7th May, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
Woo-hee! This is a scary concept – having a colleague come in to your classroom to observe your teaching (and then to give you feedback). I know it’s intimidating (for a lot of reasons), but I’m going to write about it anyway and encourage you to access this as a feedback method. Here are some » Read More
7th May, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
Nearly as much as the first class meeting, the final session or two can determine the success of your course. The final exam and the course evaluations will reinforce each student’s sense of personal achievement, attitude toward you, and valuation of the total learning experience. If you started your class with a bang, you do » Read More
7th May, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
As a learning method, role-playing attempts to help students discover personal and practical meanings in a given subject. Other times, it can help resolve personal dilemmas with the aid of their social group. Whenever students take risks, as they do in improvisation (role-playing) they typically achieve a valid educational payoff. In a more intensive and » Read More
7th May, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
For decades, vocational institutions have placed students in internships and externships, i.e., jobs in actual work settings, to link course content to the demands of the real world. Many can attest to the learning value of those experiences and to the accompanying opportunities that they provided to make valuable career-building contacts. This article, briefly introduces » Read More
3rd March, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
My course syllabi were quite lengthy – for a number of reasons including my verbosity – but also because I wanted to communicate with students so they knew who I was just from reading what I had to say. A syllabus is more than a list of topics, assignments, and grading policies; it’s an initial way to tell students about us and how we want to interact with them. This article includes examples drawn from an actual syllabus. You might see some ideas to encourage you to be even more authentic with students. Read More
27th February, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
When students graduate from college, employers expect a certain level of skills in writing when they are hiring these graduates. They may expect their new employees to be able to write position papers, reports, e-mail messages, grants, and an array of other documents that communicate complex situations succinctly and accurately. Read More
21st February, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
As a professor, you are working to build students’ knowledge related to your discipline. To assist you in thinking strategically about developing your course objectives, but in particular for the purpose of this article, about why you need to use alternative assessments of student learning (vs. traditional true-false, multiple choice-type tests), consider two broad categories of knowledge, i.e., “declarative” and “procedural.” Read More
21st February, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
The use of portfolios in higher education is not a new phenomenon – at least in some fields. Having students create portfolios to present their ideas and accomplishments to prospective clients or employers has been standard practice for art departments, journalism schools, marketing programs, and the like, for decades. These portfolios are a means of demonstrating the quality and range of work produced by the student, just as a working artist’s or an advertising executive’s portfolio showcases the quality and range of work he or she has produced. In this article, professors are introduced to 3 types of portfolios: working, showcase, and assessment portfolios. Read More
21st February, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
Not all assignments fit all students. There are times where you must insist on having students complete particular learning experiences that you have pre-determined for a course. However, given the fact that most college and university classes now comprise an immense span of student ages, experiences, backgrounds, and educations, offering a structured way for students to propose an alternative to one or more assignments. This article offers suggestions for allowing students to submit a proposal, which includes how it relates to the course objectives and how it will be graded. Read More
21st February, 2009 - Posted by Meggin - No Comments
In an age of accountability, across all disciplines and fields, being able to “perform” is a major predictor of success. Professors working to prepare students for the age of knowledge would do well to measure – and, most importantly, provide genuine, specific, and timely feedback on – students’ performances. Performance assessment can be generally defined as “an activity in which students construct responses, create products, or perform demonstrations to provide evidence of their knowledge and skills” (Hibbard, et al., 1996, p. 277). Be aware, however, that constructing responses, creating products, or making demonstrations alone does not constitute performance assessment. Only when you build in an assessment tool and a feedback process do you have an alternative form of assessment. This article shares some thoughts on possibilities for performance assessments and how to design rubrics for scoring these projects. Read More
