Using Classroom Assignments to Further Wider Educational Goals and Research
On September 25th, 2009 the EDC hosted a Teaching Roundtable discussion with Professor Jim Davies from Carleton’s Department of Cognitive Science. The topic was fitfully titled “Don’t Waste Student Work: Using Classroom Assignments to Further Wider Educational Goals and Research.”
Dr. Davies pointed out that many of the assignments that are given to students have no life beyond completion. How Professors can combat this is by providing students with assignments that have a greater purpose to fulfill, like involving an end customer, which can provide additional motivation to complete the assignment and to put their best work forward.
Professors could consider having students do assignments that contribute to the Professors’ own research. (i.e., obtaining a series of articles or journals on a topic that need to be summarized and have students do this as part of the assignment.) Students would see value in this because not only are they learning relevant material, but their name could potentially be mentioned in an acknowledgment or contributors note in an actual publication.
Dr. Davies provided several examples that could be integrated into any discipline, including using Article Summaries or Wikibooks as a way to provide longterm use for student assignments, Supermemo programs where students can design their own library of skill testing questions on topics related to their discipline, and many others.
If you have any questions regarding this discussion, or you would like to get more information, please contact Jim Davies at jim@jimdavies.org, or visit his website. You can also contact us with questions by commenting on this blog post, Phoning 613-520 4433, or Emailing edc@carleton.ca.
Teaching with Technology Roundtable
Please join Professor Peter Andree from the Department of Political Science along with Professor Graham Smart from SLALS and the EDC for October’s Teaching Roundtable.
When: Friday, October 30 from 11:30-1:00pm
Where: 422 Dunton Tower
Community Service Learning (CSL) activities integrated into courses can take a variety of forms, from a field-trip into the community to volunteer with a stream clean-up or church supper, followed by a short assignment designed to encourage reflection on that experience, to longer-term community-based research projects that can serve as the basis of most of the course work. This workshop will explore the pros and cons of CSL, followed by a discussion of the nuts and bolts of integrating CSL into courses from the instructor’s point of view, drawing on the experience of professors who have used these techniques at Carleton.
A light lunch will be provided.
Please register here to attend this event.
Teaching with Technology Roundtable
Please join Lois Frankel from the School of Industrial Design and the EDC for this month’s Teaching with Technology Roundtable, on Friday, March 20, from noon to 1 p.m. in 422 Dunton.
Professor Lois Frankel will show examples of students’ use of blogs as part of weekly assignments in a studio course. She will share the successes and the challenges that she and her students have encountered and facilitate a discussion about opportunities for improvement.
This session will be of interest to anyone who is using blogs or thinking of using blogs in their courses.
Please register to attend this event at http://edc.carleton.ca/teachingwithtechnolog.
If you are unable to be on Carleton’s campus at this time we will be making this session available via an online Elluminate session and as a recording after. Please check back for the online event information and the recording posting.
Midterm Course Feedback Survey
Midterm is a very important time of the year for teachers and students alike, often proving the first real indication of course performance. However, this performance feedback need not only pertain to students and their grades. Course instructors also have a valuable opportunity at this time of year, through the use of course feedback surveys, to see how they are doing as an instructor.
The power of the midterm feedback report is that it allows instructors to recommit to their strengths and strive to enhance other aspects of their teaching, as reported in the student surveys, all in the hopes to create the best possible learning environment.
This is a critical difference between the midterm and end of term course feedback surveys. While the end of term surveys may provide a more comprehensive response to instructor performance, due to the students have had the opportunity to experience an entire semester of instruction, this form of survey is completely retrospective in nature. That is, that the only students that can benefit from the results of this survey are those who have not yet taken the course.
Midterm course feedback surveys also demonstrate to students that instructors care about teaching, and wish to continually evolve their pedagogical methods in efforts to enhance the university experience where it matters most, the classroom.
Borrowing from Derek’s post found on the EDC blog last year are a few other notes regarding midterm course feedback surveys:
Strategies for Midterm Feedback Surveys:
- Explain before hand the purpose of the survey and what you hope to gain from it.
- Send the survey out before the midterm exam; otherwise feedback will relate to the midterm not the course.
- Add a mix of multiple choice and long answer questions to obtain specific feedback; however remember to keep it short.
- Summarize the common feedback and general trends obtained from the survey and share it with the class.
- Try to explain how you will try to improve upon your methods and act upon the received feedback.
The EDC has recently finished a site dedicated to midterm assessments at edc.carleton.ca/feedback. For help creating, implementing or interpreting a midterm assessment, contact us by email edc@catleton.ca or at 613-520-4433 or please comment on this blog!
For a more comprehensive guide, have a look at our Learning from our Student article.
EOSET 2009: Call for Proposals for Educational Technology Conference
The annual Eastern Ontario Symposium on Educational Technology (EOSET) will be taking place this year at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).
EOSET is a rotating symposium that provides an opportunity for instructors and students from Ontario’s six eastern universities (Carleton, Ottawa U, Queens, RMC, Trent, UOIT) to demonstrate, share and report in a collegial atmosphere on practice and research concerning the use of technology in teaching and learning.
In the past, presenters have shown innovative and creative uses of technology that engage and enhance learning.
The 2009 Conference theme – Connect . Learn . Grow
Please submit proposals on the following themes of technology use to support teaching and learning:
- Cultivating digital literacy
- Experiential or exploratory learning
- Collaborative learning
- Planning and design of educational technology learning activities and/or environments
- Current uses of technology
- Rethinking learning
The conference is made up of hour-long sessions comprised of three 15-minute presentations, organized by discipline. Speakers present for 15 minutes, and then sit on a panel for another 15 minutes to answer questions.
Proposals must include:
- Names, positions, institutional affiliations, and contact information for the presenter(s). The person who submits the proposal will be the key contact.
- Session title.
- Theme under which you are submitting.
- Workshop abstract (150 words) outlining the session goals, a brief summary, and potential audience.
- All audiovisual requirements.
Submission of Proposals:
Please send your proposal by email to maureen.wideman@dc-uoit.ca.
Make sure to include your first and last name in the file name.
The deadline for submissions is March 13, 2009. You will be notified in mid-April of the selection of sessions.
For more information on the conference, visit the EOSET Conference web site at http://uoit.ca/eoset.
Feel free to contact Patrick Lyons (patrick_lyons@carleton.ca, ext. 2192) for any clarification regarding EOSET.
Two New Teaching with Technology Awards Announced
The Learning Partnership has just announced the return of their National Technology Innovation Awards. These awards honour the achievements of educators who use technology to enhance the learning environment for their students. More information can be found here: http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/Frame_NTIA.html. The deadline for this award is March 2, 5 p.m. EST.
Inukshuk Wireless announced its 2009 Call for Proposals in three specific areas: Connectedness, Content and Continuity. Faculty are encouraged to consider content proposals which include innovative and creative projects involving multimedia and feature-rich learning content, applications or learning environments. More information can be found here: http://www.inukshuk.ca/. The deadline for this award is June 5, however expressions of interest must be submitted by March 9.
For assistance with proposal submissions or for any questions, please contact Patrick Lyons, Educational Development Centre, at patrick_lyons@carleton.ca or at ext. 2192.
Academic Idol: The Finals
Back in December we wrote a post about some of Carleton’s teaching staff successfully making it into the Top 20 of TVO’s Big Ideas Best Lecturer Competition which celebrates the most engaging and intellectually stimulating lecturers in Ontario. February has arrived and it’s finals time with two of Carleton’s professors, Matthew Bellamy and Darryl Davies still in the running to be crowned as the next academic idol.
The winner will be chosen with the help of TVO viewers and a panel of judges, with the grand prize in the form of a $10,000 TD Insurance Meloche Monnex scholarship to be awarded to the winner’s school.
Professor Davies’ lecture Explaining Crime will air on TVO’s Big Ideas program on Saturday, March 21 at 4:00 p.m. and you can catch Professor Bellamy’s lecture A Watershed Moment: Canada and the Second World War on Saturday, February 28 at 4:00 p.m.
Voting will be open to the public from 4:45 p.m. on the day of each lecture until 3:00 p.m. the next day to vote. Voting will also be possible on Tuesday, March 31 at 12:01 a.m. until Sunday, April 5 at 6 p.m. There are three ways to vote:
- Online at tvo.org
- Phoning 1-866-281-3536
- Texting the word vote to mobile short code 333111
The winner will be announced at 4:00 p.m. on the Saturday, April 11 Big Ideas show on TVO and we’ll be sure to keep things updated here at the EDC with all the latest news.
WebQuest.org – using the web during class
When I found out about this website, a little light bulb went off in my head; “What an excellent idea,” I thought as I quickly began to browse the site. I know from experience that it can sometimes take countless hours trying to find activities to enhance students’ knowledge on topics covered in class.
With the internet becoming so vast and easily-accessible, it only makes sense to include it and other computer-based tools to promote learning. Of course, currently on debate is the constant fight to either remove completely or invite laptops into the classroom. With that being said, this would be an inventive way to promote the use of technology in the classroom without leaving the students alone to wander into their e-mail or Facebook accounts.
WebQuest.org is a clever and inventive website that allows one to search for WebQuests. What is a WebQuest you ask? Well, according to the website a WebQuest is an online application which allows the user (Professor) to attain activities, that rely solely on the internet, to further the learner’s (Student’s) knowledge. It is a simple and inquiry-based application, which basically means that it allows you to input a question or keyword into the search component, and it will find activities that are relevant to your search.
WebQuests were developed in 1995 by a series of participants, however the basic model was created by Bernie Dodge at the San Diego State University.
So, let’s have a run through shall we? Let’s say I am a Professor teaching Small Business Management. I am looking for a particular assignment that involves students using their skills, thus far learnt, along with their creativity. I would open up the WebQuest page and could either search a keyword such as “business” or scroll down to find a drop-down menu which would help me narrow down my choices. Once I have done a general search, I arrive at several different WebQuests, and would find the one that best suits my needs. For example, to accommodate this scenario, I found two in particular, one involves creating a Business Plan, and another which entails creating a restaurant. Both of these assignments would be suitable, and one of them goes as far as explaining the expectations and evaluation the teacher should use.
Not only is the site easy to maneuver through, but assignments are also available in different languages. There is even a section for users to create their own WebQuests, or upload documents, PowerPoints and etc. There is also a link to useful resources that may be useful to the user; to assist them in creating a WebQuest, or to connect them to the WebQuest community.
Laptops in the Classroom Part 6 – What should Carleton do?
After hearing all the arguments for and against laptops in the classroom, what options does Carleton have? Is there a solution for this ongoing debate – or does the solution lie on a classroom or individual basis?
With many universities and even some North American cities going completely wireless, which includes the classrooms, in the case of universities, this raises many implications, but what can be done to resolve them?
Before I continue, here are examples of a few universities that have gone wireless: Durham College/The University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College. There is also an article in itWorldCanada, which speaks on different Canadian institutions already housing a wireless campus, such as Dalhousie University, University of British Colombia, Mcgill University, University of Toronto, University of Calgary, and University of Saskatoon. Even our very own Carleton may result to a Wireless Campus. Read more
Laptops in the Classroom Part 5 – What Are Other Schools Doing?
So, now that we have seen several points of view regarding this laptop issue, what’s next? Well, what can Carleton do as a university and institution to assist both professors and students become more comfortable in their learning environments? This post, a continuance in a series of posts, will discuss what other institutions have implemented.
With the number of laptops within the classroom on the rise, it is easy to see where some institutions lie. Many have banned laptop use, while others promote it. Some have disconnected the use of the internet and then there have been those who have created a certain set of etiquette to encourage the proper use of laptops.
The Marriot School of Management is an interesting example. It requires every student to own a laptop and use it in class. When it comes to checking e-mails or instant messaging, they have put forth policy which states that laptops must only be used efficiently in class for taking notes or class assignments. Read more
