CETL Reflections, Tips, and Quotes | Teaching and Learning Innovation Centre (TALIC)

April 2022

CETL Quote of the Week – Mr. Patrick D. Desloge

To create a truly meaningful university experience, students should be more than just recipients of learning; they should be actively engaged in the business of teaching and learning.

Mr. Patrick D. Desloge
Senior Lecturer
Centre for Applied English Studies, Faculty of Arts
Outstanding Teaching Award 2021

Posting date: 29-Apr-2022

CETL Quote of the Week – Dr. Christophe D.M. Coupé

“Outiller le pouvoir d’agir” – or literally “to tool up someone’s power to act”… by the late French ergonomist Pierre Rabardel had a somehow mysterious charm to me… Rabardel’s key idea clearly emphasizes to me what the final goal of teaching is: to turn students into autonomous individuals, who can leave the safe shores of the university to venture into a rougher ocean. Autonomous thinkers, but more than that, individuals with the ability to accomplish things on their own in the world. In such a framework, the transmission of knowledge is no longer an end in itself but only a means to achieve something far greater and demanding.

Dr. Christophe D.M. Coupé
Assistant Professor
School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts
Outstanding Teaching Award 2021

Posting date: 11-Apr-2022

March 2022

CETL Reflection of the week

How can we motivate students in online learning? Self-determination theory suggests that we can motivate students best by meeting their needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. This week’s reflections are based on research that suggests what actions teachers can take and how they can leverage the affordances of the online learning environment to meet these needs:

Students’ needs	Actions teachers can take	Affordances of the learning environment teachers can leverage
Autonomy	Teachers consider student perspective allowing for choice around learning, giving a rationale, and avoiding the use of controlling or guilt-inducing language	The online environment offers and recommends various digital resources and indicates relevance to students
Relatedness	Teachers provide students with emotional and motivational support (e.g., involvement, closeness, acceptance, and help)	The online environment includes personal and emotional designs and communication to promote positive atmosphere
Competence	Teachers provide effective guidance during lessons, expressing confidence in students’ abilities, and giving relevant feedback	The online environment offers level-up exercises and interactive learning materials where students can track their progress

Reference:

Chiu, Thomas K.F. (2021). Digital support for student engagement in blended learning based on self-determination theory. Computers in Human Behavior. 124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106909.

Posting date: 30-Mar-2022

CETL Tips of the Week – Online Assessment

How can we promote good assessment practices in our Moodle system? This week’s tips are drawn from research conducted by Martin et al. (2019) on how award-winning faculty members used their learning management system for assessment.

Use a variety of assessments
Consider using a variety of assessments such as quizzes, discussion forums, exams, final papers, final projects, peer assessments, self-assessments, and reflection.

Use traditional and authentic assessments
Think about how you can leverage different types of digital content to let students demonstrate learning such as creative outputs (e.g., videos, songs, infographics, posters, timeline software) aside from the traditional assessments.

Use rubrics
Be very specific about expectations and grading criteria for assignments. Rubrics need to be given in advance before students send in their outputs.

Reference:

Martin, F., Ritzhaupt, A., Kumar, S., & Budhrani, K. (2019). Award-winning faculty online teaching practices: Course design, assessment and evaluation, and facilitation. The Internet and Higher Education, 42, 34-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2019.04.001

Posting date: 22-Mar-2022

CETL Tips of the Week – Using Perusall to Engage Students in Pre-class Readings

3 Benefits of Using Perusall:

Engaging Students in Collaboration
Perusall changes the nature of reading from an individual responsibility (isolated learning experience) to a collective effort or social engagement.

Visualising Student Participation in Data Analytics
It collects a variety of data analytics on student participation, such as active reading time, types of annotation, upvotes given on questions and responses, etc.

Understanding Student Reading/Learning behaviours
Teachers could also identify what kind of roles the students are trying to play in the collaborative annotation exercises (such as critical reviewers, interpretes, etc.).

Reference:

CETL. (2022, Feb). Perusall - An Effective Tool for Engaging Students in Pre-class Reading Activities. Retrieved from https://talic.hku.hk/tel/guides/perusall/.

Posting date: 11-Mar-2022

CETL Tips of the Week – Step-by-Step Design Tips: Open Book Exam

1. Define Learning outcomes:
Define the learning outcomes to be assessed, which should include higher-order thinking skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

2. Decide question format:
Decide the format of the exam questions (e.g. multiple-choice questions, extended written task, concept maps, case study etc.)

3. Formulate questions targeted at higher order thinking:
Formulate straightforward and clear questions which require students to demonstrate higher-order thinking skills. The design of questions can be guided by Bloom’s Taxonomy and Socratic Questioning. Situating the questions within particular contexts, problems or situations might be helpful.

4. Review questions:
Review the questions in terms of clarity and their alignment with the intended assessment outcomes.

5. Set up marking criteria:
Set up the appropriate marking criteria for the open-book exam.

6. Familiarize students with open book exam:
Help students get familiar with open-book exam by offering opportunities for them to practice through mock exam in class. Brief them in advance regarding how the exam will be accessed based on the marking criteria.

Posting date: 4-Mar-2022