THAT FEEDBACK REALLY HURT
It took fewer than three semesters for Michael Howell to realize that
he might need to change how he provided written feedback to his
students. Dr. Howell, an associate professor at Appalachian State University,
used sarcasm and wit in feedback to students during his early years as
an instructor. Students complained that the feedback was negative and
unhelpful. In one case, his feedback provoked a tearful response from
one “grief-stricken” student. “Worst of all, most students were not performing any better on later
assignments, despite being provided with copious, and what I considered
helpful, feedback,” Howell writes. “Most of my feedback was simply being
disregarded.”Howell shares his personal reflection in the introduction of a scholarly article published in the latest issue of the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching.
Howell reviewed the literature and identified five essential principles
of written feedback for college instructors to follow. Check out “The Feedback 5”.
QUICK ACTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Integrating active learning experiences into your class can be simple and allow you to gauge the learning that has occurred. Here is one example called "Student Response to a Demonstration (or Other Teacher-Centered Activity)." After a classroom or laboratory demonstration, the instructor asks students to write a paragraph that begins with the phrase “I was surprised that . . . , ” “I learned that . . . ,” or “I wonder about. . . .” This lead allows students to reflect on what they actually got out of the teacher’s presentation. It also helps students realize that the day’s activity was designed for more than just entertainment. To find more quick and easy ways to implement active learning opportunities in your class, take a look at the Active Learning Manual on the Teaching and Learning Faculty Development page under Modules on Canvas.
WRITING AS A GROUP
Are you interested in how to promote collaborative learning among university students via instructor-guided writing groups? Faustin Mutwarasibo has an interesting article based on her research. She writes, "In their responses, students acknowledged having improved their interpersonal and collaborative skills through writing groups. Students also indicated that, while discussing and interacting with their group members and with the support from their instructor, they improved their English, gained new ideas and perspectives, and learned better about text coherence." Some strategies are proposed on how an instructor can help make group work a relevant and effective learning tool in the full article.
Showing posts with label formative assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label formative assessment. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
HOW AM I DOING
It is about that time when we begin to give some sort of assessment, whether it is tests on the first 3-4 chapters, a writing essay, or some other formative assessment that is usually medium to high stakes. So I thought I would spend some time on this topic. First, I would like to urge you to strongly encourage your students to partner with a study-buddy or to create a study group for each of their classes. Research proves over and over again that these types of collaboration are significant. If they are looking for study space, send them to the Academic Learning Center first. They can also access tutors to help them in their review. You might even ask them what day and time they are meeting so that you can stop in and answer any questions they may have.
LET'S START A STUDY GROUP
Dr. Maryellen Weimer has written a nice synopsis about ways we can help students improve their study sessions. She writes, "How should I be studying for the exam? Students tend to be pretty generic in their thinking about study strategies. “I’ll go over my notes” and “I’ll reread what I’ve highlighted in the text.” If your students don’t have stellar study skills, a list of possible study strategies might be helpful in guiding this discussion in small groups or with the whole class. Recommend what research in cognitive psychology has shown promotes learning and test performance: studying for shorter periods across several days, testing knowledge with questions (those in the book, provided by the teacher, or made up on their own), working on different types of problems, reviewing with a study buddy, and reworking (not recopying) class notes." Continue reading her article here.
POST-ASSESSMENT IS CRUCIAL
We know why we are giving assessment tests, papers and the like but are you sure your students truly understand the purpose? Any type of graded material that provides good feedback will allow the student to understand just what they have or have not learned. It can be an indication that they have learned the material well enough to move on or they may need to return to some of the resources to better understand the material. Pointing that out to them is vitally important. Lolita Paff has a good post on her blog about other types of assessment follow-up that can be beneficial for your students.
It is about that time when we begin to give some sort of assessment, whether it is tests on the first 3-4 chapters, a writing essay, or some other formative assessment that is usually medium to high stakes. So I thought I would spend some time on this topic. First, I would like to urge you to strongly encourage your students to partner with a study-buddy or to create a study group for each of their classes. Research proves over and over again that these types of collaboration are significant. If they are looking for study space, send them to the Academic Learning Center first. They can also access tutors to help them in their review. You might even ask them what day and time they are meeting so that you can stop in and answer any questions they may have.
LET'S START A STUDY GROUP
Dr. Maryellen Weimer has written a nice synopsis about ways we can help students improve their study sessions. She writes, "How should I be studying for the exam? Students tend to be pretty generic in their thinking about study strategies. “I’ll go over my notes” and “I’ll reread what I’ve highlighted in the text.” If your students don’t have stellar study skills, a list of possible study strategies might be helpful in guiding this discussion in small groups or with the whole class. Recommend what research in cognitive psychology has shown promotes learning and test performance: studying for shorter periods across several days, testing knowledge with questions (those in the book, provided by the teacher, or made up on their own), working on different types of problems, reviewing with a study buddy, and reworking (not recopying) class notes." Continue reading her article here.
POST-ASSESSMENT IS CRUCIAL
We know why we are giving assessment tests, papers and the like but are you sure your students truly understand the purpose? Any type of graded material that provides good feedback will allow the student to understand just what they have or have not learned. It can be an indication that they have learned the material well enough to move on or they may need to return to some of the resources to better understand the material. Pointing that out to them is vitally important. Lolita Paff has a good post on her blog about other types of assessment follow-up that can be beneficial for your students.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
TECH VERSUS INNOVATION
Matt Read writes a blog titled Confessions of a Community College Dean. His most recent post provokes us to think about technology versus innovation, specifically as it relates to teaching. "My grandmother collected absurd kitchen technology, which made visits fun. There wasn’t an inside-the-egg-scrambler or fry baby on the market that she didn’t have. She had a microwave oven back when nobody did; I remember watching her “nuke” a hot dog, and both of us enjoying its twisty death throes. As an adult, I realize that I inherited the gadget gene from her. My platform agnosticism -- I’ve had phones that ran Android, iOS, and even webOS -- is only partially about comparison shopping or avoiding cultism; it’s largely an excuse to try all sorts of new stuff. PC at work, Chromebook on the road? Why not? On Wednesday, though, I had two separate conversations about innovation on campus that I realized later had a common theme: tech and innovation aren’t the same thing." Read more here.
WHY DID YOU GIVE ME A BAD GRADE
Feedback that is both affirming and corrective is necessary for people to learn. Defined as information on the results of one’s efforts, feedback that is clear, specific and timely motivates students to improve. Since feedback is most often connected to grading that follows assigned work or assessment activities, Walvoord and Anderson say that grading “…encompasses tailoring the test or assignment to the learning goals of the course…offering feedback so students can develop as thinkers and writers, communicating about students’ learning to appropriate audiences, and using results to plan improvements in the classroom…”. Thus assessment provides feedback for both learners and teachers. Read more here.
WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE
The battle to stop our students from using online resources like Wikipedia is long over. What we must do now is help our students to understand how best to use Wikipedia. Matthew Vetter, an academic specializing in digital rhetoric and humanities, has a nice post about his efforts in this area. He writes, "Working with Wiki Ed opens up possibilities for how we teach, how that teaching engages the world, what our students accomplish in the classroom, and what kinds of conversations we can have about critical issues related to humanities and digital culture." Read more here.
Matt Read writes a blog titled Confessions of a Community College Dean. His most recent post provokes us to think about technology versus innovation, specifically as it relates to teaching. "My grandmother collected absurd kitchen technology, which made visits fun. There wasn’t an inside-the-egg-scrambler or fry baby on the market that she didn’t have. She had a microwave oven back when nobody did; I remember watching her “nuke” a hot dog, and both of us enjoying its twisty death throes. As an adult, I realize that I inherited the gadget gene from her. My platform agnosticism -- I’ve had phones that ran Android, iOS, and even webOS -- is only partially about comparison shopping or avoiding cultism; it’s largely an excuse to try all sorts of new stuff. PC at work, Chromebook on the road? Why not? On Wednesday, though, I had two separate conversations about innovation on campus that I realized later had a common theme: tech and innovation aren’t the same thing." Read more here.
WHY DID YOU GIVE ME A BAD GRADE
Feedback that is both affirming and corrective is necessary for people to learn. Defined as information on the results of one’s efforts, feedback that is clear, specific and timely motivates students to improve. Since feedback is most often connected to grading that follows assigned work or assessment activities, Walvoord and Anderson say that grading “…encompasses tailoring the test or assignment to the learning goals of the course…offering feedback so students can develop as thinkers and writers, communicating about students’ learning to appropriate audiences, and using results to plan improvements in the classroom…”. Thus assessment provides feedback for both learners and teachers. Read more here.
WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE
The battle to stop our students from using online resources like Wikipedia is long over. What we must do now is help our students to understand how best to use Wikipedia. Matthew Vetter, an academic specializing in digital rhetoric and humanities, has a nice post about his efforts in this area. He writes, "Working with Wiki Ed opens up possibilities for how we teach, how that teaching engages the world, what our students accomplish in the classroom, and what kinds of conversations we can have about critical issues related to humanities and digital culture." Read more here.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
HOW TO ASSESS STUDENT PARTICIPATION
Have you ever struggled with determining what student participation looks like and how to assign a grade for it? Carolyn Ives, Curriculum Planning and Development Coordinator at the Centre for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence at MacEwan University, has written an informative article that may clarify things for you. She writes, "So, then, how can instructors facilitate student engagement and helpful participation? There are a few strategies that can help such as the creation of a supportive classroom environment that is skillfully facilitated and discussion-based, the creation of clear expectations around student preparation and student roles in the classroom, and creating student buy-in. All of these strategies are helpful, but the most useful method I have found to evaluate student participation is the inclusion of formative assessment techniques in my classes. Formative assessment may take a variety of forms (such as practice quizzes, one-minute papers, clearest/muddiest point exercises, various kinds of group work in the class, etc.), but it provides students with opportunities to practice skills or test knowledge in a “safe” way.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON SEPTEMBER 25
The next faculty development workshop sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center occurs on Thursday, September 15 at 1:00 pm. Natalie Smith, writing center specialist, will present an interactive session focused on how you can help your students improve their writing even if you don't happen to teach an English course. She is also interested in hearing from you about other issues that may occur in your classes related to student success and writing impediments. There is still time to register. This event will be held in the T+LC (room 311 Magnolia Building).
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT FOR LOUISIANA
Louisiana hasn’t made much progress in the past seven years in a national assessment of educational achievement, according to an article in the Shreveport Times. In its “Leaders and Laggards” report, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranks Louisiana as the second-worst laggard, at the bottom of all 50 states but ahead of the District of Columbia. Louisiana has grades of F in 5 of 11 categories. The most damning are Fs in academic achievement and academic achievement for low-income and minority students in its 2014 report. The state received a D for its efforts to improve overall academic achievement in 2007 and a B for its efforts to improve academic achievement for low-income and minority students. The academic scores are based on the National Assessment of Education Progress, a standardized exam administered across the nation on which Louisiana students traditionally perform poorly. The study used 2011 results.
Have you ever struggled with determining what student participation looks like and how to assign a grade for it? Carolyn Ives, Curriculum Planning and Development Coordinator at the Centre for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence at MacEwan University, has written an informative article that may clarify things for you. She writes, "So, then, how can instructors facilitate student engagement and helpful participation? There are a few strategies that can help such as the creation of a supportive classroom environment that is skillfully facilitated and discussion-based, the creation of clear expectations around student preparation and student roles in the classroom, and creating student buy-in. All of these strategies are helpful, but the most useful method I have found to evaluate student participation is the inclusion of formative assessment techniques in my classes. Formative assessment may take a variety of forms (such as practice quizzes, one-minute papers, clearest/muddiest point exercises, various kinds of group work in the class, etc.), but it provides students with opportunities to practice skills or test knowledge in a “safe” way.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON SEPTEMBER 25
The next faculty development workshop sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center occurs on Thursday, September 15 at 1:00 pm. Natalie Smith, writing center specialist, will present an interactive session focused on how you can help your students improve their writing even if you don't happen to teach an English course. She is also interested in hearing from you about other issues that may occur in your classes related to student success and writing impediments. There is still time to register. This event will be held in the T+LC (room 311 Magnolia Building).
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT FOR LOUISIANA
Louisiana hasn’t made much progress in the past seven years in a national assessment of educational achievement, according to an article in the Shreveport Times. In its “Leaders and Laggards” report, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranks Louisiana as the second-worst laggard, at the bottom of all 50 states but ahead of the District of Columbia. Louisiana has grades of F in 5 of 11 categories. The most damning are Fs in academic achievement and academic achievement for low-income and minority students in its 2014 report. The state received a D for its efforts to improve overall academic achievement in 2007 and a B for its efforts to improve academic achievement for low-income and minority students. The academic scores are based on the National Assessment of Education Progress, a standardized exam administered across the nation on which Louisiana students traditionally perform poorly. The study used 2011 results.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
UNDERSTANDING LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACHES
Catharine F. Bishop, Michael I. Caston, and Cheryl A. King have a recently published article that is helpful in understanding the term learner-centered and how to create an environment conducive to learning. They wrote, "Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT)has been an effective approach for enhancing the learning experience for students in higher education. A LCT approach means subjecting multiple teaching actions (method, assignment, or assessment) to the test of a single question: Given the context of my students, course and classroom, will this teaching action optimize my students’ opportunity to learn?. To be specific, the classroom for a learner-centered environment is quite different from traditional classrooms. Students are required to take on new learning roles and responsibilities beyond taking notes, listening to teachers teach, and passing exams. It is an environment that allows students to take some real control over their educational experience and encourages them to make important choices about what and how they will learn." They go on to list a number of interventions and approaches that can move a classroom from a coverage-model to learner-centered. The article appears in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Access is free but you do have to register.
USE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO CHECK FOR REAL-TIME LEARNING
We all know that formative assessment tools are important to our ability to determine if learning is occurring during a lesson. We usually use it to determine if we are ready to move to a more advanced or new topic. Here are a few examples of formative assessment tools you can use in your classes everyday. Having your students write a brief summary of the learning experience (or reading if you gave them an assignment before class) is always a great way to measure learning but you can also get creative and ask them to write a poem using a set number of key terms or have them create it from the information they highlighted in the reading. This tells you immediately if they learned how to differentiate between what is important from all of the other material. They can also do this using a class journal, which is a great way for them to measure their growth throughout the semester. You can also ask them to write a quiz based on the new material, have them select one of the short-answer type questions and reply to it. This gives you some idea of what their expectations are related to assessment and the short answers will give you a good indication if learning occurred. You can ask them to create a public service announcement using the new information which requires them to not only understand the new material but to be able to apply it and explain it to others. They can also write a letter to someone explaining the new information or write to the author of the textbook outlining what they learned and what is still confusing. You could have them prepare to be a guest on a television show where they will be the expert on the new material. Ask them to prepare notes or pair them up and have one ask questions while the other answers them (having them alternate lets everyone play both parts). Finally, see if they can answer the question of what they learned by putting it into a Twitter format. Remind them that they are limited to 140 characters. This requires them to be focused and concise. If you have some favorite formative assessment tools, please share them with me and I will be sure to post them here.
STUDENT PREFERENCES FOR READING ASSIGNMENTS
Many of us struggle with having our students complete the assigned reading. Lola Aagaard, Timothy W. Conner II, and Ronald L. Skidmore provide us with a number of suggestions to make this task more likely to be completed in their new research article College Textbook Reading Assignments and Class Time Activity. They note, "Strategies reported to most likely prompt reading the textbook included in-class quizzes over text material, assigning graded study-guides to complete while reading; testing over material found in the textbook but not covered in class; and assigning shorter reading assignments. Preferences for use of class time varied by experience in college, but the majority of students preferred group discussion and application of material to real life rather than just lecture over the textbook content." The article can be found in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Catharine F. Bishop, Michael I. Caston, and Cheryl A. King have a recently published article that is helpful in understanding the term learner-centered and how to create an environment conducive to learning. They wrote, "Learner-Centered Teaching (LCT)has been an effective approach for enhancing the learning experience for students in higher education. A LCT approach means subjecting multiple teaching actions (method, assignment, or assessment) to the test of a single question: Given the context of my students, course and classroom, will this teaching action optimize my students’ opportunity to learn?. To be specific, the classroom for a learner-centered environment is quite different from traditional classrooms. Students are required to take on new learning roles and responsibilities beyond taking notes, listening to teachers teach, and passing exams. It is an environment that allows students to take some real control over their educational experience and encourages them to make important choices about what and how they will learn." They go on to list a number of interventions and approaches that can move a classroom from a coverage-model to learner-centered. The article appears in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Access is free but you do have to register.
USE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO CHECK FOR REAL-TIME LEARNING
We all know that formative assessment tools are important to our ability to determine if learning is occurring during a lesson. We usually use it to determine if we are ready to move to a more advanced or new topic. Here are a few examples of formative assessment tools you can use in your classes everyday. Having your students write a brief summary of the learning experience (or reading if you gave them an assignment before class) is always a great way to measure learning but you can also get creative and ask them to write a poem using a set number of key terms or have them create it from the information they highlighted in the reading. This tells you immediately if they learned how to differentiate between what is important from all of the other material. They can also do this using a class journal, which is a great way for them to measure their growth throughout the semester. You can also ask them to write a quiz based on the new material, have them select one of the short-answer type questions and reply to it. This gives you some idea of what their expectations are related to assessment and the short answers will give you a good indication if learning occurred. You can ask them to create a public service announcement using the new information which requires them to not only understand the new material but to be able to apply it and explain it to others. They can also write a letter to someone explaining the new information or write to the author of the textbook outlining what they learned and what is still confusing. You could have them prepare to be a guest on a television show where they will be the expert on the new material. Ask them to prepare notes or pair them up and have one ask questions while the other answers them (having them alternate lets everyone play both parts). Finally, see if they can answer the question of what they learned by putting it into a Twitter format. Remind them that they are limited to 140 characters. This requires them to be focused and concise. If you have some favorite formative assessment tools, please share them with me and I will be sure to post them here.
STUDENT PREFERENCES FOR READING ASSIGNMENTS
Many of us struggle with having our students complete the assigned reading. Lola Aagaard, Timothy W. Conner II, and Ronald L. Skidmore provide us with a number of suggestions to make this task more likely to be completed in their new research article College Textbook Reading Assignments and Class Time Activity. They note, "Strategies reported to most likely prompt reading the textbook included in-class quizzes over text material, assigning graded study-guides to complete while reading; testing over material found in the textbook but not covered in class; and assigning shorter reading assignments. Preferences for use of class time varied by experience in college, but the majority of students preferred group discussion and application of material to real life rather than just lecture over the textbook content." The article can be found in the latest version of the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Monday, June 16, 2014
FINDING GOLD IN JERSEY
I am very excited to be one of the select few that will be heading to New Jersey to participate in Ken Bain's last Best Teachers Summer Institute later this week. Judging by the pre-conference homework (Dr. Bain's version of flipping), this promises to be an exceptional learning event. I wanted to share just a small sliver of what we are working on before coming together as a group. Dr. Bain has asked us to do some critical self-reflection (one of my favorite topics) and to specifically look at how we construct our syllabi. He asks, "how can a colleague develop a sense of you as a scholar by examining the various features of your course?" I hope that you do what I did when I saw that question and that is, quickly pull up one of your syllabi and begin to deconstruct it to determine the answer to this brilliant question. If our syllabi are truly the guiding documents for our partnerships with our students, shouldn't they reflect our teaching philosophy, our passion for the subject matter, and what we think is most important for student learning? In the same way, the assessment instruments we indicate on our syllabi are also telling an interesting story. I hope to bring back much more of this type of faculty development from the conference and am sure that our programming for the 2014-15 academic year will be shaped by what happens this week.
CRITICAL THINKING IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
Drs. S. Michael Putman, Karen Ford, and Susan Tancock have written an interesting article about enhancing critical thinking abilities using discussion boards in online classes. They write, "The asynchronous online discussion (AOD) is a communicative tool that has been observed to promote “a level of reflective interaction often lacking in a face-to-face, teacher-centered classroom.” Inherent within successful AODs is the use of meaningful discourse to facilitate critical engagement with the content that is the focus of the experience. Numerous studies have shown that effective AODS produce an increased level of cognitive thinking and knowledge construction within participants. Potential for these outcomes were maximized when learning objectives were linked to real-life experiences within moderately complex tasks. Participants in the AODs were more effectively able to understand the applicability of the content within the greater context of learning. Knowledge development increased as participants shared information regarding their beliefs and experiences. Critically engaging with and reflecting on content prior to sharing was theorized to account for differences." They encourage the use of "facilitative Prompts" to fully realize the effects of online discussion.
BOREDOM BLOCKERS
Boredom is one of the most common complaints among university students, with studies suggesting its link to poor grades, drop out, and behavioral problems according to an article by Drs. Steven J. Kass, Stephen J. Vodanovich, and Jasmine Y. Khosrav. They note that "Boredom proneness was found to be significantly and negatively related to course grade and measures of satisfaction." They conclude that "students need and desire the opportunity to use the variety of skills learned in class. Putting these skills into practice allows students to see the connection between what they learned and the context within which it is applied , thus increasing satisfaction and internal motivation which they may demonstrate through greater class attendance and engagement. Students may also benefit by allowing them to make their own decisions and develop individualized approaches (i.e., autonomy) to completing coursework. Consistent with many different theories on training and learning, students must be provided with in formative feedback to help direct efforts toward accomplishing their goals." Certainly another reason to look at experiential learning and the use of problem-based situations in our courses.
I am very excited to be one of the select few that will be heading to New Jersey to participate in Ken Bain's last Best Teachers Summer Institute later this week. Judging by the pre-conference homework (Dr. Bain's version of flipping), this promises to be an exceptional learning event. I wanted to share just a small sliver of what we are working on before coming together as a group. Dr. Bain has asked us to do some critical self-reflection (one of my favorite topics) and to specifically look at how we construct our syllabi. He asks, "how can a colleague develop a sense of you as a scholar by examining the various features of your course?" I hope that you do what I did when I saw that question and that is, quickly pull up one of your syllabi and begin to deconstruct it to determine the answer to this brilliant question. If our syllabi are truly the guiding documents for our partnerships with our students, shouldn't they reflect our teaching philosophy, our passion for the subject matter, and what we think is most important for student learning? In the same way, the assessment instruments we indicate on our syllabi are also telling an interesting story. I hope to bring back much more of this type of faculty development from the conference and am sure that our programming for the 2014-15 academic year will be shaped by what happens this week.
CRITICAL THINKING IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
Drs. S. Michael Putman, Karen Ford, and Susan Tancock have written an interesting article about enhancing critical thinking abilities using discussion boards in online classes. They write, "The asynchronous online discussion (AOD) is a communicative tool that has been observed to promote “a level of reflective interaction often lacking in a face-to-face, teacher-centered classroom.” Inherent within successful AODs is the use of meaningful discourse to facilitate critical engagement with the content that is the focus of the experience. Numerous studies have shown that effective AODS produce an increased level of cognitive thinking and knowledge construction within participants. Potential for these outcomes were maximized when learning objectives were linked to real-life experiences within moderately complex tasks. Participants in the AODs were more effectively able to understand the applicability of the content within the greater context of learning. Knowledge development increased as participants shared information regarding their beliefs and experiences. Critically engaging with and reflecting on content prior to sharing was theorized to account for differences." They encourage the use of "facilitative Prompts" to fully realize the effects of online discussion.
BOREDOM BLOCKERS
Boredom is one of the most common complaints among university students, with studies suggesting its link to poor grades, drop out, and behavioral problems according to an article by Drs. Steven J. Kass, Stephen J. Vodanovich, and Jasmine Y. Khosrav. They note that "Boredom proneness was found to be significantly and negatively related to course grade and measures of satisfaction." They conclude that "students need and desire the opportunity to use the variety of skills learned in class. Putting these skills into practice allows students to see the connection between what they learned and the context within which it is applied , thus increasing satisfaction and internal motivation which they may demonstrate through greater class attendance and engagement. Students may also benefit by allowing them to make their own decisions and develop individualized approaches (i.e., autonomy) to completing coursework. Consistent with many different theories on training and learning, students must be provided with in formative feedback to help direct efforts toward accomplishing their goals." Certainly another reason to look at experiential learning and the use of problem-based situations in our courses.
Monday, October 22, 2012
LEARNING LIKE A VIKING
EDUCAUSE has an interesting article on the future of higher education. Here is an excerpt: The basic model of higher education that exists today was created in the 11th century, operates on a 19th-century calendar, yet is supposed to prepare students for life in the 21st century. Far too often, students are the passive recipients of content delivered by experts who lecture, a practice used since the 11th century but increasingly inappropriate today. School calendars, created two centuries ago, apparently remain resistant to change. And schools that are supposed to prepare a generation to confront today's challenges far too often fail at that task: only 63.2 percent of students who began college in 2003 earned a bachelor's degree by 2009.
DO IT YOURSELF CHEMISTRY
A study in Colorado has found little difference in the learning of students in online or in-person introductory science courses. The study tracked community college students who took science courses online and in traditional classes, and who then went on to four-year universities in the state. Upon transferring, the students in the two groups performed equally well. Some science faculty members have expressed skepticism about the ability of online students in science, due to the lack of group laboratory opportunities, but the programs in Colorado work with companies to provide home kits so that online students can have a lab experience.
WHAT ARE YOU TESTING
Testing your students is an essential part of the process to determine if they are indeed learning anything. Constructing a test is a learned behavior that needs practice and can usually benefit from assistance. In fact, creating good tests has become such a valuable skill that it has grown into a career for some folks. The test researchers note that true/false tests are the least effective for assessing learning and determining if you are indeed teaching your students. True/false tests are typically easy and you need a large number of items for high reliability. In addition, your students have a 50-50 chance of guessing the right answer and it is difficult to discriminate between students that know the material and students who don't. If you are looking for some assistance with test construction, contact the Teaching+Learning Center at 8534.
HIDDEN PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE
Samuel Arbesman, author of The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date, writes that "since scientific knowledge is still growing by a factor of ten every 50 years, it should not be surprising that lots of facts people learned in school and universities have been overturned and are now out of date." Arbesman, a senior scholar at the Kaufmann Foundation and an expert in scientometrics, looks at how facts are made and remade in the modern world. And since fact-making is speeding up, he worries that most of us don’t keep up to date and base our decisions on facts we dimly remember from school and university classes that turn out to be wrong.
EDUCAUSE has an interesting article on the future of higher education. Here is an excerpt: The basic model of higher education that exists today was created in the 11th century, operates on a 19th-century calendar, yet is supposed to prepare students for life in the 21st century. Far too often, students are the passive recipients of content delivered by experts who lecture, a practice used since the 11th century but increasingly inappropriate today. School calendars, created two centuries ago, apparently remain resistant to change. And schools that are supposed to prepare a generation to confront today's challenges far too often fail at that task: only 63.2 percent of students who began college in 2003 earned a bachelor's degree by 2009.
DO IT YOURSELF CHEMISTRY
A study in Colorado has found little difference in the learning of students in online or in-person introductory science courses. The study tracked community college students who took science courses online and in traditional classes, and who then went on to four-year universities in the state. Upon transferring, the students in the two groups performed equally well. Some science faculty members have expressed skepticism about the ability of online students in science, due to the lack of group laboratory opportunities, but the programs in Colorado work with companies to provide home kits so that online students can have a lab experience.
WHAT ARE YOU TESTING
Testing your students is an essential part of the process to determine if they are indeed learning anything. Constructing a test is a learned behavior that needs practice and can usually benefit from assistance. In fact, creating good tests has become such a valuable skill that it has grown into a career for some folks. The test researchers note that true/false tests are the least effective for assessing learning and determining if you are indeed teaching your students. True/false tests are typically easy and you need a large number of items for high reliability. In addition, your students have a 50-50 chance of guessing the right answer and it is difficult to discriminate between students that know the material and students who don't. If you are looking for some assistance with test construction, contact the Teaching+Learning Center at 8534.
HIDDEN PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE
Samuel Arbesman, author of The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date, writes that "since scientific knowledge is still growing by a factor of ten every 50 years, it should not be surprising that lots of facts people learned in school and universities have been overturned and are now out of date." Arbesman, a senior scholar at the Kaufmann Foundation and an expert in scientometrics, looks at how facts are made and remade in the modern world. And since fact-making is speeding up, he worries that most of us don’t keep up to date and base our decisions on facts we dimly remember from school and university classes that turn out to be wrong.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
DISRUPTION CAN BE GOOD
The U.S. Department of Education is hosting a meeting today to talk about the "disruptive ideas" that are changing the landscape of higher education. On the agenda for discussion were the topics of massive open online courses (MOOCs), competency-based education, course redesign and prior learning assessment. The latter two topics are also trending at BRCC right now. This past Friday and Saturday, I was joined by Susan Nealy, Gail Suberbielle, and Laura Younger at a course redesign workshop. We were joined by colleagues from around the world to talk about how good course redesign can not only improve student learning but typically drive down costs as well.
LIFE EXPERIENCE FOR CREDIT
Prior Learning Assessment, awarding college credit for college-level learning from work and life experience, is becoming a standard practice at many institutions. Pat Green Smith and I have been working on developing a PLA policy that will allow us to recruit and retain more adult students. PLA has been proven to be beneficial to student success. The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) recently conducted a study on PLA and adult student outcomes. The study examined data on 62,475 adult students at 48 colleges and universities across the country. CAEL found that graduation rates are two and a half times higher for students with PLA credit. PLA students also had higher persistence rates and a faster time to degree completion.
MID-SEMESTER ASSESSMENT
As we approach the middle of the term, I want to encourage you to take the temperature of your classes. Mid-semester assessments help you avoid the surprises that a once a semester student rating survey can only reveal once it is too late. You can, of course, create your own survey instruments or you can have the Teaching+Learning Center come in and help either with the creation of the tool, implementation, assessment or all of it. If you want to do it on your own, the folks at Dalhousie University have a good website that can get you started. The Field Tested Learning Assessment Guide for Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology Instructors website is another good resource and gives you a very concise explanation of what assessment should accomplish.
INTRUSIVE INSTRUCTION
Revisiting the theme of engagement, I want to encourage you to use all of the available tools to track the activities of your students. If you assign reading, then you should be testing them on that and I would encourage you to use a short online quiz via your Blackboard site. If you are asking them to watch a video, then monitor who has watched it. Taking a look at these and other analytics will alert you to problems early. Research shows that if a student waits to become engaged with the material, that is a pretty good indicator that they will struggle with the class. Being intrusive with your students indicates that you are a good teacher who cares deeply about their learning. In addition, it is important to understand what types of learners you have enrolled in your courses. The use of a Learning Style Inventory (LSI) instrument can help them understand how they learn best but it also provides them with information on what they may need to work on to become a better student. You can also use this information to better tailor your instruction to your student's needs. There are a number of free LSI surveys that provide solid feedback.
WHAT DO YOU THINK
Finally, I want to remind those who have not done so to complete the T+LC Needs Assessment survey now.
The U.S. Department of Education is hosting a meeting today to talk about the "disruptive ideas" that are changing the landscape of higher education. On the agenda for discussion were the topics of massive open online courses (MOOCs), competency-based education, course redesign and prior learning assessment. The latter two topics are also trending at BRCC right now. This past Friday and Saturday, I was joined by Susan Nealy, Gail Suberbielle, and Laura Younger at a course redesign workshop. We were joined by colleagues from around the world to talk about how good course redesign can not only improve student learning but typically drive down costs as well.
LIFE EXPERIENCE FOR CREDIT
Prior Learning Assessment, awarding college credit for college-level learning from work and life experience, is becoming a standard practice at many institutions. Pat Green Smith and I have been working on developing a PLA policy that will allow us to recruit and retain more adult students. PLA has been proven to be beneficial to student success. The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) recently conducted a study on PLA and adult student outcomes. The study examined data on 62,475 adult students at 48 colleges and universities across the country. CAEL found that graduation rates are two and a half times higher for students with PLA credit. PLA students also had higher persistence rates and a faster time to degree completion.
MID-SEMESTER ASSESSMENT
As we approach the middle of the term, I want to encourage you to take the temperature of your classes. Mid-semester assessments help you avoid the surprises that a once a semester student rating survey can only reveal once it is too late. You can, of course, create your own survey instruments or you can have the Teaching+Learning Center come in and help either with the creation of the tool, implementation, assessment or all of it. If you want to do it on your own, the folks at Dalhousie University have a good website that can get you started. The Field Tested Learning Assessment Guide for Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology Instructors website is another good resource and gives you a very concise explanation of what assessment should accomplish.
INTRUSIVE INSTRUCTION
Revisiting the theme of engagement, I want to encourage you to use all of the available tools to track the activities of your students. If you assign reading, then you should be testing them on that and I would encourage you to use a short online quiz via your Blackboard site. If you are asking them to watch a video, then monitor who has watched it. Taking a look at these and other analytics will alert you to problems early. Research shows that if a student waits to become engaged with the material, that is a pretty good indicator that they will struggle with the class. Being intrusive with your students indicates that you are a good teacher who cares deeply about their learning. In addition, it is important to understand what types of learners you have enrolled in your courses. The use of a Learning Style Inventory (LSI) instrument can help them understand how they learn best but it also provides them with information on what they may need to work on to become a better student. You can also use this information to better tailor your instruction to your student's needs. There are a number of free LSI surveys that provide solid feedback.
WHAT DO YOU THINK
Finally, I want to remind those who have not done so to complete the T+LC Needs Assessment survey now.
Friday, September 7, 2012
NO SUCKERS ALLOWED
As you transform your course using a student-centered approach, you should consider using group work learning experiences. W. Martin Davies has a good research article that outlines the benefits of group work while acknowledging the problems that may arise like free-riding and the sucker effect. The article provides solutions as well as providing a good background for this type of active learning method. Davies notes, "Groupwork is one of the most expedient ways—along with work placements—of ensuring that students develop transferable skills for life-long learning (teamwork, leadership, project management skills, communication skills). This has largely been in response to industry demands for more flexible workers."
DID YOU DO THE READING
Are you assigning reading material but finding that your students never even crack the book open? Using some type of formative assessment will usually solve that problem. One of the more popular methods is to give a reading quiz on the material you assigned. Here is an option suggested by Paulson and Faust at Cal State-L.A. Active learning depends upon students coming to class prepared. The reading quiz can also be used as an effective measure of student comprehension of the readings (so that you may gauge their level of sophistication as readers). Further, by asking the same sorts of questions on several reading quizzes, you will give students guidance as to what to look for when reading assigned text. If you ask questions like "What color were Esmerelda's eyes?" you are telling the student that it is the details that count, whereas questions like "What reason did Esmerelda give, for murdering Sebastian?" highlight issues of justification. If your goal is to instruct (and not merely to coerce), carefully choose questions which will both identify who has read the material (for your sake) and identify what is important in the reading (for their sake).
MODELS OF EXCELENCE
The Aspen Institute holds an annual competition to recognize the best community colleges. In fact, they award $1,000,000 in prizes in addition to the publicity and honor of being chosen. The Institute changed its criteria for evaluating community college performance, and this year's list includes 40 different institutions, meaning one-third of last year's eligible colleges were bumped. The process is based on graduation rates, degrees awarded, student retention rates and equity in student outcomes. Out of the 120 institutions that submitted nomination packets, they have narrowed the competition to ten and that list includes: Brazosport College (TX), Broward College (FL), College of the Ouachitas (AR), Kingborough Community College-CUNY (NY), Lake Area Technical Institute (SD), Santa Barbara City College (CA), Santa Fe College (FL), Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY), Walla Walla Community College (WA), and West Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY). This is definitely a list that BRCC would like to be on next year.
As you transform your course using a student-centered approach, you should consider using group work learning experiences. W. Martin Davies has a good research article that outlines the benefits of group work while acknowledging the problems that may arise like free-riding and the sucker effect. The article provides solutions as well as providing a good background for this type of active learning method. Davies notes, "Groupwork is one of the most expedient ways—along with work placements—of ensuring that students develop transferable skills for life-long learning (teamwork, leadership, project management skills, communication skills). This has largely been in response to industry demands for more flexible workers."
DID YOU DO THE READING
Are you assigning reading material but finding that your students never even crack the book open? Using some type of formative assessment will usually solve that problem. One of the more popular methods is to give a reading quiz on the material you assigned. Here is an option suggested by Paulson and Faust at Cal State-L.A. Active learning depends upon students coming to class prepared. The reading quiz can also be used as an effective measure of student comprehension of the readings (so that you may gauge their level of sophistication as readers). Further, by asking the same sorts of questions on several reading quizzes, you will give students guidance as to what to look for when reading assigned text. If you ask questions like "What color were Esmerelda's eyes?" you are telling the student that it is the details that count, whereas questions like "What reason did Esmerelda give, for murdering Sebastian?" highlight issues of justification. If your goal is to instruct (and not merely to coerce), carefully choose questions which will both identify who has read the material (for your sake) and identify what is important in the reading (for their sake).
MODELS OF EXCELENCE
The Aspen Institute holds an annual competition to recognize the best community colleges. In fact, they award $1,000,000 in prizes in addition to the publicity and honor of being chosen. The Institute changed its criteria for evaluating community college performance, and this year's list includes 40 different institutions, meaning one-third of last year's eligible colleges were bumped. The process is based on graduation rates, degrees awarded, student retention rates and equity in student outcomes. Out of the 120 institutions that submitted nomination packets, they have narrowed the competition to ten and that list includes: Brazosport College (TX), Broward College (FL), College of the Ouachitas (AR), Kingborough Community College-CUNY (NY), Lake Area Technical Institute (SD), Santa Barbara City College (CA), Santa Fe College (FL), Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY), Walla Walla Community College (WA), and West Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY). This is definitely a list that BRCC would like to be on next year.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
HURRICANE ISAAC
The post-Isaac BRCC campus looks amazingly well. We hope that our students, faculty and staff made it through the hurricane unharmed as we make the move back to "normalcy."
GROW YOUR DEPARTMENT
Are you looking to increase the number of majors in your discipline. A panel, Active Learning: Engaging Activities to Create Eager Students, at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association pointed to ways to draw students to your classes. The session featured accounts from faculty members -- at community colleges and four-year institutions who teach both introductory and upper-level courses -- who have moved beyond standard textbook-and-lecture teaching methods to make anthropology more tangible, and make it come alive. What they learned suggests that the best way to save anthropology on college campuses may well be to allow students to actually experience anthropology by using active learning experiences.
BLENDED LEARNING
You may have heard of the term blended learning and wondered what it meant. Blended learning in its simplest form is about having students use online tools to communicate, collaborate, and publish to develop the 21st-century skills they need to succeed. With blended learning, teachers can use online tools and resources as part of their classroom instruction. Using many of the online tools and resources students already are using for social networking, blended teaching helps teachers find an approach that is more engaging for this generation of students. The benefits of blended learning include giving students a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge while appealing to diverse learning styles and fostering independent learning and self-directed learning skills in students, a critical capacity for lifelong learners. Liz Pape has more information in her article Blended Teaching and Learning.
WHAT DO YOUR STUDENTS HEAR
Susan M. Brookhart has written a good article on the benefits of formative assessment. She says, "Feedback is effective only if it helps students improve their work. Thus, the most important characteristic of feedback is that students understand it and use it. Whether or not feedback is effective depends on what students need to hear, not what you need to say." She goes on to explain how assessment can help a student improve and gives a number of suggestions for effective feedback.
The post-Isaac BRCC campus looks amazingly well. We hope that our students, faculty and staff made it through the hurricane unharmed as we make the move back to "normalcy."
GROW YOUR DEPARTMENT
Are you looking to increase the number of majors in your discipline. A panel, Active Learning: Engaging Activities to Create Eager Students, at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association pointed to ways to draw students to your classes. The session featured accounts from faculty members -- at community colleges and four-year institutions who teach both introductory and upper-level courses -- who have moved beyond standard textbook-and-lecture teaching methods to make anthropology more tangible, and make it come alive. What they learned suggests that the best way to save anthropology on college campuses may well be to allow students to actually experience anthropology by using active learning experiences.
BLENDED LEARNING
You may have heard of the term blended learning and wondered what it meant. Blended learning in its simplest form is about having students use online tools to communicate, collaborate, and publish to develop the 21st-century skills they need to succeed. With blended learning, teachers can use online tools and resources as part of their classroom instruction. Using many of the online tools and resources students already are using for social networking, blended teaching helps teachers find an approach that is more engaging for this generation of students. The benefits of blended learning include giving students a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge while appealing to diverse learning styles and fostering independent learning and self-directed learning skills in students, a critical capacity for lifelong learners. Liz Pape has more information in her article Blended Teaching and Learning.
WHAT DO YOUR STUDENTS HEAR
Susan M. Brookhart has written a good article on the benefits of formative assessment. She says, "Feedback is effective only if it helps students improve their work. Thus, the most important characteristic of feedback is that students understand it and use it. Whether or not feedback is effective depends on what students need to hear, not what you need to say." She goes on to explain how assessment can help a student improve and gives a number of suggestions for effective feedback.
Friday, August 10, 2012
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT KICKOFF
Enjoyed seeing many of you at Vice Chancellor Cross's gathering on Thursday. The feedback I received at the meeting and via email over the last two days has been very positive and validating. Please know that the Teaching+Learning Center is a resource for you so let us know how we can help.
INCREASING STUDENT PARTICIPATION
Dr. Kelly Rocca discovered why students do and do not participate in class by reviewing articles on the topic from 1958 until 2009. Based on the literature review, Rocca names five factors that influence whether or not a student chooses to participate in class including: logistics (mainly class size-smaller is better); confidence and classroom apprehension (intimidation from classroom extraverts); personality traits (low self-esteem and non-assertiveness); instructor and classroom climate (not paying attention to students, making fun of their answers, being overly critical, sarcasm, moodiness and aloofness); and, gender differences (this is subsiding as the population of colleges shifts to majority female, a statistic that matches the faculty more). Some of these factors may be out of your control but it is clear that your attitude and approach is very influential in setting the right classroom environment that promotes learning.
TAKING YOUR CLASS TEMPERATURE
A terrific article in College Teaching gives us some valuable insight into how formative assessment can reveal the level of student learning in our courses. The group of researchers list a number of great interventions that can be used to gauge the temperature of your class. For instance, assignment blogs are designed to encourage communication, collaboration, and dissemination of feedback but are great way to gather questions from your students and provide feedback about certain aspects of an assignment. Blogs are open-access, so if a student asks a good question, all of the other students will benefit from that exchange. Teachers can also use the assignment blog to identify general areas of concern based on previous student work or to offer feedback to the class as a whole thereby allowing students the opportunity to self-assess. It also creates a great engagement opportunity between faculty and students and peer to peer. This activity will also help to improve your student's ability to think critically.
PREPPING FOR CLASS
August 20 is rapidly approaching but there is still time to review your syllabus. Make sure you are listing all of the course requirements and be very specific about due dates and your policy on accepting late work.
ART MATTERS
Finally, we want to post one of the new pieces that have recently gone on display in the Magnolia Building. The work shown is called Something Borrowed, Something Blue by BRCC faculty member Steve Schmitt.
Enjoyed seeing many of you at Vice Chancellor Cross's gathering on Thursday. The feedback I received at the meeting and via email over the last two days has been very positive and validating. Please know that the Teaching+Learning Center is a resource for you so let us know how we can help.
INCREASING STUDENT PARTICIPATION
Dr. Kelly Rocca discovered why students do and do not participate in class by reviewing articles on the topic from 1958 until 2009. Based on the literature review, Rocca names five factors that influence whether or not a student chooses to participate in class including: logistics (mainly class size-smaller is better); confidence and classroom apprehension (intimidation from classroom extraverts); personality traits (low self-esteem and non-assertiveness); instructor and classroom climate (not paying attention to students, making fun of their answers, being overly critical, sarcasm, moodiness and aloofness); and, gender differences (this is subsiding as the population of colleges shifts to majority female, a statistic that matches the faculty more). Some of these factors may be out of your control but it is clear that your attitude and approach is very influential in setting the right classroom environment that promotes learning.
TAKING YOUR CLASS TEMPERATURE
A terrific article in College Teaching gives us some valuable insight into how formative assessment can reveal the level of student learning in our courses. The group of researchers list a number of great interventions that can be used to gauge the temperature of your class. For instance, assignment blogs are designed to encourage communication, collaboration, and dissemination of feedback but are great way to gather questions from your students and provide feedback about certain aspects of an assignment. Blogs are open-access, so if a student asks a good question, all of the other students will benefit from that exchange. Teachers can also use the assignment blog to identify general areas of concern based on previous student work or to offer feedback to the class as a whole thereby allowing students the opportunity to self-assess. It also creates a great engagement opportunity between faculty and students and peer to peer. This activity will also help to improve your student's ability to think critically.
PREPPING FOR CLASS
August 20 is rapidly approaching but there is still time to review your syllabus. Make sure you are listing all of the course requirements and be very specific about due dates and your policy on accepting late work.
ART MATTERS
Finally, we want to post one of the new pieces that have recently gone on display in the Magnolia Building. The work shown is called Something Borrowed, Something Blue by BRCC faculty member Steve Schmitt.
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