-
It Helps To Be Transparent About Academic Integrity
You and your students will be out there wondering how fair final assessments can be when everyone is unsupervised. Thankfully, there are some students, that no matter what, will follow the rules and maintain their academic integrity. A small number, will seek to cheat no matter what we do. The group to focus on right now is that large majority that wants the rules to be clear, to be enforced, and for there to be a level playing field for all. The majority of students want to be honest, but at the same time, they do not want to feel at a disadvantage if they are. When students see their…
-
The Benefits of Using OER For Remote Teaching
Open Educational Resources (OER) have experienced a growing popularity at the U of S during the past six years, with more than 6,500 students using open textbooks and other OER instead of commercial textbooks. They’re free to use, easy to access, and allow for adaptation to improve student engagement and learning, as well as instructor academic freedom (no commercial publisher telling you what you should teach). With the move of all U of S courses to being offered remotely for at least the spring and summer terms, the use of OER makes a lot of sense, especially with the Bookstore being closed. OER materials are easily accessible for instructors and…
-
Tips From Veterans of Remote / Online Teaching
As you prepare to create and teach courses remotely this spring and summer terms, we asked some U of S instructors experienced with this type of teaching to share some quick words of wisdom based on what they learned from their own experiences. Below are their tips related to design, teaching, and assessment for remote / online. Thank you to Jorden Cummings (Psychology), Allison Fairbairn (Music), Hayley Hesseln (Agriculture and Bio Resources), and Karla Panchuk (Geology) for sharing your experiences teaching remote / online courses. Design Keep it as simple as possible. Online learning difficult for many students for diverse reasons, and we cannot assume our students have access to…
-
How much help are students getting on their assignments?
You may be concerned with how much feedback or advice students are getting on their assignments or open exams. Below are some options, reasons to try them, and some tools for implementing. Option Reason Helpful tools for this Require an acknowledgement of feedback, guidance or teachings received Respectful of contributions of others Common academic practice as seen in many published papers Truthful An example acknowledgement from a paper you have written, An example where you have been acknowledged; Another example that you find or create that could fit with the assessment Distinguish types of feedback and their acceptability: e.g., proofreading, editing, error correction, peer teaching, conceptual changes… Communicates differences…
-
Creating Your Syllabus in The Context of COVID-19
As instructors prepare to teach during the spring and summer terms, one consideration is how to prepare their syllabi in the context of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U of S considers course syllabi to be contracts between instructors and students. As such, there are normally significant restrictions on what can be changed in a syllabus once it’s been distributed to students, but as you prepare to teach in the upcoming terms some greater flexibility is needed from all of us. With that in mind, the Office of the University Secretary and Chief Governance Office issued a briefing note stating: University Council, as approved by the Coordinating Committee: “Grants…
-
How to Support Students Who Have Multiple Final Exams In 24 Hours
Giving students 24 hours to complete a final assessment might make a lot of sense in a time of emergency, but it can also cause anxiety for students if they are unclear on expectations. You can help by clarifying expectations and stating clear limits in advance. To assist all of your students, but particularly students facing this additional challenge, please include the following in your exam information to students: Put all instructions about the exam into the introduction of the exam to ensure that your students have easy and clear access to any instructions, including logistics and what they should do if they have trouble submitting the exam. If you…
-
Ways To Limit Concerns About Non-permitted Collaboration
Are you worried about non-permitted collaboration? It’s true, students can seek each other out for help, examples, interpretations, translations, feedback, and peer teaching when unsupervised. In fact, we often encourage students to do so as part of the learning process. Blatant “copying” is a real problem because then the submitted work does not represent what that individual student knows or can do “without the support of resources or colleagues.” Most students want assessment to be fair and are likely to appreciate your effort to have everyone play by the same rules. Below are two options you may want to consider for addressing concerns about students collaborating. Option 1: Limit collusion…
-
Assessment Equity and Alignment with Experiential Learning
When I met with Sandy and Harold I was stressed. I was worried that I was falling behind. After coming from a very busy workplace with many competing deadlines and defined work hours, starting a PhD program and having to manage my time independently is a huge challenge. Most days feel chaotic and I’m often overwhelmed. Being a student has given me space, mentally and emotionally, to think and to focus on my health. But this “room to think” can also be a dangerous thing. Sometimes hours, even days, slip by in an unfocused haze of meandering reading if I’m not careful. This skill of balancing time and energy is…
-
First, Take Inventory
You might feel like the first thing to do for creating an online course is to understand the technology. Before, you dive into that first assess what you’ve currently got going for you in your course as you have been teaching it. Remember, the expectation is not for a fully developed on line experience, our circumstances really don’t allow for that. And, our higher tech solutions may not stay reliable. Some of the advice given when we first shifted to remote teaching is helpful: 3 steps for an inventory: What is the course catalogue description of this course? The course should reflect this description. What is essential for students to…
-
Using Reflections on Learning As Assessments
As instructors look for alternative ways to assess student learning while teaching remotely, Professor Hayley Hesseln in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources has a method that she’s used for students in her Agricultural Economics course, delivered both online and face-to-face. Hesseln, a USask Master Teacher, assigns students to write a reflective paper about their learning for the final exam. She’s remarked that it can be quite surprising how such an activity can show evidence of student learning. She usually has students read an article about what learning means and has used the article “What Did You Learn Today” by Alan Samuel, but notes that there are other articles that…