Providing student feedback

Planning for Success

Submitted by Jamie Lopez on

While attending the League for Innovation Learning Summit, I was struck by a keynote address by Rachel Fulcher-Dawson of Notre Dame & Corinne Weaver of Catholic Charities in Fort Worth, Texas. They shared the results of a partnership entitled "Stay the Course" in Fort Worth at Tarrant County Community College. The program is a planned intervention for low-income students. In structuring the study four main reasons for student drop-out were:

The Big 4? Exploring the Integration of Critical Inquiry into a Culturally Diverse, Globally Aware, and Social/Behaviorally Dominated Course

Submitted by Christopher Coleman on

Cross cultural psychology (Psy 132), is an introductory course which examines human diversity in behavior and culture using examples from a variety of contexts within western and global societies. This is a popular course among non-psychology majors, based primarily on its “Big 3”General Education designation: Cultural Diversity, Global Awareness, and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Kahooting your way to better grades! Active/competitive review sessions help student learning

Submitted by Erica Wager on

For this CATS I explored how a Kahoot could help students be successful in studying for exams. I gave a traditional review session for Exam 2 (give students terms and tell them to define the terms and give examples for each of the terms in groups), and then for Exam 3 I did a Kahoot review session. Kahoot is an online polling tool where students can compete with one another to answer review questions and get to follow along with their progress as they go through the review session.

Note cards in a math classroom

Submitted by Luvia Rivera on

Graphing Linear Equations is one of the most difficult concepts for students enrolled in MAT 091. There are many different equations, formulas, and concepts that all build on each other. Every year my students struggle with this exam and no matter how I presented this information or interventions I made, nothing seemed to make it better. In previous years I had suggested to students to make note cards but I didn't give them any guidance on how to create them and I did not follow through to make sure they completed the note cards.

Improve SCGR "Final Exam" Visual Aids

Submitted by Roselyn Turner on

In 2012 Service Learners in COM100 Honors Cohort prepared and presented Informative Speeches based upon their project and a related Social, Civil, or Global (SCGR) issue. As reported on my CATS submission, only 50% of the students included the issue aspects on the visual aid. In Fall 2015 regular COM100 students (not Honors or Service Learners), were given the opportunity to select a SCGR issue to research and present to class as their "Final Exam" Informative Speech.

Using Folders for Cooperative Learning

Submitted by Becky Baranowski on

Note: This CATS is being submitted by Rebecca Baranowski, Michelle Breaux, Teri Graham, Sarah Lockhart and Luvia Rivera. In summer 2015, these math faculty attended the Johnson & Johnson Cooperative Learning Institute at SMCC. One of the suggested activities for increasing cooperative learning is to put folders on the tables at the beginning of class. Inside of the folders is a warm up for students to work on together. The institute suggested having only 1-2 sheets of paper in the folder to "force" students to talk to each other about the documents in the folder.

Comparison of New Versus Old "Getting Started" Orientations

Submitted by Steven Boettcher on

Beginning Spring 2016, new E-Learning courses require students to submit the ELSO E-Learning Student Orientation badge. Previous courses have linked to the "Learner Responsibilities Orientation." The same online survey (quiz) used in the MAT182 Hybrid will be used to measure if students "understand" the Getting Started assignments in the MAT212 Hybrid (new) versus the MAT182 Hybrid (old). The survey asks students to “check” the competencies they understood before the module, and to “check” the competencies they understood after the module.

Student Learning Tendencies: Online vs. In-Person Writing Center Submissions

Submitted by Catherine Cochran on

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. 

Field Experience Experience!

Submitted by Peter Turner on

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).

Sharing a note-taking document with the instructor can provide students multiple opportunities to measure their own learning progress.

Submitted by Rudy Aguilar on

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.

Four exams or Five exams? Or: SOTL research needs controls!!!

Submitted by Rachel Smith on

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.

Check List Leading to Efficacy!

Submitted by Peter Turner on

I piloted EDU221 Online for fall 2012. All EDU courses mandate a Field Experience (FE) where students spend the required number of hours (for this class it is 30) in a K-12 classroom. This is a tedious process with multiple steps, including the acquisition of a Fingerprint Clearance Card, which is an additional cost. As a result, it is not uncommon for a student to drop a class, receive an incomplete (until they finish their FE the subsequent semester), or, worse yet, fail the class due to incompletion of the FE.

Make Them Think It Was Their Idea: Using A Student-Generated Rubric To Increase Oral/PowerPoint Presentation Scores

Submitted by Heather Muns on

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.

Mini-Whiteboards in Economics

Submitted by Erik Huntsinger on

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.