Written Communication

The general public has numerous misconceptions about science. My PHY101 students explored this intersection of science with society by researching a topic, performing a survey, and creating an educational website. The students chose a topic from a list to research. After researching the student came up with a question to test the misconception and three follow up questions to challenge it. The students presented their results in a non-traditional format, an informative website. This educational website was evaluated based on the attached assessment sheet.

In my hybrid course, more time  is needed to ensure that students have time to practive oral presentations, to receive peer feedback, and to get peer reviews on written asssignments.  Initially, I would explain the assignment in-class and students would submit it online.  If we had time, we would share briefly (2-3 minutes per student).  The results were rushed work with only average results. 

As a way of studying design principles related to composition I have my students complete an exercise that evaluates the compositional strategy employed in a great work of painting from art history.  The students create two diagrams that chart the way the artist uses design principles like scale, line, color, rhythm, unity, emphasis and balance to control the way the eye moves, additionally they map they way the artist uses value (light and dark) to create emphasis and illusions of depth.

In my ESL Informal Conversation class, students were introduced to 12 new slang phrases regarding "taking a vacation." I tested students on their ability to use those words by providing a "fill-in the blank activity."  I was not happy with the results.

Dance can be very deceptive; how a movement feels or looks in a mirror rarely provides a clear indication of what is happening in the body. To help students acquire an accurate perception and develop a self-directed process for improving their dance training, I combine a Goals and Assessment Sheet with videotaping at the Midterm and Final. In the Fall of 2013, when it was clear that students didn’t understand how to choose a movement assessment, I added descriptive language and included examples on the Goals and Assessment Sheet for Spring of 2014.

In the last 5 years the chemistry program has made a switch to a fully active learning pedagogy. While we are finding this to be a huge success for the students, it is causing some problems for our instructors. Since this is a novel approach for teaching chemistry classes, most content qualified instructors are not familiar with how to present curriculum in this way.

In my 16 week RDG 091 course, prior to the first group presentation, I spend one or two classes teaching students the oral and format expectations of an oral PowerPoint presentation.  In Fall, 2013, I taught an 8 week version of the RDG 091 course and found that there was limited time to extensively teach these skills prior to their first oral presentation.  I provided them the rubric ahead of time and covered the information as best I could with the time I had.  However, I was very disappointed in the results.

Using Canvas Discussions is a good way to use higher order thinking skills and improve communication as our students justify their answers and question others. In Fall 2013, all three of my hybrid classes had weekly discussions that enriched our content. However, the quality of the discussions was somewhat lacking. Mid semester, I instituted rubrics to help guide and measure their posts. For a 15 point discussion, the rubrics were as follows:

To assess students understanding of major theories and content elements I have students present concepts with teammates, or Iearning teams . Students work with a team of 3 to 4 students and present once a week on a topic covered in the chapter we are discussing for that week.

I find that it keeps students connected, helps them manage nervousness they may experience when speaking in front of large groups. They have to check audience understanding by creating a way to involve all classmates.

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

This assignment is for the online version of STO/HUM292 that has not been launched yet.

This is a performance-based class, so students are required to perform a story for their final exam. Students will record themsevles and then upload for grading. There is a set rubric students are to follow in order to demonstrate effective storytelling techniques and best practices. 

In Spring 2013 I taught a 5-week MAT142 class as the second half of a linked MAT121-MAT142.  In order to alleviate some of the students’ math anxiety associated with exams and to demonstrate practical applications, I switched from exam-based assessments to project-based assessments with promising results. 

I ran MAT142 Online in F13, which is the first time our division has run an online course  Of the 31 who started the class, 20 will pass (with 1 depending on the final project score).  We had 5 written projects, and at the end of each project, I asked students to do a grade check which required them to give feedback on their progress and the course as a whole.  There were 3 common themes that I saw from the responses:

1)  Students felt projects did not reflect the learning they'd done in notes and homework.

Since Fall 2003, a textbook was used in MAT220 (caculus I).  For the last 4 years, handouts were created to supplement the textbook.  This semester, students use only a workbook that I created.  The purpose of this assessment is to document my observations in the level of engagement of students from using textbook only, slowly incorporating worksheets, to full implementation of a workbook.   Most math textbooks are not designed to engage students, thus it was difficult to do so.