Spring 2010 Clicker Training
November 18th, 2009 by AmandaBeginning in February, we will begin our next round of clicker training, covering basic and advanced uses of clickers, the pedagogy behind clickers, and integrating ICON with clickers. For more information, please visit the ITS website at: http://its.uiowa.edu/support/srs/training.shtml
Upcoming dates:
Beginning clickers: February 2nd: 9:00 – 11:00am and March 29th: 1:30 – 3:30pm
Advanced clickers: February 11th: 1:30 – 3:30pm and April 9th: 9:00 – 11:00am
Pedagogy and clickers: February 4th: 1:30 – 3:30pm and April 1st: 9:00 – 11:00am
Clickers and ICON integration: February 8th: 1:30 – 3:30pm, April 6th: 1:30 – 3:30pm, May 4th: 1:30 – 3:30pm and May 6th: 9:00 – 11:00am
December training on Clickers and ICON
November 4th, 2009 by AmandaThis course will explain how to export your clicker question results from TurningPoint in a form that can be imported into your ICON grade book. We will spend the first hour walking through the steps of the export/import process using the D2L export format. The second hour will be open for you to bring your own session files to work with us in exporting the result files and importing them into ICON.
We will have two sessions: Monday December 7th and Wednesday December 9th. Each session will run from 9:00 -11:00 am and will be located in the ITS Training Room (Room 2523 in the UCC Conference Center).
To register, please visit the ITS Training website
Derek Bruff’s Blog on Teaching with Clickers
November 4th, 2009 by AmandaWe recomend checking out Derek Bruff’s blog: Teaching with Classroom Response Systems if you would like more information about using clickers in your courses. The blog provides a wealth of ideas for using clickers from a number of instructors from a variety of fields.
UI Clicker User Group Meeting – January
November 4th, 2009 by AmandaOur next UI clicker users group meeting will be held on January 22nd from 1:00 to 3:30pm in the University Captiol Centre, room 2390 (which is located at the top of the escalator near T-Spoons).
Presenting will be Wayne Jacobson (UI Assessment Coordinator). More details about his presentation will follow.
We would like to thank those of you who came for our first meeting, and look forward to meeting those who attend our next session.
And mark your calendars for our remaining User Group meetings:
February 26th, March 26th, April 23rd, and May 28th.
New version of clicker software available
October 13th, 2009 by Ken ClinkenbeardMake sure to upgrade your office or personal computer to the latest version of TurningPoint 2008, version 4.2. It can be found on the ITS support website under the Downloads section. Remember: you will need to uninstall the older version before installing the 4.2 version.
Workshop focused upon teaching large lectures
October 13th, 2009 by Ken ClinkenbeardLarge Lecture Series – Enhancing Student Learning – This workshop will examine ways to incorporate technology to create a well orchestrated, interactive, and effective student-centered learning experience regardless of class size. October 5, 12:00 – 1:30, UCC 2520D Seminar Room
First UI Clicker User Group meeting
October 13th, 2009 by Ken Clinkenbeard
Our first UI Clicker User Group meeting will be held on October 23rd from 1:00-3:30pm in the University Capitol Centre, Room 2390, located in the ITS department.
Post-grade meetings with students
May 8th, 2009 by Tung YinAs occasionally happens, I had a student want to meet to discuss his/her grade in a course. Although this is something of an awkward situation for both student and professor, it’s also a meeting that I encourage students to ask for. Since law school grades in regular non-seminar courses are usually based 100% on final exams (or nearly 100%, with a small component for in-class participation), I think there’s value for students to go over their past exams and see if they are making any systemic errors that they could avoid in the future. Additionally, it may be helpful for them to see the answers of higher-scoring exams, to contrast the difference between their answer and one that did better. (Law school exams are anonymous, so it’s feasible to do this.)
In my meeting, however, I had the student make the unusual request of asking if I could simply adjust the grade upward, or else change it into a pass grade. This strikes me as pretty . . . gutsy, and not necessarily in a good way. I managed to deflect the request, but I’m wondering if anyone else has had such a request, and how you dealt with it. (I should add that law school courses are graded on a set curve, for the most part.)
Large Class Teaching Summit
April 16th, 2009 by Ken BrownBack in February the Center for Teaching and the Provost’s Office hosted a Large Class Teaching Summit (2nd annual to be exact). The notes for this event will be sent to all participants, but I also wanted to post them here too. Groups were asked to think about how to set and communicate high expectations of their students, and then how to encourage students to meet those expectations.
There are some great ideas exchanged, although some of them are written quite briefly. Take a quick look, and see if you get some ideas for how to improve your courses. And, of course, feel free to post questions or observations. Thanks to all who participated. It was a really thought-provoking afternoon.
Large Class Summit 2009
Group 1
- Convey that teaching and learning are important (“I care about the material – I care about your learning.”)
- Energy level
- Encourage interactive classroom activities (dialogue with students)
- Ask questions
- Encourage communication among students
- Teaching is communication
- Peer evaluation of teaching is important/vital
- How much impact does class size & environment have on tools, modalities, and communication strategies?
- 100-200 students does not equal 300+
- Do something in class: Pop quizzes? Required submission of HW? Problem-solving or explanation of challenging concepts in class (do things that will contribute directly to graded work?)
Group 2
- Asking questions – Wait and get answers
- Call on by name
- Reward high performance
- Providing info (notes) beforehand
- Learning objectives (every class)
- Reward rigor of thought (not just correct answers)
- Be super-organized
- Switch gears/break it up (10-15 min)
- In-class activities: Tell use stories; Group work; Quizzes
Group 3
- Begin each lecture with a question that forces students to engage
- Convey that you are as engaged as the students
- Be very organized & lay out course
Group 4
- Syllabus can include: How to study; How to do well; Ethics
- Contract/compact – ethics of attendance (mutual)
- How to build “esprit de corps” (personality)?
- Q&A w/professor: Dialogues to explain consequence for technological faux pas, my cell on vibrate
- Attendance
- Respectful while there/CONDUCT
- Preparation
- Obstacles
Group 5
- Accept responsibility: Have control over perform; Interest motivation; Prioritize
- Motivation – “Entertainment” vs. active student engagement & fostering intrinsic motivation
- Classroom Behavior: No sleeping; No eating; Reading news; Texting; Positive note taking
Group 6 – Facilitate Active Engagement
- Get Students active in applying course material outside of classroom
- Make assignment age (maturity) appropriate
- Add variety
- Include current events
Group 7
Expectations
- Class Conduct: Emphasize 1st day; Defuse via peer pressure;
- Attendance: Prepared pop quizzes; Emphasize importance (take ownership – students responsibility); Participation pts (via clickers); Lecturer’s job to make lecture “worthwhile” & relevant/necessary to student assessment
Lecture/Recitation
- Students NEED Both
- Complementary not redundant
- Emphasize common student misconception in recitation
- Recitation activity based
Group 8
Freshmen vs Professional
- Attendance on Syllabus
- Engagement in class; Clickers (Attend); Small Groups;
- We only facilitate learning, no guilty!
Group 9
Preparation
- Teach how to read genres of texts.
- Recognize our different expectations (faculty/students)
- Require it
- No prior .PPT
Esprit de corps
- Contact w/prof & TAs; Multiple office hours; E-mail; phone
- Visionary info (preparation as esprit)
The students must:
- Come to class
- Participate in the scheme (stated expectations)
- Respond w/radical curiosity
Faculty must:
- Prime students for class: Expectations stated; Study guides; Syllabus; Grades to performance (sections = 25%)
Competing with Barack Obama
January 20th, 2009 by Tung YinA few of my Con Law students asked permission last week to skip this week’s classes so that they could attend Barack Obama’s inauguration. How could I deny them the opportunity? So I gave permission and let them ask Video Services to record the class sessions so they could catch up later.
Then I got a somewhat ambiguous request from a student today, which might be interpreted as watching streaming video of the inauguration in class, or perhaps to skip class today to sit elsewhere in the building to watch the inauguration. The latter option seems fine to me, as it’s essentially the same (but cheaper and warmer) than attending in person. But I feel like I have to draw the line at the former option.
Hey, I know I can’t compete with Barack Obama for attention, even though I’m asking for just an hour of time today. Letting (some) students watch streaming video in class would just be a huge distraction for everyone.
