blog posts

• Constructing Fair and Appropriate Final Exams

  Apr 25, 2013 8:00 am1 views

  Constructing Fair and Appropriate Final Exams. A common student complaint is that final exams do not always test the kinds of knowledge asked for in homework or quizzes or presented in lectures. The worst final exams can seem unfocused, determined to test everything, or random things. The best final exams are learning moments and are aligned with learning goals presented in your syllabus.  Here are some ways from the Berkeley teaching center to review the final exam you created.

• The wrap-up: Ideas for the last day of class.

  Apr 28, 2016 8:00 am1 views

  The wrap-up: Ideas for the last day of class.  “When I was younger I recall having many good intentions about using the last day of class to reflect on and integrate what had happened during the semester.  Students would think about and share their Meaningful Learning Experiences, there would be significant bonding, perhaps a few tears shed, and we would all leave on a high note – in my imagination. In reality, I often use that day to catch up, students are exhausted and cranky, and they’re glad when I let them go early.” Adequate closure creates a sense of satisfaction for all involved and can reinforce the meaningful connections we’ve made with our students – connections that sometimes get lost or strained with end-of-semester stress. Read here for valuable suggestions such as letters to the future.

• A "Radical" Course Revision

  Jun 7, 2011 8:00 am1 views

  A "Radical" Course Revision. Summer is a great time to revisit last year's courses and improve them for the coming year.  This article by Julie Stout of Indiana University describes her experiences revising courses and offers advice on the process.  Click here to learn more.  Note: to learn more, please visit CTE's list of summer workshops.  

• Learning Student Names

  Aug 28, 2013 8:00 am1 views

  Learning Student Names. Alexander Austin in his book What Matters in College found that when instructors know their students’ names, it has a powerful effect on improving student engagement. And students can also learn their peers’ names. Here is a list of strategies to help you know and remember your students.
  

• Building Professor-Student Relationships in an Age of Social Networking

  Aug 30, 2015 8:00 am1 views

  Building Professor-Student Relationships in an Age of Social Networking. The influence of teacher-student relationships on the quality of teaching and learning is well-documented. What about the use of technology, especially social networking, in interacting with your students? What is the perceived impact and understanding?  In this article are some insights shared by one professor on how to have a good rapport with students online while avoiding any miscommunications and maintaining a professional relationship.

• Effective Discussion Boards

  Sep 11, 2013 8:00 am1 views

  Effective Discussion Boards. Meaningful online discussions that promote learning and build community usually do not happen spontaneously. They require planning, good use of questioning techniques, and incentives for student participation. Click here for types of questions to ask.

• Informal Early Feedback

  Sep 14, 2010 8:00 am1 views

  Using informal early feedback (IEF) can help you learn about what is working and what is not working in your class at a time when you can make mid-course corrections. Late-September to mid-October is a great time to collect this feedback from your students.  To learn more about this helpful form, you can attend this workshop (Sept. 17th or 22nd) or find information and samples on our website.

• Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT)

  Sep 14, 2010 8:00 am1 views

  Classroom Assessment Tools (CATs) are tools that can be used for active learning, assessment, and feedback. CATs are often anonymous and ungraded, and can give you a picture of how students are progressing, while providing information on your teaching and its effectiveness. Learn about the one-minute paper, muddiest points, and many other strategies. Read more about CATS here.

• Now is the Time for Informal Early Feedback

  Sep 18, 2012 8:00 am1 views

  Using informal early feedback (IEF) can help you learn about what is working and what is not working in your class at a time when you can make mid-course corrections. Late-September to mid-October is a great time to collect this feedback from your students.  To learn more about this helpful form, you can attend these IEF workshops on Sept. 24th or Oct. 9th.  Additional information and samples are on our website.

• Getting Timely Feedback

  Sep 25, 2013 8:00 am1 views

  Getting Timely Feedback. Getting feedback from your students in the weeks between late September and mid-October provides valuable information on how your course is going. One strategy to get pertinent information about you and your students is through the Informal Early Feedback (IEF). Visit our website for directions and sample forms.  

• How Should I Study for the Exam?

  Sep 26, 2017 9:45 am1 views

  When an exam approaches, virtually all students agree they need to study and most will, albeit with varying intensity. Most will study the same way they always have—using the strategies they think work. The question students won’t ask is: How should I study for this exam? They don’t recognize that what they need to learn can and should be studied in different ways. 

  When they get a good grade on an exam, students regularly attribute the success to luck. Students’ success as learners would advance if they had a larger repertoire of study strategies, if they could match study strategies with learning tasks, and if they constructively confronted how they studied with how they performed. Students need help on all three fronts, but courses are already packed with content. Most teachers have time to do little more than admonish students to study hard, avoid cramming and memorizing minutia, and abstain from any sort of cheating. Here is a short survey to administer to your students and how to start a short discussion on “How to study for this exam."

• Forming Metacognitive Students

  Sep 30, 2010 8:00 am1 views

  Forming Metacognitive Students. Students become metacognitive when they are aware of their own learning processes.  By encouraging students' metacognition, instructors give their students a better chance to succeed in class.  This article describes several easy ways to help students become more metacognitive. Click here to read the article.

• A Periodic Table of Visualizatin

  Sep 30, 2010 8:00 am1 views

  A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. You can grab your students' attention and help them to better understand classroom material by presenting information visually.  This "periodic table" describes a wide range of visual ways to display data, information, concepts, strategies, and metaphors. Click here to view it.

   

• Providing Constructive Feedback to Students

  Oct 3, 2012 8:00 am1 views

  Providing Constructive Feedback to Students. Students typically focus on the grades they receive and not carefully read the written feedback. What are the types of comments that will help your students learn from your feedback?  Click here for suggestions on types of effective comments and questions you can provide. 

  
  

• Tests as Opportunities for More Learning

  Oct 3, 2012 8:00 am1 views

  Tests as Opportunities for More Learning. Tests are generally thought as ways to assess what and how much students have learned. If carefully crafted, they can also serve as opportunities for additional learning to happen. See this article on creating different types of effective tests.

• Collaboration or Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based Assignments Clearly

  Oct 12, 2015 8:00 am1 views

  Collaboration or Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based Assignments Clearly. Although there are many positive aspects of group work, there are negatives as well. One particular problem occurs when students are confused about faculty expectations involving the work product of teams. More specifically, students often have difficulty determining how much of a group product, if any, is to be created by an individual. Here are strategies that help clarify for the students what is acceptable collaboration.
  

• Design Considerations for Exam Wrappers

  Oct 23, 2014 8:00 am1 views

  Design Considerations for Exam Wrappers. "Exam wrappers are short activities that direct students to review their performance (and the instructor's feedback) on an exam with an eye toward adapting their future learning.  Exam wrappers ask students three kinds of questions: How did they prepare for the exam?  What kinds of errors did they make on the exam?  What could they do differently next time?"  Click here to see examples and strategies to help our students become more reflective about their learning.

• Encouraging Effective Discussions

  Oct 28, 2010 8:00 am1 views

  Encouraging Effective Discussions. You want to encourage more student participation, so you ask a question.  Instead of a lively discussion, there are blank faces, silence, or incorrect answers. There are a number of strategies that can help encourage participation, improve discussion and rapport. Click here to learn more.  

• Calling Online (actually All..)Instructors: There’s a Secret Bonus Level!

  Nov 4, 2019 3:15 pm1 views

  Calling Online (actually All..) Instructors: There’s a Secret Bonus Level! Back in 2005, my online courses were designed according to the “read and reply twice” design format, then in vogue among instructional designers. The interactions that I had with my learners were largely formulaic, and I was really good at them. I responded to my students’ discussion posts and activity submissions within hours of deadlines, and I did my best to move conversations forward by asking learners to make connections and begin new avenues of inquiry. Fast forward to 2018: several game platforms and dozens of video games later. About the same time that we were playing Lego City Undercover, I was discovering that my “great” online courses could be strengthened even further by paying attention to barriers that I hadn’t previously understood well—or hadn’t even noticed at all. One of those barriers is grades. In addition to exploring ungrading, I also learned that spaced practice is one of the best ways to study and remember information and techniques. We reinforce our learning when we can re-visit concepts and ideas just before we shift them out of short-term memory and forget them. I’m looking all over my everyday experiences for hints about how our minds work when we learn things, and everywhere that I can take down barriers to learning

• Thinking Creatively and Critically

  Nov 9, 2015 8:00 am1 views

  Thinking Creatively and Critically. Two popular targets on the list of Things These Students Can't Do are creative thinking (coming up with innovative ideas) and critical thinking (making judgments or choices and backing them up with evidence and logic). When our colleagues complain to us that their students can't do them, after we make appropriate sympathetic noises we ask, "Where were they supposed to learn to do it?" The answers may vary, but one we rarely hear is "In my class."  Here are some strategies from Rebecca Brent and Richard Felder.

• Creating Cartoons to Spark Engagement and Learning

  Nov 12, 2018 3:15 pm1 views

  Creating Cartoons to Spark Engagement and Learning. As instructors, we are constantly looking for new ways to capture our students’ attention and increase their participation in our classes, especially in the online modalities. We spend countless hours crafting weekly announcements for classes and then inevitably receive multiple emails from our students asking the very same questions that we so carefully and completely answered in those very same announcements! The question remains, how do we get them to read our posts?

  It was precisely that problem I was trying to solve when I came across several articles touting the benefits of comics in higher education classrooms. I wondered if I could create a content-related cartoon that would not only capture students’ attention and maybe make them laugh, but also interest them enough that they would read the entire announcement or post. After a positive response, I decided to provide my online and face-to-face students the opportunity to try their hand at cartoon creation. This activity provide more ways for students to develop higher levels of assimilation and creation (Bloom’s Taxonomy, 2001).

• Final Exams

  Nov 17, 2021 5:15 pm1 views

  (from Harvard University, Bok Center).  Final Exams. Final exams remain one of the most common genre of capstone assignments, set at the end of courses in order to give students (and instructors) the opportunity to synthesize and reflect on the full arc of the semester. To some degree, the popularity of exams among instructors and students may owe something to their sheer familiarity. Often, because instructors assume that students are familiar with the form, they also assume that students need relatively little preparation in order to do well on them, thus freeing up class time for more content coverage. This is not always the case, however, and in order for exams to fulfill their potential for assessing certain levels of understanding, instructors must be clear about the purpose of what they will ask students to do, write good questions, and scaffold students into the exam. 

  Before you settle on a particular genre of assessment, we recommend that you visit these pages on capstone assignments, writing effective assignment prompts, and sequencing and scaffolding.

   

• End-of-the-Semester Reflection from the Teachers Point of View

  Nov 30, 2018 2:00 pm1 views

  End-of-the-Semester Reflection from the Teachers Point of View. Make self-reflection a part of the end of the term teaching process. Self-reflection helps you retain the insights you’ve gained along the way as you have been teaching the current course, and it will inspire you to seek out new approaches; you’ll feel more comfortable, confident, and engaged next semester. Some areas to consider are general reflections and what to do with the information you gathered.
  

• Constructing Fair and Appropriate Final Exams

  Dec 5, 2013 8:00 am1 views

  Constructing Fair and Appropriate Final Exams. A common student complaint is that final exams do not always test the kinds of knowledge asked for in homework or quizzes or presented in lectures. The worst final exams can seem unfocused, determined to test everything, or random things. The best final exams are learning moments and are aligned with learning goals presented in your syllabus.  Here are some ways from the Berkeley teaching center to review the final exam you created.

• Building Rapport from the Beginning

  Jan 14, 2015 8:00 am2 views

  Building Rapport from the Beginning.  Good rapport between instructor and students is arguably the most important factor in good classroom dynamics. You should begin the process of building rapport and collegiality on the first day of class, and continue cultivating this environment throughout the semester. Don’t miss this opportunity on your first day.

• Tricks and Tips for Teaching with Masks

  Jan 24, 2022 4:15 pm2 views

  (from University of Michigan LSA Technology Services). Tricks and Tips for Teaching with Masks. Above and beyond masking policies for indoor spaces on campus, University of Michigan Face Covering Policy  (University of Illinois Face Covering Policy) requires all people to wear masks in any classroom or classlab. This also includes spaces where classes are being held, such as conference rooms and lab spaces. 

  Teaching with a mask on does present a number of challenges, especially if the instructor has back-to-back courses or multiple sessions on a single day.  Here are 24 Teaching Tips for Teaching with Masks; e.g., how to use a microphone, breathing techniques, and maximizing body language.

• Students’ Definitions of the College Classroom

  Jan 31, 2018 12:15 pm2 views

  How participants in an interaction define a situation will determine what behaviors they see as appropriate for that context (Goffman 1959; McHugh 1968). The college classroom is no exception. Students’ satisfaction with a course and their willingness to engage in certain activities will depend in part on how well the instructor’s definition of what is and ought to be happening in the classroom aligns with their own. An important part of the process is defining the roles, the expectations for behavior, of both the instructor and students. This posting looks at how students define their own and the instructor’s responsibilities in class and what impact this has on student learning.

• When Directions are the Problem

  Feb 3, 2021 8:00 am2 views

  (from Faculty Focus) When Directions are the Problem. Instructors often experience problems between the directions given for an assignment and the work submitted by a student. Students miss important parts of questions; they may fail to understand the directions; and they produce work which the instructor finds unacceptable. Unfortunately, students may fail to see what the instructor sees for the end product, leading to loss of time and learning. John Hattie (2015) found that instructors who directly teach what is expected, have improved student outcomes with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.77).

  Templating, where instructors explicitly develop, teach, and model expectations, improves learning and reduces time spent trying to implement directions and is rooted in Bandura’s social learning theory by helping students define, interpret, and mimic what was observed (Bandura & Walters, 1977). There are four components to consider: develop a minimum and a maximum for each criteria, give students a laundry list of expectations, use a checklist for the template, and model expectations.

• Active Learning Strategies that Provide Great Feedback

  Feb 8, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Active Learning Strategies that Provide Great Feedback. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) are generally simple, non-graded, anonymous, in-class activities designed to give you and your students useful feedback on the teaching-learning process as it is happening.  There are many CATS to select depending on what you want to assess and how much time you have. Consider implementing these activities throughout the semester. Click here to learn more about CATS.

• Advice for how to make grading more equitable (opinion).

  Feb 19, 2020 9:00 am2 views

  Advice for how to make grading more equitable (opinion). Ask any faculty member about how they grade their students, and they will probably explain the precise weights they give quizzes, tests, papers, labs and other factors -- as well as how they average student results over the term to determine a final grade. Even though the scholarship, technology and pedagogy of postsecondary courses have significantly evolved in the last century, the ways students are graded has remained unchanged. This should come as no surprise, considering that most college and university faculty members receive no training in how to grade, either in graduate school or professional development on the job, and so most typically grade as they were graded. Plus, because faculty members rarely receive support to examine and learn about grading, each professor’s grading policies are filtered through their own individual beliefs about how students learn, how to motivate them and how best to describe student achievement. As a result, grades often vary within a department and even within a course taught by different instructors. Here are improved grading practices.

• Collaboration or Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based Assignments Clearly

  Feb 20, 2014 8:00 am2 views

  Collaboration or Plagiarism? Explaining Collaborative-Based Assignments Clearly. Although there are many positive aspects of group work, there are negatives as well. One particular problem occurs when students are confused about faculty expectations involving the work product of teams. How much of the group project, if any, is individual-based vs. a group collaboration?  Here are some strategies to set expectations and clear guidelines.

   

• Troublesome Behaviors in the Classroom

  Mar 19, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Troublesome Behaviors in the Classroom.  It happens.  A student does something that you perceive interferes with the teaching and learning in your course. It can be such things as talking in class, arriving late, or missing deadlines. This article by Mary Deane Sorcinelli provides several strategies to address these issues. 

• Teaching Philosophy Statements

  Mar 20, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Teaching Philosophy Statements. Teaching philosophy statements are frequently requested for job applications, grants, and promotion and tenure packets. When written well, this statement can promote deep reflection about your teaching. This article by Maryellen Weimer describes how to avoid the most common mistakes. To begin writing or improving your statement, consider attending this teaching statement workshop on April 1, 2013.

• Laptops in the Classroom

  Mar 21, 2012 8:00 am2 views

  Laptops in the Classroom.  As you look around your class, you see an increasing number of laptops. They can serve as an effective tool to improve student engagement and learning or they can be a distraction; which is why you should be prepared with a policy for their use. This article from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan presents research and best practices to help you develop such a policy.

   

   

   

• Educating Students about Plagiarism

  Apr 12, 2012 8:00 am2 views

   

  Educating Students about Plagiarism.  Plagiarism is uncredited use of someone else's text or ideas. Some students unwittingly commit plagiarism because they are unaware of the rules regarding citing sources. Here is a self-test of common situations to help students identify examples of plagiarism.This site is a collaborative project originally funded by the Center for Educational Technology, Middlebury College, and developed by Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin Colleges. Also, here is a link to our campus Student Code regarding plagiarism.

   

   

• Assessing Oral Presentations

  Apr 12, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Assessing Oral Presentations. Toward the end of the semester, many courses require individual and group oral presentations to assess student learning.  Here is a helpful site with suggestions on preparing students to speak effectively and examples of rubrics to evaluate the presentations. Click here to learn more (Carleton College –SERC)

• Ending the Semester

  Apr 18, 2022 11:15 am2 views

  (from Georgetown University CNDLS) Ending the Semester. A semester is a marathon effort, and, by the time you reach the end of it, it’s quite possible that everyone—you and the students both—will be exhausted, and perhaps very ready to leave the course behind. But one last thoughtful push can ensure that the course’s conclusion is meaningful in its own right. Naturally, the final stretch of the course is an important time to reflect on the class experience and the material that’s been covered. Not only is it an opportunity to review material that students might need to revisit as they approach final exams and final papers—or to answer any questions that, for the students, remain unresolved—it’s also an opportunity to underscore the significance of the experience the students have just had, to invite the students to appreciate how far they’ve come in a few months. Here are some ways to maximize the end of the semester through reflection, integration, gathering feedback, and looking forward.

• Eleven Tips to End of The Semester Success (From One Student to Another):

  Apr 18, 2022 11:15 am2 views

  (from Utica College Student Voices). Eleven Tips to End of The Semester Success (From One Student to Another). The end of the semester (especially Spring Semester) can bring many challenges and stressors. The weather is starting to get nicer, the days are getting longer, and your attention span is getting shorter. If your class schedule has looked anything like mine, you’ve probably been pounded with essays, projects, and tests since returning from spring break. It can all get very overwhelming quickly, and by the time finals starts approaching you’ve all but virtually checked out. As hard as it may be, it’s important to keep your morale high to get through finals. No one wants to throw away all the hard work they’ve put in throughout the semester over a little stress and fatigue. So, here’s some of my tips on how to stay focused and finish out the semester strong.

• Helping Student Study for Final Exams

  Apr 25, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Helping Students Study for Final Exams. Students often return to inefficient and ineffective study habits as they feel the time crush to prepare for their final exams. GAMES, a mnemonic device developed by Marilla Svinicki, is a useful approach for students to use as they prepare for final exams. The five strategies are based on theories of learning.  Click here to learn more about these strategies to share with your students. 

• Should Effort Count? Students Certainly Think So

  May 7, 2015 8:00 am2 views

  Should Effort Count? Students Certainly Think So. In a recent study, a group of 120 undergraduates were asked what percentage of a grade should be based on performance and what percentage on effort. The students said that 61% of the grade should be based on performance and 39% on effort. Historically, grades have been thought of as measures of performance. Is effort a viable dimension of a course grade? Should you get credit for trying if you don’t succeed or just barely succeed? This article raises a number of thought-provoking questions.

• Assigning Course Grades

  May 7, 2015 8:00 am2 views

  Assigning Course Grades. We come to that time of the semester when we must do the difficult task of assigning the final course grades. What do we do with “borderline” grades? Should effort be considered? What about bonus points? Here are some strategies to consider when determining the final grade.

• How to Teach What You Don't Actually Know

  Jun 7, 2011 8:00 am2 views

  How to Teach What You Don't Actually Know.  Are you preparing to teach a course that's outside your area of expertise? Therese Huston, plenary speaker at last year's Annual Faculty Retreat, can help you face next semester with confidence.  Read the Chronicle article here.

• Creating a Syllabus: The Basics

  Aug 7, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Creating a Syllabus: The Basics. The syllabus is a document that shares with the students what they will be doing and learning, what the goals are, how they are assessed, and an insight into your teaching philosophy. Syllabi differ across individuals, courses, and disciplines; however, there are certain components that all syllabi should contain. Click here for a tutorial on creating a syllabus from the U. of Minnesota teaching center.

• Don’t Waste the First Day

  Aug 12, 2015 8:00 am2 views

  Don’t waste the first day. Do you go over the syllabus page by page on the first day? Take advantage of the first day by hooking students into course content before distributing the syllabus. Do a background probe activity, get to know them and walk from one student to another, make your teaching style transparent. This article describes additional strategies to maximize that first day as a valuable learning experience.  

• 101 Things to Do in the First Three Weeks of Class

  Aug 28, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  101 Things to Do in the First Three Weeks of Class. Want a successful start to the semester? How about setting expectations, learning students’ prior knowledge, motivating and engaging your students? Here are several strategies to implement right away. 

• What Successful New Teachers Do

  Aug 30, 2009 8:00 am2 views

  What Successful New Teachers Do. Robert Boice describes “quick starters” as those new faculty members who are effective, efficient, and satisfied in their teaching.   They also receive high ratings from their students and colleagues.  They connect with their students, understand the best ways to enhance learning, and can locate and maximize available resources.  To learn from these “quick starters,” please click here.

• Does It Matter How Students Feel about a Course?

  Sep 13, 2017 4:00 pm2 views

  A line of research (done mostly in Australia and Great Britain) has been exploring what prompts students to opt for deep or surface approaches to learning. So far this research has established strong links between the approaches taken to teaching and those taken to learning. If teachers are focused on covering large amounts of content and do so with few attempts to involve and engage students, students tend to learn the material by memorizing it, often without much understanding of it. The 18-item instrument these researchers developed contains three subscales: one with questions associated with positive emotions such as pride, hope, and confidence, and two that measure negative emotions, one associated with frustration, anger, and boredom and the second with anxiety and shame. All three of these analyses “show significant relations between students’ emotional experience, their approaches to learning and their learning outcomes.” (p. 816). The more pragmatic question involves what teachers can do to help student have positive emotional experiences in the course.

• Strategies to Assess Student Learning

  Sep 19, 2012 8:00 am2 views

  Strategies to Assess Student Learning.  Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are quick, easy to implement strategies that provide valuable information about how well your students understand the content.  They can be used on a daily basis to provide valuable feedback for both you and your students. Why wait until the first exam to see how your students are doing.  Click here to learn more or register for our Oct. 5th CTE workshop.

• Improving Your Test Questions

  Sep 26, 2017 9:45 am2 views

  An effective test can accurately measure what students know but also the kind of knowledge and the depth of that knowledge.  It can also provide you with key information regarding alignment of the learning objectives stated at the beginning of the course with what is being assessed in your exam. Implementing key testing principles and making good decisions regarding exam types, test items, and grading are ways to ensure that student learning is accurately measured. Here are some tips from our Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. You can also register for our CITL workshop on Oct. 4th (Improving Our Testing and Grading of Student Achievement) to learn more.

• Caring about Students Matter

  Sep 27, 2016 8:00 am2 views

  Caring about Students Matter. Good teachers care about their students. We all know that, but sometimes over the course of a long semester, it’s easy to forget just how important it is to show our students we care about them. But it isn’t always easy to care about students. We may care theoretically, even actually, but when we’re tired, stressed by all that our academic positions require, and pulled by what’s happening at home, showing that you care isn’t all that easy. And then there are those students who themselves so clearly don’t care—about us, our course, their major, or their learning. This article explains why caring is important and how to convey that concern.