CELT Teaching Tip • October 3, 2019
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Midterms: A valuable time for formative assessment
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The midpoint of the semester is an important opportunity for your students to examine their progress in a course. As an instructor, you can help students become aware of their standing through the midterm grade submission. Midterm grades are due on Friday, October 18 by 2:15 p.m., and are submitted electronically via Canvas or AccessPlus. Read about grading policies on the
ISU Catalog Grading website
. Learn how-to calculate midterms from the
Calculate Grades for Submission in Canvas web guide
.
Using midterms as an opportunity for purposeful assessment paired with constructive feedback can help learners identify and address their achievement gaps for learning. CELT has prepared information about low- and high-stakes quizzes in Canvas to provide a way for you to deliver valuable feedback, and assess learning via the
Low and High-Stakes Quizzes in Canvas web guide
.
This time in the semester is also a wonderful opportunity to informally collect student feedback on the day-to-day operations of your course. The Midterm Assessment Technique (also known as the Plus/Delta) is a tool utilized during the fourth through the eighth week of the semester. The advantage of this tool is that students are asked to focus on what is working to advance their learning, and what could be improved by the teacher and by the student. It helps students to reflect about their responsibility to your course, what they should continue doing to learn (PLUS), and what they need to change for the course to improve for them (DELTA) (Helminski & Koberna, 1995). The plus delta can be completed on paper, online using Canvas, TopHat, or Qualtrics, asking these four open-ended questions:
Plus
- What is helping me to learn in this class?
- What changes are needed in this course to improve learning?
Delta
- What am I doing to improve my learning in the course?
- What do I need to do to improve my learning in this course?
Once the students complete the plus delta, you collect the information and summarize it to report the themes in each category back to your class in the next session. The feedback loop creates the opportunity to discuss the shared responsibility for teaching and learning in your course. You may further specify what modifications will (or will not) be implemented as a result of their feedback.
To learn more, visit
CELT’s Using a PLUS/DELTA Assessment Technique webpage
.
According to Dr. Kelly Reddy-Best, an assistant professor in the College of Human Sciences:
I have a class of 300 students resulting in lots of different types of people, and when I summarize it back to them it helps me show them why there are different types of activities in the course: readings, quizzes, group work. Some of them say they love the group work, but hate the quizzes, while the other say the opposite. The plus-delta summary helps show them why different methods are used in the course to cater to different learning styles!
With a joy for teaching,
Sara Marcketti, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
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2020-21 Miller Faculty Fellowship proposals due on Dec. 9th
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The Miller Faculty Fellowship program annually provides recipients with opportunities to enhance their scholarly work in undergraduate academic programs and develop innovative approaches to enhance student learning. Recipients have up to 12 months to meet their project goals. The deadline for Miller Faculty Fellowship proposals for the 2020-21 academic year is Monday, Dec. 9.
Program and application details
are online. Questions may be directed to CELT,
celt-miller@iastate.edu
.
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CELT Presenter Grant Program due Dec. 15th
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Faculty and staff who received a CELT funded scholarship of a teaching and learning (SoTL) grant are eligible for the CELT Presenter Grant. The CELT Presenter Grant provides eligible faculty and staff with the opportunity to present their SoTL research findings at a teaching and learning higher education conference.
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CELT Collaborator Spotlight: Karla Embleton
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In our teaching tips, we are highlighting the work of successful instructors and staff from across Iowa State University. We have asked them to share their highlights from the classroom, ideas for successful teaching and learning, and share their favorite CELT program.
Karla Embleton, Ph.D., instructional designer for the College of Human Sciences Online and Distance Learning programs, has been helping faculty at ISU for 21 years. She offers the following Canvas tip to instructors:
“To consider only a subset of graded activities for Midterm Grade submission, create a temporary group in Assignments called ‘Midterm Letter Grade'. Turn on weighted grading and make this group worth 100% of total grade. Move all activities to be counted to this group. Use the ISU AdminTools End-of-course checklist tool to ensure there are no blank cells or ungraded submissions in these activities, then submit the grades. Return the Assignment page and weighted grading rules to their original format.”
Karla encourages people to become involved with the Canvas Peer to Peer group if they are interested in keeping abreast of Canvas updates and ISU tools for Canvas. The user group is a community of ISU instructors and support staff who meet biweekly to discuss advanced Canvas uses, investigate related tools and technology, and collaborate on a list of shared resources. Email celt@iastate.edu to join.
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Dr. Karla Embleton (above)
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Workshop: Applying the Quality Matters (QM) Rubric (APPQMR)
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Quality Matters, a non-profit course assurance organization, provides instructors with tools and processes to design online and blended courses in which all critical components work together to create intentional student-centered learning experiences resulting in progress and achievement. QM uses a research-based rubric and a rigorous peer review process for course improvement and offers on-going professional development opportunities around quality assurance in online and blended learning.
To help you to begin CELT offers the Workshop: Applying the Quality Matters (QM) Rubric (APPQMR). Register via the
Learn@ISU website or email
celt@iastate.edu to attend one of the following program offerings:
- Oct. 10 (9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.)
- Dec. 4 (9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.)
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Learning Online: Canvas and Beyond
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Need help?
Stop by our CELT Open Labs. Visit
CELT’s Canvas Open Labs webpage for days, times, and location or contact Canvas 24/7 support by clicking on the ?Help icon on the Global Navigation menu (far left of your screen) in Canvas for the 24/7 support options.
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Professional Development Opportunities
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Register for lunch and learn with creator of #WhyIStayed hashtag
Beverly Gooden's, victims' rights advocate, public lecture, "Why I Stayed," begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, in the Memorial Union Sun Room. Gooden will lead a lunch & learn Oct. 16 (10 a.m.-1 p.m., MU Campanile Room) for faculty, staff, administrators & community agency leaders. It will focus on supporting student survivors of violence. Limited to 60 people;
register online.
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Learn about deaf culture and language
Dina Toulan, lecturer in world languages and cultures, will present "American Sign Language: Deaf Culture and Language," in a series of brown bag lunches beginning Oct. 4 (11 a.m.-noon, MU Gallery). Employees and community members will learn about deaf culture, including instruction in some sign language basics. Additional sessions on Oct. 11, 18 and 25 each will have unique content.
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How to Register
For in-person events, register via the
Learn@ISU
website,
or email your name, department, name of the event, date of the event to
celt@iastate.edu
.
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