The seats at this year’s summer institute filled up fast! If you missed the chance to join us this year you can do two things right now.
First, save the date for SIT 2019: June 5-6th.
Second, check out some of the lessons learned and take-aways from some of SIT’s most popular sessions.
You can view session materials in this shared folder.
And don’t forget to check out our “SIT 2018 By the Numbers” infographic at the bottom of this post!
What We Learned This Year:
1. Google shouldn’t be a dirty word in the classroom.
Faculty and librarians who facilitated the library’s TRUE (Teaching Research in Undergraduate Education) workshop series in Spring 2018 shared how they helped students to develop critical thinking and research skills by embracing Google. Their session modeled some exercises that encourage students think critically about the functionality of Google and library databases in order to use them as complementary research tools and move beyond the perception that Google = Bad, Library = Good. Check out the class exercises in the shared folder for ideas for evaluating information and thinking critically about searching, and schedule a time to brainstorm with a librarian about your own course this summer!
2. Our faculty are doing amazing work with infusing Computational Reasoning through the curriculum!
Computational reasoning is one element in UD’s General Education objectives, and several faculty members have participated in a NSF grant initiative to redesign their courses to address this objective. Courses in sociology, music, and mathematics were explored with specific examples of student work. Among the highlights? Students learning about gender as a sociological lens examined the algorithms that websites use to market toys to children and explored how narrow definitions of gender are used as operators.
3. You CAN get your students to actually read the syllabus.
Developing a culture of reading starts on the first day, and can be supported throughout the semester by setting a purpose for reading with your students. If you want your students to cultivate good reading habits, start by giving them a reading guide for the syllabus itself and hold them accountable for the information in it!
4. Canvas is packed with powerful analytics that can help you support your students.
When you move to quizzing online in Canvas, you have access to lots of data about your student progress that can help you refine future quizzes and reinforce challenging content in class. Some analytic features can even help demonstrate which kinds of questions are more or less predictive for overall student success on an exam. Have you ever had a suspicion that a student may be repeatedly coming to class unprepared? You can check the frequency with which they access items on your site and how long they spend on each page or resource. This information can help you give a student targeted feedback, like suggesting they read through a page one more time, or take a practice quiz that they didn’t access prior. Still haven’t switched to Canvas? Check out their campus tour.
By the Numbers Infographic:
