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Single-Point Rubrics: Exceeding Expectations
[social_share/] [social-bio] As an Instructional Designer, I often speak on the value of assessment rubrics. There are many reasons why creating a rubric for each assignment, providing students with the rubric, and using the rubric while grading can be advantageous. Many of these reasons are highlighted in the video below, including: You write the same comments on several assignments You decide how to assess after the assignments are handed in You realize after grading a few papers that your students didn’t understand the assignment expectations (Stevens & Levi, 2005) Knowing about these reasons for rubrics, I sat down last fall to create few rubrics for the assignments in an undergraduate…
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Open Textbook Integration Catching on at USask
[social_share/] [social-bio] A year ago we ran a reprint of a blog post by Professor Eric Micheels who teaches in the College of Agriculture and Bioresource. As far as I know, Eric was the first instructor on campus to adopt an open textbook instead of having students buy a commercial textbook. He saved the students in the class about $27,000 by doing so. Open textbooks are free, digital textbooks that instructors can customize to meet their specific needs, or use them as is. These open texts are written by instructors and many go through a peer review process. The book that Eric adopted includes a test bank and other ancillary…
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Talking with Students About Suspected Plagiarism: Ten Guiding Questions
[social_share/] [social-bio] As assignments start to come in, this can be the time in the term when faculty notice what may be inadvertent or intentional plagiarism by students. Hopefully, you rarely encounter this yourself. But, if you do suspect plagiarism, how can you best proceed? Here’s what I would do… First, become familiar with the institutional policy and any particular procedures with respect to this policy in your department or college. Next, I suggest that you discuss the matter with the student(s) you suspect. Here are ten guiding questions offered to help you to prepare for and to anticipate the potential directions of a discussion: Why am I asking to discuss…
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Why Mentoring for New and Pre-Tenure Faculty? Academic Success!
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Dr. Jim Thornhill, Special Assistant to the Vice-President Research Mentorship of pre-tenure faculty is a key component to academic success. Sutherland and Peterson (2009) advocate from a national study conducted throughout New Zealand that early academic success of new faculty is determined by 3 factors: Prior training and experience of the new candidate, Personal characteristics of the candidate (tenacity, resolve, work/life balance) and The institutional support provided (e.g. time, space, resources). At the University of Saskatchewan, The Provost’s Office via the Gwenna Moss Teaching & Learning Centre and the Vice President Research Office via the Research Mentorship Program have come together to highlight and support mentorship in…
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Complying with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Diane (DeDe) Dawson, Science Liaison Librarian, University Library The new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications came into effect on May 1st 2015. This policy applies to all grants awarded from that day and onward (exception: CIHR has had this policy in place since Jan 1, 2008). This blog post is intended to be a handy, practical introduction to the policy and how to comply. The Policy Details: “Grant recipients are required to ensure that any peer-reviewed journal publications arising from Agency-supported research are freely accessible within 12 months of publication” (emphasis my own). There are two routes to achieve this: Online Repositories (a.k.a. the “Green” route)…