DESIGNING COURSES for SIGNIFICANT LEARNING SINCLAIR COMMUNITY COLLEGE

DESIGNING COURSES for SIGNIFICANT LEARNING SINCLAIR COMMUNITY COLLEGE NOVEMBER 8, 2008 Stewart Ross Ph. D. Director Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Minnesota State University

Designing Courses for Significant Learning FOUNDATION KNOWLEDGE: Basic terms and concepts APPLICATION: How to use the model of Integrated Course Design INTEGRATION: Connect ideas from the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (So. TL) with your own work as an educator. HUMAN DIMENSION: Self: Be more confident that you can do this Other: Work with others to create more powerful designs CARING: Identify the value of course design in teaching LEARNING HOW TO LEARN: Know what else you want to learn about (after the workshop)

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Ice Breaker: “A Vision of Today’s Students”

Designing Courses for Significant Learning PARADIGM SHIFT IN COLLEGE TEACHING From: “TEACHING” To: “LEARNING” • What is the difference? • Leads to new questions about our work as teachers.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning PARADIGM SHIFT IN COLLEGE TEACHING From: “TEACHING” To: “LEARNING” • What is the difference? • Leads to new questions about our work as teachers. • WHAT should we be doing?

3 FEATURES OF A HIGH QUALITY LEARNING EXPERIENCE During Course/College: 1. Students are: ENGAGED End of course After College: 2. Student effort results in: SIGNIFICANT & LASTING LEARNING 3. The learning: ADDS VALUE

Designing Courses for Significant Learning PARADIGM SHIFT IN COLLEGE TEACHING From: “TEACHING” To: “LEARNING” • What is the difference? • Leads to new questions about our work as teachers. • WHAT should we be doing? • HOW do students learn?

Designing Courses for Significant Learning HOW DO PEOPLE LEARN? 1. Transmit Knowledge?

Transmission Of Knowledge

Designing Courses for Significant Learning HOW DO PEOPLE LEARN? 1. Transmit Knowledge? 2. Constructivism

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Constructivist View of Learning • We can transmit “INFORMATION. ” • But people have to take that information and CONSTRUCT their own understanding of it, and figure out what they can do with it.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning HOW DO PEOPLE LEARN? 1. Transmit Knowledge? 2. Constructivism 3. Social Constructivism

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Social Constructivism: • We can construct our understanding of anything by ourselves, but. . . • it usually works much better to collaborate and dialogue with others

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Five Minute University “Father Sarducci”

Designing Courses for Significant Learning FUNDAMENTAL TASKS OF TEACHING Knowledge of the Subject Matter Interacting with Students Designing Learning Experiences Managing the Course Beginning of the Course

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Question: What pedagogical problems do you deal with in your teaching? Share them with someone sitting next to you. Share them with the entire group.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning THREE COMMON PROBLEMS: • Lack of Interest: “Students are bored with my class and lose interest quickly. ” • Poor Preparation: “Students don’t do the assigned readings before class. ” • Poor Retention of Learning: “Students do well on the test, but on the next test or in the next course, they seem to forget everything they learned earlier. ”

Designing Courses for Significant Learning THREE COMMON PROBLEMS: • Lack of Interest: “Students are bored with my class and lose interest quickly. ” • Poor Preparation: “Students don’t do the assigned readings before class. ” • Poor Retention of Learning: “Students do well on the test, but on the next test or in the next course, they seem to forget everything they learned earlier. ”

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Lack of Interest 1. Enhance the teacher’s lecturing skills. 2. Use more material from “cutting edge” research. 3. Re-design the course to replace lecturing with more active learning.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Poor Student Preparation 1. Assign more severe penalties for not doing the readings beforehand. 2. Give students a pep talk. 3. Re-design the course to give students a reason to do the readings.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Poor Retention of Learning 1. Make the tests better (or tougher) 2. Require students to complete a refresher course 3. Re-design the course to give students more experience with using what they have learned

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Sinclair Community College Mission: “We help individuals turn dreams into achievable goals through accessible, high quality, affordable learning opportunities. ”

Designing Courses for Significant Learning FACULTY DREAMS • If you had a class that could and would learn anything and everything you wanted them to learn: • What is it that you would really like them to learn?

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Readiness Assessment Test www. epsteineducation. com

Designing Courses for Significant Learning 3 Ways of Designing Courses: 1. “List of Topics” 2. “List of Activities” 3. Need a way of designing courses that is: • Systematic • Integrated • Learning-Centered

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Integrated Course Design: OVERVIEW

INTEGRATED COURSE DESIGN: Key Components Learning Goals Teaching & Learning Activities Situational Feedback & Assessment Factors

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Integrated Course Design: SITUATIONAL FACTORS

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Situational Factors: Collecting information about… • Specific Context • Expectations by people outside the course • Nature of the Subject • Nature of Students • Nature of Teacher

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Situational Factors • Specific Context of the Teaching/Learning Situation – – Number of students Level of course Time structure Delivery: Live – Hybrid – Online • Expectations of Others: – What expectations are placed on this course or curriculum by: • Society? • The University, College and/or the Department? • The Profession?

Designing Courses for Significant Learning • Nature of the Subject – Primarily theoretical, practical, or some combination? – Convergent or divergent? – Important changes or controversies occurring? • Characteristics of the Learners – Their life situation (e. g. , working, family, professional goals)? – Their prior knowledge, experiences, and initial feelings? – Their learning goals, expectations, and preferred learning styles?

Designing Courses for Significant Learning • Characteristics of the Teacher(s) – My beliefs and values about teaching and learning? – My attitude toward: the subject, students? – My teaching skills? – My level of knowledge or familiarity with this subject?

Designing Courses for Significant Learning SPECIAL PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGE Premise: • Every course has a special pedagogical challenge. • The teacher needs to do something about that challenge in the first week (maybe the first day) of class.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Integrated Course Design: LEARNING GOALS

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning Foundational Knowledge

Formulating Significant Learning Goals: Foundational Knowledge • What key information (facts, terms, formula, concepts, relationships) is important for students to understand remember in the future? • What key ideas or perspectives are important for students to understand in this course?

Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning Foundational Knowledge Application

Formulating Significant Learning Goals: Application • What kinds of thinking are important for students to learn in this course? Critical thinking? Creative thinking? Practical thinking? • What important skills do students need to learn? • What complex projects do students need to learn now to manage?

Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning Foundational Knowledge Application Integration

Formulating Significant Learning Goals: Integration • What connections (similarities and interactions) should students recognize and make --Among ideas within the course? --Between the information, ideas & perspectives in this course and those in other courses or areas? --Between material in this course and the students’ own personal, social and work life?

Student Learning Communities • Helps students learn how to integrate different perspectives while focusing on connecting diverse people and disciplines • Links courses so students take a set of courses together, often with team teaching as a strategy • Overcome the isolation of students and subjects from each other

Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning Foundational Knowledge Application Human Dimension Integration

Formulating Significant Learning Goals: Human Dimension • What can or should students learn about themselves? • What can or should students learn about understanding and interacting with others?

Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning Foundational Knowledge Application Caring Human Dimension Integration

Formulating Significant Learning Goals: Caring • What changes would you like to see in what students care about, i. e. , feelings, interests, values?

Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning how to learn Foundational Knowledge Application Caring Human Dimension Integration

Formulating Significant Learning Goals: Learning How To Learning • What would you like for students to learn about: 1. How to be good students in a course like this? 2. How to learn about this particular subject? 3. How to become self-directed learners of this subject, i. e. , having a learning agenda of what they need/want to learn, and a plan for learning?

Taxonomy of Significant Learning How to Learn · Becoming a better student · Inquiring about a subject · Self-directing learners Caring Developing new… · Feelings · Interests · Values Human Dimensions Learning about: · Oneself · Others Foundational Knowledge Understanding and remembering: · Information · Ideas Application · Skills · Thinking: Critical, Creative, & Practical · Managing projects Integration Connecting: ·Ideas ·People ·Realms of life

Taxonomy of Significant Learning

Designing Courses for Significant Learning In a course with significant learning, students will: 1. Understand remember the key concepts, terms, relationship, etc. 2. Know how to use the content. 3. Be able to relate this subject to other subjects. 4. Understand the personal and social implications of knowing about this subject. 5. Value this subject and further learning about it. 6. Know how to keep on learning about this subject, after the course is over.

Sample Learning Goals from an Introductory Psychology Course • Foundational knowledge Explain selected fundamental concepts in psychology in your own words • Application Think like a psychologist by using psychological theories to solve real world problems and engaging in psychological research

Sample Learning Goals from an Introductory Psychology Course cont’d • Integration Relate psychological concepts & theories to your own experience including relationships with others, day-to-day events & experiences, articles & books you have read, and/or talks, films, programs, performances viewed & attended • Human Dimension Identify your strengths & weaknesses as a group member through self reflection & the feedback of other group members

Sample Learning Goals from an Introductory Psychology Course cont’d • Caring Demonstrate the valuing of the psychological perspective in one or more ways including taking further courses in psychology, reading a journal or magazine such as Psychology Today, and/or seeking out talks or films on psychological topics • Learning how to learn Using scoring guides developed by the instructor, analyze your own performance on selected class assignments and develop strategies for improvement

Selected Objectives for Application Goal • Identify various research methods and the types of problems they might best investigate • Distinguish between independent and dependent variables • Read a journal article and identify the various parts of the research study • Use one theory of motivation to analyze a case study concerning a third-grade student and to offer recommendations to the teacher • Participate in an in-class experiment and write up the experiment & results in standard psychological report format • Conduct a qualitative research study in a small group, write up the results in standard psychological report format, & give an oral presentation on the study • Develop an argument for the proper use of psychological testing • Design a psychological assessment instrument

Selected Objectives for Learning How to Learn Goal • Reflect upon prior experiences in school and how they may affect your experience in this class • Identify your entering assumptions about the subject area of the course • Identify personal challenges encountered in doing various classroom exercises and assignments throughout course • Develop strategies to address these challenges • Reflect on your performance in a group alone and with other group members and use to enhance your performance in a small group • Reflect upon the implications of your performance on a personality assessment instrument for yourself as a learner and as a group member • Reflect back on the course to assess how your view of the subject area has changed and how the various activities and assignments contributed to this change

Learning Outcomes for a course on preparing to be a band director – Foundational Knowledge: Knowledge about the various instruments, conducting techniques, etc. – Application: Ability to use conducting techniques, give instruction on multiple musical instruments, etc. – Integration: Ability to integrate individual instruments and players into the whole band or orchestra, the music into the whole school curriculum, etc. – Human Interaction: A clear understanding of themselves as player, teacher and conductor, plus an ability to interact with others - students, parents, administrators, etc. – Caring: An interest and excitement about music and young people, a professional attitude toward their responsibilities. – Learning How to Learn: As novice teachers, a plan to know how to keep on learning how to improve the various abilities required for this profession.

Writing Significant Learning Goals for Your Course • Select one course you teach and experiment writing one learning goal of each type using Fink’s Taxonomy on the three-column table. • As you write the goals, think about the following as a preface for each goal: “By the end of the course, I hope my students will be able to…. ” • Pay attention to the verbs you use; try to make them concrete and specific. Avoid words like “understand, ” “appreciate, ” “be acquainted with”

“Thanks…now I know why I hate classical music”

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Student Learning Communities • Began taking hold in 1990 s • Aids students in integrating different perspectives and disciplines • New kind of interaction between students, faulty, staff, and citizens in community. • Links courses, often with team teaching • Puts the subject “in the center” while teachers and students sit in a circle around the subject, learning together.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Integrated Course Design: FEEDBACK & ASSESSMENT

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Feedback and Assessment: “EDUCATIVE ASSESSMENT” Forward-Looking Assessment Self-Assessment Criteria and Standards “FIDe. Lity” Feedback

Feedback and Assessment: “EDUCATIVE ASSESSMENT” Forward-Looking Assessment Task Criteria and Standards Self-Assessment Feedback

Forward Looking Assessment • Focus on what students should be able to DO in the future. • Students imagine themselves in a situation where people are actually using this knowledge. • Create assignments and tests that require judgment/exploration rather than reciting or restating facts. • Focus on real-life context • Focus assessment on integrated use of skills

Backward Looking Assessment Multiple choice test on what was presented previous three weeks in reading and class: 1. When did J. S. Bach die? a. 1750 b. 1725 c. 1710 d. 1770 2. Which instrument is most unlike the others? a. Violin b. Cello c. Trombone d. Viola

Forward Looking Assessment Concerto Grosso in G major, Op. 6, no. 1 A tempo giusto Allegro Adagio Allegro George Frideric Handel (1685 -1759) Petite Symphonie in Bb (1851) Charles Gounod (1818 -1893) Adagio - Allegretto Andante Cantabile Scherzo: Allegro moderato Duet – Concertino Finale: Allegretto Allegro moderato Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo Michael Rowlett, clarinet Richard Strauss (1864 -1949) Wade Irvin, bassoon

Developing Forward Looking Assessments • Take a few minutes to think about the type of assessments you do in your courses. • Write down a list of forward looking assessments you already use (if any). • Try to think of at least one forward looking assessment you could create for your course. • Share with a partner

Criteria and Standards • Clear and appropriate assessment criteria and standards are necessary. • Develop rubrics when possible and construct a 2 -5 point scale with descriptive statements of good and poor versions of traits • Identify criteria that count in evaluation • Try out scale with a sample of students or colleagues and revise.

Creating Rubrics • Create a “pass/fail” rubric for one learning outcome for the course you are going to create or redesign. • What do students need to do in order to demonstrate a passable level? • How would you add other levels of competence to achieve a rubric of 3 -5 levels of achievement?

Self Assessment • Create multiple opportunities for students to engage in selfassessment of their performance. • Students need to identify relevant criteria for assessing their work and the work of others. • Students need to practice using the criteria for quality on their own work.

7 Principles of FORMATIVE FEEDBACK 1. Facilitate the development of self-assessment (reflection) in learning. E. g. , Request the kinds of feedback students would like when they hand in work. 2. Encourage teacher and peer dialogue around learning. Use one-minute papers about learning, assignments, and feedback. Ask students to identify examples of feedback comments they found particularly helpful. 3. Help clarify what good performance is (the goals, criteria, and standards expected). Provide better definitions of requirements using carefully constructed criteria sheets and performance level definitions.

7 Principles of FORMATIVE FEEDBACK 4. Provide opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance. Increase the number of opportunities for resubmission of work. 5. Deliver high quality information to students about their learning. Relate feedback to predefined criteria. Provide feedback soon after a submission. Provide corrective advice, not just information on strengths/weaknesses. 6. Encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem. Provide opportunities for low-stakes tasks with feedback before giving high-stakes task with grades. Provide grades on written work only after students have responded to feedback comments.

7 Principles of FORMATIVE FEEDBACK 7. Provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape the learning. Have students identify where they are having difficulties when they hand in assessed work. Use anonymous one-minute papers at end of a class session. • Source: Enhancing student learning through effective formative feedback, by C. Juwah, D. Macfarlane-Dick, B. Matthew, D. Nicol, D. Ross, & B. Smith. Higher Education Academy, York, England. June, 2004.

Feedback “Classroom Assessment Techniques” by Angelo and Cross Examples: 1. Muddiest Point—students write down what was least clear to them 2. Minute Paper—helps both students and professor 3. Background Knowledge Probes

Critical Incident Questionnaire -Stephen Brookfield 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. During last 5 minutes of final class of the week students answer the following questions: Most engaged moment as learner Most distanced moment as learner Most helpful action of professor (peer) Most puzzling action of professor (peer) What surprised you most this week? Teacher summarizes answers at the beginning of the first class of the next week

“FIDe. Lity Feedback” • Frequent • Immediate • Discriminating (based on criteria and standards) • Lovingly or supportive approach used

Educative Feedback & Assessment Exercise Situation – You are teaching an “Introduction to Botany” course. You have asked students to design a research project to test a hypothesis about factors affecting plant growth. Application Task – Identify three criteria that would be appropriate for assessing this project.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Integrated Course Design: LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Designing Courses for Significant Learning A MODEL OF ACTIVE LEARNING (The Basic Version)

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Why should all course have some component of active learning? Let’s let Ben Stein help us with that question….

Designing Courses for Significant Learning HOLISTIC ACTIVE LEARNING • Information & Ideas · Primary/Secondary · In-class, out-of-class, online • Experience · Doing, Observing · Actual, Simulated · “Rich Learning Experiences” • Reflection · About the… · Subject · Learning Process · Via: Journaling, Learning Portfolios

Multiple Activities that Promote ACTIVE LEARNING GETTING INFORMATION & IDEAS DIRECT INDIRECT, · Original data · Original sources · Secondary data and sources VICARIOUS · Lectures, textbooks ONLINE · Course website · Internet EXPERIENCE "Doing" REFLECTIVE DIALOGUE, with: "Observing" Self Others · Real Doing, in authentic settings · Direct · Reflective observation thinking · Case studies · Stories · Gaming, Simulations · Role play of phenomena · Journaling · Live dialogue (in or out of class) (can be accessed via: film, literature, oral history) · Teacher can assign students · Students can reflect, and then engage in to "directly experience" … various kinds of · Students can engage in "indirect" kinds of experience dialogue online

HOLISTIC ACTIVE LEARNING: A Case Study In a course on “Leadership for Engineers, ” the teacher does the following: • Begins the course by asking students to think about what leadership means to them, individually and then collectively. • Then the class reads a book or case study about people in leadership positions (e. g. , Abraham Lincoln). • Following this, they re-visit the central question of “What constitutes leadership”? and revise their earlier definition accordingly. • This sequence is repeated throughout the course: – students read something – revisit the central question – read something new – revisit the central question – etc.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Question #1: Which of the three components of holistic active learning does this course include – as described above? (More than one component is possible) 1. Information and Ideas 2. Experience 3. Reflection

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Question #2: How might you strengthen the “Experiential” component?

Designing Courses for Significant Learning RICH LEARNING EXPERIENCES WHAT ARE THEY? • Learning experiences in which students are able to simultaneously acquire multiple kinds of higher level learning. WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES? In-Class: • Debates • Role playing • Simulations • Dramatizations Out-of-Class: • Service learning • Situational observations • Authentic projects

Designing Courses for Significant Learning IN-DEPTH REFLECTIVE DIALOGUE With Whom? • Oneself (journaling, learning portfolios) • Others (teacher, other students, people outside class) About What? • Subject of the Course: • Learning Process: • WHAT am I learning? • HOW do I learn: best, most comfortably, with difficulty, etc. ? • What is the VALUE of what I am learning? • WHAT ELSE do I need or want to learn? Written Forms? • One-minute papers • Weekly journal writing • Learning portfolios (end-of-course, end-of-program)

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Integrated Course Design: INTEGRATION

Criteria of “GOOD” Course Design Significant Learning Goals Integration Teaching and Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Active Learning Educative Assessment SITUATIONAL In-Depth Situational Analysis FACTORS

Designing Courses for Significant Learning INTEGRATING THE COURSE 1. 3 -Column Table 2. Weekly Schedule 3. Teaching Strategy 4. String of Activities

Designing Courses for Significant Learning INTEGRATING THE COURSE 1. 3 -Column Table 2. Weekly Schedule 3. Teaching Strategy 4. String of Activities

3 -COLUMN TABLE: Learning Goals: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Assessment Activities: Learning Activities:

Designing Courses for Significant Learning INTEGRATING THE COURSE 1. 3 -Column Table 2. Weekly Schedule 3. Teaching Strategy 4. String of Activities

Week #: Mon 1 2 3 4. . 12 13 14 15 Wed Fri

Designing Courses for Significant Learning INTEGRATING THE COURSE 1. 3 -Column Table 2. Weekly Schedule 3. Teaching Strategy 4. String of Activities

Designing Courses for Significant Learning TEACHING STRATEGY: • A particular COMBINATION of learning activities… • arranged in a particular SEQUENCE Two Examples: • Problem-based learning • Team-based learning

Designing Courses for Significant Learning “CASTLE-TOP” DIAGRAM: A Tool for Identifying Your TEACHING STRATEGY In-Class Activities: Out-of. Class Activities: Mon Wed ? ? ? Fri Mon Wed Fri Assessm’t & Feedback ?

TEACHING STRATEGIES QUESTION: • This strategy creates a high likelihood that most students will… 1. Be exposed to the content. 2. Understand the content. 3. Be able to use the content. 4. Value the content.

TEACHING STRATEGIES QUESTION: • This strategy creates a high likelihood that most students will… 1. Be exposed to the content. 2. Understand the content. 3. Be able to use the content. 4. Value the content.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning INTEGRATING THE COURSE 1. 3 -Column Table 2. Weekly Schedule 3. Teaching Strategy 4. String of Activities

1. . 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 MONDAY WED. FRIDAY X X X X

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Model of Integrated Course Design Learning Goals Teaching/ Learning Activities Feedback & Assessment Situational Factors

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Integrated Course Design: DOES IT WORK?

Designing Courses for Significant Learning DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Case #1 • Jane Connor, SUNY-Binghamton • Course: Multi-Cultural Psychology • Primary Learning Goal: • To help students learn about – and learn how to interact with – people who are different from themselves

Designing Courses for Significant Learning COURSE DESIGN FEATURES: • CONTENT: Used Readiness Assessment Tests from TBL • STORIES: Had speakers come in (students, people from community) • REFLECTIONS: Both before and after readings; before and after stories • RICH LEARNING EXPERIENCE: • For a 4 -week period, students had to put themselves in contact with someone different from themselves – preferably someone (or group with whom they were uncomfortable)

Designing Courses for Significant Learning RESULTS? • Students did the readings – and understood them. • As a result of the “strategy” (readings + dialogue with others + special experiences + multiple reflections): • Students reported, almost to a person, that this course “transformed” them. • Teacher won the university’s primary teaching award. • Dean of Student Affairs: 11 of 16 students said this was “the most valuable course in their whole college experience. ”

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Does It Make a Difference? Case #2 • Bill Weeks, University of Missouri at Rolla • Course: Coding in Computer Science • Small class (18 students), traditional time structure (M-W-F) • Initially: Lecture + homework • Results: Students overwhelmed by complexity – frustration – apathy – low course evaluations

Designing Courses for Significant Learning Changes Made: 1. Completely re-wrote his learning goals: (examples) • For a given communication channel, students will be able to compute the maximum rate of reliable transmission • Students will learn how to work effectively in a group setting. • Students will be able to direct their own learning in relation to understanding, designing, and evaluating new codes. 2. New teaching strategy: Used TBL 3. Used reflective writing: Learning portfolios 4. Oral presentations 5. Had students re-submit their homework

Designing Courses for Significant Learning RESULTS: • Students did the readings, and did as well as before on exams of Foundational Knowledge. • TEACHER: “…drastic improvement in student morale…They worked harder – and reported enjoying it more. ” • STUDENTS: • …an interesting learning experience I will never forget…provided me with knowledge to carry out independent study. • I enjoyed this course to the fullest…course was entertaining and at the same time enlightening.

Designing Courses for Significant Learning TEACHER’S REACTION: • “Teaching such an excited group of students was an unforgettable experience. • It made my job seem worthwhile and very fulfilling. • I will be feeding off that student excitement for years. ”

Designing Courses for Significant Learning FOUNDATION KNOWLEDGE: Basic terms and concepts APPLICATION: How to use the model of Integrated Course Design INTEGRATION: Connect ideas from the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (So. TL) with your own work as an educator. HUMAN DIMENSION: Self: Be more confident that you can do this Other: Work with others to create more powerful designs CARING: Identify the value of course design in teaching LEARNING HOW TO LEARN: Know what else you want to learn about (after the workshop)

Designing Courses for Significant Learning RESOURCES FOR FURTHER LEARNING: ü Print Resources ü Each Other ü Your Dreams üstewart. ross@mnsu. edu 507 -389 -1098

Designing Courses for Significant Learning THE END! Higher Education: Let’s make it all that it can be and needs to