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 »
Assessments and Evaluations
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 »
Book – Assessing Student Learning by Design
If you have taken a course design course at the university level, you have most likely been introduced to the concept of Backwards Design: https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/course-design/index.html. The backward design process asks instructors to structure student learning around assessments that are intentionally designed to provide evidence that students have achieved the course goals. This concept comes from the classic… Read more »
Mastery Grading
Robert Talbert, Ph.D., Department of Mathematics, Grand Valley State University recently gave a talk (2021) on mastery grading. He explained that mastery grading aims to make grading a positive, useful, even enjoyable (?!) process by refocusing on grading for eventual mastery of well-defined learning targets rather than one-and-done assessments and points and focusing on instructive feedback rather than auditive point allocations. Campbell,… Read more »
Upcoming Assessment Conference
The Assessment Institute, https://assessmentinstitute.iupui.edu/index.html hosted by IUPUI and usually held in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the oldest and largest higher education event in the United States focused on assessment and improvement. This year, the institute is offering complimentary registration to this event, which will be held October 24-27, 2021, and feature approximately 400 unique educational sessions…. Read more »
Student Evaluations Part 2
Last week I sent out a quick tip about student evaluations. I was asked a couple of questions about how to collect feedback from students BEFORE the semester ends. One way is to add quick exit ticket at the end of your class. As the Harvard Graduate School notes, these temperature checks can be anything from a “…quick assessments of student… Read more »
Student Evaluations
The National Institute on Scientific Teaching recently started a conversation on how to consider feedback from end of course student evaluations of teaching in this turbulent and traumatic year of Covid-19. Most faculty find it difficult to consolidate the diverse perspectives received through evaluations and would like to gather more constructive and actionable feedback that they… Read more »