Check for Understanding

After noticing how quickly my online students will take quizzes and surveys, I had to start keeping them from opening too soon so that students wouldn't take the quiz before the learning activities it tested.  Then, I thought of a way I could leverage their love for quizzes and came up with the LearnQuiz approach.  In my latest online course development (for HUM108), I developed quizzes that had questions that included the learning materials -- then, I made it so that students would get feedback on their correct or incorrect responses to redirect or reinforce their learning.

I wanted to find the most beneficial method for students to understand their writing revisions. 

Based on their learning styles tendencies, I compared the their VAK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire (Swinburne University of Technology) results with their method of submission (online or in-person) to the Writing Center. 

In ENH202: World Literature after the Renaissance I utilized Literature Circles as a method for creating stronger community in online classes, deepening the engagement between students, and practicing group work in prep for the course final. Students were in 3 groups for 4 weeks at a time, each group given additional readings to read, analyze and report out using the Literature Circles roles. The student in the Connector role would collect the student’s work and post it in Canvas for grading and students would switch roles on their own each week.

Since rolling-out a new accounting textbook in Fall of 2015, covering three courses, ACC111, ACC230, & ACC240, the decision was made to move chapter 6, Inventory Valuation, from ACC111 to ACC230, effective Spring 2016.

All EDU courses require a Field Experience (where students go into a local K-12 classroom, under the tutelage of a certified teacher). Taking students through the process to ensure their success is always a challenge, since there are a variety of factors beyond our control (Fingerprint Clearance Card acquisition - FPC -, school placement, etc.). EDU teachers have incorporated a variety of documents and strategies to help achieve a higher success rate (see attachments).

Taking organized notes while learning both drafting and a software program, AutoCAD, helps with retention.  Notes will also be an integral part of the way we will communicate.  Students will use Google Docs. They will add notes of important drafting and drawing tips to remember later.  Usually as learning takes place, questions arise.  They can ask questions with a note or add a reminder to ask something later.  During Grade Checks this semester, students will share their notes with the instructor.

About half of the points from my BIO181 class come from high stakes exams.  I feel this is necessary to prepare students for their STEM degrees, MCAT, PCAT etc. I split the course content into 5 units with an exam for each unit.  This means giving up 5 class meetings to exams, which for a TR class, is over 2 weeks of class time.   I tried dividing the content into 4 units, with 4 exams. The last 2 exams remained the same, but I took the content from the first 3 exams and split it between 2 exams instead.

During Fall 2014, SOC 130 (Human Sexuality) particiapted in the SAAC Critical Inquiry Assessment. I have attached the assignment, the SAAC rubric, and the scores for the course. Students created a research project focusing on five areas (averages in parentheses): 1. question/observation (3.91)  2. hypothesis (3.46) 3. planning (3.18) 4. analysis (3.95)  5. conclusion (3.82). The lowest score was in the planning area which is the development of the survey questions which had to connect to testing their hypothesis.

Sociology Through Film was piloted in Spring 2015 and then taught again in Spring 2016. Each week there are three assignments to sociologically analyze a film (see attached sample). The last assignment during finals week is to sociologically analyze a Disney children's movie by focusing on the 16 weeks of sociological analysis of film. This last assignment assesses whether the students understand the social issues, in addition to applying them to social change.

After attending a Gen Ed presentation by Erin Blomstrand, I created a finals week assignment on the connection of course material in SOC 212(Gender & Society) to lives outside of Sociology. The assignment was: "How will each of the following topics impact you once you leave this course? Think about your future and the people around you. Are you concerned on how the gender issues will impact you personally and/or others?" Students participated in Spring 2014. Based on results, I created a plan to improve.

The humannequin project connects academic research with political art on specific gender issues. Students must research their gender issues and provide information from credible, academic sources.  SOC 212 students participated in the Information Literacy Assessment in 2011 and then again in 2014. The four areas in the assessment were (1) framing the research question, (2) accessing sources, (3) evaluation of information, and (4) create original work. The rubric created by the SAAC committee is attached as well as the spreadsheet with results (created by Terry Meyer and James Waugh).

In Fall 2013, I piloted a video reflection assignment in the Sociology courses.

Sociology 130, Human Sexuality, focuses on the social, cultural, and institutional contributions to human sexuality. Throughout the semester, students address how society constructs expectations and limitations on sexuality. The last assignment is to create a sexual rights document and to discuss the document with your classmates. The sexual rights document will be assessed through a rubric which focuses on research, sociological imagination, and critical thinking. The SOC 130 online course will be piloted in Spring 2014.

Economics is known for being a difficult subject, but perhaps what students dread most about the class is graphing.  There is not a lot of multiple choice questions in my class- students are expected to graph routinely on bi-weekly quizzes.  In order to support student development with their graphing abilities,  last year I introduced mini-whiteboards as a way to get students practicing graphing as a class warm-up activity, focusing material from the previous class.

During finals week class time, SOC 212 (Gender and Society) students create a public service announcement. The instructions given are "Based on the information you learned on gender and society, what would you focus on to promote social change? You are going to create a two minute Public Service Announcement to share with the class." The goal of this assessment is to see which topic is chosen as most important to create a public service announcement. Students were required to choose one topic; some chose more than one to discuss.