offering
(07:12):
in this collection, I noticed that they takethe position that teaching students about
AI, how to use it properly, is something thatwe should be doing and that we can be doing
by tucking it into the little nooks and cranniesof our course.
They're not asking us to take our A&P course,for example, although this set of resources
(07:38):
was really built for all kinds of educatorsfrom high school through early college, in
all different disciplines, but thinking ofit as an A&P instructor, we don't need to
add learning objectives necessarily in ourcourse about AI. And we don't necessarily
need to add some kind of module or sectionof our course about AI or anything big. We
(08:05):
just tuck it into those little nooks and cranniesas we do with so many other things that we're
teaching students about how to take a practicaltest, how to do their assignments, how to
do their lab activities and explorations andall of that.
And so it gives us some ideas for how to tuckit in, and you can scan through there and
(08:29):
find all kinds of different resources andprobably at least some that are going to fit
your style and your course and the way you'rethinking about AI. Or it might get you thinking
a little bit differently about AI, and thatmight be good too. So go ahead and look in
the episode notes for links to these resources.A topic that has come up in a lot of recent
(08:58):
conversations I've had with other A&P facultyis the idea of tests, especially online tests,
and that could be a test within a face-to-faceclass, but some are all of the tests are given
online, or it could be within an online coursewhere all of the tests are given online. The
topic that has come up regarding them frequentlyactually over several recent conversations
(09:23):
has been the idea of timing those tests andthe importance of at least in the mind of
some, the importance of making sure that theonline tests have a tight timeframe and time
limit so that academic dishonesty doesn'toccur. And theoretically, that is a way to
(09:46):
limit opportunities for cheating. If you limitthe time available, then the person really
needs to have it in their brain and practicedenough that they can easily retrieve it at
a moment's notice that, okay, this is theanswer to that question, this is the answer
to this other question.Here's something that's answered to yet another
(10:07):
question, and we can just go through it rapidlybecause we know it so thoroughly and we've
practiced retrieving that information enoughup till that point that we don't need to look
elsewhere for anything else, and thereforewe won't be tempted to cheat because we already
know it. And not only that, we won't havethe opportunity to cheat because of that time
(10:28):
limit. We're going to have to stop at somepoint, and we don't want to stop before we've
had an opportunity to answer every singlequestion on that test.
So yeah, that makes a lot of sense except,well, how reflective is that of the real world?
I guess it does reflect the real world tosome extent. If we think of the real world
(10:53):
as a board exam and that's what we're preparingstudents for, for their nursing exam or some
other kind of board exam, then well, yeah,okay, being able to retrieve knowledge quickly
in that moment, yeah, that's a valuable thing,but I'm not sure the best way to get there
(11:14):
is that at every instance during the trainingprocess that eventually someday will lead
to a board exam.I don't know that every one of those has to
be reflective of the board exam context itself.I think as long as it's preparing students
for that eventuality, then that's okay. Andnot only that, but what about after the board
(11:38):
exams when it's real, real life? When we'rein a clinical situation? Don't we find that
that is most often collaborative? Don't wefind that when we're stuck, we pull out that
little note card in our pocket or pick upour little device and look it up on our various
(12:03):
databases that we have access to for clinicalinformation? Don't we pull aside a colleague
and say, look, I've never done this procedurebefore, or I've never seen this kind of case
before? What do you think about it? Or wedo actual formal consults with other health
professionals. There's all of that. We maygo look things up and so on.
(12:25):
I want my health professionals to go lookthings up because I want them to have the
best answer possible to address whatever myclinical situation is as a patient. And so
those times tests, they sort of rub me thewrong way for that reason. But another reason
(12:47):
that they kind of have me wondering is thatthere are a lot of reasons why students can't
come up with the right answer right away,that are okay. We've talked a lot on this
podcast in previous episodes about some studentsbeing considered neurotypical and some being
(13:10):
considered neuro-atypical. And we know thatsometimes there are students that can solve
a problem, but they need a little extra timeto solve a problem. I don't know if you've
had this experience, but I'll bet you have,because I have this experience a lot. When
I'm asked to provide accommodations for studentswith challenges, almost always, I'd say 90
(13:36):
something percent of the accommodations thatI get requests for that are passed along to
me by our various agents in the college thatmanage this sort of thing, almost all of them
are accommodations for extra time on a test.There are multiple kinds of challenges that
benefit from having a little extra time, maybea lot of extra time, on a test. Almost all
(14:02):
my tests are untimed. As a matter of fact,in my regular A&P course, my two semester
A&P course, even though a lot of my testswere online and untimed, totally untimed,
they could stop and come back the next dayand work on it some more and stop and come
back the next day and work on it some more.The only limit was there was a timeframe of
(14:24):
a number of days, maybe a week or a week anda half where it was available. So yeah, you
had to have it done by a week and a half.But even then, I would give them opportunities
to have that deadline extended if they reallyneeded to.
And I've tried different ways of doing that.Sometimes I had a free parking pass that they
could use. Sometimes they just had to askme and I would open it back up for them. There
(14:48):
are many different ways to implement thatkind of a process. I guess they truly were
untimed. But I also had a midterm and a finalexam, which were a more traditional kind of
test where they're on paper and they weretimed, except I eventually got to the point
(15:08):
of making sure that they were designed ina way that even students with challenges,
they had plenty of time.So if most students could finish it in, let's
say 40 minutes, but everybody had an hourto do it, then really everybody had time and
a half sort of, right? So I kind of builtthem that way so that really, a student didn't
(15:30):
have to go through those steps of making anappointment over in the testing center and
making sure that there was a copy of the testthere, make sure there was somebody there
to proctor it, and then I wouldn't be availableto answer questions like I was with other
students.And there's some ways around that too, but
they're a hassle for both the instructor andfor the student. And not only that, but many
(15:54):
students with challenges don't want to besingled out that way for a different kind
of testing situation. They want their challengesto be anonymous and hidden, and I can't blame
them for that. I think that that helps a studentwhen they don't have to, when they're not
forced to be outed that they have a particularchallenge or some kind of challenge. So there's
(16:22):
that aspect of it, but I think it's sort oflike, I think what one of the underlying principles
of Universal Design for Learning, anotherwhole topic will cover some other day on some
other episode. But an underlying principleI think of that approach is that if we design
our courses where everyone has access, theneveryone benefits.
(16:46):
There are some students that wouldn't typicallyqualify for accommodations that can benefit
from a little extra time on the test, maybenot on every test, but when they need it,
they need it. And if it's already there, it'salready built into the system, it's already
baked into the course, then they're goingto do okay because that's not going to be
a problem for them when they do have a daylike that because they're sick or they have
(17:11):
a topic like that that they just find reallychallenging to understand and just need a
little extra time to think things throughor work things out on their scratch paper
or whatever it is that's requiring them totake little extra time. So in my view, extra
time is a way of providing another avenueof inclusion, another way to include all students,
(17:40):
and maybe not on every test, but I think manystudents are going to need that on some tests.
So why not bake it into all the tests in thecourse, having untimed tests? Now, I got away
from timed to tests a long time ago for areason that has nothing to do with inclusion
(18:02):
or equity. It has nothing to do with helpingstudents that need accommodations. Not that
those things weren't important to me, butthat's not what caused me to stop timing my
test. I stopped timing my test because, well,I was trying to do timed online tests before
the technology was really able to do thatwith a large number of students, at least
(18:26):
the technology we had on our campus. Becauseat that time, I think a lot of folks didn't
think that we really needed much bandwidthin our internet connection, and we really
didn't need a lot of space on our server ora lot of efficiency on our server, even though
we had installed a learning management systemthat could do online tests.
(18:48):
Oh, only a few students are going to be usingit at a time. Well, we soon found out that's
not true. And I was one of the ones that taxedthe system by having a large number of questions.
You may recall that in my online test banks,I have randomization, so there's many, many,
many questions there, and they're randomlychosen by the learning management system for
(19:13):
each item. So each item might have five or10 or 25 different items to choose from, and
then it moves on to the next one, the nextone, the next one. So it keeps hitting that
server. And in the early days, our servercouldn't handle it and it would shut down.
And then everybody was locked out of the testand nobody had a positive testing experience,
(19:34):
including me. And so it was advised, our learningmanagement system wrangler, who's still around
with us these days and is a very wise person,chatted with me about these issues and told
me, Kevin, I can't make the server work better.Not yet, not now. We have to tackle that in
(19:56):
some other context on some other day.What are you going to do now? Why don't you
think about just taking the timing off ofyour test so that not all the students are
hitting the server at the same time? Let themspread it out a little bit and then the server
won't crash, and that would be great for allof us if the server doesn't crash. And so
(20:22):
I did. I thought, oh, I can't do that. Ohmy gosh, there are these things in my brain
that I can't unlock that says that the onlyrigorous and honest and useful way of doing
a test is if they're a time to test. That'sjust the way it's done. And so I had to break
(20:43):
that part of my brain and loosen it up, andI did because I felt like I was forced to.
And once I did, oh my gosh, I am so, so gladthat that happened because I realized that
that timing was an artificial barrier thatunnecessarily added burdens for my students
in taking their tests. And not only that,it unnecessarily excluded some students and
(21:10):
maybe excluded all students on certain tests.So I'm bringing this up because, well, it's
on my mind. I've been talking about it withpeople lately, and so I thought I'd bring
it to you and maybe this can help loosen upsome little locked in concretized part of
your brain, and maybe you can start experimentingwith longer times on your test or no times
(21:36):
on your test. And not only online tests, butmaybe even in class tests.
By the way, I want to circle back to thatfor just a moment because I forgot to mention
this before, and that is on my in-class exams,one strategy I've used is to design the exam
so that they can be taken in a shorter amountof time than I actually have in the room.
(21:58):
And that usually works a hundred percent ofthe time. But another strategy that I've tried
that has worked really well is to tell studentsthat here's when we have to leave the room,
because there's always another class comingin. Might be my class, might be somebody else's
class, might be who knows what is going tobe used in that room next. So I can't allow
(22:20):
a student to just stay in there forever takingtheir test. So if you cannot finish in the
allotted time, then tell me that as you turnin the test and we will work it out. Now,
I don't go into detail about that becauseI don't want them to necessarily know what
I'm going to do, partly because I don't knowwhat I'm necessarily going to do in every
(22:45):
case.It depends on the day and the time and where
we're located and so on. But usually whatI can do is if a student says, you know what?
I just zoned out there for a while, I havea migraine, whatever, then I can say, okay,
can you finish it now? And if they say yes,and I'll say, okay, walk with me and we'll
(23:08):
walk and we'll either find an empty classroom,find some other space. If we're close to where
my office is or conference room or something,we'll set it up there and I'll let them finish.
If not, then we'll make an appointment forthem to finish at a later time. And so, use
your imagination. There are probably a numberof different options that you can come up
(23:31):
with at that point. And you know what? I don'treally recall a time when I had to do that.
There probably were a few times when I didthat, but I don't recall a time doing that.
So even if you have a huge class, and I'vehad classes up to about 300 students at a
time, even in a huge class, you're not goingto have a lot of students taking you up on
(23:53):
that. They want to get done. And if they canget done, they will get done within the allotted
time. And something else to think about too,all kinds of possibilities here once we start
allowing our brains to go down that path,all kinds of possibilities open up.
In case you forgot, or in case you never knewthis, I offer digital micro-credentials in
(24:20):
the form of a badge or a certificate, whicheveryou prefer, or both for any of the podcast
episodes that come out in this podcast. Andnot only that, at theAPprofessor.org, I also
have online video seminars. And of coursewe have The A&P Professor book club, and reading
(24:41):
any of those books that are recommended inthe book club can also earn you a digital
credential. I mentioned those digital credentialsat the end of every episode to remind you
to claim yours because if you've listenedto an episode, well then you can earn a digital
credential. And back in episode 87, I talkedabout digital credentials sometimes called
(25:04):
micro-credentials in our course. And I'veused those in courses, for example, in my
Pre-A&P course, they have 10 modules thatthey have to work through, and they get a
badge for each one of those.And so when they leave Pre-A&P, not only have
they refreshed some important topics of biologyand chemistry that they need to know before
(25:28):
they get to A&P one, and that enables themto be successful in the A&P one. They not
only have that course on their transcript,they have those badges in their digital backpack
that anyone that they display them to cansee them and see that yes, that person is
competent in protein synthesis. That personhas achieved the basics of introductory genetics.
(25:55):
That person has some basic understanding ofbiological molecules, any of those major topics
that in groups or concepts that we talkedabout in Pre-A&P, so that's a digital credential.
Well, in The A&P Professor world, the digitalcredentials are for continuing professional
(26:17):
education to demonstrate that you have someexposure to, some understanding of, that you've
thought about different major topics suchas the use of micro-credentials.
You could go into our education system, youwould go to theAPprofessor.org/education,
(26:39):
and you would be able to look through whatthe different opportunities are for badges
and so on. But really, almost anything youdo at theapprofessor.org can earn you a micro-credential.
For example, if you had listened to episode87 and it's not too late, episode 87 still
(27:00):
exists, and you can go in there and listento it and learn something about micro-credentials.
And when you do, you just click the littlelink in that episode page or in the episode
notes if you're listening in like a podcastapp or some other kind of audio app, you can
find that link and it'll take you there andit'll take you to a form that you fill out.
(27:25):
Say, okay, it'll already have listed whatthe episode is, and then it'll ask you some
questions, first of all to verify in sortof an affidavit that you have listened to
it, and then you do a little very brief reflectionon what you learned or what you understand
(27:45):
from that episode.And then you'll get your credential. And then
there are links to explanations of how youcan display those credentials, where you can
get a backpack to put those, a digital backpack,virtual backpack, it's not heavy at all because
it's virtual, where you can put these badgesand certificates. All of that learning that
(28:07):
you're doing, not only in the theAPprofessor.org,but this is a growing trend. And so I'm hoping
that, I'm encouraging, I'm saying right nowto organizations like HAPS and AAA and APS
and other organizations that offer professionalcontinuing educational or professional development
(28:31):
opportunities, especially those that are somewhatinformal like workshops at a HAPS conference
or seminars at AAA meeting or readings inadvances in physiological education, any of
those things. I would encourage you peoplewho are organizing that and doing that, to
(28:55):
offer badges, offer micro-credentials so thatpeople can demonstrate that they've done those
things.Now, continuing ed in clinical areas have
done that for years and years where they'vegiven credit for reading a journal article
or for listening to a podcast or for attendinga workshop or a seminar or reading a book
(29:17):
or any one of those things that you can getmicro-credentials for, for example, in theAPprofessor.org.
And the more organizations and the more peopleoffering those kinds of professional development
opportunities do that, the more we can keeptrack, and this is where I was headed this
whole time of battling on about micro-credentials,is it offers us a way to keep track of what
(29:43):
we're learning. This came up recently witha longtime friend of mine who was sort of
busily catching up with his micro-credentialsin general, but that included the ones related
to the podcast. And he said, well, it's becausehe's been considered for a continuing contract.
So it's sort of like his institution's versionof tenure, I guess, where they get a longer
(30:09):
contract. But I've also had this conversationwith other friends who have used it when they're
going up for a promotion, they've used itwhen they're getting their CV ready because
they're looking for a different position,a new position. There's lots of reasons to
pull this stuff together and get it onto yourCV. If for no other reason, and I can see
(30:33):
myself doing it this way, is a lot of us havea requirement that every year we have to sort
of demonstrate what we've been doing thatyear in a variety of different areas, including
service to the school, service to our profession,continuing professional education, things
(30:54):
like that. Well, these badges can be a goodway to keep track of that and not only keep
track of it, but demonstrate it that look,here is a certificate, here is a badge that
says I did this.The badges that I provide also stipulate how
many hours of work that are behind each ofthose badges. So you could total those up
(31:15):
and present that as well. So I just want tothrow this out there as a reminder that there
is this thing called micro-credentials, andit is available at theAPprofessor.org/education
for any of the things, any of the professionaldevelopment activities that I offer through
the The A&P Professor. But also, let's encourageour organizations and other folks that provide
(31:40):
these professional development opportunities,let's encourage them to get on the bandwagon
so that we can get badges anywhere that we'redoing that professional development.
One of the overarching concepts of human anatomyand physiology is that it changes. That is,
(32:02):
our understanding of it changes, and thereforeour teaching and learning of it changes. We
have to be constantly learning anatomy andphysiology. And I know that many of us have
this notion that, well, anatomy is finished.Physiology, yeah we're still discovering some
things, but anatomy's all been worked out.Well, that's not really true. There's many
(32:24):
different aspects of what we think we knowabout anatomy that are still being worked
out, even gross anatomy. But an area of anatomythat certainly is nowhere close to being worked
out is microscopic anatomy. When we look atcells and tissues and interactions between
them, we can see clearly that, oh, we havepart of the story. And I don't know, there
(32:50):
are days when maybe we think we have the wholestory, or at least somebody has the whole
story, that science as a whole has the wholestory.
But that's not true. That's not even closeto being true. There's a lot more to discover.
A while back in episode 126, I talked about10 things that we forget to tell students
(33:14):
about cells that they kind of need to knowto have that idea that there's more to cells
than we see at a glance. And some of theseare newly discovered ideas. So for example,
just a very basic level, I mentioned thatit's important for students to know that cells
(33:39):
are not multicolored like they are in thetextbooks and online resources, and even in
journal articles, those color codes and stainsand various lighting techniques and so on,
those are all to help us see them better.But that's not really what a living cell looks
(33:59):
like in real life as it carries on its business.And another aspect that I think we forget
to emphasize with students is how importantthe cytoskeleton is to pretty much everything
the cell does, and its whole entire structureis really organized by the cytoskeleton.
(34:20):
And we kind of set that aside as sort of anot important thing when actually that maybe
one of the most important things that studentsreally should understand about a cell. And
we often set aside this idea of molecularmotors. Yeah, we talk about the effects of
them from time to time, but do they reallyknow that there are tiny little motors made
(34:42):
of a molecule or two that are pulling andpushing things around in the cell, that it's
not just happening on its own? That's whatanimates the various organelles of a cell.
Well, speaking of organelles, there have beena couple of recent articles that have come
out that are emphasizing something about organellesthat is fairly newly discovered. When I say
(35:09):
fairly newly discovered, I mean over the lastfew decades we've developed a clearer and
clearer understanding of what's going on enoughthat we now know that we know hardly anything
about this topic, and that is the topic oforganelle to organelle interactions.
Now, we know of some interactions betweenorganelles within a cell, but there are many
(35:33):
others that we've only recently discovered.One group of interactions, and it really is
a group of many different kinds of interactionsthat's happening in the cell is between mitochondria
and the endoplasmic reticulum, the ER. Andwe don't normally talk about that in a beginning
biology course or in our A&P course when we'rereviewing the basic structure and function
(35:56):
of a cell or anywhere along in our coursedo we really talk about how mitochondria can
and do and often do connect to Er. That wasdiscovered accidentally when researchers started
pulling apart cells and isolating organelles,and they kept getting ER that had mitochondria
(36:19):
stuck to it. And it's like, oh, man, our techniqueis not too good, it's causing the mitochondria
to stick to the ER. Well, no, those mitochondriawere stuck to the ER at least for that moment
in time when that process was happening, whenthat cell was sort of captured and processed.
(36:39):
And we now know that those are important interactionsthat are happening there that apparently,
and one author describes it as kind of a dancewhere the mitochondria are coming in contact
with the ER, they connect, they're actuallytethered there at least momentarily, and then
they release, and then they come back againand they're released, they come back again.
(37:01):
For example, some lipids that end up in themitochondria that we never knew really how
they got there. Well, now we know they'recoming from the ER. So yeah, maybe one of
the reasons why the mitochondria are connectingto the ER is to pick up some lipids and then
they leave and then they pick up some morelipids. But there are other kinds of interactions
(37:23):
that we're working out there too. And I don'twant to get into all the detail of that because
that's not my point here.And I don't think all of those details necessarily
are important for our telling of the storyof anatomy and physiology for our students.
But I think bringing up the idea that thereare many kinds of interactions that you won't
take time to discuss in your course, but they'rehappening there and that there are many undiscovered
(37:47):
interactions among many organelles in thecell, even though the most studied is between
mitochondria and ER. It's the most studiedup till this point. There are many other organelle
to organelle interactions that we've eithernot discovered yet or they haven't been studied
well yet.And as we study them, we're seeing that there
(38:08):
are opportunities for disease mechanisms tohappen. We know that when just about anything
in a cell or beyond, that is outside a cellwithin a tissue or an organ when it's supposed
to work one way or when it usually works oneway in a healthy situation and then it stops
(38:29):
working that way because something is brokenor something is missing or something is being
blocked or any one of a number of things thatcan go wrong, that's when we start seeing
disease happening, disease processes happening.So we know that a lot of our students, they're
going into health professions. A lot of mystudents over the years of gone into nursing
(38:51):
and related professions, and they often comein and like, why do I need to know about cells
if I'm going to be a nurse? Why do I needto know about what ER does if I'm going to
be a nurse? Well, when mistakes happen, forexample, in this interaction between mitochondria
and ER, that may be the basis of some veryimportant clinical conditions. And when I
(39:17):
say important, I mean important to the clinician,things that they're going to run into, things
that they need to deal with that are goingto help them understand that condition better
and eventually may help the health professionalunderstand how any treatments or therapies
that they're employing with that patient work.So the more we know about cells, the more
(39:39):
we know about clinical medicine, the morewe know about pharmacology and the more reason
there is for us to know that stuff if we'regoing to be working in a clinic. I'm just
fascinated with cells in general, maybe youare too. And so you might want to take a look
at the links that I provided to you so youcan look at this somewhat newer part of the
(40:01):
story, and maybe we can all together startfollowing what happens with these organelle
to organelle interactions.You may already know that I have a regular
newsletter that goes out, I should say haltinglyregular newsletter that goes out that has
(40:24):
updates in science and education for anatomyand physiology faculty. In each of the issues
I have between five and 10 items that I'vefound in online journals and magazines and
social media and lying there on the floorand just anywhere I find things that are of
(40:46):
interest, whether it has to do with scienceupdates or teaching updates, education updates,
I collect it and I put it in that newsletter.And one that I ran across recently, it's actually
a couple of years old, but just recently noticedit. And that is a journal article from Advances
(41:07):
in Physiology Education. And the title ofthis article is Decorative Animations Impair
Recall and Are a Source of Extraneous CognitiveLoad. Now, when it mentions decorative animations,
it's talking about animations that we putinto, let's say a teaching slide, but it could
(41:29):
be some other kind of teaching object likean online webpage that we have in our course
or all kinds of possibilities.But let's imagine a slide. And so on that
slide, maybe we don't have an illustrationof the concept that we're explaining at that
moment, but we decide we want to put somethingvisual there, and that's not a bad idea, but
(41:53):
we need to be careful about how distractingthat is and whether it's going to add to the
cognitive load of the student as they're lookingat that image and still listening to you or
listening to a narration of what's going onin the story at that particular point in the
story. And the point of this article is thatif it's merely decorative, then maybe we don't
(42:20):
want an animation, especially an animationthat is going to be to distracting, because
what's going to happen is that's going tobe recalled by a student instead of the concepts
that we want the students to recall. So thosedecorative animations get in the way, they
(42:40):
impair recall, and probably a mechanism ofthat is that they tend to be a source of extraneous
cognitive load.In other words, they're distracting the student.
They're like a squirrel over there. Oh look,it's a squirrel. It's a squirrel. Well, we
don't need to worry about that squirrel. Whatwe need to focus on is the concept that that
(43:04):
slide is trying to help us understand. Themore and more extraneous cognitive load we
have, the harder it is for a student and harderit is for us too, to really focus on the main
idea that we need to be focusing on so thatthat moment in time, that time and effort
(43:25):
that we're spending to learn right then isgoing to work for us and not be a waste of
time and effort. So if you want to know moreabout this and what they found, I have a link
in the episode notes, as usual. So go aheadand check that out.
In this episode, I discussed a lot of differentthings. I started out by congratulating Wendy
(43:50):
Riggs on her HAPS President's Medal. Hey,if you know Wendy, why not take a moment right
now to send her a quick note of congratulations.I also shared a repository of resources to
help college faculty deal with AI in our curriculum,which is curated by Stanford University. And
(44:10):
we looked at the use of decorative animationsin teaching slides and why they may not be
a good choice. We glimpsed an emerging trendin thinking about how organelles and our cells
interact with each other. And I talked abouttimed and untimed online tests in the A&P
(44:32):
course. And yes, there's more. Of course,we discussed micro-credentials as a way to
keep track of our professional developmentgrowth.
And you know what? There are links. Thereare always links. If you don't see links in
your podcast player, go to the episode notesat theAPprofessor.org/138. And wherever you're
(44:59):
scanning the episode notes, you can find alink to claim your digital micro-credential
for listening to this episode. And pleasecall in with your questions, comments, and
ideas at the podcast hotline. That's 1-833-LION-DEN,which is 1-833-546-6336. Or send a recording
(45:22):
or a written message to podcast@theAPprofessor.org.And do me a favor please, let one colleague
know about this podcast before you move onto your next thing today. I'll see you down
(45:45):
the road.
>>Aileen Park: The A&P Professor is hosted by Dr. Kevin Patton, (45:46):
undefined
an award-winning professor and textbook authorin human anatomy and physiology.
>>Kevin Patton: Past performance does not guarantee future (45:54):
undefined
results.
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