Questioning with Rob Russell
Jeopardy champion Rob Russell knows a thing or two about questions.
Improving your teaching happens one small step at a time. Redoing an entire course all at once is daunting and may even be counterproductive. But continual small improvements are always possible and refreshing for students and teachers alike. Jeopardy champion Rob Russell knows a thing or two about questioning . In addition to directing the Center for Academic Achievement (CFAA), Rob has taught online literature courses for several years. He is always tweaking and changing things up and got a few good ideas to enliven online discussions at this year’s IN top FORM summer workshop.

In addition to posing questions about readings himself, he decided to try having students come up with some of the discussion questions. In what he calls the "Weekly Best 5" forum, top student questions are addressed by Rob and opened for the whole class to discuss. Students in the Best 5 earn a few extra points. "So far, I've found students end up asking questions about the same issues and problems I would have addressed but doing it this way allows them a moment of self-discovery and gives them more of an incentive to craft better questions."

For more ideas about online discussions , see suggestions from Dr. Alison Barton on the Center for Teaching Excellence website.
Rob Russell's tips for writing a good question:
- look back through the readings, your notes, etc.
- write down 4-5 questions that occur to you as you review, then ...
- eliminate questions that would elicit yes/no, true/false, or short, fact-based answers (like names, dates or definitions), then ...
- ask yourself, “Which of these questions, if answered, would make the most difference in my understanding of the course material?"