Category Archives: Digital Pedagogy

Let’s Engage | Online Discussions

This month, we’ll take a look at the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principle of engagement – the “why” of learning for students. The CAST UDL Guidelines on Engagement provide more detailed information on multiple ways to motivate and tap into the interests of learners.

Image Source: CAST UDL Guidelines, http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Online Discussions as a Means to Engage Learners

“There is not one means of engagement that will be optimal for all learners in all contexts” (CAST, 2018) so in this post, I will explore one means that I have used  – online discussions. Online discussions are an integral component of online courses and can be used as an alternative means of expression for an in-person course to promote student engagement, facilitate the exchange of ideas, and deepen understanding of course content. For online courses, these discussions provide necessary social presence and interaction (instructor-student, student-student, and student-content) as similarly achieved in a traditional classroom and support student learning perception and a sense of community.

Purposeful design that incorporates online communication between students and instructors, as well as between students and peers fosters effective learning interaction (Johnson, 2017)

Online discussions require more than just an interesting question or prompt although this is a crucial component. Here are a few key features and resources to address in designing and facilitating asynchronous online discussions. 

Promote Netiquette and Provide Feedback Due to the absence of visual and auditory cues in online discussion forums, a netiquette policy sets upfront expectations for constructive online communication and behavior. Providing netiquette rules and guidelines lays the foundation for a safe, shared learning environment.

Active participation by the instructor reinforces the model behavior as established in the netiquette guidelines. Additionally, instructor involvement and feedback encourage student participation. Further, providing detailed feedback and comments to student posts early in the semester helps develop good habits and discussions that meet expectations. (Simon, 2018)

Set Clear Expectations A clear expectation of depth of discussion post, frequency, interaction with peers and instructor, and evaluation criteria facilitate better student engagement (Johnson, 2017). This helps students’ awareness of what is required and facilitates not only participation but engagement with peers and the content. There are various protocols for structuring online discussions but in general, all share a well-defined objective, set clear interaction roles and rules, and clarify deadlines. The Save the Last Word for Me protocol has been shown to support student engagement and ownership of discussion. (deNoyelles, 2015)

Add Relevance “Why do I need to know this?” is a common question amongst learners. The instructor can offer opportunities for students to see the relevance and value of course content by providing a question or prompt and connecting it to a current event or real-world model. 

Add multimedia Beyond text, student to content interaction can be boosted with the use of multimedia – image, audio, video, and animation. Visual tools engage students by creating a connection between student and content and reinforce discussions. (Harris, 2011) Further, “context-based videos in online courses have the potential to enhance learners’ retention and motivation.” (Choi, 2005)

Provide a Rubric for Assessment Online discussions can be assessed from a surface (participation) and/or deep level understanding (critical thinking and application of course content), depending on the learning objective and design for that particular discussion assignment. (Johnson, 2017)  Although online discussion assignments can either be graded or non-graded, graded posts incentivize both student participation and quality of posting. For graded discussion posts, the use of a rubric is beneficial as it defines assignment expectations (e.g., clarity, critical thinking, grammar, and word count) for both the student and instructor. Henri’s five key dimensions of content analyses can be used to evaluate the content and engagement level of student discussion posts and serve as the basis for the instructor’s own grading rubric.

Summary of Henri’s Five Dimensions of Content Analyses and Indicators for Engagement

Description of indicators Dimension
Student has participated in posting to the discussions area to the group. Participative
Student text focuses on interacting with other group members in a supportive way yet does not address the content topic. Social
Student responds to other group members by discussing specific items addressed by other members. Interactive
Student begins to ask additional questions regarding the topic content to other group members and begins to make inferences. This writing demonstrates development of his/her learning process on the topic. Cognitive
Student writing demonstrates that the student is reflecting on their content knowledge through a critical lens of self-questioning and self-regulation. Metacognitive

Table: Summary of Henri’s (1992) Five Dimensions of Content Analyses (Henri as cited in Johnson, 2017)

 

To learn more about the pedagogy of discussions, check out the eCampus Guide (Canvas log-in required).

 

Tech Tools to Facilitate Online Discussions 

There are various tools that can be used to facilitate online discussions. Canvas Discussions and Piazza are both supported by eCampus.

Canvas Discussions is probably the easiest tool to set up and use as it is a feature of the Canvas LMS. Canvas discussions can be graded or not and have the option to include a customized rubric. 

And, check out the upcoming February 17th eCampus workshop Canvas IV: Creating Community with Discussions, Groups, Chat, Collaborations, & Conferences (Online) to learn more about implementing Canvas Discussions.

Piazza is a wiki style platform that integrates with the Canvas LMS and encourages collaborative student engagement. Take a look at some Piazza Professor Success Stories.

 

 

References

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org.
Choi, H. & Johnson, S. (2005). The Effect of Context-Based Video Instruction on Learning and Motivation in Online Courses, American Journal of Distance Education, 19:4, 215-227.
deNoyelles, A., Zydney, J.M., & Seo, K.K. (2015, April). Save the last word for me: Encouraging students to engage with complex reading and each other. Faculty Focus. 
Farrell, M. (2018). Rethinking Online Discussions for Inclusion. 10.13140/RG.2.2.19115.28964. 
Harris, M. (2011). Using YouTube to enhance student engagement. Faculty Focus.
Johnson, C.E., Hill, L., Lock, J.V., Altowairiki, N., Ostrowski, C.P., Santos, L., & Liu, Y. (2017). Using Design-Based Research to Develop Meaningful Online Discussions in Undergraduate Field Experience Courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(6).
Simon, E. (2018, November). Ten Tips for Effective Online Discussions. Educause Review. 

⏰ It’s that time: Back-to-school is here

Welcome back from the winter break. The new semester always brings a fresh start and, of course, a flurry of activity to prepare for classes. As I ready my online course, I will also begin something new. For this spring semester, Dr. Jennifer Redd, eCampus Director, has invited me as a guest faculty blogger to share my experiences teaching with technology. Are you interested in redesigning your course to fully online or introducing technology into your in-person classroom? If so, I invite you to join me as I explore leveraging technology to enhance teaching and support Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. 

Teaching with Technology

Fall 2017, I began teaching fully online. However, my journey of using technology in the classroom began in 2014 – I created a Canvas course page for my in-person course; that was it. I did not input grades in Canvas much less use Canvas features such as quizzes. Not even one announcement post. But, I had a Canvas page and felt a bit tech-savvy incorporating edtech for “digital native” learners. Then, as I switched to the flipped pedagogy, I heavily integrated Canvas LMS functionalities into my curriculum – modules, quizzes, and publisher content. Fast forward a few years, and I marvel at the ways technology can be used to enhance learning anywhere, anyplace, any pedagogy. 

Universal Design for Learning framework

Ok, so what is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? According to the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), it is a “framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn.” Further, this framework guides the design of instructional objectives, assessments, and materials to meet individual learner needs. There are three overarching principles – multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression. 

Image Source: CAST UDL Guidelines, http://udlguidelines.cast.org

The full list of UDL principles and guidelines can be found on the CAST website. Also, the SJSU Center for Faculty Development has a resource page on UDL.

This spring 2020, monthly posts will share best practices, tools, and resources on how technology can be incorporated to support one of the UDL guiding principles, geared more towards fully online courses.

Getting Started: Are you tech-ready for the semester?

Last semester’s faculty-in-residence blogger, Dr. Rayna Friendly, shared her guide for preparing courses for the beginning of the term and it includes great tips and resources. As always, it’s best to start with your syllabus and learning objectives. Here, I’ll offer a few suggestions on how technology can be used in the classroom as you begin the semester. Yes, it’s already the first week of classes, but the benefit of technology allows you to (fairly) easily include some quick additions to your course using Canvas LMS functionalities.

In-person

  • Schedule a consultation with an eCampus instructional designer to learn about the Canvas LMS, university-supported edtech tools, and effective techniques to meet your curriculum needs.
  • Utilize your Canvas course site – every instructor automatically has a Canvas site each semester.

Instructure Canvas log-in image

URL: https://sjsu.instructure.com
Username : SJSU 9-digit ID
Password : SJSUOne Password

    • Set up a Canvas Course Homepage and include your contact info, office hours, short bio, and a course introduction.
      • NOTE: You first need to create a Canvas “Page” with your content. Then, set that “Page” as your “Front Page” so that it will display as the course homepage.
    • Upload a copy of your syllabus to your Canvas course site and save time, paper, and money.

When logged in to your Canvas course site, click “Syllabus” on the left-hand navigation bar

Image Source: Canvas LMS Community, https://community.canvaslms.com/

Click on the “Files” tab on the upper right side of the screen

Image Source: Canvas LMS Community, https://community.canvaslms.com/

Select “Upload a New File”

Click “Update Syllabus”

  • Utilize the Canvas Calendar and add important dates so that students are aware of key deadlines and high-stakes assessments.

Hybrid or Flipped

  • Include a “Welcome to the Course” message via Canvas Announcements. If you’re feeling ambitious, create a short video using Canvas, Zoom, or Camtasia.
    • Most easily, you can use the Canvas Rich Content Editor to record a video. Canvas only provides basic recording and editing while Camtasia offers more robust functionalities (and a steeper learning curve!). A 3-4 minute welcome video is ideal where you can introduce yourself and tell a bit about the course. And, make sure to include closed captioning!
  • Set up the Canvas Gradebook to include all assessment scores whether conducted in-person or online.
  • Incorporate online activities or assessments using Canvas discussions and quizzes, publisher test bank, and/or LinkedIn Learning.

Online 

  • Send a “Welcome to the Course” email to enrolled students before the first day of instruction.
  • Create a Class Introductions Discussion for the first week of class.
  • Include a low-stakes Orientation quiz in Canvas that assesses students’ readiness to navigate and access online course materials.

That’s it for now. Looking forward to sharing learner engagement strategies using technology in the next post.

Lesson Design Using the ‘BOPPPS’ Model – Part 4: Active Learning Strategies & Summary

Hello SJSU Community!

It’s Dr. Rayna Friendly again. In a previous post, I continued my discussions about a model of lesson design that I learned during my graduate degree, which is taught in the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW). The ISW has been run in more than 100 academic institutions worldwide (Day, 2004)! To date, the ISW has been found to be an effective way to transform instructor’s teaching in the classroom such that ISW participants were found to reduce their teacher-focused thinking in comparison to controls, as well as increase the number of active learning strategies used in their classrooms (e.g., Dawson et al., 2014; Macpherson, 2011). ‘BOPPPS’ is actually an acronym, which stands for the 6 basic components that are important to consider including when you are designing a lesson or workshop:

  • Bridge into the lesson
  • Outcomes for the lesson (as in Intended Learning Outcomes)
  • Pre-assessment of learners’ existing knowledge of those outcomes
  • Participatory Activities (as in Active Learning Strategies)
  • Post-assessment of learners’ knowledge of the outcomes
  • Summary of the lesson content

In my previous blog posts this term, I discussed majority of these components: the Bridge-in, writing Intended Learning Outcomes, and Pre/Post-Assessments of learner’s knowledge. Today, I would like to delve deeper into the remaining two components: Active (Participatory) Learning Strategies and the Summary. 

Active (Participatory) Learning Strategies. These are classroom activities and content that enable learners to be active in their own learning, rather than passively just listening to a professor lecture. I don’t know about you, but I certainly found that most of what I learned as a student was more enjoyable and “stuck” longer if there was an activity, reflection, or real-world application clearly tied to it. If not, it was much easier to “zone-out” or “nod-off” during a lesson. Studies within the last decade or so have found evidence that active learning strategies support critical thinking more than traditional lectures and can positively impact comprehension, retention, and problem-solving skills (see Cummings, Mason, Shelton, & Baur, 2017, for review). Here is a good list of different types of active learning strategies from UC Berkley, however, you can simply search Google for many other examples of active learning strategies that might work well for you. Some of the ones I use regularly include Think-Pair-Share, Brainstorming, iClickers, and self-reflection.

Aligning your participatory learning to your Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)! Recall from my previous post on ILOs, that it is important to ensure your assessments align with the ILOs for each class or program. Additionally, it is best to choose active learning strategies that also align with your ILOs! Recall the example ILOS below:

By the end of this class, students will be able to:

•Differentiate two types of metacognition
•Describe developmental trends in explicit and implicit metacognition
•Reflect on how you use metacognition for schoolwork
•Practice Active Listening, Meditation & “Mindfulness” to enhance your metacognitive abilities
For the first ILO listed, I could design a matching game where students need to match definitions of the two types of metacognition with their respective definitions. For the second, I may ask them to create a timeline with different age groups listed, and ask them to fill in abilities at the age they typically occur on the timeline. The 3rd could be a think-pair-share activity where students reflect to themselves first, then share this with their peers and the 4th could be 5 min of guided meditation in the classroom.

[Don’t forget the ] Summary! The final component of the BOPPPS model is the summary. In my opinion, this is easy to forget to include – especially as an instructor who finds themselves running out of time to cover all the content at the end of a lesson. However, it is also sometimes the most important information to include for students, who often tell me how useful they find it when I summarize the main “take-home” points of the lesson (which includes opportunities to review topics multiple times and indicates which information would be fair to be included on any tests or assignments). If you do run out of time in one class, consider using the beginning of the following class to summarize that material. Not only will it be helpful to the students, but it can also serve as a BRIDGE for the upcoming course content!

 

Well, that’s it for my eCampus blog posts this F19 term. Next term, I will still be facilitating the TCoP,  and encourage you to join the community!

  • The Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP) is a group for part- and full-time SJSU faculty (of all levels, across all departments), who are interested in enhancing their respective teaching practices. The TCoP will meet regularly, according to members’ schedules, to exchange strategies, tips and resources that have led to successful (and sometimes, less-than-successful) teaching experiences. Please fill out this form if you are interested in joining this community and you will be added to the groups’ mailing list. For inquires about the TCoP, please contact me at rayna.friendly@sjsu.edu.

 

 

REFERENCES:

Cummings, C., Mason, D., Shelton, K., & Baur, K. (2017). Active learning strategies for online and blended learning environments. In Flipped Instruction: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice (pp. 88-114). IGI Global.

Day, R., & the ISW International Advisory Committee. (2004). Instructional Skills Workshop: From grassroots initiative to international perspectives. Paper presented at the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Retrieved from http://iswnetwork.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hand5_ICED.pdf

Dawson, D., Borin, P., Meadows, K., Britnell, J., Olsen, K. & McIntryre, G. (2014). The Impact of the Instructional Skills Workshop on Faculty Approaches to Teaching. Toronto ON: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

Macpherson, A. (2011). The Instructional Skills Workshop as a transformative learning process. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC.

Incorporating Reading Apprenticeship (RA) Into Your Courses – Nov. 2019 Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP) Recap!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Dr. Rayna Friendly, and I am back again with a recap from SJSU’s November 2019 Teaching Community of Practice* (TCoP) Meeting.

This month’s guest facilitator was Alla Petrosyan (Technical Writing & English Instructor in SJSU’s Engineering Department), who recently completed RA (Reading Apprenticeship) training at Mission College and would love to share with the SJSU community how you could apply RA when teaching within your own discipline!

Below, I recap some of the valuable information Alla shared with us. Alla is also open to being contacted with any questions related to this topic, and her email is: alla.petrosyan@sjsu.edu. 

What is Reading Apprenticeship (RA)?

  • “Reading Apprenticeship is an approach to reading instruction that helps students develop the knowledge, strategies, and dispositions they need to become more powerful readers. It is at heart a partnership of expertise, drawing on what teachers know and do as discipline-based readers, and on adolescents’ and young adults’ unique and often underestimated strengths as learners.” (Reading Apprenticeship Strategic Literacy Initiative, WestEd, 2005, pg. 9). The point, I understand from this is viewing our students as “Reading Apprentices”, who learn from their teachers how to enhance their reading practice.

 

  • “Reading Apprenticeship helps students become better readers by:
    • Engaging students in more reading—for recreation as well as for subject area learning and self-challenge;
    • Making the teacher’s discipline-based reading processes and knowledge visible to students;
    • Making students’ reading processes, motivations, strategies, knowledge, and understandings visible to the teacher and to one another;
    • Helping students gain insight into their own reading processes; and
    • Helping them develop a repertoire of problem-solving strategies for overcoming obstacles and deepening comprehension of texts from various academic disciplines” (Reading Apprenticeship Strategic Literacy Initiative, WestEd, 2005, pg. 9) (For more information, see: https://readingapprenticeship.org/our-approach/ )

 

Why is RA important?

  • Alla explained that workshops on RA were set up by her colleagues at Mission College in order to address a gap in reading abilities that have been noticed for many of today’s college and university students. She highlighted that reading is such an important skill to help students’ learning process, yet higher education has reduced the amount of mandatory classes students need to take on reading skills. This, coupled with access to so much information online available to students at a moments’ notice, often leads to students not getting the same practice on reading strategies that may have existed in the past.

 

  • Alla also spoke to the expectations/assumptions teachers often have of their students, pointing out that we often expect students have certain basic writing and reading skills once they reach college, yet, they may in fact not have these skills (or at least, not many formal opportunities to practice these skills).

 

  • Thus, RA is a great framework for teachers to utilize in their courses, to help increase opportunities for students to work on and enhance their reading (and related) abilities!

 

What are some of the RA strategies teachers could try using in their courses?

  • Teachers can practice reading challenging/unfamiliar texts in front of their students, explaining the strategies they use!
    • This helps students see that even the teacher struggles sometimes when reading new material and encourages the teacher be “vulnerable” in front of their students. This helps students fell more confident to try reading practices, especially in front of peers or the teacher, without so much worry that others are judging them. 
    • Additionally, this lets teachers demonstrate the strategies they use when faced with difficult terms/texts!
    • For example, I often do this in my Research Methods class: I show the students how I go about reading Scholarly academic articles, which parts I skim over, and which parts I pay closer attention to. I also point out to them when something confuses me (such as a new term), and how I go about reducing this confusion (e.g., look up the term, re-read the sentence more slowly and out loud, etc.).
    • Karin, a lecturer at this meeting, also pointed out how something like this could help reduce the self-consciousness or anxiety she sees in many of her students.

 

  • Read, then summarize!
    • Because Alla teaches writing, she often has students do readings with the clear expectations that they will have to summarize the reading afterward. Sometimes these summaries are shared with peers, other times, she may have students read, then think out load trying to make sense out of what they just read.

 

  • Other strategies include, but are not limited to: Reading titles; Skimming; Looking for bolded/underlined words; Looking at the Pictures; Making reading part of the “class commitment” statement; Peer-to-peer reading activities.

 

How can I learn more about RA?

 

—

*What is the TCoP, you ask?

  • The Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP) is a group for part- and full-time SJSU faculty (of all levels, across all departments), who are interested in enhancing their respective teaching practices. The TCoP will meet regularly, according to members’ schedules, to exchange strategies, tips and resources that have led to successful (and sometimes, less-than-successful) teaching experiences. Please fill out this form if you are interested in joining this community and you will be added to the groups’ mailing list. For inquires about the TCoP, please contact me at rayna.friendly@sjsu.edu.

Lesson Design Using the ‘BOPPPS’ Model – Part 3: Pre-Post Assessments & iClickers

Hello SJSU Community!

It’s Dr. Rayna Friendly again. In a previous post, I continued my discussions about a model of lesson design that I learned during my graduate degree, which is taught in the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW). The ISW has been run in more than 100 academic institutions worldwide (Day, 2004)! To date, the ISW has been found to be an effective way to transform instructor’s teaching in the classroom such that ISW participants were found to reduce their teacher-focused thinking in comparison to controls, as well as increase the number of active learning strategies used in their classrooms (e.g., Dawson et al., 2014; Macpherson, 2011). ‘BOPPPS’ is actually an acronym, which stands for the 6 basic components that are important to consider including when you are designing a lesson or workshop:

  • Bridge into the lesson
  • Outcomes for the lesson (as in Intended Learning Outcomes)
  • Pre-assessment of learners’ existing knowledge of those outcomes
  • Participatory Activities (as in Active Learning Strategies)
  • Post-assessment of learners’ knowledge of the outcomes
  • Summary of the lesson content

In my previous blog posts, I discussed the first and second components: the Bridge-in, and writing Intended Learning Outcomes.

Today, I would like to delve deeper into the pre- and post-assessment components of the model: the Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment of learner’s knowledge. The action of including both a pre- and post-assessment in your lesson or program aligns with the practice of evidence-based teaching (e.g., Brickman, Gormally & Marchand Martella, 2017; Gormally et al., 2014; Henderson & Dancy, 2009; Henderson et al., 2014). I hate to break it to you, but teachers are people…and all people make assumptions. As a teacher, I often find myself making assumptions like “my students must find this lesson so boring, they are all on their phones or falling asleep” or “they stayed awake, meaning they must have found this information meaningful/interesting“. The problem with assumptions is that they often are inaccurate, due to being based on our own personal biases. We cannot know for certain what our students are thinking, or what they have learned, unless we collect EVIDENCE of this learning. Basing our teaching practice on evidence, rather than assumptions, can help ensure that we are using a student-focused, rather than teacher-focused, method of teaching. Let’s go into each assessment type in more detail:

PRE-assessments of learner’s knowledge enable us to find out how much the learner knows BEFORE we teach the course content. This can give the instructor a baseline measure knowledge, which they can use to adjust the upcoming content to the level of the learners. For instance, if all students in the class already know the steps of the Scientific Method, it may not make sense to go through these step with them in detail, and you may want to spend time going through real-life examples instead. The format of pre-assessments can be formal (i.e., pop quizzes, tests, essays, etc. which are worth points), but I generally prefer to use more informal methods which are not worth points, or are only worth participation points (e.g., asking questions about the content to students, brainstorming, iClicker Questions, quick 1-minute papers, entry tickets and so on). iClickers are quickly becoming one of my favorite assessment methods, and I discuss them more below.

POST-assessments of learner’s knowledge are the basis of school as we traditionally know it. Formal test, quizzes, essays, lab write-ups, and such are all forms of assessing student’s knowledge AFTER the course content has been taught. Although these are important assessment methods, they often take place mid-way or at the end of the course. So how do we assess what students have learned at the end of each class or module? There are many end-of-class assessment methods. Like above, these can include both formal and informal methods and many of the suggested above methods can be used again at the end of class. The goal is to determine if the students have gained any NEW knowlege after they have taken the pre-assessment and spent time learning course content. As in scientific research methods, if you use the pre-assessment as a baseline, then any additional learning that occurred can confidently be attributed to students having taken your class!

Don’t forget to align your post-assessment with your Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)! Recall from my previous post on ILOs, that it is important to ensure your assessments align with the ILOs for each class or program. In fact, writing your ILOs first can ensure you then choose assessment methods that correctly assess those outcomes. Consider the following ILO example:

By the end of this class, students will be able to:

•Differentiate two types of metacognition
•Describe developmental trends in explicit and implicit metacognition
•Reflect on how you use metacognition for schoolwork
•Practice Active Listening, Meditation & “Mindfulness” to enhance your metacognitive abilities
Here, the ILOs help me to determine the type of assessment to include. For instance, “differentiate” suggests that students just need to tell-apart the 2 types of metacognition, so I might test them using multiple-choice matching-terms-to-definitions questions on a test. “describe” suggests they need to use their own word, so I might test their knowledge of developmental trends using short- or long-answer questions on a test or through an essay. “reflect” could also be assessed on an essay, but also through in-class discussions. “practice” would be evaluated by creating an activity to allow students to try meditation and mindfulness out for themselves!

Consider using iClickers for some of your assessments! I love using iClickers in the classroom! These are offered for free to SJSU students and teachers, they are relatively easy to learn and use, and many of my students who self-identify as introverts have told me how much they appreciate getting to participate in class without having to talk in front of other people. iClickers essentially allow teachers to pose multiple-choice (and some other styles of) questions to students. Then students use an iClicker (downloaded on their device, or loaned from eCampus) to answer the questions anonymously. I use these in class just for participation, but you can also set them up for course credit and link to Canvas’ Grades functionality. In the simplest example of pre-and post-assessments, you could ask students the same questions at the beginning and end of the class, to see if there has been any change in student learning throughout the class. 

Look out for my final blog post this term to learn about the last two components of the BOPPPS Model: Active (Participatory) Learning Strategies and the Summary!

 

(Note that these BOPPPS posts might be interspersed with content updates from the Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP), which I facilitate.) What is the TCoP, you ask?

  • The Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP) is a group for part- and full-time SJSU faculty (of all levels, across all departments), who are interested in enhancing their respective teaching practices. The TCoP will meet regularly, according to members’ schedules, to exchange strategies, tips and resources that have led to successful (and sometimes, less-than-successful) teaching experiences. Please fill out this form if you are interested in joining this community and you will be added to the groups’ mailing list. For inquires about the TCoP, please contact me at rayna.friendly@sjsu.edu.

 

 

REFERENCES:

Brickman, P., Gormally, C., & Martella, A. M. (2016). Making the Grade: Using instructional feedback and evaluation to inspire evidence-based teaching. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 15(4), ar75.

Day, R., & the ISW International Advisory Committee. (2004). Instructional Skills Workshop: From grassroots initiative to international perspectives. Paper presented at the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Retrieved from http://iswnetwork.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Hand5_ICED.pdf

Dawson, D., Borin, P., Meadows, K., Britnell, J., Olsen, K. & McIntryre, G. (2014). The Impact of the Instructional Skills Workshop on Faculty Approaches to Teaching. Toronto ON: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

Gormally, C., Evans, M., & Brickman, P. (2014). Feedback about teaching in higher ed: neglected opportunities to promote change. CBE Life Sci Educ 13, 187-199.

Henderson, C. & Dancy, M.H. (2009). Impact of physics education research on the teaching of introductory quantitative physics in the United States. Phys Rev Spec Top Phys Educ Res 5, 020107

Henderson, C., Turpen, C., Dancy, M., & Chapman, T. (2014). Assessment of teaching effectiveness: lack of alignment between instructors, institutions, and research recommendations. Phys Rev Spec Top Phys Educ Res 10, 010106.

Macpherson, A. (2011). The Instructional Skills Workshop as a transformative learning process. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC.