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Tip #9 Undergraduate Student Research for Teaching & Learning

Sarah Johnson, Department of Psychology and Director of Student Opportunities for Academic Research (SOAR)
Access her 10  that summarizes that various research opportunities available to undergraduate students at ˿����Ƶ.

Tip #8 Discussion and Classroom Community

Carmen Ferrero, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Access her that describes several activities she uses to develop and foster a sense of community in her Spanish language classroom.

Tip #7 Agency and Student Learning

Akbar Keshodkar, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Access his that describes the active-learning methods he has used to engage his students before, during, and after class in his Anthropology courses.

Tip #6 Digital Inking in the Classroom

Anastasia Thévenin, Department of Biological Sciences
Access her that describes how she uses an iPad, an apple pencil, and the Notability app to model for students how they can "Draw it to know it" in her in-person classroom.

Tip #5 Primary Sources for Student Learning

Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez, Department of History
Access her that describes how she has scaffolded student assignments with primary sources to achieve learning goals in her History courses.

Tip #4 Are your Students Getting It?

As teachers, I think that might be the most important question we can ask ourselves. You can "cover" as much content as you want, but if your students aren't understanding it, it doesn't matter. In addition to providing you the feedback you need in order to reteach or move forward, formative assessment also provides students the opportunity to learn. Retrieval practice is gaining traction in education and is showing some promising results. One problem - time. Constant quizzing (and therefore feedback) takes time. So how can you get the data you need and help students learn"

Technology! Isn't teaching in the 21st century great? Technology can provide you with opportunities for formative assessment and retrieval practice without adding too much to your already full plate. Here are some of my favorite tech tools for these low stakes, informative assessments:

• Plickers: You probably know about clicker technology. This is a lower tech option. You print cards for your students and download the app, so only the instructor needs technology. Scan the classroom and quickly see what students know or don't know. Pro Tip: Just embed the questions into your PowerPoint so you don't have to switch back and forth to the website.
  • Plickers website:
• Quizezz: This is a fun, student-paced review game of multiple choice questions. Students are awarded with a meme based on if they are correct or incorrect. Students are able to review their answers after the quiz. Students need devices but no projector is needed. Pro Tip: You can add your own memes for the game. This could be a great get to know you for students at the beginning of the semester - have them send you a meme they create!
  • Quizizz website:
• Quizlet Live: Turn flashcards into a highly collaborative review game! Once you make (or find) a flashcard set on Quizlet, you can use the Live feature which groups students and has them compete together to match the cards to their definitions. Students need devices but no projector needed. Pro Tip: Assign students chapters to make the flashcard set for you.
  • Quizlet website:

Additional Resources

• Retrieval Practice: 
• Additional tech tools:
• Plickers how to: 
• Quizizz how to: 
• Quizlet Live hot to: 

Submitted by:
Rebecca Taylor
Instructional Technologist
Center for Teaching Excellence
Heidelberg University

Tip #3 Supporting Student Learning with Transparent Assignments

Have you ever graded an assignments and found that some students completely missed the mark? While it may be tempting to blame the students, it is also possible that you haven't provided them with enough information to complete the assignment successfully. A study by Winkelmes et al. (2016) found that making assignments more transparent helped students navigate assignments more successfully and had the additional affect of increasing students' sense of belonging and improving retention rates. Transparent assignments simply make the purpose, task, and criteria for an assignment explicit.

To create more transparent assignments, consider the following questions, which are adapted from resources developed by Mary-Ann Winkelmes:

1. PURPOSE: Communicate to students what knowledge or skills they will gain from completing the assignments and how they will be valuable to students.
   1. Knowledge
      1. What knowledge will students gain from completing the assignment?
      2. How does that knowledge relate to other topics in your course or other courses?
      3. How will the knowledge be relevant for students in their lives beyond your course and beyond college?
   2. Skills
      1. What skills will students practice while doing the assignment?
      2. How do those skills relate to other contexts or examples where these skill were important, within your course of beyond?
      3. How will these skills be valuable to students in their lives beyond your course or beyond college?
2. TASK: Communicate the steps that students should take to complete the assignment.
   1. Are all of the steps needed to complete the assignment laid out clearly? If any steps are implied, consider making them more explicit. 
   2. What are the common pitfalls that students fall into on this assignment, and how can you help them avoid those?
   3. Are there opportunities for students to get feedback on parts of the assignment before the larger assignment is due?
3. CRITERIA: Share the rubrics or checklists that you will use to evaluate student work with students before the assignment is due.
   1. Would a rubric or a checklist be most appropriate for evaluating your assignment?
   2. If you use a rubric on this assignment, is it written at a level that would be clear to a student?
   3. Are there opportunities for students to evaluate their own work or other student work using the rubric or checklist that you have provided.