Large Group Teaching introduction

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Large Group Teaching - introduction

• Tendency to teach in large groups
• What is a Large Group?
• Defining this at xx.
• What is the purpose of teaching to large groups?
• Sample scenarios to consider.
• all courses are 10 credit/3 hours per week over
  1 term
• Options
• Didactic delivery (heap and hope)
• Multiple teach
• Use of tutor groups
• Use of VLEs
• Benefits/limitations

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Large Groups - Sample scenarios

• Teaching mechanics to 1st year
• You have a class of 160 students, all studying
  engineering in a common first year. The class is
  timetabled as 3 slots of 1 hour, in a tiered
  lecture theatre.
• Teaching design to 2nd year
• You have a class of 80 students, all studying
  mechanical engineering in second year, following
  a common first year in engineering. The class is
  timetabled as 1 slot of 3 hours, in a flat
  lecture theatre.
• Teaching business management to 3rd year
• You have a class of 120 students, studying on a
  diversity of electrical engineering programmes in
  their third year. The class is timetabled as 2
  slots, of 2 and 1 hours respectively in a tiered
  lecture theatre.
• Teaching programming to 1st year
• You have a class of 160 students, all studying a
  module in computing in a common first year. The
  class is timetabled as 3 slots of 1 hour, in a
  tiered lecture theatre with access to a 40-seat
  computing lab. and 2 PGTs
• Teaching teamskills to 2nd year
• You have a class of 120 students, all studying
  on a diversity of engineering programmes. The
  class is timetabled as 3 slots of 1 hour, in a
  tiered lecture theatre.
• Teaching sustainability to 3rd year
• You have a class of 80 students, all studying on
  an elective module in sustainability. The class
  is timetabled as 1 slot of 3 hours, in a flat
  seminar room.

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Student Engagement

• Challenges
• Student engagement ? participation
• Barriers to participation
• Students attention span
• Approaches
• Voting systems (EVS)
• Buzz groups
• Pyramid thinking/sharing
• Problem/Enquiry-based Learning (PBL/EBL)
• Feedback to peers

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Student engagement/participation (1)

• Novel Approaches to Student Engagement (NAPSE)
• http//www.ulster.ac.uk/napse
• Papers
• Computer gameplay inspiring students/digital
  games
• WIKIs and BLOGs sharing of experiences, inc.
  critique
• Mechanisms for practical engagement
• Experiential problem-based (meaningful,
  creative, provoking)
• Mobile technology formative assessment using
  EVS, iPods, mobiles, tablet PCs, interactive
  tablets
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/events
  /conference/Ann-conf-2008_Ann_Ooms
• First year design project student transition

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Student engagement/participation (2)

• Novel Approaches to Student Engagement (NAPSE)
• http//www.ulster.ac.uk/napse
• Posters
• Virtual 3D/Hand-held devices
• WIKI (Masters course)
• Personalised feedback
• E-Learning material
• Boring to exciting
• Use of games
• Imaginative engineers

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Student engagement/participation (3)

• Novel Approaches to Student Engagement (NAPSE)
• http//www.ulster.ac.uk/napse
• Imaginative engineers
• Case studies in robotics
• Robotics feasibility studies
• Investigating developing technologies and
  management
• Investigating businesses and organisations
• Teamskills development

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Addressing the issues in engagement

• Engagement how to firstly engage, and then to
  maintain student commitment
• Assessment an assessment strategy appropriate to
  the credit/student effort hours
• Formative/summative blending of formative
  progressive assessment
• Feedback/feedforward how to provide feedback,
  and to ensure timeliness as feedforward
• Use of Enquiry-Based and Problem/Project-Based
  Learning
• Students to take responsibility for their own
  learning
• Resource in Project-Based Learning (PBLE)
• http//www.engsc.ac.uk/downloads/pble/guide2003.
  pdf
• FDTL3 project funded at Nottingham in 2003

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Terminology

• Formative Assessment
• Assessment for providing feedback to learners in
  order to help them learn, and feedback to
  teachers for deciding how a students learning
  should be taken forward.
• Summative Assessment
• Assessment which provides overall evidence of the
  achievement of students and of what they know,
  understand and can do, by assigning a value to
  what the student achieves.

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Feedback AND Feed forward

• Feedback
• comments on a completed work that the student
  cannot repeat. The comments are useful to inform
  the student about strengths of their work and
  areas for further development in future
  assessments.
• Feed forward
• mostly what has been called feedback where a
  student has an opportunity to respond to the
  comments, e.g. a formative hand in
  constructive.

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Outline of SENLEF report - Student Enhanced
Learning through Effective Feedback

• Publication available on HEA website
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/asses
  sment/senlef
• Briefing Paper on formative assessment and
  feedback, and self-regulation of learning
• Conceptual model
• 7 principles of good feedback practice
• Simple strategies
• 50 case studies of good practice

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How to conceptualise formative assessment
feedback?

• A process that builds up the students own skills
  and capacity to self-evaluate and self-correct
  throughout their programme of study
• Formative assessment and feedback by others can
  only have an impact on learning when it
  influences a students own self-regulatory
  processes - whereby learners set goals (adapted
  from Boud, 1995).
• Boud, D. (1995). Enhancing Learning Through Self
  Assessment
• Pub. Routledge, ISBN 0749413689

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Self-regulated learning

• Self-regulated learning is an active constructive
  process whereby learners set goals for their
  learning and monitor, regulate, and control their
  cognition, motivation, and behaviour, guided and
  constrained by their goals and the contextual
  features of the environment. (Pintrich and Zusho,
  p64)
• P. R. Pintrich and A. Zusho, (2002) The
  Development of Academic Self-Regulation The Role
  of Cognitive and Motivational Factors, in
  Development of Achievement Motivation, eds. A.
  Wigfield and J. Eccles, San Diego, Calif.
  Academic Press

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Sadlers argument

• For feedback to benefit learning, students must
  know
• 1. What good performance is (goals, criteria)
• 2. How current performance relates to good
  performance (compare)
• 3. How to act to close the gap
• Implies that students must already possess some
  of the same evaluative skills as the teacher
  (Sadler, 1983).
• Sadler D (1983) Evaluation and the improvement
  of student learning Journal of Higher Education
  5460-79

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The Seven Feedback Principles

• How can assessment and feedback help to build a
  learners capacity to self-regulate?
• Helps clarify what good performance is (goals,
  standards, criteria)
• Facilitates development of self-assessment in
  learning
• Delivers high quality information to students
  about their learning
• Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around
  learning.
• Encourages positive motivational beliefs and
  self-esteem.
• Provides opportunities to close the gap between
  current and desired performance.
• Provides information to teachers that can be used
  to shape teaching.

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Assessment and Feedback resources (1)

• Academy resources/webpage
• http//www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/asses
  sment
• Assessment and Feedback (student views) video
  download
• Marking Criteria and Assessment Methods (student
  and staff perspectives) video download
• Plagiarism (student views) video download
• Resources in Assessment iPod podcast
• Assessment - HE in FE DVD

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Assessment and Feedback resources (2)

• EngSC resources/webpage
• http//www.engsc.ac.uk/er/assessment/index.asp
• Assessment of Learning Outcomes (ALOE) Guide
• http//www.engsc.ac.uk/downloads/scholarart/learn
  ing_outcomes.pdf
• Feedback event (16th April 2008 _at_ Ulster)
  http//www.engsc.ac.uk/nef/events/feedback.asp
• Mini-Projects, Teaching Awards
• Novel Approaches to Student Engagement (NAPSE)
• http//www.ulster.ac.uk/napse poster
  presentations

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Assessment and Feedback resources (3)

• Other resources
• Designing student learning by promoting formative
  assessment (Bone, 2008)
• http//www.ukcle.ac.uk/newsevents/lilac/2008/pape
  rs/bone.html
• Scottish Quality Enhancement (SQE) themes
• http//www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/themes/
• Hong Kong Polytechnic Assessment Resource Centre
• http//www.polyu.edu.hk/assessment/arc/sitemap.ht
  m
• Times Higher (29 January 2009)
• http//www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?s
  ectioncode26storycode405152c2

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Assessment, Feedback, Engagement other resources

• Supportive/general texts
• A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher
  Education Enhancing Academic Practice, 3rd
  edition. Fry, H., Ketteridge, S., Marshall, S.
  (ed.), (2008), Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-43464-5
  
• Teaching for quality learning at university.
  Biggs, J. (2003) Second edition. Buckingham SRHE
  Open University Press
• The Lecturers Toolkit, 3rd (Rev.) edition.
  Race, P., (2006), Routledge. ISBN
  978-0-415-40382-5
• Introduction to learning and teaching - an
  Engineering Subject Centre Guide. Pritchard, J.,
  (2008), HEA Engineering Subject Centre. ISBN
  978-1-904804-789
• http//www.engsc.ac.uk/teaching-guides/introduct
  ion/

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What one thing.

• Please write below one thing that you have
  personally learnt today

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Action Points Student Engagement

• Please write below three action points you will
  take from today, with a planned start time