September 1999

In this issue:

New look, new name

Welcome to Teaching Matters, a new publication from TRACE. This newsletter combines our former publications, Instructional Development at Waterloo and On Track, into one, opening up the teaching community at Waterloo and encouraging a sharing of ideas and resources amongst all Waterloo instructors. Our former teaching assistant workshop series is also open to all Waterloo instructors. So watch for our new look on workshop flyers and future newsletters. And read on to find out more about teaching matters

Screen design

Web sites, course pages, and multimedia course components are changing the educational environment. But what is known about effective design for these devices? Two recent articles look specifically at the issue of screen design.

Lee and Boling (1999) provide guidelines for screen design to improve motivational appeal for instruction. The authors examine 77 books and articles relating to screen design, identify available guidelines, and then provide a framework for their use. The guidelines are sorted into the categories of typography, graphical images, colour, animation, and audio. The authors also provide a set of integrative guidelines which examine the overall visual effect of the screen. Each guideline is referenced by the source(s) it came from.

Guidelines on typography provide advice on font, screen layout, and contrast. They also consider the use of signals and cueing. Signals are things like titles and headings. Cues involve accentuating single words, phrases, or paragraphs. An example of a guideline on typography is: "Use both upper and lower case letters. The legibility of text with letters in mixed case, i.e., with capitals only used for indicating the first letter of a sentence, a name, etc., is higher than for letters in upper case only. All upper case characters should be used only occasionally, and for the purposes of emphasis."

Graphical images (symbols, diagrams, and illustrations) are useful for attracting and maintaining attention and facilitating learning from text materials. Guideline: "Use simple, clear images. Simple images are more effective for instruction than complex images." Colour is also useful for manipulating attention. Guideline: "Use a bright colour to cue the learner to new information, while presenting the remainder of the information in standard colours consistent with the rest of the screen."

The authors also indicate that animation can help learners visualize dynamic processes. Guideline: "Use graphical animation to explicitly represent highly abstract and dynamic concepts in science, including time-dependent processes." However, not much research has been done on the use of audio in interactive multimedia. Some basic advice is provided though: "Use voices or speech for providing information. When speech is used as the mainstream provider of information, text of the spoken words should appear on the screen."

The integrative guidelines are drawn mostly from traditional visual design. Guideline: "Be consistent in the appearance, location, and behavior of screen elements and ensure that screen elements with similar functions share similar appearance, location, and behavior."

Szabo, M. and Kanuka, H. (1998) examine the effects of violating screen design principles on learning. They found no differences between achievement scores of subjects who used a lesson with good design principles and subjects who used a lesson with poor design principles. However, subjects who used the lesson with good design principles completed the lesson in less time and had a higher completion rate than those who used the lesson with poor design principles. Szabo and Kanuka's results on achievement are consistent with the literature in that differences in educational method seldom produce differences in achievement scores. The important findings in this study are the increased efficiency in learning and the increased completion rate that was found with good screen design.

The Szabo and Kanuka article also provides an introduction to the design principles of unity, focal point, and balance. These are the principles they varied in their study.

Spotlight on teaching techniques

In the Fall 1998 issue of Instructional Development at Waterloo, TRACE offered faculty a free teaching journal in exchange for feedback on usage. We followed up with those faculty who requested a journal and decided to profile one user as an example of the potential uses and benefits of a teaching journal.

Carolyn MacGregor an assistant professor in Waterloo's systems design engineering department has found the journal to be very helpful. When she began using it last fall, she started by recording personal reactions about her teaching - how she felt about what worked and what did not. She also tried to make an entry after every class. However, she quickly found that she could make better use of the journal by making entries weekly and by writing about more generalized teaching issues. 

Carolyn started recording new ideas for activities or methods she wanted to try in her classroom as well as evaluations of things she had tried, such as a new design for course notes where students annotate the notes and an exercise on how to read a textbook. She gleaned these ideas by reading education literature and talking with colleagues about their classroom practices. At the end of term, she reviewed her weekly notes for each course and prepared a synopsis of what went well and what she would like to change for next time. The journal's two-page spread helped to organize this end-of-term analysis, with each page holding either positive or negative feedback.

The journal has also helped Carolyn better understand and articulate her philosophy as a teacher. Her entries have helped her identify the principles that she really wants to maintain in her teaching. It has also made her aware of her desire to shift her role in the classroom away from the "traditional" lecture style where students passively listen to material and towards that of a coach by including hands-on training that encourage students to be active learners. Carolyn now collects teaching ideas in her journal to help her achieve that shift. For example, she regularly uses the quantum teaching model recommended by DePorter, Reardon, and Singer-Nourie* (1999) for organizing lectures. This model encourages teachers to include the following components in every lecture: enroll students in the lecture goal or concept, allow them to first experience the concept at some level, label the main concept components, allow time for students to demonstrate what they know, review the concept, and celebrate their efforts.

Carolyn identified many benefits to keeping a teaching journal. First, it keeps your ideas about teaching all in one place, making them easy to locate. Next, it can help you articulate a teaching philosophy which you can then convey to your students so they can better understand where you are coming from and what they should be striving for. The journal has also made her think more actively about her students - their learning styles, their interests, their concerns, their work load. 

Perhaps the greatest benefit, though, has been the journal's value in helping her take risks in the classroom. The journal has allowed Carolyn to reflect on new activities she has tried in a more objective way, helping her focus on what she has learned from each activity and what changes she could make for another time if any are required. In this way, the journal provides a perspective on her teaching that is much deeper than that of course evaluations.

Her advice to others? Follow your own journalling style. Write daily, weekly, monthly whatever works best for you. You may also need to experiment with a few different styles of entries to see how you can optimize your use of the journal. There are question prompts inside the journal's front cover which you may find helpful in generating ideas. Carolyn did not respond to all of them, but she did find many reassuring since they outline common teaching problems (e.g., "Did I lose the class' attention? If so, how can I keep them involved?")

In keeping the journal, you need to make a commitment to yourself to do it. However, the benefits may be even more far-reaching since, as Carolyn notes, "Knowing that teaching is an important component of the tenure and merit review process, the journal may help generate ideas on how to work towards becoming a better teacher. It may also be a source of ideas for mentoring other new lecturers in the future."

*DePorter, B., Reardon, M., & Singer-Nourie, S. (1999). Quantum Teaching. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Surviving your first day of class

The first day of class sets the tone for the rest of the term. The following suggestions outline general strategies and address two important tasks of the first day: handling administrative matters and setting course expectations.

General strategies

  • Visit the classroom before the first meeting. Get comfortable speaking in the room and see how well your voice carries. Check any audiovisual equipment you will be using and make sure your handwriting is legible from the back of the classroom.
  • Build a sense of community in the classroom. Make an effort to get to know your students and express your interest in working with them during the semester.
  • Set a positive tone for the term. Greet students when they enter the classroom, encourage questions, give students the opportunity to talk, and stay after class to answer questions.

Administrative Tasks

  • Hand out and discuss the course syllabus. Hearing questions about the course or the instructor on the first day identifies the concerns that are uppermost in the students' minds.
  • Discuss the objectives of the course. As specifically as possible, tell your students what you wish to accomplish and why, but also inquire what they wish to learn.
  • Invite students to attend your office hours. Be sure students know where your office is located and encourage them to stop by with questions and course-related problems.

Setting Course Expectations

  • Define expectations for student participation. Besides submitting written assignments and taking exams, what do you expect of students during class?
  • Explain campus policies on academic honesty. State your expectations, and let students know what you regard as cheating and impermissible collaboration.
  • Work through a problem or piece of material that illustrates the course content. Engaging students in actual work during the first class session gives them an idea of what your class will be like.

(Adapted from Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis)
 

Educational reform

If each of us would identify the one change that would be most effective in improving our students' learning environment, figure how that change can be implemented without undue burden on our time and energy, and try it out in the upcoming semester, we could garner a tremendous amount of information - and even perhaps some collective wisdom. If that process continues long term there would be very little need for special projects and systemic programs of reform. We would all be carrying out reform, slowly but surely, all the time.

- John W. Moore, Journal of Chemical Education, 76, 149. 

This advice is very good. But, how do you identify the one change? A good source of ideas is the information provided by your students on the course evaluation instruments. Course evaluation instruments are, as Bill Pallett (1999) stated, "overemphasized and underutilized." They are overemphasized when they account for too much of the evaluation of teaching for tenure, promotion, and merit pay and underutilized by faculty who fail to attend to the issues raised in the evaluations. 

One effective way to use the information presented by your students is to organize the open-ended comments with the use of a word processor. Just put similar comments together. Often there will be a number of students who make the same point - either positive or negative. Maintain your behaviours that have positive comments and build on them if possible. Look closely at the negatives. Are there one or two that many students mention? If so, think about how to make a change that speaks to one of the areas of concern mentioned. Make the change at your next appropriate teaching opportunity and evaluate if that change helped. Evaluation can be done by using a mid-term feedback exercise or by examining the end of term evaluations to see if the concern is still present. The mid-term feedback technique is preferable because it allows for another adjustment, if necessary, before the end of the course. 

If you like, TRACE can assist with this process. We will need your course evaluations -- both the scale results and the open-ended comments. We will organize them and indicate what we think you should consider for change. We can also run a mid-term course feedback exercise with your students. These services are, of course, completely confidential. If interested, please call Donna Ellis (x 5713) or Gary Griffin (x 2579).

Classrooms update

The winter 1999 Instructional Development at Waterloo newsletter contained a survey asking for comments on specific classrooms that faculty members liked or disliked. A number of concerns about specific rooms and equipment in rooms were identified and reported in the spring 1999 newsletter. The concerns raised about specific classrooms were sorted into three groups -- audio visual (AV) related, general maintenance issues, and need for renovation -- and then sent to AV and Plant Operations for their consideration. Some of the concerns identified have been addressed.

AV has purchased a number of new replacement overhead projectors which will alleviate the problems with old and damaged overhead projectors reported for rooms like arts lecture 105. As well, a non-functioning microphone has been repaired and other issues are being dealt with as funds become available.

Many of the maintenance items have been completed by Plant Operations. However, some like burned out lamps and broken chairs will reoccur with use. Classrooms with burnt out light, no chalk, etc. should be reported to Scheduling (x 2743).

The biggest renovation project completed has been Physics 145 and 150. We have already received some feedback on those rooms and have sent the comments to Plant Operations. However, we would like to hear from other instructors using the rooms. 

Rooms with ventilation problems were examined and corrections made when possible. Five rooms on the fourth floor of MC have had air quality sensors added to increase the fresh air to rooms when they are occupied.

If you have concerns about any classrooms, please let TRACE know. We are becoming more involved in classroom design and maintenance issues and need information from you to be as effective as possible in providing teaching spaces that work well for you. Concerns can be sent to Gary Griffin at TRACE (email: griffin@watarts, phone x 2579).

Update on the Certificate in University Teaching

The Certificate in University Teaching (CUT) program offered by TRACE and the Graduate Studies Office is proving to be a big hit! As of the end of April 1999, there were 82 students enrolled in the program from all disciplines. To date, 19 students have completed GS 901 - Preparation for University Teaching I and one student has completed GS 903 - Teaching Practicum. These students will have the courses recorded on their official Waterloo transcript.

The CUT offers students a way of developing their teaching skills and is a great professional development tool - one that hiring committees may be eager to see. For more information on the CUT program, visit the TRACE website at www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infotrac/tacert.html or contact Donna Ellis at ext. 5713.

Teaching assistant award winners

Several departments at Waterloo honour outstanding teaching assistants with awards. Here is a list of recent winners:
 

Faculty of Engineering 
Civil

C. Flaman
Electrical & Computer

B. Bishop
Management Science

O. Hagerty
Mechanical
A. Ashrafizaadeh
F. Ham
R. Chen
A. Parlour

Faculty of Mathematics - Statistics and Actuarial Science
R. Rosychuk
M. Zhan
J. Horrocks
C. Boudreau
L. Cowen

Faculty of Science - Chemistry
B. Bogdanov
D. DeSouza
M. Ditty
S. Dick
M. Duncan
G. Hager
Z. He
S. Houliston
A. Kee
M. Mohammed
H. Montgomery
S. Schreyer
W. Vander Wilp
L. Wang

Congratulations to all!

Teaching assistant checklist: Questions to ask

Whether you are a new teaching assistant (TA) or an experienced TA for a course that is new to you, you need to know exactly what your responsibilities may be. The following is a list of questions to help you clarify your role, taken from Handbook for Teaching Assistants, University of Delaware, 1989.

  • What is my role? Will I be lecturing, leading discussions, running a tutorial, conducting labs, and/or grading?
  • If I will be leading discussions, how should I run the sessions? Should I stay close to the text or the lectures? Should I encourage all students to talk or should I do most of the talking? Should I only deal with students' problems in discussions?
  • If I will be conducting labs, what is the scope of my responsibilities? Do I obtain and/or keep track of supplies and materials? Do I design or revise experiments? Do I give demonstrations? What do I do in case of emergency or accident?
  • If I am to evaluate/grade papers, projects, reports, quizzes, exams, and/or student participation, are the criteria for assigning grades clear? Is the process/formula for determining a final grade clear? Who reviews disputed grades?
  • What audio visual (AV) equipment do I need to know how to use? And how do I obtain AV equipment?
  • How much autonomy will I have to present new ideas or use different teaching methods? 
  • How many office hours should I hold and when?
  • What should I do, whom should I contact, if I am unable to attend a class/lab/tutorial?

Getting answers to these questions may take time, but knowing the answers will help you approach your new task with confidence.

Announcing the fall 1999 TRACE events

TRACE will be offering many interesting and informative workshops in the fall term which are open to all Waterloo instructors. They are as follows:

Tuesday, September 28 - Facilitating effective discussions
Thursday, October 7th or Monday, November 1st - Teaching dossiers, part 1
Wednesday, October 20th - Assessment methods
Tuesday, November 16th - The job interview in academia

For more specific details, watch for flyers in your department and via the Certificate listserv. If you would like to join the listserv, please email trace@watserv1. Each workshop is followed by an informal discussion group one week following the workshop.

CUT participants, please note that all of these workshops partially fulfill CUT requirements for GS 901 and 902. The teaching dossier workshop is a required workshop for the CUT.