When teaching the BIOL 348 – Biology of Cannabis course, Christine Goedhart incorporated a series of Expert Interview assignments featuring a diverse range of professionals working in the cannabis field.
Below, Christine shares the motivation behind including these assignments, how she designed and implemented them, the impact they had on students and the course, and key insights she gained throughout the process.
Why motivated you to include the Expert Interview assignments in the course?
When designing this course, it was important to me that the content be firmly rooted in real-world practice. So before beginning the actual course development, I set out to interview as many people as I could who were working in diverse aspects of the cannabis field, such as research, breeding, cultivation, product development, and medicine. I deeply enjoyed these conversations, and I quickly found that they were one of the most valuable parts of my own learning process. In just a 30‑minute discussion with a cannabis professional, I learned far more than I could have through many hours of independent research, and hearing experts talk about their work in a conversational way made the information feel alive, accessible, and relevant.
I wanted to provide students with a similar experience, so I decided to feature several of these individuals in an “Expert Interview” assignment series for the course. These assignments would give students the opportunity to hear and learn directly from professionals working in the local cannabis sector, explore a range of career pathways, and connect course concepts to real‑world practice. The experts’ voices would also help bring the course material to life and anchor the content in the realities of the cannabis field.
How did you do it?
To develop the Expert Interview assignment series, I selected seven professionals working across a broad range of roles within the BC cannabis sector. These included UBC researchers, the quality assurance manager of a cannabis cultivation facility, a cannabis entrepreneur and activist, the CEO of a biopharmaceutical company developing cannabinoid‑based therapeutics, the head of laboratory operations for a cannabis testing company, and a medical cannabis physician. Featuring experts from such diverse contexts allowed students to engage with multiple dimensions of the cannabis field and to see how a range of different course concepts are applied in practice.
For each interviewee, I recorded a 25–50 minute conversation between me and them over Zoom and uploaded the video to the course Canvas site. After viewing the interview recording, students completed the assignment by responding to a consistent set of reflective questions:
- In 3-5 sentences, summarize the main point(s) of this interview.
- In 2-4 sentences, explain how this interview relates to something you learned about during class.
- In 2-4 sentences, describe something new that you learned through this interview.
- In 2-4 sentences, describe what was most interesting or surprising to you.
- In 2-4 sentences, explain how this interview relates to you and/or your community.
- In 2-4 sentences, describe what was most confusing or puzzling to you.
- What question(s) do you have after listening to this interview? (Note: you can rephrase the confusion(s) you described in #6 as questions here.)
- Choose one of the questions you listed in #7 and, to the best of your ability, find the answer. Please also cite the source(s) you used to answer the question.
- Are you satisfied with the completeness of this answer? If not, what do you think is missing? Does this answer provoke any other questions for you?
These assignments were completed independently outside of class and marked on completion only. Students earned full credit if they provided responses that addressed the prompts and met the required length (where specified). This approach allowed students to engage meaningfully with the material without the pressure of high‑stakes evaluation.
The interviews were intentionally integrated throughout the course so that each one aligned with the content being covered at that time. For example, the interview with the quality assurance manager was placed within the cannabis cultivation unit, while the interview with the medical cannabis physician was assigned during the unit on human applications of cannabis. This strategic sequencing helped students make direct connections between the expert insights and the concepts they were learning in class.
What impact did these assignments have on students or the course?
Students really enjoyed the Expert Interview assignments! In mid‑course feedback and end‑of‑term evaluations, many students shared that these assignments helped them solidify their understanding of the course material, allowed them to see real-life applications of cannabis and careers within the industry, and made the course feel more relevant and engaging. For each assignment, students were provided with the email contact information for the expert (with permission) in case they wanted to follow up with the person about anything, and several students let me know that they did!
Students especially appreciated the opportunity to generate and find the answer to their own questions. This gave them ownership over their learning and allowed them to explore topics that aligned with their personal interests, which made the assignments feel meaningful rather than prescribed.
From the instructor point of view, I found that the assignments gave me valuable insights into my students as learners. The reflective and open‑ended nature of the prompts encouraged students to share their curiosities, perspectives, and lived experiences. As I read through their submissions, I gained a clearer sense of what they found compelling, how the interview content connected to them and their communities, and what prior knowledge and experiences they brought into the classroom.
Finally, the series contributed to a subtle but important shift in classroom dynamics. Because students were actively seeking out answers and teaching me through the questions they chose to explore, the assignments created moments of reciprocal learning. This helped to flatten the traditional instructor-student hierarchy and fostered a more collaborative, inquiry‑driven learning environment where we all got to learn from each other!
What did you learn or find surprising?
I was surprised by how multifaceted the impact of these assignments turned out to be, from enhancing the learning of course content for students (and myself!), to helping me get to know my students better, to breaking down the hierarchy in the classroom, and much more.
I also found that they allowed me to connect with and build relationships with people working across the cannabis field who I could then reach out to with questions and consult with when developing course materials. For example, several of the interviewees continued to support me after the interview by providing data and feedback that improved lessons, activities, and assignments, ensuring that the course accurately reflected real-world situations.
Finally, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed marking these assignments! It was so much fun to read the students’ responses, and because they were marked for completion only, I could really focus on understanding what students were telling me, rather than evaluating or critiquing their work. This made the process feel more like listening in on thoughtful conversations than marking, and it allowed me to appreciate the individuality and insight that each student brought to the assignment.
Overall, the experience reinforced for me how powerful it can be to integrate authentic voices into course design, not just for students, but for the instructor as well.
What challenges did you encounter when creating and implementing these assignments?
The biggest challenge was the amount of time required to create and prepare the interview recordings. Each step of the process, no matter how small, added up quickly. Coordinating with interviewees, scheduling meeting times, conducting the interviews, and then editing the recordings all required substantial time and effort. Even tasks that seem straightforward took longer than expected. For example, although Kaltura generates automatic captions, I still needed to carefully review and correct errors to ensure the videos were accurate and accessible before sharing them with students. Additionally, setting up each assignment in Canvas and organizing the materials in a clear and user‑friendly way took more time than I expected, although this got easier with each subsequent assignment.
What advice would you give someone who wanted to do something similar in their course?
I recommend that you do a pre‑interview meeting with each interviewee to flesh out the content of the interview and co‑develop the interview questions. This also gives you a chance to explain what will happen during the recording and address any questions they may have, and it will help to create a comfortable and collaborative flow between the two of you during the interview itself. I suggest conducting the actual interview within a week of the pre‑meeting so that you maintain a familiarity with each other and the details you discussed remain fresh.
Second, give yourself plenty of time for the entire process. As mentioned above, there are many steps involved and each one takes time, which can add up quickly. You might consider starting with just one or two Expert Interview assignments and adding more in later terms. I initially included seven interviews, and then reduced the number to five the next time I taught the course to keep the workload more manageable for both myself and the students. Keep in mind that interviews can become outdated after a year or two, depending on the topics discussed, so you may find yourself re‑recording some or rotating in new ones over time to keep the content fresh and relevant.
Finally, I encourage you to be intentional about whose voices you include. Consider the diversity of identities and experiences represented in your interviews, and aim to feature people who bring a wide range of perspectives, particularly those that students may find relatable. For example, I made a deliberate effort to include women in my interview series, as they tend to be underrepresented in the cannabis space. I also recognize that most of my current interviewees are white, and as I continue to expand the collection, I plan to incorporate more voices from people of colour and other underrepresented groups.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
I can’t recommend this teaching practice enough! If you have any questions or would like support implementing something similar, I’d be very happy to help. Please feel free to reach out to me at: christine.goedhart@botany.ubc.ca.
And if you’re interested in learning more about how this course was developed, feel free to explore my blog post: What I Learned from My Recent Course Development Experience.