- How many times have students come to class unprepared?
- How many times do you go through an entire lecture without a single question asked?
- When you ask a question, how many times do no students raise their hands?
Fortunately, technology provides a solution to these common teaching obstacles. This newsletter is a countdown of the top five best tech innovations to combat teaching challenges!
5. Wikis
Common problems:
- I don’t have time to take questions during class
- I have too many students to have effective group work [1]
Wikipedia is one of the most famous wikis. Users can edit Wikipedia web pages that they search for on the website. wikis allow people to share what they know on a topic so that web sites like Wikipedia are more informative for anyone browsing the website.
wikis give you the ability to edit and revise shared documents. More specifically, wikis could be used to gather students’ questions in a single document, for group assignments, and even taking attendance. In addition, wikis allow instructors to answer questions, critique group work, and check attendance. [1]
A great website for managing wikis is SharePoint. This website allows users to have an online storage of Microsoft files (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) which are each individual wikis. For instance, at the Arts Computing Office (ACO) for the University of Waterloo, SharePoint is used by coop students to view, edit, troubleshooting documents, and summarize their daily tasks.
http://www.kaboodlekonnect.com/renditions/word-to-wiki-online
http://wiki.plexhosted.com/kb/Microsoft_SharePoint_2013:Categorizing_Wiki_Pages
4. Screencasts
Common problems:
- I don’t have time to take questions during class
- My students seem bored during my lectures
- Some of my students lack prerequisite or background knowledge for the course [1]
Computer screencasts are what is displayed on a monitor of a computer, except it appears on another monitor of another computer. This occurs anytime an instructor uses a remote desktop software to access their office computer files from a podium computer.
Bomgar is a remote support software that allows support technicians to connect to end-user systems from their computers. Even Khan Academy videos are screencasts of Salman Khan’s computer screen whenever he is teaching a subject.
Screencasts can be applicable to instructors. First, they can make-up for lectures that go overtime or for classes where the instructor is unable to come in. More specifically, screencasts allow instructors to catch up or even get ahead through covering new material or answering questions from the previous lectures.
Second, they can be used to cover supplementary material when there simply is not enough time in lectures.
Third, students who appear tired and fatigued may benefit from screencasts because answering questions with the instructor is easier than doing it by themselves. Fourth, disadvantaged students, due to either because of learning disabilities or not having English as a first language or both, benefit greatly from recorded screencasts. [2]
Furthermore, one study gives screencasts a fantastic outlook. There was a study in 2014 related to mathematics called “Six key benefits of screencasts in learning Maths: An Irish case study”. This study found six great qualities: screencasts support flexible and personalized learning, supplement lectures and enhance understanding of key skills, deliver a vicarious learning experience, facilitate exam revision and content review, provide multi-modal support for learning, and help students keep track with modules [3].
There are a variety of screencast applications available, such as PowerPoint, Screencast-o-Matic, and Camtasia. For supplementary information on screencasts, studies, options for applications, and tips, check out the Centre for Teaching Excellence webpage on screencasts [4].
3. ePortfolios
Common problems:
- My students come to class unprepared
- My students have difficulty clearly formulating or articulating their questions
- My students don’t incorporate the feedback I give them into subsequent assignments
- Assessing and grading a student’s contribution to in-class discussions is difficult
- My students don’t make enough connections among the various components of the course, or amongst other courses [1]
The Centre for Teaching Excellence contains a variety of excellent student ePortfolios, including this one by student David Nightingale, Nareefa Nasrudeen, and Carla Rodrigo.
Student ePortfolios are websites that are formal and purposeful versions of ‘All about Me’ assignments that kids would normally get in elementary school. In other words, these are written graphic accounts of what students have learned in courses, from volunteering experiences and extra curricular activities.
They can have multiple objectives, such as being a form of assessment in courses, applications to programs at educational institutions, and resumes for jobs.
Multiple courses at the University of Waterloo have used ePortfolios. One such course was in the winter 2014 term called REC 351 or Therapeutic Recreation Facilitation Techniques.
The instructor Leeann Ferries used ePortfolios for students to share what they learned with the use of evidence to support their answers. Through this, students were able to work on their reflection and summarizing skills. [5]
In lectures, ePortfolios are great for assessments. Students may reflect on their courses or any activities they participated in and this has multiple purposes. Connections can be made between knowledge gained from courses and experience obtained from activities.
Another possibility is determining evidence for skills they learned or goals they accomplished through courses and activities. ePortfolios can even present various perspectives on any topic that is of interest to the instructor. [6]
For supplementary examples of well-done screencasts, check out the Centre for Teaching Excellence webpage on screencasts. A few popular ePortfolio websites include WIX.com, SiteBuilder.com, and GoDaddy.
2. Online discussion groups
Common problems:
- My students don’t ask questions in class
- My students don’t participate in class discussions
- My students have difficulty clearly formulating or articulating their questions
- I don’t have time to take questions during class
- I have too many students to make in-class discussions feasible
- My students use my office hours for trivial or administrative questions [1]
Online discussion groups are popular. This includes backchannel tools online, forums, blogs, and even social media (the latter of which may not be the most productive form of course discussion!).
Backchannel is the concept of chit-chatter going on between students during a lecture. The idea behind backchannel tools is to direct course-related conversations or backchannel going on in lectures, onto an online platform where questions and answers are recorded. This is a good idea because many students would rather text about the lecture than raise their hand.
In fact, a 2012 study by PEW Research Centre found that the average student sends 60 texts per day [7]. In addition, cell phones cannot be easily banned from lectures even though there are instructors and students who find them distracting. This is because they are often used to assist students with learning disabilities or those without a means of recording notes such as pens, paper, or a computer [7].
Additionally, backchannel tools serve to take what students love and encourage them to use them to ask and answer questions. This goes for the other forms of online discussion groups mentioned previously.
There are multiple reasons why online discussion groups should be a part of every single course. First, they achieve to get students from social anxiety to get their questions answered.
Actually most students don’t raise their hands though they have questions about the material and this is most likely due to looking unintelligent in front of their peers and their instructor. Online discussion groups allow anonymous submissions, which serves to benefit timid students.
Second, they are effective for gathering frequently asked questions (FAQs) which save instructors precious time because they will not have to think about common questions when they can instead tally all questions that occur or conduct a vote on which specific ones should be answered by using online discussion groups.
Instructors can narrow in on the frequently asked questions (FAQs) they discover and answer those rather than letting students ask questions during the lecture.
Third, the instructor may be able to better explain questions ahead of time when they recover frequently asked questions (FAQs) from an online discussion board. These explanations may benefit them in the future when they have to teach the course to a fresh new room of students.
Fourth, students are more likely to retain material from lectures with online discussion boards present. Backchannel tools allow for questions and answers to be provided by fellow students during and after lectures. Students not paying attention to the instructor and instead to their phone can check an online discussion board to keep up. [7]
https://learn.uwaterloo.ca/d2l/home/333889
https://learn.uwaterloo.ca/d2l/home/333889
https://learn.uwaterloo.ca/d2l/le/333889/discussions/topics/264427/View
A great starting place of an online discussion group is on an instructor’s course in LEARN Students can go to the course of interest; click Connect on the top taskbar, then Discussions. From there, instructors and students can make discussion groups called threads, which members of the course including teaching assistants can reply too.
Recognized backchannel tools include Hotseat, Question Cookie, and Tricider.
1. Clickers
Common problems:
- My students come to class unprepared
- My students don’t ask questions in class
- My students don’t participate in class discussions
- I don’t know if students are keeping up or understanding material
- I have too many students to make in-class discussions feasible
- My students seem bored during my lectures [1]
Clickers, or iClickers as the University of Waterloo (UW) students know them as, are used in many courses. In fact, “approximately 5000 students use clickers every term” [8]. IClickers are used to answer multiple-choice questions either on the projector screen or on chalkboard.
Questions may be concepts from the previous lectures, in which students may try to solve independently or backchannel. They could also be self-assessment questions that are not necessarily for marks. Afterwards, the answers students give are displayed on a bar graph [8].
Like online discussion boards, there are multiple reasons why clickers should be in every course.
First, they can serve doing quizzes, assessments, and even attendance.
Second, they allow the instructor to know if students understand course material, especially if the class is quiet and does not raise their hands [8].
Third, clickers are scientifically proven to increase student engagement during lectures.
Statistically speaking, faculty agreed by as much as 94% on clickers resulting in increased student engagement [8]. Beyond this, an article by Jane E. Caldwell in 2007 highlights that:
“when clicker scores accounted for 15% or more of the course grade, attendance rose to 80-90%” [8].
Check out the Centre for Teaching Excellence web page on clickers to learn more about how they are used, their benefits, how to effectively use them, and other clicker options [8].
The brand iClicker is the most widely used at the University of Waterloo and students can buy them at the University of Waterloo Bookstore for about $42 [8].
References
[1] Technology solutions. (2015, July 26). Retrieved October 11, 2017, from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/resources/educational-technologies/technology-solutions
[2] Screencasts. (2016, November 10). Retrieved October 13, 2017, from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/educational-technologies/all/screencasts
[3] Six key benefits of screencasts in learning Maths | Recent Trends in Social and Behaviour Sciences. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2017, from http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/abs/10.1201/b16658-50
[4] Screencasts. (2016, November 10). Retrieved October 13, 2017, from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/educational-technologies/all/screencasts
[5] Becoming Reflexive Practitioners - Rec 351. (2017, October 12). Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/becoming-reflexive-practitioners-rec-351
[6] ePortfolios. (2017, October 12). Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/resources/integrative-learning/eportfolios
[7] Backchannel Tools. (2016, November 10). Retrieved October 13, 2017, from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/creating-positive-learning-environment/backchannel-tools
[8] Clickers. (2017, August 28). Retrieved October 14, 2017, from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/educational-technologies/all/clickers
