Belonging Through Practice at Scale: Using Canvas Text Assignments to Foster Identity in Large Courses
Angelica Guercio
Description
Students’ first introduction to their disciplines are often in large-enrollment courses, creating unique challenges for establishing and fostering a sense of identity and belonging. This presentation explores a reflective writing assignment built around the idea of belonging through practice, in which students engage in authentic conversations about biology with non-scientists by responding to real misconceptions they encounter outside the classroom.
The presentation will demonstrate how Canvas can be used to implement this assignment at scale in a genetics course with more than 400 students, including using differentiated assignments to provide identity framing to student groups (and the potential impacts of this framing). The presentation will also highlight practical strategies for managing implementation and feedback in large courses.
The presentation will also discuss how assignment design around authentic audiences, individual voice, and applicable skills can increase student buy-in and encourage more authentic student work in the age of AI. Viewers will leave with ideas for adapting similar Canvas-supported reflective assignments to their own disciplines.
Link to the video [video.ucdavis.edu]
Submit a question for Dr. Guercio to answer during the live discussion panels at SITT.
About the Presenter
Angelica Guercio is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Davis. She teaches large-enrollment undergraduate courses in genetics and biochemistry as well as biochemistry laboratories. Her teaching and scholarship explore how inclusive, evidence-based course design can help students not only master biological concepts, but also think, read, write, a\nd engage like scientists. Her current scholarship investigates how authentic practices embedded within course design can help students develop confidence, scientific identity, and a sense of belonging in biology.
