CETL Weekly Teaching Tip: 2/16/2015

Resources for Getting Students to Peer Review each other's Work

Next CETL Cafe Conversations

NPR Piece on First Gen Students and Their Experience

by Ken Sagendorf, CETL Director

I hope you made it to work safely this morning.  I, like my students in class this morning, was hoping for a snow day but here I am, wet feet and all.  As we approach the  fifth week of the semester  and 8 week courses or the second week of a five-week course, I don’t know about you but I start to get tired of grading and giving feedback despite the fact that this can be the most helpful for students and their learning.  Today’s tip focuses on how to share that workload with the students themselves.  Peer review, when taught and done well, can be an invaluable tool for improving student work and their learning.  After all, our scholarship often relies on and places deep value upon peer review.   Attached is a handout with resources for teaching your students how to peer review each other from multiple disciplines.  In addition, I like the descriptions of the case studies and lessons learned included in this article: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/resources_teach/teaching_in_practice/docs/Student_Peer_Review.pdf.  And for me, when I teach my students, I share with them exactly how I am reading, what I am looking for when I go over their work and what questions I am trying to answer.  It serves to let students have a peek under the hood at how their work is evaluated.

Next CETL Café Conversation: Teaching First Gen Students

And, thank you to Stacy Chamberlin (Regis College Chemistry department) for an early morning preview of what I would hear on my drive to work!  This is a great piece that was on NPR this morning about the experiences of first gen students at the University of Michigan: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/02/16/385470288/fitting-in-on-campus-challenges-for-first-generation-students.  I was a first gen student myself and can relate to much of what the story shared.  First gen students, as well as many students from traditionally underrepresented groups need to see, hear, and feel the messages from us as faculty and from the university, that we believe that they can succeed.  And, we need to hold them to high expectations.  If you would like to discuss first gen and diverse students and how to best support them through our teaching, that will be the topic for the next CETL Café Conversations.  We will meet in the main café at 11:45 on Monday, February 23^rd.  I will reserve a couple tables for the discussion.  Please know that the conversation is casual and revolves around sharing our experiences.  A handout will be provided.   

Zaption a tool for video engagement!

www.Zaption.com

What is it?

Zaption is a free web-based video enhancement tool that allows the user to include interactive elements to the video such as questions and annotations. The videos can be pulled in from either YouTube or Vimeo. They refer to the finished object as a “tour.”

You can share your tours with your students by simply sharing the URL link to it from the Zaption site.

You can track your viewer’s progress and responses with detailed analytics.

There is a free version where you can produce only one video with basic limited tools. You can purchase the Pro Classroom (per instructor) for $89/year or Pro Campus version for $995/year for more advanced features.

The tours will play on IOS devices with the free mobile app, otherwise viewers may watch in a browser on laptop/desktop environment.

Learn more about Zaption at the following links:

https://zaption.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203862355-Zaption-Features

https://zaption.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203065435-Five-Tips-for-Creating-Effective-Zaption-Tours

See some examples: https://www.zaption.com/gallery

This screenshot shows you that you can set different points in the video to include a textual message, a multiple choice question or in this case an open ended question.

 This tool has similar characteristics to TED ed. Check it out if you would like to compare. http://ed.ted.com/

If you are interested in this tool and you have questions or need some help feel free to contact us at idt@regis.edu.

CETL Weekly Teaching Tip: February 3, 2015

10 Best Things Digital Teachers Do; Grant and funding opportunities; free Course Design Workshop opportunity

 If you are anything like me, working with students and seeing them explore during their education experiences are highlights of being a teacher.  For this week’s teaching tip, I share a blog  from the Chronicle of Higher Ed with you about being a digital teacher.  As we run the spectrum across our institution from face-to-face to fully online teaching, I was very hesitant about using this as I thought that some may perceive it as not pertaining to them.  But let me explain why I am sharing it this week.  This blog post is about digital pedagogy.  What is digital pedagogy, you ask?  I like this definition from the digital journal of learning, teaching, and technology,  Hybrid Pedagogy: “Digital pedagogy is precisely not about using digital technologies for teaching and, rather, about approaching those tools from a critical pedagogical perspective.  So, it is as much about using digital tools thoughtfully as it is about deciding when not to use digital tools, and about paying attention to the impact of digital tools on learning.”  I include this because making informed decisions about student learning is something we all do.    

So, as you consider which tools and how to best use those tools in your courses – whether they be email, a social media platform, an electronic portfolio or D2L, you are really trying to deepen and strengthen interactions with our students.  Take a look at this list of best digitalteaching practices and see if any make sense for your courses.  Oh, and in here, you’ll find things like ‘grade less’ and ‘don’t worry of you don’t know what digital pedagogy is.’

Upcoming opportunities for funding and course design retreat

In the coming weeks, we will identify the remaining budget from CETL and open that money up to support two items: learning communities and course development.  I am working on a process and will be recruiting a team to evaluate proposals.  But, if you have ideas for Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) (including a topic, a strategy for recruiting 10-12 other faculty across the university to participate, how it will enhance student learning at Regis, and what the FLC will give back to the University community) or are thinking of doing something new or different in your courses, keep an eye out for more announcements.  In the meantime, if you have an idea for running an FLC, CETL will fund $500 to be used to support the FLC’s work.

Also, if you are using or planning to try out a new technology in your courses, the Teaching and Learningwith Technology Microgrant (TLTM) call for proposals is out from Instructional Design& Technology (IDT).  More details available at .  And, if you want to share what technology-related things you are trying in your courses or look at what others have tried, check out the info on the Learning Technology Fair being held March 12 from 10-2 in the Mountain View Room.

Finally, CETL will offer (in coordination with the Air Force Academy), a four-day course design retreat in Colorado Springs this coming June (first week).  Details forthcoming but if you would like to work on designing or redesigning a course, this opportunity is a great one.  Contact me if you have questions. Spots go quick so if you are interested, please let me know.  This is a like a free conference and CETL will pay for your hotel.  We will also be looking to host a local event later this spring if there is interest.