Author Archives: Dr. Rayna Friendly

Using Piazza for Class Discussions – Sep.2019 Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP) Recap!

Hi Everyone!

SJSU’s September 2019 Teaching Community of Practice* (TCoP) Meeting was on the topic of Using Piazza for Class Engagement and Discussions. We had a special guest facilitator, Krissy Connell (Lecturer in the Child and Adolescent Development Department), who shared the various ways she used Piazza in her courses.

  • NOTE: For those who were unable to attend, the Zoom RECORDING of this meeting can be found HERE.

 

TAKE-AWAY POINTS ABOUT PIAZZA. The following are some of the key take-aways about the usefulness of the Piazza tool, highlighting how and why you might consider using it yourself in any courses you teach:

  • Krissy mostly uses Piazza as a discussion tool, since she has found increased student participation in discussions using Piazza, as compared to using the Canvas’ “Discussion” feature. She also points out that students can use this tool while studying, since they can benefit from seeing her responses to all the questions other students ask!
  • Some of Krissy’s favorite features of this tool include:
    • Ability to organize the discussion posts by FOLDERS (e.g., can organize according to course and by each lecture/module/topic you teach. Plus you cannot accidentally forget to label your posts by folder, since you are required to publish them to one of your folders upon posting)
    • Students can post questions, as well as responses to other students’ questions, ANONYMOUSLY (Krissy says this is the Student’s most reported favorite feature and has led to more students participating in discussions)
    • With one click of a button, the instructor can label students’ questions/responses as a “GOOD QUESTION” or “GOOD RESPONSE”, respectively. Krissy said that she does this for all posts because it makes students feel good to get this feedback
    • Instructor can also post to an individual section or to multiple SECTIONS of the same course at once
    • Students can create STUDY GROUPS and you can see, and comment on, their discussions, 
    • Instructors can create a POLL within a ‘discussion post’, ‘question’, or ‘note’ to her students
    • Instructors can send REMINDERS to students to comment on a post or discussion
    • Piazza’s “CLASS AT A GLANCE” tool shows instructors a dashboard summarizing recent Piazza activity by students, such as: # unread posts, # of follow-ups, average response time, etc.
    • The STATISTICS tab shows you trends in responses (good if there’s a requirement in your syllabus for course discussion)- this also shows trends by the folders you create!
    • You can set up Piazza to EMAIL you every time there’s a post, etc.
    • PEER EDUCATORS or TEACHING ASSISTANTS for the course can also answer questions from students, and instructor can review these to ensure they are good answers
    • EXIT POLL are a very useful feature that you can add to posts, where students are given the opportunity to indicate what they were confused about, how comfortable they are with what they are learning, and any additional questions they may have. 

Questions & Comments:

  • Q: Will this add too much complexity for students, teachers?
    • This is really easy for students to set up, because Piazza’s integrated with canvas!
    • They will just have to quickly register/login at the beginning of term, and can do so right from the Canvas course!
    • Super efficient and easy to post a question, poll, etc.! The text box has the usual text editor ( you can add links, change the font, etc)
    • Krissy’s biggest set up task is to create the folders (for each module, quiz, exam, etc.) at the beginning of term (however, this too is not difficult as you can “batch-add” folders, rather than needed to add one folder at a time)
  • Q: Is Piazza ‘worth the trouble’ to implement this my classroom?
    • Krissy thinks so! She emphasized that most students say they prefer this tool to Canvas’ Discussion feature, especially because they can post anonymously
    • Krissy thinks Piazza has so many more resources/tools for her than Canvas…she even removed the ‘Discussion’ tab from Canvas’ course navigation bar so that all discussions go through Piazza
    • Folders help you organize your discussions! Important because this way students don’t need to scroll through all their announcements to find old content, etc.
  • Q: Do you have to create a new set of folders for every term you teach?
    • Yes, but this is relatively easy. Simply go to “manage class > configure class folders” and then you can bulk-add folders!
  • Q: If you copy your course Canvas shell, does it copy the Piazza layout?
    • No, you would still need to make new Piazza folders, but this is not too much work
  • Q: Can you use Piazza in-class and online? Maybe integrate with quizzes online?
    • Krissy hasn’t tried looking for any quiz features, but there are a lot of features you can add-on to Piazza, ask eCampus!
  • Q: When students enroll and are added to Canvas late, are they added to Piazza automatically?
    • As soon as they are added to Canvas, they can enroll/register with Piazza
  • Q: What are some of the common challenges that your students experience when using it?

    • Students need to make sure they click on the correct folder to see relevant posts
    • Students who are uncomfortable with technology/ not using Canvas often might not use the tool much. However, students she’s asked have mostly said they liked Piazza, especially the anonymous feature!
  • Q: Do students get notifications when you post on Piazza through their email like they do with Canvas announcements?

    • Yes! Krissy can choose when the notification goes out (can save as a draft to send later) and who it will go to (to whole sections, individual students), and can even force-send an email to students who did not sign-up for email reminders.
  • Q: Can SJSU people contact you for more information?

    • Yes! Krissy said you are welcome to email her (krissy.connell@sjsu.edu) for more information
    • You can also contact eCampus for more information

 

 

*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 1: Bridge-In

Hello SJSU Community!

It’s Dr. Rayna Friendly again, here today to tell you about a model of lesson design that I learned and taught during my graduate/post graduate degree, which I use regularly to enhance my university teaching! In fact, this is the model taught to myself, and many others throughout more than 100 academic institutions worldwide during an intensive 3-day training event called the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) (Day, 2004). The formation and use of the ISW has been documented, yest more research needs to be done. 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). I hope to run the ISW at SJSU some day soon, but meanwhile let me tell you more about the BOPPPS model of lesson design!

‘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

Note that these components can be used across the lesson once, or even multiple times if your lesson is divided-up into a few modules. Throughout my blog posts, I plan to describe the components of this model in more detail. For today, let’s delve deeper into the first component: The Bridge!

The Bridge-In component of the BOPPPS model reminds the instructor to include a segway into the content they plan to cover. Rather than jump right in, this encourages us to remember what it is like to be a novice, learning the material for the first time. (I don’t know about you, but I always found it so frustrating when my professors would forget to connect their lecture content to previously-discussed content or to real life in some way. I remember thinking “Why is he/she telling us this? Why is it important or relevant?“). Thus, including a bridge can help learners understand how the upcoming lesson content connects to their lives and/or to previous course content, in meaningful ways!

Some Bridge Ideas:

    • Start off with a DEMO that relates the lesson content to a real-life example
      • (e.g., I use the idea of proving the theory “Santa Clause true/real” vs “Santa Clause is false” when bridging into the topic of falsification in the Scientific Method)
    • Start off by telling learners an ANECDOTE or STORY about a past experience that relate back to the lesson content
    • Start off by SUMMARIZING where you left off last class before going into today’s lesson content
    • Start off by asking learners QUESTIONS or asking them to REFLECT on their personal experiences that relate to the course content

Look out for my following blog posts to learn more about the rest of the components of the BOPPPS Model!

 

(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:

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.

F19 Welcome back! Setting up your course & TCoP invitation

Hello!

My name is Dr. Rayna Friendly and I am happy to have been invited as a Faculty-in-Residence blogger for eCampus this Fall 2019 term! Although my training and teaching is in the field of Developmental Psychology, I have also worked extensively on providing professional and teaching development opportunities for faculty and graduate students. Thus, my posts will mainly consist of tips and resources that I have found most helpful when developing my own teaching practice.

Today’s post will consist of: (1) a guide, which faculty (especially new faculty) can use to help set up and prepare their courses at the beginning of the term here at SJSU, and (2), an invitation to join the SJSU Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP) mailing list!

  1. My Guide for Preparing Courses for the Beginning of Term:

    The following are some of the  steps I follow when preparing my courses:

    First, I suggest visiting SJSU’s Center for Faculty Development (CFD)’s Seven Steps for Preparing Accessible/Inclusive Teaching to insure you are accommodating students to the best of your abilities. The link follows:
     

    1. Preparing my syllabus

      • I consult the SJSU Academic Calendar to check for campus closure/holiday dates and use this information when updating my schedule of topics for the term on my syllabus.
      • Then, I spend a lot of time considering and adjusting assessment (assignments, quizzes, tests, exams, etc.) descriptions and due dates…This planning takes me a long time but saves time during the semester since I’ve done a bunch of planning in advance)
      • I then check that the rest of my syllabus is updated (contact & office information, textbook & activity description, information about the Peer Educator I am working with in the new term, etc.)
      • Make sure university polices are updated on your syllabus, by checking (and using!) the wording carefully chosen by the CFD on their Accessible Syllabus Teaching Template: http://www.sjsu.edu/cfd/teaching-learning/accessibility
      • Here is an EXAMPLE of one of my syllabi from Spring 2019 (note: policies and such require updating, so please check wording using the CFD template above before re-using any of this on your own syllabi)

    2. Setting up My Canvas Course Shells

      • I first prefer to combine the 2 sections I teach of the same course into the same course shell (you do NOT need to do this, I just find it makes posting content for both sections easier, and you can still message each section individually if needed).
        • Here is an online guide: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10885-4214719646
        • I prefer my course shell to say “sections 1 & 2” (rather than just section 1), so I just emailed eCampus to ask them set up one of my course section’s with that name/detail added. Then I followed online instructions, like those above, to cross-list both sections to that course shell.
      • I aim to launch my Canvas courses with at least the following published:
        • A welcome message to my students (some instructors post a welcome video as well!)
        • The syllabus (I prefer to put my syllabus on a Google Document in Google Drive, and then embed the link on Canvas under “syllabus”. This way, when I make edits to the syllabus on Drive, they show up instantly on Canvas for students to view)
        • Information for students on how to set up their iClicker (which I use for my classes), as well as lists of any campus resources I feel could be useful to them (I create a module specifically labelled “Tips & Resources” for these. Many of these resources can be downloaded from Canvas Commons

    3. Then, I set up my courses on iClicker, since I use these in my classes.

    • I personally don’t use these for points – I just use it them participation, but many instructors use these for grades. Contact eCampus for help with setting this up!

    4. Last, I start creating/updating my slides for the term.

    • I aim to get at least 1-2 weeks ahead (more if it is my first term teaching or I am making large-scale changes to the course)

     

  2. Invitation to join SJSU’s Teaching Community of Practice (TCoP)

  • 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.

 

  • Why join the TCoP?

    • Attendance is flexible (in-person and online) and sessions are often recorded using Zoom, so you can watch them later if unable to attend!
    • There is a body of research that examines the efficacy of such Professional Teaching Communities (i.e. Communities of Practice) for both faculty and student outcomes (e.g., Vangrieken, Meredith, Packer, & Kyndt, 2017; Vescio, Ross & Adams, 2008), which suggest benefits for pedagogical advancements.

REFERENCES:

Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and teacher education, 24(1), 80-91.

Vangrieken, K., Meredith, C., Packer, T., & Kyndt, E. (2017). Teacher communities as a context for professional development: A systematic review. Teaching and teacher education, 61, 47-59.