I was pleased to see that I utilize several of these teaching/learning techniques. I credit Sean Tvelia who has discussed these tools with my colleagues. Sean is currently a Cohort III Peer Mentor. As is the case whenever we spend time in a workshop, it energizes us to keep doing what we are doing that is working and to try new strategies to change what is not working. It never hurts to be reminded of past workshop knowledge. I began teaching a fully online lab science course two years ago and was worried about making it as appealing to students as the traditional class. Now, I am thinking that the student engagement in my online course is superior to that of the traditional course. How cool is that?
2. Based on the posters, video, and/or article, what are your ideas for what you might implement? How might you apply this in your teaching? What is something you will do differently / what will you think about implementing?
I will try to incorporate more think-pair-share in my Global Climate Change course. My entire opening class (75 minutes) is an ice-breaker that does just this, but then most of the rest of the semester is more standard lecture. I do use Kahoot! several times each class but that is not as strong as group collaboration. It is a very inclusive tool however and I highly recommend trying it out. Students love it.
3. Briefly describe something that you do well in your teaching. For example, you might briefly describe an activity, assignment, or approach you use that is an example of a teaching strategy addressed in one or more of the posters, videos, or article.
In my lab science online course, the lecture is discussion-based using Blackboard (Bb). I ask the same set of questions each week so students can benchmark to better responses over time. The questions include:
1. What did you find most interesting and why?
2. Did anything you learn surprise you? Explain.
3. Describe a concept you learned that you think will be useful after you leave this course. You must provide details to show how this concept will be used by you.
4. How might one or more of this week’s concepts be important to members of society in general? What professions might require understanding of these concepts? You must provide details to show how this (these) concept(s) will be used by a professional. Do NOT choose meteorology as the profession.
5. What, if anything, did you find confusing? What have you done to try to decrease the confusion?
You must also comment on at least two other student's threads.
Students are provided a detailed scoring rubric to guide their responses. (If anybody wants to see it I will send to you.) I also require an understanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy and require level four for the highest scores. That requires me to teach them about Bloom’s and key action words. I complement this with three videos about Bloom’s. One from a faculty perspective. One from a student perspective. One from various Harry Potter films where scenes demonstrate each level of thinking.
The questions above also add value to the content because students are asked to reflect on how the various concepts are important to society. In this manner, students move beyond thinking this is just random information in an elective course that “I will never use again.”
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