Instructional Strategies
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How do you know when you need Experiential Learning?
Summary: Identify when your teaching can benefit from experiential learning to boost student engagement with practical, real-world applications. Date of Publishing: September 22, 2022 Experiential learning (EL) is not a new approach to teaching, but in recent years has become increasingly common in higher education. It is an engaging approach to teaching and learning that can be extremely beneficial for students, especially as they start their careers. Due to practical limitations, EL can’t always be used, which leads to the question: when should you use EL? Situation 1: When students are learning a skill that is important in the real world Some skills taught in university courses are critical for…
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Keep it Active with Classroom Polling
After about 15 minutes listening in a large lecture hall, many students’ minds are likely wandering. An easy way to make your class more active and allow your students to see if they are understanding is to use polling software. A poll can be an open text response, multiple choice, and even a visual you interact with. The USask tool is called Poll Everywhere. You can see all the details for how to set up and use Poll Everywhere, including in Canvas, in the Poll Everywhere teaching guide in the Learning Technology Ecosystem. To keep students engaged when you are doing a lot of the talking, space questions and activities…
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Using Poll Everywhere to Integrate Formative Assessment in Courses
Poll Everywhere is integrated polling tool at USask. As you begin planning for the fall term, you may be considering how you will make use of formative assessment in your courses, including the use of Poll Everywhere. For Learners Formative assessments allow students to obtain feedback on how well they’ve grasped concepts and improve through practice prior to assessments that are higher stakes (exams, major projects, etc.). For example, if you have been teaching about concept A during a particular class meeting (ten-minute chunks are ideal) you can create a poll in Poll Everywhere and have students answer the question individually or in groups. This practice will help students retain…
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USask Moving to Poll Everywhere for Student Response System
Beginning this month the University of Saskatchewan will be transitioning to Poll Everywhere as the integrated polling tool at USask, replacing Top Hat. This decision was made after extended consideration and demonstrations from vendors. Instructors will be able to use Poll Everywhere to: • Gather information from formative assessments, such as polling questions or open-ended responses, from their classes • Embed polls in PowerPoint presentations, including shared ones • Ask questions of an audience in a regular conference presentation • Gather information about student preference Poll Everywhere allows for: – Results to be updated live as more answers come in – A variety of types of poll questions including multiple-choice,…
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Assigning Students to Act as Discussion Moderators
During in-class discussions, the entire class and the instructor may be part of the same discussion, but sometimes instructors put students into smaller groups, with multiple discussions happening around the room. While the instructor may be able to walk around the room and listen in on what the students are saying, they can’t catch everything that is said throughout the room. In such cases, instructors need to rely on students to facilitate the group discussions on their own. The instructor may then ask a representative from each group to share the key points of what was said. Online discussions in Canvas can work the same way. If the class is…
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Discussions in Canvas – Asking Good Questions – Part 2
By Roberta Campbell-Chudoba The exchange of questions and responses is vital to teaching and learning. The types of questions we pose as instructors should grab our students’ attention and curiosity, reinforce key points, encourage reflection, and foster active learning. Discussions in Canvas – Asking Good Questions – Part 1 explored creating open-ended questions by using Bloom’s hierarchy of cognitive skills. Part 2 looks at categorizing questions by type and using divergent, higher level questions in discussion forums. Categorizing Questions by Type1 The type of questions used in the discussion forum is dependent on the purpose of the discussion and your learning outcomes. Some question types are useful for redirecting,…
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Discussions in Canvas – Asking Good Questions – Part 1
By Roberta Campbell-Chudoba Asking questions is one of the most powerful tools we have as instructors. Just like asking good questions in class, promoting discussion with questions that capture students’ attention and stimulate intellectual engagement can be facilitated online, using Canvas Discussions. Crafting questions for a discussion forum depends on the purpose of the discussion, and your learning outcomes. Open-ended questions with multiple possible responses challenge students and can help to deepen the discussion, supported by your facilitation (or your TA’s) in the forum. One way to create open-ended questions with multiple possible responses is by using Bloom’s hierarchy (1956; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2000) of cognitive skills, a framework that…
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Aligning Your Discussion Questions With Purpose and Desired Outcomes
Many instructors indicate that they struggle with how to come up with good questions of students, whether during a synchronous session (in-person or on Zoom) or in the discussion forums in Canvas. The purpose of this post is to help you consider three key factors when trying to decide what questions to ask in these situations: What is the purpose of the discussion? Which course outcomes do you want the discussion to align with? What evidence will you accept that students are meeting or making progress on those outcomes? The Purpose When planning for a discussion, you want to be clear about why you’re having the discussion. Is it to delve…
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GMCTL to Launch New Open Course on Open in Early February
The University of Saskatchewan is a leader in Canada around open educational resources (e.g. textbooks) and is moving toward wider integration of open pedagogy (students as contributors, not just consumers of knowledge). As part of this, and in the spirit of open educational practices (OEP), on February 1, 2022 we are launching a new open course to assist instructors in learning about all aspects of OEP. Open educational practices are a range of practices based on the idea that collaborating on the creation of and freely sharing knowledge, research, and learning materials benefits all of us. Key aspects of OEP include: Materials are accessible Anyone can create, collaborate on, and…
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Using Zoom Meetings in Canvas
Zoom is a web conferencing tool available in Canvas. To be enabled, it has to be added to the course navigation menu. Zoom can be used to schedule lectures, group meetings or appointments. Students can join any virtual meeting directly through Canvas and can review any recorded sessions through the Zoom Meetings link. The videos below explain how to use Zoom to schedule meetings and office hours in Canvas. Using Zoom to schedule meetings in Canvas (7.31) Using Zoom to schedule office hours in Canvas (4.05) How students can join a Zoom session in Canvas Once in Canvas students can simply click the Join button, either from the Zoom Meetings…