Category: Teaching Tip

The calendar shows we are more than half way to May and most of us are comfortably into the rhythm of another semester. With that in mind, it might be time to mix it up a bit and help students re-focus their efforts in your course as they prepare for the last push to finals week.

I recently came across an article titled Small Changes in Teaching: The First 5 Minutes of Class. In it the author suggests incorporating four simple actions at the beginning of class to help focus student attention. It helps set the stage for what will be taught that day and pulls them away from the plethora of distractions many walk into class with each day. The ideas are simple, straightforward, and easy to implement:

• Open with a question or two related to the course material for that day. This helps frame what will be taught that day and can also help them understand the relevance and relationships of course content.
• Ask students to summarize “What did we learn last time?” Having students summarize rather than the faculty member summarizing for them, helps students reengage with the course material.
• Have students describe or consider what they have learned in previous courses, inside or outside of the discipline, so they make connections to what they already know as it relates to the course material at hand.
• Have students write down answers to the questions you posed about the day’s topic, their summary of what they learned last time, and or connections to their prior knowledge. Writing their responses helps formalize the connections and gives them something tangible to refer back to after the class session ends.

Here’s hoping everyone has a great Spring Break!

Ann Marie VanDerZanden, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Change and continuity are hallmarks of university life. Each semester, teaching and research routines enable us to fulfill professional responsibilities and expectations. We also embrace change, as each semester new students fill our classrooms and lab spaces with open minds and new opportunities to consider the ways in which we successfully teach our subjects.

One thing that you can count on is that our CELT Teaching Tip will arrive in your email inbox every two weeks. The Tip will include innovative teaching ideas, programming, and important information related to our transition to Canvas the new Learning Management System (LMS).

For the fall semester, the majority of Iowa State University courses using an LMS will be taught in Blackboard. Blackboard technical support is available through the IT Solution Center (including evening and weekend service hours). CELT will continue to address questions that are pedagogical in nature, such as course design or instructional practices.

It is important to note that now is the time to learn Canvas in preparation for all courses being taught in the new LMS this spring semester 2018. CELT has developed a wealth of resources, and training opportunities related to the Canvas transition via the My Canvas Teacher at ISU website.

We have a great line up of professional development programs in place for the semester. The full list of programs is available via CELT’s Events and Registration website and you can register for the programs through the Learn@ISU website.

Best wishes for a successful semester-

Sara Marcketti, Interim Director

Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) is a small teaching strategy that has a big impact on student learning. Simply explaining to students why you are having them do particular activities, such as group projects, homework, and exams can help elucidate to students the value and purpose of the course work. This, in turn, can positively impact students’ motivation to complete assignments as well as promote students’ conscious understanding of how they learn.

A transparent assignment makes the purpose, tasks, and evaluation criteria clear so that your students have a good idea of what they should do before they begin working on the assignment. Imagine an assignment from a communications course in which students are asked to:

“Select a professional in your academic discipline that is considered an expert in your area. Conduct the interview and submit the typed transcript.”

Even the most experienced communications professional might struggle to find clarity in this assignment. Consider instead revising the assignment to include a clear purpose statement such as the purpose of this assignment is to help you make an informed decision about the major that you are considering. Further, you could provide an explanation of the skills the students will acquire:

This assignment will help you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in school and your professional life:

• Accessing and collecting information from appropriate primary and secondary sources
• Synthesizing information to develop informed views
• Composing a well-organized, clear report to expand your knowledge on a subject in your major.

By including well-defined purposes (as well as tasks and criteria to achieve mastery) students can focus on the assignment, rather than figuring out how to do it.

For additional insight into employing small teaching strategies to achieve a big impact on student learning, consider joining CELT’s Faculty Fellow Monica Lamm as she leads the CELT Teaching and Learning Circle on the M. Winkelmes et al. 2019 book: Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership.

With a joy for teaching,

Sara Marcketti, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Reference: Winkelmes, M., A. Boye, and S. Tapp (2019). Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership (1st ed.). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC.

I see it on the horizon and know it is coming- but the somewhat frenetic few weeks at the end of the semester always seems to catch me a bit off-guard. One of the things I have tried to implement over the past few semesters is to think purposefully about how I want to wrap up my course. Rather than just be swept along with the pressure of limited time and energy to finish the course, I’ve reflected on the arc of the course over the semester and have led my students through doing the same thing. We did this activity in class just this past Tuesday. I asked them to think about where their skills and abilities were back in August compared to the where they were when they completed their last project before Thanksgiving. I reiterated some of the learning outcomes I had for the course and how they achieved them giving specific examples of assignments they completed. We talked about bigger picture issues like how what they accomplished in this course will prepare them for being professionals in the industry. We laughed about some of the funny things that happened during the semester too. And, as I looked around the room I could see from their expressions they too comprehended what they had accomplished as a result of their effort and engagement in the course. I’ve found this activity helps give both the students and me a sense of closure.

If you haven’t already done it, I encourage you to think about how you want to wrap up your course and what message you want to leave with your students.