Category: Teaching Tip
Quick and short tips on teaching practices.
Winter Wellness Resources (CELT Teaching Tip)
End of Semester Preparation (Teaching Tip)
Send a Shout-out of Gratitude (CELT Teaching Tip)
Keep Your Students Engaged (Teaching Tip)
A reoccurring theme in CELT focuses on best practices for engaging students in the classroom. As we move forward this semester, these suggestions may help keep your students engaged with the course and its content.
- Ask for feedback: Solicit feedback in real-time from students to gauge understanding of new course material.
- Host student (office) hours: Provide students with great access by offering office hours virtually and in person.
- Plan thoughtful group work: Use the table on the CELT website to see if group work is the most appropriate method of use and follow the tips for facilitating successful group work.
- Develop participation as a skill: Review the Gillis (2019) framework for ways to reframe participation as a skill that can be practiced, strengthened, and valued by students.
If you are looking for more ways to increase student engagement, check out the CELT website or attend a CELT event.
One event to consider is the webinar taking place on Sept. 8 from 3:10-4 p.m. discussing creating an inclusive learning environment. Creating an equitable and inclusive classroom can foster engagement and encourage student involvement. More information, including how to register, can be found on the CELT Event page.
With a joy for teaching,
Sara Marcketti
Full Teaching Tip
View the published CELT Teaching Tip: Keep Your Students engaged (September 1, 2022 – Constant Contact) page.
Prefer a Print Version?
To view the Teaching Tip as a printable document with web addresses, download the CELT Teaching Tip for September 1, 2022 (PDF).
Submit Your Miller Faculty Fellowship Application (CELT Teaching Tip)
Pause to Reflect on Your Time Together (CELT Teaching Tip)
Welcome Back to Campus from CELT (Teaching Tip)
The CELT staff welcomes you back to campus for what will be an exciting 2022-2023 academic year.
In support of Iowa State’s 2022-2031 Strategic Plan, CELT will become home to the newly announced Iowa State Online. As we move forward with the development of Iowa State Online, CELT will continue to maintain its mission of partnering with educators to advance student-centered learning at Iowa State University.
Be sure to register for fall programming, everything from one-hour webinars to semester-long professional development (see below).
Also, check out our resources for the start of the semester.
With a joy for teaching,
Sara Marcketti
Full Teaching Tip
View the published CELT Teaching Tip: Resources for Success (August 18, 2022 – Constant Contact) page.
Prefer a Print Version?
To view the Teaching Tip as a printable document with web addresses, download the CELT Teaching Tip for August 18, 2022 (PDF).
Teaching Tip: Midterms, plus/delta, document your teaching series, and more!
A semester’s midpoint is an essential opportunity for your students to examine their progress in a course and for us to do a check-in on teaching our course.
Midterm grades
As an instructor, you can help students become aware of their standing through the midterm grade submission. Midterm grades are due on Friday, October 14, by 2:15 p.m. and are submitted electronically via Canvas or AccessPlus. Read about grading policies on the ISU Catalog Grading website. Review the Grade Submission in Canvas guide and follow the step-by-step guide to submit grades for any midterms. For additional tips, join the Grade submission using Canvas workshop on October 5 (9-10 a.m., via Webex or 2030 Morrill)
Plus/Delta: A course check-in
The Plus/Delta tool, also known as the Midterm Assessment Technique, helps students reflect on their responsibility to your course, what they should continue doing to learn (PLUS), and what they need to change for the course to improve for them (DELTA) (Helminski & Koberna, 1995). It also gives feedback on what changes could help them within the course by asking these four open-ended questions:
Plus
- What is helping me to learn in this class?
- What changes are needed in this course to improve learning?
Delta
- What am I doing to improve my learning in the course?
- What do I need to do to improve my learning in this course?
Students complete the plus delta using paper or online (Canvas Classic quizzes, TopHat, Qualtrics, etc.) during the fourth through the eighth week of the semester. Then, you summarize the results and share themes back with the class. This feedback process sends a powerful message to students that they have responsibility for their learning. It also demonstrates that you, as the instructor, are willing to receive feedback and specify what modifications will (or will not) be implemented. To get started, review CELT’s Use formative course feedback guide.
With a joy for teaching,
Sara Marcketti, Assistant Provost and Executive Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
Pictured above: Karri Haen Whitmer, Associate Department Chair for Teaching, Teaching Professor, Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology (by Christopher Gannon)
Full Teaching Tip
View the published CELT Teaching Tip: Midterms: How are you and your students doing? (September 29, 2022)
Prefer a Print Version?
To view the Teaching Tip as a printable document with web addresses, download the CELT Teaching Tip for September 29, 2022 (PDF).
Engaged or not? That is the Question.
One of the questions CELT receives on a regular basis is, “How can I engage my students in the course content?” Or, “How do I help my students engage with course content more meaningfully?”
In the article titled, “ Engaged Learning: Are we all on the same page” Dr. Bowen (2005) observed that “engagement is increasingly cited as a distinguishing characteristic of the best learning in American higher education today.” Dr. Bowen discusses four ways in which we can engage with student learners that may be known as other initiatives in higher education:
- Engagement with the learning process is similar to active learning.
- Engagement with the object of study is similar to experiential learning.
- Engagement with contexts generally is similar to multidisciplinary learning.
- Engagement with social and civic contexts is similar to service learning.
Our upcoming workshop, Engagement Strategies for Every Classroom on September 20 (12:10 – 1:00 p.m., 2030 Morrill Hall) will feature engagement with the learning process or active learning strategies. Many of the learning activities help students progress cognitively by engaging them on an affective level (enjoyment) and on a kinesthetic level (physical).
One of my favorite engagement strategies, from this workshop, is called the “Barometer” or the “Continuum”. It is an interactive opportunity for students to share their opinions by asking them to line up along a continuum based on their position on an issue. It is especially useful when you want to discuss an issue about which students have a wide range of opinions. The Barometer or Continuum can be used to:
- Gauge student knowledge, beliefs, perceptions
- Demonstrate the wide array of knowledge, beliefs, perceptions on a topic
- Because a Barometer activity makes many positions viewable, it can be an effective pre-writing exercise before an essay assignment.
All that you need is space for students to physically move to their place of agreement on the continuum. If space is not available, you can ask students to indicate with their hands (raised or lowered) their opinion.
Register for the Engagement Strategies for Every Classroom workshop via the Learn@ISU website; as well as, download CELT’s 226 Active Learning Techniques (PDF).
See you there,
Sara Marcketti, Interim Director
Center for Excellence in Learning Teaching
View the published CELT Teaching Tip: Engaged or not? That is the Question. (September 14, 2017 – Constant Contact) website.