Exploring Teaching and Learning in Luddy – Page 13 – Making Connections through Teaching and Technology

Student Evaluations

Posted on May 18, 2021 by akesha

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 can use to support effective changes to their courses. The Association of American Universities has published a resource guide for strategies that campuses are using to incorporate evidence beyond student course evaluations: https://www.aau.edu/sites/default/files/AAU-Files/STEM-Education-Initiative/P&T-Matrix.pdf and a video discussion on student evaluation of teaching during the pandemic:

This video was recorded with the intent of planning. It includes strategies to consider going into Fall 2021.

Five Steps for Responding to Feedback from Students (from Ruth Proposki from UGA’s Center for Teaching and Learning)

Reflect. Before you look at your student evaluation scores and comments, think about what you are expecting. What went well in your course? What are some areas for growth/development/change?
Read and React. Look at your collected scores and student comments, then allow yourself to have an emotional reaction – good or bad – in response to the data.
Relax. Take a break. Process your emotions and prepare yourself to come back to the data with a fresh, more objective approach.
Revisit. Return to your evaluations and process them with a view to understanding your students’ perceptions and experiences in your class.
Respond. Make decisions about what you will and will not change in your course(s) and your teaching, based on the feedback your students have given you. Make some notes for yourself alongside your course materials, so that you can remember what you would like to incorporate and/or change next time.

If you would like help reviewing your feedback, I am happy to meet with you about how to review, respond to it, and or document it in terms of your portfolio/dossier.

Distracted Students

Posted on May 11, 2021 by akesha

Book Cover for Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It by James Lang. The background is that of lined notebook paper. The paper is covered in blue scribbles with bold reddish orange letters on top of the scribbles. — Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It by James Lang

One book I have put on my summer reading list for a re-read is Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It. e-book (On Order for IU Library), physical copies are available.

The book is written by James M. Lang, a Professor of English and the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption College in Worcester, MA. and author of the books, Small Teaching (https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/15430288). While numerous studies from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience have generated substantial evidence suggesting that multitasking while doing schoolwork has a significant detrimental effect on student learning and performance. Despite this evidence, students tend to embrace multitasking while doing homework, writing a paper, studying, or even during class (face‐to‐face or online).

Every educator, from kindergarten teachers to graduate and undergraduate schoolteachers, struggles with reducing distraction in the classroom. Lang bases his text on the premise that learning occurs in three interdependent steps: attending to a new concept, processing it, and being able to retrieve it—Lang demonstrates the interdependence of all three. Recent research sees digital devices as a major distraction for students.

This Quick Tip is a suggestion to review Chapter 3 – The Tech Ban Debate, which discusses “Prohibition Policies” that aim to stop distracted learning, especially involving the use of cellphones and laptops in the classroom . This chapter also discusses the “Anti‐Banning Side”, which makes the argument that the instructor should keep their students so engaged with the course content and learning activities (sometimes through the creative use of technology) so that there’s no time for distractions.

There is no one size fits all “right” answer, other than the innate need to incorporate engagement into the learning experience (both content engagement and human being engagement (i.e., between faculty and students and between students and students), no matter the delivery mode (see: DeBrook & Taghaboni‐Dutta, 2020 https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/03/18/how-make-online-learning-more-intimate-and-engaging-students-opinion)).

Lang tackles this problem by offering strategies for students and constructive approaches and tools to encourage attentive behavior.

PowerPoint Sections

Posted on May 4, 2021 by akesha

What Are PowerPoint Sections?

While PowerPoint Sections is a feature introduced in 2010, it is a hidden feature to many. Much like you use folders to organize your files, you can use sections to organize your slides into meaningful groups, categories, chunks, buckets, or chapters of a presentation for easier management. For instance, if you have many slides, you may find the content difficult to handle, edit, or even deliver. Even if you have a few slides, you may have the need to organize them logically into sections.

The Section option within PowerPoint enables you to divide your presentation slides into logical parts. It also provides you with a visual that can be used to estimate how long the presentation will take. Your audience won’t see the sections. They’re for the presenters and especially helpful in collaborative presentations. You can assign each colleague a section to make slide ownership clear during collaboration. And if you’re starting with a blank slate, you can use sections to outline your presentation.

Even presentations that do not have a large number of slides can benefit from Sections. However, the mere act of dividing slides into Sections will not achieve much unless you create and name these Sections in a proper manner to represent what the slides within each Section contain.

This image is from SideUpLift and is divided up into two sections. In the left section there is the PowerPoint icon and a drawing of a professor with puffy white hair and a pointer. The words SideUpLift appear below him. The right section has a small picture of an open laptop. Below the image are the words, "How to add sections to organize your ppt slide. — This image is from SideUpLift

How to Organize Your PowerPoint Slides by Adding Sections

In Normal view, in the thumbnail pane, click the slide that will be the first slide of the section.
On the Home tab, click the Section button, and then click Add Section.
In the Section Name box, enter a name for the section, and then click Rename.
To add more sections, select a new starting slide for the new section and repeat steps 2 and 3

That’s it!

Additional tips can be found here:

Trends in Higher Education

Posted on April 27, 2021 by akesha

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that IU has an institutional membership to EDUCAUSE that you can also benefit from. EDUCAUSE’s mission is to advance higher education using information technology. They recently released a couple of Horizon reports. These reports are compiled by “…an expert panels and [feature a] compendium of institutional exemplar projects from around the globe”. Each report focuses on macro trends the panel believe will impact higher education, based on observable evidence in the following contexts: social, economic, technological, environmental, and political.

The Teaching and Learning Edition provides insights on which key trends and emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education.

https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2021/4/2021hrteachinglearning.pdf?la=en&hash=C9DEC12398593F297CC634409DFF4B8C5A60B36E

The Information Security Edition details which emerging technologies are likely to have an impact on information security in higher education

https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2021/2/2021_horizon_report_infosec.pdf?la=en&hash=6F5254070245E2F4234C3FDE6AA1AA00ED7960FB

Preparing for Final Exams

Posted on April 20, 2021 by akesha

At this point in the semester you can help students by distributing sample questions to give them an idea of the types of questions that you will use. Review the thought processes behind the types of questions so that students understand how best to reason and solve the questions. The reason behind reviewing such information with students is that it allows them to see that the assessment tool is fair. When students believe that assessment is fair, their anxiety levels decline.

For constructing fair assessment tools visit: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/assesslearning/creatingexams.html

Free PD Resources

Posted on April 13, 2021 by akesha

Due to the pandemic and travel restrictions in 2020, many conferences on online learning shifted to a virtual format.At the same time, online learning saw a huge surge both in numbers of courses and enrollments. Virtual events accepted more participants, reduced or dropped (expensive) participant fees, and made post-conference resources available online. As a result, here are several recorded hours of video that can be considered professional development, available to you for free. Some of these resources have application in face-to-face settings. The resources are available to you via Class Central

This is an icon made by class central to promote free conference recordings on their site.

Additionally, IU has institutional memberships with the following organizations, which means you can participate in some of the membership resources benefits they afford for free or reduced costs as noted. In some cases, you may need to contact the campus or departmental rep listed on the site to find out what level of access you can engage.

Educause: https://www.educause.edu/
Instructional Designers Association: https://ida.qualitymatters.org/
The Sloan-C Online Learning Consortium: https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/

(Re)Designing your course

Posted on April 6, 2021 by akesha

I know the Spring has not ended, but many of you have started thinking about designing (or redesigning) courses for the Summer and Fall. As you start thinking about design and redesign, it may be helpful to watch this interview from a lecturer in the CS department at Purdue University, as he discusses how and why he redesigned his course:

As he discussed, the content of your course is based on the overall curricular goals for each program that have been determined by your department. This includes your course, and any required prerequisite courses (this may include some from secondary school for undergraduate courses), that establish a set of knowledge entering your course.

Moreover, your course may meet some of the core curriculum goals for the Luddy School, as well as the campus, again establishing expectations from the rest of the curriculum. As your course is likely part of a curriculum, this step will identify what your students must learn to be successful in the next course(s). So, as you embark on the design process:

Consider the courses students will already have taken before entering yours.
- Does your course have stated prerequisites? If yes, what are they? If you are uncertain, you can find course attributes at https://bulletins.iu.edu/iub/sice/2020-2021/overview/index.shtml (click on graduate or undergraduate to see the selection of courses.
- What knowledge/skills can you assume they already have? which may they need to revisit?
Look at the post-requisite course(s) that require your course as their prerequisite.
- What knowledge/skills do later courses assume that students will learn here? Unfortunately, it may be more difficult to identify a post-requisite course. Start by talking your department head.

Suggestion: If you have not discussed your outcomes with the instructors teaching the pre- or post-requisites recently, you may find it helpful to ensure that you agree about the expectations of your class.

Please let me know if I can be of help with your course design needs.

Inclusive Pedagogy

Posted on March 30, 2021 by akesha

The Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship at Georgetown University recently launched an Inclusive Pedagogy Toolkit. The kit looks at different aspects of teaching (pedagogy, content, assessments, climate, and power) and provides several key strategies for making classrooms inclusive, equitable, and meaningful. Each aspect has 3-4 key takeaways. For example, in the content section, the following themes are explored:

To the extent possible, include a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds in your course materials—and be attentive to the costs and accessibility of materials;
Voice a wide range of perspectives yourself;
Be transparent on content choices/course design; be explicit about organization and narrative of the course;
Name and discuss the agenda(s) and historical biases of your field/department.

For each theme, users of this toolkit are provided with an explanation of why the point is important, and strategies for implementation.

As you already know, in education, there is no one-size fits all approach to teaching. Best practices are the baseline and differentiation may be necessary based on all of the factors impacting your course. So let’s discuss at the next quick chat on Monday, April 5th, 2021, at 10:00 AM (please note the earlier time): https://iu.zoom.us/j/9550537245

Supporting Online Discussions

Posted on March 2, 2021 by akesha

One of the greatest challenges for faculty is that students often come to class not having completed assigned readings. This makes it difficult for them to participate in discussion, and it may also make it difficult for them to follow the material you have planned for the day/week.

Synchronous or Face-to-face: Spend 5 minutes at the end of class going over key points in the readings you are asking students to do for the next class period. This type of advance organizer will enable them to place what you are asking them to read in a more meaningful and comprehensible context. Spend 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class having students discuss (in pairs or in small groups) two or three quick questions about the readings. Students can assist one another in clarifying the readings, or bring their collective confusion, if any, to you. You may want to have students turn in notes (or a Google Doc) from their discussions, or something similar, as evidence that they had something to contribute to the conversation.

Asynchronous: Without the cues of co-presence in the classroom, it is more important than ever to direct students’ attention before they read, watch, or listen to something. These concrete experiences are the foundation of an effective learning cycle. It is useful to explain the purpose of the experience or give specific guidance on what things students should be paying special attention to or looking for. Students report greater engagement with readings when they are given specific sections or pages to focus on and a purpose for the reading. Tips about how experts in your discipline read an article, a primary source, etc. are also useful (Middendorf & Shopkow, 2017). (A brief example of this from history can be found here.)

Specific strategies include:

Anticipation Guides: Before viewing a lecture or starting a reading, students can be asked to take a minute or two to generate an anticipation guide (Major et al., 2016). Based on the previous content, the main topics, and keywords, each student generates their own list of questions they expect to be able to answer at the end. This can be completed as a mini assignment in Canvas where students generate 3-5 questions before viewing a lecture and submit the answers to their questions after viewing. A video introduction can provide an overview and explain how the activity will help students practice thinking like an expert.

Guided Notes with a Twist: Basic guided notes are outlines or lecture slides with missing words or content that students complete during a lecture (Major et al., 2016). A modified version focuses students’ efforts on higher-order thinking. The shared document includes the lecture agenda, key definitions, and spaces for note taking, plus targeted questions that ask students to apply, compare and contrast, elaborate, or make connections (Golas, 2018). These questions provide great moments to pause a lecture when students’ cognitive load may be reached and switch to different cognitive processes that reinforce their understanding (Harrington & Zakrajsek, 2017).

For pre-recorded lectures, students can pause the lecture to answer the question in their notes or the questions can serve as a discussion forum activity between recorded mini lectures. Students have been shown to be particularly engaged with these notes when they are the same kinds of questions asked on quizzes, major assignments, or exams. Tools such as TopHat, and Kaltura can be used to integrate questions within the lectures and record student responses.