Instructional / Course Design
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Creating Time for Intellectual Creation: Deep Work and Maker Time
By Carolyn Hoessler The familiar challenge: We are 6 weeks into summer, and in the pile on our desk about mid-way down is that proposal, paper, course redesign that there has yet to be time for. Each week offers 40+ hours, yet there can barely be 2 hours of continuous focused worktime strung together. How can this be? What’s going on: We have time but how we use it changes the quality of that time for worse or for better. Just as fractures weaken the structure integrity of a beam, or aesthetics transform an object into art, time’s productivity is transformed by our use. Within computer science and programming there…
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Creating Articles With Wikipedia’s ‘Requested Articles’ Feature
By John Kleefeld [social-bio] In my previous two posts, I discussed how instructors and students can use WikiProjects to select articles for editing in Wikipedia-based course assignments. In this post, I discuss the creation of new articles, using WikiProject Requested articles (WP:WPRA) as a starting point. This is not the only way to start creating new articles, but the process allows you to see whether the article you are thinking of writing, or one like it, has already been requested, and to see how that request fits in with the larger subject of which it is a part. What is “WikiProject Requested articles”? The WPRA page explains that WikiProject Requested…
- General, Indigenization, Decolonization, Reconciliation, Instructional / Course Design, Instructional Strategies, Open
Taking a Fresh Approach to the Course Design Institute
[social_share/] [social-bio] For more than a decade, the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL) has offered the Course Design Institute (CDI). Throughout the CDI, facilitators from the GMCTL work with instructors on developing or redeveloping a course. We go through learning about your students, writing learning outcomes, choosing teaching strategies, developing assessments, and putting it all together through constructive alignment and the blueprinting of your course. While the CDI had been an intensive four full-day experience within one week, a few years ago we revamped it to offer it in a “flipped” mode, with participants meeting face-to-face three half days over three weeks, plus completing activities and posting…
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Teaching Students About Research: Open Data = Quality Data with Easy Access
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler When we teach students research skills and ways of approaching being a researcher, we know that research is more than just plugging in numbers or following a script. In a statistical analysis, being able to select the variables to use (and not use) and the analysis to answer the question is as important as running the analysis. We want students to design their own questions and analysis. The challenge though is where to get appropriate data easily and ethically? At the U of S, we are in luck! Our librarians have identified several key Open Data sources: Canadian Open Government Data http://libguides.usask.ca/c.php?g=16466&p=91079 Site…
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Hands up! How We Increase (Or Decrease) Student Participation
[social_share/] [social-bio] We design courses with many opportunities for students to learn by completing assignments, readings and answering questions in class. But does our teaching increase such behaviours or decrease them? One lens, psychology of learning, suggests we likely do both. B. F. Skinners’ operant conditioning suggests that how we respond to student behavior can either increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) our students actions including participating in class discussion or completing homework. What is Operant conditioning? As Thorndike’s Law of Effect and B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning note we are influenced by the consequences of our actions. Good consequences encourage more of this activity, while unpleasant (or unhelpful) consequences encourage less…
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Using Forums Effectively: Ways to improve engagement
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Katharine Horne This post originally appeared on the University of Sussex Technology Enhanced Learning Blog. It is being republished here with permission. In a Virtual Learning Environment such as Study Direct (Moodle), forums can be a great way to share course information, build community and allow students to easily share resources and ideas. Last year our post The benefits of lurking in higher education explored the ways in which learners engage with forums. However, often these forums can seem quite sparse and neglected. So how can we encourage students to actively engage with forums? Below are a few key tips to help you make the most of…
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Ideas about Assessing Student Participation
[social_share/] [social-bio] Recently we completed another Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) at our Centre. This an intensive and engaging 4-day workshop where faculty and instructors learn about and practice participatory learning strategies, and upon completion, receive a certificate of completion that is nationally recognized. As the workshop unfolds, important questions are brought forward by participants. Given our focus on student participation in the ISW, the question of how to (and whether to) give participation marks arises. While the answers depend on the context of the course, the teaching approach, and the design of the learning experiences and assessments, specific ideas from others can help us arrive at ways of doing this…
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Building Capacity for Effective Group Work
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Megan Marcoux, Student Employment and Career Centre A session on this topic will be held during the Fall Fortnight on Monday August 22, 2016 from 1 – 4 PM. Register here. Over the past several years, the Student Employment and Career Centre (SECC) has had the opportunity to expand its in-house offerings to support teaching and learning in classrooms across campus. The work has leveraged tools like the StrengthsFinder and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to give groups of students the opportunity to enhance their self-awareness and deepen their competency development in the classroom. One student competency that has been focused on and developed with great success is…
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First Day of Class: Providing students a relevant and engaging initial taste
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Carolyn Hoessler Sessions related to this topic will be held during the Fall Fortnight: Why Teach With Top Hat? (Monday, August 22, 2016 from 10-10:25 AM) – Register Here Building Student Capacity for Effective Group Work (Monday, August 22, 2016 from 1-4 PM) – Register Here Preparing & Personalizing Your Syllabus (Tuesday, August 23, 2016 from 1-2:50 PM) – Register here Exploring Methods for Preventing & Detecting Plagiarism (Wednesday, August 24, 2016 from 10-11:30 AM) – Register Here Attention & Memory: Increasing Student’ Learning (Friday, August 26, 2016 from 9-10 AM) – Register Here Assignments, Rubrics, and Grading in Blackboard – It’s Easier Than You Think…
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Stories from Librarian and Faculty Partnerships
[social_share/] [social-bio] By Kristin Bogdan, Librarian, College of Engineering Sessions related to this topic will be held during the Fall Fortnight: Integrating Digital Information Literacy Into Courses (Wednesday August 31, 2016 from 9 – 11 AM) – Register here Stories From Librarian and Faculty Partnerships (Thursday September 1, 2016 from 1- 2:30 PM) – Register here Students should be equipped to be life-long learners. Ensuring that students receive information literacy sessions, particularly those integrated within their courses, will foster life-long learning. Information literacy (IL) is “a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information”…