Category Archives: from the classroom

To post or not to post?

Posted on August 30, 2017 | Comments Off on To post or not to post?

A colleague recently asked me what my thoughts were on posting slides before class, after class, or at all. Here was my response, in case it’s helpful. Colleagues, Students: What do you think?

I don’t post them until after class for 3 main reasons

  1. I can’t guarantee they’ll be ready early enough in advance so all students can have a chance to print/review them
  2. Giving them in advance prohibits me from (a) surprising students with reveals, (b) including the clicker answers in the slides (so students can review later), (c) being spontaneous and responsive to that class (e.g., cutting/adding content/examples in response to what that group needs — if students have the slides, then I have to communicate what we *didn’t* get to and what won’t be tested, adding in what slides we build together during class…)
  3. There isn’t any scholarly evidence to suggest they help (on average — I recognize that special needs groups may be different).

I do post the class period’s learning objectives before class though, to help (keen) students prioritize while note-taking. Here’s what I put in the syllabus:

PowerPoint slides and handouts will be available after class on our course Connect site. Learning Objectives will be available there before class. Slides cannot be posted before class because they will undermine clicker questions. Moreover, data shows that having notes in advance rather than after class does not influence performance (Babb & Ross, 2009).

Babb, K. A., & Ross, C. (2009). The timing of online lecture slide availability and its effect on attendance, participation, and exam performance. Computers & Education, 52, 868-881. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.12.009

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2015/2016 Student Evaluations Response Part 1: Intro Psych

Posted on July 5, 2017 | Comments Off on 2015/2016 Student Evaluations Response Part 1: Intro Psych

Thank you to each of my students who took the time to complete a student evaluation of teaching. I value hearing from each of you, and every year your feedback helps me to become a better teacher. Each year, I write reflections on the qualitative and quantitative feedback I received from each of my courses, and post them on this blog. I have graphed the quantitative student evaluations here. Note that I was on sabbatical for the 2016/2017 academic year, so I’m writing these posts in response to 2015/2016 student feedback in preparation for Fall 2017.

A recap on this course: After teaching students intro psych as a 6-credit full-year course for three years, in 2013/2014 I was required to transform it into 101 and 102. Broadly speaking, the Term1/Term2 division from the 6-credit course stays the same, but there are some key changes because students can take these courses in either order from any professor (who uses any textbook). These two courses really still form one unit in my mind so I structure the courses extremely similarly.

Across PSYC 101 and PSYC 102, the two halves of Introductory Psychology, are pretty consistent in how I teach them and the reception they get from students. In both cases, I think the things I need to keep strong are enthusiasm and care for students as humans, as well as a variety of activities during classes, including engaging students with each other, but also lecture, videos, demos. My area for growth is around assessments (i.e., the least fun part of teaching, but an essential part of learning!). Two-stage exams are here to stay – they make test day fun, offer students feedback, and help them learn. After all these years I still haven’t quite managed to find the right balance between textbook-only and class-only material (and do I unassign portions of the text that won’t be tested?). And students have long been calling for representative practice questions. Fingers crossed that MyPsychLab can help with that. [Follow-up: As I suspected, questions in MyPsychLab are not challenging enough. Erg.] Regarding the written assignments with peer assessments, I got a mixed bag of feedback that really only point me at something’s not quite right for some students. I wonder if I need to devote more class time to the exercise (e.g., show examples of papers, feedback, including the grade range to be expected by peers)? Not sure. Time to consult the experts! If you’re interested in a distilled version of student comments, all summarized in a table that sort of compares 101 and 102, interjects some of my thoughts and recommendations for students, here you go…

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Posted in from the classroom, on course design

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Laptops in the Classroom?

Posted on January 3, 2017 | Comments Off on Laptops in the Classroom?

A few weeks ago I was asked by a colleague how I typically handle the issue of laptops in the classroom. On the one hand, they can be a useful learning tool, and many students like to use them. It’s practically become a perceived necessity for student note-taking. On the other hand, laptops can be incredibly distracting in these days of internet addiction and omnipresent social media. I am not immune to the internet’s pull either, and find it difficult to imagine what it’s like to be a student with that constant distraction.

(I’m reminded of a time when I asked students how they would like to handle laptops and they asked me what happened in my classrooms when I was an undergrad. As I was a relatively young faculty member, they had assumed my classmates all had laptops too. To their shock and horror, I explained it wasn’t an issue because nobody had them back when I started undergrad… last century in 1999!)

Here’s my response to my colleague:

I have a laptop-free zone, after sharing this study by Sana, Weston, Cepeda: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131512002254. I am sure to emphasize the effects of the flickering screen on the people around them, and even ask people to raise their hands if they can see a particular student’s screen. It surprises some folks (especially those who tend to sit near the front, whose screens are in wide view). I explain my role is not to take away their freedoms, but to protect the classroom as a place of learning. If they’re hindering other people’s learning, that becomes my business.
I also discuss “The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard” http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581 but encourage them to make that choice for themselves.

What do you think? How do you think laptops should be handled? What are the best solutions you’ve encountered?

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Posted in from professional development activities, from the classroom

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On Communicating Science

Posted on May 24, 2016 | Comments Off on On Communicating Science

The amazing team at the Human Early Learning Partnership, led by Kim Shonert-Reichl spent the morning thinking about Knowledge Translation from various perspectives, and invited me to weigh in. To prepare, I pondered questions like “How can we use what we know about knowledge and memory in the effort to make social change?” Here’s the PowerPoint supplement to what I came up with. What would you say?

HELP Talk

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Posted in from professional development activities, from the classroom

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On Using Peer Assessments

Posted on May 12, 2016 | Comments Off on On Using Peer Assessments

Jenny Wong and Jason Myers at Arts ISIT interviewed me about my TLEF-funded project and general use of peer assessment in my classes. Here’s what I had to say: http://isit.arts.ubc.ca/catherine-rawn-uses-peer-assessments-to-encourage-peer-based-learning/. IMHO the most interesting idea was this:

The more we move towards peer anything, the university is going to have to collectively rethink the message that we send to students regarding who holds knowledge, who’s allowed to hold knowledge and who holds the most valuable knowledge and that’s not always the professor.

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Posted in from professional development activities, from the classroom

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