Tips from an Online Teaching Amateur

A friend of mine is looking toward the fall semester and the possibility of teaching through distance learning.  He knows that I have participated in distance learning since March 13, 2020, (but not one second before that).  Because I have almost two months of experience, he asked me for my advice as if two months made me an expert.  Here are my comments. 

I've been watching some webinars about teaching online and you can certainly pick up hints and tips now and then.  When you watch a webinar, you'll figure out quickly whether it is going to be beneficial for you.  Stay with the ones where you feel that you will benefit.  

I think it is important to start off with the right mindset.  I like the quote, "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution."  I think that type of attitude helps an awful lot.  I know a lot of people who start off with, "I'm just going to hate this."  And, surprise, surprise, they hate it.  In life, attitude is everything.  Never feel that you have grown so old and boring that you are not ready to take on a challenge. 

Main pieces of advice.

--Communicate often with your students but don't be too wordy.  They need to hear from you (a few sentences) virtually every day.  However, they are not looking for a sermon or a lecture.  A little guidance and encouragement will go a long way.

--Be encouraging but make sure they know you are not reducing your standards.  Online education has a bad reputation for being watered down learning.  Starting with the first email on March 13, I wanted my students to know that I was not going to tolerate that kind of thinking.  "Do what I ask you to do and you'll learn just as much as you would sitting in my class" is something I chanted like a mantra.  

--Give them very specific things to do and give them deadlines.  It is easy for them to get confused about what you want or expect and when.  Most of them don’t have other students to give them direction if they need it as in a face-to-face class.  

--In everything you do, give them some way to respond so you keep them engaged.  Anything that lasts for more than a few minutes without a specific response from them is probably going to put them to sleep.  

--I gave a lot of assignments where I established a fairly low benchmark grade simply to measure effort.  "There are 10 questions now available on Blackboard.  If you get six of them right, I'll add a point to your effort grade."  I always felt that if I had good materials and could get a decent effort, then we would be okay.

--This is not about adapting.  It is a different system of education.  Rethink everything. 

--Learn as much as you can about Blackboard or Canvas or whatever Learning Management System your school has.  No one uses all of those tools but you want to figure out what fits into your style.  Think about what you want to do and then see if someone can show you how to do that in the system.  Other professors are willing to provide help.

--Mix things up so the students are seeing different types of learning experiences.  For example, I used a lot of True or False questions for learning purposes.  They are quick and easy to write and they tend to focus on specific factors.  They are like a toggle switch.  One way is false.  The other way is true.  You are focusing the student's entire attention on that one factor and which way the switch is set.  I thought that worked well in distance learning when it would never work in my live class. 

--Set up a series of PowerPoint slides and use them to make a video.  I try to keep them under 8-10 minutes.  Keep the words on each slide down to under about 25.  I always address a problem and give it to the students in advance and ask them to solve it.  Again, you want them to do something.  You want there to be a back and forth between the material and the student.  You don't have to be Steven Spielberg but a video does give you a way to talk directly to the students.

--Whenever you give them an assignment, tell them how long the assignment should take.  They never seem to know whether something is a 5-minute effort or a 60-minute effort.  They'll likely give you 70 percent of what you ask for in terms of time so keep that in mind.

--Don't get obsessed by whether they are cheating.  I know that is always a risk in distance learning.  Do what you can to prevent it but it is easy to spend too much of your time worrying about that.  

--Ask the students now and then, "What is working?  What is not working?"  They are actually getting a lot of experience in online education and can give you some interesting pointers.

--Whether it is Zoom office hours or just use of email, give them an easy way to contact you so they know they can get help when they need it.

Twelve Questions to Address About Distance Learning

One of my favorite comments to myself about education and working with students is from James Thurber (if you don’t know Thurber, you are likely under 70), “It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” 

In that regard, in this blog post, I am seeking to identify the questions I should ponder as I assess this past semester’s experience and look forward to other possible distance learning adventures in the future. 

I left home for Spring Break on March 6 as a face-to-face teacher.  I returned on March 10 as a distance learning teacher.  Like most teachers in this position, I had no time to plan or develop ideas.  I had two courses to prep and 64 students to manage.  For the following weeks, all I could do was react, encourage, and experiment.  My normal motto of, “Do no harm,” was even more in my mind.  Some things worked better than I expected.  Other things flopped or just were not effective or efficient.  My students, though, seemed to work hard and had a great deal of patience for what I was trying to accomplish. 

Now, though, the semester is winding down.  I want to learn.  I want to do better.  I want to consider how I should adapt.  I want to open my eyes to new possibilities. 

So, I made up of a list of questions that I wanted to address with myself and with other folks that I know, especially those people who know more about distance learning than I do.  My list of questions is evolving but here is what I have so far. 

1 - How would you describe your classes (a) historically and (b) going forward – totally live, blended (a mix of online and live), all online/distance learning or something else?

2 - How many students do you normally have in a class?  Given your traditional style of teaching, what’s a maximum number that you could teach reasonably well?  How many could you teach well using distance learning?

3 - In a live class, teachers traditionally convey information through a textbook, other assignments, and classroom sessions.  What are the ways that you can convey information in a distance learning environment?

4 - In a live class, students are “encouraged” to actually prepare for class through graded assignments, pop tests, calling on people in class, participation grades, etc.  How do you get students in a distance learning class to do the assigned work and do it at the appropriate time?

5 - In a live class, scheduled class sessions form a structure.  If you plan to talk about Chapter 16 at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, then all of the students need to be ready for Chapter 16 by 9 a.m. on Wednesday.  In a distance learning class, how do you create a structure that keeps students reasonably well together?  Or, are you more inclined toward self-paced and don’t care whether students stay together or not?

6 - Colleges talk a lot about the development of critical thinking skills.  In a live class, that process is often initiated by using probing questions or assignments designed to help students begin to “connect the dots” for themselves.  In distance learning classes, how do you help students develop their critical thinking skills?

7 – In live classes, the assessment of critical thinking skills can be extremely difficult.  How can that be accomplished in distance learning?

8 - In a live class, if students start to get lost or confused, they can pose questions in class, they can come to office hours, or they can send emails.  Or, as the teacher, I can recognize that they are struggling through their answers or body language and ask them to come see me.  How do students pose questions to you in distance learning classes?  How can you encourage those questions?

9 - In a live class, the professor can give students tests 2 or 3 times per semester (or as needed) to assess grades but also to help students get feedback as to how they are doing.  In distance learning classes, how do you assist students in determining how they are doing and how often do you do this?

10 - In a live class, the teacher can watch the students and have a reasonable feeling that they are not cheating on tests.  In distance learning, how do you prevent students from cheating? 

11 - In a live class, grades are normally determined using some combination of papers, tests, and other factors.  How do you assess grades in a distance learning class? 

12 - Do you know anyone who teaches blended or online classes (anywhere) who really seems to have the knack for creating great courses?  I am sure there are people out there who really do a great job.  I’d like to talk with them but first I have to find them.  How do I find those people and how can I best learn from them? 

There are probably a gazillion other questions that I should be asking but this dozen provides a foundation for my exploration.  Wish me luck!

LEARNING ABOUT DISTANCE EDUCATION

 At some point, the virus will be controlled (at least, that is everyone’s daily prayer).  I hope teachers around the world will then pause for a moment to talk about what we have learned from having to switch so abruptly to distance learning.  There was little time for planning, just a desperate rush to see what might work.  When I hear my colleagues, they seem amazed at how effectively certain tactics have succeeded.  I want to hear about those discoveries.  I want to learn from their epiphanies.  I want to share in all of these new types of learning.

Most of us got pushed out of our teaching rut in record time.  What can we discover from the process that ensued?  With that in mind, I want to write today about what I have tried over the past couple of weeks and why.  It is too early to assess how well it has worked but I have tried to do things that made sense to me.  As I have explained to several friends who are not educators, “This is like changing from playing football to playing tennis.  Going from face-to-face to distance education is not about adapting.  It is about reinventing the process from the ground up without any time for practice.” 

My approach is based on two personal influences.  First, when I was in the 9^th grade in 1962, my little high school put me into a self-study program where I was supposed to learn advanced algebra by myself.  I am sure it was cutting edge education at the time.  I was given a big book that led me down a mathematical path – I would read a question, then read an answer.  I would read the next question and then read the next answer, and so on.  Day in and day out. 

This did not work for me at all.  No way.  I spent most of the time lost or about half asleep.  Nevertheless, even as a ninth grader, I realized that it absolutely could have worked.  The idea had merit but the implementation was flawed. 

--The sequencing of the questions had to be extremely good.  Because I had no teacher, each question needed to lead naturally into the next one without a seam.  If the questions were redundant, I got bored.  If the gap between questions was too wide, I got lost.  Occasionally, when the questions were sequenced just perfectly, I could successfully navigate through some complicated material by myself.  Those moments were neat.

--The explanations had to be understandable to a ninth grader.  The key educational point in the process was in the reading of each answer.  I was sure a high school teacher would have understood the answers but this material was all new to me.  I had to be able to read the words on the page by myself and figure out what they meant.  I was 15 years old.  If I could not do that, I was stuck.  Looking back, I cannot imagine how important it was for those answers to be crystal clear to a ninth grader.    

--I needed some type of frequent assessment to make sure I was not missing anything and to encourage me to keep pushing on.  The questions and answers could quickly seem endless without some kind of quiz or other assignment to make sure I was learning what I was supposed to learn.  The path could just get too long too quickly.  For me, it really did look like an endless highway.

I left ninth grade algebra thinking, “Well, that could have worked, but it didn’t.” 

Fast forward more than 30 years to the mid-1990s.  Two friends and I invented a self-study course for the CPA Exam titled, “90 Days to Success on the CPA Exam.”  We had no employees, it was just a hobby for us.  Within a couple of years, we were selling our programs in 50 states and 35 other countries.  We eventually sold the business because it was beginning to overwhelm us. 

But, I learned a lot more about distance learning from the experience.

--The “students” needed structure.  They wanted to wake up and know what they were supposed to do without having to think about it.  We furnished a daily calendar that said, “Today – do this.” 

--Everything we did in this program was based on sequential learning.  When there is no teacher present, the learning cannot look random (but I had already learned that in the ninth grade). 

--The students liked to have different types of learning experiences.  If they did the same thing every day, they got bored and lost their focus.

--The process needed to be interactive.  The students needed a lot of feedback or they would mentally drift away.  Everything we created required them to give a response that would be assessed.

--The students needed encouragement.  They were human.  They needed someone to tell them, “You can do this.  I know it can be discouraging at times and frustrating but, if you will do what I ask you to do, you ARE going to learn this material and be successful.  Believe in yourself.”

So, back in March, when I came back from visiting New Orleans over Spring Break (luckily, without the virus) and was told that we were switching to distance learning, I tried to incorporate what I learned in the ninth grade in 1962 with my 1990s distance learning program. 

I teach two classes on Intermediate Accounting II and one class of Financial Accounting.  The first is extremely complex and has 39 college juniors.  The second is an introductory course with 25 college frosh.  Two entirely different levels of material.

The first thing I did was choose not to use Zoom or any other “live” presentations.  I have no problems if someone finds that approach works well for them but I could not see me explaining complex accounting problems using some type of online “live” program.  I hope one day to see how it can be used successfully but, until then, I have doubts about it working well for me.  I thought the same thing even after watching Saturday Night Live.

It is impossible for me to explain exactly what I did but I will try to describe my process as best as I can.  The material was not always presented in exactly this format but almost.  If you would like to see some of these materials, please send me a note at Jhoyle@richmond.edu.

1 – I started this whole process with a note to my students ensuring they that they were going to learn this material.  I never wanted them to have a doubt.  

2 - My first assignment was that they needed to spend a certain amount of time for class every day—60-75 minutes for financial accounting and 90 minutes for Intermediate Accounting II—and I wanted them to keep a “time journal” just so they could track their efforts.  I figured if I could get a good amount of their time using effective materials, the chances were high for a successful learning experience.  I did everything I could to get a “buy-in” from the students right from the start.

3 - I emailed them about 10-15 questions that I believed would sequentially lead the students into our first topic.  I wrote the questions and then immediately wrote those same questions but this time with my answers.  I explained to my students what I wanted them to do, “Read all the questions and then read all the answers.  Then, go back and read the questions a second time and this time try to answer them for yourself.  Read the answers again.  Go back and read the questions for a third time and see if you can get them all correct.  Keep following this loop until you are comfortable.”  I suggested that they needed to have this “Q & A list” under control in a reasonable but specific period of time.  From my experience, college students need deadlines.

4 – The next day I sent them a second group of 10-15 questions and answers that followed up on the first batch.  I am trying to structure these Q & A lists in chunks that are not overwhelming.  A bit like Goldilocks, I wanted them to face new information that was not too little but also not too big.

5 – The next day I emailed them a practice problem, “If you have been successful with our first two Q & A lists, then I think you can work the following problem.  The answers are at the end.  If I don’t hear from you by (insert time and date), I’ll assume you got the correct answers and have this material under control.  If you cannot get my answers, drop me an email and I’ll give you a push or send you the computations.”  I make sure this practice problem is not easy but is a natural progression from the materials covered in the Q & A lists.  Everything hinges on that sequential process.

6 – The next day I posted one or two Panopto videos on Blackboard.  (I imagine that a lot of people who had never heard of Panopto last month are now experts.)  First, I sent the students a rather complicated problem or two and told them to work them before watching the video.  Working a problem they have not seen has limited benefit in my mind.  I put as much relevant material as possible on a Power Point presentation and use Panopto to walk through those slides.  I want my students to hear my voice explaining how to work each step in the process.  I’m not a technical person so my slides are very basic but I’m not sure that basic is not a good foundation for learning.  I give the students a time frame for watching the videos.  I can check the numbers who have done so and will send encouragement if not enough are taking advantage of the videos. 

7 – During the next day or so, I post an “effort quiz” on Blackboard.  It is short and should take 15-30 minutes.  I use a lot of multiple-choice and true-false because I think they work well when you are focused on sequential learning.  I typically send the students some basic information in advance and tell them that the questions will be based off that information.  I want them to spend time looking and thinking about the information prior to opening up the quiz.  I am trying to avoid surprises.  I set a reasonably low number as a “Good Effort” grade.  As long as most students can hit that standard, we move on.  I am not seeking perfection.

8 – After we have gone through 2 or 3 groups of material looping through the above steps, I post a “Final Quiz” on Blackboard.  It is about 20-40 minutes.  It has a bit more weight and more complexity than the “effort quizzes” but I try to make sure that it covers what my materials have covered.  I like the term “Final Quiz” because it indicates to the students that they have successfully mastered a section of material. 

What do I like about this approach?

a.  It is structured.  The students always know what they are supposed to do next.

b.  It has time recommendations.  The students know how long they are supposed to be spending each day.

c.  It has deadlines.  Students know when assignments are due.

d.  It is sequential.  Everything is based on those Q & A lists.  If I can write them well enough, then all of the other steps tie back into that information.  To an educator, I cannot stress that enough.   

e.  I try to use several types of learning:  Q & A lists, practice problems, videos, effort quizzes, final quizzes.  Each one has its own particular purpose.  Each one requires the student to do something.  They cannot be passive learners.

f.  I use a lot of email so I can provide encouragement.  Many of my students are struggling with issues that go well beyond school.  There is a lot of strain and tension in their lives.  I am not a cheerleader but I do want them to know every single day that I believe they can learn this material and that we will all get through it successfully just as soon as possible. 

What do the students think?  What I think is probably unimportant.  It is what the students think and accomplish that matters.  After the semester is over, I certainly plan to ask them some honest questions to see what I can learn from this experiment.  Why go through all of this if I am not going to learn how to get better?  But that will have to wait.  That is why I am so interested in hearing what others are doing.  Let's learn from each other.

DO YOUR STUDENTS NEED GUIDANCE?

The theme of this essay is that there are times during a semester when students need more than teaching.  They need guidance on how to learn and what to do next.
**

The semester here at Richmond is approximately half completed.  Our second examination is still three weeks away.  Spring break is coming soon.  The material we are covering is extremely complex.  Some of my students are struggling.  Most are tired, both physically and emotionally.  

This happens about this time every semester and it is a moment when I fear losing some of my students.  They lack energy and enthusiasm and there is no internal urgency to drive them back to work.  If I lose them now, I might never get them back.  They may simply settle into a rut of mediocrity.  Pushing them harder is not necessarily a good answer.  I always remind myself of the old saying, “The beatings will continue until the morale around here improves.”  On the other hand, I am not a big believer in giving everyone a few days off.  Many students simply do not need a time for rest right now.  Different students react differently to stress.  Forcing them to rest sends a bad message, I believe.  “Take a break whether you need it or not” is not what I want to be telling them.

I view this as an important time to guide my students although no single piece of advice will meet every need.  I have to remember that these students are about 20 years old and don’t necessarily have a clue about what they should be doing next.  They have not been at this point in life previously.  It might not be a good time to let them try to figure out the next steps in learning on their own.   I often joke that, “Recopying notes becomes a default activity for lost students” because that is something they can do without guidance.

I like to view this point in the semester as a good spot for a half-time adjustment.  In sports, teams go into the locker room at half-time and the coaches try to figure out how to get the players to change their approach or tactics in order to do better in the remainder of the game.  Students need the same type of leadership.

Consequently, I emailed all of my students this past Friday afternoon.  I explained to them that the class seemed to be going well but I realized they might be tired and in need of some direction.  I asked them to assess how they were feeling and then I made specific suggestions for what to do over the weekend based on that assessment.  Because this advice is only applicable to my class and my students, I will keep the examples rather vague but you can see the message I wanted to convey.
**
To my students:
Okay, if you are truly tired of school or sick of this class and all the material, take the weekend off.  We have been working very hard and, at some point, most people reach a point of saturation.  If you take the weekend off, try to do other things that will provide you with some rest and relaxation.  I do not want you to take a quick break just so you can exhaust yourself in some other way.  I need for you to come back to class on Monday refreshed, stronger, and ready to make progress.  In life, sometimes, taking a break is the perfect antidote for mental and physical exhaustion.  

However, if you are not really tired at this point and you feel confident about the material, then I would suggest spending the weekend going over the practice test that I gave you from last semester.  You have the answer sheets.  This will provide you with a chance to practice using test questions that I actually wrote and gave to students just like you.  Time yourself and get a feel for how well you know the material and how quickly you can turn it into good answers.  Look for any holes in your understanding.  Self-assessment is never a bad idea and, if you don’t need rest, this is a good way to measure where you stand.  You will arrive in class on Monday with an idea of whether you need remedial work before you move forward to our next test.

If you are not exhausted but you are not as comfortable with the current material as you would like, then consider spending the weekend working the email problems I sent you over the last week or so.  They were designed to help you understand what we covered in class.  Each one has its answers so you can immediately see what you know and what you don’t know.  This will help you identify essential areas where you need more work right now.  You need to know what you don’t know before you can address those issues.  The weekend gives you the opportunity to create two lists, “What I know” and “What I don’t know.”  

Finally, if you are not worn out but feel that you are lost, you need some method by which to organize the material so you can get back on track.  Simply working complex problems incorrectly is of limited benefit.  Recently, I have talked with you about creating three-second questions as a way to identify a basic level of subject matter knowledge that you need as a foundation for learning.  Go through your class notes and begin to write down the questions that you should be able to answer without much thought.  Then, begin to practice doing them.  If you are lost, you need to begin with the basics and start to work your way up.  (Author’s note:   my students know what “three-second questions” are because I have shown them examples, but, if you want more help, here is some information:  

http://joehoyle-teaching.blogspot.com/2019/01/helping-students-before-first-class-and.html )
  
**
Notice in this email that I have asked my students to figure out where they stand at the moment.  I have given them four reasonable options:  exhausted, knowledgeable, needs work, or lost.  Based on that assessment, I have made specific suggestions.  Not, “Work harder,” or “Spend more time” or “Get tough.”   For most students, the problem is, “What do I do next?  What do I do right now?”  My answer is, “Once you have judged your current position, here is how you should spend your weekend.” 

Does that help?  I certainly think so.  Students are free to make their own decisions but I have provided genuine guidance that can help, “Based on your current situation, here is how I would spend this weekend.”  A lot of students need that type of direct advice.

Being a college professor is not always about teaching.  At key points, it is about guiding.    

TWO WAYS TO GET BETTER

One of my ongoing thoughts about teaching is, “Whether you are the best teacher in the world or the worst teacher, you can always improve.”  That is just common sense.  No matter what you teach or where you teach or who you teach or how long you have taught or how many awards you have won, you can always get better.  That aspirational realization pushes me forward every day as I seek to improve as a teacher.  Currently in the midst of my 98th semester as a teacher, that is a thought that I ponder every day.  How can I help my 65 students learn more, learn better, learn deeper?

Whenever I talk with other college teachers, I often encounter a sense of resignation, “No matter what I do, I’m never going to get better.  Why should I even try?”

That is utter nonsense.  Everyone can get better.  I have no doubt about that.  However, you must (a) honestly want to improve and (b) have a willingness to try new tactics and techniques rather than wasting your time explaining why every new idea will fail to yield positive results.  

Let me give you two ideas.  Perhaps, one or the other will help.  Or, possibly, these thoughts might push you to come up with you own innovations.  

(1) – As I have said multiple times on this blog, nothing improves the learning process more than having students walk into class prepared to learn.  Students often resist preparing because they see no benefit accruing from the work they are asked to do.  So, for every class, create a “Problem of the Day.”  Give it to them in advance and tell them they will solve it at the next class session.  Make it unique, creative, and as thoughtful as possible.  Don’t bore them.  Intrigue them.  Do it every day so that it becomes automatic for them.  Tell your students that you will help them address the problem during class.  Together you will analyze each “Problem of the Day” but they must walk in knowing the facts, understanding the issues, and being able to explain alternative approaches and solutions.  Create each as a puzzle – every college student loves to solve clever puzzles.  

If you teach art history, you might create a “Problem of the Day” like this:  Assume in 1498, a 15-year old Raphael is studying Primavera, one of the most influential paintings of all time.  The artist Botticelli walks in and Raphael shouts at him, “You are going to rot in Hell for creating this painting!”  At our next class, tell us why you think Raphael would have felt this way?  As Raphael grew older, how might his opinion of this masterpiece have changed?  How do you think Botticelli should have responded to his young critic?

Or, if you teach literature, a “Problem of the Day” could be:  We recently read and discussed Madame Bovary, a book written by a French author (Gustave Flaubert) and published in 1856.  It concerns a woman, her husband, and her lover.  In despair, she commits suicide.  Our current book is Anna Karenina, a book written by a Russian author (Leo Tolstoy) and published in serial installments between 1873 and 1877.  It concerns a woman, her husband, and her lover.  In despair, she commits suicide.  Select one key event found in Anna Karenina and compare it to a similar event found in Madame Bovary.  Describe how the resulting narrative might have been influenced by (a) being written by different authors, (b) being written in different countries, (c) being written in different times, or (d) being published in different forms.

Or, if you teach history, a “Problem of the Day” could be:  Stonewall Jackson died less than two months before the Battle of Gettysburg.  Speculate on how the results of that battle (and, hence, the rest of the American civil war) might have been different had he still been alive.

Or, here is a “Problem of the Day” that my introductory accounting students discussed in class TODAY:  Ace Company owns land that it bought 20 years ago for $40,000.  Now, it is worth $65,000.  Ace is preparing financial statements and trying to decide whether to report the land at $40,000 or $65,000.  Give one good reason for reporting each of these numbers.  If you were in charge of creating accounting rules, would you choose the $40,000 or the $65,000?  What is the real rule?  Why is that the rule?  Do you like that?

My students had a fabulous conversation about that “Problem of the Day.”  They came in prepared and the discussion was quite animated.

A “Problem of the Day” does not have to be overly complex.  It merely has to be (a) interesting/intriguing, (b) a topic that carries the learning process forward, and (c) a question that requires the students to do some thinking prior to walking into the classroom.  However, you absolutely must make use of that problem at some key point during the designated class or your students will not prepare for your next “Problem of the Day.”  Never ask them to do work and then ignore that assignment.

Create a new “Problem of the Day” for every class of the semester and, I think, you will be amazed by how much better your students prepare for class, how much more they learn during class, and how much more they enjoy the class.  

(2) – Students simply don’t know what they don’t know.  They leave class each day with no good way to measure whether their learning is adequate.  Previously, in this blog, I have discussed “Swiss Cheese Knowledge” which is student understanding that looks solid to them but is actually full of holes.  

Consequently, as often as possible, maybe once or twice each week, email them a follow up problem immediately after class (well, within 24 hours) and simply say, “If you can address the following question, then you successfully learned what I wanted you to learn in class today.  I have included a rubric to show how I would have graded this question on a test.  What grade do you believe I would have given your answer?  If that grade is what you want, then move on to something else.  Your knowledge is solid.  If that grade is not what you want, ask yourself (or me) what do you need to do now to attain the level of understanding that you want.” 

I have the benefit of decades of teaching so I usually know what they do not yet know, where the holes in their knowledge are most likely to be hidden.  Over the years, I have developed a series of test-like questions to follow up each topic of conversation.  I email a new question to them as needed.  I usually set a time-limit to help them gauge the difficulty level, “You should be able to come up with reasonable answers in 15 minutes.  Then use the rubric to grade yourself.  Let me know if you need assistance.”  I find that students are more likely to do a post-class problem if you provide time guidance.  That way they know they are not expected to get bogged down for hours.
**
Can any teachers use these two techniques to help students (a) be better prepared each day for a rousing class discussion and (b) gauge what level of understanding they have achieved and where additional work might be needed?  Sure.  Why not?

Would these suggestions help you?
I honestly don’t know.  I use both of them religiously and think they help
But that is me.
The only way to know is to try one or both.  
As with almost any educational experiment, you’ll probably need to play around with the ideas to see what works best in your class with your students.
I do think they are worth a try.
Because
Whether you are the best teacher in the world or the worst, you can always get better.  
Try something new.

THE FINAL EXAM – TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT

I have always been frustrated by how I could better use the final examination each year.  My hourly exams throughout the semester typically go into depth about a few topics that have been covered extensively over the past few weeks.  That makes sense to me.  The results seem reasonable.  


For my classes, a final examination covers a massive amount of material, much of which has not been reviewed by the students in several months.   Students often appear unsure as to how to prepare and how to allocate their time.  Over the past 49 years, they have often arrived at the final exam ill-prepared, moaning that their preparation made them more confused and less confident.  They then leave 3 or 4 hours later mumbling that they, “Had not expected to see those questions.”  They had guessed at the topics and had guessed wrong.  Their grades suffered.  I am not sure what that proves.  What is the benefit in that?


For me, the final exam seemed a poor ending to what was often an excellent semester.  The students frequently left discouraged and I had to curve the exam heavily in order to have a legitimate distribution.  To be honest, the final exam felt like a “downer” and I didn’t like that type of conclusion for my course.


During the past two semesters, I have changed my approach to the final exam and, truthfully, I am much happier with the results.  Perhaps this proves that an old dog can figure out some new tricks.  


Now, about 10 days before the final exam, I create 25-30 final exam questions that cover the entire semester at the depth that I believe is appropriate.  Each question is designed to take between 4 minutes and 10 minutes to resolve.  Each question contains at least one variable such as a cost or a life span or an interest rate or preferred method.  If I were teaching art history, I could write a preliminary question about Raphael knowing that I could switch the question to Botticelli or Monet on the actual final.


One week before the final exam, I give all of the questions to my students and tell them that these are the questions they will face on their final exam.  I warn them very carefully that, on the actual final, I will change at least one of the variables for each question.  The question will be basically the same but some variable will be different.  Perhaps Raphael will become Botticelli.


A buyer might be turned into a seller.

A ten-year period of time might be increased to 20 years.

A loan of $100,000 might become a loan of $200,000.

A piece of equipment might become a piece of land.

An event occurring within the U.S. might be moved to a foreign country.


I told the students that they could talk with each other if they liked (I probably couldn’t stop them any way and I don’t like putting up rules that I cannot enforce).


Almost immediately, the students began to organize themselves in order to prepare.  Their study tactics were not based on trying to guess at topics or remember hundreds of pages of material, much of which might not even appear on the exam.  Now, they had to learn how to work 30 very precise and complicated problems.  They studied in groups.  They helped each other.  They talked through the problems to determine how each one should be solved.  They discussed how variables might be changed.  They gave each other encouragement and support.


They thought about the questions.  They began to understand better.


The changes I made to the questions were not easy.  The students had to think about what was different and how that affected the determination of a solution.  But, that was what they had expected.  On the actual exam, no one got all 30 correct but most of the students were able to get 80 percent or more.  I thought that was good given the complexity of the subject and the difficulty of the questions.  I still applied a very slight curve. Unfortunately, a few students made an F.  Even with the questions, their knowledge was shaky.  


What did I see as the benefits to this change?


(1) – Without a doubt, the final exam became a learning process.  I am completely convinced that almost every student learned a considerable amount through their attempts to figure out how the basic questions were to be solved.  I felt that they had gained understanding.  How could I want more than that?  It became less of a test and more of a learning exercise.  


(2) – It was a team building exercise.  There were no instructions on how to prepare.  They had to decide whether to study together or apart and, if together, how could that be organized.  I loved walking through the halls and seeing them huddled together in small or large groups working through their problems.


(3) – My feeling was that the students left the final exam with a more positive attitude towards themselves.  A great many of them managed to answer most of the questions correctly.  I don’t want my students leaving on the last day feeling defeated.  I always want a more positive outcome.


(4) – The grades on the final exam were not based on which students could best anticipate the topics to be covered.  Yes, they did have to consider how the variables would be altered but no one could say, “I studied several topics for hours and they didn’t even appear on the exam.”  I seriously wanted to reduce the gambling aspect of exam preparation.


What should you do now?  Well, if you are happy with your final exam, I wouldn’t do anything.  Experiments and evolution should occur where there is a problem.  


If you are not totally happy with the present results, do what I did:  Pick one class for the next semester and try some variation of this idea.  See what you think.  You cannot experiment purely in your head.  At some point, you have to go out and try an idea and see what results you get and whether you like those results or not.

NEVER TOO LATE TO EXPERIMENT

I am a fan of Frank Zappa’s assertion, “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”  If you have followed this blog for long, you know that I am a huge proponent of teaching experimentation.  Consequently, I push the Three E’s of Teaching:  Experiment, Evaluate, and Evolve.  Follow these three steps on a regular basis and wonderful things can happen.  Always be on the lookout for a potential new innovation that you can try out just to see if it works.  Keep your eyes open and consider changes that are possible.  Awareness is a good quality to have when looking to improve as a teacher. 

We are quickly moving toward the end of another semester.  What has been your most interesting teaching experiment of these past few months?  I have long believed that every school should award prizes for the most successful teaching experiment each year.  That would both reward and encourage classroom innovation.  Maybe we could post all the winners on a website just to circulate unique ideas.

With two weeks left in the current semester, I decided to try something I had never done previously in my 48+ years as a college teacher.  I created this experiment as a mash-up of two ideas that I have long pondered with admiration.

(1) – Teaching is extremely personal as you create a relationship of some kind with each of your students.  Therefore, I have always been troubled that giving grades at the end of a semester is a completely impersonal process.  Students take final exams and then leave campus for weeks or months.  After they depart, the teacher posts a symbolic letter grade (A, B, C, etc.) that the students will access, often hundreds if not thousands of miles away.  There is a disconnect (both in time and space) that I do not like.  No words are shared between teacher and student.  No encouragement or suggestions are conveyed.  There is not even eye contact. 

My younger son attended Sarah Lawrence College (outside of NYC) nearly 20 years ago.  At least at that time, students did not receive letter grades from their teachers.  Grades were posted with the Registrar but never conveyed to students unless they explicitly asked to see them.  Instead, teachers authored a letter to each student describing the work the student had done over the course of the semester—the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The teacher was supposed to work on this letter throughout the semester as a basis for an ongoing assessment of the student’s entire body of work.  I liked that approach because it did not boil an entire semester down to a single letter grade.  The student was given both constructive criticism and positive reinforcement.  The teacher reflected on the student’s work, its potential and its quality.

I started my own experiment last week by trying to make the grading process in my classes more personal.

(2) – One of the most popular blog postings that I ever wrote was titled, “What the Catcher Tells the Pitcher.”  It describes a conversation between Brad Ausmus, a long-time major league baseball catcher, and Terry Gross on her NPR radio program, Fresh Air.   

At one point, Gross asked her guess what a baseball catcher tells a pitcher when he goes out to the mound.  Ausmus’s response has stayed with me since the day I first heard the interview in 2011.  “I always had only one goal in mind when I went out to talk with the pitcher. When I left him, I wanted the pitcher to absolutely believe that he was capable of getting out of the situation that he was facing. If he didn’t believe he was capable of taking care of the problem, we didn’t have much chance.”

We are getting to the end of the semester.  If one of my students doesn’t believe he or she is capable of improving, we don’t have much of a chance.  A positive but realistic attitude is essential for success in almost any endeavor and that can slip away here at the end.  No improvement will ever happen if the student gives up.

I wanted to do something dealing with a student’s grade that seemed more personal but also encouraged the student to do better.  I wanted to combine Sarah Lawrence with Brad Ausmus.

The Experiment:  With about two weeks left in the semester, I wrote individual emails to each of the 39 students in my introductory courses this semester.  They are all first-year students or sophomores.  They have worked hard this semester and their test averages at the moment range from 63.0 to 99.0 with an average of roughly 81.

The 39 emails probably took me a total of about 4 or 5 hours.  (At 4 hours, that means that I am writing each email at an average pace of under seven minutes.)  I did not make the emails long, about 5 to 8 lines each.  But, in that time, I told each person some of my thoughts that had stood out about their work this semester—their attitude, their preparation, their interest in the subject matter, their willingness to engage in class, etc.  I tried to touch on the important stuff.  With two weeks left in the semester, I did not see much benefit in describing what they had done during the semester that left me frustrated or exasperated. 

I computed each overall test average at that point in the semester and then discussed what it would take to pull that average up on the final examination.  For example:  “You have a 76.1 average on our three tests so far this semester.  If you want more than a solid C, you are going to have to show me what you have learned.  Your work at times this semester has been outstanding but your preparation has been wildly inconsistent.  With a solid B on the final exam, you should make either a B- or a B for the course.  From what I have seen, you are more than capable of a solid B.  But you are the one who has to make that happen.  You won’t get there by accident.  Get to work and let’s get it done.  Be consistently good not just occasionally good.  Let me know if I can be of help.”

I do think such notes can have a potential positive effect on the remainder of the semester:

(1) – The student knows that I know who they are.  They are not some invisible spirit that blends into the woodwork.  I want them to realize that I know them as a real person and not just as a student ID number.

(2) – They are reminded of the precise grade they have earned to date.  It is not, “You have a high C” or “You have about a B.”  I want them to know their exact grade.  I want that to be absolutely real rather than something vague.  

(3) – I want them to realize that an improved grade is still very much possible but it won’t happen by luck.  They will have to earn it.  A lot of teachers promise to be tough but really aren’t.  I am not Santa Claus.

(4) – I ended every note with, “Let me know if I can be of help.”  I wanted the students to understand that we are in this course together.  It is not a “me versus them” situation.  I am on their side and want them to do well.  I want them to know that I am available for help and willing to help.  They are not in this battle alone.

Okay, so I invested 4 hours of my life writing 39 emails to my current students.  Was it a good use of my time?  As far as improved results, that remains to be seen, but I was so glad that I used my four hours that way.  The messages felt personal to me and reminded me that I was dealing with real people who have real lives and real futures.  Maybe the benefit was always intended for me and my attitude.

I tried to make the achievement of a particular grade more personal to the students and I hope that they were able to see that their grade, no matter how poor it is at the moment, could still be improved by a rather modest increase in the level of work on the final.  I want them to fight until the end.  It is just a guess (or maybe a hope) but I will be surprised if some of the students don’t kick their work up into a higher gear and successfully improve their average here at the end of the semester.  That was the goal.

That is an experiment I tried at the end of the fall semester in 2019.  I wanted to do something different.  I like trying something different.  What experiment are you going to try at the end of the semester just to see what might happen?  Remember what Frank Zappa said, “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”