Monthly Archives: July 2018

Padlet

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One educational technology that I’ve used time and time again is Padlet. The concept is very simple: it’s an online noticeboard. Here’s an example of one I used where I asked students to post about good and bad learning experiences (you can click to enlarge the picture):

So what can you use it for? I often ask students to discuss questions in groups, and then to post a summary of their answers onto a Padlet:

Or you can use it for everyone to contribute an answer individually. I’ve also used it before and after class, as a space where students can ask questions, or raise issues, or share something that they’re confused by, or to provide some material for people to discuss in class (so I might, perhaps, ask for comments on a particular research article which can then be used as a starting point for a class conversation). I often like to get students to compose a short paragraph during a class to practise putting their thoughts into writing – these can also be easily shared using Padlet. Or, I have asked students to paraphrase or summarise a particular piece of information or research, such as here:

Why do I like it? It’s very easy to use – you just give students a link and they can use a phone, laptop or tablet to access the Padlet you’ve set up, and start instantly posting with no need to create an account. Posts can be made anonymously, which means that students are more likely to feel confident enough to contribute, or to take a risk with an answer that they’re not sure about. Being able to see an array of responses can be a really useful way of exploring different perspectives, or seeing common misconceptions. If you’ve asked students to discuss in small groups, it provides a good way in to a whole class discussion, without the often repetitive alternative of each group verbally reporting back. And you are also able to attach images, audio, video, presentations and spreadsheets, comment on and react to other posts, meaning that there can be a discussion generated within the answers, or you can post some answer options which students can vote on. If you’re using it for several different questions within one session, the shelf format will help keep things organised (I’ve also attached images of work students did on paper to this one):

The downside? Well, when I first started using it, Padlet was completely free. However, they’ve now introduced a subscription model, so you can only have three different Padlets for free (you can keep creating new ones, you just need to delete some of the older ones so the total amount is never more than three) – which means that it’s harder to keep one Padlet left open for ongoing module questions, or to keep a record of what was posted during a session (although you can export it to PDF or as an image if you want the posts to be accessible without keeping that Padlet – that’s what I’ve done for these blog pictures). At the moment, City doesn’t have an institutional account (although maybe it will be possible in future if lots of us are using it for teaching), so we’re stuck with the free version unless you want to pay for an individual account. I’ve looked into free alternatives, but haven’t yet found a viable replacement. Let me know if you use something similar, or how you’ve Padlet in your teaching.

Speed-meets to increase class bonding

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Frequently, you’ll be asked to teach first year undergraduates in a seminar setting. Even with these students, who are just beginning their university journey, it might be easy to assume that freshers week means that the students all know each other. Actually, this is rarely the case, and often students will begin a term not knowing anyone in their seminar group, or clinging to the one or two people that they’ve already met as they’re living near each other in halls, or have something obvious in common like a shared nationality or home town (when I started my first degree, the other two Welsh students in the college excitedly sought me out as there was a list of where everyone had done their A-levels and they’d noticed that I’d done mine in Cardiff).

So, how do you get students to socialise with everyone in the class rather than stick to the people they already know? I can’t be the only person who finds the pressure of  having to come up with something ‘interesting’ about themselves, or a funny or embarrassing anecdote, to share with the class really stressful and awkward. One useful method is speed-meets – kind of like speed dating, where students have short conversations with each person in their class. It’s not just beneficial for first years – if the programme you teach on has elective modules, it can be great to do something like this at the start as it may be that students on the module you’re teaching on haven’t met before, especially if there’s a big overall cohort.

Dr Theo Gilbert from the University of Hertfordshire has used found this is really effective, and explains why that is and how to run a speed-meet in a short video:

 

Approaching a problem class

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I recently observed some of our City maths PhD students teaching a problem class, and it reminded me that often the simplest techniques can be really effective. There was a whole sheet of problems for the class to work through, but rather than go through them one by one, in the order they appeared on the sheet, the tutors asked the students which one they’d had the most difficulty with. There was a consensus that many students had struggled with a particular question, so the tutors stated with this one. Not only did this mean that they could devote more time to the questions where students required more explanation, but it also meant students were immediately engaged as the session had been tailored to their needs.

Something that will repeatedly crop up in this kind of teaching is students declaring that they don’t know how to do a particular question or task, or that they’re just stuck. How can you help students in this situation?

  • You may need to go back to the principles of the question, as problems can often be at a fundamental level, or stem from a basic misunderstanding
  • Break the problem down into parts, to make it easier to understand – sometimes this might involve translating the problem into mathematics
  • Check a students’ prior knowledge by asking them what they know, and follow up by asking them what they want to know – this might move them forward from a frozen position of not knowing where to start
  • Before a session, read through the course textbooks to find out how concept/topic is introduced or taught, and take a look at any lecture slides or other material on Moodle
  • Be aware that maths has both a how and why – an acceptance of an argument (e.g. a proof) is not the same as understanding what it means and how it fits in.

Students may be able to repeat a definition perfectly, but will use their ‘image’ to tackle problems. To find out about a student’s concept definition, ask a direct question. To find out about their concept image, ask an indirect question. Definitions are verbal and explicit, and revealed by direct questions such as “what is a function?” or “what is a tangent?”. Images are non-verbal and implicit and revealed by indirect questions such as “is there a function such that/where..?”.

What issues have you encountered during problem classes? What suggestions do you have for dealing with them?

This post has adapted materials from Dr Giles Martin, Bath Spa University and the University of Western Ontario’s Graduate Handbook.

Advice from PhD students at the University of Bath

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This video offers PhD students’ most important piece of advice about teaching:

Other videos offer suggestions about different aspects of teaching which are particularly relevant to PhD students:

  • how to maintain the boundaries of the graduate teaching role

  • how much help to give students (so, what the difference is between helping them learn and doing it for them)

  • engaging with students

  • coping with not always knowing all the answers (you never will, even as an esteemed professor!)

Derek Bok Centre for Teaching and Learning (Harvard)

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I came across this following a recommendation from a colleague at Kings College, London. Harvard University (in the US) has a centre for teaching and learning which provides extensive advice for people teaching in HE. I think the ‘in the classroom’ section is particularly relevant for PhD students. It begins with a discussion of building rapport with students, making the point that the relationship with your students is crucial. This is something that we’ll be discussing in Establishing a Teaching Persona, as this might be a bit different for PhD students to someone employed as a permanent lecturer – the website includes the advice to establish your credentials, which might seem a bit more intimidating as a PhD student.

There’s a useful section on ‘classroom contracts’ and how to negotiate and establish your expectations for students from the outset, especially if you’re going to be seeing this group of students on a regular basis. A good point is made about being explicit – don’t forget that although, as a PhD student, you are likely to be very used to HE and what it involves in your subject, many students might not be aware of how teaching and learning works, and so it’s important to be upfront about how things will work in your classroom.

The sections on ‘active learning’ and ‘a catalogue of instructional strategies’ might give you some ideas for how to teach the material on your module. As a PhD student, you have a varying amount of freedom to choose what you’re doing – I know that some of you might be given slides by the module leader which you have to use. Nevertheless, there’s often some opportunity to slightly modify the way you teach what you’ve been given – if only by adding in some activities or short discussion sections.

I found the discussion on ‘technology and student distraction’ interesting, as I know people are often concerned that they might be teaching to a room of heads bent over phones or laptops. This acknowledges the issues with the distractions of technology – as multi-tasking is a myth, using technology involves a constant switching between your device and what’s going on in the room. Nevertheless, I’ve found that technology can be a great aid to teaching – I’ve found the online noticeboard Padlet really useful for collecting anonymous contributions to discussions (the anonymity means that some students will contribute who wouldn’t have wanted to shout out in class, and answers can be easily shared and compared). Frustratingly, Padlet is now generating income through subscriptions, so they’ve limited the amount of Padlets you can create using the free version. The site notes that technology can also be needed for students with disabilities – similarly, I’ve taught many international students who will often be using their phones to translate words they don’t understand so it becomes an invaluable aid to learning (few of these students would have the confidence to stop and ask me what I mean directly).

A place to share your thoughts about your teaching

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Have you had a particulaly good experience? What do you think worked well about it?

Have you heard about a useful teaching technique or method which you’d like to tell people about?

Is there something you’re not sure about (perhaps you’re about to do a new type of teaching, or you’re trying to work out why your students aren’t joining in with class discussions)? Ask here any get advice and suggestions from your fellow PhD students.

Please let me know if you’d like to contribute a post to this – your post can be added anonymously if you’d prefer.

Using examples to prepare students for written assessment

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One of the first things I did when I started my PhD was to go to the library, and take a look at other PhD theses which had been written by students who’d had the same supervisor as me. This was because I felt like I had no real idea what I was doing, or what a PhD looked like – no-one else in my family had done one, and I’d only applied for mine as I’d enjoyed my BA and MA and was naively hoping it would be more of the same. Reading other theses was reassuring – it let me know what I was supposed to produce, and made it seem much more tangible.

I think this is the same for all students, and so I’m a big fan of providing students with examples of other students’ assessments so that they can understand what they’re doing. As someone who’s likely to have studied for many years in your subject by now, it may seem obvious to you what needs to be done if students are required to write a 2,000 word report, or a 1,600 word essay, or answer 3 exam questions in 2 hours. But often it can be completely unknown to students. The module leader may have provided guidance in the handbook, but if you have students in a small group session, it can be invaluable to spend some time looking at examples, and discussing with students how well they might meet the criteria and why this is – looking at features of the writing as well as the content.

Obviously, if this is the first time you’ve taught on this module, or if you’re not involved with marking summative assessments, you won’t have any examples of previous students’ work. Ask your module leader – many will happily share these with you to use in class (don’t forget that you or the module leader will have to get permission from the students to use the essays – if you explain why you want to use them, I’ve found that students are usually quite flattered to be asked). I have, however, encountered lecturers who don’t like giving out examples. If this is this case, possible solutions are:

  • agreeing that the students will work with printed copies of the assessment example during a session, but they won’t be able to take these with them afterwards
  • agreeing that you’ll work with sample paragraphs from the assessment, rather than a whole essay or report
  • using an example from a slightly different question that’s been used previously
  • using your own work, if you previously did a similar assessment as a student
  • using the University of Plymouth’s online bank of student writing examples, WRASSE, which is searchable by subject and level, to find examples

Once you have some relevant examples, you can set up an activity which examines the example in the context of the assessment criteria. I would usually divide students into groups of 3 or 4 for this. If you are able to, it can work better to give students an opportunity to read the example before the session. Otherwise, be aware that there will be differences between students of how fast they are able to read through the material, so it can be useful to split the example into essential reading (perhaps saying something like ‘you need to look at the first and third paragraphs’) and extra reading that can be done by the faster readers (the rest of the example).

Then, ask students to work through answers to questions about the examples. I usually include some more basic factual ones, as well as ones that are more difficult and really require students to think about the structure, style and content of the writing in each example. I prefer to use two or three different examples, to show students that a range of approaches can be effective and there’s not one correct way to approach the task. After the groups have had a chance to answer the questions, I’d bring them together as a whole class to discuss their answers.

Here’s some examples of questions that I used with students who were looking at examples of an assessment which involved students writing a 2,000 word report on a brand communication campaign – these could be easily adapted to other kinds of written assessment, and you might want to use more or fewer depending on how much time you have for this activity (it’s something that can be beneficial to devote a whole seminar to). They had to include information on e-marketing (part A), present the digital consumer persona for their brand (part B) and make recommendations for a brand engagement strategy using social media (part C). You can find the whole handout that I made at Learnhigher – this is a really useful website with lots of resources for developing student learning in Higher Education.

  • How many items in the reference list?
  • What kinds of items are referenced? Are these all academic and appropriate?
  • What sections does it have?
  • At what points does the writer explain the structure of the report/ section? Is the explanation clear? Does it make you want to read on?
  • How many paragraphs does it have?
  • How many times does it use linking words to show similarity (e.g. similarly, moreover, additionally) and are these varied?
  • How many times does it use linking words to show difference (e.g. however, yet, nevertheless, in contrast, unlike, despite) and are these varied?
  • How many times does it use words to show conclusions (e.g. therefore, consequently, ultimately, thus) and are these varied?
  • Is a personal voice used? If so, give examples and explain the effect.
  • Does the writer sound authoritative/ as if they know what they are talking about? If so, give examples.
  • Does the writer sound objective? Do they present a balanced view of different ideas/ opinions on each subject? If so, give examples.
  • How concise is the writing? Does the writer repeat themselves? If so, give examples.
  • Has the writer shown a connection between theory and their brand/ consumer persona? If so, give examples of how this has been worded.
  • Has the writer shown a link between parts B and C of the assessment? If so, give examples of how this has been worded.
  • How clear is the writing? Are there any parts where the writer hasn’t explained themselves properly? If so, give examples.
  • Does the writer explain the significance of the information? If so, give examples, and show what kinds of language they use.
  • Is the writing critical? Explain the reasons for your answer.
  • Is the writing academic? Explain the reasons for your answer.
  • Do you find the writing interesting? Explain the reasons for your answer.
  • Can you see any issues with spelling or grammar? Do these get in the way of your understanding? If so, give examples.

Is this something that you think might work for your teaching? Do you have any other useful questions to add to this list?

How to question students in lab teaching

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Approaching students whilst they undertake a lab exercise or experiment might feel intimidating at first – you might feel awkward, as if you’re interrupting them, and be unsure about what kind of questions to ask them. However, being proactive, rather than waiting to be asked for help, means that you can move around the room and get to know the students, and also use questions to check their existing knowledge, and help to scaffold their understanding of what they’re learning.

You might want to start with something more basic, to build up students’ confidence in answering questions. These are some different types of questions you might use:

  • Factual: What is this?
  • Convergent: Why has this happened?
  • Divergent: What could happen if? How could you test/measure X?
  • Evaluative/Analytical: So what? What does this mean?

If you’re given a wrong answer, try to correct it in a supportive way – students need to know that it’s ok to fail. When one student from a group has answered, make sure that you make eye contact with the rest of the group when responding, so that they all feel involved. And don’t be afraid of pauses – when you’ve asked something, especially if you’re feeling a bit nervous or artificial in your interactions with students, it’s really tempting to ask something, and if no response is forthcoming within about two seconds, to instantly rephrase it and ask again, or start answering yourself. I know I used to do it all the time when I started teaching, but it can be confusing for students, who might just need some time to think.

Here are some useful questions to use when teaching in a lab environment:

  • What would you predict would happen if…?
  • What are you assuming?
  • At which point did you get lost/did X happen?
  • Why has this happened?
  • What have you done so far?
  • Why do you think this is wrong?
  • Which part specifically do you find confusing?
  • What do you think the answer should be? In what range? What are the units/dimensions?
  • How can you figure this out/calculate this?
  • Tell me about the theory from the lecture behind this
  • What do the lab instructions say (exactly!)?
  • What is important about what you see/observe/results here?
  • Who is doing what in this group? Have you all swapped roles?

This post has adapted materials from Dr Giles Martin, Bath Spa University and the University of Western Ontario’s Graduate Handbook.

Have you got any other examples of questions which have worked particularly well in your lab teaching?

Think-Group-Share for large groups

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There’s often criticism of lecturing in Higher Education, but often this seems to presume that lecturing involves someone standing in front of rows and rows of students, and delivering a monologue until the session time is up. Yet lecturing can be an effective way of enabling students to learn in a large group if you don’t just provide a speech, but break things up with activities for students. One way of doing this is Think, Group, Share.

You’ll need to use some kind of technology, which enables students to answer questions online, such as PollEverywhere (which is supported by City).

What you need to do:

  1. Ask a question students can answer individually, using clickers or their own devices, and allow time for reflection and making notes.
  2. Place students in small groups and ask them each to explain the reasoning behind their answer to their group; the group then vote on the correct answer and one group representative answers the question again.
  3. Reveal the individual and the group answers and lead a class-wide discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of each potential answer.

The different students’ answers are useful for feedback, and students also feel more confident about participating, as they feel supported by their group.

Advantages:

  • When students know they will have to defend their choice to peers, they reflect deeply before they answer
  • It measures students’ understanding
  • It demonstrates where individuals may be struggling
  • It ensures that all students can engage with their peers and lecturer

If you try this out, leave a comment to let me know how it went!

Thanks to my colleagues in LEaD for their suggestion of this activity.

 

Who are the City Ed Techs and how might they help you?

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We’re lucky at City that we have a team of dedicated and knowledgeable Educational Technologists who are experts in how to use technology to enhance teaching. I share an office with many of them, so can confirm that they are helpful and friendly – and have provided me with invaluable assistance in setting up this blog!

The Ed Techs have created a dedicated site to provide guidance on using Moodle, Turnitin, and other technologies which you might find useful for your teaching, such as Polleverywhere (which enables you to gather online responses to questions you ask students in class), and video and audio. It’s a great place to get some information about using the technologies, and why they might be useful in your sessions.