Tag Archives: assessment

Assigning and Teaching Writing in the Age of AI

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By Shyam Sharma
Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director
Program in Writing and Rhetoric
shyam.sharma@stonybrook.edu

Last year, students in my WRT 102 class systematically explored how AI chatbots can help them as writers–that is, if they learn how to use the tools effectively and responsibly. By breaking down the process of writing a research-based paper into a step-by-step process, my students asked ChatGPT to assist them with a few dozen different tasks related to those steps. The result has so far been fascinatingly mixed. 

Unfortunately, most faculty across campus do not have the luxury of time (i.e., small class), teaching experience/expertise (in some cases), or the curricular space that writing teachers do in order to engage their students in the research and writing processes with the assistance of AI or not. With these challenges in mind, the following are some strategies that can be helpful to colleagues across campus:

Time

The first challenge, lack of time, is most significant for faculty teaching larger classes. Natural language processing tools can be a convenient way to reduce time and labor that writing-intensive assignments require from instructors. Unfortunately, this convenience comes with a number of risks, including plagiarism and the bypassing of learning/skill development. Consequently, all instructors who assign writing might also have to allocate some time on writing instruction as well as time to help students use the new tools effectively and responsibly. 

Blackboard drawing of a clock.
Finding ways to effectively incorporate AI into assignments can be a time consuming process.

Adopting the “writing to learn” (WTL) approach (rather than just “learning to write”) can justify the investment of some time for teaching writing, as it helps students “discover” ideas and perspectives, “create” connections and structures, and “interpret” text or the real world around them. If writing needs to mediate learning, then it must be seen as more than merely a means for encoding pre-existing ideas in words; it calls for assisting students in the process, including for using AI tools productively and responsibly. 

With some scaffolding/support and the right approach, even a small amount of time to help students use AI tools meaningfully can greatly help to harness the power of writing as a means for learning, fostering disciplinary identity, and preparing for professional careers. Below I share a range of strategies to optimize whatever little time faculty can invest.  

Trust 

Trust is the second challenge when individualized attention is not feasible, and AI tools can complicate this even further. I started my teaching experiments with AI using a simple rule–“cite what you use”–but even in a small class, that simple rule didn’t survive the complexity of how students use the tools. Students used chatbots in too many ways in the process and couldn’t just cite specific words or ideas! 

My experience so far is that the only thing we can do is to develop trust in our students, as we help them develop their own “brain muscles” for research and writing skills, with or without using AI tools. AI tools are making academic integrity issues too complex to address through any technologies or policies. With that said, they can also enhance writing if used effectively and responsibly. 

Professor and student shaking hands.
Trust between students and instructors is an important part of teaching students how to use AI in a beneficial and productive manner.

In place of doubt and distrust, we must teach our students where to draw the line for themselves. We can no longer just specify “requirements” like page or word count, topic or method specifications, number of citations or strategies of source engagement, etc. We should help students understand and achieve the goals of the assignment by using appropriate tools and resources. We should help students answer their own educational questions: Why am I in this course? What skills will I develop if I invest adequate time and effort–including with AI assistance? 

Broadly put, educators are bound to shift focus from policing plagiarism to bolstering originality, from requirements to commitment toward learning, from fear to interest, from policy statements to support, from challenge to confidence, from moralizing to motivating. Students can best decide when and how to use AI tools if they possess sufficient skills and confidence and are inspired enough to take on the challenges of learning.

Teaching 

Beyond allocating some time and shifting focus toward trust building, faculty across the disciplines need new teaching strategies to mitigate the challenges posed by AI tools. That requires first educating students what “writing” means in the context of learning and in relation to AI. 

Some students ask: Could we soon be just asking AI to do all our writing? This question views writing as a product, ignoring that the use of a text generator in the process of learning is fundamentally different from a businessperson using it to cut costs, a father using it to make lasagna, or a freelance journalist using it to speed up writing. Unlike other users, students must use writing to develop their own brain muscles for researching and reading, summarizing and synthesizing, citing and engaging sources, developing and defending an intellectual position, organizing and creating flow in her ideas, and so on–with and without using AI tools as they become more and more a part of our world. Simply asking a chatbot to “do” these things for us is more like asking for the answer to all math problems and less like using a calculator to better handle the more complex ones. 

Professors should also identify and address distinct challenges posed by AI use in writing processes in different disciplines and professions, from the ethical in medicine to the legal in engineering to the financial in business. Creating and using machine-generating language requires more layers of responsibilities for “languaging” than we have always known. This calls for some teaching of “critical AI literacy” skills–including technical skills, rhetorical savvy, and political and ethical considerations.  

Teach spelled out on a desk with books.
It is important that students understand not only the “what”  regarding any  assignment but the importance of “why” it is important as well.

To summarize, a little time, a focus on trust, and a few teaching strategies could turn a menace into a meaningful resource. From their explorations so far, my students have created a list of tasks that ChatGPT can (potentially) assist them write better, faster, etc–that is, if they have the skills and invest the time to make that assistance meaningful: finds sources**, suggest new ideas or perspectives*, help to brainstorm or start writing*, jog memory on a topic, find/generate basic knowledge about a topic**, outline a paper*, write up thesis statements and topic sentences*, elaborate topic sentences or citation*, tighten and otherwise revise draft*, recognize rhetorical strategies in samples, change style of draft such as by reducing jargons, give feedback or critique on draft*, edit for clarity and correctness, etc. In the list above, to represent the cautions my students say are necessary, I’ve used two asterisks where they’ve flagged it for unreliability (such as making up sources and facts) and one asterisk for other kinds of problems. 

I must also add that my class has found that ChatGPT isn’t very reliable even with papers based on library and internet research–not to mention papers that are lab-based or fieldwork-based, creative or contextual, culturally informed or sensitive. And yet, where there is instructional support and seriousness on the part of student writers, the tool becomes more and more useful. Hence the need for some time and trust. In contrast, instructors who simply assign essays and wait for the deadline are going to receive papers, paragraphs, or paraphrases based on chatbots from many students. 

With the three major challenges above in mind, as well as the cautions, I would like to share a class handout that I created for AI-assisted writing instruction for a research-based paper. Please adapt any part of it as it best serves the needs of your courses and assignments in your disciplines and contexts. The handout can be found at the link below.

Independent Versus AI-Assisted Learning of Research and Writing Skills Handout

CELT Inclusive Teaching Panel Discussion: Using Authentic Assessment to Broaden your Inclusive Teaching Practice

Assessment, Equity and Inclusion, Updates, ,

Join CELT on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 at 1 p.m. ET

Description: In this discussion, faculty members from philosophy, journalism, and physical therapy will talk about how they use authentic assessment in their teaching practice and how that can be an equity approach that helps students to challenge their assumptions. Authentic assessment requires students to apply knowledge to real world situations in innovative and concrete ways.

Panelists:

  • Jennifer Carter: Lecturer, Department of Philosophy and College of Business
  • James Pierre-Glaude: Clinical Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy Program, School of Health Technology and Management
  • Zachary R. Dowdy: Assistant Professor of Practice, School of Communication and Journalism

Facilitators:

  • Carol Hernandez: Senior Instructional Designer, CELT
  • Catherine Scott, Assistant Director for Faculty Development – Testing, Assessment & Evaluation, CELT

Please register prior to the event.

Teaching Tuesdays

Assessment, Equity and Inclusion, Instructional Design, Online Learning, TA/Postdocs, Updates, , , , ,

The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) has always been dedicated to the belief that excellent teaching in all its forms is vital to student success. Recently, to better align with our mission, we have been moved to the Office of the Provost under Elizabeth Newman, PhD, Vice Provost for Curriculum and Undergraduate Education. 

Teaching Tuesdays This semester, we are excited to begin a new initiative: Teaching Tuesdays. During these sessions, CELT experts will discuss evidence-based practical strategies and reflective questions aligned with the research expertise of staff in our department. Please join us at 11:15am in the Faculty Commons (Melville Library E1332) for any of the following topics:

  • Using Critical Self-Reflection to Catalyze Inclusive Pedagogy with Carol Hernandez on October 5th 
    • The pandemic has made clear that social identities, both those of our students as well as our own, shape not only how we are experiencing the fallout of the crisis, but also how we experience teaching and learning. Our session will address how reflecting on the intersection of our identities is a crucial catalyst to improving an educator’s inclusive teaching practice.
  • Grading for Teaching Assistants (TAs): Reducing Bias and Time-Saving Tips with Kimberly Bell, PhD on October 19th 
    • Grading and assessment are an integral part of any teaching experience. In addition to the technical details of entering and submitting grades, time management and biases also play an important role in grading and assessment, and these are often more challenging to overcome. Join this workshop to hear more about time saving tips and strategies for reducing bias in your grading and assessment.
  • Supporting Students’ Self-Regulation Skills in Your Course with Kristin Hall on October 26th 
    • In this workshop, we will go over the importance of self-regulation skills and how they are linked to academic achievement and academic success.  We will also discuss how to model and help students develop these skills in your course. 
  • Designing Courses for all Students with Jennifer Jaiswal on November 2nd
    • Not all students learn in the same way. Creating courses that allow for diversity in how we interact with the content helps students to find different ways to engage and to connect with the course material. In this course we will discuss Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and redesign a course activity to be more inclusive.
  • National Distance Learning Week: Regular and Substantive Interaction: Reflections Based on the Updated Distance Education and Innovation Federal Regulations with Rose Tirotta, EdD on November 9th 
    • In July of 2021, the US Department of Education updated the Distance Education and Innovation Federal Regulations to align with updated pedagogical research and technological capabilities. This session will review these changes in parallel with evidence-based practices to reflect on future and current course development and organization. 
  • Ideation as a Teaching Strategy with Jennifer Jaiswal on November 16th 
    • How can you help your students craft new ideas in their area of study, create new products, or design new models for problem solving? Ideation is the process of creating many new ideas using generative thinking strategies. Ideation takes advantage of creativity to create new ways of thinking about problems and creating solutions. In this session we will cover generative thinking,  project models that can be applied and take on a design challenge.
  • Designing a Logic Model for Your Grant Evaluation with Catherine Scott on November 23rd 
    • Logic models are often required when submitting grant proposals. So what are they? Why do you need one? And how can you create your own? Join this workshop to have these questions answered and leave with a template to help you create your own.
  • Jump Start Engagement with Active Learning with Kimberly Bell, PhD and Rose Tirotta, EdD on November 30th 
    • Active learning can improve student outcomes and keep students engaged during and in-between your class meetings. Getting started incorporating active learning, implementing it, and assessing its effectiveness can seem challenging. Join this workshop to hear more about why active learning works and strategies you can implement and assess easily in your courses right away.

Please register prior to the session using the links above and email us if you have any questions.

Congratulations to Sue Ryan! Our 2021 Excellence in Assessment Awardee!

Assessment,

Sue RyanSue Ryan, an Assistant Professor in the School of Professional Development and a distinguished soccer coach who led the SBU women’s soccer program from a Division III program to a perennial contender in Division I in the America East Conference,   leading the team to 229 victories, is a familiar face at many of our sessions. Her background as a professional soccer coach informs her teaching in her graduate courses in leadership. She sees her role as meeting students where they are and that it is “her responsibility to take them someplace new; a new place of thinking, collaboration, and self-discovery.” 

In her course on Effective Professional Action & Leadership, Sue has several innovative assessments that help students make connections to course concepts. She uses the discussion boards to have students post lyrics to a song that reflect their values and thinking. Sue also has students select someone from history that exemplifies leadership for a case study analysis. Sue has found that connecting the curriculum to students’ own lives leads to real engagement and transformation for students. 

CELT would like to thank Sue for being engaged with us and would like to congratulate her on being awarded the 2021 Award for Excellence in Assessment at CELT’s Celebration of Teaching this past spring. 

 

CIT 2021: Working Together to Prepare all Students for a Lifetime of Learning

Assessment, Educational Technologies, Online Learning, Updates, , ,

ipad with cupFrom May 25th-27th, the SUNY Center for Professional Development hosted the annual Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT), which took place virtually this year. The theme for CIT 2021 was “Working Together to Prepare all Students for a Lifetime of Learning” and included the following tracks:

  • Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion
  • Emerging Technologies and Digital Strategies
  • Measuring Effectiveness
  • Open Education
  • Pedagogically Speaking

The Keynote speaker was Jesse Stommel, Ph.D, executive director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies at University of Mary Washington, co-author of An Urgency of Teachers: The Work of Critical Digital Pedagogy and co-editor of Disrupting the Digital Humanities. In addition, there were concurrent short talks, poster sessions, exhibitions sessions, and FACT2 Excellence awards. With the shift to remote learning during the pandemic, many presentations focused on innovations in online learning and teaching including strategies for large enrollment online classes, gamification, Open Educational Resources (OERs), equitable assessments, tools for engagement online, and effectively teaching music/art virtually. 

There were many great tips and resources presented, so we hope you explore the recordings here! 

 

H.O.T. Multiple Choice Exams

Assessment

Catherine ScottCatherine Scott, Asst Dir for Faculty Dev – Testing, Assessment & Evaluation

What do you remember about taking exams? The stress? The anxiety? Trying to decipher which concepts to memorize? Which information the instructor stressed as important? Or maybe you completely blanked out like I did more times than I can count! As a professional, I can remember taking hundreds of exams, but unfortunately, I can not remember all the information I crammed into my brain to pass them. So, what was the objective of these tests? To make me stressed or help me learn? In college, students tend to approach multiple choice exams the same way they did in high school, utilizing the test taking strategies that help to eliminate the wrong answers, instead of knowing the correct one.  

Quick story. I have two sons, both bright in various areas. My oldest, teachers claimed, had things come to him easily. However, he always stressed taking tests! He would literally get sick and then perform poorly. If you asked him later about the same material, he knew it all. He was even given resources that later were taken away because he proved he did not really need them. My other son struggled in class but aced the tests. I knew something was going on but found it difficult to get him the resources he needed because he always did so well on the tests. He was later diagnosed with an extreme case of dyslexia and what we found out was he is just a great test taker. In fact, many times he was just utilizing the process of elimination and then guessing. I often use my children as a real-life example to remember when I’m assisting an instructor with H.O.T. exams.  

Let’s make those exams H.O.T. 

What does H.O.T even mean? Higher Order Thinking. A concept born out of the research of Benjamin Bloom, a Harvard professor who studied three domains: the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Higher order thinking resides in the cognitive domain and can be useful to classify different hierarchical levels of understanding that students can achieve in a course. 

Bloom's TaxonomyBefore incorporating Bloom’s into designing your exams, here are some strategies you can take to strengthen your questions. Each question has a stem, which presents the problem; a correct option, which is the right answer; and the distractors, which are the incorrect options used to distract you from the right answer. 

Tips for strengthening your stem

  1. Articulate stems around your course learning objectives.
  2. Start with lower-level items first to help build confidence.
  3. Test what you really want individuals to learn. 
  4. Ensure that the directions in the stem are very clear; sometimes students do not understand what is being asked. 
  5. Include the central idea in the stem instead of the choices.
  6. Avoid window dressing (excessive verbiage); include only what is necessary to the question. 
  7. Word the stem positively, avoid negatives such as NOT or EXCEPT. If negative words are used, use the word cautiously and always ensure that the word appears CAPITALIZED and boldface. 
  8. Check borrowed items carefully; sometimes we find questions used by others but are not aligned with our own course objectives. 
  9. Get feedback on items; ask others to take the exam and provide feedback. 
  10. Compose test items over time; make sure you review each semester to ensure the content still applies. 

Tips for strengthening your correction option and your distractors 

  1. Develop as many effective choices as you can, but research suggests three distractors are adequate.
  2. Make sure that only one of these choices is the right answer.
  3. Utilize or perform an item analysis to determine the difficulty index. 
  4. Vary the location of the right answer according to the number of choices.
  5. Keep choices homogeneous in content and grammatical structure; students looking to guess will try to determine which responses visually look different. 
  6. Incorporate typical errors regarding the content; which mistakes have students made in the past?
  7. Make them plausible; if not, the answer may seem obvious.
  8. Use humor cautiously, especially if you do not use humor in your lectures. 
  9. “None-of-the-above” should be used carefully.
  10. Avoid giving clues to the right answer.

After you have incorporated the above suggestions, you’re ready to utilize Bloom’s taxonomy to ensure you are measuring higher learning. Use the chart below to help design some of your exam questions. First, which level of Bloom’s will you be measuring?  This will help you determine how students will conceptualize the material, which will help you decide how to ask the questions. 

Bloom's Levels with exam question examples If you have questions or would like to discuss further, please contact us.

Plagiarism: Opportunities for a Teachable Moment

Assessment, ,

Troy Priest  Troy Priest, Senior Instructional Designer

As academics, we understand that our professional reputations depend on us properly using and citing scholarly sources in our writing and research. Every so often we hear of academic reputations being ruined by allegations of plagiarism. 

As instructors we stress the importance of academic integrity to our students, and we require them to adhere to the codes of conduct laid out by the university including avoiding plagiarism in the writing assignments. But are all instances of plagiarism the same? Should we deal with all examples of plagiarism the same way?  How can we use and make them teaching opportunities?

Intentional vs. Unintentional Plagiarism

person typing on computer with question marks around themNot all instances of plagiarism are intentional, but when they are it is usually fairly obvious. The most egregious examples of plagiarism include turning in another student’s paper and claiming it as one’s own work, having someone else write one’s assignment, or copying and pasting sections of text and passing them off as one’s own ideas. These forms of plagiarism are clear-cut examples of academic dishonesty and must be dealt with appropriately.

Unintentional Plagiarism is less nefarious and may provide us with a teaching opportunity. The ability to find and select relevant and reliable scholarly sources; successfully incorporate those sources (including deciding whether to use direct quotations from the source or paraphrase the ideas) to support a coherent and cogent argument; and properly cite those sources according to the style guide of the course discipline can be daunting for students who haven’t practiced these skills. Many students have been ‘taught’ these academic skills, but because they are skills, students need to practice them to be proficient. 

This is particularly true of students who are non-native speakers of English. Many second language learners may struggle with paraphrasing scholarly sources or understanding how citations and sources function within the formation of an academic argument. Therefore, successful integration of sources into their writing may be more challenging. 

Strategies to Prevent Plagiarism 

As a former writing instructor, I have learned it’s important not to make assumptions about what students are able to do with regards to using scholarly sources. Just because they were ‘taught’ how to use sources and citations before doesn’t mean they are necessarily proficient at it. It is a skill that has to be practiced.  For those of us who have spent many years in university, both as students and teachers, citing sources has become so integral to what we do that we often take it for granted. For our students, this may not be the case. Providing students with resources and opportunities to practice is important. 

Some specific strategies and resources to help students are: 

  • Clearly define what you mean by plagiarism. For many of our students it may not be clear what constitutes plagiarism or what is considered appropriate use of sources or citations. 
  • Providing students with models of writing that incorporate and integrate sources and citations effectively. These examples should model the kinds of work and scholarship you require from your students for the course. Using peer-reviewed articles as examples may not be helpful to students.
  • Require rough drafts. Writing is developmental, and breaking up the writing assignment or research project into parts allows you to check in with students and give feedback. This ensures they are on the right track and eliminates surprises when the final paper is submitted. If for example the assignment is worth 20 points, break up and distribute the points for the assignment to each step or submission.
  • Incorporating annotated bibliography into the assignment. Annotated bibliographies  ensures that students have engaged with the texts and are able to paraphrase and/or summarize the ideas of the authors. Paraphrasing and summarizing are advanced linguistic and cognitive skills. These skills can be particularly troublesome for second-language learners.
  • Use plagiarism tools such as Safe Assign as educational resources rather than just detection tools. Safe Assign is integrated in Blackboard and is a useful tool for instructors to check to see if a paper is original or has been plagiarized. However, Safe Assign can also be a learning tool. You can allow students to use these tools to check for plagiarism in their own papers before submitting them to you. This allows them to see if they inadvertently left out a citation or failed to paraphrase or quote a source.
  • Inform students of support services. There are university  resources available to students as well. These include The Writing Center, Academic Success and Tutoring Center, and Stony Brook University Libraries just to name a few.

If you have questions or would like to discuss with one of our instructional designers ways to incorporate these strategies in your course(s), please contact us at celt@stonybrook.edu.

Engaging Students in an Online Math Course During the Pandemic

Assessment, Educational Technologies, Online Learning, , ,

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part blog series on choosing the right technology for your teaching needs. In this blog post, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Moira Chas, discusses her experience with finding a way to engage her students during synchronous online lectures. Look for the second blog post by CELT Instructional Designer and Technologist, Jennifer Jaiswal, who will describe how to select the appropriate technology. Email CELT@stonybroook.edu to get a consultation with an instructional designer who can work with you to choose the right tools for your teaching goals.

Dr. Moira ChasMoira Chas, Associate Professor, Mathematics 

Image courtesy of Moira Chas, who is seen in her office with some of the crocheted models she has created to illustrate ideas in topology.

Before the terrible pandemic that turned our worlds upside-down and inside-out, (or better said, outside-in), I used to teach by walking incessantly around the classroom, asking many questions and trying to read in the faces of the students whether they had arrived at the answers. I peeked at the pages they were writing, and if I found cell phones on desks I would point out how unproductive these gadgets can make us. I often brought to the classroom as many “math toys” as possible to make mathematical ideas tangible.  

Chinese abacus
A Chinese Abacus/Shieldforyoureyes from Wikimedia Commons

I remember the last class I taught in person in March 2020: It was about Mathematics in Ancient China. (I was teaching a course in History of Mathematics.) I distributed a few abaci and advised the students not to share them. (It felt terrible to have to recommend such a thing. Normally, I would have them working in groups with all hands on the abacus). The week after, we entered the Zoom-universe. It was hard to lecture there, but at least I was talking to students with whom I had established a connection before becoming a face on their screens. 

The next semester, for reasons that I will spare you, I decided to be a virtual instructor. A significant challenge I experienced was in replicating the immediate interaction of physically being in the same room with my students as they solved problems. I needed a tool that would allow me to conduct polls and to pose open-ended questions in real time while I conducted synchronous online lectures for my courses, which typically have an enrollment of 35 students.

I investigated several platforms, including Slido, Mentimeter, TurningPoint, and Poll Everywhere. In all these platforms, students can type written answers to questions through a web browser. Instructors can see the answers and share them, if they so desire, with the whole class during a synchronous online meeting.

Stony Brook University supports the use of TurningPoint, where each student pays a fee for a license. Currently, the cost is about $10 for a five-month term. One benefit of using TurningPoint is that the student responses can be connected to the Grade Center in Blackboard. For options that result in no extra cost to students, Stony Brook instructors can use Google Forms, but I found this a bit “less interactive.” Google Docs and Google Slides are platforms where students write in a “live” document (In Slides, the instructor can prepare a set of identical slides and assign a group of students to each slide for a problem-solving activity in real time). Zoom also has a polling tool that instructors can use for real time interaction during a meeting. Lastly, Zoom has the chat tool, which also allows for immediate interactivity during a synchronous meeting. 

After exploring all the options, I decided to pay for my own subscription to Poll Everywhere. This tool helped me simulate the real time human interaction of being in the same physical space with students. In fact, this tool proved so valuable that I am planning to keep using it after the pandemic is behind us.

This is how I used it. When teaching during a synchronous meeting, I started a typical lesson with a greeting and  a word cloud that was generated by the students’ answers to a question like, “write down a word that describes how you feel”, or “tell us something you gained and something you lost because of COVID”  I tried to acknowledge the hardship of the moment and, to remind us of hope. 

During the rest of the lecture I would never talk for more than 10 minutes without having the students participate in some way. For instance, when we studied how Ancient Egyptians measured geometric figures, I asked students to answer one of the following questions: “What does measuring a segment mean?” or  “How do you measure a segment?”   At that point in the course, Egyptians were discovering mathematical concepts and I wanted my student to put themselves in the experience of discovery. After reading some answers, I gave my own, or shared some of the students’ responses. I explained why certain answers were inappropriate. Then I asked, “What does it mean to find the area of a plane shape?” Finally, I gave concrete examples of Ancient Egyptian problems where shapes are measured. 

The School of Athens
File:Scuola_di_atene_23.jpg, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Another frequent activity was having the students read a paragraph and explain what it means. For instance, it is said that when the ruler Ptolemy asked Euclid whether there was a way of learning geometry faster than reading The Elements, a 13-book mathematical treatise, Euclid answered: “There is no royal road to geometry.” Then I asked students to write what they thought Euclid meant. 

Sometimes I asked for educated guesses on topics where students were unlikely to know the answer. After a discussion, I would pose the same question again. I tried to use Zoom breakout rooms for group activities, but I did not manage to do it in a productive way. I would often visit a breakout room and find the students in complete silence. Some students expressed frustration at the lack of participation by their classmates.

Every time a beautiful math idea appeared in front of us (and there are so many!) I would point it out and emphasize how lucky we were to be studying such wonders. 

At the end of each lecture, students wrote up a short summary of the lecture and submitted it through the Poll Everywhere tool. However, this could be done with another tool or through Blackboard, which is the learning management system supported by Stony Brook University.

Overall, I think all of us learned about math history and about each other. Reading the students’ answers to my open-ended questions was like visiting their minds, in a way sometimes more effective than my “face reading” during the in-person lectures. Mostly because I could read the answers one by one, (and when reading a whole bunch of faces it is easy to miss a few), and also because all students answered (and words are often more explicit than faces). 

Two books have helped, taught, and inspired me during this time of teaching during the pandemic: James M. Lang’s Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning and Dan Levy’s Teaching Effectively with Zoom: A Practical Guide to Engage Your Students and Help Them Learn. Lang has also many useful essays in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

While I write these last words, the students of last semester come to my mind, and I find it hard to believe that I miss them even though I never met most of them in person. This was my first all-virtual teaching semester, and despite all the turmoil of the time we are living in, to my surprise, I enjoyed almost every minute of the experience.

Dr. Chas and Dr. Alan Kim are facilitating the SBU Faculty Writing Group, which meets on Fridays from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. starting on Feb. 5 through April 30, 2021. Register at this link. The Faculty Writing Group is sponsored and supported by the CELT’s Faculty Commons.

Incorporating Simple Formative Assessment Strategies to Improve Learning and Teaching  

Assessment

Troy Priest  Troy Priest, Senior Instructional Designer

Faculty spend a lot of time creating and grading assessments while providing students feedback on their performance. These can include projects, papers, presentations, exams, and quizzes, and are an integral part of teaching and learning 

formative vs. summative assessment
Formative vs Summative
by @bryanMMathers
is licensed under CC-BY-ND

Summative assessments measure how well students have achieved the course learning outcomes; they make sure that the courses and the students have met the rigorous standards of the programs objectives; and they ensure that when students graduate from Stony Brook University, they are qualified and credentialed within their discipline and major. These are assessments of student learning and are typically what we think about when deciding on how to assess students. 

Formative assessments are often low stakes (or no stakes) assessments or activities that provide feedback to students and faculty in order to better understand what students have learned, but more importantly what they still need to learn or are struggling to comprehend and/or master. They refer to a variety of assessment methods that faculty and students can use to identify what students have learned as well as address any gaps. These are assessments for student learning and their importance can often be overlooked. 

Below are a few simple, formative assessment techniques, most of which can be facilitated and managed by using tools such as Blackboard, Google, or Qualtrics. These suggestions are techniques that are easily implemented and do not require any significant course or assessment redesign.

Assessing formatively before the class

It is useful that we gauge what our students know coming into a course or lesson. Assessing students’ background knowledge helps the instructor to know what content and concepts may need extra emphasis and attention. A background knowledge probe is a short and simple questionnaire that gauges students’ background knowledge on and assumptions about a topic or unit. This can be done prior to the start of the course or unit or could be done at the beginning of a class. 

Assessing formatively during class

In-class assessments provide instant feedback on students’ understanding of material being presented in class. These can include ‘low-stakes’ or ‘no-stakes’ assessments using a polling tool (Turning Technologies clickers, Zoom polls, Google forms, etc.) or an in-class chat tool  (Zoom chat, Google chat, Google Docs, etc.) where faculty can ask questions and gauge what students understand (or don’t) in real time.  

Real-time, in-class formative assessments can be very powerful when lecturing by allowing instructors to adapt and respond to students’ questions as they arise. 

Assessing formatively at the end of class

Quick formative assessments at the end of the class can not only help faculty gauge their students’ learning and mastery of the content, it can also provide them with feedback on how well the lesson or lecture hit the mark. They can also help faculty identify if their assumptions about students’ understanding, experiences, and expectations of the content were correct. Some examples include:

  • One minute papers where students spend only one minute reflecting on a question or concept and summarizing what they have learned or what is unclear.
  • Critical incident questionnaires where students are given five-question surveys at the end of class to reflect on points in the class that were most helpful, most confusing, and most surprising. 
  • Muddiest points where students write short, simple reflections about what they found to be most confusing or most unclear points during class. 

Assessing formatively outside of class

A great way to understand what students have learned or what they are still struggling with is by asking questions through reflection. Some examples using tools available in Blackboard include: 

  • Discussion boards where students can reflect on their learning by responding to open-ended questions and each other. 
  • Journals where students maintain reflections of their learning, ponder unclear points, and make connections. This feature also allows instructors to respond and give feedback on students’ posts.

These are just a few, easily implemented formative assessment techniques that any instructor could implement in their courses. However, if you would like to explore these further or rethink your course or assessment strategies, please contact an assessment specialist or instructional designer in CELT for a consultation. 

Strategies for Shortened Terms

Instructional Design, Online Learning, , , ,

 Linda UngerLinda Unger, Senior Instructional Designer

Preparing your online course for winter term? Worried about how to maintain the academic rigor without overwhelming yourself and your students?

Here are some strategies for shortened terms that might help.

Course Design Tips:

  • Organize your content into topical modules, rather than “weeks.” For example, in the fall semester each week might consist of 1 topic, but you can easily double or triple up on topics to teach in winter or summer. 
  • For modules with more than one topic, you can provide students with a choice in topics and have them present to the whole group so students are learning from each other and covering more than one facet of the course.
  • If you use Blackboard’s Date Restrictions to reveal new content in stages, consider overlapping dates so students can work slightly ahead. For example, if module 2 normally ends on Sunday night, you can open module 3 on Saturday instead of Monday.
girl looking at laptop chewing pencil
Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

Assessment/Feedback: 

  • Consider using frequent quizzes, short one-paragraph “checks for understanding,” or discussion boards  to help students gauge their own progress.
  • Grade assignments quickly so that students have the benefit of your feedback before it’s too late  to improve their performance.

Workload: 

  • Use an online workload calculator to get a handle on how realistic your expectations are, especially for a winter or summer term. Then think about whether you can trim anything while keeping the essentials of the course. 
  • The New York Department of Education has some guidelines for determining time on task.

Does everything in a regular 14-week term need to be identical in a 6- week or 3-week? Might it be counterproductive in an accelerated term? Can anything be omitted? Try this filtering process for examining the course content*:

Filtering Content

One to two weeks before the course starts:

  • Prepare and send out your syllabus as a Word/PDF attachment. This gives students a chance to buy books and get a jump start on the readings. It also sets the tone for an accelerated term.
  • Send out a link to a welcome video where you briefly introduce yourself and your course. Here’s an example. 
  • Allow students to post an introduction in the discussion board or VoiceThread so they can get to know their classmates.
  • Open the Blackboard site early** so students can access your lectures and other materials. Make the assignment dues dates explicit. You’d be surprised to know that experienced online students will take advantage of this.
  • Cheerlead! Use the Announcements tool in Blackboard to encourage your students to log in early and often. Post an announcement and send it to students’ email addresses. Tell them how much you want them to succeed in the course.

 

*Description of Filtering Content image

**Note: Blackboard will be down for critical system maintenance from December 27, 2020 – January 4, 2021. Consider emailing some readings, etc. to the students with your syllabus so they can get started prior to Blackboard’s availability. While Blackboard is unavailable, you can download a list of your student’s emails from SOLAR.