As you design quizzes, projects, and exams, it’s worth pausing to ask: What am I really trying to assess? Too often, assessments measure peripheral skills like memorization, rather than the intended learning outcomes. For example, a timed coding exam may end up evaluating typing speed and syntax recall more than algorithmic thinking or problem-solving strategy…. Read more »
Assessments and Evaluations
Invitation to collaborate and Evidence-Based Classroom Assessment Techniques for STEM Courses
Help Shape the Teaching & Learning Group for 2025–2026 The Teaching and Learning Group is a space for faculty and teaching staff to come together around shared questions, challenges, and innovations in teaching. Each year, we co-create our discussion topics to ensure the group is responsive to what matters most in our classrooms and programs…. Read more »
Supporting non-majors in introductory computer courses
The article titled “Exploring Relations between Programming Learning Trajectories and Students’ Majors” https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3674399.3674497 investigates how students from various academic disciplines learn programming in a compulsory introductory programming course consisting of 75 students, with 40 majoring in CS and 35 in non-CS majors. “They were all freshmen without prior programming experience. Considering their similar scores of entrance… Read more »
“A Map Makes You Smarter. GPS Does Not.”: A Story About AI, Work, and What Comes Next with Jose Antonio Bowen
Jose Antonio Bowen is introduced as a Renaissance thinker with a jazz soul. His background includes leadership roles at Stanford, Georgetown, and SMU, as well as being the president of Johnstreet College. He is also a jazz musician who has played with legends, a composer with a Pulitzer-nominated symphony, and the author of “Teaching Naked,”… Read more »
Classroom Assessment Techniques
A new (2024) version of the classic book, “Classroom assessment techniques : formative feedback tools for college and university teachers” is available in the IU Library: https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/20750208 Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are simple, low-pressure ways to check how well students are understanding the material. These methods are efficient, student-centered strategies that provide valuable insights into… Read more »
Exam Debrief
Dawn M. Wiggins, a faculty member in the Mathematics Department at Illinois Valley Community College, argues that exam debriefs can help students see how self-defeating behaviors can negatively affect their results on an exam. However, the debrief she describes (including the questions she asked (see: https://oncourseworkshop.com/self-awareness/exam-debrief/)) goes beyond providing students with the correct answer on the test. Why… Read more »
Resource: Adapting Your Teaching to Generative AI Tools
In this handout created by educational developers Doug Holton & Ilene Frank, five ways to adapt your teaching to generative AI Tools are discussed: Check for or Prevent AI-Generated Work Utilize Synchronous Teaching & Learning Sessions Assess the Process, Not (Just) the Product Make Your Assessments More Authentic, Open, or Collaborative Incorporate AI Tools into… Read more »
Quick Tip: Wise Feedback and Assessment Resources
What is Wise Feedback? (From Temple University) Wise feedback is targeted feedback which conveys high expectations, the instructor’s genuine belief that those expectations can be achieved by the student and provides concrete information to help the student meet the expectations. Here, “wise” does not necessarily mean smarter or better. Instead, wise feedback refers to psychological… Read more »
Scaffolding Student Learning with Equity in Mind
In a presentation by Amy B. Mulnix, Director, Franklin and Marshall College, she described one quality of good teaching as having “equity mindedness” or approaching classroom interactions with the goal of closing achievement gaps that exist within your class. “I want to move us away from always thinking about equity-mindedness in terms of what we… Read more »
Rigor in Assessments
Rigor is defined by the U.S. Department of Education as the cognitive complexity of a skill within a standard or of an assessment item. While the working definition of rigor contains references to the “cognitive complexity,” we can simply think of this in terms of the verbs in the standard. Bloom Taxonomy Bloom’s Wheel is probably the “gold… Read more »