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Exploring Teaching and Learning in Luddy Indiana University

A couple of tips to help students with study/text anxiety

Posted on by akesha

Howie Hua, a lecturer in the Mathemetics Department at Fresno State University, recently shared a few tips he uses to help students reduce their anxiety when preparing for test.
One is called “Friends without Pens” and gives students time to chat about the exam before it starts in two rounds with the following structure: Students are given a free-response question, quiz, or challenging problem. In the first round is the timed “friends without pens” round, in which students are grouped together and can discuss— but not write about—the question. At the end of the time, students return to their desks for the “pens without friends” round, where they tackle the assignment in the traditional, independent sense.
This approach can be a scaffolding tool if students are being introduced to a new type

of assignment or a particularly difficult or challenging question.
In this one-minute video he tweeted, he explains how he develops collaborative study guides that student update via Google Slides: https://twitter.com/howie_hua/status/1505292108223049728

Curricular approaches for supporting stressed out students and additional resources.

Posted on by akesha

Hi All,

Stress affects all Americans regardless of age, gender, race, socioeconomic status or prior life experience. Typically, those who are experiencing stress report feeling “overwhelmed, worried or run-down” (Alvord et al., n.d.). Now more than ever, college students feel stressed in the university setting (Yorke 2004). These feelings are particularly acute among first- and second-year students who may be away from home for the first time and trying to adjust to college life (Misra and McKean 2000). Hsu and Goldsmith (2021) share that “while student stress and anxiety are frequently cited as having negative effects on students’ academic performance, the role that instructors can play in mitigating these challenges is often underappreciated” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8108494/. With a focus on STEM, these researchers describe evidence-based instructional strategies and classroom interventions, that instructors may employ to address and ameliorate student stress and anxiety. Additionally, they explore the roles that instructors may play in empowering students with skills that improve their time management, studying, and approach toward learning, with an eye toward ensuring their success across all their academic endeavors. 

Further, the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching has developed a teaching guide which identifies several behavioral, emotional and psychological signs of student distress and ways to minimize stress https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/keeping-stress-from-evolving-into-distress/

In a different vein – This webinar (sponsored by the Chronicle of Higher Education and available for download), begins a conversation about the policies and plans that college leaders and senior administrators can put in place to help ease the mental strain of faculty and staff https://www.chronicle.com/events/virtual/supporting-faculty-and-staff-mental-health. While this collection of articles are meant to address concerns about mental health in the research community: https://elifesciences.org/collections/ad8125f3/mental-health-in-academia

Inclusive Teaching Resources

Posted on by akesha

The Inclusive STEM Teaching Project, a NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program, is hosting a free, six-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from March 23 – May 4, 2022 via edX.  Join our community of over 4,000 faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and staff, and register for our online course this spring. By participating in this course, you will learn how to:
  • Advance your awareness, self-efficacy, and ability to cultivate inclusive classroom environments;
  • Support your development as a reflective, inclusive practitioner;
  • Engage in reflection and discussion around topics of equity and inclusion across a variety of institutional contexts;
  • Implement inclusive teaching methods in your classes which will remove common barriers and enhance learning in STEM for all students.
There are two options for participation: 
  1. Take the course asynchronous, on your own time (and place). 
  2. Take the online course and join a Learning Community based at IU that meets once a week for 80 minutes during the course run. Signup here. 

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The IU Expand Course, Teaching for Student Success: An Evidence-Based Approach, 2e – has added content on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice.  This set of three (3) modules is advertised to help you frame your own diversity awareness, which will guide you as you redesign your courses using DEIJ principles.  You can also share your new knowledge with the broader university community and help us build more equitable environments at IU. The content was designed by faculty at all of the IU campuses.

FACET will take a cohort through this course based on department or school. Please reply to this email and let me know if you would like for this to be coordinated. https://expand.iu.edu/courses/teaching-for-student-success-an-evidence-based-approach-2e?utm_campaign=Happenings&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Newsletter 

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Luddy Book Club 

A few people have signed up with ideas for readings (books and articles) related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice. Complete the form above if you would like to participate in a book club after Spring 2022 semester classes end .

Helping students engage in active learning during class

Posted on by akesha

Active learning is commonly defined as activities that students do to construct knowledge and understanding. The activities vary but require students to engage in higher order thinking skills such as critical thinking. Although not always explicitly noted, metacognition—students’ thinking about their own learning—is an important element, providing the link between activity and learning. In one of the largest and most comprehensive meta-analysis of the undergraduate STEM education literature to date, (Freeman et al., 2014), suggests that students performing in the 50th percentile, for example, of a class based on traditional lecturing would, under active learning, move to the 68th percentile of that class. https://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410
McConnell (1996) explored the effects and usefulness of active learning in the computer science classroom. He advocated for instructors to use proven active learning techniques in their classes despite perceived higher risks – Active learning [1] gets students involved in activity in the classroom rather than passively listening to a lecture…This is important, because students who are passive have a decline in concentration after 10-15 minutes in a 50-minute lecture [4]. pg 52 – https://users.cs.jmu.edu/adamses/Web/CS430/Lectures/p52-mcconnell.pdf – This article includes examples of active learning in a CS class.
The K Patricia Cross Academy https://kpcrossacademy.org/ has compiled several active learning techniques for you to consider in your teaching practice. Some of you (based on your bookshelves), will recognize K. Patricia Cross from the classic book: Classroom Assessment Techniques: a handbook for college teachers https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/4211327
Each activity at the Cross Academy includes videos and supplemental materials that you can use to customize for your teaching needs. I have a few of the strategies found at the Cross Academy below for your consideration:
As always, please let me know if I can be of help as you consider how to customize these activities for your classes, or if you would like to try different active learning strategies in your teaching practice.

Helping students engage in better discussions

Posted on by akesha

Preparing students to engage in meaningful small groups discussions can be challenging regardless the modality (face-to-face or online).  For example, some students might comment when they are unprepared, and mostly agreeing with what everyone else says, to earn participation points. While others may make claims without evidence supported by the readings and examples provided by the instructor. How do we help students learn how to meaningfully engage in academic discourse? This quick tip addresses how to support students who may not know how to participate in discussions.
In a handout, Weimer (2021) categorizes the different types of rhetorical moves that can be made in an academic discussion. The list below was developed from the research of Paine & Knight, (2020), who conducted an empirical analysis of interactions in 30 lab groups plus data collected on 91 individuals by using “the Exchange of Quality Reasoning scale…Most discussions (72%) did not use reasoning (level 0) or had reasoning by only one student (level 1)…only 5% of all discussions reached [the top] level 3, in which at least two students tied their claims directly to the supporting evidence with reasoning” (https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.20-03-0054).

Their coded data yielded these categories:

Analyze

Make direct references to the content; point things out.

Recall

Remind others of relevant information that helps to answer the question or solve the problem.

Repeat

Restate something that’s already been said but use different words to clarify the comment.

Extend

Suggest further analysis by building on or adding to what others have said.

Claim

Make a statement that proposes an idea, answer, or solution.

Reason

Defend a claim by offering evidence that supports the idea, answer, or solution.

Question

Ask a question about something confusing, not known, or of interest.

Affirm

Make statement that agrees with what someone else has said.

Focus attention

Direct the group’s attention to the task or to content relevant to it.

Teach

Explain something to someone who doesn’t understand or misunderstands it.

Drive discussion

Keep the group on track; move the discussion forward. What does the group need to do next?

Agree

Help the group come to consensus after disagreement; get as many group members as possible to agree on the final answer or solution.

Disagree

Respond to a claim by proposing a different idea, view, or perspective.

Other

Make a comment that’s off topic, unrelated to what the group is supposed to be talking about.
Weimer explains that each of these types of comments have value in a discussion. (“Yes, even off-topic comments, provided they don’t sidetrack the group. Sometimes the group just needs to take a break and a deep breath”).
While it is often the assumed that students have developed these types of skills prior to entering your class, it is also possible that while students have been exposed to these skills, they are at different levels of mastery, with some still needing support to succeed at holding academic discussions. It could be of benefit to help students in first- and second-year courses identify these statements while in a discussion that uses discipline specific content.
Additional Resources: 

PlayPosit

Posted on by akesha

You may have noticed an announcement when you logged into Canvas last month that announced that IU has a license for PlayPosit. But what is it?

It is a platform that allows you to add interactive elements such as questions and discussions into YouTube, Vimeo, and videos you create, as well as audio files. You can also watch real-time data and analytics to see where students are confused, and which topics need to be expounded upon. PlayPosit can also be linked to Kaltura and be used both inside and outside of Canvas.
Here is an example PlayPosit Video (which PlayPosit refers to as a bulb) on Photosynthesis: Sample Bulb 
Other ways PlayPosit can be used:
  • Repurpose Video Lectures: convert lecture recordings into review or prework for courses
  • Better Practice: leverage interactive video to provide a better practice experience for students (Homework Sets)
  • Decision Tree: add hot spots for branched learning/decision trees (good for simulation or choice tree experiences)
  • Playlists: build video and resources into a playlist that can be locked in progression, have threshold scores, certificates as well as gradebook pass back into Canvas
  • Broadcast: use PlayPosit for online synchronous classroom engagement (audience response system)
  • Peer Review: learn how to assign video submissions to a group of learners for a feedback process.

If you would like for us to request an interactive vendor demo for Luddy, please let me know a few days and times that generally work for you: https://www.when2meet.com/?14514636-ezgvK by Monday, February 14th, 2022.

Communicating with your Students

Posted on by akesha

Like us, students get a lot of messages in their inbox, which leads to students’ eyes glazing over, and then our messages get lost in the mix. How can we avoid that? Set up a consistent communication protocol that is shared with students the first week and then stick to it.

Here’s an example: Once a week, send students a message that includes what is upcoming along with other important information or announcements. Send that update on the same day each week so that students know that on Friday (or whichever day you choose) they will get a class update. We are going for quality rather than quantity. Yes, this takes a little planning ahead, but the resulting clarity of communication will pay off. You can preplan these messages via Canvas in part based on milestones such as upcoming exams or projects that need to be completed in multiple parts: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-delay-posting-an-announcement-until-a-specific-date-in/ta-p/1203.

This article discusses multiple ways to maximize communication through other means in addition to the announcements section, such as course webpage, and student-friendly assignment schedules: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-course-design-and-preparation/dont-spam-your-students-and-other-practical-communication-tips/?st=FFdaily%3Bsc%3DFF210222%3Butm_term%3DFF210222&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Don+t+Spam+Your+Students+and+Other+Practical+Communication+Tips

Canvas Chat

Posted on by akesha

For a low-tech method that you can use outside of Zoom, perhaps for office hours, try the Canvas Chat feature. It’s not very complicated, but you can have it turned on in your class to use as an option for virtual office hours or for a quick full-class brainstorm. When enabled in the course Navigation menu, Chat is available for use by anyone in the class. Note that there is no direct messaging in Canvas chats. Everyone in the course can access the Canvas chat history and students cannot delete chat comments.

Here’s a link to Canvas’ chat overview page developed by UITS: https://app.teaching.iu.edu/tools/canvas-chat and here’s a short tutorial video about the chat function: https://vimeo.com/78177139
You can start a chat for office hours by saying something like “Hi everyone! I’m working through some of the practice questions you have in preparation for our upcoming quiz. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. I hope you’re all having a productive afternoon!” If you turn on audio alerts, you will hear a ​tone if Chat is open in Canvas but is not the active browser window, allowing you to be available to your students while you continue to work on other tasks.
Another plus to using the chat function is that questions are kept in a semi-public space and out of your inbox. This way all students in the course can benefit from seeing the questions and answers, which helps them, and you (hopefully) don’t receive multiple emails about the same question.

Creating Recordings for Class

Posted on by akesha

Where possible, consider recording the first lecture (or two) for those that may be precluded from attending in class sessions due to illness or quarantine.The recording does not need to be professional or pretty, just have the notes and voice

There are a couple of quick options for recording while in class.

For example, you can use Zoom to share your presentation (if doing slides) or just point the laptop’s camera at the screen and rely on the laptop’s microphone.  A button on the bottom will allow you to record instantly.

Similarly, Kaltura can be used to capture your lecture: https://kb.iu.edu/d/apac#sched You can schedule KCC recordings to automatically record your recurring class sessions. To request scheduled KCC recording, go to kaltura.iu.edu and click Request Lecture Capture. When using scheduled recording, you’ll need to log into the classroom’s instructor computer. If no one is logged in, scheduled recordings will not occur. Students will be highly appreciative of even the effort to help them through this challenge.

Revisiting Learning Outcomes

Posted on by akesha

Learning Outcomes describe what you expect students to be able to do by the end of the course.  They are not just what is covered in the course, but rather what students should be able to demonstrate or accomplish based on the instruction they received.  Thus, learning outcomes normally include action verbs like solve, analyze, select, and justify, design, etc…
Learning outcomes should be specific and measurable.  The action verbs typically inform how one might measure the student’s ability to meet the learning outcome.  At the course level, there are typically 3-5 Learning Outcomes that cover much of the content of the course.
In a paper by A. Gomes and F. B. Correia, “Bloom’s Taxonomy Based Approach to Learn Basic Programming Loops,” 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2018, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1109/FIE.2018.8658947
Researchers organized a test, using the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, where all the questions were about the programming loop topic. Using a statistical analysis based on the grades students obtained on each question of the test, the authors concluded that the approach they followed has clear pedagogical advantages to weaker students, making them more confident and motivated and allowed teachers to use adequate strategies to each of the identified students’ difficulties. Section 2 of the paper discusses how this taxonomy can be applied to programming classes.
If you need help thinking about and writing learning outcomes, please let me know a good time to meet.
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