This week’s Small Teaching Tip is less of a tip and more of an observation and some encouragement. . .
As an instructional technologist, I support faculty’s endeavors to expand their teaching repertoires. Over the past couple of years, I’ve discovered that many faculty are hesitant to try new technologies or teaching strategies.
For some, it’s simply a lack of confidence. During graduate school, most of us were not taught how to teach and so we reproduce the methods we experienced as students. In the United States, we require rigorous training for our K-12 teachers but, strangely, we assume professors will magically know how to teach without such training. For example, when I was a 22-year-old Masters student, I was handed a textbook and class roster and told to “go teach.” Is it any wonder many of us sometimes struggle?
For other faculty, there may also be a fear of losing control or credibility. Exploring new pedagogical approaches or instructional technologies requires patience, flexibility, and persistence. For example, when I first flipped my classroom, it was a disaster. My students were frustrated and I was exhausted. But I learned a lot and didn’t give up. After much trial and error, I’m now happy with my flipped classes and my course evaluations reflect students are, too. But getting to that point required I let go of control and risk damaging my credibility. Not all faculty are willing to do this because we don’t want to be perceived as a novice. After all, we’re expected to be experts. It’s difficult to say “I don’t know” or “this didn’t work out as I planned.”
So if you are hesitant to experiment because you fear failure, chaos, poor teaching evaluations, or just looking like a fool, grant yourself permission to be a beginner. Teaching is a continuous process of learning, growing, and challenging oneself. It’s okay to not know how to do something. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable or awkward. It’s okay to make mistakes. When we try something new, we all start at the beginning.
It’s also important to remember that you don’t have to change every aspect of your teaching in order to improve student learning and engagement. We hope the Small Teaching Tip blog series has made it clear that we can all take small, strategic steps to improve our teaching.
One step you can take is to attend the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Conference on March 7-9, 2017. This conference will feature dozens of faculty-led sessions during which your colleagues will share teaching strategies, best practices, and lessons learned. Be on the look-out for more information about TLT Con in the new year!
In a previous post, I discussed the important role memory retrieval plays in learning. To briefly review: each time we recall a piece of information, we strengthen the neural pathways that move the information from our long-term memories to our working memories. So the more times we retrieve the information, the more deeply we learn it. This is known as the “testing effect.”
There are numerous ways to encourage students to practice memory retrieval, but one of the best strategies is frequent quizzing.
Tips for Frequent Quizzing
While quizzing is an effective method to practice memory retrieval, not all quizzes are created equal. There are a few empirically-tested stipulations that must be considered:
First, make the quizzes count towards the course grade. While we would love our students to complete quizzes simply for the joy of learning, most require extra incentive. That being said, the quizzes should be relatively low-stakes. The purpose of these quizzes is to practice retrieval, not to have an anxiety attack each week.
Second, avoid the pop quiz. Pop quizzes are only effective at intimidating students into coming to class. For most students, they do not encourage actual learning. But quizzes that students know about in advance do. Rest assured, these assessments do not need to be lengthy or require labor-intensive grading (there are countless instructional technologies that can help facilitate this process).
Third, design quizzes to be at least partially cumulative. This requires students to reach back to concepts covered earlier in the term, developing deeper understanding and more complex mental models. Remember: greater retrieval efforts equal greater learning (note the emphasis on the word effort).
Fourth, include question types that will be similar to what students can expect on exams. This allows students to familiarize themselves with those formats so the exam is a test of knowledge instead of exam-taking ability.
Finally, occasionally assign quizzes that students complete before they learn new material. This may seem strange, but a pre-quiz encourages students to consult their previous knowledge to help them grapple with new ideas.
If you don’t have enough class time to devote to frequent quizzes, consider using online quizzes through OAKS. Most textbook publishers provide gigantic test banks that provide more than enough questions to create multiple quizzes throughout the semester. These banks are designed to be quickly imported into OAKS and quizzes can be automatically-graded, making quiz creation and administration simple. But to ensure students are practicing retrieval, restrict the time limit so they don’t have the leeway to look up every answer in their notes or book (20-50 seconds per multiple choice question is advisable).
Providing frequent opportunities for retrieval will not only help your students remember important information, it will also open the door to higher levels of cognition. I’ve shared one simple but powerful way to help your students learn that does not require an overwhelming amount of grading or extra preparation. Want more ideas? Check out the rest of our Small Teaching Tips series!
References
Roediger, H. L., Agarwal, P. K., McDaniel, M. A., & McDermott, K. (2011). Test-enhanced learning in the classroom: Long-term improvements from quizzing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 17, 382-395.
Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). The power of testing memory: Basic research and implications for educational practice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 181-210.
Leeming, F. C. (2002). The exam-a-day procedure improves performance in psychology classes. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 210-212.
Lyle, K. B., & Crawford, N. A. (2011). Retrieving essential material at the end of lectures improves performance on statistics exams. Teaching of Psychology, 38, 94-97.
Richland, L. E., Kornell, N., & Kao, L. S. (2009). The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15, 243-257.
Collaboration and project management are important skills for college students to learn. Unfortunately, many students grumble about group work and faculty spend too much time managing logistics. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were tools that could make in-class group work more efficient and productive?
I have a possible solution for you! Google Apps!
All CofC students and faculty have free access to Google Apps for Education using their College email address and password.
Here are two ways you can use Google Docs and Slides to make group work more efficient:
Share Templates
In-class group work is most effective if students are given clear instructions, including the goals of the activity and expectations for a deliverable. Without purpose or guidelines, students will be less productive and more easily distracted.
One way to provide structure is to create an outline, template, or worksheet to guide students’ work. If you create this handout in Google Docs, you can easily share it with students who can then type on the document as they work with their teams.
But, Jessica, wouldn’t that mean all students would be typing on the same document?
Yes, unless you make this tiny but powerful change to the document URL: delete the word “edit” from the end of the URL and replace it with the word “copy.”
When students click on the URL you’ve shared with them, they will be asked to make a clean copy. Now, each student or each group can work on their own document.
Ask your students to share their document with you so you can see what they’ve accomplished during class. And if groups run out of time and need to finish outside of class, every group member can contribute from their own dorm room or apartment (because Google Drive is cloud-based).
Share a Slide Master
After students complete an in-class activity or assignment, do you ask groups to present their work to the rest of the class? This form of debriefing or “reporting out” encourages students to work harder because they’ll have to stand in front of the room to present to their peers. It also gives students much-needed opportunities to practice their public speaking skills, which are typically quite weak.
But if you ask students to create slides in Powerpoint, every student would have to email their file or save it to a thumb drive and then open it on the teacher station computer. This requires too much precious class time.
Instead of using Powerpoint, create an empty slide show in Google Slides. If you want students to design their own slides, simply create a presentation with blank slides (one slide per student or one slide per group, for example). If you want students to include certain pieces of information on their slides, create a template. You can then duplicate that template slide for as many students or groups that you have.
Next, give your students editing rights and share the URL with them (watch the animated GIF below). Every student can now access that slide deck during class and work on their individual slides. When it’s time to present to the class, you only have to open the one Google Slides presentation and the entire class’ work is right there!
The crux of a class period, and perhaps the most challenging to plan, are the beginning and ending. Unfortunately, these are the two parts of a lesson that faculty typically devote the least amount of attention. Often, the first few minutes of class are spent taking attendance, setting up technology, or rattling off reminders. This type of housekeeping is necessary, but it shouldn’t be the only way you begin class. As Kate Sussman, Professor of Biology at Vassar College, points out, we all need time to “warm up”:
“Maybe they just woke up. Maybe they rushed over from their previous class. Maybe they just finished a big paper or assignment. Whatever the cause, it’s most likely that your students are distracted and not really mentally ready to be in your classroom when they first get there. We need to add a little transition time to the beginning of class to help our students get mentally ready to focus.”
To prepare students for learning, the beginning of a lesson should prioritize engaging students’ attention, setting goals for the class period, and activating students’ prior knowledge. Here are a few simple methods to accomplish these aims:
Incorporate teasers
Teasers are provocative statements, sometimes called “hooks,” that serve to grab students’ attention and draw them into the upcoming lesson. To be most effective, the teaser must clearly relate to the subject matter and it must deliver. If you use a teaser that makes students wonder what the heck you’re talking about, it will simply confuse rather than pique curiosity. And if your lessons don’t live up to the hype you’ve built, the anticlimax will eventually cause students to tune out.
A classic way to begin class is to ask a question that creates a compelling need for students to know the answer, appealing to what Carnegie Melon University professor George Loewenstein calls the “curiosity gap.” You could also begin with an unusual photo, humorous video clip, perplexing statement, or a shocking statistic. I once had a professor who began each class with a promise, such as “by the end of class today, I promise you will be equipped with three strategies for handling passive-aggressive people.” He told me that making such promises gives students confidence that they will leave each class with something useful and it also holds him accountable for reaching those objectives.
Close the circle
You are probably much more organized than I am, but I sometimes feel like my lectures lack enough structure and, therefore, veer off course. One strategy to address this comes from James Lang, author of Small Teaching. He suggests providing students with a few questions to guide their homework and asks them to bring their responses to class. Ideally, the questions you ask cannot be answered by simply looking up a definition in the textbook and also require students to connect the current topic with those you’ve discussed previously.
At the beginning of the next class, display those questions so students can refer to them as they enter the classroom and get settled. As you take attendance and complete other housekeeping tasks, ask students to turn to a neighbor and share their responses. Then, towards the end of the period, return to the questions and ask if students’ responses have changed since listening to your lecture. This could spark discussion or serve as an exit ticket. Using these questions at the beginning and end of class metaphorically “closes the circle” and reminds students that each session has a clear purpose and structure.
Activate prior knowledge
According to James Lang, research suggests that whatever knowledge students bring into a course has a major influence on what they take away from it. Thus, student learning can be improved by consistently revisiting, not just what they learned in the previous class, but what they already know about the subject matter. So at the beginning of class, you could say something like: “Today we are going to focus on _____. What do you know about _____ already? What have you heard about it in the media, or learned in a previous class?”
Another memory recall strategy is to simply ask students to remind you of the key points from the previous class period. But rather than calling on a single student, consider asking all students to participate such as prompting them to complete a “minute paper,” draw a process, create a diagram, or illustrate a main point. Any effort students make to recall course content — without the help of notes or textbooks — benefits their learning.
No matter the strategy you choose, I challenge you to put more thought into how each of your class periods begin. Those few minutes offer us a fertile opportunity to build anticipation and prepare students for learning. How do you start class? Please share!
This post is part of a series which will present low risk, high reward teaching ideas. Inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, this series will inspire you to implement small but powerful changes to your teaching.
Many of us arrive to our classrooms without time to spare. We then concentrate on taking attendance, turning on the computer and projector, or reviewing our lecture notes. Meanwhile, our students sit silently, gazing at their phones. We may not consider the minutes before class begins as consequential, but they offer a fertile opportunity to get to know your students better and build a more positive classroom environment. So make it a goal to arrive to your classroom early and use those extra few minutes to chat with your students and set the stage for the rest of the class period. Here are a few ideas:
Display a class agenda or outline. This is a simple way to help students see how the class period will be organized and understand how the information they learn today relates to what they learned last week. As an expert in your field, you have a clear understanding of the framework of your discipline and how concepts are interconnected. But novice learners tend to see facts, concepts, and skills as discrete pieces of knowledge, without much awareness of the connections that join them. Thus, a simple outline can help students to better organize information in their memories.
Display a thought-provoking image. Encourage your students to start thinking about the class content, rather than staring at their phones, by displaying something that will pique their curiosity such as a political cartoon, quote, or video clip. For example, Peter Newbury posts NASA’s “pic of the day” for his students to look at as they file into the classroom. On each image, he types two questions: “What do you notice? What do you wonder?” This simple visual prompt serves multiple purposes: it grabs his students’ attention, serves as a conversation-starter, and provides an opportunity to discuss how the images connect to previous course material.
Play some music. Playing music is a great way to “warm up” the room and create a less stuffy environment. Music can be used strategically to establish a particular atmosphere, such as energizing your lethargic students or calming them before an exam. Steve Volk creates playlists themed for each class and encourages students to bring their own music. He then shares the playlists with his students at the end of the semester. This strategy is not relevant only to those who teach in the arts. Think creatively about how music might relate to your course content, such as playing protest songs, Renaissance madrigals, or Native Andean flute music.
If these ideas aren’t appealing, I challenge you to identify a strategy that works with your teaching style and course content. Both instructors and students need a little transition time at the beginning of class to get mentally prepared to learn and engage. So don’t waste those precious few minutes!
This post is part of a series which will present low risk, high reward teaching ideas. Inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, this series will inspire you to implement small but powerful changes to your teaching.
Have you ever uttered these words (perhaps after attending a TLT training)?
“I’d love to try that new tech tool or teaching strategy, but I just don’t have the time to research it or make the necessary changes in my classes.”
We hear you. Making dramatic changes to your classes requires a lot of time and energy that you don’t typically have. But that doesn’t mean your classes have to remain the same semester after semester. Powerful pedagogical improvements can be made by implementing small, incremental changes.
To get you started, TLT is introducing a new series called “Small Teaching Tips” which will present low risk, high reward teaching ideas. Inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, this series will inspire you to experiment with pedagogical strategies without becoming overwhelmed.
So keep an eye on our blog (as well as Twitter, Pinterest, and Yammer) for new tips!
Small Teaching Tip #1
One way instructors can build a positive learning environment and encourage students to take more responsibility for their learning is to give them greater control, such as seeking more input from them or allowing them to choose among options based upon their own goals and interests.
Giving students more control does not mean we are giving away all control or that we are allowing them to cherry-pick only the content that interests them. Instead, it simply means giving students greater voice. Instructors can do this in small ways. Here are a few options:
Allow students to contribute to the syllabus:
Hand out a draft syllabus on the first day of class, then present the areas you want students to contribute to (You can obviously set limits and define certain rules that are non-negotiable for you). For example, leave open 10 percent of the grade for an undetermined assignment and have students decide together what that assignment will be (such as a multimedia project instead of a research paper). Or, leave a few class periods open on the course schedule and allow the students to vote on which topics will be discussed on those days.
Create a class constitution with your students:
In groups, ask students to brainstorm a set of rules to govern the class. Ask them to think of behaviors, attitudes, and policies that have helped or hindered their learning in other classes. Use this information to create a set of “do’s and don’ts.” I’m often surprised by the high expectations students set for themselves and one another when we complete this activity. They often discuss being distracted by the classmates who show up late or online shop on their laptops, so they set rules about these behaviors.
It’s important that the class constitution also includes expectations of the professor. The rules don’t just apply to the students. I often divide the whiteboard into two columns and write “expectations of the instructor” on one side and “expectations of peers” on the other. This demonstrates that I view our class as a community and that I am not “above” the rules.
Allow students to generate exam questions:
Take 30 minutes of class time and ask students to work in groups to generate exam questions. Then tell them 10% of the exam questions will come from the list they generated. This will not only give them some sense of control over the test, but also will serve as an excellent review activity.
What are ways you encourage student voice in your classes? Please share!
Today’s Faculty Guest Post is from Glen Riecken, Visiting Professor of Marketing. Glen attended TLT’s 2015 Faculty Technology Institute. In this post, he reflects on the process of incorporating VoiceThread into his MKTG 302 (Marketing Concepts) courses.
I am writing this blog post based on my experience incorporating VoiceThread into my MKTG 302 classes over the past two semesters. My use of VoiceThread resulted from a confluence of three events: attendance at TLT’s 2015 Faculty Technology Institute where I was first exposed to VoiceThread, preparation to initially teach a hybrid express course at the North campus in Fall 2015, and a nagging desire to create a flipped classroom experience in my live classes. The hybrid course required more online so I needed a way to deliver content in that medium. Having read more and more about the idea of a flipped classroom, I began to see its advantages, especially in generating greater student class engagement in all my classes. When I was exposed to VoiceThread at the TLT FTI, it struck me as an ideal tool to assist in accomplishing my goals.
Here I will briefly discuss VoiceThread, how I use it and some pros and cons from my perspective.
VoiceThread (VT)
VT is a content delivery and blogging tool, allowing people to communicate through both visual and audio modes in a dynamic and asynchronous fashion. This makes it ideal for creating an interactive environment naturally capturing today’s student immersion in instantaneous interpersonal communication tools. After posting an initial message, others are invited to comment on it. They may answer questions, ask questions or post comments in text, voice, images or video formats.
Access VT through the OAKS homepage.
College of Charleston faculty and students receive free accounts with full accessibility to VT’s many features. It is easy to learn and use. Tutorials are available through TLT, VT and YouTube.
VT is cloud based so works in almost every environment as long as one has access and a device (including mobile) that has Adobe flash. Course homepages have a VT link established and a single click will navigate to VT content for that course. It is fully integrated into OAKS. In the content module in OAKS, I have an outline for each section of the course and, as part of the outline, also provide a direct link to each chapter’s VT. I know it’s redundant, but students will be students.
Creating VT Lectures
I use PowerPoint® (PPT) in my class lectures and had already built a set of slides for each chapter in the text. The first task was to import a slide show into VT. I learned immediately that VT and PPT do not like each other. The secret I learned (thanks to Jessica Smith) was to first save the PPT in pdf format. Once that was done, I assumed the imported file was ready to go. However, another impediment for me was that animations are lost. I use animations to bring in various slide elements sequentially as I discuss them in class; students are more likely to pay attention rather than trying to read an entire slide when I am still talking about the first bullet point. There is, as far as I know, no way around that with VT and this, to me, is a drawback to VT. Similarly, my occasional odd sound effects in some of my slides do not transfer.
VT is more accommodating with Word® but I have noticed that sometimes the formatting is changed a bit. The editing features of VT do not seem to allow an easy fix. After some trial and error, I found that making changes in the Word document itself and then uploading again will often, but not always, produce the format I wanted but this seems like an excessive waste of time. Now, for the few Word documents I use, I don’t worry with the format differences.
An example VT slide with text comment.
Initially I began recording using the built in camera and microphone on my desktop but soon found the quality of sound was not great and I didn’t like having me show in a little box on the screen, visible to all. An option in VT is to not have the visual box of you show so that part was easily solved. A venture to an electronics store and $30 produced a nifty headset with dropdown mic (mine is a Logitech®) that works great. Incidentally, I chose a corded set since several reviews I read beforehand suggested that cordless sets don’t have the same sound quality. Now I was set to go! By the way, in my last set of instructor evaluations, one student commented that I have a “radio voice” (which I guess is a good thing and goes along with my face which is also ideally suited for radio).
A recording session involves opening slides one at a time and talking about the key points you wish to make. If desired, audio and visual clips may be added (say a YouTube video) as can annotations. For example, in a self-introduction VT, I superimposed a set of dotted lines on a map to illustrate my moves from living in the frozen Canadian prairie to the warm climate of Charleston.
After recording each slide the sound may be reviewed. A drawback, though, is that if a particular piece of sound needs revamping, the whole slide must be re-recorded. Otherwise, the slide may be edited in various ways. Additional slides may be inserted at any time. For example, a good practice is to have a break about every 15 minutes or so. So, after recording a slide show, I can see how long the entire thing is (I shoot for for about 30 minutes) as well as each slide. After adding the length of slides until about 15 minutes and determining a natural break point as close to that as possible, I then insert a “Break in the Action” slide. In these slides I suggest the students relax for a moment to have a bathroom break or have a beverage or take the pooch for a stroll or (not being a cat person) to put the cat outside and lock the door.
VT has a number of options that allow for customization. One pertains to slide advancement. By default, slides are set to advance automatically every 4 seconds but that is easily changed to any desired length or the automatic advance may be turned off which is what I do. Student feedback indicates this is a desired feature, allowing students to go through the slides at their own pace and replay a slide if they wish. They also may stop the presentation at any point and pick it back up later.
Although I have a standard title page in my PPT lectures, another VT option is to add cover art so that each chapter could begin with a picture, for instance, that would match the content. The cover may also be other types of files. So far I have resisted temptation to put links to cat videos as covers for the “Break in the Action” slides. Since I teach marketing I could make a chapter about pricing have a cover slide with various monetary symbols.
Another feature worth noting is that the audience for the VT creation can be made public (open to anyone with a VT account) or restricted to a particular audience. I ensure that my lectures are shared with my classes but are not generally publically available. I don’t need any more hate mail from cat lovers.
Using VT
Students are asked to listen to the VT lectures prior to class discussion. Requiring this makes the acquisition of much of the content up to them, providing more class time for discussions and exercises and moving me towards more of a flipped classroom. Students are not passive listeners to the lectures (other than when they undoubtedly nod off). One feature of VT allows them to “doodle” by making temporary marks on the slides; they might, for instance, circle something to highlight it. These doodles last only a short time so the slides are not inundated with multiple doodles.
Example comment on a VT that others can respond to.
During the lectures I often ask questions, encouraging students to respond. This interactive feature is probably one of the biggest advantages of using VT. Students may respond directly in a number of ways. The responses I have received so far have been text but VT has several other options including microphone, webcam, phone, and audio-file upload. I seem to get a lot more written comments than I do verbal ones in a live class setting. Comments may also be directed at other students’ comments so that an interactive environment is created. Although I have not used this feature, it is possible to require that comments be moderated first so that any inappropriate ones may be filtered out. So far there has been no issue so I continue to labor under the assumption that college students are sufficiently mature to know not to make offensive comments in such a forum.
A second big advantage of VT is that the interactive element allows students to collaborate on projects. In my MKTG 302 classes I do some group activity but so far have not required students to use VT in this regard although I plan to start in the Fall 2016 semester. I have been using the OAKS “Group” feature but now think that VT will be an easier forum for both students and me. For example, one assignment I use now and then is to have groups of 5 -6 students discuss a topic such as whether the attitudes of men and women towards shopping is changing. In VT it will be easier to quickly see comments and participation rather than the more convoluted method in OAKS.
One last feature that I would like to use in VT is integration with the grade part of OAKS. VT is capable of making the integration but I do not know if CofC allows grades to be imported from VT. I use a publisher website for a number of assignments in the class and until very recently CofC would not permit the grade integration feature to work. If it is permissible, I will start using the grade integration feature this fall. [Note from TLT: this is a new feature in VoiceThread that we are currently exploring. If we are able to offer this feature, we will inform the campus community]
Student Feedback
Student feedback from using VT has been very positive. Students like the flexibility of choosing when to listen to the lectures. They also like their availability for study purposes. Some report liking the ability to listen at their own pace and being able to go back and listen to chosen slides again if needed. A few students indicate they like the comment feature where then can post comments rather than verbalizing them in class. And some, inexplicably, enjoy my cat comments.
Too often, at professional development workshops or on education blogs, there’s an emphasis on designing courses that encourage students to reach the summit of Bloom’s pyramid. There’s absolutely nothing inadvisable about helping students analyze, evaluate, and explore. But in our race to the top, we often overlook the importance of remembering, understanding, and even applying (especially in our upper-level courses). According to cognitive psychologists, this is a mistake that can have damaging effects on student learning. Without foundational knowledge, it is difficult, if not impossible, for students to demonstrate higher order levels of thinking. According to cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham:
“Thinking well requires knowing facts, and that’s true not simply because you need something to think about. The very processes that teachers care most about–critical thinking processes such as reasoning and problem-solving–are intimately intertwined with factual knowledge that is stored in long-term memory (not just found in the environment).” (quoted in Lang, 2016, p. 16)
Without a solid understanding of basic concepts, theories, and processes, a student cannot think creatively or critically about a discipline’s body of knowledge. This academic groundwork allows students to integrate new knowledge in deeper ways and make more sophisticated connections.
Unfortunately, students often make poor choices when they attempt to learn new information. Have you ever asked your students (maybe after the class did terribly on an exam) how they studied? Often, students will say things like “I re-read my notes” or “I made flash cards and read them over and over again.” Research has demonstrated that these are some of the least effective strategies for committing information to long-term memory. Thus, if we care about our students’ learning, then we must design our courses in ways that actually help students learn, not simply cram and forget.
Exams are considered by many to be the gold standard of measuring student learning. However, most instructors are not familiar with the cognitive science literature and, therefore, do not design exams that actually result in student learning. Better understanding the retrieval effect (sometimes called the testing effect) will help us to create more effective assessments.
How many times have you claimed your “brain is full” or “you can only remember so much”? Our long-term memories are actually capable of holding quite a lot of information. Cognitive psychologist Michelle Miller argues “the limiting factor is not storage capacity, but rather the ability to find what you need when you need it. Long-term memory is rather like having a vast amount of closet space–it is easy to store many items, but it is difficult to retrieve the needed item in a timely fashion” (quoted in Lang, 2016, p. 28). She explains that each time we recall a piece of information, we strengthen the neural pathways that move the information from our long-term memories to our working memories. This is key. The more times we retrieve the information, the better.
To encourage your students to practice retrieval, try these strategies from James Lang’s book Small Teaching:
The Retrieval Syllabus. Most of us distribute our syllabi on the first day of class and never bring it up again, until a student violates a policy or makes a complaint. Instead of thinking of your syllabus as a contract, envision it as a resource that is continuously referred to throughout the semester. Fill out the course schedule with details that will help students see how the course will progress, how topics connect to one another, and how knowledge is organized in your discipline. Then, during class, ask students to look at the document to orient themselves as well as remind them of what has been discussed thus far.
Warm-up Review. In the first few minutes of class, ask students to write down on a scrap sheet of paper the topics that were covered the class period before or the main themes from the reading. Ask students to share their “take aways”: What do they think was the most important point? What struck them? What piqued their interest?
I’ve done something similar with my students, but I simply asked the class to provide a review orally. Typically, the same few students are the only ones who reply. Thus, not everyone is encouraged to practice retrieval, so this method is less effective than asking all students to write down their recap. This simple exercise has the added benefit of an intellectual “warm-up” — prepping students for learning and participating during class.
Exit Tickets. Similarly, at the end of class, have students to complete an exit ticket. For example, you could ask students to write down two things they learned and one question they still have. This requires retrieval as well as provides valuable information about what students identify as important and what they are struggling with. This can serve as a great jumping off point for the next class period.
What is absolutely essential for both warm-ups and exit tickets is that students are told not to consult their notes or textbook when responding. If students look up the answers, they are not practicing retrieval. It’s also important to explain to students the purpose of these exercises. You’re not trying to test them or give them busy-work; you’re trying to help them learn more effectively.
Frequent Quizzing. Frequent, low-stakes quizzes are one of the best ways for students to strengthen their retrieval muscles. Remember that the more we recall information, the stronger the neural pathways between long-term and working memory. When creating quizzes, it’s essential that they are not weighted heavily. The point is to encourage retrieval, not stress students out. It’s also important to include question types that will be similar to what students can expect on exams. This allows students to familiarize themselves with those formats so the exam is a test of knowledge instead of exam-taking ability.
If you don’t have enough class time to devote to frequent quizzes, consider using online quizzes, such as through your Learning Management System (LMS). Most textbook publishers provide gigantic test banks that provide more than enough questions to create multiple quizzes throughout the semester. These banks are designed to be quickly imported into your LMS and quizzes can be automatically-graded, making quiz creation and administration simple. To ensure students are practicing retrieval, restrict the time limit so they don’t have the leeway to look up every answer in their notes or book (30-60 seconds per multiple choice question is advisable).
Space Out Due Dates. Students should complete multiple smaller assessments throughout the semester (as opposed to only one midterm and one final exam). Intersperse lower stakes assessments (e.g. weekly quizzes, practice problems, minute papers) with higher stakes assessments (e.g. exams, research papers, lab reports). According to James Lang, “the more frequently that your students have to check in and offer some demonstration of their learning, the more often you are giving them retrieval practice” (2016, p. 36).
Providing frequent opportunities for retrieval will not only help your students remember important information, it will also open the door to higher levels of cognition. I’ve shared simple but powerful ways to help your students learn that do not require extra preparation, overwhelming amounts of grading, or even that much class time. Want more ideas? Check out James Lang’s fantastic book Small Teaching and then ask yourself, “what small changes can I make to help my students learn?”
Today’s Faculty Guest Post is from Chris Mothorpe, Assistant Professor of Economics. Chris attended TLT’s 2015 Faculty Technology Institute. In this post, he reflects on the process of revising and improving a group research project in two of his courses: Urban Economics and Economics of Geography and Transportation. This is an excerpt from Chris’ own blog. To read the entire post, please visit: https://sites.google.com/site/chrismothorpe/home/group-research-projects
I am writing this blog post based on my experience conducting research projects in my upper level economic classes over the past three semesters. This post will not discuss the research project in its entirety; instead, it will provide a general overview of the project and then focus on specific challenges I have faced each semester and different strategies I have employed (or I am planning on employing to overcome them). There are two main challenges I will discuss: 1) group formation; and 2) peer evaluations.
Project Overview
I decided to require a group research project after reading several magazine and newspaper articles discussing what companies are looking for in college graduates. Atop many of the surveys were not the hard-technical skills taught in the classrooms, but many soft-skills developed in the non-academic, extracurricular setting. These soft-skills include: 1) leadership; 2) ability to work in a team; 3) written communication skills; 4) problem solving skills; 5) work ethic; 6) verbal communication skills; 7) initiative; 8) interpersonal skills; 9) creativity; and 10) organizational ability. Conducting a group-based research project provides students the opportunity to practice many of these skills — practice they would otherwise not receive if the class is taught in a more traditional manner. A second motivating factor is to allow the students the opportunity to apply economic models to real world problems.
I decided to require a group research project after reading several magazine and newspaper articles discussing what companies are looking for in college graduates. Atop many of the surveys were not the hard-technical skills taught in the classrooms, but many soft-skills developed in the non-academic, extracurricular setting. These soft-skills include: 1) leadership; 2) ability to work in a team; 3) written communication skills; 4) problem solving skills; 5) work ethic; 6) verbal communication skills; 7) initiative; 8) interpersonal skills; 9) creativity; and 10) organizational ability. Conducting a group-based research project provides students the opportunity to practice many of these skills — practice they would otherwise not receive if the class is taught in a more traditional manner. A second motivating factor is to allow the students the opportunity to apply economic models to real world problems.
The stated objectives for the research project are:
Analyze a contemporary economic issue or social issue using economic theory and models
Demonstrate versatile and competent written, oral and digital communication skills
Evaluate communication situations and audiences to make choices about the most effective ways to deliver messages
Appraise written communication skills through self and peer evaluations
Manage diverse teams successfully
The project is set up as a paper submission to the (fictional) Charleston Journal of Economics, which I reside over as Editor. At the beginning of the semester, I pass out the Fall/Spring 20XX Charleston Journal of Economics (CJE) Request for Papers (RFP), which contains the objectives of the journal, the strategic areas, scoring criteria, formatting requirements, and examples of correctly formatted submissions. Throughout the semester, groups are required to submit portions of their project to the Editor and receive feedback (in the form of a letter from the editor). I have required the research project in the Spring of 2015, the Fall of 2015 and the Spring of 2016. These three iterations have proven valuable as I continually update the project to improve on its effectiveness and efficiency in delivery.
Group Formation
In the first iteration (Spring 2015) of the research project, I allowed each student to write his/her own paper and choose any topic as long as it was related somehow Urban Economics. While allowing each student the opportunity to write their own research paper provides the best learning opportunity for the student (since he/she receives individualized feedback), it is much harder (time consuming) on me. I realized that there were three main consequences to allowing students to complete their own project:
Grading fatigue
Increase time until work is returned to students
Grading research projects detracts from other activities such as research
In the second iteration (Fall 2015), I switched from individual research projects to group based projects. I allowed the groups to form endogenously — students selected their own groups. Each research group was required to have 3-4 individuals. The main problem that arose from students selecting their own groups is that the groups were not interdisciplinary in nature. For example, Group A consisted of three Transportation and Logistics Majors. One of the comments Group A received on one of their drafts was that their paper lacks a sufficient economic model. The feedback I received from Group A was that there is not a economic major (or minor) in the group, and as a result no one is familiar with economic models.
In the second iteration, I also began restricting the topic selection by requiring each group’s research question to at least fall within one of the strategic areas of the Charleston Journal of Economics. The strategic areas are:
Transportation Infrastructure
The Port of Charleston Expansion
Coastal Community Resilience and the Impacts of Sea Level Rise/Climate Change
The Long Savannah Development
In the third iteration (Spring 2016), I attempted to correct for the lack of interdisciplinary majors within a research group by assigning research groups. To aid in the assignment of research groups, each student completed an Oaks quiz that asked the following questions:
List the strategic areas in order of greater interest to least interest
For your top ranked strategic area, list keywords of interest
For your second ranked strategic area, list keywords of interest
List your major(s)
List your minor(s)
List individuals you would like to work with
Students submitted their responses via an Oaks quiz and then I used their responses to assign groups. Matches were made based on strategic areas and keywords; however, not all students receive their top ranked strategic area (most did) as I also sought to ensure that each group contained at least one each major or minor. This mechanism worked well in solving the interdisciplinary problem previously encountered; however, the new problem that arose was that group members wanted a greater say about who was in their group as the “Free-Riding” problem arose in several groups. The Free-Riding problem occurs when not all members contribute equally to the project, yet all group members receive the same grade. Of the 8 research groups in the Spring of 2016, at least 4 registered complaints about one of their group members not contributing.
The Free-Rider Problem
I am planning on implementing two strategies to attempt to mitigate the Free-Riding Problem. First, I plan on introducing a mechanism that will allow students to reveal information about themselves (e.g. work ethic) to other members in the class. This mechanism is a series of group-based homework problem sets in the first few weeks of class and before the assignment of groups. Groups will be randomly assigned. The random assignment of groups will ensure that students are meeting and learning about other members of the class. After the problem sets, students will again be asked to complete an Oaks quiz, but on their quiz there will be additional questions aimed at revealing their preferences for who they do and do not want to work with.
The second strategy is to have students submit peer evaluations of their group members when assignments are due. A portion of the peer evaluation is a Grade Multiplier. Each member of the group assigns every other member of the group a multiplier, which gives each group member control over every other group member’s grade. The purpose of the multiplier is to provide incentive to group members to work hard towards the completion of the project. In the Spring of 2016, I required the students to submit Peer Evaluations at the end of the semester; however, this did not provide strong incentives to students since at the time of submissions final class grades were almost known. It was recommended to me, by a student, to conduct the peer evaluations more frequently.
Peer Evaluations are a useful tool that provide students with information on their performance over the course of the research project. Since the goal of the project is to aid students in developing soft skills, the peer evaluations are particularly effective, since they address each student individually. Herein lies the main problem since each time I require a peer evaluation I cannot write 20-40 individual letters commenting on their performance. The remainder of this blog post discusses the tools I have developed to create individualized letters based on peer reviews in an (semi) automatic fashion. Creating letters in this manner allows me to provide individualized feedback to students while at the same time not spending hours drafting letters.
The letter-creation process requires the following programs/files:
The Form Letter – Microsoft Word Template
Oaks Quiz and Excel File of Modified Data
Microsoft Word Template File
Microsoft Excel Template File
Microsoft Excel Addin ExcelToWord
The procedure behind the automated process is to have students complete their peer evaluations through an Oaks quiz, text-mine their responses, and populate a form letter with student responses. Note that this process relies on student responses on the peer evaluation but does leave open the possibility of directly editing the individualized letters.
[TLT Note: On his own blog, Chris provides instructions for using OAKS, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel to facilitate the peer evaluations described above. He also provides templates and examples. To access this information, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/chrismothorpe/home/group-research-projects]
In this blog, I have discussed the research project that I conduct in my upper level economics classes, two of the challenges that have arisen, and various strategies I have or will employ to overcome the challenges. To overcome group formation problems, I am employing an Oaks quiz and group based homework assigned in order to allow students the opportunity to reveal information about themselves to other students in the class as well as myself. To overcome the “Free-Riding” problem, I am planning on employing a series of peer evaluations, which gives all members in the group some control over the grades of the other group members.
One key to conducting peer evaluations is returning individualized feedback to the student based on their performance. I have also discussed a set of tools which will enable me to create individualized letters in a timely manner. Providing timely and individualized feedback also enhances the learning outcomes of the research project since the project is geared towards student practice of their “soft” skills. Receiving individualized feedback allows students to learn from their experience and develop a stronger set of skills that they can employ in the future.
Does this scenario seem familiar? You’re in the midst of a team project. One day you realize that you’ve been playing phone tag with one colleague for a week; another colleague keeps emailing Word documents; while the rest of the team is trying to work in Google Docs. No one is communicating well and collaboration is slow. What can you do?
RealTimeBoard is an online collaborative workspace that features an infinite digital whiteboard. In addition to typing and writing on the whiteboard, teams can add post-it notes, images, videos, documents, spreadsheets, Google Drive files and more. RealTimeBoard also provides a variety of templates, including timelines, Gantt charts, storyboards, calendars, and SWOT analysis grids. Because it’s an online tool, all collaborators can access your shared board on any device at any time. Boards can also be exported as image files or PDF.
The folks at RealTimeBoard have kindly granted educators free access to their premium features plus unlimited collaborators! So it’s a perfect tool for research projects and to use with your students. Request your account by providing your college email address.
Uses: Any form of collaboration, such as brainstorming, concept mapping, storyboarding, planning, etc.
