Update (1 week after CATS was originally submitted): After submitting this CATS, students began learning about Power Series (which is one reason to learn Convergence/Divergence of series discussed in this CATS). WIth the scaffolding handout, they were able to come up with how to deteremine convergence/divergence of Power Series on their own! Again, I typically have to do a lot more lecture, but I didn't.
The Life Sciences Division created a divsion level assessment. Though some biology courses were not able to complete the assessment due to the COVID19 response, results show an increase in score from lower level biology courses to higher level courses.
The LS division instituted the use of embedded tutors in our nursing track courses, BIO 156, 181, and 201. We compared grades between our courses with the embedded tutors to our previous courses without an embedded tutor. The results are mixed. There seems to be little change in successful course completion however there were larger differences in average scores. The timing of this intervention must also be mentioned as it coincides with the great online migration.
Peer Lead Focus and Learning Review
Monitoring student engagement and learning during class & providing feedback is tough due to lack of time. One way to do this is Peer lead learning review; it monitors engagement and provides feedback.
The class was divided into six groups of four students; one student acted as a peer leader. The peer leaders were rotated after 3 weeks, allowing each group member to act as a peer leader.
As a Communications instructor I stress the importance of public speaking skills in many of my courses. To aid students in optimizing their speech presentations, I include class time for small group rehearsal. After a dozen semesters teaching communications I have observed that many students do not engage in the rehearsal activity or they use the dedicated time ineffectively. To optimize the process and motivate students to practice their speeches, I changed the lesson plan in two ways: 1) conduct more than one rehearsal activity for shorter periods of time and 2) break do
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The integration of Kahoot in CHM130 instruction will be investigated. In this work, Kahoot will be developed to serve students in CHM130 in compound naming topic. Students performance will be compared in naming compounds in this semester with students' performance in the last two years. The study hypothesis stated that students in CHM130 who practice naming compound in Kahoot will score better than students who didn't practice naming of compounds in Kahoot.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate an environment to determine whether or not it encourages interaction among tutors and faculty. Prior to the intervention in Spring 2020, tutor and faculty interaction was low during pre-semester meet-and-greet sessions; the sessions were conducted in a panel format with tutors comprising the audience. The Spring 2020 session, however, was held in a small-group format, and informal feedback was positive. Formal tutor survey results showed that the small groups enabled more flow of conversation as well as deeper connection.
I wanted to see what motivated students to respond to general questions in the 7am Introductory to Psychology class. Was it consumables or extra credits?
Group presentations have always been a part of my classroom, but after watching numerous presentations where students aren’t prepared to present or engaged while viewing the presentation, I realized I needed to make a change. My hope is that by having students present in smaller groups and present the entire slideshow, students will have a better understanding of the material they are presenting and their classmates will pay closer attention to the presentation.
See attachment.
Through conversations with the tutors, a desire was discovered to be better. The tutors know their material very well but wanted to see if there was a way to improve on their delivery style and customer service. I introduced the concept of continuous quality improvement (CQI) which is a culture of never-ending improvement. The assumption is that unless we learn something about what we are doing, we are unlikely to know how to improve it.
Assessment Practitioner was offered through the CTL this Spring 2020 semester for interested faculty and staff that wanted to continue their professional growth. This hybrid Canvas course is designed to equip our faculty and staff with the information to understand the goals and practices of assessment in our Learning College culture. This course has given the opportunity to model the true essense of a Learning College, by faciliating the natural relationship between teaching, learning, and assessment through weekly face-to-face sessions, weekly assignments, and colleague discus
Knowledge retention and transfer are at the core of what we do. It is evident that all students learn in different ways. However, if students are asked to DO something in the process of learning they will not only retain the information but rather be able to comprehend how it is applied to the real world. In addition, as the students start to report out to the class the instructor can listen to the responses and clarify or demonstrate the material to ensure long term retention success. For more information not included in this write up, please attachments.