You can plan now to make your course even better. Research conducted here at the Center for Teaching and Learning indicates that instructors can take a few simple steps to make their classroom experiences more effective for student learning. Presented here are three things that you can do as you plan for future courses.

1. Encourage active and practical learning.
   • Make connections to real-world applications of the course material.
   • Provide for hands-on activities (active learning) over straight lecturing.
   • Facilitate in-class discussion groups and group work.
   • Provide opportunities for students to be a mentor and to function as a peer teacher.

   To access CTL resources to help you with teaching and learning strategies, click here.

2. Provide for meaningful teacher-student interactions.
   • Learn students’ names and demonstrate that you care about their lives.
   • Listen to students’ concerns and respond appropriately.
   • Be encouraging and quick to recognize students’ accomplishments.
   • Spend more time with students and communicate with them personally.

   To access CTL resources to help you with showing students that you care about their learning, click here.

3. Make course expectations clear and based on learning outcomes.
   • Make course expectations explicit.
   • State the learning outcomes and make clear connections to the real world.
   • Engage students in assignments that have a clear connection to learning outcomes, as opposed to those that are perceived as busy work.

   To access CTL resources to help you with learning outcomes and course design, click here.

Don’t forget the value of conducting mid-course evaluations to track where you are right now.

-Based on research conducted by Whitney Ransom, Center for Teaching and Learning,
Brigham Young University

The first day of class is a new beginning for learners and teachers alike. New beginnings invite excitement and anticipation but also some anxieties for all those involved. However, implementing a few simple activities on the first day can establish a climate that reduces anxiety, expands excitement, and channels learner enthusiasm to real learning gains throughout the semester. As you prepare for a new term, consider using some of the “First Day” strategies below. After class, reflect on how well the implemented strategies worked.

1. Share and create enthusiasm about the subject matter
   1. Explore commonly held myths
   2. Introduce recent discoveries
   3. Pose provocative questions
2. Set expectations
   1. Share your beliefs about teaching and learning
   2. Explain what you expect of yourself and of learners throughout the term
   3. Demonstrate those expectations on the first day
   4. Whatever you want learners to do during the semester, do it on the first day (discussions, group work, critical thinking, etc.) because this demonstrates to learners what the class will be like
   5. Ask learners to share what they hope to gain from the class
3. Involve learners quickly
   1. Give substantial content
   2. Give an assignment on the first day
   3. Have learners submit questions that will be answered at the next meeting (submit through note cards, Blackboard, etc.)
   4. Provide an informative, user-friendly syllabus
   5. Provide an opportunity for learners to ask questions about any aspect of the class
   6. Invite learners to give feedback on the first day of class (e.g., on a note card, using a Blackboard survey)
   7. Conduct a knowledge census (a pre-test of sorts) to determine what learners already know so that you know what gaps need to be filled in
4. Develop positive relationships
   1. Learn names
   2. Do an ice-breaker activity
   3. Reveal something about yourself
   4. Have learners share something about themselves

Additional resources:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/firstday.htm

What makes the biggest difference in student learning and successful classes? It is effective course design, according to internationally acclaimed author L.D. Fink (Creating Significant Learning Experiences, 2003).

What exactly, is “course design,” and what makes it “effective”? It is the intentional planning of a course to help students achieve significant learning. It begins with a teacher creating essential learning goals (or expected learning outcomes) around which the course is built; it is designing assignments or assessments that can demonstrate students’ achievement of those goals; and then it is planning engaged learning activities that help students attain learning that lasts. Fink calls course design “the most significant [factor]” in improving teaching and learning in higher education.

The Center for Teaching and Learning provides a variety of on-line guides for effective course design, many of them based on Fink’s model(s).

Keep in contact with your students after your course ends.

One of the aims of a BYU education is “life-long learning.” Our hope is that students will want to continue to learn; we must operate on the assumption that they want to remain in contact with our subject matter. We can encourage our students to keep learning after the end of a course by remaining in contact with them. Here are some suggestions from Chris Crowe, Professor of English, on how to do just that:

• Make an effort to establish a communication pattern with your students during the course by using the tools in Blackboard, such as discussion boards, announcements, and e-mail contacts.
• Continue to communicate after your course is completed by gathering students’ e-mail addresses and establishing a mail distribution list in Outlook. This is especially effective for students who may have graduated or are now off-campus.
• Identify different kinds of opportunities about which students may be interested; e.g.—
  

  • Grants	• Journal articles
  • News articles	• Visiting scholars
  • Workshops	• Employment
  • Conferences	• Certification
  • Awards	• Graduate school

• Keep student contact information in your electronic address book for one year, and then give students the option to unsubscribe.

Below is an example e-mail message Professor Crowe sent to his former students.

“There’s magic when you integrate the sacred and the secular,” says Dr. James Stice. The founding charge of BYU is to teach every subject with the Spirit. As President Spencer W. Kimball said, it is not intended “that all of the faculty should be categorically teaching religion constantly in their classes, but . . . that every . . . teacher in this institution would keep his subject matter bathed in the light and color of the restored gospel” (1968). This month, Dr. James Stice, Associate Dean of the Marriott School of Business, shares his experiences integrating the gospel into secular topics.

These short video clips explain how Dr. James Stice, Associate Dean of the Marriott School of Business, integrates the gospel into secular topics.

Play five minute video or download podcast.

Play full video or download podcast.

Student learning is less effective when students sit inertly in classes barely listening to teachers, passively viewing PowerPoint presentations, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. Learning is not a spectator sport. Student learning is optimized when students are actively involved in their own learning. Students must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experience, and apply it in their own lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.
—–[Adapted from Chickering and Gamson, Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education]

As faculty and instructors look ahead to their winter semester courses, they may be considering these kinds of questions: How can I create an environment that optimizes learning? What kinds of activities/assignments encourage “deep learning”?

Research points to the use of writing assignments, frequent feedback, team projects, and the use of small-group activities, even in lecture settings, as ways to foster student involvement through active learning. For example, a professor invites students to turn to a partner to compare and contrast the two theories under consideration. In another activity, student pairs analyze a poem or a math problem and then report their conclusions.

Current research indicates these strategies enhance learning. Students are taking responsibility for their own learning, and they are teaching and learning from each other. Besides enhancing learning, these kinds of activities are usually more enjoyable to students; and students learn concepts better and retain them longer if they have been actively engaged in classroom activities. Adoption of these kinds of strategies is taking hold at BYU, too. For example, based on BYU’s participation in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE 2003), BYU moved into the 90th percentile nationally for student engagement in “active and collaborative learning” (in comparison with other “doctoral-extensive” institutions). Current NSSE data shows that other colleges and universities across the country are now following suit.

What are some of these “active and collaborative” engagements students are participating in? Here’s a “baker’s dozen” list of possibilities.

1. Field trips and library or other campus tours
2. Short quizzes or surveys for immediate feedback on students’ comprehension of material (perhaps using iClickers)
3. In-class writing
4. Demonstrations
5. Self-assessment activities or learning logs
6. Lectures interspersed with short, paired, or small-group discussions
7. Brainstorming
8. Case studies
9. Extended discussions based on media presentations (perhaps delivered before class via Blackboard)
10. Small-group or team discussions
11. Role-playing
12. Guided imagery exercises
13. Small-group or team projects/presentations

——[Based on materials by Delivee Wright, Karl A. Smith, and Barbara Millis.]

Much of active-learning depends upon collaboration between students. Click here for a few how-to’s on using group learning activities.

To implement these or other active-learning ideas you are interested in trying, contact your Teaching & Learning Consultant at the BYU Center for Teaching & Learning.

You may be surprised what students know and what they do not know about Learning Outcomes. Play these videos to find out:

I don’t know what a Learning Outcome is …

Yes, a Learning Outcome is …

Learning Outcomes are not really emphasized much.

What specific actions can you take?

• Publish Learning Outcomes on the first page of your course syllabus.
• Refer repeatedly to Learning Outcomes as you teach throughout the semester.
• Correlate class activities to Learning Outcomes.

(2) Present Learning Outcomes in motivating and inspiring ways.

What makes Learning Outcomes motivating and inspiring to students? Watch these videos to find out:

Learning Outcomes are a guide for feedback and measuring success.

Learning Outcomes give you more confidence and desire to do your best.

Learning Outcomes connect to classroom activities and to our lives.

What specific actions can you take?

• Tell examples of how Learning Outcomes are relevant to students’ lives (now and in the future).
• Relate personal experiences regarding the value of achieving the Learning Outcomes.
• Address specific concerns/doubts that students have about the value of the Learning Outcomes and students’ ability to achieve them.
• Reinforce student achievement of the Learning Outcomes by providing feedback to students on their progress.

Research shows that mid-course evaluations improve the instructional experience for both faculty and students. The best result is when faculty seek mid-course feedback, discuss it in class, and then act on it. By completing mid-course evaluations, students have the opportunity to (1) reflect on the course learning goals and their individual progress in achieving those goals; (2) inform the instructor about what is working or not working in the course; and (3) understand that the instructor cares about their learning experience in the course.

The Center for Teaching & Learning’s Mid-Course Evaluation Tool allows you to set up a survey that will be e-mailed to all the students in your course. After the survey closes, you will automatically receive via e-mail the students’ feedback. You can access the Evaluation Tool from one week after the semester/term begins until the online student ratings form becomes available at the end of the semester.

For more information about the Mid-Course Evaluation Tool or mid-course evaluations, see the links below.

CTL Mid-Course Evaluation Tool
CTL Mid-Course Tutorial
CTL Mid-Course Evaluation Information
Video: Class Discussion of Mid-Course Feedback Results

Is there a secret to lighting the fire that will get students to take more responsibility for their own learning? Could it be as easy as equipping them with a few simple tools and some new attitudes?

In current educational parlance, we talk about engaging students through active learning techniques—a topic addressed in this forum several months ago. What if we could go one step further and empower students to see themselves as the architects (composers, authors, strategists, engineers, or designers—the metaphor matters little) of their own learning? Research indicates that learning-oriented students “engage in more attentive behavior, use deeper learning and studying strategies, and feel better about themselves as learners.” Their goal is to learn, not to just trade performance for a grade (Lyn Corno, “Encouraging Students to Take Responsibility for Learning and Performance,” The Elementary School Journal, Vol. 93, No. 1).

Where does one start in developing learning-oriented students? One way is to create a learning-centered syllabus as described in a previous (and still accessible) Teaching Tip.

You may wonder how you can teach the skills needed to develop students who take responsibility for their learning. Fortunately, a new curriculum is not needed—it is much simpler than that. Just find ways to communicate to your students that they can and should be proactive in their education. Create in them a learning-centered attitude. Pass the ball of responsibility to them and (to mix metaphors) let those who have ears to hear run with it. Point students in the right direction, and watch what happens.

The outcome will be students who know how they learn and study best and, consequently, who take advantage of methods and resources they had not previously considered. For example, students should know how to—

• Ask and find answers to questions, any time and anywhere.
• Acquire good study skills matched to their learning style, such as how to read a textbook, take notes, practice, and do research.
• Find and evaluate supplementary learning resource materials.
• Take advantage of a professor’s office hours.
• Find and collaborate with other students.
• Find professionals who are willing to mentor them.
• Manage their time effectively.
• Overcome inertia (laziness).

Perhaps you can have a little fun with this effort. In our media-rich culture, abundant movies not only provide entertainment but also contain some pedagogically sound practices to help students become self-reliant learners. The intent here is to use a concept from a movie—not to endorse, show, or discuss the film. So here we have . . .

An unofficial, unauthorized, unfinished list of movies demonstrating methods for taking responsibility for learning!

A Beautiful Mind Method

Nobel Prize winner John Nash learned while dealing with schizophrenia that to overcome the disabling brain disorder, he had to—

• Take charge of his learning.
• Learn new learning skills.
• Figure out how to succeed.
• Learn what to ignore.

These are valuable skills for everyone.

Apollo 13 Method

When an explosion crippled their capsule, the crew of Apollo 13 uttered those famous words: “Houston, we have a problem.” The ground crew went to work and against all odds brought the crew home safely. From that we learn—

Failure is not an option. When a learning experience goes dreadfully wrong, teach students to create a solution.

Catch Me If You Can Method

When teenager Frank Abingale, Jr. leaves home after his parents’ separation, he learns to survive by successfully posing as an airline pilot, doctor, and attorney (even passing a bar exam). In the process he makes millions before being caught and eventually starting a real career at the FBI.

There’s no limit to what someone with drive and need can accomplish, so give your students chances to become expert in a course topic. To prove their expertise, they might write a paper or article, make a presentation, lead a discussion, or teach a class. Keep topics small and discrete so that developing expertise is doable. The goal is for students to enjoy thoroughly knowing something that is intellectually enlarging. This works particularly well in major courses.

Ground Hog Day Method

Fictional weatherman Phil Connors finds himself reliving February 2 over and over again, until he learns to truly love and serve his fellowmen.

So why not learn it (a lesson, course material, whatever) right the first time? Teach students that although most courses and some exams can be retaken, relying on unnecessary repetition is a waste of resources. Also, the pain of failing remains much longer than the pain of doing what is needed to succeed.

Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration Method

The little-schooled farm boy follows the Spirit in his quest for religious truth and ends up restoring the gospel of Jesus Christ in the last dispensation. In the process he is taught and in turn teaches us some grand principles for learning, including—

• Learn by study and also by faith.
• Seek knowledge out of the best books.
• Seek worthy teachers.
• Pray.

Lorenzo’s Oil Method

When seven-year-old Lorenzo is diagnosed with an extremely rare and incurable degenerative brain disorder, his parents, frustrated at the failings of doctors and medicine, educate themselves about the disease. In the process they develop a treatment that dramatically slows its progress.

Students need to know that they should never give up in their quest for solving an important problem. They can learn to outperform the experts.

Mary Poppins Method

When a magical nanny comes to teach a dour British banker’s family how to enjoy life, we learn that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Help students discover the “sugar” (fun and enjoyment) in learning activities.

National Treasure Method

Ben Gates taught his young grandson that the founding fathers buried a treasure somewhere in the country and left clues as to its location. When the young man grows up, thanks to years of study, he finds and deciphers the highly cryptic clues which lead to a remarkable discovery.

We all need to remember that knowledge is power and developing excellent problem-solving skills (such as decrypting clues) will lead to “hidden treasures.”

Pursuit of Happyness Method

When broke, desperate, and abandoned by his wife, Chris Gardner applies for a six-month unpaid stockbroker internship where only one in twenty has a chance to succeed. He and his son struggle through homelessness and despair in a quest that eventually makes Gardner a respected millionaire. The lessons for us include―

• Know what you want.
• Work hard.
• Sacrifice.
• Maintain a sense of humor.
• Be articulate.
• Relate well to others.
• Value family.

Short Circuit Method

When a military robot develops self-awareness after being struck by lightning, he meets Stephanie and learns the joy of learning. He voraciously reads, watches, and listens to everything in sight and still craves “more input.”

Create in students the desire for “more input,” along with clear direction on how to select that which is of greatest worth.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Method

Remember when the young Luke Skywalker learned that he is a Jedi Knight and has the power of the Force? During a difficult practice session with his mentor, his confidence falters but he says he will try again. Yoda tells him “Do or do not, there is no try.”

Students need to learn to have confidence, the determination to succeed, and a can-do attitude.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Method

When Anakin Skywalker (Luke’s father) is learning to use the power of the Force, Qui-Gon has to remind him to focus because, as he says, “Your focus determines your reality.”

Help students acquire sound study and practice skills needed to achieve their goals.

Wizard of Oz Method

When a tornado drops Dorothy in the land of Oz she learns, with the help of friends she meets along the way, how to get home.

Team up with those who support you. Seek out and do not fear the people behind the desk, podium, or at the board—they may play a key role in getting you where you want to be.

Now, it is your turn to add to the list! What movies inspire you to help inspire your students to take greater responsibility for their own learning?