Roanoke College INQ 300 Development Workshop August 15-16, 2012 Adapted from a model developed for The Cutting Edge by Barbara J. Tewksbury Hamilton College Designing Effective and Innovative Courses A Practical Strategy

Applying the Science of Learning (Halpern and Hakel) Goal: Teaching for long term retention and transfer 1.Provide repeated, spaced practice at retrieval 2.Vary conditions under which learning happens 3.Have students re-present information in new format 4.Assess students’ prior knowledge and experience 5.Confront students’ belief that learning should be easy 6.Give systematic and corrective feedback 7.Use lectures for recognition but not understanding 8.Expect “selective forgetting” of info not reinforced 9.Recognize depth/breadth tradeoff 10.Focus on what students do, not what professors do

Aim of this workshop Introduce a practical strategy for designing an INQ 300 course that: – gets students to think for themselves in the context of a contemporary issue – stresses inquiry and de-emphasizes traditional direct instruction – emphasizes relevance, transferability, and future use – builds in authentic assessment – passes muster with our Curriculum Committee!

How are courses commonly designed? Make list of content items important to coverage of the field Develop syllabus by organizing items into topical outline Flesh out topical items in lectures, recitations, discussions, labs Test knowledge learned in course

What’s missing? Consideration of what your students need or could use, particularly after the course is over Articulation of desired student learning outcomes beyond content/coverage Focus on student learning and problem solving rather than on coverage of material by the instructor

An alternative approach Emphasis on designing a course in which: Students learn significant and appropriate content and skills But students also have practice in thinking for themselves and solving problems Students leave the course prepared to use their knowledge and skills in the future

content mastery critical thinking ability problem solving ability development of interpersonal skills (highly valued by employers) Barkley, E.F., Cross, K.P., Major, C.H. (2005). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., & Smith, K.A. (1991). Cooperative learning: Increasing college faculty instructional productivity. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Reports, No. 4. Washington, DC: GW University. Over 30 years of research documents collaborative learning’s positive effect on …

An aside on terminology Design model is focused on learning outcomes Learning outcomes should be – concrete and – measurable (“My goal in life is to make a million $$”; “My goal next year is to win on Jeopardy!”).

Overview of this approach Articulating context and audience Setting learning outcomes – Overarching learning outcomes – Skills learning outcomes Achieving desired outcomes through selecting content Developing a course plan with assignments, activities, and assessments to achieve the desired outcomes

Step I: Context and audience Our course design process begins with answering the following: – Who are my students? – What do they need? – What are the needs of the curriculum? – What are the constraints and support structure?

The Students in INQ 300 Mostly seniors, a few juniors 20% transfers, 80% entered as freshman Most around 21 years old Any major Completed INQ Core – INQ 110 and INQ 120 – 200-level Perspectives courses – 90% took INQ 240 Statistics

Critical inquiry into important questions Methods of and questions asked by – Social Sciences – Natural Sciences – Mathematics – Humanities The Intellectual Inquiry Curriculum

Skills—all revisited in INQ 300 – Writing – Oral communication – Quantitative reasoning – Research/Information literacy – Collaboration

INQ 300 requires students to work in small groups to research and draw on information and perspectives from all three divisions to develop a proposal concerning a concept, approach, or solution to a contemporary problem that will be presented in a formal oral defense.

INQ instructors should Pose a question or topic in such a way that students can draw on information and perspectives from all three divisions, encourages research and creative application of facts to a contemporary problem so as to students arrive at, propose, and defend a solution. allows students to draw from their previous work

INQ 300 Course Requirements Include a number of intellectually rigorous readings, along with any other types of source materials relevant to the instructors’ disciplines. Ask students to complete four kinds of tasks. The particular way these tasks are completed is up to the instructor: – Application of previous work to the course topic – Individual Writing – Group Assignment (may incorporate individual work) – Oral defense of group assignment.

Course Structure In order to make time for the required group project, faculty may wish to Meet in a seminar style for the first portion of the course Meet as a class only occasionally in later portions of the course Spend significant time meeting with small groups to monitor progress

Assessment Needs Individual paper scored on INQ Rubric Oral presentation (individual or group) scored on INQ Rubric Administer QR Test (multiple choice) Collect final projects electronically. – Archive – Rubric-scored by faculty other than instructor – Also scored by instructor??? Rubric under development

Task #1: Context, Constraints, and Opportunities What are the primary challenges posed by the context and constraints? What opportunities are presented by the context and constraints that you could take advantage of in course design?

Step 2: Setting student-focused overarching & skill learning outcomes Shouldn’t we be asking what we want the students to be able to do as a result of having completed the course, rather than what the instructor will expose them to? Need to focus on what the students do, not the teacher

Setting student-focused, overarching learning outcomes Example from an art history course – Give students a survey of art from a particular period Vs. – Enable students to go to an art museum and evaluate technique of an unfamiliar work or evaluate an unfamiliar work in its historical context or evaluate a work in the context of a particular artistic genre/school/style

Setting student-focused, overarching learning outcomes Example from a bio course – Provide an overview of topics in general biology Vs. – Enable students to evaluate claims in the popular press or seek out and evaluate information or make informed decisions about issues involving genetically-engineered crops, stem cells, DNA testing, HIV AIDS, etc.

Common denominator What sorts of things do you do simply because you are a professional in your discipline? For example, a geologist might – use the geologic record to reconstruct the past and to predict the future. – look at houses on floodplains, and wonder how people could be so stupid – hear the latest news from Mars and say, well that must mean that….

Verbs for learning outcomes involving lower order thinking skills Knowledge, comprehension, application explain describe paraphrase list identify recognize calculate mix prepare

Examples of learning outcomes involving lower order thinking skills At the end of this course, I want students to be able to: – List the major contributing factors in the spread of disease. – Identify common rocks and minerals. – Describe how the Doppler shift provides information about moving objects, and give an illustrative example. – Cite examples of poor land use practice. – Discuss the major ways that AIDS is transmitted. – Calculate standard deviation for a set of data.

Examples of learning outcomes involving lower order thinking skills While some of these learning outcomes involve a deeper level of knowledge and understanding than others, the goals are largely reiterative.

Verbs for learning outcomes involving higher order thinking skills Analysis, synthesis, evaluation, some types of application predict interpret evaluate derive design formulate analyze synthesize create

Examples of learning outcomes involving higher order thinking skills At the end of this course, I want students to be able to: – Make an informed decision about a controversial topic not covered in class involving... – Collect and analyze data in order to... – Design models of... – Solve unfamiliar problems in... – Find and evaluate information/data on... – Predict the outcome of...

Examples of learning outcomes involving higher order thinking skills What makes these different from the previous set is that they are analytical, rather than reiterative. Focus is on new and different situations. Emphasis is on integrating skills, abilities, knowledge, and understanding.

Why are overarching outcomes important? If you want students to be good at something, they must practice; therefore, learning outcomes drive both course design and assessment.

Learning outcomes should be… Student-centered Focused on higher order thinking skills Concrete Comprised of measurable outcomes

Setting skill learning outcomes Example skills – Accessing and reading the professional literature – Working in teams – Writing, quantitative skills, oral presentation – Critically assessing information on the web These may be elements of overarching outcomes or may be their own outcomes

Common Learning Outcomes for INQ Students will apply their research findings to a formal project addressing the course topic question and will successfully present this proposal in an oral defense. 2.Students will write well-organized and clearly reasoned papers both individually and with a group. Papers will have clear theses, effective organization, and a minimum of sentence-level errors.

Common Learning Outcomes for INQ Students will contribute to meaningful, effective discussion and collaborative work that includes expressing, listening to, and debating ideas. 4.Students will be able to apply critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills in a meaningful way.

Common Learning Outcomes for INQ Students will make explicit, meaningful connections between past course work (both in the core and in their majors) and contemporary issues. 6.Students will demonstrate understanding of a contemporary issue or problem, an awareness of the types of inquiry needed to understand it, and the resources required for addressing it.

Step 3: Achieving outcomes through selecting content topics / issues / problems What general content topics could you use to achieve the overarching learning outcomes of your INQ 300 course? Recall the constraints & opportunities

INQ 300 Content Topics Contemporary issue or problem Amenable to group project format Enable students to revisit previous courses – INQ (draw from all three divisions) – Major Encourage research Encourage creative approaches Encourage meaningful critical thinking

What about the problem … Should the problem arise from a contemporary issue? Should everyone in the class work on the same problem? Should different groups have different problems? Should the students propose the problem or be given the problem? How focused should the problem be? Does there need to be a concrete, workable solution to the problem?

Task #2: Begin to develop a course framework Pick a theme or topic for your INQ 300 course. Write an overarching content learning outcome for your course (heed four criteria for good goals). Brainstorm problems that fit within this theme.

On the large Post-It: Your name Any other important info on context, challenges, and opportunities Theme or topic or title One overarching content learning outcome Additional skill outcomes, if desired Possible problems for students to address

Learning outcomes should be… Student-centered Focused on higher order thinking skills Concrete Comprised of measurable outcomes