The posts below are from a bi-weekly digest that encapsulates a range of evidence-based best practices and cutting-edge insights on innovative teaching strategies, effective use of technology, student engagement techniques, and effective assessment, to name a few. The content, diligently curated or crafted by the director Dr. Lew Ludwig, is grounded in robust research and drawn from a wide array of innovative articles, books, and online resources. The goal is to support timely, ongoing faculty development with the most current and impactful knowledge in the field.
If you want to try incorporating testlets into your own courses, you can do that right in Canavs by using the quizzes feature. Check out this Canvas Basics Guide on Quizzes to learn more about them. There’s also this video on how to get started with quizzes in Canvas.
As Process Advisor for Academic Integrity, I often see the aftermath of an integrity violation. But what if we, as faculty members, could craft our courses and assignments to reduce students’ temptation to cheat? In his short article “10 Ways to Prevent Cheating: Ten simple strategies to reduce academic dishonesty that don’t rely on students’ ethics,” Steven Mintz argues, “In the end, cheating is as much an engineering problem as a moral problem.
In her piece, So Over COVID!, Prof. Lisa Lawmaster Hess shares her frustration with student attendance and participation. But she explains how an in-clas discussion with her first-year students revealed much she hadn’t consider. She writes, “During their sophomore year (of high school), everything had shut down. During their junior year, classes were hybrid. And senior year?
Many of us use the formative classroom assessment known as the muddiest point, allowing learners to share the material or idea they least understood. Unfamiliar with the practice or want to take it to the next level?
This week’s Canvas related tip focuses on grading. After scouring the internet for helpful tips from those who have used Canvas a lot longer than those of us at Denison, ETS found a great video to share. Watch the video Top 5 Canvas Grading Tips for more on using rubrics, setting default grades, and more!
Do you have a Canvas tip you would like to share with colleagues?
We are well into the testing season. Whether you’ve given that first test or are preparing to, here are some quick ideas I got from a webinar from Dr. Diana Skrzydlo (University of Waterloo) on assessment.
Before the test:
When reviewing test topics in class, have students practice metacognition by actively rating their understanding of each topic.
Hopefully, your initial shock of ChatGPT has subsided. Now how to navigate teaching in this brave new world? While an outright prohibition on this technology could quickly devolve into a game of whack-a-mole, there are some things we can do this semester to circumvent nefarious applications of this technology. In his article Embrace the Bot: Designing Writing Assignments in the Face of AI, Eric Prochaska suggests several ways to adjust our assignments to lessen the impact of ChatGPT.
Many of us use the active classroom technique known as minute paper, which provides an opportunity to quickly assess students’ understanding of the lesson’s main point. Unfamiliar with the practice or want to take it to the next level?
What do you want from your students?
Are you looking for some active learning ideas? The Active Learning Library is a free online resource that lets instructors browse over 40 learning activities and filter them according to their goals and interests. For example, instructors can search for activities that provide formative feedback, support small group engagement, build metacognitive skills, or don’t take too long to prepare.
