Author: CVM Office of Teaching and Learning

Visiting Expert Presents Innovative Approaches to Teaching Non-Technical Skills

indialaneOn Friday, Jan. 29, Dr. India Lane, Professor of Medicine in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Student Success at the University of Tennessee, visited with faculty to discuss methods of teaching non-technical skills across a veterinary education curriculum.

According to Dr. Lane, the following non-technical competencies have been identified as critical to successful veterinarians. Continue reading Visiting Expert Presents Innovative Approaches to Teaching Non-Technical Skills →

Early Term Feedback Provides Significant Benefits

While the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET’s) measure perceptions AFTER a course is over, collecting feedback between week 3 and course midterm has benefits. Doing so allows faculty to:

  • address student questions or points of confusion regarding course design and major projects
  • make meaningful changes or adjustments quickly and efficiently
  • promote student engagement with the course content and instructors
  • positively affect the outcome of summative evaluations of teaching effectiveness.

Four approaches – Early-term Course Feedback, Small Group Instructional Diagnosis,Quick Course Diagnosis, and Midterm Evaluations – can be used, and the one you choose depends on what you hope to accomplish. The Office of Teaching & Learning is available to facilitate. Continue reading Early Term Feedback Provides Significant Benefits →

Tips for Reviewing Student Evaluation Data

The way we as faculty and staff view and use SET data can add to their value. First, we should acknowledge that SETs are just one measure of instructional effectiveness, with peer review/classroom observation and reflection on our own pedagogy and practice also viewed as highly effective ways to assess quality of teaching.

The Office of Teaching & Learning offers these tips for reviewing SET ratings and comments: Continue reading Tips for Reviewing Student Evaluation Data →

2015 Exemplary Teaching Panel

2015teaching-panel

Being a great teacher involves engaging with those who do it well. The following tips are condensed from the 2015 Exemplary Teaching Panel, which featured College of Veterinary Medicine faculty who earned recognition in 2015 as outstanding educators. Continue reading 2015 Exemplary Teaching Panel →

How to Use Interactive Lecture Systems

tophatSeveral faculty at the College of Veterinary Medicine use clickers to bring a level of engagement and interactivity to large lecture courses. During the spring semester, you’ll hear the Office of Teaching & Learning introduce an eLearning tool that allows students to use mobile devices (phones, tablets, iPads) and computers as clickers. This web-based platform, available across OSU, is called TopHat.

The value of clickers and TopHat includes: Continue reading How to Use Interactive Lecture Systems →

Teach for Application, Not Acquisition, Tech Leader Urges

alannovember

“Most assignments were written before the internet,” according to Alan November, an international leader in educational technology who spoke this week to OSU faculty and staff on “Who Owns Learning?”

November challenged attendees to reconsider the way they teach and the way they think about how students learn. Highlights of his presentation can be summed up in the following tips. Continue reading Teach for Application, Not Acquisition, Tech Leader Urges →

The Not-So-Simple Task of Posing Questions During Lectures

Here’s a multiple-choice question for faculty members faced with a rows upon rows of students in large-enrollment classes.

What happens when you pose a question during a lecture?

A. So many hands shoot up I couldn’t possibly call on anyone in particular.
B. I use TopHat to collect responses.
C. Someone in the front row usually shouts out the answer.
D. Nothing.
E. Depending on the class or the day, all of the above.

Most faculty use questions to informally test for comprehension, to guide students from one concept to another related concept, to check for attentiveness, or to encourage student engagement with the material. Questioning seems such a natural part of teaching and learning that we rarely give it much thought; however, certain practices can increase faculty effectiveness, student engagement, and student comprehension. Continue reading The Not-So-Simple Task of Posing Questions During Lectures →

How to Review Test Reports and Multiple Choice Item Analysis

CVM faculty receive information about the quality of their tests and quizzes several ways.

• They may look at student performance data on particular tasks, activities, quizzes, or tests in Carmen.
• They may be notified of item analysis generated when they administer Scantron tests.
• They may review a “Test and Question Report” from ExamSoft, a secure-testing application available to all faculty and currently used across first-year core courses.

The latter two are specifically designed to validate exam reliability, consistency, and quality.

These formal and informal processes allow us to create strong assignments and assessments, refine components of those assessments over time, and align the way we assess students with the learning outcomes identified. Continue reading How to Review Test Reports and Multiple Choice Item Analysis →

Classroom Observation for Additional Professional Development

CVM faculty who are interested classroom observation as part of their professional development are welcome to contact the Office of Teaching & Learning.

The Office of Teaching & Learning follows a systematic process for classroom observation at any point in the semester. Faculty using new pedagogical approaches or seeking feedback on classroom management, presentation style, or learner interactions may be interested in this form of support. Continue reading Classroom Observation for Additional Professional Development →

Lecture Capture: Current Use, Contemporary Research and Best Practices

During the academic year 2014-15, the lecture-capture system at CVM recorded 1,510 videos in 43 courses, and Veterinary Information Systems (VIS) reports the following use of those videos:

• 46,636 total plays
• 181 average plays per day
• 64 average viewers per day
• A viewing high of 602 plays per day.
• Videos viewed from 11 different countries.
• Videos viewed on 13 different types of devices.

It’s not hard to guess when the peaks for viewing lecture capture took place: right before midterm examinations and right before finals. In this sense, CVM students use lecture capture as a study tool.

This falls in line with research on lecture capture and learning. In “Is the effectiveness of lecture capture related to teaching approach or content type?” Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine researcher Jared Danielson and his colleagues (2014) studied the topic. Continue reading Lecture Capture: Current Use, Contemporary Research and Best Practices →