Teaching and Learning Technologies
“Padlet is a virtual wall that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. It works like an online sheet of paper where people can put any content (e.g. images, videos, documents, text) anywhere on the page, together with anyone, from any device.” (Mrs. Treichler)
Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, also has plugins for Chrome and WordPress
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Works on a computer or almost any mobile device. |
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I have always said that if I could only have two applications on my computer it would be Photoshop and Microsoft Excel. With those two applications I can do almost everything I need to do in a day. Lately, however, my eye has drawn to Google Sheets, and I have to say, I love it.
Now some of you may be saying, “Why do I care? I don’t teach accounting.” Well you don’t have to teach accounting to use spreadsheets in your teaching. They are great for collecting text-based information, running statistics and doing calculations, and graphing and analyzing text or data. So now that you are ready to use spreadsheets in your classroom, here are 6 reasons why you should use Google Sheets instead of Excel.
Unlike Excel, Google Sheets is collaborative. All CofC students already have Google accounts so it’s very easy to share a spreadsheet with them or for them to share with one another. When collaboratively editing a sheet each student can see the exact cell that is currently selected all other users, to prevent overwriting. There is also a built-in chat function so students can communicate online while collaborating on a Sheet.
How many times have you heard, “Student X didn’t contribute anything to the project.” Now you can see exactly who contributed what and when using the Revision History. The built-in revision history gives you a timeline of all changes and additions to the spreadsheet, who made each one and when they made it. Just go to File > Revision History to see this record. The best part? This is all automatically recorded. While you can track revisions in Excel, it’s a more manual process and in the end, still leads to multiple versions and things being overwritten.
Google Sheets are easy to share. Because they are already online, Sheets can be shared to OAKS or a website, using a link. These links can be set to allow the users to only view the sheet or to edit it. This is particularly handy if you want to post a spreadsheet in OAKS. Just go to Content and select New > Create a Link and paste in the shared link to your Sheet, making the file easy for the students to locate and easy to work on collaboratively as a class. This is something that can’t be done with Excel (Note: I believe this feature is available in Office 365).
From Alice Keeler, “Because of its tight integration with Google, Sheets can import all kinds of data from other Google services and the web at large. You can translate the contents of a cell using the function GOOGLETRANSLATE(), or you can fetch current or historical securities info from Google Finance with the function GOOGLEFINANCE(). And with Sheets IMPORTFEED and IMPORTDATA functions, you can pull information from the internet directly into your spreadsheet.” (Teacher Tech)
When paired with Google Forms it’s an easy way to collect data. Google Forms, also part of Google Drive (a.k.a. G-suite), allows for quick and easy form creation that professors and students can use to collect data. These forms can be completed by anyone, on campus or off, with or without a Google Account, and the data is dumped right into a Google Sheet. This can be used to replace an audience response system in your class, to check for understanding, to conduct peer evaluation, to collect lab data, etc. Once the data is in the spreadsheet, students can work with the data online or export the Sheet to Excel in order to take advantage of Excel’s more powerful functions and data analysis tools.
Sheets has a super cool EXPLORE icon in the lower right corner of every spreadsheet. This offers a quick overview of the data in chart format. You can view the entire sheet or just specific rows or columns. It’s a fast way to get a first look at the trends in your data before moving on to your own analysis. Just click on the icon and Google does the rest. Don’t worry, if this doesn’t provide enough analysis you can always create your own graphs, pivot tables, and calculations. Excel doesn’t have this feature that I can find.
These are just my top 6 reasons to use Google Sheets. I have a ton more. So, can I do everything I did in Excel in Google Sheets? No, I can’t. Excel’s statistical analysis features and functions are still more powerful and probably always will be, but that’s not really what I use spreadsheets for much anymore. Most of the features I used in Excel, like shifting cells, can be done via a Google Add-on, which is a little extension that you can load to increase Sheet’s functionality. Given that, there’s very little need for me to go back to Excel.
Check out Alicekeeler.com. Alice Keeler is a Google Sheets guru and she always has some amazing cool tricks that you can do with spreadsheets in the classroom. She has written some Add-ons for Sheets that allows you do have more control and automate some processes. Teacher Education folks, you will love her as all of her examples are from her classroom experience. Check out this one:
Have everyone contribute to their own tab – Give students their own and collaborate. This add-on takes your class roster and automatically creates a spreadsheet tab customized for each student in your class. It can even copy a template to each tab. What a great timesaver!
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:
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).
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!
We hope you found this week’s Small Teaching Tip helpful. This post is part of a series which presents low risk, high reward teaching ideas, inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning.
We all use PowerPoint to create and deliver lectures and for student presentations. But PPT lacks one major feature…collaboration. Google Slides, part of our Google Apps for Education, is a PowerPoint-like presentation application that has that collaboration piece, making it more useful in an academic environment.
Here are six reasons you should be using Google Slides instead of PowerPoint.
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.
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 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.
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 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:
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 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.
Price: Free for educators
Platform: Online
More information: realtimeboard.com
A Professional Learning Club (PLC) is a group of six to eight faculty members who meet to collaboratively reflect on and improve their teaching practices. Participation involves one academic year of exploring, implementing, and evaluating empirically-grounded instructional strategies with the goal of improving student learning and engagement.
These are just a handful of reasons to sign up for a PLC. But don’t simply take our word for it. Here’s what current PLC participants have to say:
“Your students will thank you for participating in TLT’s PLC. This is a terrific (and cost effective) way to improve your teaching. I love the fact that faculty can share best practices and have the opportunity to implement them over an entire year.” – Lancie Affonso, Computer Science, Management and Marketing
“Join a PLC because it offers great opportunities to reflect on your teaching, which so many of us struggle to find enough time for! I also really enjoyed the sense of community it provided us as we worked together to discuss individual issues we were struggling with in our classes.” – Kelley White, Teacher Education
Interested? We’re currently accepting applications for Fall 2016 – Spring 2017. Applying is simple and TLT will help you find other like-minded colleagues to work with.
Want to know more before you apply? Visit: tlt.cofc.edu/faculty-services/plc
UPDATE: 3/1/16 – My apologies. I wrote this post in advance and had it auto post. It turns out between when I wrote it and when it posted, SyncPad is no longer available. I attempted to contact them via their website but the contact form no longer works. — Mendi
SyncPad is the ultimate whiteboard for remote and local collaboration. Would you like to share your ideas with a coworker but you are out of town? Don’t worry, just create a room with your SyncPad and share the name of the room with your co-worker, who can enter in his SyncPad or simply use any browser, visiting http://mysyncpad.com/roomname.
Uses:
Price: Free, $4.99/mo Pro.
Platform: iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch
More info: https://syncpadapp.com
If you haven’t explored VoiceThread since last semester, you will be pleased to learn about the tool’s three new commenting features. Direct replies and threaded conversations make interaction more interactive and dynamic, while private replies allow participants to engage one another more discreetly.
Owners and editors of VoiceThreads are able to insert comments directly after someone else’s comment on a slide. For example, students can reply directly to the feedback left by their classmates or questions asked by their instructor. To do this, click on the direct reply icon inside a person’s comment window (it looks like an arrow). Your reply will display directly beneath the original comment, but bumped in slightly.
The threaded discussions feature makes VoiceThread more similar to an online discussion board, with comments branching off an original comment. This helps to keep robust back-and-forth conversations more organized.
To use this feature, you must enable it in Playback Settings.
Threaded comments are represented by a round identity image (as opposed to the usual square shape). To start a new threaded conversation, click on the threaded comment button inside a person’s comment window.
Threaded discussions would be particularly useful if you’d like to encourage multiple students to engage one another about a VoiceThread’s content. In contrast, a direct reply is a dialog between two people (though the interaction can be seen by anyone who has access to the VoiceThread). This would be best for asking a single question or offering praise.
The private reply feature allows you to start a private, two-way conversation with someone who has commented on a VoiceThread. Private comments are represented by a round identity image with a padlock icon. To start a new private conversation or add to an existing one, click on the private reply button inside a person’s comment window.
The private reply option could be especially useful if an instructor would like to include an assessment in a VoiceThread. For example, an instructor could leave a comment asking the students to reply to a question. To prevent the students from seeing one another’s responses, the instructor could request students use the private reply option. That would permit only the instructor to see the students’ comments and would allow him/her to respond directly to each student.
Let us know what you think about these new commenting features. We’d love to hear your ideas!
Effective collaboration is a foundational skill that is taught as early as kindergarten. By the time students reach college, one would think they would be expert team players. Unfortunately, any professor can tell you that’s not usually true. Students struggle to communicate competently, schedule meeting times, and manage conflict. This often leads to tearful office hour appointments or angry emails about slackers and alliances. So the following is advice based upon my experiences and research I’ve conducted regarding effective group work strategies for the college classroom.
Determine what type of group work will allow students to achieve the learning outcomes. Group work is not one size fits all. There are many forms of collaborative learning and each serves its own purpose. So first think about what you want students to accomplish from working together, then decide upon a method (such as team-based learning, peer instruction, or project-based learning)
Instructors, not students, should form groups. When students are allowed to choose their own teammates, they almost always (1) choose their friends and acquaintances or (2) choose people who sit near them. I don’t blame them; that’s the easy and comfortable option. But this often results in homogenous groups. Thus, especially for higher-stakes projects, instructors should strategically form teams that are composed of members who are diverse and who share common blocks of time to meet outside of class. This can be accomplished by administering surveys that address variables such as personality type, learning style, conflict management style, course-related knowledge and experience, habits, and schedules.
Discuss principles of effective teamwork. While students have been collaborating with peers for most of their educational careers, many don’t have a scholarly understanding of group dynamics. I’ve found spending a class period sharing the research on assigning group roles, establishing expectations, and managing conflict has improved my students’ success. If you don’t have class time to devote to such a discussion, provide your students with resources, such as handouts or links to websites that they can refer to as they work.
Require a team contract. For higher-stakes assignments, such as semester-long projects, have students write a contract that details expectations and consequences of violating those norms. During the team’s first meeting, I suggest students brainstorm all the things they hate about group projects then turn those complaints into a list of do’s and don’ts. I ask students to provide me with a copy of their contract that each team member has signed. This document can then be used by the group to mediate conflicts.
Establish a policy to deal with social loafing. I work hard to maintain a “no drama” environment in my classes. So I have a policy that outlines procedures and consequences for students who violate their team contracts. This policy has shown students that I will not (and they should not) tolerate slacking off. Whatever type of policy you create, make sure you require students to provide documentation of the contract violations and to meet with you separately. This helps to prevent unwarranted complaints or students “ganging up” on a teammate.
Require teams to provide you with regular progress reports. To identify problems early and to ensure students are not procrastinating, I require teams to update me biweekly. I ask students to identify a member of the team who is responsible for providing me with those updates either face-to-face or via email. This has helped immensely to address concerns and to steer students in the right direction when they’re faltering.
Ask teams to complete regular assessments of one another. An interesting meta-analysis published in Teaching of Psychology concluded that peer assessments within groups do not improve learning outcomes. I hypothesize that the typical way peer evaluations are completed is to blame. Often, instructors will require students to complete a cumulative assessment of their teammates at the end of the project. Perhaps they’re asked to distribute points or assign each team member a grade. But by the time a project is completed, students may have “checked out” and are less motivated to provide a thoughtful assessment (“the project is done; I don’t really care anymore.”). Also, this type of evaluation doesn’t allow the team to examine their dynamic while they’re collaborating and, therefore, eliminates the opportunity to make improvements. A potentially better approach is to first instruct students on the principles and importance of constructive feedback then ask them to complete periodic assessments as they work together. Perhaps at the termination of the project, students could write a letter to you reflecting on the evolution of the group.
Encourage students to use technology. One of the biggest complaints students have about group projects is finding time outside of class to meet. Many students have jobs, internships, and other extracurriculars that make matching schedules frustrating if not impossible. There are a multitude of technology tools that allow students to collaborate when not in the same physical space. Google Drive allows students to work together on documents, slides, and spreadsheets on any device that connects to the Internet. Google Hangouts, Blab, and Skype allow students to videoconference. And there are many collaborative whiteboard apps, such as Realtime Board. The availability of free software and apps really limits how often students can claim “we can’t get together.”
I hope these suggestions help you to help your students get the most out of collaborative learning. If you have other tips for effective group work, please share!
References and Resources:
Faculty Focus Special Report: Effective group work strategies for the college classroom: http://www.cincinnatistate.edu/online/faculty-resources/Effective%20Group%20Work%20Strategies%20for%20College%20Classroom.pdf
Major, C. H. (2015, Sept. 21). Choosing the best approach for small group work. Faculty Focus. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/choosing-the-best-approach-for-small-group-work/
Oakley, B., Felder, R. M., Brent, R., & Elhajj, I. (2004). Turning student groups into effective teams. Journal of Student Centered Learning, 2 (1), 9-34.
Tomcho, T. J., & Foeis, R. (2012). Meta-analysis of group learning activities: Empirically based teaching recommendations. Teaching of Psychology, 39 (3), 159-169.
Weimer, M. (2012, Feb. 22). My students don’t like group work. Faculty Focus. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/my-students-dont-like-group-work/
