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!
This month’s faculty blogger is Michelle McLeod, PhD, ATC, PES, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health & Human Performance.
This blog post is inspired from the lessons and skills learned during the Faculty Technology Institute in May of 2015 focused on planning an interactive lecture. I feel that my lectures are most effective if the classroom is engaged and interactive rather than me talking at students and merely hoping that they are paying attention. It is an opportunity for a real-time assessment and feedback to ensure that students are not only receiving information, but have a fundamental understanding of that information. This also provides me with feedback about my effectiveness in content delivery. I spent much of the 2015-2016 academic year incorporating interactive lecture and technology into my strategy of making the classroom truly more engaged. Here are some of the successes and failures that I encountered.
I will center this blog post on a research proposal assignment given in EXSC 433: Research Methods and Design in Health and Exercise Science. An area where I know that I can continue to improve is providing timely feedback to students. Rather than focusing on the research proposal itself, I will focus on the evolution of the project from the standpoint of how I could more efficiently assess student work and provide helpful feedback through the use of technology.
For me, one of the most painstaking processes of evaluating student work is accessing the work. I really, really dislike accessing work submitted via OAKS. It is so limited. I am also striving to go paperless with most work. In the Fall of 2015, I thought I had found the perfect solution: Kaizena. The tag-line on this Google app is “Fast, personal feedback on student work.” Dream come true, right? Not so fast. I attended a TLT workshop hosted by Jessica. Kaizena seemed awesome. Kaizena is a Google application so all students have access with their g.cofc.edu accounts. Students search for their professors on Kaizena and join “groups” (e.g. EXSC 433). The attraction to Kaizena is that this is a module to keep a running tab of conversations between students and professors regarding their work. Students upload their work in a document that allows you to view the work directly in Kaizena. Professors can create quick links for commonly used feedback in the form of text, hyperlinks, videos, and voice. I thought for sure that this would cut down on the time that it would take for me to provide student feedback and provide them with ample time to make corrections.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. In hindsight, it was probably not the best to try to incorporate this technology without playing around with it more first. I had 24 students in this course so I gave the students the option to work together on these research proposals. The drawbacks I encountered were that I could not create groups within Kaizena. Students had to search for each other first and add me to a conversation. Not such a big deal. However, when it came time for students to submit the first portion of the research proposal consisting of hyperlinks to articles and written summaries of the articles, I felt an impending sense of doom. You are not able to directly edit within the uploaded documents. You may highlight a portion of the document and provide commentary. If the student had submitted their work as a Google doc and provided permission to edit the document, then you could open the document in Google docs to do this. This seemed to negate the need for Kaizena (spoiler alert: this was ultimately my conclusion). Furthermore the biggest headache, perhaps, was that you couldn’t click on hyperlinks in the uploaded documents. As I mentioned previously, part of this portion of the assignment was for the student to provide hyperlinks so that I can confirm their provided references. I was asking students to resubmit their work and on many occasions students claimed to have submitted work that I could not find when I opened conversations.
The end result was that it took me longer than I had anticipated to provide valuable feedback. More of my time was spent requesting changes in the formatting so that I could even access the needed content. I therefore felt the need to be much more lenient in my assessments of student work. However, professors still have learning experiences on the regular, right? This spring semester, I kept this assignment as a part of the course.Instead of Kaizena, I kept it simple and required students to submit their work via Google drive as a Google document. I still use OAKS to upload lecture content and grades for student accessibility. However, I almost exclusively provide links to a Google drive folder for students to submit their work. I can provide real-time feedback and review changes that have been made to student work as well as see when those changes were made. Because the students can also see when I have provided feedback, this helps to keep both parties accountable.
It’s still not a perfect system. I am still revising rubric content, and finding challenges with students being able to access folders (Tip: if a student says they do not have access, I find that it is because they are trying to sign in on an account other than their g.cofc.edu accounts. Instruct them to first try to sign out and sign back in!) Other lessons learned throughout this process of trying to use something new and fun:
1) Have a rubric! Developing a good rubric can be challenging and does take some time on the front end, but it has made my life easier as far as grading. Students also have a clearer picture of what is expected of them.
2) I love this assignment because it is an opportunity for students in our department to express their interests and creativity. That being said make sure that there are reasonable expectations for what you want to see in their work. I went from having very loose directions for student work to being pretty specific, down to the size of font used, margins, and maximum number of pages in length of proposal sections. In Google, I provided an example that the students could make a copy of and input their own work. You might be thinking: getting a little nit-picky here, Dr. M? Maybe; but, part of research proposal writing is being able to follow directions! Simple, yet still overlooked.
3) Being able to provide feedback more efficiently and effectively has helped to improve student engagement and interaction. Not always in a direct and personal manner, but it improved communication. I felt that students were more inclined to ask questions or for clarification and I could provide better suggestions or solutions. This was reflected in my course evaluations this spring. Although I’m not yet lightning fast in my feedback my timeliness has drastically improved and I’m optimistic that it will continue.
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?”
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.
adapted from “Compare & Contrast: Teaching Comparative Thinking to Strengthen Student Learning” by Harvey F. Silver
Why should you join a PLC?
To build an interdisciplinary support system to share struggles, lessons learned, and achievements.
To schedule much-needed time to reflect on your teaching and your students’ learning.
To share ideas for improving student engagement, making your classes more enjoyable for both you and your students.
To collaboratively design strategies that increase deep learning, as opposed to surface learning.
To contribute to the scholarship of teaching & learning via, for example, conference presentations or publications.
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.
Riddle is a FREE web-based tool that allows users to create opinion polls, lists, quizzes, and personality tests. If you’re familiar with Buzzfeed (your students will be), Riddle allows you to create similar quizzes. It’s a fun and simple formative assessment tool to engage students, gather their opinions, and gauge their understanding.
Cool features of Riddle:
Templates to help you create quickly
Embed Youtube videos, and trim them to only the parts you want
Mobile-friendly, so students can use their smartphones.
30 languages available
Have option to reveal responses immediately or hide them until you’re ready
Share via hyperlink, social media, or embed into a website
Ideas for using Riddle:
Create a syllabus quiz or a “getting to know you” survey at the beginning of the semester.
Have students create lists, such as “Top 10 contributors to global warming,” to help them synthesize content or review for exams.
Incorporate a poll during class to gauge students’ comprehension of the material so you can adapt your lecture.
Ask students to create polls or quizzes to engage their classmates during presentations or discussion facilitation.
Use a quiz at the end of class as an “exit ticket”
This University of Texas professor created a top ten list of things students should know about her and her section of the university’s freshmen book club.
This quiz is about the “Space Race” between the US and the USSR during the Cold War.
Our guest blogger this week is Dr. Mike Maher from the Department of French-Francophone-Italian Studies. In this post, Dr. Maher shares his experiences using Evernote, a tool he was introduced to at the Faculty Technology Institute which he attended in 2014.
Evernote is software that touts itself as, “the workplace for your life’s work.” It is a multi-functional platform to write, discuss, collect, and present. It synchronizes across all of your devices. Evernote is aesthetically pleasing with its minimalist format and grey tones splashed with lime green. I use Evernote primarily on my PC.
Evernote simply provides the user a means to collect really anything found on the internet. Any website or on-line article, blog post, even electronic boarding passes can immediately be saved to a folder. Each folder is termed a Notebook, and each saved document is a Note.
Once you download the Web Clipper, you’re in business. You head to the Evernote website and it leads you through the entire installation process. The Web Clipper icon appears in your browser next to the search bar as a small modern elephant; you simply click the icon any time you’d like to save what you’re looking at. Downloading the Web Clipper on your iPad is bit more involved, but still possible. The way you save the Note is up to you: an entire article, simplified article, full page, bookmark, or a screen shot.
I have found Evernote to be especially useful in the initial phases of gathering research sources. Research has shifted away from dusting off manuscripts in the library to an almost exclusively digital medium. Evernote helps to organize a general collection of sources to be examined closer in subsequent phases of research. I especially like the ability to annotate your Web Clippings. I highlight and make notes on screenshots from bibliographies found in google books and texts from archive.org.
As for writing, Evernote would be a place to keep to-do-lists and other informal notes. Evernote facilitates formal writing by providing the writer a space to organize their research and ideas. As for discussion, the Work Chat feature seems easy enough. Evernote readily shares your Notebooks via email, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and also provides a URL link to your Notes. I have not explored the presentation software within Evernote: it requires the Premium upgrade. If the rest of the software’s functionality and usability is any indication, the presentation software is sure to be smooth and straight forward.
The College provides two survey tools for faculty at no cost; Google Forms and Qualtrics.
Google Forms is part of CofC’s Google Apps for Education that is available to all faculty, staff and students . You can plan events, make a survey or poll, or collect other information in an easy, streamlined way with Google Forms. You can create a form from Google Drive or from an existing spreadsheet that can record the responses to your form.
The Qualtrics Research Suite is a survey software available to all faculty, staff and students at the College of Charleston, to fulfill a variety of research needs. Qualtrics can be used to build surveys, distribute surveys, and analyze responses, all within the Qualtrics Research Suite.
Disregard the information about “Plan” since both of these are free to CofC Faculty and Staff . Also disregard the information about “Help and Support” because you can contact your Instructional Technologist for questions about Google Forms and should contact Cara Dombroski at CofC for questions about Qualtrics.
Last week, I was commiserating with an instructor about her struggle to engage students in discussion during class. “Sometimes it’s like talking to a brick wall,” she lamented. Facilitating lively conversations that require students to apply, synthesize, and evaluate their knowledge is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. Even the most brilliant lecturer can be stymied by an unresponsive class. So these are my top tips for improving class discussions:
Plan your discussion prompts in advance. Thought-provoking questions are challenging to come up with on the fly. So when planning your lectures and in-class activities, craft prompts as well. Without prior contemplation, we may resort to asking “any thoughts about that?” and be discouraged by the blank stares we receive.
Use hooks to launch the discussion. Rather than starting a discussion with a single question, consider building up to that prompt with a hook to pique your students’ interest and start their thinking process. For example, present a short case study, tell a story, recite a witty quote, show a video clip, or share a current event. These serve as points of departure that contextualize your questions and give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge.
Ask better questions. Often because we haven’t given them much thought in advance, our discussion prompts fall flat. Our questions are too vague, too long-winded, or limited to yes-no answers. Instead, make sure your questions are succinct, clear, and open-ended. This may seem obvious, but I often ramble a bit when asking questions forcing students to inquire, “so what’s the question again?” Some ideas for discussion prompts:
Ask for students’ input: What should ___ have done? What would you do in this case? Have you had a similar experience in your life?
Ask “how” and “why” questions: How might this argument be made more persuasive? Why do you think the author made this argument? How does ___ compare to ____?
Ask evaluative questions: How compelling is the author’s argument? What are the implications of ____?
Ask prediction questions: What will occur next? What might happen if. . .?
Ask justification questions: What evidence led you to conclude that…? What is the reason…?
Give your students a chance to think. Many of us are uncomfortable with silence, so when students don’t immediately respond to our questions, we continue talking. It’s easy to forget that students are disciplinary novices who need greater time to ponder than we do. So when asking a question, pause for a good 30 seconds before probing further. Don’t surrender and answer the question for your students. Force yourself to endure the silence.
Think-pair-share. Many faculty turn their noses up at strategies implemented in K-12 classrooms, but that’s where a majority of innovative pedagogy comes from. Think-pair-share is a simple but brilliant way to encourage conversation. First, after presenting your hook and prompt, let students jot down their ideas on scrap pieces of paper. Then, ask them to turn to their neighbors and share their ideas. Finally, bring the entire class together and have the pairs report what they discussed. This gives students the chance to think and talk through their ideas before being put “on the spot” in front of the entire group.
Use positive reinforcement. When students contribute to class discussion in ways that demonstrate higher-order thinking, acknowledge it. Saying, “that’s a great question” or “good point” is an effective start, but be more specific with your feedback. For example, “Sam makes an excellent point. I appreciate how you supported your claim with evidence from the reading.” This demonstrates to students what a “good” response sounds like, providing a model they can all use.
Ask follow-up questions. When students respond with brief or incomplete answers, don’t miss the opportunity to ask a follow-up question such as, “Could you tell me more?” or “Why do you say that?” or “How did you come to that conclusion?” You can also pull in other students to contribute: “Let’s help Jamie out, why might we reach the conclusion that. . .?”
End discussions purposefully. Before moving on to the next lecture topic or question, summarize what was discussed or ask a student to do so. This helps students to synthesize new information and integrate it with existing knowledge. You could also consider ending your class with some type of “exit ticket” such as a minute paper or Poll Everywhere poll (which is a free tool for CofC students and faculty). Exit tickets are a quick and easy method to help students solidify their understanding as well as communicate to the instructor what they still have questions about.
Do you have other suggestions for facilitating engaging class discussions? Please share!
TLT invites you to submit a proposal to present at The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Conference, the next generation of the FTI. This event is designed to bring together expertise from across campus, spotlight teaching excellence, and provide a space for idea sharing and networking. This TLT Conference will showcase the amazing teaching and learning that is happening on our campus, and we need you, the College of Charleston faculty, to help make it a success!
This new version of the FTI will have a conference style format with keynote speaker and faculty presenters throughout the 3 day event during Spring Break (March 8, 9, and 10).
Details about the conference are included below. The proposals are due November 5. Proposals may focus on anything you think other faculty would benefit from hearing about as we will have a wide variety of sessions on innovative and engaging approaches to teaching and learning.
If you would like to participate or propose an idea, but are unsure about filling an entire session, let us know and we will work with you to find a partner or a relevant panel discussion group.
If you are unable to present, we still hope that you will be able to attend! More information about the sessions and registration will be sent out in November.
What:
The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Conference is the next generation of the Faculty Technology Institute (FTI). Over the past fifteen years, the FTI has evolved into one of the most successful faculty development programs on campus. The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Conference will allow TLT to continue offering outstanding faculty development but to a broader audience. TLT is excited to provide this opportunity for greater campus discussion and collaboration about pedagogy and instructional technologies.
The new FTI will be delivered in a conference style format where participants will be able to choose sessions that are the most attractive and relevant to their own professional development. Session types will include panel presentations, spotlight sessions, working groups, and a keynote address. During and in-between sessions there will also be spaces where participants can continue the conversation with colleagues and reflect on their own teaching practices.
When and Where:
The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Conference will be held March 8, 9, and 10 2016 at the College of Charleston.
Proposal Form:
https://goo.gl/3vnHUl
More than one proposal from the same individual may be accepted based upon space availability.
As you prepare your proposal to present, please check all information for accuracy, completeness, spelling, and grammar. Information associated with accepted applications will be used for conference app and web content. If this falls outside of your past FTI 1-1-1 or PLC commitment you may be eligible for an honorarium.
Submission Deadline:
November 5, 2015
Submission notification:
On November 23, 2015 you will be notified about the status of your proposal.
Selection Process:
All applications to present will be selected by TLT based on the following criteria:
Interest to multidisciplinary conference attendees
Content of presentation
Quality of presentation
Completeness and accuracy of application
