Wikipedia Final Exam: Passed (Journalists Failed)

Below is an excerpt from the article about a college student's inquiry into Wikipedia and journalism in the digital age. What he found out might surprise some of you or even cause a reconsideration of using Wikipedia in the classroom. Read the full article here.

Here are some highlights (quoted here, not "lifted") ;-)

Irish student hoaxes world's media with fake quote 

DUBLIN -

When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote onWikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

The sociology major's made-up quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hoursafter the French composer's death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India.

A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud. So Fitzgerald told several media outlets in an e-mail and the corrections began.

"The moral of this story is not that journalists should avoid Wikipedia, but that they shouldn't use information they find there if it can't be traced back to a reliable primary source," said the readers' editor at the Guardian, Siobhain Butterworth, in the May 4 column that revealed Fitzgerald as the quote author.

Walsh said this was the first time to his knowledge that an academic researcher had placed false information on a Wikipedia listing specifically to test how the media would handle it.

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How do you handle the use of Wikipedia in your courses and/or your own research?

Close the Book. Recall. Write it Down.

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the importance of using recall to learn new concepts and ideas. According to the article, two psychology journals just published papers showing that the strategy of recall works. 

According to the author David Glenn, recall is when students put down the text or notes that they are studying and recall everything they can. Students can either write down everything they remember or day it out loud. This active recall, such as using flashcards and other self-quizzing, is the most effective may to add something to your long-term memory.

These recall techniques, according to Dr. McDaniel, a researcher in the field of biology and teaching techniques, “If you ask people to free-recall, you can generate a better mental model of a subject area, and in turn that can lead to better problem-solving.”

This idea of free-recall has also generated some critiques from educators. Some professors have voiced concerns that recall is simply teaching students how to memorize instead of increases levels of higher learning and thinking. Dr. McDaniel argues that although these techniques may aid students in the often-required tasks of memorization, the free-recall tasks actually help to give students the skills needed apply their knowledge.

Read more by clicking here.

More strategies for effective learning can be found at the University of Memphis Department of Psychology's Principles of Learning page. Topics include

• Prior Knowledge
  
• Experience Alone
  
• Practice at Retrieval (similar concepts as presented in Glenn's article)
  
• Learning Epistemologies
  
• Variable Learning I
  
• Variable Learning II
  
• Avoid Passive Learning
  
• Process of Remembering
  
• Less is More
  

All of these topics provide concrete strategies for faculty and students to use to increase learning. Give them a try!

How do you encourage your students to use free-recall techniques or practice retrieval?

Team-Based Learning

Instructors can have a less than easy time trying to implement teaching strategies that are outside of certain methods, like lecturing. There are other effective alternatives to lecturing, however. One of these alternatives is group learning, which has its merits. Team-Based Learning is also one of these alternatives that is growing in momentum and offers significant opportunities for student learning. Recenetly, the Center hosted a workshop facilitated by Dr. Karen Sirum (Biological Sciences) to introduce TBL to BGSU faculty.

Team-Based Learning is a systematic method for helping students work in groups and learn together. Its supporters believe that the benefits attached to TBL are well worth the time it takes to learn how to implement the method. Moreover, TBL’s proponents are saying that it is an excellent way of supplementing their other methods for teaching that have been helpful for their students’ learning.

According to its supporters, TBL has been structured to help student learning in group settings and, almost as importantly, has accountability built into it. Before trying this method with students plans need to be made, which include partitioning the course content into macro-units, identifying the instructional goals and objectives, and designing a grading system. Later, in class, there are more methodical instructions on correctly implementing TBL. Please see Introduction to Team-Based Learning and Getting Started with Team-Based Learning to read why and how you can try TBL for yourself.

There is an entire website dedicated to TBL that we invite you to visit. The site has video examples, professional testimonies from people who have tried it and a number of other resources. Please take a look at the site to learn about the “buzz” surrounding Team-Based Learning.

The Ten Commandments of Lecturing

We found this list of ten "commandments of lecturing" by Rob Weir interesting. Weir generated a list of ten policies for instructors to follow when they lecture. Please read the list and feel free to share your own ideas.

I. Thou shalt connect new lectures to previous ones.

II. Thou shalt move beyond chalk and talk.

III. Thou shalt not lecture like caffeinated hummingbird or a tree sloth.

IV. Thou shalt not assume too much.

V. Thou shalt link known to unknown.

VI. Thou shalt be enthusiastic.

VII. Thou shalt not be a pompous ass.

VIII. Thou shalt not tolerate disruptive or disrespectful students.

IX. Thou shalt not lecture outdoors.

X. Thou shalt seize learning moments.

This is just a list of Weir's commandments. The Inside Higher Education website has more elaborates concerning each of the suggestions that he has for instructors.

Can Wikipedia be Used to Teach Writing?

The use of Wikipedia for class assignments or as a citation source has been an ongoing debate. Some professors accept the website's use, usually after encouraging their students to caution what they take from the website. Other professors absolutely abhor the use of the website by their students. Robert E. Cummings says that he has found a new way to incorporate the use of Wikipedia into his classrooms and makes a strong case for using it in higher education, particularly as a writing tool.

According to Cummings, detractors of Wikipedia's use in higher education assignments have reasons to be concerned. Wikipedia, indeed, is an open source where essentially anyone can edit or create information concerning almost any subject. With this in mind, people who use the website do expose themselves to getting inaccurate information or are subject to relying on information that is unfounded.

On the other hand, Cummings believes that Wikipedia offers several advantages for students. He believes the major advantage to helping student essay writing with the use of Wikipedia is that students have audiences that are real and can provide plenty of immediate feedback to their writing. In his classes Cummings literally has his students post their work to the website for people all over the Internet to provide them with comments concerning their work. More importantly for the students, Cummings believes that students are writing and having more exposure to having having to write formally. According to Cummings,

"Composition assignments in Wikipedia frame writing as a collaborative practice hosted within a network. This arrangement seems much more predictive of the environment our students will find themselves writing in after they leave the composition classroom, both in later college courses (as they collaborate across networks with fellow students in coursework) or in the workplace (as they collaborate with co-workers to prepare reports, proposals, or Web pages)."

We invite you to read Cummings' article and see if what he has to say can be beneficial in any of your classes.

The 60-Second Lecture

The idea that a 60 minute lecture can be condensed into 60 seconds may sound absurd and even impossible, but there are some instructors in higher education who seem to think otherwise. The "Microlecture" is gathering followers across different disciplines in college teaching. Supporters of the one-minute lecture think that condensing a lesson strictly to key terms and ideas with less verbiage into a 60 second to three minute lecture has been beneficial for their students.

Naturally, the "microlecture" technique has its detractors. Critics of the practice think some topics, like literature or graphic design, are impossible to reduce down to three minutes. They also believe "microlectures" can at best provide "impressionistic overview."

Although the microlecture is intended for online courses it could be applied in a traditional classroom setting. Instructions for how to make a microlecture in an online are listed below.

Here are the instructions provided for how to make a microlecture:

Professors spend a lot of time crafting hour-long lectures. The prospect of boiling them down to 60 seconds — or even five minutes — may seem daunting. David Penrose, a course designer for SunGard Higher Education who developed San Juan College's microlectures, suggests that it can be done in five steps:

1. List the key concepts you are trying to convey in the 60-minute lecture. That series of phrases will form the core of your microlecture.

2. Write a 15 to 30-second introduction and conclusion. They will provide context for your key concepts.

3. Record these three elements using a microphone and Web camera. (The college information-technology department can provide advice and facilities.) If you want to produce an audio-only lecture, no Webcam is necessary. The finished product should be 60 seconds to three minutes long.

4. Design an assignment to follow the lecture that will direct students to readings or activities that allow them to explore the key concepts. Combined with a written assignment, that should allow students to learn the material.

5. Upload the video and assignment to your course-management software.

Read "These Lectures Are Gone in 60 Seconds" from the Chronicle of Higher Education website for yourself and learn more about "microlecturing."

Helping Students Understand Verbs Used in Test Questions

To instructors, who have received an extensive formal education, knowing exactly what a test is asking may come easy. For some students, though, the ability to know exactly what they should do when words like "analyze" or "discuss" on exam can be vague and even foreign. Teachingprofessor.com, one of our favorite websites, recently published a list that all instructors could use a reference to help their students. Here is a list of what they call "test" verbs that you may want to share with students in your syllabus or exam preparation documents:

Analyze—break something down into parts, such as a theory into its components or a process into its stages or an event into its causes.

Assess/Criticize/Evaluate—determine or judge the degree to which something meets or fails to meet certain criteria.

Compare/Contrast—identify important similarities and/or differences between two or more elements in order to reveal something significant about them.

Define/Identify—give the key characteristics by which a concept, thing, or event can be understood.

Describe—give the characteristics by which an object, action, process, person or concept can be recognized and visualized.

Discuss—debate, argue, and evaluate the various sides of an issue

Explain/Justify—give the basic principles or reasons for something; make it intelligible.

Interpret/Explain—say what the author of a quotation or statement means.

Illustrate—Use a concrete example to explain or clarify the essential attributes of a problem or concept.

Reference: Nilson, L. B. Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors. 2nd ed. Bolton, Mass. Anker, 2003. [now available from Jossey-Bass]

Learning Styles

It’s no secret that people learn in different ways. The key to success in teaching is realizing that people learn differently and finding ways to incorporate different learning styles into our classes. Recently, we held a workshop titled Pragmatic Practices for Teaching Assistants, Learning Styles that addressed how to assess learning styles and how to make our students aware of and responsible for their own learning styles.

In a paper titled Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching, authors Susan Montgomery and Linda Groat discuss the importance of recognizing learning styles and offered several different ways to assess these styles. Among the learning style models that they covered are the Myers-Briggs Model and the Kolb/McCarthy Learning Cycle. The authors also provide useful tips to engage students with different types of learning styles in your classes. These tips include using both group and independent work, requiring in-class presentations and providing less direction to students.

To read the rest of the article please click here.

How do you engage students in your classes that have different learning styles?

Teaching Assistants and Principles for Good Practice

Using a framework to provide effective, impactful, and quality education is not a new concept. While grounding pedagogy in theory is important, Teaching Assistants more often are interested in how to implement educational practices that will result in student learning. Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) 7 Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education is a foundational document that offers both a framework and specific methods valuable for any instructor. Chickering and Gamson give seven suggestions, based on a review of literature, to facilitate good practice:

1. Encourage Contact Between Students and Faculty,

2. Develop Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students,

3. Encourage Active Learning,

4. Give Prompt Feedback,

5. Emphasize Time on Task,

6. Communicate High Expectations,

7. Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning.

As a Teaching Assistant, we can use this framework to plan methods that will result in student learning.

If you want more detail or would like to learn more, consider attending one of our Pragmatic Practices workshop sessions. You can still sign up for the last two: Learning Styles and Teaching Tips! Visit the Center's webpage for full descriptions or to register, or call 419-372-6898 for more information.

3rd Annual BGSU Teaching & Learning Fair Slideshow

Here are just a few pictures from the Third Annual BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair, held on Friday, February 6, 2009 in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Barbara Millis, from the University of Texas at San Antonio's Teaching and Learning Center, presented the keynote, Persisting with Passion: A Summary in Break-throughs in Teaching and Learning. For more information on presenters or the keynote, visit the CTL Fair site.

First Weeks of Class

As the semester is about to begin, it’s time to think about the most important day of the entire semester… the first day of class. The first day of class sets the tone for the entire semester. While most of us plan to simply go over the syllabus, there are other things that we can do to motivate our students. In "101 Things You Can do the First Three Weeks of Class," the author Joyce T. Povlcs, offers helpful tips to make the first three weeks of class start off on the right foot. Among the tips offered are:

• Give an assignment on the first day to be collected at the next meeting
• Administer a learning style inventory to help students find out about themselves
• Greet students at the door when they enter the classroom
• Have students write out their expectations for the course and their own goals for learning

To read more helpful tips that can be utilized during the first three weeks of class, click here.

How do you set the tone for your classes on the first day of the semester?

Eric Mazur: "Farewell, Lecture?"

Lecture, arguably, is the most common method of teaching in higher education. It is not uncommon to walk into any classroom and find students can be busy trying to keep notes on what their instructor is saying. In the latest issue of Science, Eric Mazur, a physics professor at Harvard University, offers his own perspective on how he made the shift from lecturing as the prime modality for teaching to a more student-centered approach.

Mazur explains how throughout his schooling the lecture method was the way students were taught. The reliance on lecturing continued, Mazur says, until he felt that the method was not the most effective and meaningful approach to teaching. Despite earning high evaluations from courses he taught, Mazur made significant changes in his classes. "The traditional approach to teaching reduces education to a transfer of information," Mazur says. He also describes how using what he calls the "clicker method" has allowed him to explore new pedagogical approaches in his courses.

Here are other quotes from "Farewell, Lecture?":

"My lecturing was ineffective, despite the high evaluations."

"The traditional approach to teaching reduces education to a transfer of information."

"The responsibility for gathering information now rests squarely on the shoulders of the students. They must read material before coming to class, so that class time can be devoted to discussions, peer interactions, and time to assimilate and think. Instead of teaching by telling, I am teaching by questioning."

"However, it is not the technology [clickers] but the pedagogy that matters."

Please read the brief article for yourself and share your thoughts and/or comments below (just click on the COMMENTS link).

Other "Clickers" resources include:
CTL's Clicker Resource page

http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlpage49370.html

Tom Haffie (University of Western Ontario) presents Clickers at Queens University (11/2006)

http://sunsite.queensu.ca/vmp/clickers/index.html

Workshop Extension: Science of Learning (Diane Halpern DVSS Keynote & 25 Principles)

A group of several BGSU instructors, from tenured professors to a graduate teaching assistant, attended the “Science of Learning” discussion session last Friday. The discussion centered on Diane Halpern’s keynote from earlier this spring at the 2nd Annual BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair. She began her keynote with the quizzical, yet rhetorical question:

If I taught something and no one learned it, what happened?
(In other words, can I say that I really TAUGHT it?)

Some of the key points the group discussed during the session were the nature the science of learning and importance of faculty knowing about the implications for their courses and the students they teach. Halpern encourages faculty to think about the big ideas of their course (Ten years after your course, what do you want students to remember or be able to do?); be clear about learning outcomes, and encourage/foster a learning environment that allows for practice at retrieval of knowledge and establishes challenging learning opportunities that addresses and transforms their mental models.

Furthermore, it’s important for students (and faculty) to realize that learning is “effortful,” yet rewarding – often most difficult initially, then easier with more efforts and practice… like most things in life. The diverse group of participants provided and discussed examples from foreign languages, musical performance, and the sciences.

Later, participants reviewed Halpern’s list of 25 principles (full list with citations available here or as MS Word file) and selected individual principles that are essential for student success, such as:
• Perceptual motor grounding
• Testing effect
• Spacing effect
• Stories and Example Cases
• Discovery Learning

One concern brought up in Halpern’s address as well as in this discussion session that is an important question for all teachers – (paraphrased) “So, if these methods lead to better, durable learning, don’t these take up more time in the class? What goes and how do we choose?” A great question for all instructors, department chairs, and deans as well!

Halpern suggests focusing your planning on students’ lives today and in the future – What are or will be their needs? What skills and knowledge will best prepare them for a world that doesn’t exist yet? These questions will continue to be explored and certainly more will be generated as additional findings emerge from the "learning sciences" discipline, as well as from the cognitive and neurological sciences.

For the BGSU community, to view this keynote, visit the DVSS (digital video streaming server), log in, and search for "Halpern" -- the video is approximately 70 minutes.

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For those who attended this session or just want to leave a thought), click on the Comments link below this post to share your thoughts on the keynote, this discussion session, or any related issues.

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Teachers On Teaching: Professional Practice and Authentic Assessment

The November “Teachers on Teaching” session is on professional practice and authentic assessment. Facilitated by Drs. Vincent Kantorski and Sandra Stegman from the College of Musical Arts, this session aims to provide instructors with practical assessments centered on authentic, professional skills and tasks. For more information, we asked Vincent and Sandra a few questions about their upcoming session:

Q: What exactly is “professional practice”?
A: Professional practices are tasks, activities, reasoning, etc. that are reflective of how real-world practitioners work within their field. Teachers can then assess those authentic activities to determine how well prepared students would be to do similar activities as novice professionals.

For example, in Dr. Stegman’s Choral Methods course, students analyze a piece of music that they then introduce and rehearse in class. The rehearsal is video-taped for self-assessment in addition to the verbal and written feedback that she provides. Students prepare vocal warm-up cards that they use in actual practice with their field site students. Feedback is offered from their cooperating teacher.

In another example, Dr. Kantorski has students in a music education class write a letter to a newspaper editor urging readers to vote against a hypothetical levy that, if passed, would result in drastic cuts to the school district’s music program. Students are required to provide rationales, based upon research and the benefits they derived as music students in the school district, for each point of their argument.

Q: Why is PP&AA helpful/important for faculty and/or their students?
A: Professional practice and authentic assessment provide relevancy to course information, assignments, etc. They connect students to the real world of work and life outside the classroom. They can be helpful and important to students because they actually practice, rather than simply discuss or read about, activities they will be expected to do as professionals. This process can be especially valuable to students because they receive their teachers’ feedback and suggestions for improvement and self-evaluation.

Q: Is PP&AA something instructors can implement right away or is there a fairly steep learning curve?
A: It can be introduced in small doses immediately; however, ideas for how to do so are not always quick to arise. That is the benefit of sharing methods and strategies with colleagues from same and different disciplines, as will be the case at the November 12 session.

This discussion session, “Let’s Get Real: Authentic Practice and Assessment,” will be held on Wednesday, November 12 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in 201 University Hall. For the full description or to register, visit http://www.bgsu.edu/ctl/page57568.html or call 372-6898.

Working with the Procrastinating Student

Instructors in any discipline probably have had to deal with the procrastinating student. For one reason or another, these students have a hard time with getting their work done on-time and/or have a habit of underachieving because they rush to complete assignment.

Marty Nemko, a Guest Blogger for The Chronicle of Higher Education, offers some tips for Helping Your Procrastination-Prone Students.

CTL would love to hear from any instructor and how they try and help their procrastinating students.
How do you deal with procrastination-prone students?

Reflections: TA Workshop #1

CTL would first like to say thank you for the participants who did come to the workshop. Your input, time and effort are more than appreciated. We're really looking forward to our next discussion and are planning on seeing all of you again.

Here are some of the reflections that we took from our discussion:
* Most of you appreciated that there is some kind of forum where you can talk about being a TA here at BGSU. And, you were all more than willing to share some of your experiences and insight that you have had here.

* Many of you would like to be able to hear more from other TAs. You would like to hear what other TAs are doing in their classes, how they deal with certain situations, integrating certain tools and methodologies into your classes, and some of you expressed that you would like to see about making your classes more interactive and lively.

* Some of you appreciated it when instructors are open to getting feedback from students, so some of you discussed how you do the same in your classes. In other words, you appreciate an instructor's willingness to improve and adjust, and many of you are willing to make the same effort.

* Finally, many of like any further input you can get about teaching from any reliable source.

We are adjusting our next workshop to address and capitalize on these promising topics. We are actually thinking about having you all share different unique practices that you implement in your classes, which could only help one another, as TAs. Our next two workshops are October 14th @ 1:30p-2:30p and October 15th @ 10:30a-11:30a. These workshops will be the same format and topics. We just have added another day and time in case more TAs come and having some flexibility to work with your schedules.

Please do not hesitate to register for the Teaching Assistants are Links workshop series by e-mailing or calling us. If these next two workshops go as well as the first one, we will have a wonderful time.

What are some suggestions for TAs? What are some topics we could discuss in our next workshop? We would love to hear from current or former teaching assistants!

Motivating "These Kids Today" (Discussion/Workshop Extension)

On Tuesday, Dr. Jodi Haney presented a discussion session at the CTL entitled Motivating "These Kids Today" and challenged participants to consider their role in creating an environment that will encourage and foster students' motivation to learn. The bottom line she stressed was that:

"faculty CANNOT motivate students, as motivation is a personal construct and can only come from within… we can only set the scene and create a motivating environment for learning."

Student Motivation is defined as a “student's willingness, need, desire and compulsion to participate in, and be successful in, the learning process" (Bomia et al., 1997, p. 1). This includes extrinsic motivation, where a student engages in learning "purely for the sake of attaining a reward or for avoiding some punishment and intrinsic motivation, when a student is motivated from within, actively engaging in learning out of curiosity, interest, or enjoyment, or in order to achieve their own intellectual and personal goals (Dev, 1997).

One analogy presented was:

To Catch a Cat…
A. Pull the cat out from under the couch
Vs.
B. Entice the cat by dangling a string
(p.s. - our students are the cats!)

STRATEGIES -- Ideas that WORK!! (GENERAL)

• Capitalize on students' existing needs
• Make students active participants in learning
• Ask students to analyze what makes their classes more or less "motivating.”
• Instructor's enthusiasm
• Relevance of the material
• Organization of the course
• Appropriate difficulty level of the material
• Active involvement of students
• Variety
• Rapport between teacher and students
• Use of appropriate, concrete, and understandable examples

Incorporating Faculty Behaviors:

• Hold high but realistic expectations for your learners
• Help learners set achievable goals for themselves
• Tell learners what they need to do to succeed in your course
• Strengthen learners’ sense of power (behavioral choices)
• Avoid creating intense competition among learners
• Be enthusiastic about your course
• Take time to GET TO KNOW learners, talk to them, and express enjoyment in your interactions
• Vary your teaching methods

Motivating Students to Do the Reading (some examples):

• Assign the reading at least two sessions before it will be discussed
• Assign study questions
• If your class is small, have learners turn in brief notes on the day's reading that they can use during exam (Jodi’s “C option”)
• Ask learners to write a one-word journal or one- sentence journal summarizing the reading
• Ask non-threatening questions about the reading (fishbowl)

In summary... Create an environment that provides learners with a SENSE OF:
* POWER - I have control over my learning.
* CONNECTEDNESS - I am a valued member of a learning community.
* MODELS - I can do this because my peers can do it.
* UNIQUENESS - I am an original learner.
(Stevenson, 1992; modified by Haney, 2007)

Dr. Haney encourages all of us (including herself) to focus on incorporating just one or two of these strategies during a semester, reflect on the change throughout, and continue to analyze and build upon them in the future.

What are strategies you use to create an environment where students are motivated to learn? Any other thoughts or comments on this issue?

Google Jockeying

If you haven't heard of Google Jockeying, you will probably be hearing or reading about it soon. Its popularity is growing quickly in higher education.



Here's a quick example of how Google Jockeying works in the classroom:
An instructor is doing their presentation on the American Revolution or some other topic. At the same time there is a pre-designated member of the class is "Google-ing" (the student doesn't have to use Google either, they can use any search engine they want) the different terms or aspects from the presentation, which students may want to know about. They are doing this with a projector attached to their computer for the entire class to see while they participate in the presentation or listen to the lecture. So, in the American Revolution discussion, the "Jockey" may Google a name like Lord Dunmore or pull up an image of a British soldier or display online links for students to read the Declaration of Independence.

Many instructors are finding Google Jockeying helpful for their students. It's popularity is growing.

Link to more information about "Google Jockeying":
<http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAbout/39391>

What are Your Classroom Goals? (Workshop Extension)

Developed by Thomas Angelo & K. Patricia Cross, the Teaching Goals Inventory (TGI) allows faculty to examine the needs, outcomes, and goals of their course(s) in a quantifiable fashion. The results of your highest ranking goals can then be used to determine the most appropriate formative assessment strategies for your students or as a framework for crafting a course syllabus. Classroom Assessment Techniques includes a paper version of the inventory, but the University of Iowa's Center for Teaching created an online version of the TGI for faster analysis and application.

Here is a sample readout from the TGI:
The cluster areas correspond to goals from the inventory, which can be measured throughout a course using various formative assessments from Classroom Assessment Techniques by Angelo and Cross (1993). With about 50 CATs to choose from, the TGI is a quick way to sort them into a manageable quantity to explore. Additionally, the TGI can be used by individual faculty, departments, or even students to uncover their vision and/or motivation for learning.

The Center's next workshop on using the TGI (Identifying Your Teaching Goals Using the TGI) is Wednesday, August 6, 10:15am-11:00am, immediately followed by the Formative Assessment Using CATs workshop from 11-12. For more information or to register for one or both, click here!

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After taking the TGI, share your results (or main cluster/goal area). Was this tool beneficial?

Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

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Classroom Assessment Project Cycle

How do you decide how you will assess your students and their learning? Angelo and Cross (1993), suggest a Classroom Assessment Project Cycle. In Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, they outline a three-phase, three-step process by which you can design such a cycle.

Phase I Planning a Classroom Assessment Project

1. Choosing the class in which to carry out the Classroom Assessment Project
2. Focusing on an “assessable question” about student learning
3. Designing a Classroom Assessment Project to answer that “assessable question”

Phase II Implementing the Classroom Assessment Project

1. Teaching the “target” lesson related to the question being assessed
2. Assessing learning by collecting feedback on that assessable question
3. Analyzing the feedback and turning data into usable information

Phase III Responding to the results of the Classroom Assessment

1. Interpreting the results and formulating an appropriate response to improve learning
2. Communicating the results to students and trying out the response
3. Evaluating the Classroom Assessment Project’s effect(s) on teaching and learning (p. 34)

Such a cycle is a good starting point, but if you are looking for more specific and innovative ways to assess student learning, Angelo and Cross (1993) provide fifty specific ways of assessing everything from prior knowledge and skills, to critical thinking, to learner reactions to teachers and teaching. Their book is philosophically sound, practically applicable, and available at a library near you. If you’ve never read it or haven’t read it in a while, it’s worth skimming.

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

You can check this book out from the CTL Library:
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page15501.html

**The Center for Teaching and Learning will conduct two related workshops this Summer**
Identifying Your Teaching Goals Using the TGI
July 15, 1:00pm-1:45pm
August 6, 10:15am-11:00am

Formative Assessment Using CATs
July 16, 1:00pm-2:00pm
August 6, 11:00am-12:00pm

You can visit the website for more information:
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page11755.html

Call to reserve your location at 372-6898

Resources on the Web:
Angelo and Cross, from their book:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-1.htm

Classroom Assessment Techniques:
http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm

PowerPoint on Classroom Assessment using Angelo and Cross:
www.uwlax.edu/catl/2006%20CoTL%20Materials/COTL%20-%20CATS%20with%20BOON%208-29-06.ppt