Category Archives: Teaching Ideas

Let’s talk about ChatGPT and AI in quantitative courses

Still interested in talking about ChatGPT and other AI tools?

Join us for the next in our series of discussions of AI and ChatGPT in the higher education environment. We will meet on March 29 at 12:00 pm via Zoom (https://etown.zoom.us/j/3460495365) . This month’s topic is ChatGPT and AI in quantitative courses and the sciences. There’s no presentation, just conversation — but feel free to read this Wired article from 2017 that focuses on the challenges of quantitative AI from a teaching perspective and we can use that as a starting point.

ChatGPT presentation video

Last week we gave a short presentation on ChatGPT followed by a lively discussion on the impact it may have on our assignments.  While we did not record the live session, a video version of the presentation is available.

Join us next week for the next session, where Tara Moore will facilitate a discussion on creating assignments in a world with AI.  This online Zoom session takes place February 22 at 11 am.  See you there!

 

Ungrading, a post by Erica Dolson

For the last year, I’ve read about, reflected on, and even tried ungrading practices in some of my classes.

Ungrading removes grades from a course to emphasize learning.  The goals/hopes of this practice are two-fold:

  1. That removing the reward of a grade will help students find intrinsic motivation in their coursework.
  2. That removing the pressure of a grade will give students the freedom to take risks and fail.

Instead of grading each assignment, instructors provide feedback and opportunities for revision.  Throughout the semester, students also reflect on their learning and course engagement.  At the end of the semester, the instructor and student meet to discuss the student’s work and decide on a grade that reflects their learning.

I’ve used ungrading in two creative writing courses (a survey course and my creative writing-themed First-Year Seminar).  In many ways, the practice has reinvigorated my teaching, especially when students talk about the freedom they feel as they write.  In other ways, the practice has posed challenges; I sometimes struggle to trust students’ own assessment at their learning and wonder how much I should intervene in the grading process.

The new ungrading module in the Faculty Development Canvas course is designed for anyone interested in trying ungrading or just looking for more information.  The module includes the following sections:

  • “How and Why to Ungrade”  — This section provides background and answers questions on ungrading. It also provides some research on traditional grading practices.
  • “Expert Practitioners” — This section links to the websites of Susan Blum and Jesse Stommel. These two teachers and researchers have written about their own experiences with ungrading and provide many resources on the practice.
  • “Reflections on Ungrading” — This section shares articles addressing the benefits and downsides of ungrading practices.
  • “Ungrading in STEM Courses” — While ungrading seems like a more natural fit for creative classes, this section provides information about and first-hand accounts on integrating ungrading practices in the STEM fields.
  • “Book Recommendations” — Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (And What to Do Instead), edited by Susan Blum, was an important resource for me as I began the practice of ungrading.  It includes advice, reflections, and first-hand accounts from teachers in all disciplines.
    This section links to the book and includes a sample chapter.
  • “Resources to Download and Adapt” — In the courses where I practiced ungrading, I used surveys and reflections to check in with my students about their learning and their reactions to ungrading.
    This section includes those resources for you to download and adapt as needed.
  • “Discussion on Ungrading” — Finally, this section includes a discussion board to share your questions, thoughts, and experiences with ungrading.

 

Using Rubrics to Clarify Expectations

Instructors can use rubrics as a tool within the learning environment both to convey their expectations to students and to delineate their grading criteria. As a highly customizable tool, rubrics should be built and scaled based on the assignment they are purposed to assess. This, of course, rather demands an initial investment not only to develop learning activities but to design appropriately scaled assessment rubrics. Below is a list of resources that can help get you started on rubric development for your course assignments – but these tools are not one-size-fits-all. Starting small with a more widely applicable rubric may help you delineate some expectations for a set of assignments and/or a smaller project. Over time, you may wish to expand your rubric use to culminating projects, essays, and lab reports. 

As always, we at the Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio would love to help you develop these helpful and specific learning assessment tools! Please feel free to reach out to us if you would like an instructional design consultation to discuss your vision and to brainstorm ideas for using rubrics in your class. 

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics (American Association of Colleges and Universities)

Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education 2020

Creating and Using Rubrics (Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University)

Grading Rubrics: Sample Scales (The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University)

Learning Maps for Ten Essential Learning Outcomes (Stockton University)

Using Rubrics (Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell University)

Using LMS-Based Discussion Forums to Extend Learning

Utilizing LMS-based discussion forums provides instructors an effective multimodal strategy for extending course content learning into reflective cohort conversations. By engaging students’ prior knowledge with emerging themes in the learning experience, we set the stage for activities that encourage the community of inquiry among learners.

The attached guide provides timely advice and extended resources for developing and incorporating discussions within the LMS. Focusing on both the metacognitive aspects of the design process and the pedagogical considerations of practical implementation, this PDF provides best practice guidance, relevant examples, and additional resources to consult as you build discussion forums tailored to your specific course experience.

Using LMS-Based Discussion Forums to Extend Learning CDonlan IDOLS

Using Discussion Forums for Active Learning Across Modalities

Because discussion helps students process information, it remains important to learning across all academic disciplines and delivery modalities. With the goal of getting students to practice using the concepts they are learning through the course material, designing a discussion requires skills different from giving a lecture. Online forums embedded within the course LMS are an accessible way to facilitate class discussion, regardless if your course is face to face, online, or hybrid/hy-flex. Not only does an online discussion engage students with course material before coming to class in person, it also helps them reflect on material they have learned while also giving them time to absorb content and articulate responses.

Discussion-based teaching focuses on active learning principles and prioritizes discourse rather than passivity. Through an active learning approach to discussion, important concepts and skills are reinforced and explored through the community of inquiry. This interchange provides students with opportunities to think about, talk about, and figure out course material through guided practice and scholarly exchange.

Some additional benefits of online discussion for learning is that it increases students’ interest, comfort level, and sense of belonging. Through engaging in discussion, students get different perspectives on the topic. Good questions and thoughtful answers can get students to think deeply and make connections; this empowers learners and fosters greater agency and autonomy. The online discussion forum approach to engagement also helps students who might otherwise struggle to speak up in a face-to-face class because it provides them an opportunity to concentrate and formulate responses before interacting; this “buffer” allows learners to reflect on the topic and to think about the material in critical ways.

Providing open-ended prompts for discussion that elicit critical reflection, communicating clear expectations on both assignment and assessment, and allowing the community of inquiry to unfold organically are vital aspects of the mindful scaffolding approach to safeguarding the learning environment across modalities. A student’s ability to synthesize, to question, to engage, to utilize concepts, and to hypothesize can be optimized through these high-engagement/low-stakes learning opportunities.

If you would like additional guidance on designing effective and engaging discussion activities, please reach out to the Teaching and Learning Design Studio – and check out these helpful resources:

The Art and Science of Successful Online Discussions

Constructing Effective Online Discussions

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 1

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 2

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 3

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 4

21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion, Part 5

Flipping the Classroom for COVID and Beyond–Dr. Tara Moore

To accommodate some of the challenges of COVID-19 teaching, I flipped my composition course.  Now, two semesters in, a study of my students’ reactions indicates that COVID-19 might have introduced me to my best teaching self, at least for EN100.

My research indicates that it’s not unusual for a professor’s lecture tangents could eat into active learning time. I can relate!  Now my pithy, pre-recorded videos introduce new material, and we spend class time on deepening activities.

When flipping a class, I learned to make sure every assessment and activity align with the Student Learning Outcomes. I based my approach to the flipped classroom on Talbert’s Flipped Learning and Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design. If you’ve taken the Studio’s Teaching Online course, you have already seen the course design matrix that guided my flipping process.

Fortunately, after all of this effort, my first year students expressed positive feelings about their flipped classroom. Here’s one take on it:

“[It’s] not a bad way of doing things, actually I like it more[.] It makes the work load seem easier. The videos and before class assignments aren’t too long so it usually will get done, and the in class activities are easier [than…] doing it on your own without a professor[‘s] help.”

A small number of students felt that the lure of their personal devices made it hard to focus on video lectures at home. A larger number claimed the opposite, saying that focusing during in-class lectures posed the greater challenge.

Overall, my study found several benefits in the flipped model:

  • greater student agency in learning new materials
  • more time to mentor student writing
  • noticeable student and instructor enjoyment of the course design

My personality fits well with the balance of labor needed to flip a classroom. I prefer front-loading the work of preparing videos, which allows me to focus class time on individual or small-group mentoring.  I can see that not every personality will find flipped learning to be a good fit for their instruction.

I write about the process and my students’ opinions on the design in the upcoming collection Go Online! Reconfiguring Writing Courses for the New Virtual World from Peter Lang.

About the Contributor: Tara Moore teaches writing courses and Young Adult literature at Elizabethtown College.  Her books include Christmas: The Sacred to Santa and Victorian Christmas in Print.

How (and Why) to Flip Your Class

Dr. Susi Mapp, Professor of Social Work and Learning Design Faculty Fellow, has developed a series of tutorial videos to explore the possibilities of flipped learning. Have you heard about flipped classrooms and don’t know where to begin? Are you a seasoned online instructor looking for new design models? No matter the stage of your career, you’ll find something useful in this series. At the end of this series you will be able to: 

  • Explain what flipped learning is 
  • Discuss the research on flipped learning 
  • Explain the theories behind flipped learning 
  • Discuss how it can support the learning of different types of students 
  • Explain how to structure a flipped classroom 
  • Provide examples of flipped learning 
  • Discuss benefits and limitations of flipped learning  

If you would like to learn more information about flipping your class, send your questions to studio@etown.edu .

Episode 1: Introduction 

In this episode, Dr. Mapp outlines the series and provides an overview of why flipped learning can be beneficial to both the instructor and students alike. 

Video Link:  http://use.vg/1hLaKV   

Episode 2: What is Flipped Learning (and what it isn’t) 

Defining the limits of both traditional and flipped classrooms is essential as one begins a journey into flipped learning. Dr. Mapp explores the dynamic sequences instructors can leverage to get the most out face-to-face time in the course. In Episode 2, Dr. Mapp explores the use of different “spaces” to enhance student learning. 

Video Link: http://use.vg/nIYavQ  

Episode 3: Theoretical Bases for Flipped Learning 

Flipped learning, by design, is a motivating learning platform. Episode 3 explores how the flipped classroom is built on foundations of self-determination theory and cognitive load theory.  

Video Link: http://use.vg/uEzmj9  

Episode 4: Student Benefits of Flipped Learning 

While all students can benefit from a flipped learning environment, Dr. Mapp explores the readily observable benefits to lower performing students, adult learners and iGen students in Episode 4.  

Video Link: : http://use.vg/a4bSIB  

Episode 5: Research on Flipped Learning 

Dr. Mapp presents an overview of recent meta-analyses of the research into the effectiveness of flipped learning. This is a rapidly growing field of research, and Dr. Mapp’s snapshot of the scholarship in the field provides a clear explanation of what effective flipped learning involves. 

Video Link: http://use.vg/mbw6uV  

Episode 6: Flipped Learning Design 

A common question is, “How do I get started?” In Episode 6, Dr. Mapp explains the design questions one should consider when developing a flipped class.  

Video Link: http://use.vg/kyA1ZR  

Episode 7 (Parts 1 & 2): Individual Space & Group Space Applications  

“So, how do I do this?” In this twopart episode, Dr. Mapp drills down to explore how we can build individual and group spaces in flipped classes. By walking viewers through her process, Dr. Mapp shares helpful advice on what to include in each “space.”  

Part 1 Video Link: http://use.vg/fcklVL  

Part 2 Video Link: http://use.vg/Lrk4a7  

Episode 8: Reflections 

In reflection of the whole process of moving her course to a flipped learning experience, Dr. Mapp shares her insights and excerpts of feedback provided by students.  

Video Link: http://use.vg/ntqzE2  

Episode 9: Tips and Tricks 

Concluding this series is an overview of the tips and tricks to keep in mind when moving a class from a traditional course to a flipped learning course. 

Video Link: http://use.vg/HCoFs6