Teaching.Tools and the Active Learning Library

The Teaching.Tools Website has a few resources that may be helpful to you.

The Active Learning Library https://teaching.tools/activities allows you to explore teaching strategies aimed to increase engagement in the classroom. This site allows you to search for activities by filtering based on:

• Difficulty (for the instructor)

• Prep Time Required

• Bloom’s Taxonomy (e.g., remember, apply)

• Active Learning (e.g., individual engagement, small group engagement)

• Inclusive Learning (e.g., gives students choices, emphasizes the relevance or value of the material)

• Whole-Person Learning (e.g., emphasizes student values and emotions, emphasizes metacognitive skills)

• Formative Feedback

• Activity Time

• Class Size

• Class Modality

The Pedagogical Reading List https://teaching.tools/resources is comprised of a community-generated database of resources for college teaching around topics including Accessibility and UDL

• Active Learning

• Assessment

• Curriculum

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

• Education Research

• Educational Technology

• Experiential Learning

• Graduate Students

• Learning Analytics

• Mental Health

• Online Teaching

• Problem/Project-Based Learning

• Race and Anti-Racism

• STEM

• Science of Learning

While the Lesson Planning Tool https://teaching.tools/lessonplanner provides an interactive template for creating college-level class sessions. You can use the tool without an account. You must sign in to save your lesson. Accounts are free.

8 Summer Reads on DEI

The National Institute on Scientific Teaching has shared a few recommendations for summer reading. This list focuses on books that may help us deepen our understanding of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) topics in higher education. Full descriptions are provided in the links by clicking on the titles. I have also added a link to the availability of the book in our library.

1. "Superior" - Angela Saini. "Superior" walks the reader through the long history of the belief in biological racial differences and how it has been intertwined with political history. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/18696719

2. "Inferior" - Angela Saini. "Inferior" explores the background belief that men and women are fundamentally different. Angela Saini takes the reader on a journey that investigates past research on gender differences in biology, anthropology, and psychology. "Inferior" then shows a view of science where women are included rather than excluded. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/16409604

3. "UNgrading" - Susan Blum. Read the testimonials of fifteen educators describing their journey going gradeless. The stories encompass all levels of instruction, and different disciplines. This is a great book for understanding the movement and reading the personal reflections of individuals that are at different stages of their journey. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/18678673

4. "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education" - Chris Emdin. In this book the author reflects on their own experience to show a poignant perspective on teaching and learning in urban schools. The author explains their theory of Reality Pedgaogy, demonstrating this with the seven C's, and provides tools to excite and encourage students and instructors to break free of traditional modes of thinking about urban education. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/15426645

5. "The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die" - Keith Payne. The Broken Ladder explores the effects of rising inequality and how people perceive their position in society. The book examines inequalities' link to health crises, long-term prosperity, and social cohesion, among others. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/17538409

6. "Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society" - Cordelia Fine. This text explores the myth that the difference between men and women is biological. Codelia Fine works to debunk the science and societal misconceptions that are often used to perpetuate this myth. Using humor in a masterful way, "Testosterone Rex" disproves these misconceptions, and argues for a more equal society based on the potential present in all humans. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/16523736

7. "Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education" - Jay Dolmage. "Academic Ableism" brings together disability studies and institutional critique to examine the methods for accommodation and how schools are constructed, to formulate their argument that building more inclusive schools that address ableism will ultimately provide better education for all. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/17823265

8. "The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students" - Anthony Abraham Jack. This book outlines how student background has a large effect on the chances for student success, and illuminates what it is like to be poor on an elite college campus. The book explains why the university obligation to disadvantaged students must go beyond a letter of admission and strive to make inclusion for all students a reality at college campuses. https://iucat.iu.edu/catalog/18498620

Pre-Course Survey

One way to improve engagement with your students is to learn more about them. A precourse survey is one way to help develop a connection with your students, and get to know them beyond what is shared in an introduction discussion.

What do you want to know about them?

Diligent student in college with classmates, taking notes of teacher lecture.

A survey can help you conduct a needs assessment about where your students are at in terms of prior knowledge, demographics, mindset, learning preferences, goals, content confidence level, preferred feedback style, and/or access to technology.  Because this takes place “behind the scenes” and is only shared with the instructor, rather than in a public discussion forum, you may be more likely to receive candid responses.

What strategies and skills will students need and/or develop in your course?

These kinds of questions can help students flex metacognitive skills and become more aware of their learning habits. As an instructor, this can help you provide more specific feedback on student work, suggesting similar strategies and stretch goals.

• Reflection on Strategies: Metacognitive reflection questions ask how students get things done. Do you take marginal notes or highlight as you read? What conditions do you need to do your best work?

• Planning Ahead: Beyond what has worked for students in the past, you might ask about strategies they will use specifically in this class. What times each week do you have earmarked to work on this course?

• Setting Goals:You might ask them to review the learning objectives, asking what they will commit to accomplishing. And beyond the learning objectives for the course, are there other skills or competencies they plan to work on in the course? Do they have any suggestions for the instructor about strategies for helping meet those goals?

During the first week of your course

Providing students with an opportunity to quiz themselves not on the course topic but on the course itself–how to get started in the course, how to navigate the course, what the course should help students accomplish, and how the course is structured–can help instructors send fewer emails saying, “It’s in the syllabus!”

Given multiple choice or true/false question types, these kinds of pre-course surveys can be automatically scored. Don’t forget to compose feedback for incorrect responses and allow multiple attempts!

What tools are available?

IU supports the Qualtrics survey tool and Canvas includes a dashboard feature that allows instructors to create a type of quiz called ‘ungraded’ that can be used as a survey. In Canvas, once the survey, or ‘ungraded quiz,’ is published online, students can login to their Canvas course page and participate. IU also has access to Google Forms and Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Forms are Available in the Channel and Chat features) for quick survey and quiz creation.

If you’d like support implementing a pre-course survey or questionnaire in your online class, or in any other aspects of teaching and learning, please contact me at your earliest convenience with your availability.