Super Courses

The TLC team just finished reading Super Courses: The Future of Teaching and Learning (2021) for inspiration on how to improve learning experiences for our Wentworth students. In this book, Ken Bain presents alternatives to the traditional classroom activities, distinctive because they view learners as participants not just recipients of information; they provide real-world experience and problem-solving opportunities; they make interdisciplinary connections challenging learners to think in new ways; and they cultivate passion and purpose to fuel further interest.

Here’s what our team had to say after finishing this book:

What is the best “super course” you have ever taken, and what made it so super?

Josh: Contemporary Issues in Education. The content was fascinating, but what made the course so impactful was the way that the professor created an immediate sense of community and belonging which inspired everyone to share meaningfully and dive deep into the content both together and on our own.

Lynn: In one of my best courses, we were given full autonomy to design experiments and carry them out, making mistakes and correcting with the instructor to help guide us back onto a productive path.

Steve: The best course I have taken was during my undergrad and it was Audio Production. What made it great was the hands-on experience where we actually got to make our own PSA using the equipment and edit it ourselves. It was engaging and interactive.

Lucy: I took a course in college called Intro to Environmental Design, which was the best course I ever took. The material we covered stuck with me, even 16 years later. It changed the way I think about the world around me.

What is one memorable “super course” practice we read about? Why did it resonate with you?

Lynn: The courses that resonated with me are the ones where students are given the opportunity to engage in exploration of a topic, such as Olin College of Engineering’s project-based learning (PBL) [Chapter 3]. I tend to prefer learning by doing. I also see parallels in this example with what our students are learning in terms of technical skills.

Josh: I love the idea of crafting educational experiences that are invitational and inspire engagement by promising students something meaningful, resonant, and applicable to the rest of their lives.

Steve: The concept of focusing on having the students find themselves, in the sense of having them evaluate how they learn and what their interests are. Allow students to approach a concept in their own way and explain or find a better way it works.

Tes: The courses that embedded cycles of try, fail, receive feedback, try again, with low/no grade consequences, resonated with me. Assessment should reward effort and engagement, so students can exchange feedback and improve their thinking and performance in productive failures.

What is one recommendation you have for instructors looking to change their course design or course experience?

Josh: The most active people in the classroom are the people doing the most learning.

Steve: Don’t teach at the students. Help them explore who they are and how they learn better.

Lucy: Change only one or two things at a time, and solicit student feedback so you can see how it goes.

Tes: Collaborate with an instructional designer!

Additional Super Reads

Now that you’ve finished Super Courses, what’s next on your reading list?

Josh: Learning That Matters: Course Design for Transformative Education. Zehnder, Alby, Kleine, & Metzker (2020).

Lucy: Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn. Oakley, Rogowsky, & Sejnowski (2021).

Tes: Mindful by Design: A Practical Guide for Cultivating Aware, Advancing, and Authentic Learning Experiences. Krause (2019).

Megan: Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. Tobin & Behling (2018).

We have organized these titles and other recommendations into a list of teaching resources, many of which are available through the Schumann Library. For a “super” read over the winter break, select one from this list, cozy up with a blanket and a favorite hot beverage, and imagine what your classroom could look like in 2022.

 

Interested in reading with our team? In the spring we will expand our book club to include all Wentworth faculty and staff. If you would like to join us, fill out our interest form or email teach@wit.edu for more information!

TLC provides multiple services to faculty to help prep for a semester. Two of these are Course Copies and Course Merges.

In the wind-down of fall semester and preparation for spring semester we are receiving requests that don’t match what instructors are expecting so here’s a brief primer on what these terms (and some others) mean in Brightspace so you can better request assistance.

Course Offering – The course offering is different from a section. At Wentworth, each section can be taught by a different instructor with different materials. When we feed the list of courses from Banner we feed both course offerings and sections to allow for the needs of different instructors. Initially, the course offering and course section have the same name.

Course Section – The course section is where students are enrolled. For most course sections, the section is placed in a course offering with the same name. But this placement can be changed.

Course Copy – When we copy a course, we copy content from one course offering (sometimes we call this a course site) to another course offering. We do this for you when the content is in another instructor’s course. But if you want to copy content from one semester to another for offerings you are the instructor, you can do this yourself.

Course Merge – The course merge process moves sections from one course offering and moves them to another allowing an instructor to post content once but have it available to all students in all the sections. This is a request TLC must complete for you.

Courses by Lynn Cooke

So when you need a course copied or merged, keep in mind what the various elements are when making your request so that you get the result you want.

Remember to include the full course number (including the section), CRN, and semester when making any request. We often receive requests for multiple semesters and providing the information with the initial request will speed the response.

Springing Forward

Before you pack your bags and head off into holiday bliss, let’s wrap up your course and get them ready for your return in the spring semester.  This is the ideal time for course and self reflection.  This checklist focuses on your course content, your course mechanics and your self reflection.

Course Content Clean Up

The course content clean up focuses on reflecting on your content as whole including assignments, discussions, quizzes, projects, activities, and the interactions between you and your students, student and student, and the content and students.  This is an opportunity to look at your performance and your students’ performance to make any changes to your teaching practices and course content to create a better experience for the spring semester.  Take a moment and think about what did or did not work this semester.

Content reflection questions you can ask yourself:

• Did the assignments and activities meet your module objectives?
• Did the assignments and activities have clear and concise directions; did students struggle to understand what you wanted?
• Did your students meet expectations in regards to the course objectives?
• Were the activities fun and interactive?
• Did you have meaningful discussions on course topics with your students?
• Was your feedback meaningful and useful for the students; do you need to update or create rubrics?
• Does your syllabus need to be re-worked?
• If your students completed a course survey, what feedback did your students give about the course itself?
• Overall, was the class a success, why or why not?

Check out the Course Readiness Checklist here!

Course Mechanics

The course mechanics focuses on how you and your students interacted with Brightspace, what tools you learned or want to learn to enhance student the student experiences, and any technical challenges you had this past semester.  Be proactive for the spring semester and mitigate stress by setting up your course in Brightspace at least 2 weeks before the spring semester start in January.

Technical reflection question you can ask yourself:

• Did you run into any issues with the grade book tool?
• Did you use Brightspace to enhance student learning?
• Were your modules/units in the content section set up in a way that students found information easily?
• Are there any broken links to external resources, videos, articles, etc?
• Are you interested in exploring new-to-you features in Brightspace or using external products that easily link to Brightspace?

Term readiness checklist:

• Import content from the previous semester to your new spring semester course.
• Update the Syllabus with any changes to assignment, activities, projects, grading scheme, or objectives.
• Create or modify modules that create a consistent workflow and are organized in a way that students can easily navigate the information.
• Create a library resource page for the students to access resources they may need for their class.
• Check that all links work and update any videos, presentation slides, or articles as needed.
• Create your grade book BEFORE the semester starts.
• Set up your Zoom/Panopto link before the semester starts.
• Check accessibility status of your uploaded documents.

Self Reflect Because You’re Worth It!

Providing students with a high quality educational experience is your top priority and self reflection is a valuable method to help improve your teaching practices and the content of your course every semester.  It is a moment for you to be honest with yourself and organize your thoughts on areas of improvement and congratulate yourself on areas that were stellar.

These self reflection moments could have you pondering if your activities in unit 3 aligned with the overall course objectives or you could think about how engaged and excited the students were for an activity you had them complete in unit 8.  Self reflecting can help you determine your strengths but also helps you become more self aware about areas that may need improvement.  Ending the semester with a course survey/evaluation that your students complete can help you determine what went well and didn’t go well this semester from a student perspective and that perspective is just as important as your own.  There is always room for improvement so take a moment and read through some of the self reflection questions that could help you grow as an educator.

Self reflection questions you can ask yourself:

• What are you the most proud of this past semester?
• What do you think went well this semester?
• What do you think could have gone better this semester?
• When did your students seem the most engaged during the course?
• When did your students seem the least engaged?
• What areas did your students excel in?
• What areas did your students struggle with?
• What aspects could you change to enhance student learning?
• Did you provide accessible content for your students?
• How can you implement these changes?
• Were the objectives and daily details discussed and listed for students to understand and view for each class?
• What activities or videos were effective and which weren’t?
• What do you want to be different moving forward and what steps do you need to get there?

Make a plan and implement the changes you want to see for the next semester.  Even small changes can make a big impact.  Be proud of the hard work you did these past few months and continue to self reflect!

What are the benefits of Respondus?

Respondus is a great tool to use for creating exams for your courses and allows you to save them to build an exam library. It will transfer your questions/pools to Brightspace and it can tie to publisher content. Exams can be also be created offline using Windows. It supports up to 15 question types, including calculated and algorithmic formats. More benefits are listed here: https://www.respondus.com/products/respondus/index.shtml

Where can I download the new version of Respondus?

Respondus is available to download at on our Online Software Distribution site. You will need to connect to the site using VPN to download software.
Once on our Software Distribution site locate the option for Respondus 2021 then:

1. Click the install button.
2. Read the instructions and click “Agree and Continue”.
3. Your browser will download the installer.
4. Select “Run” or “Open” if prompted.
5. Follow the prompts of the installer to complete the process.

The downloaded version should be configured for instructors to be able to connect to the Brightspace system to upload exams. If not, there is a text “Read me” file that includes the information needed to complete configuration.

Now to create a quiz. The following videos step you through the process of creating and publishing quizzes to Brightspace.

Creating and formatting questions with Respondus 4

Publishing Respondus Quiz to Brightspace Video:

Resources:
Instructor User Guide to using Respondus with Brightspace

Flipped Classroom. A Definition

“A flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning, which aims to increase student engagement and learning by having students complete readings at their home and work on live problem-solving during class time” (Wikipedia Contributors, 2021).

This graphic visually represents the flipped classroom, where scheduled class time is spent on learning activities, not on content delivery.

This is accomplished with the use of “before” and “after” class” components.

 

Why do we Flip our classroom?

To foster more active learning and experimentation during class. Our goal is to replace lecture-style platforms by incorporating technology and rich media to enable students to learn in ways they would not be able to on a strictly physical campus.

Critical Thinking

A flipped classroom hosts higher-order thinking than the traditional model. This graphic shows Bloom’s Taxonomy, where the higher up on the pyramid represents more critical thinking. In a flipped classroom, these more complex levels are done during class, with the instructor there as a “guide on the side”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downsides

Be forewarned, there are major cons of a flipped classroom! For starters, it relies on preparation and trust. It requires a significant amount of work on the front-end. Not to mention it increases the time in front of screens. Something that none of us need, and at worst can exacerbate a digital divide.

Upsides

A flipped classroom has to power to promote student-centered learning and collaboration. It potentially could solve the problems related to unengaged or bored students. And it could foster accessible lessons and content that can increase the efficiency of the lesson. In summary, a flipped classroom has the potential to be transformative!

Best Practices

Knowing that this technique has a fairly equal number of pros and cons, here are some best practices to help you think the practice through.

Why am I paying so much money on tuition if I’m just going to teach myself?

This is a common response from students, and it can be very frustrating because the effort to flip a classroom is not nothing. To mitigate this response, here are some ways to prime the students before flipping the classroom.

• Create a Module 0 in Brightspace, with student-centric information about the flipped classroom.
• Let students know that you are trying something new.
• Start with a low-stakes pilot to practice.
• Ask the students for feedback at the end of class.

Do I have to plan out 30 different classes?!

Faculty might feel overwhelmed at the prospect of flipping their class for the first time. In truth, some aspects of their teaching might already be in line with this instructional strategy. And the leap to a flipped classroom is not that scary at all!

Rest assured that a partially flipped classroom is ok. Dip your toe into the water, so to speak, with these practices.

• The first time you decide to flip your classroom, consider picking only a small handful of class times. Ones where an in-class activity makes the most sense.
• Consider shortening the lecture to 25 minutes, and use the remainder of the time on an in-class activity.
• Keep a teaching journal, and jot down how the class went. Use that data to improve for the next class.

Why should I bother to do the assigned material? Or participate in class?

An activity is not necessarily an assessment. Instructors can lead activities that are in support of learning objectives but are not assessed. In this case, however, you could consider making it worth points. For example…

• Create a short online quiz, with 10-or-so questions that covers the “before class” materials. Due before class, this ensures that students come to the flipped class prepared.
• Have the in-class activity end with a deliverable, such as a group slide deck, or a reflection paper. These can be turned in at the end of class and given completion points.
• Award points for participation. If using this strategy, consider a rubric to make clear what good participation looks like.

Example Participation Rubric

	Excellent	Good	Approaching	Poor
Level of Engagement	Student contributes to class by offering ideas and asking questions more than once per class	Student contributes to class by offering and asking questions once per class	Student rarely contributes to class by offering ideas and asking questions	Student never contributes to class by offering ideas and asking questions

How to Flip Your Classroom

Utilize Brightspace! Include an announcement, or schedule an event letting students know what to expect. If possible, discuss the activity beforehand. Next, post the materials on a page, module, or submodule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example Discussion Prompts: What are the features, merits, and constraints of a flipped classroom model? Demonstrate this concept in a lesson plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what it might look like in Brightspace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, here is what instructions might look like for your students.

Before Class

 

The time before class is your opportunity to get familiar with the concepts that will be examined in greater detail. Complete all the assignments listed here so that you can participate fully during class.

In Class

In-class time is a great opportunity to explore topics through discussion with your classmates and instructor. Your participation is key to having a successful class.

After Class

For specific due dates, refer to the Work-to-do on the top of the home page, or check the calendar.

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Was this blog post helpful? Let us know if you would like to try out any of the best practices or strategies listed here. As always, we are here to help! Get in touch by emailing teach@wit.edu.