The FACILITATOR – Details, episodes & analysis

Shella & Mike talk about the oldie but a goodie of the 'Flipped' Classroom for live session classes (Hybrid or traditional). What, Why & How & its relevance to the AI age.

Teaching Resources Mentioned:

• Flipped Classroom Tips & Rsrcs.
• Zoom Lecture Chunk Recording
• Learning Glass Studio
• Best Practice Active Learning Techniques
• Team-Based Learning

Shella & Mike talk about one of the indispensable teaching tools to any college teacher- Grading Rubrics. They discuss different kinds, how to get started and top tips for getting biggest learning and success bang for the buck with them. 

Teaching Resources Mentioned:

• Grading Rubrics Rsrcs & Tips
• Single-Point Grading Rubric
• Rubistar Rubric Repository/ Builder

Canvas Rubric Tools How Tos

• Canvas Rubrics Tool
• Canvas Rubric Grading in SpeedGrader
• Canvas Peer Review (w/Rubric) Tool

The primary method to assess what our students know, throughout Higher ed,  remains stuck in a silo to simply audit and provide a grade, rather than a fully integrated learning tool itself.  L. Dee Fink in Creating Significant Learning Experiences (& others) have advocated for applying the research for an intentional shift to "Educative" Assessment. Mike unpacks the 4 pillars of this approach to assessment.

Episode Resources:

• Educative Assessment
• Giving Prompt Feedback
• Grading Rubrics
• Peer Review

'Death by Powerpoint' is real. We know from the literature that doing default Powerpoint presentations reduces comprehension, retention and engagement out of a classroom, with time for active activities being lost as well. However, hacking PowerPoint by using the 'Pecha Kucha' (or its cousin Ignite Talk) format, make TED-talk style, engaging, cognitively effective and time efficient presentations of material that opens up time for application and active activities follow-up.

Episode Resources:

• Pecha Kucha (Ignite Talk) Presentation Example, Tips & Resources
• "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within" (Tufte)
• Five Ways to Reduce PowerPoint Overload [PDF]

Excerpt of Shella & Mike's Live workshop on tips to Hack Quality Matters (QM) Course Design Rubric- Standard #1 (Course Introduction). Three specific levels of building the key parts of this standard into your courses are discussed - Beginner (quick & dirty), Intermediate (little bit more time/ tinkering) & Advanced (digging into it). 

Episode Resources:

• Quality Matters Course Design Benchmarks
• CTE's START HERE/ Week 1/2 Module QM Templates 
• Harvard's Project Zero Thinking Routines: Introducing & Exploring Ideas
• Instructor Presence & Interaction
• Recording Mini Zoom Videos
• Regular & Substantive Interaction (RSI) Standards

Mike does a brief dive into a collection of top tips for making cognitive friendly, reusable and easy to maintain mini lecture 'chunks' with a professional polish.

Episode Resources:

• Zoom Tips (Live or Recording)
• Mini Lecture Recording with Zoom
• Taking Teaching Online: The Micro-Lecture
• Why Long Lectures Are Ineffective
• Cheapest Way to Soundproof a Room

Mike takes a spin at a brief WHAT/WHY/HOW of James Lang's "Small Teaching." Now in its 2nd edition, Lang's book wonderfully lays out and distills 3 key elements form the science of learning - KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING & INSPIRATION. A starter for each of the HOW for the three specific principles under each of the headers can be done in Low/ No Prep by faculty in any area.

Episode Resources:

• Episode 25 - Activating Prior Learning (HOWs for the RETREIVING principle)
• Small Teaching Faculty Hub Summary/ Resource Page
• Small Teaching Book (ThriftBooks copies from $6) 

Flying solo, Mike dives into how application of principles from usability research to our course sites & materials can promote student success, engagement & Retention. Mike introduces the WHAT of Usability with ISO 9241 & Nielsen Norman Group's definitions. The linkage to WHY is addressed with intersection of several course design quality rubrics and teaching best practices. Then the application with HOW starts with Modules Usability (& common misuses). Next, chunking topical content via PAGES, as well as Optimizing Text for reading on screens., Naming Conventions & Consistent formatting is discussed. Our Usability world cheat sheet concludes with looking at LEGIBILITY & READABILITY of course materials - whether digital or hard copy etc.

Episode Resources:

• 5 Ways to Optimize Canvas Sites Tips, Examples & How Tos
• 8 Ways to Optimize Course Content Tips, Examples & How Tos
• The Hemingway app
• Legibility Readability & Comprehension: Making Users Read Your Words [Nielsen Norman Group]

Amid the ongoing scrutiny of the value of higher ed education, Shella & Mike dive into the timely topic of how to increase the learning value of classes with alternatives to lecturing. While lecture lurches on in higher ed (for now) as a predominant teaching technique, science and mounds of data tells it is a poor teaching tool with 5% of info being retained on average from a lecture. As such, we turn to the WHAT/ WHY (see above) & most crucially the HOW to diversify our teaching toolbelt!

Episode Resources:

• NCSC Ctr for Teaching Excellence Non-Lecture Teaching Techniques
• 226 Active Learning Techniques (Iowa State U.)

Wading into the WHAT/ WHY & HOW of levering the powerful learning science of Activating Prior Learning for Engagement, support student (& Faculty!) time on task and promoting success.

Episode Resources:

• NCSC Ctr for Teaching Excellence Activating Prior Learning Tips/ Resources