I’ve talked about how valuable the HAPS email listserv is (join HAPS and sign up for the listserv to see for yourself!) and I’ve analyzed WHY the listserv is so valuable. It comes down to the active engagement of a knowledgeable community. The APS Archive of Teaching Resources has the tools necessary to facilitate a similarly engaged community.
I noticed this when I was browsing the Archive. I created an account with them which allows me to personalize my interactions with the archive via a tool called “myAPSarchive.” This tool shows up on the left side of the website when I sign in, and posts suggestions for things I might like, based on the preferences I set when I registered. I was delighted to find a collection of resources on “Interactive Lectures” posted there tonight. Once you have an account, you can create your own collections. This is a fantastic option for saving a group of resources related to similar topics! But even if you don’t create your own, it is really fun to explore the collections posted by OTHERS. I usually find topic-based collections (check out this cool collection on “Diabetes“), but I was excited to find this collection based on pedagogy.
Here is where I so clearly see the value of the COMMUNITY. The “Interactive Lectures” collection was rated by 3 people and had earned a total “star” score of 4.7 out of 5 (the rating asks you how helpful the resource will be for your teaching). Once you’ve created an account, rating the collections and activities is as simple as clicking on the stars. And the more people that rate a collection or activity, the more valuable those stars become. But you can also comment on the resources at the bottom of the page. These comments are very helpful and often provide insight into how the resource can be used. The “Interactive Lectures” collection has two very thoughtful comments.
I think it is important that if we JOIN the archive community, that we also CONTRIBUTE to the community. It is easy to do…and we HAPSters are good at it! So be heard!