Teaching Experience

Dec 23, 2019

Instructor

  • Data Science 532 (N=96) - Interactive Visualizations and Dashboards November 2019

    • Redeveloped course to use Dash by plot.ly, a framework built on top of Flask, React.js and Plotly.js.

    • Motivated students to build purpose-driven dashboards and interactive visualizations

  • Data Science 531 (N=122) - Introduction to Visualizations October 2019

    • Redeveloped all course content and labs and replaced matplotlib and seabron plotting libraries with Altair

    • Taught students characteristics of effective visualizations and motivated them to learn syntax on their own time

  • Data Science 542 (N=96) - Communication and Argumentation September - October 2019

    • Liaised with the course instructor to minimize the lecture-lab disconnect

    • Conducted a comprehensive code-plaigiarism activity in labs to guide students on best practices for citation and attribution

  • STAT 545A (N=72) - Exploratory Data Analysis September - October 2019

    • Co-taught the course with Dr. Vincenzo Coia; attended all lectures and delivered the last 30% of the course

    • Course goal was to teach students how to use R for exploratory data analysis

Course Architect

  • Physics 117, UBC September 2015 - December 2017

    • Worked closely with instructors assigned to this course to improve and refine the course with new activities and initiatives

      • Sept 2015 - Dec 2015: First edition of the course, introduced Perusall, Mastering Physics as homework system, tests created using AMC LaTeX
      • Sept 2016 - Dec 2016: Switched to Dr. Crowell’s open mechanics text, homework system moved to ExpertTA
      • Sept 2017 - Dec 2017: Switch to openStax University Physics textbook, migrate course to Canvas from Blackboard

    • Held meetings with several vendors of course homework platforms and course textbooks

    • Responsible for setting the weekly reading quizzes, analyzing the results and preparing lecture slides identifying key concepts that were misunderstood by students

Course Coordinator (Pre-PhD)

  • Physics 100 Distance-Education (DE), UBC 2015 - 2017

    • Grown and evolved Phys100 DE over the past four sessions as course instructor with wholesale changes as well as major refinements

      • Jan 2015 - May 2015: Moved course fully online, introduced Piazza for online discussions
      • Jan 2016 - May 2016: Migrated course to the edX platform, switched to the OpenStax College Physics textbook
      • May 2016 - Aug 2016: Implemented system for unique and randomized tests for each student
      • May 2017 - Aug 2017: Expanded test bank and improved isomorphism of questions

    • Responsible for all administrative aspects of this 120 student course including enrolment, selecting and training TAs, setting the midterms and final exam.

    • Designed and coordinated a completely online midterm for the first time in this course.

    • Scaled up the course by introducing automations and workflow improvements to permit enrolment expanding from 50 seats to over 120.

TA Experience

  1. Phys 119 Lab TA January 2017 - April 2017

    • Worked with the teaching team (2 TAs + 1 Instructor) to execute various active learning exercises to guide students through measurement uncertainty and exploring their data beyond simple classroom models

  2. Phys 101 Lecture TA January 2015 - April 2015

    • Lecture TAs are part of a new team-teaching model implemented in Physics 101 to help transform student learning and engagement in the classroom

    • Responsible for conducting demos in class to complement material, solve worksheet problems on the document camera, respond to student questions during group work

  3. Course Specific Training Facilitator (Head TA; Physics 101) January 2013 - April 2013

    • Implemented new tutorials to a group of 24 students before deployment to the other 800 students

    • Trained ~ 15 TAs to deliver the new tutorials during weekly meetings

    • Worked with course instructors to ensure that tutorial content was appropriate

  4. Laboratory TA (Physics 100) September 2013 - December 2013

    • 4 sections of ~ 50 students each

    • 6 direct student contact hours per week

    • 1 constructive consultation hour per week in the form of a TA meeting

  5. Laboratory TA (Physics 100) September 2012 - December 2012

    • 4 sections of ~ 50 students each

    • 6 direct student contact hours per week

    • 1 constructive consultation hour per week in the form of a TA meeting

TA Mentoring

  • MDS TA Mentoring Program Under development

    • Preparing to deploy the MDS TA mentoring programming in January 2020

    • TAs have already been trained on principles of effective feedback and how to make detailed notes during observation phase

    • Mentoring will occur in a three-step process: initial meeting, observation and notes, follow-up meeting

  • Mentor TA September 2016 - December 2014 and 2016

    • Application based process to select six outstanding senior TAs and pair them with new incoming first year physics TAs

    • Underwent a rigorous training process on observation skills, delivering feedback, and strategies for teaching success

    • Mentored a group of 6 new TAs by discussing departmental teaching philosophies, observing them teach at the beginning and midway through the term and offering comprehensive feedback to improve their teaching

Teaching Research Experience

  • Teaching as Research (TAR) Project October 2017 - Present

    • Developed a research proposal with a faculty partner from Physics to improve student understanding of concepts in a Physics 119 lab

    • Designed and iterated on two quizzes to assess student understanding of estimating uncertainty from distributions and t-scores

    • Analysed pre and post data from two iterations of the course deploying the quizzes before and after the intervention

  • Physics 100 Research Assistant May 2015 - August 2017

    • Worked with course coordinator to select a new textbook and online homework system

    • Assisted in radically overhauling delivery of Physics 100 content during lectures

    • Successfully transitioned to a new, open source course platform called EdX

  • Science One Research Assistant September 2014 - July 2017

    • Responsible for developing and implementing a new attitude survey to measure the efficacy of interdisciplinary teaching (interCLASS) and learning in the Science One program at UBC

    • Developed an participant ethics protocol including writing a consent form as well as policies on data use, storage, and retention

    • Wrote software to parse, analyse, and visualize results from the interCLASS survey results

  • Physics 100 Research Assistant September 2014 - December 2014

    • Directed and organized a pilot lab section of Physics 100 with ~ 30 students

    • Adapted existing Physics 100 lab experiments for students to complete at home using their smartphone’s accelerometer and gyroscope

    • Developed instructional videos for students to help them understand the material and conduct the lab efficiently

    • Trained, managed two TAs responsible for providing feedback to the 30 students online

  • Physics 101 Research Assistant September 2013 - August 2014

    • Designed and implemented Learning Objects (LO), a brand new component into an 800-student course

    • Trained TAs on implementing LOs and led an hour of 12 course tutorials for the LO activity (~ 500 students)

    • Analysed LO survey data and presented results at a major international conference (Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education)

  • Physics 101 Research Assistant January 2013 - April 2013

    • Completely redesigned tutorial structure and content to support student by focusing on conceptual examples rather than numerical problems

    • Introduced clicker questions into the tutorial to give students a more interactive and engaging learning experience

    • Adapted and incorporated student generated content into the tutorials

Firas Moosvi
Firas Moosvi
Lecturer

My research interests include education research, learning analytics, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.