We are all teachers. We are all students.
We are all teachers. We are all students.
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Teaching principles
Teaching principles
Effective teaching involves acquiring relevant knowledge about students and using that knowledge to inform our course design and classroom teaching.
Effective teaching involves aligning the three major components of instruction: learning objectives, assessments, and instructional activities.
Effective teaching involves articulating explicit expectations regarding learning objectives and policies.
Effective teaching involves prioritizing the knowledge and skills we choose to focus on.
Effective teaching involves recognizing and overcoming our expert blind spots.
Effective teaching involves adopting appropriate teaching roles to support our learning goals.
Effective teaching involves progressively refining our courses based on reflection and feedback.
Learning principles
Learning principles
Students ’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.
How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.
Students ’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.
To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students ’ learning.
Students ’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.
To become self - directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.
Educational Terms
Educational Terms
Pedagogy vs. Andragogy: What's the Difference?
Cindy Nebel, Phd. The Learning ScientistsCenter for Teaching and Learning, Washington UniversityImed Bouchrika, Phd. Chief Data Scientist & Head of Content (2022 Research.com)Instructional Design
Instructional Design
Bridge to Quality: A QM Online Course Design Guide, Quality Matters
Connecting the Dots: Improving Student Outcomes and Experiences with Exceptional Instructional Design: Quality Matters in the Design of Learning Experiences
Whitney Kilgore and Diane WeaverInstructional Design Central: Instructional Design Models
TI-ADDIE: A Trauma-Informed Model of Instructional Design: Educause
Ali Carr-Chellman and Treavor Bogard
"Critical course components reinforce one another to ensure that the learners achieve the desired learning outcomes."
Quality MattersAlignment
Alignment
"Assessments should reveal how well students have learned what we want them to learn while instruction ensures that they learn it. For this to occur, assessments, learning objectives, and instructional strategies need to be closely aligned so that they reinforce one another."
Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon UniversityTry making an alignment "map" to see if each outcome is being assessed and to look for holes or redundancies in your course design.
Sketch it out on paper, poster, whiteboard, etc.
Make a copy of this Spreadsheet template
Make a copy of this Document Table template
Use a mind mapping tool (MindMeister and Lucidspark and Bubble.us offer free trials)
Backward Design Steps
Backward Design Steps
This is the order in which course design should happen.
Analyze your learners (knowledge, skills, attitudes, diversity, etc)
Identify the learning outcomes (desired results)
A learning outcome is a clear and concise description of what your learners will be able to do at the end of an instructional unit
Measurable: What specific observable action will students perform to show they have met the outcome?
Precise: Name the desired skill, knowledge and behavior necessary for content mastery.
Concise: Leave supporting details out of the outcome but include them in assignment instructions.
Review the official UAA course content guide for the course-level student learning outcomes (all course content should align to these outcomes)
Write your own module level outcomes that break down the course level outcomes into smaller more specific pieces
Consult a list of action verbs: Bloom's Taxonomy (Iowa State University)
Select assessments to measure progress on the outcomes (collect evidence)
Identify assessments before designing the learning plan
Summative assessments = how you know learners met the outcomes
After you identify the outcomes and assessments, design a learning plan that provides opportunities for practice with feedback (e.g., "doing things" using active learning). Select instructional materials and technology tools that align with your outcomes. Curate a variety of course content: books, journal articles, websites, library materials, multimedia, etc.
Consult this workload calculator to help you determine how much to assign.
Note: According to the UAA Academic Catalog, lecture/discussion courses require a minimum of 750 minutes of contact time and a minimum of 1,500 minutes of course-related work completed outside the classroom to award 1 credit.
Syllabus Resources
Syllabus Resources
Follow UAA Syllabus Guidance and review the UAA catalog
Confirm course/program details in the CIM & Academic Catalog
Reflect on the effectiveness of your syllabus from last semester
Make course expectations clear and findable (OSCQR Standard #3)
Humanize your syllabus
Inclusive Accessible Syllabus
Cruelty-Free Syllabi (slides): Matthew Cheney
Liquid Syllabus example: Michelle Pacansky-Brock
Syllabus Tips
Syllabus Tips
My COH Syllabus Checklist incorporates the official UAA Syllabus guidance with additional recommendations for creating an effective course syllabus
Include an RSI statement if you are teaching "no set time"
Include a Syllabus Statement on Generative AI
Review Creating Accessible Docs for help making your syllabus accessible to EVERY student
Here are some ideas for syllabus acknowledgements
Course Review Tools
Course Review Tools
Tools for Self & Peer Review of Courses
Tools for Self & Peer Review of Courses
Quality Matters Standards (ask me for a QM Rubric workbook)
Anthology Exemplary Course Program Rubric: Best Practices (Blackboard)
Consider organizing instructional rounds in your program where faculty observe one another to learn from the one teaching (rather than to give advice)
The Science of Learning
The Science of Learning
The Learning Scientists: Six Strategies for Effective Learning - Materials for Teachers and Students
Sumeracki, Nebel, Kuepper-Tetzel, KaminskeRetrieval Practice
Spaced Practice
Dual Coding
Interleaving
Concrete Examples
Elaboration
How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching
Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, NormanPEN Principles (psychology, education, neuroscience): click each principle for a fact sheet, video, and podcast
Science of Learning Research Centre (Australia)Retrieval practice is a powerful strategy that boosts learning by pulling information out of students’ heads (e.g., quizzes, clickers and flashcards), rather than cramming information into students heads (e.g., lectures).
Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. Founder of RetrievalPractice.orgMake it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, III, and Mark A. McDanielAlso, check out The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything... is to explain it to a 12-year-old.
Telling is not Teaching | Listening is not Learning
Telling is not Teaching | Listening is not Learning
Active Learning
Active Learning
Engaging students in meaningful learning activities
Implementing Active Learning in Your Classroom (University of Michigan)
Activity database, Harvard
Practices related to learner Interaction, University of Central Florida
Engaging Connections: Cooperative Learning in an Online Asynchronous Setting
Metacognition
Metacognition
Helping students become aware of what they know and don’t know (thinking about their thinking)
Encouraging Metacognition in the Classroom (Yale)
Cognitive Wrappers: Using Metacognition and Reflection to Improve Learning
Rationale: This is only to help you improve.
Reflection: How did you prepare for this exam?
Comparison: What kinds of mistakes did you make?
Adjustment: How will you prepare differently next time?
Hot Tip
Hot Tip
Present learning objectives as questions to encourage retrieval practice and activate prior knowledge (“pretrieval”)
Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. (she/her, @RetrieveLearn)Discussions
Discussions
Tips for increasing learning and engagement in online discussions
Student participation in online asynchronous discussions can be improved by creating an engaging prompt and providing your expectations up front (create a rubric and/or discussion guidelines). Need some fresh ideas? See Better Blackboard Discussions (Kathryn Schild, UAA FD&IS) and the resources listed below.
RISE = Reflect, Inquire, Suggest, Elevate
Both you and your students can employ the RISE model to facilitate giving and receiving meaningful feedback.- Reflect, recall, ponder, communicate: I relate/concur/disagree with X because…(elaborate)
- Inquire, clarify, provide ideas through questioning: Have you considered looking at X from Y perspective? Do I understand that you mean X when you said Y?
- Suggest, introduce ideas for improvement of current iteration: You might want to include supporting information such as [link]... (be specific)
- Elevate, raise to a higher level for future iterations: perhaps you can expand this in X capacity to further address Y…(be specific)
The 4 C's (for reading reflection)
Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education- Connections: What connections do you draw between the text and your own life or your other learning?
- Challenge: What ideas, positions, or assumptions do you want to challenge or argue with in the text?
- Concepts: What key concepts or ideas do you think are important and worth holding on to from the text?
- Changes: What changes in attitudes, thinking, or action are suggested by the text, either for you or others?
21 Ways to Structure an Online Discussion
Faculty Focus- Part 1 Five ideas to structure a discussion to help learners apply what they have learned: #Hashtag that Photo Safari, Virtual Scavenger Hunt, Guessing Game, Forced Analogy, Flawed Design
- Part 2 Four online discussion structures to assist learners in exploring concepts through divergent thinking: Sticky Note Party, Wisdom of Crowds, Lotus Diagram, Mash-Up
- Part 3 Seven ways for learners to explore a concept through convergent thinking: Report on Live Discussion, Give One/Take One, Role Play, Jigsaw, Case Study, Round Robin, 3CQ Model
- Part 4 Five Online Discussion Ideas to Foster Metacognition: Fishbowl, Role Swap, Muddiest Points, Karma Points, Mood Board
- Part 5 Online Discussion Ideas – Multimedia and Resources: text, graphics, audio/voice, video
Discussion forum ideas to build community
- Half-formed thoughts or questions & wonderings (practice thinking out loud and making meaning together)
- Doubting-and-believing (discuss reasons to doubt or believe in a statement)
- Discuss real-world topics (incorporate experiences that the students have encountered or will encounter)
- Ask students to share a weekly exit ticket (Tagline, Aha & Blah, or I used to think/Now I think)
- Have students submit some assignments in a discussion board (optionally, add a peer review component)
- Assign students to create discussion prompts (they can use AI to develop some ideas)
Assessment of Student Learning
Assessment of Student Learning
Faculty use assessments to monitor, improve, and evaluate students' knowledge, skills, and abilities. Assessments help students learn when they (1) get good feedback after a "performance" but also from (2) studying/preparing for an assessment and (3) self-assessing their own work. View this 6-minute video about formative and summative assessment.
Pre-assessments are used at the beginning of a learning unit to gauge prior knowledge, skills, attitudes
Self-assessment, poll/quiz, short answer question, baseline exam, etc.
Formative assessments are low-stakes opportunities for students to check their understanding and learn from mistakes
Provide opportunities for practice with feedback (classroom assessment techniques, homework assignments, group work, quizzes, etc.)
Scaffold large projects, breaking them down into parts and providing learning supports to build skills
Summative assessments are used to measure whether students have met the outcomes at the end of a learning unit (high-stakes/graded)
Use a variety of assessment types (exams, projects, presentations, papers) that align with the verbs in your learning outcomes
Develop assessment criteria: checklists and rubrics for "projects"
Authentic assessments: simulate real workplace contexts: negotiate a complex task, practice, consult resources, get feedback, and refine performances/products (Wiggins)
Faculty continually collect evidence of student learning and are purposeful about what they collect. Assessment happens throughout the course so that students understand their learning progress and faculty can make needed changes in the course.
Visible Learning
Visible Learning
Feedback is one of the most common features of successful teaching and learning (Hattie, 2012). John Hattie’s research in Visible Learning for Teachers found that “when assessments are considered as a form of gaining feedback such that teachers modify, enhance, or change their strategies, there are greater gains than when assessment is seen as more about informing students of their current status.”
Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student Achievement and more about Visible Learning
John HattieA Model of Learning: Learning strategies: a synthesis and conceptual model
John A C Hattie & Gregory M DonoghueAssessment Resources
Assessment Resources
Measuring Student Learning: Cornell University
How do you know if the required learning has taken place?Academic Rigor: Quality Matters White Paper
Andria F. Schwegler, Associate Professor of Psychology in the Counseling and Psychology Department at Texas A&M University - Central TexasExpanding Depth and Breadth: Harvard University
Julia Hayden Galindo, Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of EducationStrategies to expand the depth and breadth of learning by “piquing students’ curiosity, getting them involved in the learning process, and giving them choices”Blackboard Ultra Group Tests
Collaborative testing enhances learning. Group tests work best during class (online or in person). A typical scenario is for students to take an individual test and then retake the test (or part of the test) in groups. Instructors typically assign a final grade that combines individual and group scores.Further Reading
UDL and Assessment: UDL on Campus
Feedback: Evidence for Learning, Australia
Designing Equitable and Inclusive Assessments: eCampus Ontario
Why Letting Your Students Collaborate on Exams isn’t a Bad Idea: Elon University
Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) and TILT Assignment template: Purpose, Tasks, Criteria for Success
Assessing Group Work: Carnegie Mellon University
Test Proctoring
Test Proctoring
Faculty who are teaching a course on campus are expected to proctor tests during the regular course meeting time and the designated Final Exam time.
For online courses, UAA is now using Honorlock for remote proctoring. Faculty must register to use Honorlock. Review the guide to using Honorlock in Blackboard Original and Honorlock in Blackboard Ultra. If you have any questions about remote proctoring or Honorlock, email Dan Norton, Instructional Designer, at djnorton@alaska.edu.
Visit UAA’s Faculty Development & Instructional Support 's Testing Resources to learn more.
TIP Ideas for improving student learning after a test
whole class group test
remediation or test corrections
exam wrapper or analysis
Faculty can also learn after giving a test. Blackboard Ultra has a question analysis feature similar to item analysis in Blackboard Original.
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