This week's readings covered a wide range of topics. Some topics, such as teaching large classes, distance education, and using feedback from students were very relevant to myself and my future teaching career. Other topics, such as instruction of labs were interesting because I took 4 lab classes when I was a pharmacy major, but probably not something I will be teaching in the future.

Things I found helpful this week:
Discussion-

• The topic of discussion was once again suggested, but this time more connected to large classrooms with McKeachie reiterating on page 255 what he also talked about in chapter 16 that students learn better with discussion rather than straight lecture. I like that research and experienced teachers confirm that discussion is possible in large classes. McKeachie shares that any activity done in large classes needs to be very organized and there is not a lot of room for spontaneous discussion or activities. I think this is good advice because of how much confusion can come from unclear directions in even a small class.


• Discussion in all fields of study is important. Great ideas, further clarification, and examples can come from discussion. The field of communication embraces discussion, even in large classes. When I took Intercultural Communication and Human Communication, the classes had over 50 students. The teachers always asked questions of the entire class and created a conversational atmosphere.


• Something from the discussion section that I will incorporate if I have a large class and possibly even in my class of 22 students is the "fishbowl" method of discussion that is described by McKeachie on page 257. The description of choosing a few students to sit in an inner circle and discuss questions with me and other "fish" with the rest of the class observing and taking notes on what is being said reminded me a lot of the mock focus group I participated in. I think this is just a great idea that I have never thought of. I think I could implement this in my class without the students even knowing it since there are a few distinct students that regularly discuss. I would have all of the students write a short minute paper about what was said and what they would have said differently. This gives them the chance to share their ideas captively without the fear of speaking out.

Online Learning-

• McKeachie describes distance education as "one of the most challenging and satisfying forms of teaching" (p. 288). New developments in technology is advancing this option of study and online learning is increasing in popularity for students. However, it may go unnoticed by students the amount of work that actually goes into planning and facilitating a course taught at a distance. Online classes need to be carefully planned and designed. The table shown on page 291 and described on page 290 would be very helpful in planning any course. By laying out the number of weeks, you can spread out the readings and assignments as to not overload the students. It is also important to let students know why the course is set up in that way. Online students are often busy, so justifying assignments, keeping discussion questions interesting and giving manageable workloads is essential.
  
• Online and distance education is growing at NDSU. This summer some of the communication majors were added as online degrees as well. I personally would not like to take an online class at this point in my education, but for some it is their only option of being able to go to school. I think that for myself I am still biased by the outdated stigma that online learning is not as good as in the classroom. I would take an online general education class but I just do not think that upper-level, major-specific classes would be as beneficial if taken online. However, online courses have been tried and successful across many fields of study.
  
• With online learning becoming more available at NDSU, I may be asked to teach a class at some point, possibly during a summer semester. I would like to try this because I am not a huge fan of lecturing in front of the class yet, but am a very effective communicator through e-mail and am very organized. Being organized would be a key skill because I would have to keep a very organized Blackboard site and keep student work organized and accounted for. I would incorporate the many tips McKeachie suggested such as using familiar, concrete, simple, everyday language in teaching online or any classroom. If I were to teach a course anytime soon I would check the web for even more tips and consult with others that have taught online to learn from their pitfalls and successes.

Feedback from Students-

• The last useful topic I found this week was regarding feedback from students as discussed in chapter 9 of First Day to Final Grade. Curazan and Damour preface the chapter by reminding future teachers that we need to "remember that in the same way paper grades are about the student's work, not about the student, student feedback is about the course, not about your value as a person" (p. 166). Feedback is important to make sure the students are learning effectively. Concepts and activities may make perfect sense to you, but if the students aren't getting what you intend out of it, then you need to readjust. I think feedback should be solicited early and often. You want to make changes right away and at midsemester so that the remainder of the course is not a loss. I find this information helpful as a teacher because it reinforces what I value as a student as well. I value that teachers care enough about the class that they take the time and will assess the assignments and other aspects of the class to enhance the learning.
  
• I think any field of study can benefit from student feedback. Each class that you teach is going to have be different. The students are unique and together form a distinct climate that may learn better in different ways. Many teachers have used this feedback and gotten rid of assignments, added new ones, or changed different aspects so that the students used them more effectively. This can be argued that some of the hard sciences can't necessarily readjust their assignments or drop tests, but I think the instructors could greatly benefit from knowing how their teaching is. I had a chemistry professor that went the entire semester just reading his PowerPoints word for word. I do not learn that way. I could have stayed in my dorm and read the PowerPoints and got the same information. I was never given the option to voice my opinion about this until the end of the semester, and most classmates felt the same way. However, I don't think the chemistry department takes the student ratings of instruction as serious as other departments because I had the teacher again for my next chemistry class and it was taught the exact same way with more difficult concepts.
  
• Student feedback is very important in the department and our assistantships depend on end of semester feedback. This was actually reiterated on Monday during our COMM 110 seminar class. At the end of the semester we are not looking for feedback that says we are the nicest teacher they have ever had, but feed back that says we were a fair but tough grader, the students learned a lot, and that they lessened their fear of public speaking. I have and will continue to seek student feedback throughout the semester. I am looking for ways of soliciting better feedback that I can actually use. The last time I asked for feedback, many responses said "less quizzes." I thought that was funny because I had only given one quiz so far, so that feedback was not that helpful unless next time I specify to write why the students feel they do not need quizzes and what would be a better alternative. A doctoral student suggested for quick feedback to have students take a post-it note and write something they like and something they do not like in the class and then stick it on the door as they leave the classroom. This technique might not solicit the most constructive feedback, but the students actually wrote things because they for some reason enjoyed writing on the colorful paper and getting to stick it to the door anonymously.

Online Teaching Tips

This site gives quite a few tips regarding different areas of teaching, especially online teaching. I especially found the checklist for structuring an online course to be beneficial if I one day teach an online course. It lists many items you should include on your syllabus or online document listing for helpful links that I would not have even thought of.

On this site I found even more direction and definition of the Fishbowl Discussion technique.


This article looked at whether student evaluations differed if they were online compared to those done by pencil and paper. The result of the study was that online evaluations resulted in students giving more formative feedback and writing more comments. Other varied results of the study may encourage or discourage a teacher from using online evaluations.