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Miscellaneous Resources on Teaching
November 16, 2010
Web Resources on Course Design
Dee Fink, author of Creating Significant Learning Experiences, has launched a web site with resources on how to design courses that encourage student engagement and produce better student learning. http://www.designlearning.org/
The web site includes examples of course designs and links to useful print resources related to course design. An especially good resource on this site is the report, Enhancing student learning through effective formative feedback (2004).
Juwah, C., Macfarlane-Dick, D., Matthew, B., Nicol, D., Ross, D., & Smith, B. (2004). Enhancing student learning through effective formative feedback, York, UK: The Higher Education Academy (Generic Centre).
April 13, 2010
What is Universal Design of Instruction?
Universal Design of Instruction (UDI) is an approach to teaching that consists of a proactive design and use of inclusive instructional strategies that benefit a broad range of learners including students with disabilities.
The seven principles of UDI provide a framework for faculty to use when designing or revising instruction to be responsive to diverse student learners and to minimize the need for "special" accommodations and retrofitted changes to the learning environment. UDI operates on the premise that the planning and delivery of instruction as well as the evaluation of learning can incorporate inclusive attributes that embrace diversity in learners without compromising academic standards.
Seven Principles of UDI
- Equitable Use. The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. For example, a website that is designed so that it is accessible to everyone, including students who are blind and using text-to-speech software, employs this principle.
- Flexibility in Use. The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities. An example is a museum that allows a visitor to choose to read or listen to the description of the contents of a display case.
- Simple and Intuitive. Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. Science lab equipment with control buttons that are clear and intuitive is a good example of an application of this principle.
- Perceptible Information. The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities. An example of this principle being employed is when multimedia projected in a noisy academic conference exhibit includes captioning.
- Tolerance for Error. The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions. An example of a product applying this principle is educational software that provides guidance when the student makes an inappropriate selection.
- Low Physical Effort. The design can be used efficiently and comfortably, and with a minimum of fatigue. Doors that are easy to open by people with a wide variety of physical characteristics demonstrate the application of this principle.
- Size and Space for Approach and Use. Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility. A science lab work area designed for use by students with a wide variety of physical characteristics and abilities is an example of employing this principle.
Information about UDI is from the University of Washington DO-IT program.
http://www.washington.edu/doit/
The guidelines are from The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina University.
http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/
Thanks to Vannee Cao-Nguyen, Ed.D., Assistant Director of the UWF Student Disability Resource Center for this teaching tip.
March 30, 2010
Use effective grading strategies to help survive the demands of grading during finals week
- Remember that judgment is a part of every grade, whether it is a judgment about what to measure, how to measure it, or how to assign a point value to a component of student work when computing a grade.
- If your criteria for learning are clear, student work is easier to score and score consistently. Rubrics help you score more efficiently and provide feedback that informs students about how they might improve their work. Visit http://uwf.edu/cutla/rubricdevelopment.cfm for a description of rubric development and links to examples of rubrics for a variety of assignments.
- Pace the grading task so that you remain fresh. Break the task into components that will allow you to complete each component in one sitting (e.g., grade all student responses to essay question one in one grading session, then grade all responses to essay question two in a separate grading session). Distributing the task over several sessions will enable you to grade each question efficiently and consistently. You can defer grading remaining questions to another day, when you will be rested.
- Make notes while grading about things you want to change in your next set of instructions, based on common student errors. Keep these notes for your contribution to departmental documentation of use of assessment evidence for improvement of courses – your department chair and colleagues will appreciate this contribution to departmental assessment efforts!
- If the paper isn’t going to be returned to the student (or if you know that students seldom pick up these papers), don’t mark a lot of feedback. Make minimal notes that are sufficiently detailed to document your decisions should a student raise a question about his or her grade.
Thanks to Sally L. Kuhlenschmidt, Ph.D., Director, Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET), Western Kentucky University, for contributions to this teaching tip.
http://www.wku.edu/teaching/
March 2, 2010
Using electronic tools to manage collaborations with students and colleagues
Current technology now provides a variety of tools that allow faculty to collaborate with students and colleagues. E-mail enables rapid communication and exchange of documents with collaborators. Faculty can now easily draft and edit a manuscript with co-authors on several continents by sending documents as attachments or sharing documents through other electronic forums. For example, Google Documents and Google Sites allow faculty to share and edit documents without exchanging large attachments in e-mail.
Although technology creates many convenient tools for collaboration, it also creates vulnerabilities to the security of intellectual property and personal identity. When collaborating with students and colleagues in the UWF community, faculty are sometimes tempted to provide access to files on a computer or server by disclosing their password instead of using a more secure collaboration tool. ITS and CUTLA developed a new information website that discusses the tools currently available for electronic collaboration that will help faculty easily share files with students and colleagues without compromising password security.
The new web site is located at http://uwf.edu/cutla/password.cfm
Thanks to Sylvia Maxwell and Michael White (ITS) for contributions to this teaching tip.
November 17, 2009
Minimizing distractions in the classroom that interfere with student learning
Instructors may use a handout in class and begin talking about the content of the handout at the same time that they distribute it. This also creates a multi-tasking situation, since students must pass the handout down the rows and they may need some time to read the material before the instructor begins discussing or elaborating. This problem also occurs at faculty meetings, when documents are distributed for discussion at a meeting, rather than in advance of the meeting. People need time to read and think about the content of the document before they can engage in meaningful discussion of its content.
Based on:
Matlin, M. (2007). How cognitive psychology can enhance your students’ learning. In S. A. Meyers & J. R. Stowell (Eds.), Essays from E-xcellence in Teaching (Chapter 9), Volume 7.
E-book retrieved from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Web site:
http://teachpsych.org/resources/e-books/eit2007/eit2007.php
January 20, 2009
Have a question about solving a problem in your class?
Consult the interactive web tool created by Michele DiPietro and Michael Bridges at the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and the Office of Technology for Education at Carnegie Mellon University. The tool is a three-step process that serves as a convenient index to a large collection of useful teaching tips and strategies.
The first step, problem identification, opens a menu of common teaching problems. Selection of a particular problem opens a menu of possible reasons for the problem. Finally, selection of one of these reasons opens a menu of strategies for addressing the problem and underlying reason.
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/index.html
Updated 11/16/10