Professional Documents
Culture Documents
When Teaching
Large Classes
Wendy L. Keeney-Kennicutt
Associate Director, First Year Chemistry Program
Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence
Texas A&M University
K-keeney@tamu.edu
2010 1
Technologies I Use
Web assessments for student feedback
Email
Excel Spreadsheet
Ebook, e-solution manual and e-homework
Class Websites – public and private
Calibrated Peer Review – on-line writing/reviewing
Turnitin
Clickers
Office hours/review sessions in Second Life
2
My Background
Taught first year chemistry at TAMU since 1984
– Off sequence students for >10 years
Class size: 2 classes of 230-300 students each
Always had excellent student evaluations, university
teaching awards, but…
I was unhappy with rigidity of class structure, felt I
wasn’t serving my students…
What could I do? I used technology to…….
2010 5
SALG
Benefits
Free and easy to use and modify
Can add questions, including demographics
− I’ve used this for many semesters for classroom research
Provides easy-to-read output
Provides raw numeric data for your own correlations
Students can log in with their name so credit can be given
SALG dissociates names from responses to ensure anonymity
How do I incorporate it?
worth 5 points on their final exam (~95% compliance)
What do I get out of it?
Reliable, consistent information from my class over time
2010 6
Personality Test
Jung Typology Test
free
students like it
− can understand words
− results usually agree
with self-assessment (72 questions)
Kinesthetic
Read/Write
Aural
Visual
2010 12
Technologies I Use
Web assessments for student feedback
Email
Excel Spreadsheet
Ebook, e-solution manual and e-homework
Class Websites – public and private
Calibrated Peer Review – on-line writing/reviewing
Turnitin
Clickers
Office hours/review sessions in Second Life
13
Technology is Your Ally!
Details:
Web evaluations & personality tests
Email & MS Excel (Grades and Grade Calculator)
14
Technology is Your Ally!
Ebook
– Hardcopy is optional
– Comes with on-line homework (OWL) and solution manual
– Cost: $45/semester
– Due to lower book costs, we can ask students to buy clickers
2010 15
Technology is Your Ally!
Two websites – public and at elearning.tamu.edu
Public - www.chem.tamu.edu/class/fyp/wkk-chem.html
– Info source – syllabus, office hours, handouts, HW assignments
– Course notes, learning objectives, old exams, Camtasia videos
– Links to all technology websites we use
– Powerpoint: “How to do well in First Year Chemistry”
– Math Skills Review selected as NSTA SciLinks
– Links to other chemistry/science-related sites
Elearning website
– Link to my public webpage
– Link to register clicker
– Link to Turnitin for my writing assignments (Calibrated Peer Review)
– Grades
2010 16
Technology is Your Ally!
Calibrated Peer Review (CPRTM) – cpr.tamu.edu
– Read FAQs on website for more info
– Free online writing/peer assessing tool
– Sits on TAMU server (meets FERPA Guidelines)
– I’m the TAMU Master Administrator
– Used by >25,000 students at TAMU in last 7 years in 30+ majors
2010 17
Technology is Your Ally!
Turnitin thru elearning.tamu.edu – for CPR assignments
– Plagiarism control
– Students check their own work before submitting to CPR
– I spot check to see if they actually turned in their CPR essay
Clicker quizzes
– Used daily to promote learning and attendance
– Open book, open notes, talk to your neighbor
Student learn more when they teach someone else
– Test on topics taught that day
– Students get instant feedback
– Low stakes assessment
– Take time
Must allow students to log into the system
Must give them time to figure out problem
Must allow students send in their answer.
18
More on Clickers
Survey Results of 322 Students from My Classes - Fall 2009
21
Second Life at TAMU
Dr. K’s Chemistry Place – Classroom Area
Notice Board
Quiz
System
MC Quiz
Both can be done by
students on their own
23
Technology is Your Ally!
Second Life
– Office hour/review session/SL activity for 1 quiz grade
– Cannot be mandatory – there is a population density problem
An island can only handle about 50 people; I have 550 students
– A way to reach technically-savvy students
– More personal than email or telephone
– Can work with groups at a distance
– No need for students to come to campus
SL Issues
– Technology
– Lack of student computer literacy
80
Fall 2002
70
Percent of Students
60 Spring 2003
50 Spring 2004
40 Fall 2004
30 Spring 2005
20 Fall 2005
10
Spring 2006
0
CPR is Helps us Learn Helps Improve Helps Improve Others Should
Enjoyable Chemistry Writing Critiquing Do CPR
Survey Questions
“Overcoming Student Resistance to a Teaching Innovation” by
Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt, Baris Gunersel and Nancy Simpson.
http://www.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/issue_v2n1.htm 25
But you are not tied to
technology!
Examples from my class:
My lectures are not powerpoint
– I have 3 overhead projectors
– I write/talk at the same time
My notes are handwritten
– Available on the public website and at Copy Corner
– I tack $1 onto Copy Corner notes to support the Chemistry Road Show
Student notecard with picture
– Counts as a quiz grade
– Includes hometown, chemistry background etc. plus something special
– My opportunity to share my background
Written homework from the textbook (counted, not graded)
Paper quizzes
– See student thought processes
2010 26
The personal touch!
Examples from my class:
Weekly review sessions – Sundays at 2pm – in real life
– Review the week’s work
– Answer queries
– Give more examples at a slower pace
– Why?
I teach an off-sequence course
Student chemistry backgrounds are very non-homogeneous
I was bored with answering the same questions over and over
Some students are too shy to ask questions
Weekly review sessions – Sundays at 5pm – in Second Life
– For students who like that technology and cannot make it to campus
– Students and I can speak using microphone or chat via our avatars
Office hours – my office is in back of Chemistry Help Desk area
27
Benefits of Technology
for Me
Allows me to meet needs of different learning styles
Allows students to design their own course assessments
(within reason)
Gives me more time to spend doing fun activities with my
students
−Clickers are amazing time-savers (no grading/alphabetizing/recording)
Learning environment is converted from teacher-centered to
student-centered.
Allows me to be imaginative in my syllabus and stay true
to my teaching style.