An educator calls for a new, student-centered education model, and a professor’s experiment involving students in their own grading process yields surprising results.

Making the Grade
In response to a question about making grading collaborative, Cate Denial decided to craft a process that includes student self-evaluations and individual conferences during which she and the student agree upon a grade. In the process, she found that grading can indeed be fun and collaborative. (Cate Denial)

A Newer Education for Our Era
Cathy Davidson calls for a “new education” model in which faculty and administrators promote student-centered learning over credential-centered learning. Among several examples, she points to Michael Wesch, who tasks students with creating educational video games to help people consider end-of-life decisions. (The Chronicle of Higher Education — Paywall)

So We Went to Prison…
Teaching in prison instilled in Katie Owens-Murphy, Christopher W. Purser, and Yaschica Williams lessons they took back to their university. They learned, for example, that small discussion groups foster stronger collaboration. They also discovered that inmates bring perspectives that aren’t always represented in academic settings. (Vitae)

Taking on the Teaching Free-for-All in Higher Education
It’s time to place the student experience at the center of higher education, Oldrich Bubak writes, arguing that there should be clear learning outcomes for students and that teacher preparation should include a set of standards for effective instruction. (University Affairs)

7 Key Ways to Make Student Mentoring Matter
According to Laura Behling, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Paul Miller, and W. Brad Johnson, faculty-student mentoring relies on quality relationships that endure over time. The scholars outline strategies for institutions to promote mentoring, such as defining what good mentoring looks like, offering faculty continual training opportunities, and rewarding positive outcomes. (Inside Higher Ed)

Partner News

Teaching in Higher Ed: Finding Good Partners (Teaching in Higher Ed)

University of Montana: Montana campuses commit to improving outcomes for students (Missoulian)

The best way to advance and recognize the rightful place of faculty in student success efforts is to invest in and demonstrate the impact of evidence-based instruction on student achievement. So argues the American Council on Education (ACE), with whom ACUE collaborates, in a new white paper released this week. The report explores the benefits of institutions making a commitment to high-quality teaching, including improved retention rates, persistence, and success among students. Institutional Commitment to Teaching Excellence: Assessing the Impacts and Outcomes of Faculty Development also responds to a question critical to practitioners in our field: How can faculty developers and teaching center directors demonstrate the measurable impact of their work and play a central role in student success efforts?

“High-quality instruction has been the backbone of an American higher education system that remains the envy of the world,” says Molly Corbett Broad, ACE president emerita, in the paper. “But how to measure effective teaching and gauge its impact on an ever more diverse population of students is vital if we are to dramatically increase the number of Americans able to earn a college degree.”

Commissioned by ACE as part of its collaboration with the Strada Education Network to assess the connections between quality teaching and student success, the paper is authored by a number of respected scholars in teaching and learning and features exemplars of institutions committed to evidence-based instruction.

• Catherine Haras reports on work at California State University, Los Angeles (an ACUE partner), which she directs through their Center for Effective Teaching and Learning.
• Linda Nilson, who is featured in ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching Practices, coauthors a chapter on the intended teaching effectiveness outcomes for instructors and faculty development.
• Rutgers University-Newark, another ACUE partner, is presented as a model for making teaching excellence a critical lever of its strategic plan. RU-N is credentialing nearly three quarters of its educators in evidence-based teaching practices as part of a comprehensive effort to increase graduation rates.

Adrianna Kezar, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, codirector of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, and director of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, praised the report, noting, “Most student success initiatives have focused on efforts outside of the classroom, such as advising and mentoring. While these are important, study after study demonstrates that students’ experiences in the classroom and with faculty are one of the most important factors in student outcomes ranging from persistence, graduation, sense of belonging, and academic self-efficacy to other important psychosocial outcomes associated with learning and graduation. . . . This publication provides a compelling articulation of the standards and activities faculty developers should engage with to enhance the teaching and learning environment on campus.”

During class, who’s doing most of the work—you or your students? If it’s you, then you may be falling into an all-too-common teaching trap, informed by the way many of us were taught. It’s key to remember the adage “the person doing the work is doing the learning.”

ACUE fields many questions about active learning, particularly from STEM instructors seeking to transform their classrooms with student-centered practices. In this month’s Expert Dive, Dr. Paul Blowers, distinguished professor of chemical engineering at the University of Arizona, shares how he incorporates teaching practices that engage students as well as his efforts to promote the widespread use of active learning practices across his field.

To learn more about Paul’s work, look for the following in the upcoming weeks:

• Paul is posting an essay on The Q Blog about how to avoid common pitfalls when implementing active learning techniques in your STEM class for the first time.
• Paul will be chatting with Bonni Stachowiak on the Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast.
• You can submit your questions about active learning to our community forum. If you post a question by November 17th, Paul will respond to it in an online office hour.

Each month, ACUE’s Expert Dive series takes a “deep dive” into some of the most pressing issues and topics in higher ed instruction, with nationally recognized experts leading the conversation and responding to your questions. Upcoming topics include supporting diversity and inclusion, developing career-ready students, and promoting the use of high-impact practices.

This week, professors offer suggestions for teaching midsemester, such as providing materials to prepare students for receiving their first big grade and remembering to focus on the student experience when taking over a course from another instructor.

Making It Okay to Ask for Help
Because many freshmen are discouraged by their first “big” grade in college, Natasha Jankowski advises faculty to prepare students early by giving quizzes, sharing examples of well-written papers, and providing grading rubrics. (The Chronicle of Higher Education Teaching Newsletter)

Once Reviled, Wikipedia Now Embraced by Many Professors
Wikipedia has become a teaching tool for many instructors. Robert Cummings, for one, tasks students with writing entries as a reminder that college involves producing information as well as consuming it and notes that Wikipedia promotes collaboration and fact verification. (EdSurge)

Should College Professors Give ‘Tech Breaks’ in Class?
Probing the issue of college students’ dependence on technology, Barbara King wonders whether “tech breaks”—short periods during class when students may check their phones—might encourage them to better focus on lessons. (NPR.org)

Taking Over a Class Mid-Semester
When instructors replace colleagues midway through a course, they should try to limit the impact on students, Jason Jones advises. He suggests focusing on the student experience over the instructor’s by getting to know students as quickly as possible and not altering the syllabus or reading list too much. (ProfHacker)

Do We Kill the Liberal Arts When We Demonize People for Their Ideas?
People learn less when their views go unchallenged, Wesleyan University President Michael Roth writes. He urges institutions to hire faculty with political, intellectual, and cultural differences, which will encourage students to think about what they believe. (The Hechinger Report)

When You Don’t Want to Do the Writing
To relieve the tedium of dull writing assignments, John Warner suggests faculty encourage students to “embrace their inner curmudgeons” and view these assignments as opportunities to express their values. (Just Visiting)

Building Community Through a Syllabus
Z Nicolazzo created the #TransingHigherEdSyllabus to promote work related to transgender populations in higher education. Pushing for more gender-expansive environments and opportunities, the syllabus also serves as an educational tool for cisgender people. (Inside Higher Education)

Partner News

University of Detroit Mercy: ReBUILDetroit offers faculty course in effective teaching practices (ReBUILDetroit)

University of Southern Mississippi: USM Partners with Universities on Advanced Economic Development Program (Southern Miss Now)

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities: Community college merger plan unveiled (CT Post)

You’re on a road trip but are uncertain whether you’re headed in the right direction. What do you do? You can either continue on your way and hope you arrive at your destination or ask someone in the area how to get there. If you choose the first option, you might be successful—or you may later realize you made a wrong turn and are completely lost. With the alternate option, however, you can gather the information needed to make your next turns with the confidence that you are following the best route and will reach your destination.

Collecting feedback from your students is much like pausing midway along a road trip to confirm if you’re headed in the right direction, while you still have time to adjust your path. Although it’s important to collect summative feedback at the end of the semester, it’s more helpful to the students currently sitting in your classroom if you have a planned checkpoint and can act on students’ responses. By making adjustments, you enhance students’ learning experiences, communicate to students that you value their feedback, and demonstrate that you practice what you preach—just as you encourage your students to use the feedback you provide them to progress in your courses, you use their feedback to refine your teaching practice and create greater opportunity for achievement.

There are a number of evidence-based practices for collecting midsemester feedback (e.g., Stop-Start-Continue, Point-of-View Postcards, etc.). In this post, Julie Candio Sekel, a member of the team that helped develop ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching Practices, shares a two-tiered method as another possible model.

Model Overview

Since metacognition is critical to students becoming self-directed learners, I use midsemester surveys as opportunities for students to think about how their assignment preparation and efforts correspond with their performance in the course. This can be accomplished at the assignment- or assessment-level with an exam wrapper or a cognitive wrapper, which are question sets students complete after submitting an assignment or exam to reflect on their preparation, or on a larger scale with a midsemester “wrapper.” In the sections that follow, I outline the two surveys that my students complete so I can collect and act on their feedback.

Feedback That Benefits Students

I adjusted the questions included on Bowen’s cognitive wrapper template for the first part of my midcourse survey with the following questions:

• How much time do you spend preparing (reading, writing, and reviewing notes) for this course each week?
• What percentage of your total preparation time do you spend on each course activity? (A checklist is included.)
• On which assignment or activity were you most successful, and why were you successful (i.e., what preparation strategies did you use)?
• What do you plan to do in the second half of the semester to better prepare for course discussions and assignments?

I ask students to respond to these questions at the start of the class session and then meet with them individually for a portion of the class period. To prepare for this class session, I calculate students’ current grades to discuss with them, which ensures transparency and quantifies how students are doing. To keep the entire class engaged during the individual meetings, I plan a group-based activity with an accountability component—students either need to submit group work for a grade or share their responses aloud at the end of the class period.

During my time with the students, I ask them to share key takeaways from their question responses. I provide students’ cumulative grades and propose two strengths and two areas for improvement that I’ve identified based on their performance. By completing the “midsemester wrapper” questions, students think critically about and can articulate their own strengths and need areas, making them receptive to feedback in our one-on-one sessions and confident to set a plan for the second half of the semester.

I understand that my smaller class size allows me to meet with students individually, which may not be possible for all instructors; however, instructors of large classes can have all students complete the questions adapted from Bowen’s template and then request, privately, for students who are struggling to attend their office hours to review responses.

Feedback That Benefits the Instructor

While information collected from the first four questions helps students, it also helps me gauge whether the amount of time students spend preparing and the strategies they use are aligned with my expectations. Additionally, I find it useful to ask students questions they can respond to anonymously (many of which are also metacognitive) to guide me in making changes for the remainder of the semester. On a separate handout, or using an online survey tool, I ask students the questions listed below. Next to each question, I’ve stated what I learn from students’ responses and what action I take as a result.

As the table shows, an action plan is embedded in the collection of this midsemester feedback (in the column “What I Do”). After reviewing students’ feedback and identifying patterns in their responses, I determine—based on frequency and substance—which responses I can and should use to plan adjustments. Most importantly, I communicate the adjustments I make to students. What this models for students is that they, too, should apply what they learned from completing the midsemester surveys to improve their own preparation and study habits both in this course and in their other courses.

Julie Candio Sekel is the director of video production at ACUE. 

One professor describes how Google’s research on teamwork can be applied to higher education, and another explains how instructors can rediscover their excitement for teaching.

How the Provost Can Help Students Succeed
Mark Canada has led two major student success initiatives. Here, he describes ways provosts can help students achieve, such as encouraging faculty to experiment with their teaching and creating “space” to share ideas and encourage initiatives focused on student success. (The Chronicle of Higher Education — Paywall)

Why I Don’t Take Attendance
While taking roll may make sense in some cases, Kelli Marshall finds many benefits to avoiding it. She suggests that not taking attendance cultivates responsibility in students, curbs disruptions, and encourages instructors to assess their teaching when class attendance is sparse. (Vitae)

Disabled in Graduate School: When You Tell Me a Disability Story
A graduate student explains why instructors should refrain from passing judgement on students who need accommodations, sharing examples of times professors made unfair assumptions about students with disabilities. (GradHacker)

What Google’s Team Research Can Teach Higher Ed
Google’s research on teamwork can be applied to faculty in higher education, Michael Harris writes. For instance, rather than focusing on building a “dream team” of individual superstars, groups function better when the emphasis is placed on team dynamics and team members believe their work matters. (Higher Ed Professor)

The Lesson-Plan Challenge
Anne Curzan requires herself to be excited about a lesson plan before she can call it finished. She advises faculty to rediscover their curiosity and passion for their content and find ways to get their students energized to learn the material. (Lingua Franca)

Partner News

Connecticut State Colleges and Universities: CSCU Leader Proposes Consolidating Community Colleges Into One System (Hartford Courant)

University of Nevada, Reno: University named Award of Excellence Finalist for ‘Place + Innovation’ (Nevada Today)

West Virginia University: Innovative Teachers for Tomorrow’s Careers (Inside Higher Ed)

The Kauffman Foundation: Community gives students a hand with KC Scholars (Kansas City Star)

We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce our collaboration with Dr. Bonni Stachowiak and the Teaching in Higher Ed (TiHE) podcast. Welcome, Bonni! Great discussion is the mainstay of learning, and Bonni is one of the best conversationalists we know. As creator and host of TiHE, her 174 episodes (and counting!) share insights through informative and fun interviews with leading experts, including ACUE’s own chief academic officer, Penny MacCormack. More and more people are tuning into podcasts for news, information, and entertainment. It’s another way we can expand the national conversation about the importance of effective college teaching.

“When we discovered how many former Teaching in Higher Ed guests had also been featured in ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching Practices, we knew that our beliefs about great teaching were in alignment,” Bonni said. “Since those early conversations, ACUE has introduced me to even more phenomenal educators. I am excited about the ways we will be able work together to allow for more high quality learning experiences in higher education.”

As part of ACUE and TiHE’s new collaboration, we’ll be blogging about popular conversations, hosting expert Q&As, and adding sights to the sounds with video excerpts from ACUE’s course library. ACUE members and podcast fans alike can look forward to these free resources as part of ACUE’s upcoming Expert Dive series.

If you’re new to the TiHE podcast, check out our top 10 recommended episodes with a number of experts whose work is explored in detail in ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching Practices.

#1 Teaching Lessons from the Road with Penny MacCormack, ACUE

#2 Motivating Students in Large Classes with Brenda Gunderson, a senior lecturer at the University of Michigan, whose practices to engage and motivate students are featured in multiple ACUE modules, such as Using Active Learning Techniques in Large Classes, and on ACUE’s community site, where you can see exclusive footage of Dr. Gunderson doing a cartwheel during class

#3 Teaching Naked Techniques with José Bowen, president of Goucher College; ACUE subject matter expert for the modules Engaging Underprepared Students, Embracing Diversity in Your Classroom, and Using Student Achievement and Feedback to Improve Your Teaching; and an ACUE community site contributor

#4 Teach Students How to Learn with Saundra McGuire, author of Teach Students How to Learn, who shares strategies in ACUE’s course for supporting unprepared students

#5 Engage the Heart and Mind Through the Connected Classroom with Ken Bauer from the Tecnológico de Monterrey

#6 Radical Hope – A Teaching Manifesto with Kevin Gannon, regular contributor to the Teaching United States History blog

#7 Engaging Learners with TEDx Speaker and Professor of English Gardner Campbell

#8 Small Teaching with James Lang, author of Small Teaching

#9 The Skillful Teacher with our friend Stephen Brookfield, featured in numerous ACUE modules, including Planning an Effective Class Session, Delivering an Effective Lecture, and Developing Self-Directed Learners, and on the community with advice on teaching from the back row

#10 Flipped Out with Derek Bruff, who discusses using concept maps and other visualization tools in ACUE’s course