{"id":14710,"date":"2014-03-24T12:18:21","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T16:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=14710"},"modified":"2022-01-05T14:18:45","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T19:18:45","slug":"video-cameras-virtual-office-hours-spotlight-bob-burk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2014\/video-cameras-virtual-office-hours-spotlight-bob-burk\/","title":{"rendered":"From video cameras to virtual office hours: Spotlight on Bob Burk"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Cassandra Hendry <\/em><\/p>\n

Math and science courses can contain some of the most challenging material for students to grasp. But as Bob Burk knows, all it takes for students to be engaged is a video camera, their cellphone and a chance to sing the periodic table of elements in front of 700 people.<\/p>\n

Burk, a chemistry professor and chair of the department at Carleton, has a unique arsenal of tricks and technologies to translate the complex world of chemistry into something fun, an approach that has won him numerous teaching awards, including an OCUFA Award<\/a> in 2004, a Capital Educators\u2019 Award<\/a> in 2005 and a prestigious 3M National Teaching Fellowship<\/a> in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why it works. I just do it. People seem to be receptive to it, so that\u2019s good,\u201d Burk laughs.<\/p>\n

Clinging to PowerPoints for lectures is not his style, he says. Chemistry demos are done in front of the class for students to see how the textbook material comes to life.<\/p>\n

Because his first-year course is filmed for CUOL, cameras can zoom in on the experiments and project it to the large screens at the front of the class. Even students watching at home for the online version can get in on the action by getting a perfect view of the experiment on their computers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t give 700 students the apparatus to play around with, but we can show them in the classroom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Burk\u2019s fascination with recording class material doesn\u2019t stop there. Lab experiments are filmed for students prior to their own labs, so they can get a feel for what\u2019s expected of them. As well, Burk says his class was the first filmed university course ever posted on iTunes.<\/p>\n

That sense of helping students outside the classroom continues at night too, when Burk holds unofficial \u2018office hours\u2019 via cellphone texts. He says his normal office hours can sometimes be \u201cuseless\u201d because most of his students are studying in the evenings and not during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when they need you,” he says. “There\u2019s always email of course, and I used to use Microsoft Messenger, which nobody uses anymore. Now I\u2019ve got a thing called Pinger that allows me to sit at my desk and text them on their cellphones.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the most important thing for professors to do is be available and spend time with their students, which Burk says is easy for him because he loves to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve already got the textbook, syllabus, and lectures. There\u2019s only one thing that students want from you, and that\u2019s a piece of your time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you know an individual or activity that we should feature in an upcoming spotlight story? Contact us at oavptl@carleton.ca<\/a>\u00a0with your ideas.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Cassandra Hendry Math and science courses can contain some of the most challenging material for students to grasp. But as Bob Burk knows, all it takes for students to be engaged is a video camera, their cellphone and a chance to sing the periodic table of elements in front of 700 people. Burk, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[465,201],"yoast_head":"\nFrom video cameras to virtual office hours: Spotlight on Bob Burk - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By: Cassandra Hendry Math and science courses can contain some of the most challenging material for students to grasp. 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