Simulation Modelling Tool EJS — Paul Kates

Simulation Modelling Tool EJS

EJS (Easy Java Simulations) is an active, open-source software project designed for instructors and students to graphically model differential equations.

It allows selecting graphical display elements like graphs, input elements like sliders and parameter variable boxes and output animation elements
to build a simulation of a differential equation model with little to no programming. Equation solvers are built in, as are the basic user interface elements that can be so time-consuming to add into programs.  Should you wish to go beyond the basic features of the software, optional programming in Java can be added. Continue reading Simulation Modelling Tool EJS — Paul Kates

The Teaching Excellence Academy – Veronica Brown

I have been staring at the computer screen trying to decide what to tell you about the Teaching Excellence Academy (TEA). The TEA is a four-day course design workshop held each year in April. At first, I thought I would share some interesting facts with you.

  • The TEA has been completed by over 100 participants during the past eight years.
  • Members of all six Faculties and all four affiliated colleges have attended.
  • Each year, there are six facilitators including two TEA alumni (thus far, 10 faculty members have returned as facilitators).
  • Participants include new faculty, mid-career, and senior faculty members.

Then, I thought, perhaps I could talk about what we do at the TEA. The workshop covers key topics in course design focused on creating an “aligned” course. On the first day, we explore the content and concepts of your course as well as the context in which you are teaching (e.g., class size, level, core/elective/service, TA support, other resources, etc.). Based on the content, concepts, and context, you create learning outcomes for the course on Day 2. Finally, in an aligned course, the teaching methods, learning activities, and assessments are related to these outcomes. We explore these areas on Day 3 and finish the workshop with the creation of a new course outline on Day 4, which is shared at the celebration in the afternoon of Day 4. Continue reading The Teaching Excellence Academy – Veronica Brown

Signposting and Lectures — Monica Vesely

What is signposting? It refers to all of those rhetorical phrases and devices which are used in spoken discourse primarily to help the listener understand the structure of what is being listened to. In other words, a signpost is a device used to indicate what direction you are travelling in a lecture. It lets your students know what is coming up, and positions them to accept what you are saying. Continue reading Signposting and Lectures — Monica Vesely

IF-AT First You Don’t Succeed….

students working in group

For the first fifteen minutes the class was quiet, heads studiously bent over their papers as individual quizzes were taken. The only sound in the room, our footsteps as we moved about placing one card in front of each group of 4 students. When Professor Kelly Grindrod announced “Okay, 15 more minutes to do the cards in your groups”, the class erupted into: noisy chatter; intense discussion; whoops of joy and high fives; an occasional groan of dismay. Moving about the classroom this time it was invigorating listening to the students discuss their chosen answers, argue their opinions, and reasoning together as they worked to reach consensus on which answer was correct and thus which box to scratch. The energy was palpable.

So what were they doing? What caused this classroom transformation? The students were completing the same quiz that they had just done individually but this time as a group, checking their answers by scratching boxes on cards called IF-AT. The IF-AT (Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique) produced by Epstein Educational Enterprises  is a multiple-choice assessment and learning tool in which students scratch the box corresponding to their chosen answer and know immediately if that answer was correct. At first glance it looks a little bit like a scratch-and-win lottery ticket admittedly; if used thoughtfully by students – not at all. If an incorrect choice is made immediate feedback (no star in the box) is received. The students then have the opportunity to re-think, and in the case of Kelly’s class re-discuss, re-convince, re-argue, and then attempt again. Full marks are achieved for the first correct answer and progressively lower partial marks for subsequent attempts. In the class that I observed students actively and interactively worked  to discuss and understand the question principle before attempting again.

While collecting the individual quizzes and IF-AT cards at the end of the second 15 minutes I had a chance to chat with a number of the students. Some found it stressful, others found it less so than a “regular” quiz, but all agreed that the IF-AT format of quizzing was a great deal of fun (it was a low stakes 2.5% quiz). Being from a Teaching Centre, I just had to ask how they felt these quizzes affected their learning. Every student I spoke to said that, yes, they thought it helped them learn; noting the discussion, taking the time to really think about the problems and the immediate feedback. Incidentally, that is exactly what Dr. David DiBattista (the multiple choice exam guru from Brock U) and colleagues have reported in their studies.

What most struck me though was that these students were having fun! Fun, engaged, learning – seems good to me!

 

DiBattista, D. (2005). The Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique: A learner-centered multiple-choice response form. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 35, 111-131.

F is for Facebook — Shirley Hall, CTE Research Associate

Recently on a snowy “work from home” day, my 15-year-old son received an assignment from his high school teacher via Facebook.  I was immediately envious that his teacher was able to communicate with him in this way. (My attempts at communicating with my son using ‘old school’ methods, such as talking to him face to face — or should I say f2f? — are typically met with blank stares). My only recent successes have come from updating my cell phone to a model that I can ‘text’ from, so now he will text me back, so I now have a slightly better handle on the everyday happenings in his life. That his teacher was communicating through Facebook seemed ‘cool’ (or should I say ‘sick’?) and I must confess that I was a little miffed that his teacher could enjoy the casual banter of a Facebook post, whereas I had to be satisfied with my rather stilted and formal texting. At least there was a connection of sorts through our phones.

I started to wonder if it might be viable for me to make use of this form of social media for connecting with my own students. I would like to connect like this, quite frankly, because I get that it is, as Wakefield suggests, “where students are”.  (see below for Kirk Wakefield’s February 27 article in Faculty Focus, the oniine version of The Teaching Professor, where he discusses aspects of the use of Facebook with his students.) Although my intentions are good, when contemplating this idea further, I instantly feel at a disadvantage. A large part of the reason that I feel this way is because I do not know the language of Facebook. For me it would be like wandering around in a foreign country without my Fodor’s. (There I go dating myself again, as I realize there are now ‘apps’ one can have on their cellphone that will instantly tell you your location via GPS as well as translating any language for you). Although I like the idea of connecting with my students within their realm, I fear there are likely protocols that need to be followed. For instance, are there Facebook “faux pas” ? I realize that the accepted communication style of Facebookers is not within my current vocabulary. (I might get an “F” in Facebooking). So, as unfounded as my fears might seem (phobias?) I hesitate to venture into this uncharted territory for fear of being chastised.

I also wondered if other instructors might feel the same way as I do, and thought how nice it would be to be able to ‘connect’ with one another and perhaps even have one of my peers walk me gingerly through the Fundamentals of Facebooking. I have yet to find a Facebook 101 offering, but would be happy to attend if one materializes. Let me know if you “like” this idea, and perhaps we can start a discussion of our own regarding the merits of using Facebook in the classroom. Of course, I would prefer to meet you f2f, preferably over a cup of coffee.

__________
1. Should Professors use Facebook to Communicate with Students? Faculty Focus, www.facultyfocus.com by Kirk Wakefield, Edwin W. Streetman, Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University.

Make Your Lecture Memorable! — Arash Shahi

I recently ran two workshops on Creating Memorable Lectures and in preparing and running the workshops I have learned quite a bit, mostly from Richelle Monaghan who had ran this workshop in the past, which may be of possible interest to those who want to be remembered by their students long after their student-instructor contract has expired! There is a lot of research about memory and cognition and as educators it seems appropriate to be aware of what assists individuals with memory and recall. This also includes higher levels of conceptual understanding because fundamental knowledge needs to be accessible in order to use the information for levels such as analysis and synthesis.

One way to categorize memory is short-term versus long-term memory. Essentially you can think of your short term memory as a “supped-up” white board in your mind. We all know what a white board is….. but I say “supped-up” , so visualize a windshield wiper attachment on the bottom of the white board. All incoming information is put on your short-term memory white board (so to speak) but this information is not creating neural mechanisms in your brain for later recall. Just imagine that every 2-30 seconds (depending on the situation but the average is 18 seconds), the wiper will clear the information in your short-term memory!

The ONLY way in which you’ll have this information for later recall is if this information is “filed” so to speak in your long term memory. So picture yourself with a clipboard, actively selecting what information is important and/or meaning full for you to write down and file into filing cabinet. In my workshops, I covered a number of tools that could be used for moving the content from the whiteboard to your filing cabinets! The ones I found effective were the use of mnemonic, novelties, chunking, rehearsal and elaboration! I’d like to chat briefly here about “elaboration”.

Imagine that your spouse phones and asks if you can pick up 5 things from the grocery store on the way home. When you get off the phone, you simply review the list the way in which it was said to you over the phone “milk, carrots, bread, oranges, eggs”. This is called rehearsal or simply maintenance. Elaborative processing or rehearsal takes the form of attention to meaning. This attention to meaning is called deep processing. Many studies have shown that deep processing leads to good memory performance later on EVEN WITHOUT the intention of memorizing the target material. The intention to learn had no direct effect on performance; what matters instead is how someone engages or thinks about the material to be remembered.

So returning to the grocery list… Some people may prefer to categorize the food in terms of meals. For example they may view milk, bread, eggs and oranges as breakfast food…. some people may think more in colours with 3 white foods (milk, bread, eggs) 2 orange foods (carrots and oranges), …. or others may think of what those foods are for (Think of breakfast tomorrow and packing lunch for your son tomorrow). In any case, changing the grocery list to have meaning is called elaborative rehearsal and allows for deep processing and long-term memory recall. This was only one of the techniques I looked at and my intention here was to get you thinking about these techniques and hopefully you’ll look into them yourself and see which technique works best for the topics from your discipline!

 

“Why we’re making you take these courses” – Mary Robinson, Associate Director of First Year Engineering

“Why are you making me take this course?”  As a teacher, I hate this question.  But, I must confess that I posed it several times during my undergraduate years.  The answer that I got from my parents, friends, and teachers back in the day was the equally as frustrating “because you’ll need it later.” Continue reading “Why we’re making you take these courses” – Mary Robinson, Associate Director of First Year Engineering