My first year at Waterloo was also my first year teaching my own courses. In mid-November I found myself overwhelmed by the task of writing exams for my large second-year political science course. Since I’d never taught the course before, I had no question bank, no old exams to adapt, and not a whole lot of spare time. I struggled to write enough questions to populate my exam, plus a make-up or two. I mentioned this demoralizing state of affairs to Nicola Simmons at a CTE event. Continue reading Letting Your Students Do the Work: Student-Generated Exam Questions – Veronica Kitchen
WikiTaxi: Accessing Wikipedia When You’re Offline – Mark Morton
Tired of not being able to access millions of pages of information while you’re relaxing at the cottage or stricken with insomnia on an eight-hour flight to Istanbul? Frustrated by your inability to settle trivial disputes because the pub where you and your friends are disputing doesn’t have a wireless hotspot? Those pesky scenarios can now be a thing of the past thanks to WikiTaxi, which allows you to download Wikipedia in its entirety — all three million entries — and access them on your laptop, even when the Internet is nowhere to be found. Continue reading WikiTaxi: Accessing Wikipedia When You’re Offline – Mark Morton
More technology in teaching? – Jane Holbrook
I’m spending increasing amounts of time at my computer, and I’m not particularly happy about it. On the days when my hands seem to be permanently glued to my keyboard and my eyes and brain are dulled by the glare on my monitor, I wonder how I can ever recommend to instructors that they try something new that involves technology. I suspect that instructors are also evaluating how much time and effort they are willing to put into aspects of their teaching that require more time logged in front of the screen. Continue reading More technology in teaching? – Jane Holbrook
Credibility and Consulting – Donna Ellis
My once-a-term posting isn’t as contentious as the title may suggest. Yes, it’s about credibility and consulting, but it’s not about “credible consulting”. Rather, the focus is on identifying facets of teachers’ credibility that can help when doing teaching consultations. Having taught public speaking for many years, I’m aware of the power of speaker credibility. If your audience members do not see you as a credible source of information or if you struggle to communicate clearly, they are less likely to be attentive. How might this translate into the teaching context?
Dr. Arletta Bauman Knight, formerly at the University of Oklahoma’s teaching center, developed a model of “teacher credibility” with input from small group consultations with faculty members who wanted to improve their teaching. She based her model on previous writings from the fields of communication and leadership, and labeled the three key components of teacher credibility as: competence, trustworthiness, and dynamism. Teachers who are seen as being competent can explain material well, can answer student questions, and have good classroom management skills. Trustworthiness stems from actions such as giving immediate feedback, providing rational explanations for grading, and not embarrassing students. And dynamic teachers are seen as using various teaching methods, adding their own personality to their classes, and relating positively to students.
The research basis for the model could be more rigorous and more characteristics of credible teachers need to be included, such as ones that help demonstrate a positive attitude towards teaching. However, the model still has merit. It provides a good starting point that can help those doing teaching consultations. Putting the focus on demonstrable teaching behaviours provides a reasonably concrete foundation from which to engage in further explorations or possible changes. When helping someone with their teaching practices, it can sometimes feel like you’re trying to complete a puzzle without knowing if you have all the pieces. A model like Knight’s can provide a framework for doing a thorough analysis and creating as complete a picture as possible.
It’s not just CTE teaching consultants who can use this model, though. Individual teachers can use it when analyzing the open-ended comments on their course evaluations. Or departmental or faculty-wide teaching mentors can also use such a model. At recent meetings with Department Chairs and Faculty Deans, I have been advocating for more such faculty teaching mentors across campus. We can build an even stronger teaching community with more resources and support.
So take a few moments and reflect on your own teaching. How credible are you? Can you find any missing pieces that can help clarify the picture of who you are, or want to be, as a teacher? Let me know if you want to explore this one further.
Plagiarism and Turnitin at UW — Scott Anderson
The plagiarism detection software Turnitin will be available to all University of Waterloo instructors as of September 2009. It was piloted in the winter and spring terms of 2008 by the School of Accounting and Finance. Continue reading Plagiarism and Turnitin at UW — Scott Anderson
On Congress, research and ideas, oh my! – Nicola Simmons
Last week I was in Ottawa at the Canadian Society for Studies in Higher Education conference, part of the much larger Congress for the Social Sciences and Humanities. I wasn’t the only Waterloo attendee, and it was great to see colleagues who were there for their own disciplinary conferences. Continue reading On Congress, research and ideas, oh my! – Nicola Simmons
Flow, and how it helped me create a web resource — Mark Morton
I managed to achieve “flow” this morning. This is not, I should clarify, an admission of prostate problems, but rather a celebration of having achieved a cognitive state so engrossing that several hours passed without my noticing. The notion of flow was originated by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, but it’s a state of mind that we all (hopefully) get to experience from time to time, either in our work or while we’re engaged in a favorite hobby. The key to achieving flow is “just manageable challenge”: that is, the task we are trying to achieve has to be one that is not so easy that it seems routine nor so difficult that it becomes frustrating. Flow exists at the upper edge of our skill set. Continue reading Flow, and how it helped me create a web resource — Mark Morton