Center for Teaching and Learning Blog

Category: CTL

Join a CTL book club this fall!

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The Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning invites MTU instructors to participate in a book club this fall focused on digital accessibility.  Join with your faculty colleagues as we read about the importance of addressing digital accessibility in your classes to ensure they are inclusive for all your students.  We’ll review related policies and laws, best practices for addressing digital accessibility issues in your course materials, and identify opportunities for additional professional development.

Details

Book: Guide to Digital Accessibility: Policies, Practices, and Professional Development, Edited by Rae Mancilla and Barbara A. Frey.  The book will be provided to all participants.

When:

The CTL Book Club will meet weekly (for six weeks) beginning the week of October 2 thru the week of November 13 (no meeting during the October 19 recess week). Specific dates/times will be determined based on feedback from participants.  A minimum of five people are required for the book club to proceed, with a maximum capacity of 12 participants.   Please submit your registration to our book club form no later than September 30 . 

Meeting Dates (chapter selections may be modified):

  • Week of October 2: Digital accessibility in higher education (historical perspective laws, standards)
  • Week of October 9: Quality Matters Standard 8 (accessibility & usability)
  • Week of October 23: Designing inclusive and accessible online & hybrid courses 
  • Week of October 30: Scenarios and solutions for accessible courses
  • Week of November 6: Digital accessibility awareness
  • Week of November 13:Technology tools to support digital accessibility

Contact the CTL (ctl@mtu.edu) with any questions or for more information.

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7 Dimensions of course evaluations

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The course evaluation survey is comprised of 7 main questions most commonly known as the 7 dimensions. These 7 dimensions provide students with guided questions in evaluating the teaching and learning process of a course.

As another fall semester begins again, it is often a good time to reflect on these dimensions by reviewing previous course evaluation scores and student feedback in order to seek ways to be continuously improving your courses.

It may be helpful to outline each dimension with some possible classroom strategies that could be incorporated. To get you started, we have outlined each dimension along with one or two strategies you may find useful for each.

  • The instructor was enthusiastic about the subject matter of the course.
    • Share your passion for the topic by incorporating your work experiences, research findings and publication work into your lectures.
  • The instructor communicated the course material clearly.
    • Set up course content in organized modules by weeks, chapters or units within Canvas.
  • The instructor engaged students by encouraging participation during class.
    • Chunk your lectures into 10-15 min. segments. Have students interact with the content for the next 10 mins. before returning to another segment of your lecture. Reference the CTL website for additional active learning strategies.
  • The instructor engaged students by encouraging course preparation, reflection, or other activities outside of class.
    • Offer homework or pre-class activities that allow students to apply the concepts to their current real world situations.
    • Offer social media or collaborative platforms such as google docs in order to share their files with peers and work in real time.
  • The instructor provided timely feedback on my work (homework, assignments, exams, etc.)
    • Utilize grading tools such as Gradescope that allow you to pre-populate your feedback based on student responses.
  • The instructor displayed a personal interest in students and their learning.
    • Provide timely feedback.
    • Try to arrive early to class and stay a few minutes after (if room schedule allows) to have informal conversations with students.
  • The instructor uses technology appropriately.
    • Introduce one or two technologies that complement your lectures. For example, try a digital interactive whiteboard such as jamboard.
    • Engage students with polling questions via iClicker.

Taking time to reflect and plan strategies for each of these dimensions at the beginning of the semester will be beneficial at the end of the semester as students evaluate these seven dimensions and provide feedback on what worked well. If you would like to discuss the Student rating of instruction in more detail, please feel free to reach out to the CTL at 487-3000.

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September 2023

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 at 12:00pm – 1:00pm

CTL Instructional Award Presentation

Curriculum Development and Assessment Award

Radheshyam Tewari, Associate Teaching Professor, Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Pasi Lautala, Professor, Civil, Environmental and Geospatial Engineering

Innovative or Out of Class Teaching Award

Elham Asgari, Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship
College of Business

Large Class Teaching Award

Tim Wagner, Assistant Teaching Professor, Mathematical Sciences

Click here to register to attend this lunch and learn.

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A great teaching resource for Michigan Tech instructors

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The Teaching Professor

As we begin the new academic year we want to remind instructors of the campus subscription to the Teaching Professor sponsored by the CTL. The Teaching Professor is a highly informative newsletter with a singular purpose: to provide ideas and insight to educators who are passionate about teaching. It’s a source of cutting-edge information and inspiration for more than 10,000 educators at universities and colleges worldwide.

To access the Teaching Professor visit teachingprofessor.com:

  • On campus you can obtain full access to all Teaching Professor content (including their extensive archive) if your computer/device is connected to the campus network (except the MichiganTechGuest network). It is not necessary to create an account or log in to access the subscription on-campus.
  • Off campus access is also available but does require you to create an account.

Take advantage of this resource and contact the CTL (ctl@mtu.edu) if you have any questions.

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Course Planning

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Start with course learning objectives

Good course planning starts with course learning objectives. Course learning objectives are the goals you want students to achieve through taking your courses. Usually, you will have three to six course learning objectives and they are at relatively higher cognitive process dimensions (Bloom’s taxonomy from Vanderbilt University). Then you break course learning objectives into subordinal skills and knowledge, which will be your module learning objectives. 

Creating measurable and observable learning objectives

Learning objectives should be measurable, observable and student-oriented, which indicate explicitly what students must do to demonstrate their learning. Learning objectives are typically structured as: By the end of this course/module, you should be able to +[action verb] +[object]. Avoid using verbs like “understand” or “know” in your learning objectives. If you don’t know which verb to use, please check out Bloom’s taxonomy of measurable verbs from Utica University. 

Planning out your course map with Backward Design

When we start to plan out course content and assessments, backward design is a very useful model for planning out your course map. It has three steps: 

  1. Identify desired results. What should students know and be able to do at the end of the course/module? These are your learning objectives.
  2. Determine acceptable evidence that students have achieved these learning objectives. These are your formative and summative assessments.
  3. Plan learning experiences, instruction, and resources that will help students achieve the learning objectives. These are your course content and resources.

Backward design can be used on both course level and module level. For example, in module level, once you have decided the module learning objectives, you’ll need to think about your assessment plan, learning activities, and then learning materials for your module based on your module learning objectives. Here is a course map template that you can use to plan out your module structures. 

Planning out your course map is a pivotal step towards your success teaching your course. Congratulations for what you’ve accomplished so far. Once you have finalized the planning of your course map, you can start to build your course. Stay tuned to our blog for forthcoming guidance on how to build your course in Canvas later. 

— Dan Ye from CTL Instructional Design Team 

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August 2023

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Thursday August 24 and Friday August 25, 2023

New GTAs are asked to attend a general teaching orientation EITHER Thursday or Friday morning the week before classes begin.   This essential session will review national and university instructional policies (FERPA, Title IX, Academic Integrity), basic classroom management and expectations (safety, managing disruptions, inclusion), effective communication with students (in and out of class), and introduce campus instructional resources (library, Student Services, CTL). You must register for a session prior to the event.

Register for Thursday August 24 here.

Register for Friday August 25 here.

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February 2023

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Coffee Chat- Teaching and Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools

Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 3:45 P.M.

Chat GPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot, was released in late November 2022. Since then it has dominated news coverage about AI tools and its impact on higher education.  This large language model can generate human-like text responses to user prompts.  It’s also adept at producing computer code, generating email messages, composing complex spreadsheet formulas, and much more.  Instructors are grappling with the impact Chat GPT and other AI tools are having in teaching and learning. They’re also exploring strategies to leverage these tools to support course objectives and potentially save time previously used on routine tasks for higher order learning activities.  Have you adjusted your teaching strategies to address the existence of AI tools in your classes?

Make plans to attend a Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning coffee chat on Thursday, February 16, at 3:45 in the Library East Reading Room.  We’ll provide an overview of some common AI tools, demonstrate how they work, and review some AI-generated responses. You’ll also have time to discuss the implications of AI tools with other instructors from across campus.  We hope to see you there.

To register for this event, please click here.

CTL Workshop: Enhancing Canvas Course Design Using DesignPlus

Thursday, February 23, 2023 at 2:00 P.M.

Would you like to develop a high quality, engaging course using a modern and professional looking course template? Plan to attend the instructional design team from the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning for a workshop about enhancing Canvas course design using DesignPlus tools. We will introduce DesignPlus and the course template, review how to import the course template, and show you how you can customize it for your own course. This workshop will focus on the most common and easy course design features to help you build a high quality professional looking course. No advanced technical skills are necessary.  

To register for this event, please click here.

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January 2023

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Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 12:00 noon

CTL Lunch and Learn: Engaging Students

Learning involves more than just listening!

Changing a student’s role from a passive listener to being actively involved in the learning process is said to improve one’s skills in collaboration, critical and creative thinking as well as problem solving. An active role in learning has also been vital to supporting retention of new knowledge.  The constructivist learning theory states that learning happens when students are able to test their constructs through discussions with their peers, ask questions and test various possibilities.

Have you considered ways that you can increase student engagement in your courses but are not sure where to start?

Register to attend the next Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning Lunch and Learn on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 as we explore educational strategies best suited for your course content, level of complexity, class size, and even classroom layout!  Whether you are just starting to explore ways to engage students or have had success and would like to try other approaches we hope you will join us.

Register here to join us for this lunch and learn.

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November 2022

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Tuesday November 1, 2022 at 3:45 PM

CTL Coffee Chat-Online Course Development and Support

Are you currently teaching or planning to teach an online course?  Do you have questions about how to start the course development process, how to prepare for a course review, or how to improve an existing online course? If this sounds like you then make plans to join your colleagues and the online design team from the William G. Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) for a Coffee Chat on Tuesday, November 1, at 3:45 in the Library East Reading Room.

Learn about course development best practices, including the recommended development schedule, resources the CTL can offer, and get answers to your unique challenges as you begin your development efforts. You’ll also hear from two Michigan Tech instructors who have gone through the development process and are ready to share their experiences with you.

Register to attend the CTL Coffee Chat featuring our online design team.

Please also take a moment to complete the short pre-event survey.

Tuesday November 8, 2022 at 3:45 PM

Instructional Awards-Curriculum Development and Assessment Chris Middlebrook Josue Reynoso

The Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning will recognize Chris Middlebrook (ECE) and Josue Reynoso as co-recipients of the 2022 CTL Instructional Award for Curriculum Development and Assessment on Thursday, November 8 at 3:45.  They were selected for the award after being nominated via the Deans’ Teaching Showcase during the spring 2022 semester.

Middlebrook’s award presentation: Curriculum Development: Creation of a Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing Laboratory Course

Reynoso’s award presentation: Developing New Curricula: An Experiential Learning Approach

Register to attend the CTL Instructional Awards for Chris Middlebrook and Josue Reynoso

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October 2022

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Thursday, October 13 at 3:45 PM

The Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning will recognize Loredana Valenzano-Slough (Chemistry) as the recipient of the CTL Instructional Award for Large Class Teaching on Thursday, October 13 at 3:45 in the Library East Reading Room.  She was selected for the award after her nomination via the Deans’ Teaching Showcase during the spring 2022 semester.

Valenzano-Slough’s presentation: Physical Chemistry is Dead… Long Live Physical Chemistry!

Abstract: As the name suggests, Physical Chemistry (PChem) is heavily dependent on physics, which is heavily dependent on math and problem-solving reasoning. In time, it became evident that students struggling the most in PChem were those lacking practice in math.  To help the students, I started to spend some of the PChem class time in “math review sessions” to give them practical suggestions on how to approach and use the necessary mathematical tools (multivariable derivatives, power series, and integrals).  I soon realized though, that this was not enough and that they needed more first-hand practice on the actual use of such tools and their applications toward solving PChem problems. For this reason, I designed a “Math for (applications) in PChem I” online 1-credit course which exposes students to those mathematical concepts used in PChem but concentrate on their actual applications and problem-solving techniques. 

Please plan to join us in recognizing Loredana Valenzano-Slough by registering for the event.

Tuesday October 18, 2022 at 12:00 noon

Now that Michigan Tech has a campus-wide iClicker Cloud license we’re seeing a large increase in adoption by instructors this fall based on early usage data. iClicker polling is a great way to engage your students in class, and increase learning and retention.  How can you enhance your pedagogical strategies for iClicker polling in your classroom?  We are curious to know how you use iClicker polling?

Join your colleagues and the CTL team on Tuesday, October 18 as we revive our lunch and learn format with an iClicker Showcase.  We’re looking for up to five instructors to share one of their favorite iClicker polling questions, review the pedagogy supporting it, and discuss the impact on learning that they’ve observed.  

iClicker instructors are encouraged to apply to participate in the showcase. Applications are due by October 7!  You’ll be asked to submit a single slide polling question and a brief description of how you deliver the question in your class.  Submissions will be reviewed for uniqueness (including use of the various question types: short answer, target question, multiple answer, numerical, multiple choice) as well as adaptability for other instructors.  In addition to recognition as an iClicker expert, featured showcase instructors will also receive a gift card.

Whether you’re new to iClicker this semester, a power user, or just want to learn ways to improve and expand your teaching practices, make plans to register and attend the CTL iClicker Showcase [https://mtu.libcal.com/event/9698685].  All registered attendees will have lunch provided.  As always, instructors who need assistance getting started with iClicker or have specific technical questions can contact the CTL for assistance (elearning@mtu.edu, 487-3000).

Tuesday October 27, 2022 at 3:45 PM

The Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning will recognize Kristin Brzeski (CFRES) as co-recipient of the CTL Instructional Award for Innovative or Out of Class Teaching on Thursday, October 27 at 3:45pm.  Kristin was selected for the award after being nominated via the Deans’ Teaching Showcase during the spring 2022 semester.

Brzeski’s award presentation: Integrating regional natural resource partners into lab and field based learning

Abstract: Dr. Kristin Brzeski will share her experiences developing and funding a field and wet-lab based component in her wildlife courses. In this presentation, Dr. Brzeski will emphasize how she integrates partnerships with the MI Department of Natural Resources (DNR) into her instruction, where students generate data that is presented directly to DNR biologists. Through this process, students get hands-on field and lab based training while actively participating in the process of translating research for applied management. Students also get tips and advice for advancing their careers with land-management organizations such as the DNR.

To register for this event, please click here.

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