Instructor Tips for Just-in-Time Teaching

How to gradually integrate JiTT with courses

The perception is that JiTT will add to an instructor's workload. When first starting out, it is not necessary to begin with daily or weekly JiTT assignments. Instructors can begin with a few JiTT exercises in one semester and gradually add more with each additional semester. In time, an instructor will see reduced course preparation work, the ability to grade more efficiently, and the positive impact JiTT has on student learning.

How to get students to think through and prepare responses to JiTT questions

Instructors are encouraged to place some sort of point value to the JiTT exercises, perhaps a percentage of the students' final grade. Some instructors grade the accuracy of the responses, while others award points for completion of the web-based forms. See the Assessment page in this module for more information and a sample grading rubric.

How long to make the JiTT assignments, and how long to give the students to complete

One set of JiTT questions should take students 15 minutes to a half-hour to complete, assuming the corresponding reading was completed before accessing the web-based form. Typically, students are given one week to complete the questions outside of class, with the cut-off of entering responses two-to-three hours before the lecture period is to begin. However, some instructors may give only one day for students to respond, and some instructors may ask for the responses by the evening before the lecture period.

How to create the web-based forms for the exercises

One very simple method to create the web-based forms would be to use your university's course management software system (WebCT, Blackboard, etc.) and set up a quiz or survey to receive student responses. Instructors may create their own web-based forms. For example, Laura Guertin at Penn State Delaware County uses Macromedia Dreamweaver to design the web-based form that writes to a Microsoft Access database. She has also designed a web page that can bring up the responses question-by-question in the classroom to engage the students in discussion.

• The low-tech option: Provide students the questions on paper or post questions online in a static document. Have students email their responses by a deadline. Or, have students type their responses, save the document, and place the file in a drop box in the university's online course management software program. This is recommended as a last-resort option, however, for much extra time is needed to read each email response and prepare answers to show the class.

How to increase the effectiveness of JiTT

One idea is to require students to ask a question about the subject matter at the end of every JiTT assignment. The instructor can then select some of these questions to display to the class for discussion purposes. Unlike the questions the instructor asks, these questions show what the students think is important or confusing, not what the instructor thinks is important. These student questions can jump-start engaging classroom discussions.