We found 55 results that contain "semester start"
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Posted by
over 3 years ago
A belated Happy 2022 everyone! Stumbled across a bunch of interesting ideas for (end of semester) digital project ideas for our students at ditchthattextbook.com this morning. Lots of cool stuff here that will motivate and engage students in their learning throughout the semester not just at the very end things. Here is the direct link: https://ditchthattextbook.com/10-ideas-for-digital-end-of-semester-final-projects/
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Posted by
over 3 years ago
If ever you have utilized a collaborative approach in your courses, you might be familiar with the following. Sometime just after the middle of the semester, a student contacts you complaining about various problems and/or people within their team during the first nine or ten weeks of the term. Typically, it is clear from the language of such emails that these young adults want someone else to step in and address the litany of issues described. Yet a large part of student-centered learning is providing young minds with the tools necessary to help them navigate our courses with a reasonable amount of success as well as the skills necessary for our students to address any related interpersonal challenges. For many undergraduates in 2022, learning to manage the latter, in particular, is one area where guidance is often necessary. Here is the language I now use to provide helpful suggestions that keep students in the driver's seat without helicoptering in to the rescue myself:
Thank you for your email X. Your frustration is certainly understandable. The issue(s) you describe are something that the entire team should address together in order to determine a concrete and efficient way forward. Communication, problem solving, conflict resolution, and revision of team work habits or processes are all part of effective collaboration.
With that in mind, take a proactive approach to the points outlined in your email. That means ALL of you should collaborate to identify the exact problems hindering the team. A passive ‘wait and see’ approach will not change the situation. Neither will a round of strident text messages or email back and forth between team members. What will help is for all team members to prioritize a meeting in real time plus their direct involvement in making concrete decisions to improve the dynamic and move ahead in the most efficient way possible.
Whether your team meets online or face to face, have an honest yet civil discussion to determine and implement the changes team members deem necessary. This is not easy, but it is vital for improving the situation. Positive change in a team setting comes through strategic, organized, and well-executed plans with specific goals identified and carried out in an orderly manner.
Beginning this sort of conversation might feel uncomfortable, but it is necessary. Contact your other team members right away. Arrange a meeting in real time to pinpoint and address the ongoing issues within the team. Brief explainer videos, part of each course module, provide tips for effective collaboration, but here are three for review that are most relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDX61xCHN74&t=58s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BghSivQlhVY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIuTi83L0vE
It is also beneficial for the entire team to revisit its list of values developed early in the semester plus the specific member roles determined at that point. These tasks were part of Week Three team activities when weekly collaboration began. Likewise, have a look again at your collective responses to questions on the team assessment worksheets, part of the collaborative work for Week Six and Week 11. On those, your team took stock of its processes and work habits followng completion of Project #1 and Project #2. Your team also identified collective steps it could take to improve collaboration as part of that work.
Keep in mind that active collaboration to address team issues is solid practice for life in the globalized digital economy of the 21st century where 'teams' are the norm. In most fields now, no single person is responsible for project research, development, and completion. Cohesive teamwork is the name of the game.
Careful attention to the guidance above will help your team have a productive discussion, pull together, and move forward more effectively in the time remaining this semester. Your student learning team is in the driver’s seat and has the power to do this.
Kind Regards,
Prof. Y
Keep in mind that the intent is to guide and empower young adults in navigating their own lives. The language offered above might be too forthright for some, but it gets to the heart of the matter and communicates to students that their interpersonal issues are something they must learn to handle now if they have not already done so. After all, the adult world following graduation is not that far off, and we do our students no favors by taking care of their problems for them.
The language presented works for individual queries but can also be sent to the entire student learning team as a reminder with appropriate changes made. If this idea sounds like something you might like to try yourself, feel free to tailor the reply above to your own needs.
Thank you for your email X. Your frustration is certainly understandable. The issue(s) you describe are something that the entire team should address together in order to determine a concrete and efficient way forward. Communication, problem solving, conflict resolution, and revision of team work habits or processes are all part of effective collaboration.
With that in mind, take a proactive approach to the points outlined in your email. That means ALL of you should collaborate to identify the exact problems hindering the team. A passive ‘wait and see’ approach will not change the situation. Neither will a round of strident text messages or email back and forth between team members. What will help is for all team members to prioritize a meeting in real time plus their direct involvement in making concrete decisions to improve the dynamic and move ahead in the most efficient way possible.
Whether your team meets online or face to face, have an honest yet civil discussion to determine and implement the changes team members deem necessary. This is not easy, but it is vital for improving the situation. Positive change in a team setting comes through strategic, organized, and well-executed plans with specific goals identified and carried out in an orderly manner.
Beginning this sort of conversation might feel uncomfortable, but it is necessary. Contact your other team members right away. Arrange a meeting in real time to pinpoint and address the ongoing issues within the team. Brief explainer videos, part of each course module, provide tips for effective collaboration, but here are three for review that are most relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDX61xCHN74&t=58s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BghSivQlhVY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIuTi83L0vE
It is also beneficial for the entire team to revisit its list of values developed early in the semester plus the specific member roles determined at that point. These tasks were part of Week Three team activities when weekly collaboration began. Likewise, have a look again at your collective responses to questions on the team assessment worksheets, part of the collaborative work for Week Six and Week 11. On those, your team took stock of its processes and work habits followng completion of Project #1 and Project #2. Your team also identified collective steps it could take to improve collaboration as part of that work.
Keep in mind that active collaboration to address team issues is solid practice for life in the globalized digital economy of the 21st century where 'teams' are the norm. In most fields now, no single person is responsible for project research, development, and completion. Cohesive teamwork is the name of the game.
Careful attention to the guidance above will help your team have a productive discussion, pull together, and move forward more effectively in the time remaining this semester. Your student learning team is in the driver’s seat and has the power to do this.
Kind Regards,
Prof. Y
Keep in mind that the intent is to guide and empower young adults in navigating their own lives. The language offered above might be too forthright for some, but it gets to the heart of the matter and communicates to students that their interpersonal issues are something they must learn to handle now if they have not already done so. After all, the adult world following graduation is not that far off, and we do our students no favors by taking care of their problems for them.
The language presented works for individual queries but can also be sent to the entire student learning team as a reminder with appropriate changes made. If this idea sounds like something you might like to try yourself, feel free to tailor the reply above to your own needs.
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: GenAI & Education
Posted by
almost 2 years ago
The 'Navigating AI in the Classroom' learning community is setting up its meeting times for Spring semester. If you're interested, please fill out your spring semester availability: http://whenisgood.net/ppt83kt
If you want to be added to the Teams page to get updates about meeting times and topics, please let me know!
If you want to be added to the Teams page to get updates about meeting times and topics, please let me know!
Posted on: Reading Group for Student Engagement and Success
Posted by
almost 4 years ago
My background in Scandinavian languages and literature keeps rearing its head in various ways after many years. Specifically,when it comes to folklore, magical tales, and perilous journeys toward maturation. In a way, I have become a pedagogical Ashland, of sorts, since coming to MSU in 2015. My journey, an ongoing quest if you will, has been in trying to find that one magical key, which will unlock the enchanted door to greater student interest and involvement in their general education course requirements.
Those of us who teach these courses know that, too often, many students view gen. ed. requirements as hoops to jump through. Something they must satisfy to graduate. Subjects that, they feel, have little to do with the real world, their intended majors, or envisioned careers. Scheduling and convenience more than genuine interest seem to be the determining factor for many students when they choose to enroll in such courses. Put the head down, muddle through, and get it done with as little effort as possible.
But there might be another way.
In my own ongoing quest to motivate and engage the students in my various IAH courses more effectively, I have come back to Bloom's Taxonomy again and again since first learning about it in the 2016-2017 Walter and Pauline Adams Academy cohort. More specifically, it is Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, revised by various scholars for use with 21st century students who exist in an increasingly digital world, that has been especially useful when it comes to designing assessments for my students.
For those who are interested, there are all kinds of sources online -- journal article pdfs, infographics, Youtube explainer videos, etc. -- that will be informative and helpful for anyone who might be interested in learning more. Just search for 'Bloom's Digital Taxonomy' on Google. It's that easy.
For my specific IAH courses, I organize my students into permanent student learning teams early each semester and ask them to create three collaborative projects (including a team reflection). These are due at the end of Week Five, Week 10, and Week 14. Right now, the projects include:
1) A TV Newscast/Talkshow Article Review Video in which teams are ask to locate, report on, review, and evaluate two recent journal articles pertinent to material read or viewed during the first few weeks of the course.
2) A Readers' Guide Digital Flipbook (using Flipsnack) that reviews and evaluates the usefulness of two books, two more recent journal articles, and two blogs or websites on gender and sexuality OR race and ethnicity within the context of specific course materials read or viewed during roughly the middle third of the course.
3) An Academic Poster (due at the end of Week 14) in which student teams revisit course materials and themes related to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and identity. In addition, students are asked to examine issues of power, marginalization, disparity, equity, etc. in those same sources and look at how these same issues affect our own societies/cultures of origin in the real world. Finally, student teams (in course as diverse as Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s, Horror Cinema, and the upcoming Contemporary Scandinavian and Nordic Authors) are asked to propose realistic, concrete solutions to the social problems facing us.
Anecdotally, student feedback has been largely very favorable so far. Based on remarks in their team reflections this semester (Fall 2021), students report that they enjoy these collaborative, creative projects and feel like they have considerable leeway to shape what their teams develop. Moreover, they also feel that they are learning quite a bit about the material presented as well as valuable 21st century employability skills in the process. Where their all important assignment grades are concerned, student learning teams in my courses are meeting or exceeding expectations with the work they have produced for the first two of three team projects this semester according to the grading rubrics currently in use.
Beginning in Spring 2022, I plan to give my student teams even more agency in choosing how they are assessed and will provide two possible options for each of the three collaborative projects. Right not, these will probably include:
Project #1 (Recent Journal Article Review and Evaluation)-- Powtoon Animated TV Newscast OR Infographic
Project #2 -- (Review and Evaluation of Digital Sources on Gender and Sexuality OR Race and Ethnicty in our specific course materials) a Digital Flipbook OR Podcast
Project #3 -- (Power, Marginality, Disparity, Equity in Course Materials and Real World of 21st Century Problem-Solving) an Interactive E-Poster OR Digital Scrapbook.
Through collaborative projects like these, I am attempting to motivate and engage the students in my IAH courses more effectively, help them to think more actively and critically about the material presented as well as the various social issues that continue to plague our world, and provide them with ample opportunity to cultivate essential skills that will enable their full participation in the globalized world and economy of the 21st century. Bloom's (Revised) Digital Taxonomy, among other resources, continues to facilitate my evolving thought about how best to reach late Gen Y and Gen Z students within a general education context.
If anyone would like to talk more about all of this, offer constructive feedback, or anything else, just drop me a line. I am always looking for those magic beans that will increase student motivation and engagement, and eager to learn more along the way. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy has certainly been one of my three magical helpers in the quest to to do that.
Takk skal dere ha!
Those of us who teach these courses know that, too often, many students view gen. ed. requirements as hoops to jump through. Something they must satisfy to graduate. Subjects that, they feel, have little to do with the real world, their intended majors, or envisioned careers. Scheduling and convenience more than genuine interest seem to be the determining factor for many students when they choose to enroll in such courses. Put the head down, muddle through, and get it done with as little effort as possible.
But there might be another way.
In my own ongoing quest to motivate and engage the students in my various IAH courses more effectively, I have come back to Bloom's Taxonomy again and again since first learning about it in the 2016-2017 Walter and Pauline Adams Academy cohort. More specifically, it is Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, revised by various scholars for use with 21st century students who exist in an increasingly digital world, that has been especially useful when it comes to designing assessments for my students.
For those who are interested, there are all kinds of sources online -- journal article pdfs, infographics, Youtube explainer videos, etc. -- that will be informative and helpful for anyone who might be interested in learning more. Just search for 'Bloom's Digital Taxonomy' on Google. It's that easy.
For my specific IAH courses, I organize my students into permanent student learning teams early each semester and ask them to create three collaborative projects (including a team reflection). These are due at the end of Week Five, Week 10, and Week 14. Right now, the projects include:
1) A TV Newscast/Talkshow Article Review Video in which teams are ask to locate, report on, review, and evaluate two recent journal articles pertinent to material read or viewed during the first few weeks of the course.
2) A Readers' Guide Digital Flipbook (using Flipsnack) that reviews and evaluates the usefulness of two books, two more recent journal articles, and two blogs or websites on gender and sexuality OR race and ethnicity within the context of specific course materials read or viewed during roughly the middle third of the course.
3) An Academic Poster (due at the end of Week 14) in which student teams revisit course materials and themes related to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and identity. In addition, students are asked to examine issues of power, marginalization, disparity, equity, etc. in those same sources and look at how these same issues affect our own societies/cultures of origin in the real world. Finally, student teams (in course as diverse as Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s, Horror Cinema, and the upcoming Contemporary Scandinavian and Nordic Authors) are asked to propose realistic, concrete solutions to the social problems facing us.
Anecdotally, student feedback has been largely very favorable so far. Based on remarks in their team reflections this semester (Fall 2021), students report that they enjoy these collaborative, creative projects and feel like they have considerable leeway to shape what their teams develop. Moreover, they also feel that they are learning quite a bit about the material presented as well as valuable 21st century employability skills in the process. Where their all important assignment grades are concerned, student learning teams in my courses are meeting or exceeding expectations with the work they have produced for the first two of three team projects this semester according to the grading rubrics currently in use.
Beginning in Spring 2022, I plan to give my student teams even more agency in choosing how they are assessed and will provide two possible options for each of the three collaborative projects. Right not, these will probably include:
Project #1 (Recent Journal Article Review and Evaluation)-- Powtoon Animated TV Newscast OR Infographic
Project #2 -- (Review and Evaluation of Digital Sources on Gender and Sexuality OR Race and Ethnicty in our specific course materials) a Digital Flipbook OR Podcast
Project #3 -- (Power, Marginality, Disparity, Equity in Course Materials and Real World of 21st Century Problem-Solving) an Interactive E-Poster OR Digital Scrapbook.
Through collaborative projects like these, I am attempting to motivate and engage the students in my IAH courses more effectively, help them to think more actively and critically about the material presented as well as the various social issues that continue to plague our world, and provide them with ample opportunity to cultivate essential skills that will enable their full participation in the globalized world and economy of the 21st century. Bloom's (Revised) Digital Taxonomy, among other resources, continues to facilitate my evolving thought about how best to reach late Gen Y and Gen Z students within a general education context.
If anyone would like to talk more about all of this, offer constructive feedback, or anything else, just drop me a line. I am always looking for those magic beans that will increase student motivation and engagement, and eager to learn more along the way. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy has certainly been one of my three magical helpers in the quest to to do that.
Takk skal dere ha!
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Posted by
over 1 year ago
Final exam info for courses offering an exam
You may offer a final exam in your course during the semester's exam period, which is held following the last week of classes. Final exams are typically scheduled for the same day, time period, and room as the scheduled course, if possible. According to the MSU Code of Teaching Responsibility, course instructors must include the date and location of any final examination in the syllabus.
You can locate your course's final exam details on the MSU Office of the Registrar website https://reg.msu.edu, either under "Final Exams" within the Instructor Systems menu of the Faculty & Staff section or in the Schedule of Classes entry under the Enrollment & Registration section. Once logged in to Instructor Systems, you can select the semester and course to see your final exam details, as well as a link to correct any errors.
The Instructor Systems will also show you the names of any students with an exam conflict and/or who have three or more exams on the same day. You can encourage students in either situation to contact the Academic Student Affairs Office in their college for help managing conflicts or arranging for an alternate time; the MSU exam policy states that a student can't be required to take more than two exams in one day.
The full MSU final exam policy can be found here, with further details for scheduling exams in classes with different modalities, requesting a different room, the expectation that instructors will be accessible to students via office hours, and other aspects of exam week.
https://reg.msu.edu/roinfo/calendar/finalexam.aspx
You may offer a final exam in your course during the semester's exam period, which is held following the last week of classes. Final exams are typically scheduled for the same day, time period, and room as the scheduled course, if possible. According to the MSU Code of Teaching Responsibility, course instructors must include the date and location of any final examination in the syllabus.
You can locate your course's final exam details on the MSU Office of the Registrar website https://reg.msu.edu, either under "Final Exams" within the Instructor Systems menu of the Faculty & Staff section or in the Schedule of Classes entry under the Enrollment & Registration section. Once logged in to Instructor Systems, you can select the semester and course to see your final exam details, as well as a link to correct any errors.
The Instructor Systems will also show you the names of any students with an exam conflict and/or who have three or more exams on the same day. You can encourage students in either situation to contact the Academic Student Affairs Office in their college for help managing conflicts or arranging for an alternate time; the MSU exam policy states that a student can't be required to take more than two exams in one day.
The full MSU final exam policy can be found here, with further details for scheduling exams in classes with different modalities, requesting a different room, the expectation that instructors will be accessible to students via office hours, and other aspects of exam week.
https://reg.msu.edu/roinfo/calendar/finalexam.aspx
Navigating Context
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Posted by
almost 4 years ago
Everyone develops their own way of planning and mapping out a new course, but here is what has emerged for me during the last several years:
Week 1 -- Introductory Course Documents and Orientation
Week 2 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
Individual Reflection #1 Submitted
Student Learning Teams Posted to D2L
Week 3 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading Viewing B
SLT Collaboration Begins
Individual Reflection #2 Submitted
Week 4 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #3 Submitted
Week 5 -- SLT Project #1 (Powtoon Animated Newscast Article Review OR YouTube Podcast)
Week 6 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #4 Submitted
Week 7 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #5 Submitted
Week 8 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #6 Submitted
Week 9 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #7 Submitted
Week 10 -- SLT Project #2 (Readers’ Guide Flipbook OR Infographic)
Week 11 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #8 Submitted
Week 12 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #9 Submitted
Week 13 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #10 Submitted
Week 14 -- SLT Project #3 (E-Poster OR Digital Scrapbook)
Week 15 -- Individual Semester Reflection Submitted by 11:59pm Friday
I am using this semester planning worksheet to nail things down (Finally!) for two new IAH courses that I'll teach in the spring. The first course is on modern Scandinavian and Nordic authors that begins with canonical dead white guys from the late 19th century (Ibsen and Strindberg), moves through the 20th century, and finishes with 21st century queer, indigenous Greenlandic writer Niviaq Korneliussen. Basically it takes students from the rise of modern drama and symbolism through High Modernism, Postmodernism, and into the post-postmodern as manifested in Scandinavian and Nordic literature. The second such course will feature global cinema directed by and/or about contemporary women and the issues they face around the world. Related readings will come from feminist film theory and texts on intersectionality. Everything from Laura Mulvey to Kimberle Crenshaw in other words.
Week 1 -- Introductory Course Documents and Orientation
Week 2 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
Individual Reflection #1 Submitted
Student Learning Teams Posted to D2L
Week 3 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading Viewing B
SLT Collaboration Begins
Individual Reflection #2 Submitted
Week 4 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #3 Submitted
Week 5 -- SLT Project #1 (Powtoon Animated Newscast Article Review OR YouTube Podcast)
Week 6 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #4 Submitted
Week 7 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #5 Submitted
Week 8 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #6 Submitted
Week 9 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #7 Submitted
Week 10 -- SLT Project #2 (Readers’ Guide Flipbook OR Infographic)
Week 11 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #8 Submitted
Week 12 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #9 Submitted
Week 13 -- Reading/Viewing A OR Reading/Viewing B
SLT Collaboration
Individual Reflection #10 Submitted
Week 14 -- SLT Project #3 (E-Poster OR Digital Scrapbook)
Week 15 -- Individual Semester Reflection Submitted by 11:59pm Friday
I am using this semester planning worksheet to nail things down (Finally!) for two new IAH courses that I'll teach in the spring. The first course is on modern Scandinavian and Nordic authors that begins with canonical dead white guys from the late 19th century (Ibsen and Strindberg), moves through the 20th century, and finishes with 21st century queer, indigenous Greenlandic writer Niviaq Korneliussen. Basically it takes students from the rise of modern drama and symbolism through High Modernism, Postmodernism, and into the post-postmodern as manifested in Scandinavian and Nordic literature. The second such course will feature global cinema directed by and/or about contemporary women and the issues they face around the world. Related readings will come from feminist film theory and texts on intersectionality. Everything from Laura Mulvey to Kimberle Crenshaw in other words.
Pedagogical Design
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Posted by
almost 3 years ago
Just finished another podcast episode that walk student through their capstone project for my courses, a semester reflection and self-assessment. Have a listen if this sounds interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH0Ft3_Gcv0
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Posted by
almost 4 years ago
As part of my ongoing efforts to provide students with meaningful feedback on their individual reflections each week plus their three big collaborative projects AND get them to think about their approach to learning, I have used various open-ended metacognitive questions based on Bloom's revised taxonomy. Here is an useful link to ten such prompts from the Teach Thought website that I have used this semester, albeit in slightly modified form to move the questions away from simple yes-no answers. See what you think.
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/metacognitive-prompts/
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/metacognitive-prompts/
Pedagogical Design