Collaboration Technologies

Your New Lab Partner Might Be a Robot...

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 21:37:43 +0000

Your New Lab Partner Might Be a Robot... Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/24/2018 - 15:37

Tarah Dykeman

OIT is excited to offer a new service this semester: Kubi - Remote Presence Technology. Kubi is a robotic “neck” that holds a tablet and allows a remote user to control the tablet through a Zoom web conference meeting. From their own computer, the remote student can see, hear, and speak with their instructor and classmates using the tablet’s camera and microphone. The Kubi allows the remote student to take charge of their experience by moving the tablet 320 degrees side-to-side and 90 degrees up and down. This remote attendance tool removes barriers to classroom participation for students who are not physically able to attend face-to-face classes.

You may have heard of Kubi through the Academic Technology Design Team’s Kubi Innovation Grant Pilot. The pilot explored ways to help students who could not be physically present in the classroom due to extenuating circumstances. During the pilot, Kubi allowed students to keep up with their coursework and prevented them from being absent, falling behind, and possibly needing to withdraw. Read more about the Kubi pilot in the EDUCAUSE Review article “Using Telepresence Robots to Support Students Facing Adversity.” Based on the success of this pilot, OIT has transitioned to providing a Kubi Service.

The Kubi Service is now available to �� Boulder students for a variety of circumstances that would benefit from remote attendance. Visit the Kubi Service page for more information and to find out if Kubi could suit your needs.

PHOTO: Glenn Asakawa

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Perusall (March 2018 tech)

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 22:16:10 +0000

Perusall (March 2018 tech) Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/20/2018 - 16:16

In 2015, ASSETT conducted a campus-wide Teaching with Technology survey of faculty from across campus. A theme that emerged was they wanted strategies and tools for motivating students to prepare in advance. Our Tech of the Month, Perusall, was designed to do just that — it helps students master readings faster and gain a better understanding of the material through collaborative reading.

Developed by renowned physicist Eric Mazur, Perusall is an online annotation tool that promotes active, collaborative reading. Through this tool, faculty assign readings, either through online textbooks, articles, or PDFs. Students can highlight, create private or public comments, and answer questions around the assigned reading. As noted in Perusall’s one-page rubric, students are encouraged to annotate thoughtfully by creating comments that deeply engage points in the reading, stimulating discussions, offering informative questions or comments, and helping others by addressing their questions or confusions.

Perusall also has some nice course management features. For large enrollment courses, students are automatically placed into smaller groups for each document. Students can only see and can respond to comments and questions from other group members. Faculty can also provide automated personalized guidance for students—especially for those who may be falling behind and not engaging with the readings and peers. Perusall creates a Student Confusion Report that summarizes areas of text that students found confusing. And Perusall can also be integrated into Canvas, ��’s new learning management system. If you’re interested in using this tool in your course(s) and would like assistance, one of our Student Fellows will be happy to provide you with support.

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Dilling's Use of NB and Padlet to Increase Engagement in Environmental Studies Class

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 21:03:00 +0000

Dilling's Use of NB and Padlet to Increase Engagement in Environmental Studies Class Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/20/2016 - 14:03

Lisa Dilling is an Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies Program. She plans to use NB along with Padlet in order to improve engagement and active learning opportunities in a medium sized enrollment class. Dilling completed the Fall 2015 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Seminar.

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Teaching and Learning Challenge

The problem I wish to address is how to improve engagement and active learning opportunities within a medium-sized class (75 students). I would like to focus here in this intervention on opportunities for students to better identify the particular policy problem that energy policies are designed (or not) to solve, and engage the primary text of policy documents in order to practice building their critical thinking skills and their ability to see policy problems from multiple angles.

The course I am focusing on is an upper division environmental studies course (ENVS 3621; Energy Policy and Society) that counts as a cornerstone (all ENVS students must take one cornerstone, they have a choice) as well as a required class for the renewable energy certificate (meaning that students outside of ENVS are a significant proportion of the class). The class requires both basic mathematical skills as a support to analyzing policies, as well as an ability to think critically and analyze information. Enrollment is typically around 70 students.

Goal: In this technological intervention I am hoping to accomplish two goals at once: engage students in reading and becoming familiar with primary energy policy while simultaneously practicing identifying policy goals and mechanisms that will help them build skill before their final assignment. I also am piloting a second type of technology to use as simply a virtual class corkboard for posting links to energy articles and ideas about energy they want to share with the class.

Plans for Implementation

The class will use the NB online interface to review policy documents online in small groups and identify policy goal statements, problem definitions and mechanisms. Because there is always some interpretation for these items, having an online platform available where students can discuss these statements and offer interpretations in comments and interact with each will help them learn how to see the possibilities. Each group will be about 7 or fewer people and each person in the group will be required to offer one interpretation for problem definition, goals, and mechanism for the posted policy. A variation of this exercise will be for students to locate and post their own policy documents (or perhaps do this in class) to gain practice in the method. The Padlet technology is an additional technology that is solely designed to experiment with engagement allowing students to post energy media sources they find and sharing them among classmates, improving class engagement.

Learning Objectives and Goals: This technology will address the pedagogical problem of a larger class, many of whom are unfamiliar with primary policy document and how to infer a problem definition, goals and mechanisms. It will allow for practice and also address the problem of multiple problem definitions being correct, thus allowing for more than one voice (i.e. beyond the instructor) coming into the conversation.

The affordances of the technology allow for more students to gain familiarity with primary policy language and at the same time interpreting and engaging that policy language in their own analytical style. It addresses also the goal of improving critical thinking and being more precise about identifying policy problems and goal statements.

Indicators of Success

As I am only teaching the class now after the conclusion of the ASSETT seminar, I have not yet had a chance to observe or evaluate how this intervention will work in practice. One concern I have is about my own familiarity with the technology—having not used NB I myself need practice in using the online platform and seeing how it will go with the students. I have implemented a Padlet online as an experiment to see if students will post, given some encouragement by showing the collected material in class. I will likely pilot these as “extra credit” assignments in order to assess usefulness and address any glitches or use issues before requiring them as a “For credit” assignment.

For the NB-facilitated assignment I will assess its value through my own feedback forms as part of my mid-term and final feedback collected as part of every class. I will particularly compare answers to the following feedback questions on whether the class achieved the following learning objectives which I have used in previous years:

a) Goal: Apply critical reasoning skills to evaluate and select policy options for solving problems related to energy.
b) Goal. Gain working familiarity with policy mechanisms and their pros and cons for achieving policy goals in energy.
c) Goal: Conduct a policy analysis: Define the problem, assemble evidence, construct alternatives, select criteria, project outcomes, confront tradeoffs and make a recommendation.

Reflection

I have learned through this ASSETT seminar that there are a wealth of tools and online opportunities to experiment with. For myself, I will need to carefully evaluate the anticipated benefit of possible technologies for the pedagogical purpose that I am trying to achieve. I would rate myself as a “newbie” for many of these technologies and so giving myself time and piloting opportunities or chances to observe use in another class will help me see where the technologies are best applied with the least amount of “fear factor” on my part.

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3rd Annual ASSETT Teaching with Technology Symposium

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2015 06:00:00 +0000

3rd Annual ASSETT Teaching with Technology Symposium Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/06/2015 - 00:00

Jim Groom Presents at the 2015 ASSETT Teaching with Tech Symposium

"Digital Agency in the 21st Century," was the theme at the Third Annual ASSETT Teaching with Technology Symposium in April. The Director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and Adjunct Professor at the University of Mary Washington, Jim Groom, gave the keynote speech. Groom spoke about, and explained his involvement with, the Domain of One’s Own at UMW project. UMW gives each student and instructor the option of creating a domain that UMW hosts. Groom explained that UMW Domains recognizes and codifies the importance of digital agency for each and every learner on campus. After his talk, several instructors discussed whether we could bring such a program to ��.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Moonhawk Kim Receives the 2015 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award

Also at the Symposium, ASSETT awarded the 2015 Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award to Political Science Assistant Professor Moonhawk Kim. Kim joined several other instructors at the Symposium in presenting a teaching with technology tool that he uses in his teaching. Kim uses open educational software Nota Bene that was created by MIT for collaborative reading. NB is an online annotation tool that allows students to better engage with content. Through NB, the instructor can assign articles for students to read and dedicate prompts for students to consider and respond to as they read. With NB, the instructor can better task students to consider their course readings with a more critical eye. Then, in class, students can use their annotations to participate in more productive conversations about their class readings. Students must find evidence in the assigned readings to support their ideas.

Italian Instructor Giorgio Corda Presents GoAnimate at the 2015 ASSETT Teaching with Tech Symposium

Several other �� Boulder instructors and professors presented their teaching with technology projects at the Symposium. Italian Instructor Giorgio Corda returned to the Symposium this year to present a second time. In both years, Corda has presented an effective and engaging tool he uses in teaching foreign language in a hybrid format. Corda says that he believes hybrid learning for foreign languages is a unique approach that shows much promise for some of ��'s student populations.

This year, Corda displayed examples of students' work from his hybrid language classes. Students used GoAnimate software to create avatar cartoon characters and place them in virtual social situations. Students meet and converse in Italian online with their peers through the personas of their selected Avatar characters. Students record their own voices speaking in Italian, and GoAnimate plays their voice along with animation of the selected avatar. It may look like students are meeting online through cartoons, but Corda said that when students respond to messages in Italian from their peers several times throughout the week, they access the new language more frequently than they would if they attended Italian class in person only. Corda says that he sees higher test scores among students who opt for his hybrid classes. Corda has completed ASSETT's Hybrid and Online Design Seminar and ASSETT's Teaching with Technology Seminar. He has received an ASSETT Development Award.

Ethnic Studies Instructor Jenny Withycombe Presents her Transition to Hybrid Teaching at the 2015 ASSETT Teaching with Tech Symposium

Instructor Jenny Withycombe of the Ethnic Studies Department also presented at the ASSETT Symposium this year. She also talked about her experience converting her traditionally formatted Ethnic Studies class to a hybrid model. Withycombe gives her students an option about whether to continue in the traditional in person classroom or to watch her lectures online and come to recitations in person. Withycombe has completed ASSETT's Hybrid and Online Design Seminar.

Sociology GPTI Joshua LePree Presented TweetBeam at the ASSETT Teaching with Tech Symposium

Also, Sociology Graduate Part Time Instructor Joshua LePree presented at the 2015 ASSETT Symposium. LePree talked about his implementation of Twitter and TweetBeam to support online discussions in the courses he teaches. Similar to Corda's idea of continuing conversations between students outside the classroom, LePree asks students to post pertinent articles on Twitter about topics they're learning about in class throughout the week. Students read and Reply to one another's Tweets. LePree's incorporation of technology into student discussions and homework has been well received. Students have nominated LePree for ASSETT's Excellence in Teaching with Technology Awards in multiple semesters.

The 2015 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Symposium enjoyed a successful turnout. Participating faculty and instructors from the Libraries engaged in discussions about the latest trends in digital agency and pedagogy.

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ASSETT Awards Moonhawk Kim 2015 Teaching with Technology Award

Anonymous — Wed, 06 May 2015 06:00:00 +0000

ASSETT Awards Moonhawk Kim 2015 Teaching with Technology Award Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/06/2015 - 00:00

At the Third Annual ASSETT Teaching with Technology Symposium in April, ASSETT staff awarded the 2015 Teaching with Technology Award. ASSETT recognizes Kim as an exceptional educator with a demonstrated commitment to improving the undergraduate student experience. ASSETT Teaching with Technology Consultant Jacie Moriyama spoke about how he has effectively harnessed the affordances of technology for the purposes of teaching and learning. Kim has participated in a number of ASSETT programs such as the Teaching with Technology Seminar, the Hybrid and Online Course Design Seminar, and the Flipped Classroom Workshop.

Kim also joined several other instructors at the Symposium in presenting a teaching with technology tool that he uses in his teaching. Kim uses open educational software Nota Bene that was created by MIT for collaborative reading. NB is an online annotation tool that allows students to better engage with content. Through NB, the instructor can assign articles for students to read and dedicate prompts for students to consider and respond to as they read. With NB, the instructor can better task students to consider their course readings with a more critical eye. Then, in class, students can use their annotations to participate in more productive conversations about their class readings. Students must find evidence in the assigned readings to support their ideas.

The previous two winners of the Annual ASSETT Teaching with Technology award are Assistant Professor Holly Gayley in the Department of Religious Studies in 2014 and Associate Professor of Linguistics, Kira Hall in 2013.

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Alina Van Nelson's French Students Upload Presentations to VoiceThread

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Mar 2015 06:00:00 +0000

Alina Van Nelson's French Students Upload Presentations to VoiceThread Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/17/2015 - 00:00

French Instructor Alina Van Nelson completed the Fall 2014 ASSETT Teaching with Technology seminar. Van Nelson implemented a new assessment approach to give students more opportunities to show what they learned. She created a Google Site for her class to upload written work. She also asked her students to record their presentations in VoiceThread.

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Teaching and Learning Challenge

The big idea for my technology project is to better integrate instruction and assessment in French beginner classes. As pedagogy has evolved quite a bit in the past decade, we took steps in changing instruction so it matches our students’ needs and interests, in flipping grammar instruction so class time is spent essentially on practice of the language. Assessments, however, remain too traditional at this point and don’t allow students to fully show what they can do with what they learned.

Plans for Implementation

As this will impact about a dozen graduate instructors, I decided to take small steps. Initially, I was planning to apply this to our second semester of French class, and only in the section I would teach. Lately however, due to fluctuating enrollment, I was not able to secure such a section. Given that we only have one section of accelerated French review this semester, I considered trying my project in this section, which turned out to be too small - only 6 students currently enrolled, which would mean very little student feedback on this project. Ultimately, I have to ask the three TA’s currently teaching the second semester of French to try this out, and I will depend completely on their approval. I will see them this Friday January 23, and I will see how many are willing to replace the first exam after their midterm with this project.

Instead of taking a paper and pencil exam, students will work throughout a chapter on one individual task (interpretive communication) and two collaborative ones (a dialogue and a written report). For modeling and assessment purposes, I will rely on specific activities in class and on clear rubrics, which will both allow students to focus on specific goals, and allow TAs to appropriately assess them and give them pertinent feedback.

I am currently working on a Google site that will host all their work and would allow them to react to their peers’ work. They will all have to leave specific comments on each part of the project. I am planning to develop the rubrics with the TA’s to ensure that everyone sees the value of such a project and has a say in the way assessment is tailored. They will use VoiceThread to record their individual presentation as well as the dialog with their partner, and Google Docs for the written piece. For properly recording their feedback, we’ll probably use Desire to Learn surveys.

Indicators of Success

I hope to see student involvement in the project, and have positive reactions about how learning merges with assessment in a non threatening way. Although this will be new to our TA’s, I think they will see that matching instruction and assessment enhances classroom experiences and has a positive impact on students’ motivation and attitude toward language learning.

In the surveys, if more than 50% of students prefer this type of assessment, we’ll probably move to the next level and start replacing more exams by similar real-world tasks, refining both tasks and rubrics as we go.

Reflection

Part of my reticence to experiment with this project came from the difficulty of relying on others to administer a type of assessment that I created.

Although I’ve had the idea for a couple of years now, this reticence held me back. Being in this seminar and hearing other faculty’s struggles, on one hand, and having Amanda and Caroline next to us as both a resource and support, helped me finally making things more concrete and taking steps toward making it happen. I am extremely grateful for everything I have learned and for all the people I met during this seminar. I also immensely appreciated the gentle reminders that these two ladies had to send us. It is always hard for me to teach two or three different things and at the same time work on a completely different project.

The design process is not over for me yet. After meeting with the TA’s and deciding how we will go further, I will share the page with them and decide how to integrate the rubrics in the site, how to scaffold it so students find it easy to manage, and how to encourage them to collaborate. Working with technology definitely makes all these aspects compelling and worth exploring.

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Dr. George Rivera's Students' Art Crossed Borders with ASSETT Development Award Funding

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Dr. George Rivera's Students' Art Crossed Borders with ASSETT Development Award Funding Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/19/2014 - 00:00

Does art belong in a combat zone? Dr. George Rivera of the �� Boulder Art Department believes it does. With only a portable printer, Rivera collaborated with university students in Boulder and in Bethlehem, Palestine to create an international art exhibit. He received an ASSETT Development Award last year to purchase the portable photographic printer and photographic paper that were necessary to create the bare bones exhibit. "[The ASSETT Development Award funding] resulted in an exhibition entitled HOME/LAND, which consisted of 40 art pieces of Image and Text presented in the Visual Arts Department of Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture in Bethlehem, Palestine ..." says Rivera, who collaborated with Professor Johny Andonia at the Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem, Palestine. The portable printer enabled the exhibit to take place, "without the expensive shipping," that an overseas exhibit would normally require, Rivera explains. He points out that a photo printer may not normally be easily available in Palestine, and, "Without the equipment, you can't do this ... I think that's what these awards are meant for."

Rivera took pictures of students at both universities and invited them to respond in eight words or fewer what home, land, or homeland meant to them. Their responses included:

"2 towns 2 axis the center home"
Home is where I want to raise a family.
Home is where I'm accepted
Home where I Feel safe
Where there is good food
Home Is A Place I'm Looking for

Rivera explains that the process of coupling an explanation with a photograph of someone is an extension of the Conceptual Art Movement that matured in the 1960s and 1970s, in which, "It's the idea that drives something, rather than the image," he says.

Why Palestine?

Through the exhibit, Rivera aimed to illustrate the universality that exists in all people, despite our differences of nationality, ethnicity, and religion. He says that participating in the exhibit was an, "Opportunity to know others in the world better ... [and] to help students think internationally and globally." He says the exhibit was intended:

"To remind people that they have something in common with other human beings--to remind them that they are not as isolated as they think they are. That makes us one ... We get caught up too much in categories. Underneath all of those categories are human beings like you and me."

When asked about the decision to exhibit in a combat zone, Rivera responds, "Students have to learn how to deal with change and diversity ... [These are] universal issues no matter where we live that we all have in common." Rivera says that he believes that art can "transcend" the boundaries and politics of this world that more often divides us: "Art is life, and life is art. There is not a separation ... I believe we can change the world with our presence." He quoted the late German philosopher Herbert Marcuse in The Aesthetic Dimension in saying, "'Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives the men and women who could change the world.'"

Rivera also explained that the opportunity for students to present at an international venue is exceptional:

"... ASSETT funds enabled students in our Art Department to have international exhibitions and allowed us to print the art of image and text of students from other universities as an exchange between our university and an international venue. Thank you for the ASSETT Award, as it benefited our art students by obtaining international exhibits for them."

Portable printer, laptop, and camera in tow, Rivera says that the HOME/LAND exhibit is only the beginning of a greater and longer international partnership. He would like to continue to collaborate with Professor John Andonia at Dar al-Kalima University College in Palestine and exhibit on an annual basis there and on an even bigger scale, renting out advertisement space at bus stations in Bethlehem. Since the exhibit culminates in eight-by-eleven photographs, "I can leave it behind," says Rivera.

Next, Rivera plans to ask students to answer the question, "What is art?"

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Miriam Kingsberg Incorporates Shared Class Notes into Lecture Course

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Miriam Kingsberg Incorporates Shared Class Notes into Lecture Course Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/10/2014 - 00:00

Watch Dr. Miriam Kingsberg's video podcast about how she incorporated shared notes into her lecture course, as inspired through her experience in the 2014 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Seminar.

[video:https://youtu.be/LjLjHnPhrgo]

Teaching and Learning Challenge

This semester (Spring 2014), I taught a large (approximately 90 students) introductory survey of Japanese history (HIST 1708). The students’ collective performance on the midterm, in the seventh week of the semester, was disappointing. Although I gave them sample essay and short-answer questions to prepare in advance, it appeared that few students had studied effectively. To give them an opportunity to think through what might have caused a low grade, and to help me structure the second half of the course more effectively, I offered students the opportunity to fill out a mid-semester evaluation. (Unfortunately, due to the timing of the exam and other factors, this exercise took place on the Thursday before spring break, when many students were absent.)

From the evaluation, I gained a clear sense that many of the students were not taking notes effectively during class. Like most large history surveys, my course is lecture-based, with much of the tested material conveyed and explained during meetings. I generally put some information on PowerPoint slides and make these presentations available after class on Desire2Learn, but do not share my own lecture outlines, in the expectation that students will learn more by generating their own notes. Whereas I liked the idea of holding them responsible for their own education (and encouraging attendance), I noticed that many students, including several who seemed enthusiastic about the subject and often asked good questions, did not routinely take notes in class. The midterm evaluation suggested that they would benefit from some guidance in how to take useful notes and in having these notes available for studying.

Plans for Implementation

In conversation with ASSETT, I devised an intervention to this effect with the following aims:

1) modeling the construction of useful lecture notes

2) making available comprehensive notes for the material covered in class

3) encouraging collaboration among students in a large course

I put the intervention into action on Apr. 10 (unfortunately close to the end of the semester). I selected a student who had performed strongly on all class work to date and had come to office hours several times to discuss material she had missed due to absence, or had not understood adequately during lecture. I emailed her to ask if she would be willing to take notes in front of the class during lecture. Luckily, my classroom (EDUC 220) is equipped with two screens. Because it has only one projector, I requested a second one from OIT. The student worker came on time and with all of the requisite equipment, and even stayed until I was fully confident that everything was functioning correctly.

The lecture normally runs the full course period of 75 minutes, but, to minimize the burden on the note-taker, I lectured for only one hour (devoting the remainder of course time to preparing the students for their upcoming paper assignment). I looked over the notes briefly before posting them online. The student chosen for the exercise did a great job—they were extremely comprehensive and easy to follow, and had the added benefit of filling me with confidence that my lectures were accessible to the class..

After the session that day, I asked my TA if she had noticed any impact on the attention level in the class (she generally sat at the back of the room and was vigilant in policing technological distractedness). We agreed that the students seemed no more or less engaged than usual. I had feared that the second screen might distract me as I lectured, but I soon became immersed in the material and forgot all about it. The only drawback was the reduced amount of blackboard space. I am accustomed to writing down concepts for the students as I lecture, and with two screens obscuring most of the blackboard, I had to erase constantly.

In class the following week, I circulated an anonymous and confidential paper survey to learn the class’s reaction to the exercise. (I devised the survey after the exercise took place, when I had a good sense of what kind of feedback might be useful.) I’ve pasted it here for reference:

Feedback on Note-Taking Exercise

Do you usually take your own notes during class? Are you satisfied with your note-taking ability?

Did having the notes on the projector change your own note-taking in class? If so, how?

Did you review the notes after class?

Will you use the notes to prepare for the final exam?

If you were not confident in your note-taking prior to this exercise, did the model give you a better sense of what is important to listen for and write down during lecture?

Would you be willing to take notes on behalf of the class during a future lecture?

Circle as applicable:

· I found the second projector distracting.

· I prefer to take my own notes.

· I like the idea of having notes constructed by my peers available.

· I like the idea of having notes constructed by my peers available, but I don’t need to see them being written.

· I find it helpful to watch the notes being written.

· I am less likely to go to class if notes are available online.

· I am less likely to pay attention in class if I can rely on someone else’s notes.

· This exercise was useful in showing me how to construct good notes.

· I was absent from class on Tuesday.

Are there any ways this exercise could be improved to be more useful to you?

Indicators of Success

The reaction to the intervention ranged from enthusiastic to neutral. Of the 57 students who took the survey, 52 were in favor of having the notes available online. Of the five students who were indifferent, four said that they would likely use the notes to prepare for the final exam. Only two students admitted that access to someone else’s notes would reduce the likelihood that they would attend class (in all probability, those who did not regularly come to class probably were not present for the survey). The second projector was not viewed as distracting, but a few of the students had a hard time seeing it from where they were seated. Almost half of the students said they liked having the notes posted online, but didn’t need to see them being constructed. A few made interesting suggestions regarding possible improvements to the exercise (I may take these into account in future semesters.) Only 17 said they might or would definitely be willing to take notes for the class. Excuses included poor handwriting, the lack of a laptop, fear of being distracted, poor grammar and spelling, and fear. Comments included numerous variations of the following:

“It helped me get some of the facts/details I may have missed otherwise.”

“If I missed something I was able to look at the notes to catch up.”

“It helped me organize my thoughts better.”

Based on student responses, the feedback from my TA, and my own impressions, I decided to continue modeling note-taking during the final two lectures of the semester, and called for volunteers. Unsurprisingly, no one came forward, so I directly approached two other high-performing students (one was willing, the other as not). When I taught a similar course during Maymester, I avoided this problem by building credit for notetaking into the structure of the course, requiring each student to take a turn at some point during the semester. I also had the class seat themselves so that the students who wanted to see the notes being constructed had a good view of the projector.

In addition to feedback, I used the final exam to determine the effectiveness of the note-taking exercise. On exams, I normally ask the students to identify and state the significance of four out of five concepts presented during lecture, drawn from a “bank” they are given in advance. These answers are generally approximately the length of a long paragraph. I selected one concept from the days for which note-taking was modeled and the results subsequently posted on Desire2Learn, and four others from lectures earlier in the semester. The students overwhelmingly elected to define the concept for which notes were available, and their definitions were significantly better than those they supplied for the other concepts.

Although I have made some modifications to this exercise for Maymester and will continue to tweak it, I would consider my intervention a success!

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Technology Facilitates In Class Group Work and Student Understanding in Deserai Crow's Environmental Studies Lectures

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Technology Facilitates In Class Group Work and Student Understanding in Deserai Crow's Environmental Studies Lectures Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/09/2014 - 00:00

Watch this video of Dr. Deserai Crow reflecting on pedagogy and her use of Google Drive for in-class group work in large Environmental Studies lectures.

[video:https://youtu.be/IBUq_7iI0Dc]

Teaching and Learning Challenge

Beginning in fall semester 2013, I began to teach much larger lectures than I had previously taught. This was in part due to moving my tenure home to ENVS, where classes are not capped due to accreditation standards (like in JMC). It is also in part due to the large size of our undergraduate student body and the curriculum needs of the program. Overall, I enjoy having a variety of lecture and seminar formats. This challenges me and makes my teaching more interesting. It does, however, pose new challenges for me as an instructor.

The problem I aim to tackle is my struggle with making larger lectures more interactive and interesting to the students, yet still teach important information. I am not satisfied with teaching in a stagnant lecture format that does not change from semester to semester. It seems that students respond best to interactive or entertaining lectures, but I struggle with the questions of when and how to use these approaches to avoid dumbing-down my lectures and expectations. I use PowerPoint, and I regularly include video links and current examples in lectures. I also ask questions of students to get response. However, I know that there must be better approaches to getting some student interaction, communicating information, and keeping class interesting. This balancing act is the problem I intend to try to work on during this seminar.

I believe that the reasons to address this problem include: 1) a potential for increased student engagement and learning outcomes, 2) making lectures more interesting for me and the students, and 3) more effectively or memorably communicate course concepts so that students not only memorize terms and concepts but also know how to use them with regard to real-world examples and challenges that they face. I believe that by improving the interactivity and engagement of students in my lectures, I will also receive higher FCQs and peer evaluations. I believe building these interactive elements into my courses will increase my own satisfaction with teaching, as well as student engagement and learning outcomes.

Plans for Implementation

In order to successfully engage students in larger lectures (n=65 this semester), I plan to use three tools that I have either improved or learned this semester. While three tools may seem like a lot, I have purposely chosen a strategy to enhance student engagement that can use complementary tools which seem to be easy to learn and implement.

Course: ENVS 3032, Environment, Media & Society: This course is a lecture of 65 students which meets a requirement for ENVS, but also enrolls students from a variety of other majors, primarily in Arts & Sciences. Students come from majors such as Sociology, Film Studies, Math, and Physics, in addition to ENVS. This makes it fun but also assures that I cannot assume similar backgrounds or skill-levels!

Technology/Intervention #1: In-class group activities

I have used activities in the past in both seminars and lectures, but the ASSETT Teaching with Technology Seminar has given me more ideas about how to create more engaging activities and has also settled fears that this is not a legitimate use of class time. Pedagogical readings focused on student engagement have given me more confidence in using these activities. In five class sessions during this semester, at the conclusion of different content sections, I have created in-class activities. I have created these so as to get students who are working on a separate group project together to work through complementary course concepts that will help them develop their final project. It also serves to help them interact and hopefully work better as a group.

I previously received student comments such as “she doesn’t even teach!” on my FCQs when I used these types of activities. To dissuade students of the idea that this is not actual teaching, I now preface these activities by clearly explaining the goals of the work and my belief that they must be engaged in their own learning.

One struggle that I have had with group activities is that they often require readings outside of class. Getting students to do the readings in order to effectively participate has been a challenge. I have recently started to use easy 3-question quizzes to begin these activities. Students are warned that the quizzes will take place and are told that if they simply do the readings, they should get full credit. The success of this approach is yet to be determined.

Technology/Intervention #2: Use of Google Docs for Group Projects

In the ASSETT Teaching with Technology Seminar, I learned about Google Docs, which I sadly had never used before. Realizing the simplicity of the application and that every �� student has an account (and that it is FRPA compliant), I began using it this semester. Students are assigned to groups for a final project where they must create an advocacy communication campaign on an environmental topic of their choosing (groups are assigned based on student ranked preferences of the topics). I created folders similar to the ones used in the ASSETT workshop. I invited students to join the folders where they can interact and complete their mini-assignments that will build into the larger project. I am also able to view their work and understand better the level of participation by group members. This approach also makes submitting assignments simple for students. On due dates, I simply view their folders and read the assignments. This has been a very easy technology to implement, and it seems that students prefer it to Desire2Learn. It was much easier to set-up than D2L discussion groups, as well.

Technology/Intervention #3: VoiceThread for Final Exam Lecture Review

In the past, I have struggled with my frustration that students want PowerPoint lectures posted, and I fear that this will incentivize them not to come to class. I am slowly moving beyond this (perhaps). This semester, I am trying a new approach. I have not yet given them any indication that the slides will be posted. However, at the end of the semester I intend to post the lectures to D2L. I am also planning to try VoiceThread to help explain some of the tough concepts presented in lecture that they might struggle with. I will balance this with my aforementioned fears by focusing on a few complex and central concepts but then will expect that they will need their notes to fully supplement the PowerPoint slides. This is the last technology that I plan to use this semester and one that I have not yet used.

In future semesters, I am also interested in using D2L quizzes, where I can create a question library using Excel to upload banks of questions. This may be a task that I ask a TA to begin in the fall semester.

Indicators of Success

The primary goal of this project is to engage students in learning which will hopefully lead to more effective learning outcomes. I am attempting to accomplish this through the use of more in-class activities, interactive group assignment technology, and possibly the use of tools such as VoiceThread. I also expect it will lead to a more enjoyable teaching experience in these larger lectures for me as students become more engaged. In achieving greater learning outcomes, I hope to be able to move students up to higher levels on the Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid, focusing not only on knowledge acquisition but also on the synthesis and analysis of knowledge. To do this, I will include three primary assessment strategies for my 3000-level class.

First, beginning next year I will conduct a survey at the beginning and midterm semester points. This survey will be a D2L survey so that students can get extra credit for responding. However, I will also make it an anonymous survey so that they are free to answer as they wish. The survey will focus on a few broad attitudes/opinions related to the primary course content. It will also ask some simple knowledge questions. In the same survey, I will ask students for feedback on lectures and assignments so that I can gauge student satisfaction at the same time. This survey, combined with final exam questions that are able to assess student knowledge and synthesis of course material will help me understand if they have made learning progress during the semester. It may also help to present the survey responses to class so that students can understand where they sit in comparison to other students (in aggregated data, of course).

Second, beginning this semester I will include more sophisticated exam questions in the final exam. Previously, I had included essays asking students to analyze course content. However, I think a more synthetic and applied approach will be to provide them with an example of media content (complementary to course content) and ask them to analyze it according to the concepts presented in class. This will require them to apply conceptual ideas to real-world examples. We have given students similar exercises during the semester in the in-class activities developed in this ASSETT project, so this should be a familiar approach for students. I believe it will also more authentically assess their learning.

Third, beginning next year, I will develop rubrics such as those presented in class to assess student assignments. Overall, I am happy with the assignments as they now exist, but I can work to improve the assessment of those assignments. The rubrics that include distinct criteria that are measured on a spectrum can be very useful to my grading and to student learning. These can be helpful to virtually all of the assignments that I use since they are often writing, analysis, or application assignments.

Generally, I think that these three approaches can help me understand actual student learning to a greater degree. I also think that they will help students understand their own learning and where they need to improve.

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Bret Fund Uses Gogy to Spark Interactive Discussion in Entrepreneurial Course

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Bret Fund Uses Gogy to Spark Interactive Discussion in Entrepreneurial Course Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/06/2014 - 00:00

Bret Fund used Gogy online slides to invite his students to participate more in an entrepreneurial business course.

Teaching and Learning Challenge

Educators often struggle with two problems in classes that require some type of lecture component. First, educators often underutilize the collective knowledge and experience of the audience due to the broadcast nature of lecturing and the temporal constraints produced by meeting in a physical space bounded by time. Second, they rarely get substantive feedback on the effectiveness of their ability to leverage this pedagogical tool (lecturing) in disseminating the chosen content knowledge or obtaining an accurate read as to what content knowledge needs further (or less) explanation. As a result of these two problems, presentations and lectures can be very ineffective in terms of student engagement with the material and overall performance outcomes.

Plans for Implementation

Opportunity:

Gogy is an online software that transforms ordinary lectures and presentations into interactive discussions, creating a more collaborative learning environment that lasts far beyond the presentation event. Gogy does this by allowing all audience members to interact around the content of a presentation through slide-by-slide interactions, by allowing audience members to include and share additional related content to the other audience members, and by giving access to the shared content and materials well after the course has ended. Unlike other methods of encouraging discussion during lectures that focus on selective face-to-face interaction of a few audience members, Gogy is simple, straightforward and takes static presentation slides and makes them interactive. By using Gogy, students can learn from the professor (as they define the knowledge to be disseminated), as well as from other students (as they provide comments and other relevant content to the slides), and the professors are also able to learn from the students (both about the content as well as how well the students liked or understood what was being taught).

Pedagogical Basis:

The term “participative pedagogy” starts with the fact that we are living in a society and time where current technologies are reshaping the ways we interact with one another and the world around us (Shirky, 2008). One of the unique trends in our current environment is how users not only consume content they deem useful, but also how they are the generators of content. In a classroom setting, this trend has not taken hold in the same fashion. What if, instead of being merely consumers of information, students can become active generators of insights and material surrounding the topics being discussed? This is what participative pedagogy embodies. In other words, students take an active versus passive role in their learning process both in and out of the classroom.

Course Details:

I plan on exploring the use of interactive lectures in my ESBM 3700 course. It is an introductory entrepreneurship course that is a mix of lectures, cases, projects and writing assignments. It usually has between 30 and 40 students every year and is taught in the business school.

Duration of Use:

I plan to use interactive lecture technology (Gogy) throughout the entire semester. This means there will be around 15 lectures that will be uploaded to the software and will be available to the students to interact around.

Description of Use:

Gogy transforms ordinary lectures and presentations into interactive discussions, creating a more collaborative learning environment that lasts far beyond the presentation event. Gogy does this by allowing all audience members to interact around the content of a presentation through slide-by-slide interactions, by allowing audience members to include and share additional related content to the other audience members, and by giving access to the shared content and materials well after the course has ended. Unlike other methods of encouraging discussion during lectures that focus on selective face-to-face interaction of a few audience members, Gogy is simple, straightforward, and takes static presentation slides and makes them interactive. By doing this, students can learn from the professor (as they define the knowledge to be disseminated), as well as from other students (as they provide comments and other relevant content to the slides) and the professors are also able to learn from the students (both about the content as well as how well the students liked or understood what was being taught). Below is a screenshot of what the interface looks like.

Frequency of Use:

I usually lecture once a week and then conduct activities during the other class session for the week. I hope that the interaction around the lecture content however goes beyond the once a week session. Therefore, I hope to be able to use and interact with my students on a daily or on an every other day basis through the software.

Scope of Use:

This will be only one element of my course and pedagogy this semester. While it will be an important way that I interact with my students around lecture content, there are many other elements to the course. I am using this tool only to increase engagement and interaction around my lecture content.

Indicators of Success

Intended Outcomes and Measuring Growth

The intended outcome for the use of Gogy is to increase interaction around the content of the lecture beyond the classroom lecture day. This is will most likely take the form of comments and posts to myself or other students around the lecture. I will be able to measure the changes in students’ behaviours because they will either use or not use the software to interact with me and the others in the class. Ultimately, I would love to be able to measure what influence the use of Gogy has on knowledge retention, but I do not expect to gather this data this time around. I would imagine that I would need to teach two identical classes and use Gogy in one and not the other to adequately compare the influence of Gogy on knowledge retention.

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