Four Citrus College faculty members who completed their sabbatical leaves last year presented their project outcomes to their colleagues on Wednesday afternoon.
Patty Glover of cosmetology and Gailynn White of sociology took their sabbatical in the spring of 2022, while Elisabeth Ritacca of history and Ana Afzali of Spanish took their sabbatical in the fall of 2022.
Glover’s sabbatical focused on developing free, open-source materials and step-by-step instructional video content for registered Citrus College students.
These resources are distributed through the Canvas learning management system and YouTube platforms as additional resources for the cosmetology course – COS191, Hair Design.
Glover said her original thought was to produce a book, but after talking to students, she found out they preferred videos because they are more interactive and flexible.
She said students have adapted to remote learning since taking a break from in-person classes due to Covid-19.
Part of Glover’s sabbatical findings involves clarifying the misconceptions about cosmetology.
Glover said cosmetology is more than what people think it is. It is not a “second grade” course.
Glover said math plays a role in cosmetology.
She said mathematical concepts like geometry, which deals with shapes and sizes, are instrumental in hairdressing.
“Every haircut starts with a point and then moves into a line and then moves into different shapes,” Glover said. “… Math concepts help students do cohesive designs.”
Glover’s sabbatical findings will also help students improve the knowledge of their cosmetology toolbox.
Glover said knowing the names of cosmetological tools and how to use them is important for students.
Glover’s findings will also help cosmetology students adapt to a new law that reduces cosmetology program hours from 1,600 to 1,000 and increases the number of health and safety hours from 65 to 100.
White’s sabbatical focused on integrating educational technology to improve her skills in teaching sociology.
During her sabbatical, white improved her “proficiency in Canvas, SoftChalk and voiceThread.” These are educational tools that improve students’ online learning experiences.
White said the pandemic had taught her that student needs are changing.
She said students prefer online classes because they are more flexible. She said that while Covid-19 was horrible, it has taught her a lot of solutions.
White said the required textbooks and tuition costs prevent students from taking classes they want.
She said she didn’t believe in free textbooks because most are written for graduate students. She said understanding such books was difficult for English-learning students.
However, she found “LibreTexts,” an open educational resource project funded by a grant, from which she chose a sociology book that she upgraded and imported into SoftChalk and Canvas.
SoftChalk is a digital learning tool that helps instructors create engaging lessons for online learning.
VoiceThread allows students to create projects and presentations by using different media. It also allows instructors and peers to comment on each student’s work for feedback.
White integrated SoftChalk into Canvas with videos and questions, which makes it more interactive.
She said everything, including the videos and other forms of media, is embedded into Canvas, so students don’t have to leave the Canvas site to access the materials elsewhere. This holds their attention and keeps them engaged.
Ritacca focused her sabbatical on creating a new environmental history course, History 172, that studies “environmental changes in North America and the resulting impacts on cultural, political, and social issues.”
Ritacca focused for the first part of her sabbatical on reading.
She learned that environmental history courses like the one she created are rarely offered in UC and CSU schools.
Ritacca focused for the other half of her sabbatical on the development of the course.
She said she hopes this course will attract more students to the college and that college students will take this course since it is an issue that pertains to this generation of college students.
This fall, the class will be offered from 11:30 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.
She said the class is not only for history majors but also for majors such as anthropology, political science and communications, among others.
She said many students would find interest in the course and that she feels a great desire to teach it because she is concerned with the climate crisis.
“Giving students a way to have that conversation will be great for the students and the college as a whole,” she said.
Ritacca said she has wanted to teach this for a long time but couldn’t find the time to do all the readings required. She is excited that her desires have come to fruition.
Afzali focused on creating lecture videos for Spanish 210 and 211 classes – intermediate Spanish speakers. These classes help Spanish speakers improve their writing, reading and grammar skills.
Afzali mastered using green screen technology, which she incorporated into her tutorial videos.
Even though the videos were created in her living room, through green screen technology, Afzali could take students on a journey to Spain to learn about the cultural history of the Spanish language, such as learning the history of the dollar, which originated in Spain.
Afzali said all the videos comply with the Americans for Disability Act and are easily available to students via an electronic link or QR codes.
Afzali said her project consists of grammar, cultural, and writing tutorial videos “edited to professional standards.”
Her project also includes creating a manual for students and other faculty with links to all the videos.
She said these video lessons will be given to students each semester to “supplement course materials.”
She said the videos proved valuable in Covid-19 for remote learning and would reduce the need for tutoring.
She said students want flexibility and ease, and the ability to scan the code with phones to access the videos achieves that.
Afzali sampled some of the videos with her students. In her presentation, she shared video testimonies of how her students have benefited from the Spanish video tutorials she created.
Students who used Afzali’s tutorial videos said it helped them practice pronunciation and remember words better.
The students also shared how easily accessible the videos are.
“It’s like having a tutor with me all the time,“ one student said.
Afzali said that she is certain that the “creation of the tutorial videos will increase the success rates in Spanish heritage speaker courses” and “augment the number of students that will complete their degree in Spanish.”
Afzali said it was an extremely creative process and fun to think outside the box and create fun and engaging content.
