Informing Lectures with Packback

January 6, 2020 Author: Read time: 2 min
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Dr. Laura Newcomb shares how Packback lets her know what topics students are curious about

Dr. Laura Newcomb covers a lot of topics in her upper-division molecular biology class and wants each selection to be interesting to the students. Packback allows her to see what areas in biology draws in her students so she can inform her upcoming lectures to promote the students’ curiosity further.

“[Packback] allows me to see what the students are taking from the lecture,” shares Dr. Newcomb. “Sometimes I’ve seen students talk about topics that I’ve really barely touched on. So then I can retouch on them again in the next lecture to kind of promote that interest.”

INSTITUTION

California State University San Bernardino

DEPARTMENT

Biology

COURSE

Molecular Biology

SIZE

49 Students

“I am using Packback for my upper-division Molecular Biology class for our biology majors at California State University in San Bernardino. [Packback] allows me to see what the students are taking from the lecture…Other things that I’ve seen, if someone has something that they didn’t quite word the right way, it gives me an opportunity to respond to that and bring up any miscommunication from lecture that I see from discussions on Packback… [I also like] the innovative questions. I think that they’re coming up with [questions] that relate to lecture, but really also much more applicable in areas we don’t get to talk about…The other thing too, you know the citing resources. They really are looking up independent resources on the topics, and you know, that’s a big reason I wanted to do the platform. To have them look up additional information, and I think they really are.”

Community Stats

QUESTIONS

465

AVG CURIOSITY SCORE

56.4

RESPONSES

803

POSTS WITH A SOURCE

68%

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