 Hello, everybody. So it's week five and everything is graded, including our first exam. And there's probably one person in our class of 18 who is good with the exam performance and everybody else is probably not real happy with it. I am not real happy with our exam performance. Just for some perspective, this exam was the exact same exam that I gave to my face-to-face class this semester and the average in that class out of 22 students was a 75%. And the average in this online class was a 61%. And it sort of makes me sick to my stomach. I feel that's really unacceptable on a whole bunch of levels. I'm having these visions or I'm having these horror voices in my head saying, you know, you can't do an online general biology class. Like, it's not possible. And I feel like, dude, maybe it isn't possible, except for, you know, a couple people. So it's time for a heart-to-heart. And it's time for you and probably, hopefully me, to have some sort of conversation around, dude, what's going to change because maintaining this, like whatever happened in this first five weeks, four weeks to prep you for the exam, it just wasn't enough. I do not think that it was the lab. I really don't. In looking at the scores, I think that there is a lack of engagement and understanding with the lecture content. And I just feel like my gut feeling is that there needs to be more time put into that. So let's talk your task, one of your tasks this week. This is going to be sort of a reflective week. I've gone through the material and I've looked at the week and I've rearranged the schedule. And I will get you a new schedule that you know what's coming up. Exam dates aren't going to change. I just took one of this week's lectures out. So you only have one lecture this week. And I adjusted the lab. We were going to do a case study discussion and I want to do a reflection on how you can improve the quality of the lab conversations. And we need to really buckle down and look at how we're going to improve what is happening in this class. So you have one lecture this week. I don't know. Let's talk about the exam first. Let's get that squared away. Always. First exams are often rough for students because you're kind of figuring out what the scoop is. And this is rougher than most of my first exams but this is also our first online class that we've offered this way. So you guys are going to have the glorious opportunity to sort of set the stage for how this is going to work. The good news is that there's a couple of ways that you can look at your exam. You have to look at your exam. You have to go in and review the questions that you missed and figure out the right answers because no one is sunk in this class. Like you literally, there's redemption possible. You can get exactly the grade that you want in this class even if you're really unhappy with how you performed on the exam. It's going to require you to ensure that you have a growth mindset. I'm a huge fan of the growth mindset and I've got some things to say about it. First of all, there's been a lot of research done around these mindsets and a fixed mindset sort of looks at the world like, dude, I'm either smart or I'm dumb and it's a given. Like there isn't a, I can't change. I'm either smart or I'm dumb and those guys are smart and I must be dumb because I didn't perform well on this exam. Growth mindsets, you can decide at any stage of the game that you want to have a growth mindset and the growth mindset looks at a failed exam or a missed question and says, oh, I can do better than that. I can figure out why I missed that question. I'm learning. I'm in a process and this exam is helping me check myself. Instead of looking at it like, oh man, I can't do biology or I can't do online biology or I'm just not smart enough to handle this stuff. So right now, I'd like you to commit to having a growth mindset and the reason is because really you are going to take a comprehensive final exam over all the content in the class and that final exam, if it's higher than this exam, you'll all freaking replace this exam. So if you pull an A on the comprehensive final which is totally doable, all of these concepts build. If you don't know what a prokaryote versus a eukaryote is at this point, you better figure it out for this next section because we're going to be continuing to talk about it. So spending some time making sure you understand what you missed on this exam does nothing but provide you the opportunity to redeem this exam with your final. So you are in good position in embracing this growth mindset is totally worth your time. People with growth mindsets do better on exams. They do better in school. And the fact is that you can change your mindset. So do it right now. Change your mindset because you deserve it. The class isn't going to get easier. I think that's a really important point. In fact, it's probably going to get harder. Like the content itself is going to get harder. I think it gets more interesting. I mean, I'm totally doing like a whoa, this is cool and this is my favorite. No, this one's my favorite because it really, like all the stuff is just fantastic. But it's not easy. None of it is. And so you're going to have to buckle down and improve your performance just to keep the same grade. And I'm pretty sure y'all out there want to do better than how you did on this exam. So you're going to have to buckle down and work harder. If you're not happy with your score, you're going to have to do something different. I have an assignment that I'd like to have you complete and it's called an exam wrapper. And I'm making this exam wrapper due on Saturday along with all our other stuff that's normally due on Saturday and I'm going to show you the week's module. Here's the exam wrapper. So let's go ahead and open up that thing and I'll just show you what it is. Basically your exam wrapper is an assessment of how you, like why you missed what you missed on the exam. And I don't care how you turn it into me. So you can copy and paste these questions. You can write them down. Like I don't care what you do. I want you to think about your exam. And there's a bunch of questions to answer. There's a bunch of questions to answer about why you missed the questions that you missed. So go look at every single question. Did you miss it because you actually didn't have that information in your notes so you didn't even know you needed to study that information? Or you studied it just to like memorize it not to actually think about it? Or did you miss read something? Like whatever. Here's a whole bunch of possible reasons why you missed what you missed. And then after you've done an analysis of why you performed the way that you did, I want you to come up with what are you going to do different this time. And this right here is by far the most important piece of moving forward. And I am expecting some serious analysis from you guys because something has to change here and the course content isn't going to change. If you took this class face to face, there's no way that it makes any sense at all for us to offer an online class that's easier or doesn't cover the same material as the exact same class in a face to face environment. So the course isn't going to change. But so you need to. And dude, tell me what I can do to help you out because I'm in. I'll do it. So look at these things that you can think about and I want to know what are you going to do? I want to know what you think I can do to help. So I know somebody said, hey, we need a study guide, a better study guide. I got study guides in there. There's study guides that go with every single thing. The quizzes are excellent practice for your exams. I've had literally, I think five people, maybe not even five, maybe five times, people have joined me in office hours. Man, that, come and talk to me. Let's get our questions answered. You can come Monday from six to seven, except for this Monday because I'm subbing for another instructor for human physiology. But I will reschedule those office hours so that you have some time. And dude, net tutor. Go check them out. I mean, I think that that's 24 hours, seven day a week tutoring time. Like that's brilliant. And after all that analysis, I don't want you to come up with a new plan. Like we did this at the beginning of the semester. You were supposed to come up with a plan of how you were going to pull off all the things that were required for the class. You got to up your game, dog. And I want to know how you're going to do it. So this thing, you can turn it in any time, but it's due on Saturday and it's a big thing. I'm going to give you 10 points for doing it. Your exam was 73 points. I'm going to give you 10 points for doing this. I'm going to put it in the exam category. So if you get a zero on it, don't get a zero on it because that's just going to make me cranky and I'm going to hunt you down and have to drop the elbow bomb. You don't want to see that. So neither do I. Don't make me cranky, finish it, turn it in, and then it's 10 points of 100% added onto your exam. So it's actually going to raise your grade significantly, which is a very generous thing on my end of things. Okay, exam wrapper. That's the big thing that I want you thinking about. Now, everything else this week, like I said, we only have one lecture, which means there's only one muddy fun discussion. One of the things that hands down no question I know needs to be improved is the quality of those muddy fun discussions. My face-to-face students, they spend an hour and a half hashing things out together and you need to be doing something similar. You need to come and engage with the content and then for full credit, you need to come back a second time and engage again. I'm going in and commenting on the threads and I'm asking further questions. I'm trying to simulate that interaction that happens in the classroom and I need help. I can't do that by myself and I definitely get frustrated when I feel like, dude, nobody's even reading these things because they come in and they get their points and then they take off. So I am positive that one of the big places where we can have some improvement is in those discussions. Lab this week. So I haven't changed the title of this lab because it isn't going to be an energy and metabolism lab. It's going to be, dude, what are you going to do in lab land to improve yourself? And we're going to do a lab discussion and the lab discussion is going to be about, like, help each other out. How are we going to do this? What should the lab discussions look like? How can we make sure that we are all maximizing the quality of what's happening here? And then you have your external brain and your quiz, which both of those will publish on Friday like normal. Okay. What else? Yeah. Discussions make them good. Study. You guys are just going to, like, you have to. There is no way around it. You have to study and it is, it's a good thing. Like, you can't pass biology without studying. The next week's lab is going to be a high prep lab. Like, you're going to be making starch pudding and spitting in it to get enzymes in there. And I mean, really, does the fun never end? It never ends. But it's definitely pretty pleased with sugar on top. You guys, like, let's make this happen. Holler at me if you need something. I will post an announcement about this week's Monday office hours. I'm going to have to change those. And it's five o'clock in the morning. And I, dude, should I even go home? Should I just, I got to go home. All right. I love you. I don't get to see you and, like, see your faces and see how you're doing. But I know I love you and I want this class to work for you. So tell me what I can do. All right. I hope that you are having fun right now. Bye-bye.