Teaching at Scale: Effective strategies for higher order learning in large, very-large and massive courses
New approaches and instructional technologies are changing the way many of us teach our classes. A key feature is scalability: the ability to teach increasing numbers of students at the same time. Large lecture classes, online learning, blended instruction, adaptive learning systems, and MOOCs all require scaling of instruction. We scale in our classes for reasons of efficiency – it is more cost effective to reach many than one – but we then face the challenge of optimizing the learning experience. In the geosciences, we have educational ideals that include field based, researched-based, and seminar formats. How do these ideals scale up into highly effective learning experiences that develop sophisticated geoscience thinking? This workshop focuses on techniques that improve the large scale teaching experience so that they are effective for instructors and rewarding for students.
This workshop is open to all faculty teaching undergraduate geoscience courses. We welcome participation from individual faculty, instructors, and department chairs, as well as groups of faculty from departments and regional groups from multiple, connected schools.The workshop will not be limited in size and will experiment with techniques for working with large groups in an on-line format. To facilitate our ability to work with a large number of participants, we will enlist the help of up to 10 participant leaders. For more information about the workshop and its format proceed to the overview page.
Workshop Conveners
- Jonathan Tomkin, Department of Geology, University of Illinois
- Cathy Manduca, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College
This workshop is part of the On the Cutting Edge professional development program for current and future geoscience faculty, and is sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with funding provided by NAGT, and a grant from the National Science Foundation - Division of Undergraduate Education and other contributing sponsors.