Designing Effective and Innovative Courses Barbara J. Tewksbury Department of Geosciences Hamilton College [email protected]

Designing Effectiveand Innovative Courses

Barbara J. TewksburyDepartment of Geosciences

Hamilton [email protected]

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops

Interview questions

Interview and prepare to introduce the person sitting next to you. Find out:• Name, institution• What course is she/he designing or

redesigning?• What excites him/her about the prospect

of designing and teaching this course?• What concerns does she/he have about

designing and teaching this course?

Aims of this workshop

Take you through a process to design an effective, innovative, and challenging course• Students learn significant and appropriate

content and skills• Students have practice in thinking for

themselves and solving problems in the discipline

• Students leave the course prepared to use their knowledge and skills in the future

What kind ofcourse are we after?

“Challenging courses are those that lead students into situations where the only way out is through thinking”

Iris Weiss, 2005, unpub. materials from an NRC-MSP conference

How are coursescommonly designed?

Make list of content items important to coverage of the field

Develop syllabus by organizing items into topical outline

Flesh out topical items in lectures, recitations, discussions, labs

Test knowledge learned in course

What’s missing??

Articulation of what your students need

Articulation of goals beyond content/coverage goals

Deliberate consideration of strategies to achieve goals beyond content goals

Plan for evaluation of success

An alternativegoals-based approach

Brings same kind of introspection, intellectual rigor, systematic documentation, and evaluation to teaching that each of us brings to our research

Really shakes the tree and designs the course from the bottom up

Assessment falls out naturally

Overview of the workshop

Articulating context and audience Setting goals

• Setting overarching goals• Setting ancillary skills goals• Choosing content to achieve the goals

Developing a course plan• Exploring teaching strategies • Developing a course outline with

assignments, activities and assessments to give students practice in goals-related tasks

Following through

Does it work?

7 years of workshops on Designing Effective and Innovative Courses in the Geosciences

Now part of NSF-funded On the Cutting Edge program (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops)

New online tutorial An effective design template !!Not the only way to design a course!!

An aside on terminology

Design model is goals-focused Terminology: goals vs. objectives vs.

outcomes vs. learning goals vs. learning objectives vs. learning outcomes• Geology faculty at our workshops largely

not fluent in edu-speak• Some have encountered terms defined

differently in different venues• Our workshop participants wasted time

and energy coping with the distinctions


The problem with the word “learning”• The brown bread example

brown bread

brown bread

brown bread


The problem with the word “learning”• “I am in the middle of learning

research techniques in geomicrobiology.”

• “I am finding out more about learning research in the geosciences.”

Ditto learning objectives and learning outcomes


For our workshops, we have collapsed goals, objectives and outcomes into one standard English term “goals”.

Goals for us will be concrete and measurable (“My goal in life is to make a million $$”; “My goal next year is to make the Olympic sock wrestling team.”)

Avoided “learning” as an adjective.

Step I: Context and audience

Our course design process begins with answering the following:• Who are my students?• What do they need?• Can’t set goals effectively until

these questions are answered• What are the constraints and

support structure?

Task: context & constraints

Go to page 1 of the assignments. Answer each question first, and

then, if you have time, go back and consider the challenges and opportunities presented by what you consider to be the most important aspect(s) of context and constraints

Step 2: overarching goals

Teaching is commonly viewed as being teacher-centered.

Reinforced by the teaching evaluation process

Commonly reinforced by how we phrase course goals: “I want to expose my students to….” or “I want to teach my students that…” or “I want to show students that…”


“It dawned on me about two weeks into the first year that it was not teaching that was taking place in the classroom, but learning.”

Pop star Sting, reflecting uponhis early career as a teacher


We can’t do a student’s learning for him/her

Need to set course goals for the students, not the teacher

Goals phrased asstudent-focused goals

At the end of this course, students will be able to…”

Focuses on student learning Helps us get over thinking of

course as an opportunity for teacher to expose students to something or teach them about something

Goals phrased as students being able to do something

What do you want your students to be able to do after they have taken your course?

Which would we rather have?• I want my students to have a strong

background in ____OR

• I want my students to use their strong background in order to do ____

Goals phrased as students being able to do something

Helps us focus beyond content coverage/mastery

Helps us focus beyond the end of the semester – what value has the course added to student lives, abilities, and skill sets?

Helps us see a path from goals to course design - makes very clear what kind of practice students must receive in the course to become good at the “doing”

Goals have potentialto transform a course

Example from an art history course• Survey of art from a particular period

Vs.• Enabling students to go to an art

museum and evaluate technique of an unfamiliar work or evaluate an unfamiliar work in its historical context or evaluate a work in the context of a particular artistic genre/school/style


Example from a math course• Practice in particular techniques (stats,

calc, diff eq)

Vs.• Enabling students to evaluate statistical

claims in the popular press/advertising or analyze applications of calculus in unfamiliar situations or solve unfamiliar real-world problems in science/engineering


Example from a history course• Survey of history of a particular time

periodVs.

• Enabling students to evaluate an unfamiliar event in its historical context or reconstruct an unfamiliar historical event from different viewpoints or a familiar historical event from a new viewpoint or seek out and evaluate information about an unfamiliar historical event


Example from an education course• Survey of results of research on

learningVs.

• Enabling students to design classroom activities for students that are consistent with educational theory and the science of learning.


A course should enable students, at appropriate level, to do what professionals do in the discipline, not just expose them to what professionals know.

So, what do professionals do?

What sorts of things do you do simply because you are a professional in your discipline??• I use the geologic record to reconstruct

the past• I use geologic past to predict the future• I look at houses on floodplains, and

wonder how people could be so stupid• I hear the latest news from Mars and say,

well that must mean that….

So, what do professionals do?

Physicist: predicts outcomes based on calculations from first principles

Art historian: assesses works of art Historian: interprets historical

account in light of the source of information

English prof: analyzes prose/poetry

Task: What do you do?

Your course should enable your students, at appropriate level, to do what you do in your discipline, not just expose them to what you know.

Go to page 5 of the assignments.• In context of general course topic, what do

you do? What does analyze, evaluate, etc. involve?

• Alternatively, what is unique about your world view/the view of your discipline??

Goals involving lowerorder thinking skills tasks

Knowledge, comprehension, application

explain

describe

paraphrase

list

identify

recognize

calculate

know about

prepare

Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills

At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:• List the periods of the geologic time scale• Recognize examples of pointilist art• Label a time line with the dates of major

events leading up to World War I.• Calculate standard deviation for a set of

data• Know about Earth systems

Examples of goals involving lower order thinking skills

At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:• Compare and contrast

transcendentalism and existentialism.• Describe how the Doppler shift

provides information about moving objects, and give an illustrative example.

• Explain how stem cells form and what applications might be developed.

Goals involving higherorder thinking skills tasks

Analysis, synthesis, evaluation, some types of application

predict

interpret

evaluate

derive

design

formulate

analyze

synthesize

create

Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills

At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:• Develop and test age-appropriate

lesson plans.• Analyze an unfamiliar work of art (which

is different form recalling those covered in class)

• Evaluate the historical context of an unfamiliar event.

• Frame a hypothesis and formulate a research plan.

Examples of goals involving higher order thinking skills

At the end of this course, I want students to be able to:• Collect and analyze data in order to ___• Design models of ___• Solve unfamiliar problems in ____ • Find and evaluate information/data on ____• Predict the outcome of ____

Why are overarchinggoals important?

If you want students to be good at something, they must practice.

Goals drive both the course plan and assessment

Goals are the underpinnings of your course and serve as the basis for developing activities to meet those goals.

What kind of goals to set?

Higher order or lower order thinking skills?

Measurable outcomes or not? Abstract or concrete goals?

Setting goals phrased with higher order thinking skills

Overarching goals involving lower order thinking skills are imbedded in ones involving higher order thinking skills

“being able to interpret tectonic settings based on information on physiography, seismicity, and volcanic activity” has imbedded in it many goals involving lower order thinking skills

Setting goals phrased with higher order thinking skills

Helps us focus on developing students’ abilities to think for themselves and solve problems in the discipline while still addressing mastery of content

Helps us integrate assessment from the beginning that goes beyond recall and reiteration

Setting “measurable” goals

Easier to design a course when overarching goals phrased so that you could imagine tasks that students could perform that would show whether they had mastered the content and skills of the course.• I want students to be able to interpret

unfamiliar tectonic settings based on information on physiography, volcanic activity, and seismicity (measurable).

Vs.• I want students to understand plate tectonics

(not directly measurable).

Setting concrete goals

Abstract goals are laudable but difficult to assess directly and difficult translate into practical course design• I want students to appreciate the

complexity of Earth systems.• I want students to think like scientists.

Setting concrete goals helps us get beyond laudable but vague aims

Task: evaluating goals

Go to page 6. Determine if each goal:

• Is student-focused• Involves higher-order thinking skills

tasks• Is a measurable goal• Is concrete, rather than vague and

abstract For goals that don’t measure up, how

would you improve them?

Task: write overarching goals for your course

Go to page 8. Draft overarching goals for your

course 1-3 overarching goals is ideal. There is no one right set of

overarching goals for a particular course topic.

Heed the guidelines!!

On your large Post-It sheet

Your name and institution Course title, level, and # of students Prerequisites, if any Does your course serve as

prerequisite for other courses? Any other important context info First draft of overarching goals

Step 3: Setting ancillaryskills goals

Ancillary skills• Accessing and reading the geologic

literature• Working in teams• Writing and quantitative skills• Critically assessing information on

the web• Self-teaching, peer teaching, oral

presentation

Importance of limiting number of ancillary skills goals

To improve skills, students need repeated practice and timely feedback

Hard to provide adequate practice and feedback unless goals are limited.

Task: write ancillary skills goals for your course

Go to page 9. Set 1-2 ancillary skills goals Make sure that you are prepared

to provide students with practice and timely feedback !!

Step 4: Achieving goals thru selecting content topics

What general content topics could you use to achieve the overarching goals of your course?

Example from ageo hazards course

Overarching goal: students will be able to research and evaluate news reports of a natural disaster and communicate their analyses to someone else

Be able to research and evaluate news reports of a natural disaster and

communicate analyses to someone else

Instructor #1 chose four specific disasters as content topics• 1973 Susquehanna flood• Landsliding in coastal California• Mt. St. Helens• Armenia earthquake



Instructor #2 chose four themes as content topics• Impact of hurricanes on building

codes and insurance• Perception and reality of fire

damage on the environment• Mitigating the effects of volcanic

eruptions• Geologic and sociologic realities of

earthquake prediction



Instructor #3 chose to focus on a historical survey of natural disasters in Vermont• Historical record of flooding in NW

Vermont• 1983 landsliding• 2-3 other places in Vermont that have

had natural disasters of different types.

Goals and content topics unite to provide course framework

Previous example• Single goal; each instructor could achieve

goal even though content topics different• Choice of content topics drives how the

instructor will accomplish the goal.• Students will receive different kinds of

practice during the course even though the overall goal is the same

• Course very different from survey course derived from list of content topics

Goals and content topics unite to provide course framework

How about a different goal for the same hazards course?• Students should be able to evaluate and

predict the influence of climate, hydrology, biology, and geology on the severity of a natural disaster.

• Could we use the same content topics? Yes!

• How would the courses be different? In the activities developed to accomplish the goals and the type of practice students receive!!

Intersection of context, goals, and content

Research & evaluate news report or evaluate and predict influence of climate, hydro, geo, bio on the severity of a natural hazard?

Which goal makes most sense for who your students are and what they need?

Which content topics make the most sense for your students, your setting, your experience, your students’ futures?

Fleshing out content topics

Higher order thinking skills goals have imbedded in them lower order thinking skills goals

Broad content topics have imbedded in them many concepts and content items that would be covered in a standard survey course


Geology and Development of Modern Africa

Not a “Geology of Africa” course Overarching goal: students will be

able to analyze the underlying influence of geology on human events

Context is Africa, although goal is more general


Content topic #1: influence of climate change on prehistoric settlement patterns in North Africa

Imbedded content items• Geologic content knowledge: 14C dating,

fossils, lacustrine sedimentation, stratigraphic columns, using sedimentary rocks to interpret paleoenvironments, geologic time scale,….


Content topic #2: influence of development of East African Rift on hominid evolution

Imbedded content items• Geologic content knowledge: formation

and evolution of continental rifts, radiometirc dating, rift volcanisms, stratigraphic columns, fossils, using sedimentary rocks to interpret paleoenvironments, geologic time scale, fluvial and alluvial processes, faulting, geologic history of East Africa, evolution

Selecting content coverage

A course that is not a survey course can be content-rich

Courses with depth rather than breadth are viable alternative

Topic coverage doesn’t have to be linear

Selecting content coverage

Can meet content expectations for subsequent courses if topics selected carefully

Combination of clearly-stated goals and specific content topics provides clear pathway to designing practice for students in tasks related to the goal

Other examples of choosing broad content topics

Goal: Students will be able to help future elementary school students ID rocks and help them with interpretations

Broad content topics: 3 locations with different bedrock geology around which to build different rock interpretation activities


Goal: Students will be able to use data from recent Mars missions to re-evaluate pre-2004 hypotheses about Mars geologic processes and evolution

Broad content topics: 1) origin of drainage networks, 2) extent of intermediate to silicic rocks, 3) origin of layered rocks


Goal: Students will be able to make observations of rx and thin sections and collect field data to evaluate conditions of deformation and deformation mechanisms responsible for structures and fabrics and, where possible, deformation history in a sequence of rocks.

Broad content topics: three case studies, 1) brittle def features in Capitol Reef, 2) brittle and ductile features in SW Tibet, 3) ditto in eastern NY state with wrap-up field trip

Task: choose content topics to achieve overarching goals

Go to page10. List your overarching goal(s). For each, list possible broad content

topics that you could use to achieve that goal.

For each content topic, begin a list of imbedded content items that students must master to achieve the goal using that topic.

Developing a course plan

For each overarching goal, how will you lead students to the point where they can do ____ on their own?

Alternative phrasing: how will you give students practice in doing ____?

As you enter a classroom, ask yourself this question: “If there were no students in the classroom, could I do what I am planning to do?” If the answer to the question is yes, don’t do it.

Choosing classroom strategies

General Ruben Cubero, Dean of theFaculty, United States Air Force Academy

(Novak et al., 1999, Just-in-Time Teaching)

Importance of having a teaching toolbox

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Same goes for teaching. If the only tool in your teaching toolbox is lecturing, then….

Importance of having a teaching toolbox

Learn about successful student-active assignment/activity strategies• think-pair-share, jigsaw, discussion,

simulations, role-playing, concept mapping, concept sketches, debates, long-term projects, research-like experiences….

• assignments involving writing, poster, oral presentation, service learning….

Make deliberate choices of the best strategy for the task.

Importance of integrating assessment & course design

If having students meet the goals is important, assessment is a “natural”

Example: Students will be able to evaluate and predict the influence of climate, hydrology, biology, and geology on the severity of a natural disaster.• Give students an unfamiliar example• Can they do it??

Importance of integrating assessment & course design

What students receive grades on must be tasks that allow you to evaluate whether students have met the course goals

If students are graded largely on their abilities to recall, define, recognize, and follow cook-book steps, you have not evaluated their progress toward goals involving higher order thinking skills.

Don’t assess what is easily measured – assess what you value.

Mini-sessions on teaching strategies and assessment

Chose one or more of the concurrent and sequential sessions on teaching strategies

Go to the coaching sessions for help in designing assignments/activities using particular teaching or assessment strategy.

Task: your course plan

Go to page 12. Draft a course plan that organizes

the order of content and topics in the context of the goals and uses appropriate assessments and teaching strategies for giving students goals-related practice as they encounter content and concepts.

Task: final posters

Poster #1• Name, course title, # of

students, course context• Overarching goals• Course plan• Short statement of how the

course plans allows students to achieve overarching goals

Task: final posters

Poster #2• Description of at least one activity

or assignment, with assessment, using one of the teaching strategies described in the workshop, with statement about how it fits into your course plan

• Statement about what you would particularly like feedback on

Documents

Designing Effective and Innovative Courses Barbara J. Tewksbury Department of Geosciences Hamilton College [email protected]