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Course Design

Course Design. Rachel Beane, Karen Kortz, Kathleen Surpless. Chuck Bailey photo. With material from Heather Macdonald, David McConnell, Barb Tewksbury, Karl Wirth & Richard Yuretich. One Course Design Process. Consider course context Articulate goals Design activities

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Course Design

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  1. Course Design Rachel Beane, Karen Kortz, Kathleen Surpless Chuck Bailey photo With material from Heather Macdonald, David McConnell, Barb Tewksbury, Karl Wirth & Richard Yuretich

  2. One Course Design Process • Consider course context • Articulate goals • Design activities • Plan assessment & feedback course context Figure modified from D. McConnell http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/index.html

  3. Focus on one of your courses

  4. Consider course context • Undergraduate? Graduate? • Majors course? • Required? Elective? • Class size? • What format? • Lecture only • Lecture and lab • Studio • Project-based • Flipped • Who are the students? • What do they want to learn? • What prior knowledge or misconceptions might they have? • How do they learn? Photo by C. Ormand, serc.carleton.edu

  5. Course context: Studio format • Students alternate between short, hands-on activities and short lecture or other forms of instruction • Some Benefits: • Switching activities frequently means less tuning out of lecture or lab-fatigue • Students receive information as they need it and immediately use the information to reinforce learning • Active students means more engagement • Some Challenges: • Scheduling longer periods and/or lab space • Students process information and complete activities at different speeds • Students may resist move away from lecture (and passive learning)

  6. Course context: Project-based format • “Learning by doing” • Course material (content and skills) delivered through one or more projects instead of lectures, labs, and exams • Lecture may still happen, but directly related to project • Projects engage students in investigation – textbook becomes one of many resources • Can create a hybrid model that includes projects but is not 100% Problem Based Learning

  7. Course context: Flipped-class format • Students "listen to lecture" at home and do "homework" in the classroom • The instructor creates mini-lectures and assigns book readings for students to do at home • Class time is used for the active application of that information • Some Benefits • Students learn better through active engagement • Students can get the most feedback and help when they need it, as they are solving problems • Some Challenges • Students may resist moving away from lecture • Students may not prepare adequately for class

  8. Course context: Students’ approach Novices Experts From K. Wirth with data from Schoenfeld(1987) Mathematical Problem Solving

  9. Experts’ approach • What kind of problem is this? • What is the best strategy for solving it? • How will I know if I solved it? • How could I do it better next time? • What additional information do I need? • What use is this new information? • How can I use my new understanding to solve different kinds of problems? From K. Wirth with information from Schoenfeld (1987)

  10. Teaching Styles • How do you like to teach? Why do you teach? • How do you want to interact with your students? • What do you find most satisfying when you teach? • How flexible are you?

  11. Designing a Course • Consider course context • Articulate goals for the course • Overarching goals • Ancillary goals • Design activities • Plan assessment & feedback course context

  12. Goals-based approach • Emphasizes designing a course in which students • Learn significant content and skills • Practice thinking for themselves and solving problems in discipline • Leave prepared to apply knowledge and skills in future • Sets goals that • Are student centered • Involve higher-order thinking skills • Can be assessed (through problem sets, papers, exams…)

  13. Goals: Student-centered • Student-centered • What will they learn? • Content-centered • What will I cover? Photo by S. Fox, serc.carleton.edu

  14. Goals: Student-centered • Student-centered • What will they learn? • Content-centered • What will I cover? Example: I want to teach students about geologic history.

  15. Goals: Student-centered • Student-centered • What will they learn? • Content-centered • What will I cover? Example: I want to teach students about geologic history.

  16. Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge Focus on goals that involve higher-order thinking skills Bloom’s Taxonomy Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) Evaluation

  17. Goals: Focus on higher order thinking derive, predict, analyze, design, interpret, synthesize, formulate, plan, correlate, evaluate, create, critique, adapt Example: I want to teach students about geologic history. Please rework the above goal such that it is a student-centered goal that focuses on higher order thinking.

  18. Goals: Focus on higher order thinking derive, predict, analyze, design, interpret, synthesize, formulate, plan, correlate, evaluate, create, critique, adapt Example: I want to teach students about geologic history. Reworked: Students will synthesize the geologic history of the Virginia coastal plain. course context

  19. Overarching Goals What do you want students to be able to do as a result of having taken your course? • What do you do? • What kinds of problems do you want students to be able to tackle? • How might students apply what they have learned? • How will they be different at the end of the course? Photo by C. Field

  20. Consider your course… What are the overarching goals? For the goals, consider “When students have completed my course, I want them to be able to…”

  21. Review overarching goals • Does the goal focus on higher order thinking? (e.g. derive, predict, analyze, design, interpret, synthesize, formulate, plan, correlate, evaluate, create, critique, adapt) • Is the goal student-focused? • Could you design an activity/assignment that would allow you to determine whether students have met the goal or not? (does the goal have "measurable outcomes”?)

  22. Ancillary goals • Skills • Reading the professional literature • Working in teams • Writing and quantitative skills • Critically assessing information from the web • Laboratory technique • Self-teaching, peer teaching, oral presentation • ……. Practicing oral presentations, www.bowdoin.edu, academic spotlight

  23. Course design: activities and assignments • Consider course context • Articulate goals • Design activities and assignments Students learn when they are actively engaged in practice, application, and problem solving (NRC, 1999 How People Learn) • Plan assessment & feedback course context

  24. Designing Activities Consider whether an activity or assignment… • has an effective "hook" that engages students? • places new knowledge, tasks, and experiences into the context of what students already know? • requires students to synthesize, discuss, extend, or reflect on what they have learned? • meets the stated goals? • has a way to assess whether students have met the goals? 5 E’s approach: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate Bybee, 1989

  25. Designing Activities Often many ways to design activities to meet a goal. If I want students to be able to analyze map data, I might: • Prepare a Gallery Walk of maps around the classroom • Ask a series of directed questions about a map (in lecture or as homework) • Have students prepare clay models of topo maps and share them with the class • Ask students to complete an interpretative cross-section during lab • Have students prepare a map of their hometown using GIS and identify possible hazards Provide repeated opportunities to practice, with feedback.

  26. Interactive Activities Gallery Walk introducing REE in 30 person, non-majors course. Photo by Kevin Travers, Bowdoin College. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/toolkit.html Gallery Walk Think-pair-share Project Lecture Tutorial Debate Jigsaw Concept Map …

  27. Jigsaw From Barbara Tewksbury http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/teaching_methods/jigsaws/index.html

  28. Jigsaw Examples • Plate tectonics. Teams analyze earthquake, volcano, seafloor age, and topography data maps, then combine to draw plate boundaries and interpret processes. • Google Earth. Each team analyzes different locations that show similar features (e.g., barrier islands, folds, valley glaciers, volcanic cones, etc.), then combine to discuss similarities and differences of the feature. http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/jigsaws/examples.html

  29. Concepts 2 D diagrams and with Named Links are Concept Maps Allow students to learn by Allow faculty to Synthesizing Assess student learning and Integrating By seeing how Students connect topics http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assess/conceptmaps.html

  30. Designing Activities Often many ways to design activities and assessments to meet a goal. Start early; allow yourself time to think of ideas. For a start… What are several activities that you might design to meet one of the overarching goals you wrote for your course? course context

  31. Individually, read one of the scenarios. • 2. As a table, discuss the problems.

  32. To promote characteristics of self-regulated learners • and experts, we should guide students in metacognition. Metacognition is broadly defined as thinking about thinking. For students, this can be “learning to learn.”

  33. Teaching students metacognitive approaches Three basic steps to teaching students metacognition: Teach students that their ability to learn can be changed 2. Teach planning and goal-setting 3. Give students opportunities to monitor their learning and adapt as necessary Summarized from Lovett, 2008, Educause Learning Initiative Conference http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/metacognition/index.html

  34. Designing activities to support metacognition • Think Aloud • Questioning • Reciprocal Teaching • Reading Reflections • Wrappers • … http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/metacognition/tactics.html

  35. Reading Reflections • What is the main point of this reading? • What did you find surprising? Why? • What did you find confusing? Why? Example from K. Wirth http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/metacognition/activities/27560.html • Why is the research significant? • What is the main argument of the paper? • What is the evidence? • How are the data presented and why? • Are the assumptions reasonable? • Are the interpretations consistent with what we know? • Could alternative hypotheses be derived from the data? Example questions developed by Rose, Sablock, Jones, Mogk, Wenk, Davis at 2008 workshop, The Role of Metacognition in Teaching Geoscience http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/metacognition/group_tactics/28890.html

  36. Research Project Wrapper • What did you learn about research & about minerals through this project? • What did you learn about your own research habits and preferences? • When were you excited and/or frustrated during the project? • If you did a similar project in the future, would you approach the project the same or differently? I really like that you have us write these reflections for all of the projects throughout the semester and similarly with the lectures. It makes me appreciate and understand everything that I did and learned. Example from R. Beane upper-level “Research in Mineral Science” course Student comment at the end of her reflection.

  37. Exam Wrapper • Approximately how much time did you spend preparing for this exam? • 2. What percentage of your time was doing the following: • Reading textbook sections for the first time • Rereading textbook sections • Practicing problems • Reviewing notes • Reviewing class materials • Other (specify) • 3. After reviewing your graded exam, estimate the percentage of points lost due to the following: • Lack of understanding the concept • Not knowing how to approach the question/problem • Carelessness • Other • 4. Based on your responses above, how do you plan to prepare differently for the next exam? Modified from S. Ambrose et al., 2011, How Learning Works

  38. Assessment • Consider course context • Articulate goals • Design activities • Plan assessment & feedback • Formative assessment • Summative assessment course context

  39. Formative Assessment: Minute Paper Minute-Paper/Muddiest Point/Daily Check-In • Assesses gaps in student comprehension • Facilitates student reflection which increases retention • What was the most important thing you learned in today’s class? • What question do you have about today’s class? • What would you like to learn more about?

  40. Examine the map and answer the question that follows. X,Y, and Z represent continental lithosphere, the blank areas represent oceanic lithosphere. How many plates are present? a. 3 b. 4 c. 5 d. 6 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/teaching_methods/conceptests/examples/numbers.html

  41. Formative Assessment: ConcepTest • Conceptual multiple-choice question • Focuses on one key concept of lesson • Rapid formative assessment • Can be paired with peer-instruction http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/teaching_methods/conceptests/index.html

  42. Summative Assessment: 2-stage cooperative exam • Goal: Exam is learning experience where students work problems & understand the process of their reasoning • Method: Students take exam first individually, then again collaboratively • Grading: Weighted average of individual and collaborative components Photo by Mark Leckie. http://nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/Yuretich_v49n2p111.pdf http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer2011/cooperative_exams.html

  43. Summative Assessment: Rubrics "Learning increases when learners have a sense of what they are setting out to learn, a statement of explicit standards they must meet and a way of seeing what they have learned." Loaker, Cromwell and O'Brien (1986) Rubrics improve consistency & efficiency when grading. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assess/rubrics.html

  44. Assessment http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/assess/types.html

  45. Context for Today’s Sessions • Articulate goals when designing courses • Design & adapt activities and assessments with goals in mind • Design activities to foster self-regulation & help students “learn to learn” • Expand your “toolbox” of teaching & assessment strategies

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