Yesterday I had one of what we call our “great meetings”. I met with two faculty (don’t worry, they shall not be named here) who identified some of their teaching challenges. We spent our time discussing the following topics:
1. Grading multiple choice exams. How can we cut down on grading time while also gathering quality assessment?
2. Dealing with Academic Honesty in these exams.
3. Creating and assessing video projects to build and measure communication skills.
4. Forming and managing student groups. What are the best ways for them to find each other in a large class? How can a faculty member best assign topics and measure progress?
5. Assessing the work of student groups. What is the best submission option if the work needs to be checked for plagiarism? What about if it is a different form of media?
6. Peer assessment within a group. What is the best tool for students to submit feedback on their team members?
7. Peer assessment between groups. What is the best way for individual students to provide feedback on a group project to another group of students?
8. Low stakes assessment and it’s role in grading, as well as motivation to do assigned reading.
This was just one meeting. We talked about clickers, myWPI, Qualtrics, and non-WPI-supported tools such as YouTube, Catme and others. We discussed strategies, timelines, permissions and technical how-to’s. We set up shells/placeholders, classroom visit plans, and talked about future meetings. Hopefully this meeting helped lessen the burden and provide time-saving tips. At one point or another, each faculty member said sort of off to the side, “I’m sorry to bother you with all this!”
And so, even though I said it numerous times to them in person, I wanted to be sure that everyone else knew it too.
THAT IS WHAT WE ARE HERE FOR!
Seriously, the TTL team loves this. These conversations are what we live for. And what we’re trained for. And if you happen to be reading this from another campus, my guess is your Instructional Technology team feels the same way.
So, welcome back to campus WPI! We hope you had a great break.
Please come by, call or email atc-ttl@wpi.edu if there’s anything we can do for you.
PS: Don’t google “Cat” in front of a group of people. Just another friendly tip from your TTL team.