MSU COB Teaching Post

The weepers

1. When students cry, it’s important to appear sympathetic without giving in.
2. Do not conduct important business with weeping students when they are upset: “Look, you’re pretty upset right now and anything we discuss has a good chance of getting jumbled. Why don’t you take a walk, get yourself together, and come back to see me?”
3. When students return in a calmer state it’s a good idea for you to set the discussion mood: What you want to convey is that the world will not end because of a poor grade.
4. Try to listen a lot and say very little.
5. Say: “No, I’m being radically fair. I hold everyone to exactly the same standards. It would be unfair for me to have a different standard for you.”
6. Do not grant any exceptions or extra credit unless you are prepared to extend those offers to every student
7. Remind them that a failed course comes off the transcript if a course is repeated

The screamers

1. Do not engage an angry student. If the student is red-faced with fury, you should adamantly refuse to discuss any issue at all until he (rarely she!) is under control.
2. Say: “You are very angry right now. Let’s discuss these issues after you calm down a bit.”
3. If the student persists, you should insist that he leave your office; if he does not, you should walk to your door toward the security of the hallway where other faculty can intervene (or call campus security, if necessary).
4. Make others aware of the incident.

Final note:  Impose a 24-hour moratorium on conversations about graded work.  “I am happy to discuss an exam or paper with my students, but only after they have had a chance to look over and process the feedback that they have received.”

Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/instant_mentor/weir24

agnieszka.kwapisz Exams, Uncategorized Exams

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How can business educators engage students’ interest? We use grades as a form of extrinsic reward. However, grades can reduce intrinsic motivation, resulting in decreased interest, creativity, and curiosity. Moreover, grades focus on performance rather than on learning resulting in a grading paradox: Grades, which are meant to motivate and inspire students, can do just the opposite. Building on research showing that choice can lead to increased interest in an activity; Dobrow et al. (2011) recommend offering students choice about their grades by allowing them to allocate the weight of course assignments toward their final course grade. Choice enables students to pick what they like and what piques their curiosity; enables students to pick learning materials that may be familiar to them; and enables them to control what and how they study.

Dobrow et al. (2011) found significant improvement in students’ interest by offering the following choice: The three course components—class participation, a case analysis paper, and a final group project—constituted 75% of the final course grade. Students could allocate between 15% to 45% toward their final course grade for each of the three components, such that the weights for all three summed to 75%. Two other assignments accounted for the remaining 25% of the grade. Students had the opportunity to make grade allocations during the third week of the semester. Once submitted, students could not change their allocations.

Source: direct quotes from Dobrow et al. (2011) AML&E 10(2)

agnieszka.kwapisz Tools to use Tools to use

Peer Instruction (PI) is a teaching method developed to foster students’ deeper understanding of the material. Here are the steps in PI method:

Before lecture: Students gain preparatory knowledge before class (for example, through textbook reading) and complete a pre-lecture quiz to both incentivize their preparation and to give them feedback on whether they are ready to learn in a lecture format.

During class, lecture is interspersed with or largely replaced by multiple choice questions and discussion by using the following steps:

1. Students individually consider a question and select an answer (typically reporting it via use of a clicker). GOAL: ensures that each student has committed to an answer and is at least at some level engaged with the problem.
2. Students discuss in preassigned groups. GOAL: engages the students in articulating their understanding of the concepts. During this time the instructor can circulate around the room, listening in to prepare to address common issues or perhaps clarifying for a specific group.
3. Students vote again on the same question. GOAL: guides the instructor on his or her facilitation role in the discussion that follows.
4. Classwide discussion follows led by student explanations and the instructor modeling their way of understanding the problem. GOAL: it is valuable for the students to hear how others explain it. It is very useful to ask students to explain why wrong answers
   are wrong, both as a means of contrast and to provide additional models of how to understand the problem. The instructor can identify that an issue exists and respond immediately, possibly with a mini-lecture on the topic.

You can find the whole article here:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2076459&bnc=1

harry.benham Tools to use, student engagement Tools to use

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Take-home tests allow students to work at their own pace and permit longer and more involved questions. However, students may use books and notes and may not work individually. The alternative take-home test is to give the topics in advance but ask the students to write their answers in class or hand out ten or twelve questions the week before an exam and announce that three of those questions will appear on the exam.

Source: http://www2.honolulu.hawaii.edu/facdev/guidebk/teachtip/quizzes.htm

agnieszka.kwapisz Assessment, Exams Assessment, Exams

Ekant Veer in his article (found here) wants to assure you that even if you are the best professor in the world, you’re boring to your students. Yes, you are boring compared to other things in the students’ lives: family, friends, or alcohol.

Some teachers work themselves up into a frenzy of stress to make their lectures so fun for students that they place its importance above everything else. This may be a waste of energy and time. “Students don’t want you to be the ‘coolest’ thing in their lives. They have fun things to do and far cooler people to hang out with. You are there to facilitate their learning. If you need to be lighthearted, fun or relaxed to do that, then so be it. If you need to be forthright, dry or stern, then that’s fine too. As long as their learning, and not your ego, is at the heart of what you do. Being exciting is secondary to being good at your job as a teacher. (…) For the time you spend with them, you should give them your undivided attention, and and they should do the same in return.”

Source: http://www.bestthinking.com/thinkers/business_and_finance/sales_and_marketing/consumer_behavior/ekant-veer?tab=blog&blogpostid=16093

caroline.austin student engagement student engagement

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You wrote the perfect 10-page syllabus and included all important information in it. If only students take their time to read and remember it. But how? Here are just 3 tips to make students remember your perfect syllabus and all important rules included:

1. DO spend time and go over it in class.

2. Create a short and concise “mini” syllabus and distribute it in paper form, post the same thing AND a longer version on the course webpage. On the “mini” syllabus include a statement: “For information about X, Y, Z, please see the website at http://…”

3. Test students on the most important questions by using an electronic syllabus quiz. This way students will take a look at your syllabus outside the class. This may be scored as attendance on the first class, homework, participation or not scored at all. It is best if students receive instant feedback and it may be of value to let students take it as many times as needed. By using electronic version, you will make sure students know how to log into the course and take the quiz (it may serve as a practice quiz).

Change the questions from semester to semester to include questions students ask most often. Examples: Are there make-up quizzes? When do you have office hours? What is the best way to contact you? Is attendance in this course optional or required? What is the most valuable part of the course in terms of point value?

Source: http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2007/01/epic-syllabus.html; http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/online/activities/46956.html

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agnieszka.kwapisz Tools to use Tools to use

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Be selective: Focus your lecture on a few main points. Explicitly call attention to the most important ideas in each lecture.

Repeat these points in various ways throughout the lecture by using different language or different examples: Repetition leads to learning! (Tell them what you are going to teach them; Teach them; Tell them what you taught them.)

Alert students to the start of a complex point acknowledging the difficulty and importance of concepts students are likely to find hard to understand.

At the beginning of class provide an outline of what you are going to cover writing main points on the whiteboard.

Carefully define all concepts and terms. If you use a word for the first time, define it. Use the terminology in the textbook. Don’t say “it”!

Demonstrate a concept or idea rather than simply describe or discuss it. Remember the VAK principle on how students learn – Visually (be seeing), Auditory (by hearing) and Kinesthetically (by doing).
Use lots of concrete or memorable examples.

Prepare handouts.

Explain how new concepts relate to prior material and major course topics.

Color-code your lecture notes keying the parts that students are likely to find difficult and make a special effort to make those points very clear.

Keep records of the kinds of errors students most commonly make in assignments and exams.

Pay attention to quizzical or confused looks from students.

Use a one-minute paper.

Sources: A Berkeley Compendium and “Explaining Clearly” by Barbara Gross Davis.

agnieszka.kwapisz Clarity Clarity

Electronic discussion captures both traditional writing assignments (develop argument) as well as in-class discussions (confront multiple alternative viewpoints). Discussions work best if:

• they last 10-14 days,
• are integral part of the course (neither optional nor extra credit),
• are clearly connected to the material covered in class,
• are preliminary to a written class assignment based on the discussion,
• explore an open-ended question that embody a certain degree of ambiguity,
• reference materials are provided,
• instructor plays a role of a moderator and avoids responding to specific posts but moves discussion along if it slows down in quantity or quality.

Source: articles by Greenlaw and DeLoach (2003, 2005, 2007)

agnieszka.kwapisz Uncategorized

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1. In addition to the assigned daily reading, assign a daily written product based on the reading (outline, summary, response to questions, application, etc.).
2. When students arrive in class, initial or rubber stamp the homework, glancing at it only long enough to see that it is indeed today’s homework for your course.
3. For the students who are prepared, design meaningful small-group and other active learning tasks that ask students to apply what they read and wrote about. Examples: apply textbook concepts to concrete cases; answer teacher-posed questions; select the “best” homework using teacher-assigned criteria or their own; critique and revise written work; synthesize, compare/contrast, evaluate; and support a position.
4. Exclude those who have not received your initials or rubber stamp. An important rule is that students who have NOT done the day’s written homework cannot participate in the group work; they sit at their desks alone and do their unfinished homework—no matter how valid their excuse for not doing their homework. Do a good selling job, explaining that your procedure is in their self-interest and will help students learn the course outcomes and meet their personal goals.
5. Collect the daily homework (which students save in a notebook) 2–3 times a semester or at the end of the course and grade a random sample of their homework assignments. To collect a portfolio of assignments at the end of the course, select one daily writing assignment from the first third of the course, two from the second, and three from the third.

From: Peirce, Bill. 2004. Handbook of Critical Thinking Resources by Prince George’s Community College Faculty Members.

agnieszka.kwapisz Homework Homework

The OMP is exactly what the name says: a one minute paper usually administrated at the end of class meeting asking 2 questions:

1. What was the most important piece of information you learned today?

2. What was the most confusing point from today’s lecture?

Things to consider:

1. Do OMP every lecture (research shows it improves students’ attention in class if used every class).
2. Grade it or not (research suggests NOT to grade it).
3. Performed electronically vs. paper/pencil in class.
4. Answer or clarify questions at the beginning of the next lecture or via e-mail

Research shows that OMP significantly increases students’ understanding of the class material!

agnieszka.kwapisz Tools to use Tolls to use

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Recently published book by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (University of Chicago Press) presents some not so encouraging news:

• 45 percent of students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college.
• 36 percent of students “did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning” over four years of college.
• Those students who do show improvements tend to show only modest improvements. Students improved on average only 0.18 standard deviations over the first two years of college and 0.47 over four years.

The research then goes on to find a direct relationship between rigor and gains in learning:

• Students who study by themselves for more hours each week gain more knowledge - while those who spend more time studying in peer groups see diminishing gains.
• Students whose classes reflect high expectations (more than 40 pages of reading a week and more than 20 pages of writing a semester) gained more than other students.
• Students who spend more time in fraternities and sororities show smaller gains than other students.
• Students who engage in off-campus or extracurricular activities (including clubs and volunteer opportunities) have no notable gains or losses in learning.
• Students majoring in liberal arts fields see “significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study.”
• Students majoring in business, education, social work and communications showed the smallest gains. (The authors note that this could be more a reflection of more-demanding reading and writing assignments, on average, in the liberal arts courses than of the substance of the material.)

Source

agnieszka.kwapisz Assessment Assessment

Here are some ideas to create a positive atmosphere in the classroom from the beginning. Please, add your ideas!

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Ask students to fill out an introduction card. Have students indicate their name, year in school, major field, etc. You might also ask them to list related courses they have taken, prerequisites they have completed, other courses they are taking this semester, their reasons for enrolling in your course, what they hope to learn in the course, tentative career plans, and something about their outside interests, hobbies, or current employment. Make sure that students who later enroll in the course complete an introduction card.

Begin to learn student’s names (see past posts for hints!)

Give students an opportunity to meet each other. Ask students to divide themselves into groups of three to five and introduce themselves. Encourage students to exchange phone numbers.

Ask students to do a group exercise.

Ask students to write their reactions to the first two weeks. Take two minutes at the end of class to have students jot down unsigned comments about what went well and what questions they have about the course.

Provide non-verbal encouragement: maintain eye contact, move around the room, be animated and expressive

Provide clear instructions: expectations, assignments, grading..

Provide information about outside resources: writing centers, counseling, disability services,…

Come before and stay after class to talk to students. This time can allow you to build individual relationships with students. Students may feel more comfortable asking questions, expressing their concerns, or seeing you about difficulties on an individual basis.

(Sources: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/firstday.html, http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/idweb/positiveclimate.htm, http://cte.udel.edu/publications/handbook-graduate-assistants/getting-started/positive-classroom-climate.html)

agnieszka.kwapisz Uncategorized

First, announce the standards: students had to do all of the work and attend class to earn an A. If they don’t complete all the assignments, they could get a B or C or worse, based on how many they finished. Students sign a contract to agree to the terms. Each week, two students lead a discussion in class on the week’s readings and ideas and all others have to post blogs in the form of mini-essays on the week’s work. Two leading students determine if the assignments were in fact meeting standards. The instructor can add individual comments on student essays (reading it along with the students who were determining that it met that week’s requirements) but do not assign a grade.

- By Duke University’s Cathy Davidson

Results of Cathy Davidson experiment:

1. students each ended up writing about 1,000 words a week, much more than is required for a course to be considered “writing intensive” at Duke
2. the writing (she read every word, even while not assigning grades) was better than the norm
3. “There was less jargon. I didn’t see the thesaurus-itis that I usually see.”
4. students took more risks: “I think students were going out on a limb more and being creative and not just thinking about ‘What does the teacher want?’ ” Davidson said
5. The students were tough on each other: “No one wanted to get one of those messages” that an assignment needed to be redone. (But when they did receive such notes, the students didn’t complain, as many do about grades they don’t like. They reworked their essays, she said.)

See: http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/how-crowdsource-grading

Something to try in the next semester seminar class? Maybe, Bus101?

agnieszka.kwapisz Assessment Assessment

1. Review what you’ve covered during the semester and rank the material as: “vital”, “nice to know”, “can get by without”.

2. Start writing your exam questions about the vital category, decide how to best test this material, and assign most weight for this category.

3. Listen to your students on the review session – you may want to include their questions on the exam.

4. Be specific when writing your questions: avoid “discuss”, “analyze”, “explain”, etc. – these may be interpreted in many ways.

Source: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/newsletters0607/newsletter25.html

agnieszka.kwapisz Exams Exams

Learning objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant/Realistic, and Timed).

Follow the Formula: SWiBAT (Student Will Be Able To) + Active verb (from Bloom’s taxonomy) +Condition (as a result of) + Measurement (as measured by or as demonstrated by …) + When (at what timeline).

Action Verbs (Bloom’s Taxonomy):

Knowledge: Recall, identify, recognize, acquire, distinguish, state, define, name, list, label, reproduce, order, record, recall, relate, memorize, repeat

Comprehension: Translate, extrapolate, calculate, convert, interpret, abstract, transform, select, indicate, illustrate, represent, formulate, explain, classify, report, locate, discuss, describe, express, identify, recognize, locate, review

Application: Apply, show, interpret, sequence, carry out, solve, prepare, operate, generalize, plan, repair, explain, predict, demonstrate, instruct, compute, use, perform, implement, employ, solve, dramatize, sketch, employ, illustrate, practice, schedule, operate, use, decide

Analysis: Analyze, estimate, examine, compare, observe, detect, classify, discover, discriminate, explore, distinguish, catalog, investigate, breakdown, order, determine, differentiate, dissect, contrast, examine, interpret, solve, relate, diagram, appraise, test, calculate, relate, criticize,

Synthesis: Write, plan, integrate, formulate, propose, specify, produce, organize, theorize, design, build, systematize, combine, summarize, restate, argue, discuss, derive, relate, generalize, conclude, produce, create, compose, propose, prepare, plan, construct, formulate, organize, manage, assemble,

Evaluation: Evaluate, verify, assess, test, judge, rank, measure, appraise, select, check, judge, justify, evaluate, determine, support, defend, criticize, weigh, assess, value, revise, choose, score, select, assess, compare

Avoid using verbs that are difficult to measure objectively. The following verbs are difficult to assess, thus should be used with caution: know, comprehend, understand, appreciate, familiarize, study, be aware, become acquainted with, gain knowledge of, cover, learn, realize.

Sources:

http://www.park.edu/cetl2/quicktips/writinglearningobj.html

www.oucom.ohiou.edu/FD/writingobjectives.pdf

www.ctcd.edu/qep/…/how_to_write_learning_outcomes2.pdf

www.uwlax.edu/learningoutcomes/…/WritingStudentLearningOutcomes.pdf

agnieszka.kwapisz Learning Objectives/Outcomes Learning Objectives/Outcomes

Recently, Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chairman of Twitter, gave a talk at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education calling for colleges to expand Twitter use in academia.

You can watch a success story here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_one_teacher_uses_twitter_in_the_classroom.php

or read about it here: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Professor-Encourages-Students/4619

This semester I experimented with Twitter in Mgmt 231. With Twitter you can involve shy students in discussions or send instant messages to students about upcoming events.

How can YOU do it?

• Go to twitter.com
• Set up atwitter account for your class: e.g. Bus101
• Introduce the idea to your students in the class (in Mgmt231 only 1% of students used Twitter at the beginning of the semester)
• Ask students to set up a twitter account and to follow the class.
• Follow all of the students who follow the class (you will receive e-mails when students follow you)
• Start “discussion”.
• To organize discussions, you may want to give special hash tags #Mgmt231week1 or #Mgmt231regression to use on their comments.
• Make sure to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1aZ7Gs46A&feature=fvw

agnieszka.kwapisz Social Media Social Media

“A majority of respondents frequently used Wikipedia for background information, but less often than they used other common resources, such as course readings and Google. Architecture, engineering, and science majors were more likely to use Wikipedia for course–related research than respondents in other majors. The findings suggest Wikipedia is used in combination with other information resources.”

The reported probability that Business students will use Wikipedia is 61% (see Figure 5).

From: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2830/2476

agnieszka.kwapisz Uncategorized Wikipedia

I just collected Mid Term opinions from my students using D2L>Surveys . Here are the steps: 1. Go to D2L Surveys; 2. Choose “Questions Library”; 3. You can start a new Section from a drop-down menu. 4. Now, write your questions. For example, let’s make a new Multiple Choice question: “Is the pace of the course:” Option1: too fast; Option 2: “too slow” Option3: “just right”. The grading does not matter at this point. Also, you can include a Short Answer question but remove the answer option by clicking on the garbage can.

Now, you can construct a survey:  1. Go back to D2L Surveys; 2. Click “New”; 3. Write the name of the survey, e.g. “Course Evaluations” and check: ”make results anonymous”, you can also write a message to students; 4. Choose “Layout/Questons tab and add/edit questions from the questions library (that you just constructed) by clicking on Import and follow the path. 5. Now, go to Restrictions and make your survey Active. Make sure to notify students about the available survey .

The results are only visible to you (unless you change the Report Setup).

agnieszka.kwapisz Course Evaluations, D2L Course Evaluations

One way to make sure you test skills that are most important for your students to learn is to create a test blueprint. A test blueprint may be in the form of a table that list questions as rows and topics as columns. You note the weight on the test (% or points) given to each question in the appropriate cell/s and calculate the sum for each topic at the very bottom of your table. Now, check how this compares to your desired coverage of topics on the test.

Another way to use a test blueprint is to list topics as columns and levels of objective as rows (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, …). In each cell, you write the number of questions (or % or points) you want to test within each topic and level of objective. See: http://www.utexas.edu/provost/sacs/pdf/Test%20Blueprint%20handout.pdf

agnieszka.kwapisz Exams Exams