blog posts

• Teaching with Blogs

  Oct 25, 2022 5:15 pm4 views

  (From Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching) Teaching with Blogs. Although people often think of social media as a space for non-academic interactions, blogs can be helpful tools for instructors interested in enhancing their students’ communication skills and increasing their students’ investment in learning. Blogs can be spaces for informal or formal writing by students, and the capacity of blogs to support multiple forms of media (images, videos, links, and so on) can help students bring creativity to their communication. Most blogs includes tools for commenting and discussion, enabling students to engage their ideas in conversation with others, either within their local learning communities or on the open Web.

  Student writing is often seen by just one person on the planet (their instructor), which can make writing assignments feel like “busy work.” The dynamic interaction between writer and audience that blogs facilitate can help students see real value in their academic writing and take that writing more seriously. Blogs can be an excellent balance between the rigor and structure of a formal written assignment and the freedom to experiment with ideas and arguments. 

• Courses That Are Hard, but Not Too Hard: Finding the Sweet Spot

  Nov 9, 2016 8:00 am4 views

  Courses That Are Hard, but Not Too Hard: Finding the Sweet Spot. Courses need to be challenging, but when they become too hard, students stop trying and little learning results. So how do we find that sweet spot between hard and not too hard? More importantly, how do we create that sweet spot in our own courses through the decisions we make about content, assignments, and exams?  One solution is to give students opportunities to work on content in class and then listen closely to their conversations. Are they working hard, experiencing some frustration, but finally figuring it out? How much effort are they expending? Additional strategies, including exam wrappers, are discussed.

• The Benefits of Using Students as Guest Speakers

  Nov 9, 2022 8:45 am4 views

  (From Faculty Focus). The Benefits of Using Students as Guest Speakers. Last year I received a grant to support bringing guest scholars to my class. The idea was to find students with some expertise relevant to my courses and invite them to present in class, thereby giving the class a perspective on the material that I couldn’t provide. The grant enabled me to pay the guest scholars a stipend for their work. I had both the guest scholars and students complete questionnaires after these visits to class. 

  Here’s the rationale behind the idea. The task of the teaching professor is to educate, but what does that mean? The traditional notion is that education is something done to the students by the professor. The contrary radical notion is that education is something done by students for themselves—the old comparison between the student as container and the student as plant. A middle ground, which seems closer to reality than either of these theoretical positions, is that education is something done both by the professor with the students and by the students with the professor.

   

• Last Day of Class

  Nov 17, 2021 5:15 pm4 views

  (from Berkeley University Center for Teaching & Learning). Last Day of Class. Make the last day count. Too often, the last day of a class can be taken up with housekeeping-information on the final, last minute details, and course evaluations. But as Richard Lyons, author of several books on college teaching says, "the final class is a key student retention milepost." Some suggestions are: “Thank the class” (where one professor says,  "I take some time to thank the students for their part in the course and to tell them what they did to make my job easier (e.g. worked hard, asked questions, were cheerful, etc.) and “Students' concluding remarks” (after providing your own remarks, ask for theirs). Here is a potpourri of ideas from Berkeley faculty.

• The Last Day of Class - Make It Count

  Nov 29, 2015 8:00 am4 views

  The Last Day of Class. Make the last day count. Too often, the last day of a class can be taken up with housekeeping-information on the final, last minute details, and course evaluations. But as Richard Lyons, author of several books on college teaching says, "the final class is a key student retention milepost." Here are some activities from Berkeley’s teaching center.

• Effective Strategies for Studying

  Dec 6, 2012 8:00 am4 views

  Effective Strategies for Studying.  As students prepare for their final exams, they may not know or remember effective strategies to use. Here is a list of suggested strategies to share with your students in helping them prepare more effectively and efficiently.

   

• Strategies in the First Few Weeks for Future Success

  Jan 18, 2011 8:00 am5 views

  Strategies in the First Few Weeks for Future Success. Beginnings are important. Whether it is a large introductory course for freshmen or an advanced course in the major field, it makes good sense to start the semester off well. Good beginnings help in creating rapport, setting the tone and expectations, and making  effective first connections with the course content. Click here for 101 strategies

• Creating and Asking Effective Questions

  Feb 8, 2013 8:00 am5 views

  Creating and Asking Effective Questions.  One of the most common strategies to engage students is through questions and answers.  There are many aspects to consider when using this strategy; such as, types of questions and levels, use of cold calls, and incorporating wait time.  To learn more about using questions effectively, click here.

• Harness the Power of Emotions to Help Your Students Learn

  Feb 15, 2018 9:30 am5 views

  Have you thought about emotional presence in our online and face-to-face classes? There seems to be an enduring sense that emotions have no place in the lofty halls of academia. Our pursuit of knowledge should be rational, detached, unaffected by such trivialities as our emotions. But I don’t think that’s right. Our emotions are a central part of our humanity. To deny them is to deny the essence of who we are. In fact, not only should we not try to separate emotional responses from learning, but we can’t, according to recent neuroscience research.  Here are some ideas drawn from this article and the book “The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion” by S. Cavanagh.

• Three Guidelines and Two Workarounds for Tackling Makeup Exam Policies

  Feb 23, 2017 8:00 am5 views

  Three Guidelines and Two Workarounds for Tackling Makeup Exam Policies. Are you one of the many instructors who loathe makeup exam requests? Makeup exams often create more work and can put us in the awkward position of judging the truthfulness of our students’ excuses. Although we can’t avoid makeup requests entirely, we can better prepare ourselves and our students by having a transparent and fair makeup exam policy. When designing your policy, always ask yourself: Does the policy allow students to learn what you want them to learn in your course? Here are three guidelines for an effective makeup exam policy and two possible workarounds

• Testing what you’re Teaching without Teaching to the Test

  Mar 23, 2017 8:00 am5 views

  Testing what you’re Teaching without Teaching to the Test. Have your students ever told you that your tests are too hard? Tricky? Unfair? Many of us have heard these or similar comments. The conundrum is that, in some circumstances, those students may be right. Assessing student learning is a big responsibility.  Assessments (e.g., tests, quizzes, projects, and presentations) that are haphazardly constructed, even if unintentionally, can result in scores and grades that misrepresent the true extent of students’ knowledge and leave students confused about what they should have been learning. Fortunately, in three easy steps, test blueprinting can better ensure that we are testing what we’re teaching.
  

• Why Open-book Tests Deserve a Place in Your Courses

  Apr 12, 2017 8:00 am5 views

  Why Open-book Tests Deserve a Place in Your Courses. With the proliferation of learning management systems (LMS), many instructors now incorporate web-based technologies into their courses. While posting slides and readings online are common practices, the LMS can also be leveraged for testing. Purely online courses typically employ some form of web-based testing tool, but they are also useful for hybrid and face-to-face (F2F) offerings. Some instructors, however, are reluctant to embrace online testing. Their concerns can be wide ranging, but chief among them is cheating. Instead of wasting valuable time to deter cheating, open-book tests shift the onus of responsibility onto the students themselves. They are the ones who must track down answers and page through online notes.

• Last Day of Class. Make the last day count

  Apr 25, 2019 11:30 am5 views

  Last Day of Class. Make the last day count. Too often, the last day of a class can be taken up with housekeeping-information on the final, last minute details, and course evaluations. But as Richard Lyons, author of several books on college teaching says, "the final class is a key student retention milepost." Some suggestions are: “Thank the class” (where one professor says,  "I take some time to thank the students for their part in the course and to tell them what they did to make my job easier (e.g. worked hard, asked questions, were cheerful, etc.) and “Students' concluding remarks” (after providing your own remarks, ask for theirs).

• Preparing Your Students for Final Exams

  Apr 26, 2017 8:00 am5 views

  Preparing Your Students for Final Exams. Final Exams are stressful to make, to give, to take, and to grade—not to mention, a critical element in the evaluation of students. Typically comprehensive, they carry more weight than mid-terms and other tests given throughout they semester, and provide that “final” opportunity for students to demonstrate what they’ve learned. But, as reported in an article in UC-Berkeley’s New Faculty Teaching Newsletter, students often complain that “final exams do not always test the kinds of knowledge…asked for in homework or quizzes or presented in lectures” (Tollefson, 2007). Whether this complaint is valid or not, it is important that we devote our best effort to creating good final exams. Here are nine helpful suggestions to prepare your students.

• Empowering Students through Your Personal Narrative

  Sep 1, 2022 7:30 am5 views

  (from Faculty Focus) Empowering Students through Your Personal Narrative. Any teacher wants their students to feel engaged and enthusiastic in the classroom, connected and thriving through daily activities and course content. Of course, establishing that rapport and environment is a bridge that needs to be built every day, through every interaction, in any course. It’s not one action, or intervention, or step. But one intentional step that many teachers take is to create some introduction material for the course. Whether it’s an announcement or a video, a block of text or an audio snippet, instructors often go out of their way to say hello as students walk through the “doors” of the online classroom.  

  By leveraging your personal narrative—articulating your “why” and demonstrating your dedication—you can take steps to ensure that students feel more engaged and oriented within your new course, and that they feel comfortable and connected with you as their instructor. And while you can definitely spell this all out in words, and embellish with pictures, video has been shown to be a very dynamic way to connect with students.  

• Tips on Leading an Effective Discussion

  Sep 11, 2013 8:00 am5 views

  Tips on Leading an Effective Discussion.When students participate by asking and answering questions, it can improve their learning and promote critical thinking skills. Here are several strategies to increase the quantity and quality of their participation.

• Getting Students to Read: Important Considerations

  Sep 11, 2014 8:00 am5 views

  Getting Students to Read: Important Considerations. “Whenever faculty get together to talk about student writing or critical thinking, they inevitably turn also to problems of student reading.” (Bean, 1996, p. 133).  Think carefully about why and how you assign required readings. You can reduce your own and your students’ frustrations by thinking about these important ways to incorporate readings into your course. Click here to read the IDEA article.

• Lighting the Path: Making Connections Between Classes and Careers

  Oct 12, 2022 9:30 am5 views

  (from Faculty Focus). Lighting the Path: Making Connections Between Classes and Careers. Students can have a hard time seeing how general education requirements and foundational classes help them achieve their goals. Students, especially adult learners, want to make measurable progress toward their degrees right out of the gate. Actually, want might be too weak a word. As they balance jobs, families, an income gap, and student debt that grows weekly, they need to make progress as a tangible achievement to keep them going. What I want to focus on are potential solutions, or at least actions we can take toward solutions. If we view a student’s educational journey as a continuity, as a process with incremental progress, how do we put the imprint of this journey on individual classes? We can do this in part by creating a context for the learning in our courses and through instilling a sense of direction by infusing reflection in the classroom. The online classroom is a dynamic space for having amazing interactions with our students. Sometimes it’s text, sometimes video or audio—there are dozens of ways to connect and dozens of potential locations for this interaction to take place: gradebook feedback, inbox, the discussion board. The key is to have meaningful conversations with our students, a dialogue, not a sermon from the mount but an interchange—a back and forth.

• Helping Students Discover the Value of a Good Set of Notes

  Oct 24, 2013 8:00 am5 views

  Helping Students Discover the Value of a Good Set of Notes. Students benefit from taking and having a good set of notes, even though many of them don’t see the value, don’t take good notes, and like it best when they can copy word-for-word what the teacher says or has on the PowerPoint slides. This article by Weimer offers a range of activities teachers can use to help students discover what a good set of notes enables them to do.

• Student Resistance to Learner-Centered Teaching

  Oct 31, 2011 8:00 am5 views

  Student Resistance to Learner-Centered Teaching. Have you worked hard to incorporate a variety of strategies to engage your students?  Do you feel that your students actually prefer that you just lecture? Richard Felder provides a number of considerations to explain student resistance and ways to overcome it.  Click here for the article.

• Is Your Syllabus a Boring One Or a Promising One?

  Jan 12, 2017 8:00 am6 views

  Is Your Syllabus a Boring One or a Promising One?  Rather than read aloud your syllabus on the first day, how do you lively up a boring syllabus?  Clip art? More jokes? Perhaps even just one joke? A better method would be to adopt the idea of the "promising syllabus," a concept developed by Ken Bain, whose book (What the Best College Teachers Do, 2004). He doesn't claim to have originated the idea of the promising syllabus -- he discovered it, he said, from his review of the syllabi of outstanding college and university teachers, in which he found a common approach and some common features. "The promising syllabus," Bain wrote via e-mail, "fundamentally recognizes that people will learn best and most deeply when they have a strong sense of control over their own education rather than feeling manipulated by someone else's demands." A promising syllabus contains three key components.

• Establishing Rapport and Why It Matters

  Jan 14, 2015 8:00 am6 views

  Establishing Rapport and Why It Matters.  It cannot be underestimated how important establishing rapport is in effective teaching and learning. Connections with students play a role in student participation, effort, and engagement with the content. Ways to build rapport and respect for your students are providing praise, nodding and smiling, using their names, and identifying prior knowledge. Additional strategies such as helping students answer their own questions are quite effective in creating rapport, while enhancing learning.

• Faculty Tips for Starting the Semester Remotely

  Jan 14, 2022 10:15 am6 views

  (from Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning). Faculty Tips for Starting the Semester Remotely. The first week of the semester is a critical time for setting the tone of the course, motivating and exciting students for learning, beginning to form a community, and establishing your expectations for students. Here are a few tips for accomplishing these goals when you must start the semester remotely, so that you don’t lose that opportunity, such as prioritize well-being for yourself and your students, set clear communications with your students, and create opportunities for the students to know each other. We have also compiled student tips for starting the semester remotely, which you may want to share with your students.

• Using Google Tools to Enhance Course Delivery

  Jan 24, 2022 3:00 pm6 views

  (from Faculty Focus). Using Google Tools to Enhance Course Delivery. As teachers embrace digital tools for online learning, many online tools can enhance and facilitate the organization and delivery of courses. Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Slides, and Google Jamboard have the power to deliver more efficient and effective learning experiences. These digital tools can support professors as they organize course information while also enhancing student collaboration. Google tools also offer a variety of ways to increase productivity and streamline the dissemination of information to students, such as google docs, google forms, google slides, and jamboard.

• Teaching with Discussions

  Jan 25, 2017 8:00 am6 views

  Teaching with Discussions. One of the most challenging teaching methods, leading discussions can also be one of the most rewarding. Using discussions as a primary teaching method allows you to stimulate critical thinking. As you establish a rapport with your students, you can demonstrate that you appreciate their contributions at the same time that you challenge them to think more deeply and to articulate their ideas more clearly. Frequent questions, whether asked by you or by the students, provide a means of measuring learning and exploring in-depth the key concepts of the course. Be planful in how you start maintain, and finish the class discussion.

• Informal Early Feedback (IEF): A Valuable Opportunity for Just-in-Time Feedback (Now is the time)

  Jan 29, 2019 1:30 pm6 views

  Informal Early Feedback (IEF): A Valuable Opportunity for Just-in-Time Feedback.  Student evaluations of teaching are an important part of the feedback that instructors receive. This feedback can be especially helpful when it is collected midway in the semester. Our students can tell us if we explain clearly, are well-organized, grade fairly, and more. They may also be able to tell us if the activities we give them are well aligned with the ways we evaluate their learning. Responding to students’ comments by discussing them in class, and making changes as appropriate, can lead to increased motivation, better learning, and possibly improved end-of-semester student ratings. Here is a description of the process and sample forms for you to adapt. Also, CITL is offering two workshops next week (Feb. 4th and 6th) to help you design your own IEF form.

• Reliable Sources: Promoting Critical Thinking in the [Mis]information Age.

  Feb 25, 2019 2:30 pm6 views

   Reliable Sources: Promoting Critical Thinking in the [Mis]information Age. Information cannot always be trusted. Despite popular opinion regarding the devastating impact of the Internet on the modern age, the inherent untrustworthiness of information is not new. Satire, misinformation, and disinformation have been circulating for centuries, even long before the printed word. However, thanks to the relative ease of creating and sharing content online, our students are confronted with publications created solely to entertain, persuade, and incite via incorrect or incomplete statistics. The traditional steps of the research process--such as resource evaluation--have seemingly fallen to the wayside in deference to instant gratification and confirmation bias.  Making critical thinkers of burgeoning researchers in an age of information overload and “fake news” requires three steps to help students and faculty alike reevaluate the nature of research as it is viewed in and outside of the classroom.

• Helping Students Understand Difficult Text

  Mar 6, 2013 8:00 am6 views

  Helping Students Understand Difficult Text.  A frequent comment by instructors is about their students’ inability to read critically the assigned texts. Bean suggests that students need to become "deep readers," who focus on meaning, as opposed to "surface readers." In this article, he provides 11 causes for our students’ difficulty.

• Learning with Students vs. Doing for Students

  Mar 8, 2017 8:00 am6 views

  Learning with Students vs. Doing for Students. Here’s a quote, “I see myself as a learner first, thus I create my classes with learners, not for them ….”  When I think about classes I think about myself as a teacher first. So, I’ve been trying to imagine facing a teaching task from the perspective of a learner. The quote represents another push away from teaching and toward learning. But the preposition “with” makes it something more than just another admonition to be more learner-centered. Classes are created with learners, not for them. Even given my long-standing interest in learner-centered teaching, I have to be honest and admit, I created courses and now create workshops for learners, not with them.  Perhaps here is a way by doing beneficial things for students if I use what I have learned by doing things with them.

• Variations to Traditional Multiple-Choice Tests

  Mar 10, 2022 8:15 am6 views

  (from Faculty Focus). Variations to Traditional Multiple-Choice Tests.  Many college courses employ multiple choice (MC) tests as a primary means of assessment. Although these are sometimes critiqued (Kaufman, 2001), modifications can be made to this assessment, based in cognitive science, to increase the value of this testing format. Here, we consider several alternatives to traditional MC testing: the use of student-constructed cheat sheets, collaborative testing, using student-generated test items, universal design for learning, and providing immediate feedback.

• Transforming Your Online Teaching From Crisis to Community

  Apr 21, 2020 2:45 pm6 views

  (from Inside Higher Ed) Transforming Your Online Teaching From Crisis to Community. In this current time, it is important to remember that “going online” is not the same as teaching or learning. We must eschew the technocratic utopianism that implies that, simply by teaching remotely, professors are doing their jobs. We need to learn -- quickly -- from the extensive research and experience of professors all over who have done the teaching, research and publishing in this area, and who can advise us on what is most effective.The biggest takeaway from the research on effective teaching online is that we cannot teach the same way online that we would in person: we need to innovate and use the tools available to us to build our class periods differently. Of importance is “engaged” learning: understanding the condition of our students’ lives and finding the best ways of teaching within (rather than in spite of) those conditions.  Here is a simple way to create an engaged learning experience online.

• Grading and Performance Rubrics

  May 2, 2022 5:30 pm6 views

  (from Carnegie Mellon University Eberly Center). Grading and Performance Rubrics. What are rubrics? A rubric is a scoring tool that explicitly represents the performance expectations for an assignment or piece of work. A rubric divides the assigned work into component parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each component, at varying levels of mastery. Rubrics can be used for a wide array of assignments: papers, projects, oral presentations, artistic performances, group projects, etc. Rubrics can be used as scoring or grading guides, to provide formative feedback to support and guide ongoing learning efforts, or both. In the following paragraphs, we share some advantages of using rubrics and sample rubrics across different assignment types and disciplines.

• Zoom Video Conferencing

  Jul 21, 2020 9:15 pm6 views

  (from CITL)  Zoom Video Conferencing. Zoom is the preferred tool on our campus for live, online course sessions. Sessions using Zoom allow you to deliver online lecture materials in a variety of ways, including using a webcam for live lectures, using screen sharing to display a PowerPoint, and using break-out rooms to foster student collaboration.  Here are a few of the tools available in Zoom to help keep your students engaged.

• The Most Crucial Two Minutes of Class

  Sep 9, 2020 5:30 pm6 views

  (From Faculty Focus). The Most Crucial Two Minutes of Class. As an educator, I have an embarrassing confession: When I was younger, I was an incredibly difficult student.

  Read something? … On a good day, maybe I’d do some skimming.   Prepare ahead of time? … Nah, another student will do the talking. Pay attention in class? … What for? Why does this even matter to me?!

  There within that last cringe-worthy question lies the problem. For anyone who has been at the front of a classroom, you know that one of the greatest obstacles to learning is student apathy. To help overcome this barrier, I recommend the “motivation step,” a brief, introductory discussion designed to articulate why the material is significant. Not just because it may be on an exam, but rather because it will have real life, lasting consequences. It is a practice that immediately addresses that elephant in the room: Why the material matters.

• The Sound of Silence Can Be Deafening and the Questions You Ask Your Students Can Provoke It

  Oct 2, 2018 5:00 pm6 views

  The Sound of Silence Can Be Deafening and the Questions You Ask Your Students Can Provoke It. A colleague recently told me that the students in his undergraduate class “didn’t want to talk.” I probed, “What kinds of questions have you asked your students?” He replied, “Well, the first question I asked this morning was ‘What is the main point of the article I assigned for the day?’” Nobody said anything. I pointed out that even I might be afraid to answer such a question. Such questions pose a severe challenge to the confidence of undergraduate students, because the instructor knows the answer and they don’t. When it comes to answering questions about “facts,” there are many ways to be wrong, but only one way to be right. When faced with this dilemma, students are understandably silent. I suggested that he come up with nonthreatening questions: questions that didn’t put a student’s self-confidence and reputation at risk.

• The Rhythms of the Semester: Implications for Practice, Persona

  Nov 12, 2018 3:15 pm6 views

  The Rhythms of the Semester: Implications for Practice, Persona. We recognize that in the march of the semester we begin on a different note than we end on. The early weeks hold promise and high hopes, both often curtailed when the first assignments are graded. The final weeks find us somewhere between being reluctant or relieved to see a class move on. There is an inexplicable but evident interaction between our teaching persona and the persona a class develops throughout a semester. Some structural factors influence both: among them—the type and level of a course, the discipline, the time of day, and whether the students are a cohort or a unique collection of individuals. Here are some ways in which the semester changes over the weeks. 

• The Final Class Sessions: Providing Closure

  Dec 5, 2013 8:00 am6 views

  The Final Class Sessions: Providing Closure. The end of the semester can be stressful for instructors as well as students. If you have a few minutes in this last session, take the opportunity for all to reflect about where the students started and how much they have learned. Here are some tips from the University of Minnesota. Click here to read the strategies.

• Courses That Are Hard, but Not Too Hard

  Jan 25, 2017 8:00 am7 views

  Courses That Are Hard, but Not Too Hard. Finding the Sweet Spot. Courses need to be challenging, but when they become too hard, students stop trying and little learning results. So how do we find that sweet spot between hard and not too hard? More importantly, how do we create that sweet spot in our own courses through the decisions we make about content, assignments, and exams? Finding that perfect balance is not particularly easy or straightforward. Based on research, students do not prefer easy courses, but ones that are “Challenging”, but not “too difficult.” Here are some ways in which to find the line of demarcation of hard and not too hard.

• How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

  Feb 26, 2015 8:00 am7 views

  How Diversity Makes Us Smarter. The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. Yet, the first thing to acknowledge is that good diversity, such as expertise, is beneficial, but even more so is social diversity, such as ethnicity, race, gender.  This article states that it is social diversity that promotes creativity, innovation, and higher cognitive action in our work environments and team projects. 

• Students as Forgotten Allies in Preventing Cheating

  Mar 29, 2018 8:00 am7 views

  Faculty are pretty much focused on preventative measures, which are essential, but there are a couple of other issues rarely mentioned in the literature or in our discussions. Students who don’t cheat usually aren’t on our side when it comes to enforcing cheating policies. In one study, almost 93% of the students said they had witnessed another student cheat, but only 4.4% said they had ever reported a cheating incident (Bernardi, et. al., 2016) Students are in a bind—they don’t want to rat out fellow classmates, some of whom may be friends. If they do and word gets out, they are labeled as “snitches” and “tattletales” — told to mind their own business and otherwise berated. With serious social consequences like these, it takes real courage to do the right thing.

• Considerations About Exams When Teaching Remotely

  Apr 21, 2020 2:45 pm7 views

  (from The Derek Bok Center for Teaching & Learning). Considerations About Exams When Teaching Remotely. Exams remain a popular form of capstone assessment. There are a number of reasons for this, not least of which is their efficiency— for students to review large swaths of the material covered over the entire semester with an eye to synthesis and distillation. By comparison with a research paper or other common forms of end-of-term assessment, final exams ordinarily have the distinct advantage of standing "outside" the term, giving students the impetus to reflect back on the totality of their learning without consuming significant amounts of in- or out-of-class time during the semester itself. With the move to remote teaching the ordinary boundaries between synchronous, in-class work and asynchronous, out of class assessment are already changing, and the extrinsic motivation of grades—on which, admittedly, final exams depend rather more than other, more generative forms of capstone assessment—has decreased significantly. Given these facts, how might you modify your plans for testing students? 

• Test Construction: Some Practical Ideas

  May 2, 2011 8:00 am7 views

  Test Construction: Some Practical Ideas.  Majority of our courses include some kind of final exam.  This guide from the University of Texas at Austin presents a very thorough method for constructing tests that accurately assess students' learning.  Here is the guide.

• Strategies for Better Course Evaluations and Analyzing Student Feedback

  May 14, 2019 2:15 pm7 views

  Strategies for Better Course Evaluations and Analyzing Student Feedback.  Here are four steps to better course evaluations: make course expectations explicit, establish clear criteria for grading, get formative feedback early, and analyze student feedback. 

• Ready to Flip: Three Ways to Hold Students Accountable for Pre-Class Work

  Sep 14, 2016 8:00 am7 views

  Ready to Flip: Three Ways to Hold Students Accountable for Pre-Class Work. One of the most frequent questions faculty ask about the flipped classroom model is: “How do you encourage students to actually do the pre-class work and come to class prepared?” This is not really a new question for educators. We’ve always assigned some type of homework, and there have always been students who do not come to class ready to learn. However, the flipped classroom conversation has launched this question straight to the top of the list of challenges faculty face when implementing this model in their classrooms.  Here is an article that suggests several ways to prepare for your class.
  

• Cameras and Masks: Sustaining Emotional Connections with Your Students in an Age of COVID19 (Part 2 of 2)

  Sep 21, 2020 10:15 am7 views

  (From Stanford’s Tomorrow’s Professor). Cameras and Masks: Sustaining Emotional Connections with Your Students in an Age of COVID19 (Part 2 of 2) Several colleagues mentioned that when they arrive at a point in their synchronous class where they want to have a full class discussion, they request that students turn their cameras on, if they are not on already. They report their participation rates go up when they do this. After the discussion is over, students can turn the cameras off again. But be prepared to lose some participants.

   An instructor told me that he was “struggling somewhat to get more than a couple people to talk during the Zoom sessions. It was suggested that instructors give students the option to turn their cameras off, so I told the students that while I prefer their cameras to be on, they can go dark if it slows their internet too much. After I announced this policy during class, there was a steep drop in the number of students whose faces I can see. The main problem is that it’s now very hard to tell if they’re paying attention unless they speak up, but I’ve also found it somewhat disconcerting. If I were to do it over again, I’d tell them they can let me know if they have a reason they need to have their camera off, but otherwise we learn best when we can see each other.” This comment again highlights the importance of discussing your camera-on/off policies with students at the outset and working toward a collectively-agreed policy. Remember to be flexible and empathetic.

• How Good Are Your Discussion Facilitation Skills?

  Sep 26, 2017 5:00 pm7 views

  Successfully leading and guiding student discussions requires a range of fairly sophisticated communication skills. At the same time teachers are monitoring what’s being said about the content, they must keep track of the discussion itself. Is it on topic? How many students want to speak? Who’s already spoken and wants to speak again? How many aren’t listening? Is it time to move to a different topic? What’s the thinking behind that student question? How might the discussion be wrapped up?  Most of us are not trained discussion facilitators. Here is an empirically developed instrument that can be used to more clearly identify the various skills involved in effective discussion facilitation and to gather student feedback that can help you assess yours.

• Getting the Most out of Guest Experts Who Speak to Your Class

  Sep 29, 2015 8:00 am7 views

  Getting the Most out of Guest Experts Who Speak to Your Class. Inviting guest speakers into your classroom is a classic teaching strategy. Welcoming other voices into the classroom provides students with access to other perspectives, adds variety to the classroom routine, and demonstrates that learning is a collaborative enterprise. At the same time, however, presentations by guest experts are often plagued by a variety of design flaws that hinder their educational effectiveness. Here are five things you can do to prepare for an optimal experience.

• Not just the same old drill: Student-authored test questions improve critical thinking

  Nov 14, 2017 10:15 am7 views

  Faculty frequently name critical thinking as one of the most important goals for student learning. However, a key challenge to cultivating critical thinking can be the development of complex assessments. This can be especially difficult in large classes, when many tests and quizzes are in a multiple-choice format. In a recent study published in the Journal of Dental Education, a team of U-Michigan faculty investigated a new approach to mitigate these challenges. This student-centered approach to testing asks students to work in teams to design their own multiple-choice questions. One result is that students reported that it helped them on exams and enhanced their critical thinking skills.

• Final Exam Review Ideas

  Nov 29, 2016 8:00 am7 views

  Final Exam Review Ideas. In a study of student perceptions of teacher misbehaviors, Kearny, Plax, Hays and Ivey (1991) report that a common complaint by students involved “unfair testing” practices. Faculty misbehaviors related to tests as reported by students were trick questions, ambiguous questions, tests too difficult, and no exam reviews.  Here are some ways to help students prepare for the final exam and to reduce student anxiety. (Weimer, 1998).

• Last Day of Class

  Dec 1, 2021 9:45 am7 views

  (from Berkeley University Center for Teaching & Learning). Last Day of Class. "Not with a whimper, but a bang." – (A revisionist view of T.S. Eliot). Make the last day count. Too often, the last day of a class can be taken up with housekeeping-information on the final, last minute details, and course evaluations. But as Richard Lyons, author of several books on college teaching says, "the final class is a key student retention milepost."  Here is a potpourri of ideas from Berkeley faculty.