January brings with it the comfortable familiarity of a completed fall semester and the newness and opportunities of a spring semester waiting to begin. Before the first day of the semester, consider these strategies to promote student success.
- Welcome students. Send a welcoming email or Canvas announcement to your class (see the communication strategies page). Let students know where and when the first class session occurs: in person or online, how to access the Canvas course page, include a copy of the syllabus, and share your student office hours. This welcome sets the stage for prepared students on the first day of class.
- Do a readiness assessment. On the first day of class, include a short, no-stakes quiz with a mixture of prerequisite knowledge questions and topics students will encounter in the course. This readiness assessment can provide you with diagnostic information about the new class. Further, providing the correct answer to the questions can be an early resource for content review. Get started by using the Quizzes and Exams strategies page.
- Ask students about their goals. No matter the class size, ask students why they signed up for the class and how it will help them achieve their goals. Students can complete this information in word or sentence format using Qualtrics. Display the Qualtrics word cloud results in real-time or share them during the next class session.
- Give a syllabus quiz. Instead of a detailed syllabus reading, give a short quiz in the first week of the term (see CELT’s Sample syllabus quiz questions page). This method is an easy first assignment win for students and can lessen potential anxiety about course expectations and grading.
- Make Connections. Prepare a small follow-up assignment in which students actively engage and make a connection with the course material and their lives. Perhaps this is finding a news article or social media post related to your course content. Maybe it is asking students to identify something within their lives impacted by the course topic. At the next class session, create triads of students to share the information. This strategy is beneficial if you use permanent triads for discussion and project teams throughout the semester and further connections with content and between classmates. Find additional ideas for engagement on the Ideas to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive classroom page along with the Engaging Students Online page.
Continue to read the CELT Teaching Tip for the Start of the Semester Checklist, Instructional Tools & Updates, the CELT Teaching Spotlight, and CELT Upcoming Programs. The CELT staff eagerly awaits meeting and working with you in spring 2021!
With a joy for teaching,
Sara Marcketti, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
Extend learning beyond traditional class time and design a course rich in interaction to ensure walk away having learned what you set out for them to accomplish this semester. This virtual workshop will focus on evidence-based strategies to help you maximize your use of Top Hat this semester.
You’ll leave this workshop knowing how to:
- Use actionable insights from integrated in-class assessments to course-correct as needed and ensure no student falls behind
- Leverage feedback to identify underprepared students and improve learning outcomes
- Make the most of your content and create multiple opportunities for students to interact with material in a low-stakes, high impact way
** This Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop meets on Wednesday, March 1st and Thursday, March 2nd, from 9 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize the foundational concepts of Quality Matters.
- Identify the critical elements of the QM quality assurance program, including the QM Rubric, materials, processes, and administrative components.
- Apply the QM Rubric to review online courses.
- Identify whether the demo course meets selected QM Rubric Standards.
- Apply the concept of alignment.
- Draft helpful recommendations for course improvement by citing annotations from the QM Rubric and evidence from the course.
Requirement
This virtual offering will be delivered via Zoom and split into three hours of training over two days. Upon completing the entire workshop, participants may pursue certification for attaining the QM roles of Peer Reviewer and Master Reviewer.
** This Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop meets on Wednesday, March 1st and Thursday, March 2nd, from 9 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize the foundational concepts of Quality Matters.
- Identify the critical elements of the QM quality assurance program, including the QM Rubric, materials, processes, and administrative components.
- Apply the QM Rubric to review online courses.
- Identify whether the demo course meets selected QM Rubric Standards.
- Apply the concept of alignment.
- Draft helpful recommendations for course improvement by citing annotations from the QM Rubric and evidence from the course.
Requirement
This virtual offering will be delivered via Zoom and split into three hours of training over two days. Upon completing the entire workshop, participants may pursue certification for attaining the QM roles of Peer Reviewer and Master Reviewer.
** This Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop meets on Wednesday, March 1st and Thursday, March 2nd, from 9 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize the foundational concepts of Quality Matters.
- Identify the critical elements of the QM quality assurance program, including the QM Rubric, materials, processes, and administrative components.
- Apply the QM Rubric to review online courses.
- Identify whether the demo course meets selected QM Rubric Standards.
- Apply the concept of alignment.
- Draft helpful recommendations for course improvement by citing annotations from the QM Rubric and evidence from the course.
Requirement
This virtual offering will be delivered via Zoom and split into three hours of training over two days. Upon completing the entire workshop, participants may pursue certification for attaining the QM roles of Peer Reviewer and Master Reviewer.
Registration is required
Please use the Register to attend this two-day series (Zoom form)
Research has shown that instructors want to learn from other instructors and CELT Talks is an interactive platform where instructors can do exactly this. A panel of instructors from diverse disciplines will have up to 15 minutes each to share their expertise in forums on specific topics.
Student Engagement is the teaching and learning topic this month. Participants will learn about the student engagement strategies used by Sayali Kukday (Associate Teaching Professor of Genetics, Development & Cell Biology), Chad Cardani-Trollinger (Assistant Teaching Professor in Leadership Studies) and Gabriel Rodriguez (Assistant Professor of School of Education). Participants will leave the Zoom session with the top three tips recommended for building student engagement by each instructor.
If you are a person with a disability, please contact CELT at 515-294-5357 or email celt@iastate.edu to request reasonable accommodations to allow participation in this event.
If you would prefer to register outside of the link below, you can call CELT at 515-294-5357 or email celt@iastate.edu (specify event title, date, name, and department with your request) if you’d like to register that way.
Register to attend online
** This Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR) workshop meets both mornings of Thursday, February 23rd, and Friday, February 24th from 9 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Learning Objectives:
-
- Recognize the foundational concepts of Quality Matters.
- Identify the critical elements of the QM quality assurance program, including the QM Rubric, materials, processes, and administrative components.
- Apply the QM Rubric to review online courses.
- Make decisions on whether the demo course meets selected QM Rubric Standards.
- Apply the concept of alignment.
- Draft helpful recommendations for course improvement by citing annotations from the QM Rubric and evidence from the course.
Requirement
This virtual offering will be delivered via Zoom and is split into three hours of training delivered over two days. Upon completion of the entire workshop, participants may pursue certification for attaining the QM roles of Peer Reviewer and Master Reviewer.
Start with the end in mind. It seems like pretty straightforward advice for a lot of things in life. And, although it isn’t always considered 
when creating a new course, or modifying an existing one, it can create a very useful framework for course design.
Often this approach to course design is called “backward design”. The process starts with identifying the course learning goals. Next, you determine the best ways to assess and evaluate if students are achieving these goals. Then after the goals and evaluation strategies are established the course content is considered. Designing and teaching courses this way puts learning first and content coverage second. It can help students achieve higher levels of cognitive development (i.e. higher order learning as described in the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy) than classes that have content coverage as a primary focus.
The CELT website has a set of resources available to help with your course design:
Additionally, CELT is offering a 5-part workshop series- Best Practices in Online Course Design starting January 31st (registration is now closed for the spring series – CELT will be offering this series again in the near future – if you are interested email CELT). The workshop series is based on the research-based Quality Matters (QM) framework. You may learn more about this framework through CELT’s Quality Matters Tracks for Faculty Development website.
(On a personal note, last fall semester I worked with a graduate student in my program to develop a non-credit online course using the Quality Matters framework. It was a big undertaking, but the QM framework provided a fantastic guide and ensured we implemented a number of best practices for online learning. We’ve had great response from many of the participants as well.)
Ann Marie VanDerZanden, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
As an institutional member of Quality Matters, you can access valuable resources to guide your online course design and improve student experiences. Create an account on the MyQM website and check out an impressive list of the following resources:
- Accessibility and Usability Resource Site (AURS): Browse this resource and receive reliable information, tips, and tricks on addressing key accessibility and usability concerns in your online courses.
- QM Success Stories Webinars: Attend synchronous virtual meetings with experienced instructors who designed and delivered successful online, blended courses. No time for synchronous webinars? Access the QM Success Stories archive on your own terms!
- Online Learning Webinars: Join QM experts and quests to discuss various topics related to building success with QM, online learning, and professional growth.
- Research Webinars: Explore the latest research on the impact of quality course design on learning.
- Bridge to Quality: A QM Online Course Design Guide: This course design guide provide a roadmap for designing courses with the QM Standards in mind.
