Thursday, September 03, 2015

Transparency in Teaching and Learning

The latest Project Information Literacy (full text) interview has just been published. It is with Mary-Ann Winkelmes "As the director of the Transparency in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Project, she urges faculty to think about how they teach by asking their students to think about how they learn." The interview is at http://projectinfolit.org/component/k2/item/75-smart-talks
Looking at the Transparency project website, one part of it has a process where:
"Instructors invite their students to complete a 7-10-minute online survey about their learning experiences. The survey data complements traditional student ratings of instruction by providing a measure of how students view their learning experiences and learning strengths. [people are invited to sign up for this: I don't think it gives the survey instrument, I don't think it can be the well-tried "approaches to study" inventory]
"An individualized, confidential report offers real-time insights to each instructor about how to improve students' learning, based on analysis of the data gathered from their own students and other, similar students in comparable courses.
"Optional workshops offer guidance for participating instructors on how to implement small teaching changes that will enhance their students’ learning, depending on the level and discipline of the course."
There is a page which has a list of ways in which students could be more actively involved in their learning, with examples: http://www.unlv.edu/provost/transparency. I don't think any of this is new, but it is nice to have it brought together in one place. For those interested in this area, there is a lot of relevant material on the UK Higher Education Academy's website, for example the report Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/engagement-through-partnership-students-partners-learning-and-teaching-higher-education#sthash.Njxevcbg.dpuf
Photo by Sheila Webber: ice plants, September 2015

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