Teaching Tips
Writing Consortium Tips to Share with Faculty Winter-Spring 2010
Initiated by :
Sally L. Kuhlenschmidt, Ph.D.
Director, Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET)
Professor, Department of Psychology
Western Kentucky University Bowling Green
When Doing Less for Students May Help Them Learn More
If your philosophy includes the notion that students should leave college more independent and self-reliant than when then entered?-or if you have ever used the words entitled and students today in the same sentence-Read on.
1. Develop (and carefully explain) a communication system that requires students to do assignments in a timely fashion and plan ahead.
Use email for student questions, student attendance messages to you, and your messages/assignments to the total class. Avoid writing more than a sentence reply. Use class sessions for answering questions, clarifications, and discussion. With this method all students can benefit, you explain it one time, and students don't wait until the last minute to discover their questions.
If you check email only Monday through Thursday, 8 to 5, communicate this, and ask students to plan ahead because you aren't available Sunday night before an exam.
2. Suggest steps that students can take to solve academic problems, alerting them to use resources and people and to consider schedules.Often these steps mirror what adults do in order to solve life problems (such as a broken home appliance):
- review your notes or course text material (read appliance instructional manual)
- check with a classmate (seek advice from your neighbor)
- come to office hours (call Sear's appliance repair department)
- ask the professor in class (schedule a home repair visit)
Asking students to get their first exposure to course topics out of class not only encourages responsible behavior but also creates a mental set for class. Start with short, high interest readings and give short (3 questions) beginning of class (or online before class) quizzes on key ideas. I prefer to have students assess/score (3-2-1-0) their own and submit.
4. Craft student-made rubrics for student-constructed assignments/projectsStudent-constructed projects (e.g., essays, posters, art projects) have essential criteria and performance levels. Bring in a ready-made example project and ask students to determine the essentials (4-6 optimum) and what a beginning, satisfactory, and stellar fulfillment of each criterion would be. Type up as a rubric and distribute, thus providing students an understanding
of :
- (1) the project's essential criteria,
- (2) the levels of performance,
- (3) a road map for doing their project, and
- (4) the assessment tool for self, peer, and teacher evaluation of the final project.
5. Guide students to monitor their own progress on assignments
Set aside class time to discuss dividing assignments into segments, the steps toward completion of each segment, and a tentative timeline. At a couple critical times throughout the term, discuss (and collect?) have done and have yet to do lists with students.
6. Limit your corrections and lengthy identical feedback on student papersWhen you correct students??writing, do they truly learn the writing rules or merely copy your edits? If the latter, consider making a hash mark(s) in the margin of a line with error(s) and asking students to find and correct their own errors. Another rule of thumb is to mark only the first 10 mechanical errors in a paper, and then ask students to correct the remainder and resubmit. For general feedback to the entire class, consider putting only letter codes by errors on individual papers (e.g., RO for run-onsentence) and either (1) preparing a page of explanations (codes and the rules) and distributing or (2) giving oral explanations (with examples) as part of a total-class-feedback session.
Submitted by:Dr. Cynthia Desrochers
Institute for Teaching and Learning, Faculty Director
California State University, Office of the Chancellor
401 Golden Shore, Long Beach, CA 90802
Email: cdesrochers@calstate.edu
Recall and Relate
To prepare students to thoroughly understand new material, plan an activity that bridges their existing knowledge of the topic to the new information you're planning to introduce. In particular, recall and relate activities can help students focus on the new instructional material and process it more effectively.
Recall : One way to help students link old and new can be a simple review of previously learned facts, concepts, or procedures that are associated with the new material. Students may appreciate having their memories refreshed before they start processing the new material. It will also allow you to learn what students already know and understand before making your own instructional points.
Relate : Another way to prepare students for new information is to help them cognitively put the new knowledge into an existing framework. Pose a question or series of questions that stimulate thinking and focus on the instructional topic. Ask questions that have several possible answers (Example: Why does an employee quit? How can you tell how intelligent someone is?). Promote a discussion that probes student opinions, hypotheses, or conclusions. As the classroom discussion advances, point out similarities or differences between the new knowledge and old knowledge, so that the new knowledge is tied to the old.
Submitted by:Faculty Development Center
Bellarmine University
Louisville, Kentucky
Email : dgriffin@bellarmine.edu
Digital Case Stories as Teaching Resources
Interested in trying out some new teaching strategies? Want a quick and engaging resource on best teaching practices without having to wade through long articles or read lengthy books when you have limited time? Interested in hearing about methods to enhance teaching and learning from faculty in similar disciplines with records of success?
Visit the ELIXR website which offers a digital case story repository that hosts discipline-specific multimedia stories. All the stories are brief, applied, and demonstrate exemplary teaching practices for a particular topic.
You will find digital case stories on various topics such as Active Learning Strategies, Small Groups, Integrative Learning, Knowledge Surveys, Creativity, ConcepTests, and Just in Time Teaching to name a few.
You can search by topic or related discipline to find just what you need. Take some time to explore ELIXR!
Dr. Tasha J. Souza, Professor of CommunicationFaculty Development Coordinator & Communication Across the Curriculum Coordinator
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), Humboldt State University
Contacts: (707) 826-4772, NHW 233.
Encourage students to evaluate the quality of information sources
One strategy to use to encourage students to evaluate the quality of sources located in a data base search for an annotated bibliography is to require that students locate a larger number of potential scholarly sources for their annotated bibliography than will be required as the "minimum" number of scholarly sources cited in the final paper. Additionally, you might require that each student identify 2-3 sources that they initially thought would be useful sources for the project but later decided that the sources were not relevant or were not useful. Ask students to explain in their annotated bibliography why the rejected source looked promising at first and then explain why the source was ultimately rejected as a suitable source.
When students identify and examine more materials than they are required to include in the final submission, they can break away from the habit of including every source they locate to meet minimum resource requirements for an assignment. Students can then begin to evaluate the merit of including these materials as cited sources. These decisions are an important component of the scholarly evaluation of source material.
Submitted by:Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D., Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL 32514
(850) 857-6355 or 473-7435
It's in the Cards
As a graduate teaching assistant in a large state school, I regularly taught two full introductory French or Italian courses every semester. Due to the size of the program, from one semester to the next, I rarely had more than a few students that had studied with me previously. Consequently, I struggled to learn all the new names and engage my students from the very first day, which is paramount in languages. I tried different techniques with varying degrees of success but still I often forgot names or called students the wrong name. Not only was this awkward, but I also found myself not calling on those students whose names I did not know or felt some doubt about. The students quickly separated into two groups, those who participated actively and those who sat in the back row unengaged. That is until a new coordinator, Dr. Caroline Nash, arrived and showed me the note card technique, the effectiveness of which is matched only by its simplicity. Accordingly, on the first day of class, students fill out a note card with their name, major, and an interesting fact about themselves. The interesting fact can be anything but often involves hobbies, travel, past accomplishments, or future ambitions. The instructor then uses the cards to call on all students in random order when doing warm up drills, class exercises, or homework corrections. If a student is absent, the instructor sets his or her card aside. This system eliminates the stress of learning many new names quickly and gives the instructor a point of departure to get to know the students personally based on their majors and interests. It also levels the playing field for the students. When the instructor picks up the cards, all the students know that they will be called on to participate in class and thereby counteracts any unconscious partiality on the part of the instructor. And, when class is over, the stack of cards of absent students is handy for keeping roll. To sum up, the note card technique allows instructors to:
- Learn student names quickly and easily
- Get to know students based on majors/interests
- Divide class time fairly and engage all students
- Keep roll while doing "real" work
This tip I picked up as a graduate student has served me well over the last ten years. I also believe it gave me an edge in job interviews because I could engage students more directly than other candidates during teaching demonstrations.
Submitted by : Julien Carriere, Ph.D.Assistant Professor of French & Italian
Bellarmine University
Email : jcarriere@bellarmine.edu
10 Tips for Effective Presentations
1. Create goals. What do you want your students to learn?2. Reduce content. Make it simple.Too much content in a presentation can do the opposite of what you want your students to take away. There is so much to remember; they remember almost nothing. By reducing content, we give students time for thinking and therefore providing those 'takeaways.' [1]
3. Make it clear. This provides students with some direction so they know where they are headed. Emphasize the two to three major concepts at the beginning and conclusion so your students will know what you deem important and what is expected of them.
4. Don't let the technology be the presentation. You want the students to focus on you and the concepts you are discussing, not your presentation tool.
5. Observe the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. Venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki says a presentation should have 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes, and contain no font less than 30 points. [2] However, research shows even shorter presentations (approximately 12 minutes or less) are more effective for maintaining attention. Try building in activities for each concept before you hit that 12-minute mark. This will break up the "presentation" and give time for critical thinking.
6. Use visual aids that are simple, easy to understand, and support the concepts you are trying to convey without too much clutter or animation. Visuals help students to learn more readily and retain more information. Using graphs and charts forstatistics or data can often help drive home a point more clearly.
7. Add variety and interaction. Remember, your class will have students with a variety of learning styles. If you only teach to one style you will lose everyone else. This means adding visual, audio, and kinesthetic formats where appropriate. When students engage actively with material, they generally understand it better and remember it longer. [3] Begin lectures with questions/problems for the students to consider. Invite students to participate. Using a tool such as Classroom Response Systems, i.e.: Clickers, can be valuable in active learning. Research has shown that clickers increase attendance, increase participation, and increase student enjoyment (Bruff 2009). [4]
8. Resist the urge to read your slides. If you read every word, you will definitely lose your students' attention. Limit one idea per slide.
9. Move around the room and make eye contact. A presentation remote gives you the flexibility of advancing your slides from anywhere in the room. Making eye contact is important in maintaining the attention of your students.
10. Plan for a disaster. Consider what could go wrong. Maybe the network is down or the computer won't be working. Always have a back up.
Effective Presentation Tools
Sometimes they say it is all about the tool. Again, the tool is there to support you, not be the focus. However, there is a mass of technology tools for presentations. Below is a list of the some of the more popular, suggested presentation tools.
| Tool | What does it do? | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Jing | Easy to use screen capture software. Add visuals to documents, online conversations, and more. | Free |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | Slide presentation software. | $ |
| Keynote | Slide presentation software.(Mac only) | $ |
| Flash | Creation of animation, interactive forms, games. | Free |
| Camtasia | Screen video capture software. Record on screen activity; captioning. | $ |
| Prezi | Live and on web presentations. | Free, $ |
| OmniOutliner | Flexible program for creating, collecting, and organizing information. | Free, $ |
| iStockphoto | Member-generated image and design community with over 4 million photographs, vector illustrations, video footage, audio tracks and Flash files. | Free, $ |
| Flickr | Online photo management and sharing application. | Free |
| SlideShare | Web-based slide sharing application. | Free |
| LecShare | Creates accessible PowerPoint files. LecShare Pro has audio/video capabilities for $20 upgrade. | HSU license |
Resources :
Effective Presentations (Bauer, 1998)
Tips for Teachers: Twenty Ways to Make Lectures More Participatory (Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, 2006)
My Current Presentation Tools (Hyatt, 2009)
The Key Steps to an Effective Presentation (Eggleston, 2009)
Submitted By :
Kimberly Vincent-Layton, MBA
Instructional Technologist
Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching
Humboldt State University, 707.826.6112
A Good IDEA for Learning
Ever walked out of class with that elated feeling where you just know you taught a good class? Perhaps a student or two even said something to you afterwards or paid you the supreme accolade with the text "U dun good." But did you? And while your students might have felt euphoric afterwards, did they learn anything? And, more importantly, can you prove it?
By way of background, most of us know the Nosich (2001) strategy of how to introduce a "fundamental and powerful concept" (Learning to Think Things Through, Upper Saddle River, NY: Pearson, 40). S-E-E-I (sometimes called the SEE-ing I) is a critical thinking process for clarifying a concept, wherein students are asked to:
- State the term
- Elaborate on it (in your own words, not the instructor's or the textbook's)
- Exemplify (find an example not used by text or teacher)
- Illustrate it (with a metaphor, simile, analogy, a diagram, or a concept map [34]).
The Nosich strategy is usually used when you first present a new concept to your class. Some instructors use it immediately after introducing the term, though SEE-I can be an excellent class closer for evaluating whether students grasped the notion or even homework.
We have, however, a complementary strategy for that end-of-class assessment when you really want to find out if your students learned something.
IDEA is another four-step critical thinking assessment that provides you with instant feedback, not only on whether students are picking up on what you are broadcasting but also whether they are achieving any kind of deep learning. In specific, IDEA helps you determine whether students can transfer concepts from the classroom into other areas of life.
Here? how IDEA works. As with the SEE-I, stop class five to ten minutes before the final bell, and ask your students to write down four things:
- Identify an important concept you learned (at some level) today.
- Describe why you think the concept is important.
- Elaborate what questions the new concept brings to mind.
- Apply the concept to some area in your life.
Students don't have to write much, for a little tells you a lot. And there's a bonus. Having students go through this four-step process actually helps to embed the process deeper in their minds.
Importantly, while a simple IDEA provides a victory for both you and your students, it also can confirm for you that some learning did or did not take place.
Submitted By :Hal Blythe
Charlie Sweet
Teaching & Learning Center
Eastern Kentucky University
Survival Tips for Final Exam Week
Grading- Remember that judgment is a part of every grade, whether it is what to measure and how to measure it or how to assign a point value.
- If your criteria for learning are clear, then it is easier to score and score consistently. Rubrics help you score more efficiently and in a way that students can understand how to improve. Visit http://www.wku.edu/teaching/goodybags/critthkgrubric.doc for an example of one rubric.
- Pace your grading so you remain fresh. Try to do all of the same thing at the same time as it is more efficient, e.g., all of essay question one, then all of essay question two.
- Make notes about things you want to change in your next set of instructions, based on common student errors.
- If the paper isn't going to be returned to the student, don't mark a lot of feedback. Just enough so if there's a question you can recall the basis for the grade.
- And, to conform to state law on records destruction, if the item contributes to a student grade, then destroy them 1 year after the date the grade is assigned.
- Visit our "Help with Assigning Final Grades" booklet to uncover variables to consider for grades falling on the borderline.
- Beware of unplanned extra credit. At this point in the term it is usually done badly. And incompletes easily turn into F's.
- Do recheck your syllabus grading policies and your math to rule out if it is your mistake. If it is your mistake, then own it.
- You don't have to decide anything in the moment. Wait (but not past the grade deadline) until you and the student are calm. Everyone is stressed and we don't make good decisions when stressed.
- Be very careful about handling issues via e-mail. It is usually far better to call the student on the phone. And remember that if a parent calls, there are FERPA standards that limit what can be said. Refer to the department head, dean or registrar.
- You can be empathetic without changing your standards.
- Some students will always complain, no matter what you do. The bottom line criterion is whether the student product matches the learning objectives of the course.
- Confirm via TopNet any claim that the student makes about his/her progress. Remember that your course isn't the "only one" keeping a student from graduating. It is his/her entire track record.
- Record the events surrounding the grade complaint, keeping any e-mails or assignments, in case it moves to the department head level. Warn the department head of the most problematic situations.
- Visit the fantasy software Grader 2.95 http://www.wku.edu/~sally.kuhlenschmidt/fantasygrader.htm
Sally L. Kuhlenschmidt, Ph.D.
Director, Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET)
Professor, Department of Psychology
1906 College Heights Blvd. #11095
Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY 42101-1095
FaCET: 270/745-6508, FAX: 270/745-6145
Encourage students to evaluate the quality of information sources
One strategy to use to encourage students to evaluate the quality of sources located in a data base search for an annotated bibliography is to require that students locate a larger number of potential scholarly sources for their annotated bibliography than will be required as the "minimum" number of scholarly sources cited in the final paper. Additionally, you might require that each student identify 2-3 sources that they initially thought would be useful sources for the project but later decided that the sources were not relevant or were not useful. Ask students to explain in their annotated bibliography why the rejected source looked promising at first and then explain why the source was ultimately rejected as a suitable source.
When students identify and examine more materials than they are required to include in the final submission, they can break away from the habit of including every source they locate to meet minimum resource requirements for an assignment. Students can then begin to evaluate the merit of including these materials as cited sources. These decisions are an important component of the scholarly evaluation of source material.
Submitted by :Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D., Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL 32514
(850) 857-6355 or 473-7435
Encouraging Meaningful Discussion in Threaded Discussions in Online Courses
Threaded discussions can seem like a useless exercise in make-work if large numbers of students are required to contribute to a single threaded discussion in an online forum. In some cases, the most substantive comments and questions may be exhausted after the first few posts and remaining students have difficulty doing much more than posting a "me too"comment. This problem can be resolved by creating small groups for threaded discussion of a given topic. Because students in a smaller group will only see the contributions of their group members, several students will have independent opportunities to make these substantive comments. Instructors can use their role as facilitator to ensure that unusual and valuable contributions posted by a student in one group are included in the discussions of other groups by posting these unique contributions to the discussion threads of the other groups or by discussing unique discussion group contributions during class.
Submitted by :Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D., Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL 32514
(850) 857-6355 or 473-7435
Improving project management: Deadlines as the solution to overconfidence in estimating time to complete a project
One characteristic of the cognitive problem of overconfidence is the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a project. This overconfidence may be fueled in part by a phenomenon known as confirmation bias, the tendency to selectively retrieve and attend to information that is consistent with a preferred hypothesis (rather than searching for evidence that the hypothesis might be wrong). When estimating time to complete a project, people tend to prefer the hypothesis that the project is manageable, resources will be readily available, and no unexpected events will occur that will create obstacles to progress or otherwise delay project completion. Of course, resources are frequently more difficult to obtain than anticipated and various events (increased work load in other courses, changes in off-campus employment demands, family emergencies, illnesses, auto accidents, weather events, etc.) can produce delays that push back initial deadlines.
The solution to this problem is to create multiple deadlines ("milestone" deadlines) throughout the term for a large-scale project that is due at the end of the term. Although this strategy might strike some as "hand holding," this suggestion is consistent with "real world" practices for managing procrastination. Wistrich (2008) examined the effect of procrastination and the problem of failing to meet deadlines associated with filing legal claims within the statute of limitation. Wistrich notes that imposing a deadline improves task completion. Setting long-term deadlines not only fails to improve task completion, allowing a long time for task completion makes the task resemble a task that has no specific deadline. Tasks with self-imposed deadlines or no clear deadline are least likely to be completed. Thus, short deadlines increase the likelihood that tasks will be completed on time and multiple, spaced deadlines for a large project are more likely to result in successful task completion than a single long-term deadline.
Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994) Exploring the "planning fallacy" Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 366-381.Newby-Clark, I. R., Ross, M., Buehler, R., Koehler, D. J., & Griffin, D. (2000). People focus on optimistic scenarios and disregard pessimistic scenarios while predicting task completion times. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6, 171-182.
Wistrich, A. J. (2008). Procrastination, deadlines, and statutes of limitations. William and Mary Law Review, 50, 607-666.
Submitted by :
Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D., Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL 32514
(850) 857-6355 or 473-7435
Refrences :
[1] Nelson, C.E. (2001) What is the Most Difficult Step We Must Take to Become Better Teachers? National Teaching & Learning Forum, 10(4), 10-11.
[3] Twenty Ways to Make Lectures More Participatory from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University.
