The Teaching for Learning Video series, a part of the Teaching Commons, posts its latest video- Teaching Difficult Concepts: Cell Division. The video features Stan Cohn of the Department of Biology.
The Chronicle of Higher Ed. summarizes findings and presentations at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2009 Conference, convened last weekend in Bloomington, Indiana.
ProfHacker continues to post useful tips for faculty members, including tips for dealing with technology in the classroom and dealing with disruptive student behavior.
Faculty Focus offers technology tools to engage students of all learning styles.
Carol Phillips, adjunct professor of Marketing at The University of Notre Dame, asks if millennial students are overconfident or better prepared.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Teaching Difficult Concepts: Cell Division
The latest Teaching for Learning video is complete!
Watch the video!
Featuring Stan Cohn from the Department of Biology, the video demonstrates how casting students as parts of a cell and reenacting cell division, has successfully improved his students understanding.
Watch the video!
Featuring Stan Cohn from the Department of Biology, the video demonstrates how casting students as parts of a cell and reenacting cell division, has successfully improved his students understanding.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Over a cup of coffee: October 21st edition
Both ProfHacker and the Chronicle of Higher Ed. report on giving students feedback using audio tools.
Kevin Brown goes backstage for the Chronicle of Higher Ed. and comes out with a much greater sense of how today’s student works and studies.
Faculty Focus helps us understand the role of the instructor in facilitating online discussions. In another column, we gather more ideas for what to do once we have assessed student learning.
Virtual World Watch in the United Kingdom report on findings about virtual world use in higher education.
Kevin Brown goes backstage for the Chronicle of Higher Ed. and comes out with a much greater sense of how today’s student works and studies.
Faculty Focus helps us understand the role of the instructor in facilitating online discussions. In another column, we gather more ideas for what to do once we have assessed student learning.
Virtual World Watch in the United Kingdom report on findings about virtual world use in higher education.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Over a cup of coffee: October 15th edition
The National Day on Writing is Tuesday, October 20th! DePaul events taking place on both the Lincoln Park campus and in the loop.
Faculty Focus explains how student self grading can be a technique to get students to value assignments as more than just part of their grade but part of helping them learn.
Prof Hacker offers an easy way to teach citations.
Inside Higher Ed. gives advice on how to avoid the autumn chill, that is, get recharged to finish the quarter with energy.
The Teaching Professor summarizes research in which it was shown that over-participating students “somehow make other students think they are developing less competence as communicators.”
The NYTimes reports on how the exponential growth of data storage is changing the way we teach computer science and information science.
Faculty Focus explains how student self grading can be a technique to get students to value assignments as more than just part of their grade but part of helping them learn.
Prof Hacker offers an easy way to teach citations.
Inside Higher Ed. gives advice on how to avoid the autumn chill, that is, get recharged to finish the quarter with energy.
The Teaching Professor summarizes research in which it was shown that over-participating students “somehow make other students think they are developing less competence as communicators.”
The NYTimes reports on how the exponential growth of data storage is changing the way we teach computer science and information science.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Teaching Experiential Learning: Adoption of an Innovative Course in an MBA Curriculum
In a recent study Li, Greenberg, & Nicholls (2007) evaluated the success of implementing experiential learning techniques in an MBA curriculum.
Researchers adopted Marketplace, software that could simulate companies from inception to maturity in a global market. Each week of the course simulated a business quarter, and students interacted with one another to make business decisions and to devise strategy. Instructors’ roles were adapted to this technique by assuming the “role of an arbitrator, such as the commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who handles complaints and claims” (Li et al., 2009, p. 26). Class materials were provided “in the form of industry newsletters, quarterly electronic presentations, advertising arbitration decisions, and their responses to teams’ inquiries” (Li et al., 2007, p. 28).
Evaluations of this technique were conducted by administering student questionnaires that analyzed their perception of this technique and compared their perceptions of this technique to traditional lectures. With a sample size of 588 graduate students, Li et al. (2007) found that student perceptions of the effectiveness of the technique in engagement, development of career skills, and improved competence were statistically significant (p. 31). Comparing this technique to traditional lectures, Li et al. (2007) found that 10 out of their 12 criteria including problem solving, thinking on your feet, and team work were significantly higher rated using the new experiential learning technique than traditional lectures (p. 31). Only two were not statistically significant- learning principles and concepts and using written communication.
These results give evidence towards the efficacy of using experiential learning in a course. If your learning goals are along the lines of engaging students in course concepts, improving team work, improving interpersonal skills, facilitating management skills, or examining diverse solutions, experiential learning is worth considering.
Researchers adopted Marketplace, software that could simulate companies from inception to maturity in a global market. Each week of the course simulated a business quarter, and students interacted with one another to make business decisions and to devise strategy. Instructors’ roles were adapted to this technique by assuming the “role of an arbitrator, such as the commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who handles complaints and claims” (Li et al., 2009, p. 26). Class materials were provided “in the form of industry newsletters, quarterly electronic presentations, advertising arbitration decisions, and their responses to teams’ inquiries” (Li et al., 2007, p. 28).
Evaluations of this technique were conducted by administering student questionnaires that analyzed their perception of this technique and compared their perceptions of this technique to traditional lectures. With a sample size of 588 graduate students, Li et al. (2007) found that student perceptions of the effectiveness of the technique in engagement, development of career skills, and improved competence were statistically significant (p. 31). Comparing this technique to traditional lectures, Li et al. (2007) found that 10 out of their 12 criteria including problem solving, thinking on your feet, and team work were significantly higher rated using the new experiential learning technique than traditional lectures (p. 31). Only two were not statistically significant- learning principles and concepts and using written communication.
These results give evidence towards the efficacy of using experiential learning in a course. If your learning goals are along the lines of engaging students in course concepts, improving team work, improving interpersonal skills, facilitating management skills, or examining diverse solutions, experiential learning is worth considering.
Further DePaul Resources
- Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning & Community Service Studies
- University Internship and Co-op Program
- Office for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
References
Li, T., Greenberg, B. A., & Nicholls, J. A. F. (2007). Teaching Experiential Learning: Adoption of an Innovative Course in an MBA Marketing Curriculum. Journal of Marketing Education, 29(1), 25-33. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1244131751).
Over a cup of coffee: October 7th edition
The Instructional Design and Development Blog post on going back to the basics with Web 2.0 tools. The Teaching and Learning Centre at Emily Carr University offer further video tutorials with their guide on Web 2.0 Tools for Teaching.
The Teaching Professor writes on the idea that less is more in our teaching. Read more in her post entitled the 'Pedagogy of Ironic Minimalism.'
ProfHacker asks us to take a minute to reflect on what’s working and what’s not in our classes. ProfHacker suggests a framework to improve things that aren’t working by taking lessons from what is working.
Inside Higher Ed. reports on a technique called “discovery learning” that is being used to replace traditional lectures in chemistry courses.
The Chronicle of Higher Ed. makes note that PBS and NPR have started putting a number of lectures from academics on their new website: Forum Network.
The Teaching Professor writes on the idea that less is more in our teaching. Read more in her post entitled the 'Pedagogy of Ironic Minimalism.'
ProfHacker asks us to take a minute to reflect on what’s working and what’s not in our classes. ProfHacker suggests a framework to improve things that aren’t working by taking lessons from what is working.
Inside Higher Ed. reports on a technique called “discovery learning” that is being used to replace traditional lectures in chemistry courses.
The Chronicle of Higher Ed. makes note that PBS and NPR have started putting a number of lectures from academics on their new website: Forum Network.
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