Finding Meaning in the COS
This is a workshop on how to interpret and respond to course opinion surveys. The
purpose of this workshop is to give you the tools to understand the elements of the
student surveys that are most relevant to efficacy in teaching and suggestions on
how to address those elements in a productive way and sustained way.
Student Engagement: Two Parts
A common source of frustration for faculty these days is the passivity of students
in the classroom. I share this frustration. It is very demoralizing to walk into a
classroom with a passion for one’s discipline and feel as though that passion and
energy is disappearing into a black hole of disinterest. At the very least, it makes
teaching less enjoyable, and at worst, there is the concern that our students are
not learning. What engages or engaged you as a student? You don’t have to be an entertainer
to keep students’ attention and encourage them to work in your class. Students tend
to be more engaged with course materials and activities when they clearly see the
relevance to their own interests, when they are appropriately challenged, and when
they have a clear sense of what is expected of them and how they will be assessed.
These two workshops address the core structure of a face to face classroom: the lecture,
and the assignments and activities. We will work together to understand how to construct
and deliver lectures that engage and instruct, and how to design complementary assignments
and activities that reinforce the instruction in a manner that takes into account
the characteristics of Generation Z.
Hotshot: Victoria Reynolds — Motivation & Assessment
Augmentative and alternative communication refers to any mode of communication that
replaces or supplements speech, such as sign language, a text-to-speech app or a communication
board. It is an important area of speech pathology practice, yet students traditionally
find it a difficult area to master. Further, while the issue of physical accessibility
is widely-known in the community, communication accessibility is not. I've tried to
solve the problem of student engagement by recruiting them to a social justice cause,
all from the comfort of their own classroom, and with a little help from some friends.
Joining the Common Problem Project
The Common Problem Project, which has been running for three years now in collaboration
with three other SUNY campuses, Oneonta, Oswego, and Cortland, has been re-infused
with a new, NSF grant award. Right now, we are completing the last year funded by
the SUNY Improvement Grant, and we will have a number of faculty participating in
the fall. The next round will have faculty specifically from STEM partnering with
Humanities faculty/classes. Course development would take place in the fall of 2018
(for which faculty will receive a stipend) and the collaborative teaching will begin
in spring, 2018.
I will be holding an information session for any faculty interested in participating.
The project entails faculty partnering to engage their students with a common problem,
providing them with the opportunity to use problem-based learning techniques and to
work together to solve a problem from the unique perspective of their disciplines.
I believe this pedagogical experiment can be a way to really address multiple facets
of the challenges we face with this generation of students.
Generation Z: Two Parts
My experiences with class visits and consults in the past two years have confirmed
what I have seen in my own students: passivity, addiction to technology, lack of social
skills, and more. Of course, this is a generalization, as is the labeling of any group.
As much as I am reluctant to lump this generation into one category, it does appear
that generation Z (roughly 2005–2018) has certain characteristics, both weaknesses
and strengths. This is not an issue unique to Plattsburgh; there is a flurry of literature
that seeks to identify and address the concerns these characteristics raise for teaching
these students in college. These two workshops will seek to identify what the characteristics
and concerns (and potential strengths are, and to construct strategies to address
them.
Problem Based Learning
In PBL classrooms, rather than spending time memorizing blocks of information, students
learn the basics by working on problems. PBL give students the opportunity to learn
content through analysis and application. As a learner-centered pedagogy, PBL is a
prime candidate for a teaching technique that encourages students to take responsibility
for their learning in a process of intellectual struggle with their peers. In this
way, they learn autonomy, resilience, and how to interact positively with others.
This problem-based learning workshop will offer both the theoretical foundations for
PBL, as well as specific techniques for implementing it in your classroom. Beware:
this is not for the faint of heart. PBL requires that, to some extent, you step aside
and let learning happen without you running interference.
Moodle Design for Student Engagement
While it is perfectly acceptable to use Moodle in a basic formatting fashion, don’t
you wish your sites had some personality and style? If you consider your course site
to be an extension of your own teaching and classroom, why not make it as inviting
and accessible as possible? In this workshop I will show you how to make your Moodle
course as efficient as possible and give it a shine that welcomes your students to
the process of learning outside of the classroom.
OER: Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OERs) are freely available and openly licensed teaching
and learning materials that include everything from full textbooks to quiz banks to
student study aids. SUNY Plattsburgh is participating in a state funded effort to
increase OER adoption at public universities in the state with a program to be announced
this spring. In this workshop you will learn how to use OERs and why their use makes
strong pedagogical sense.