Seven Bricks to Lay the Foundation for Productive Difficult Dialogues

April 18th, 2016

By: Annie Soisson, EdD

Editor’s note: This article is reprinted from Diversity and Inclusion in the College Classroom, a new free report from Faculty Focus. Download here »
There are three basic ways that I hear faculty talk about difficult dialogues—in-class dialogues that were planned but did not go particularly well; in-class hot moments that were not anticipated and that the faculty member did not feel equipped to handle; and difficult dialogues that happen during office hours or outside of class.
In all three instances, faculty are challenged to use skills they may not have learned at any point in their disciplinary training. That lack of skill can actually cause them great angst, and in the most extreme situations, cause them to avoid addressing important issues directly.
This is not to anyone’s advantage, and many learning opportunities can be lost. In this article, I will focus on the first of these three instances. If challenging dialogues are to be an important part of a course, it is essential to develop, beginning the first day of class, the environment and skills that will allow you to capitalize on difficult dialogues as effective learning opportunities.

1. Think ahead about what topics you are teaching and whether hot moments might be triggered. If it is a course you have taught before, chances are you know when these moments might happen. Plan for structuring those moments intentionally. Are there readings that honor multiple perspectives on the issue? Are there opportunities to have students adopt perspectives that may not be their own? What skills do students need to be able to successfully engage in the discussion?
2. Know and communicate the learning goals and the connection to the course overall for each potentially hot topic. Keeping the focus clear for the conversation affords the opportunity for you or students to redirect if the conversation strays, and to embed the learning in the structure of the course. There are many ways to structure conversations that are not a free-for-all or win-lose scenario. What kinds of questions could you pose that would most effectively help students meet the learning goals? What conversational structure would best help you meet those goals? You will find many concrete suggestions for a variety of ways to conduct conversations in Brookfield and Preskill (2005).
3. Build community, trust, and a supportive climate. Often overlooked is the understanding that the relationships students have in the classroom with each other and with you need to be created intentionally and nurtured. On the first day, introductions can be shaped to be a little more personal than just names and majors while not being intrusive. Depending on the size of the class, you may choose to have students talk in small groups, or as a whole group. Scaffold activities to foster relationships among students each week. Model the kinds of behaviors you would like to see.
4. Have a statement on your syllabus about the environment you hope to create together. Describe your expectations and how you would like students to approach the class. For example: “I want to take a moment to clarify how I want you to approach the readings. The first rule is: Don’t take the readings as gospel. Just because something is printed doesn’t make it absolute truth. Be critical of what you are reading. I have chosen many readings precisely because they are provocative. If you find yourself strongly disagreeing with a reading, that’s fine. I encourage strong disagreement. However, if you disagree, you must clarify in your mind the reasons and evidence upon which you are basing your disagreement. At the same time, keep an open mind. Listen to what the readings have to say. Think about what other experiences you have had and readings you have done that might corroborate the course readings. Give yourself time to reflect on the information, insights, and perspectives offered in the readings” (Sulk and Keys, 2014).
5. Create shared goals and guidelines for dialogue and post them. You may have a few of your own to add at the end, but let students generate their own list first. This gives them ownership, and the collective generation lets them discover shared values. One of my favorites to add is “look for the truth in what you oppose and the error in what you espouse” (Nash, 2008).
6. Help students develop skills for productive conversation as part of the learning. Use active listening and perspective-taking exercises. In Western society, argument is often the mode of conversation. We frequently expect that students will be able to address challenging issues devoid of passion (and if you go to faculty meetings, you know that even we are not always good at this). Skills like paraphrasing, summarizing, and building on each other’s thoughts need to be consciously taught, modeled, and practiced in the classroom in order to support successful difficult dialogues.
7. Start early in the course with lower-stakes conversations, and build to more difficult ones. This gives students the opportunity to build trust, and gives you time to help them develop their skills. Vary the types of questions—perhaps use some hypothetical questions like, “What would happen if…” “In a perfect world…” Or experience-based questions such as, “In your experience…?” Or opinion-based questions like, “What do you think about…?

References:
Online book: Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/cafe/difficultdialogues/upload/Start-Talking-Handbookcomplete-version.pdf.
Brookfield, S.D., & Preskill, S. (2005). Discussion as a way of teaching: Tools and techniques for democratic classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Nash, R.J. (2008). How to Talk About Hot Topics on Campus. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sulk, G. and Keys, J. (2014). “Many students really don’t know how to behave!”: The syllabus as a tool for socialization. Teaching Sociology, 42 (2), 151-160.
Annie Soisson is associate director of the Center for the Enhancement of Learning & Teaching (CELT) at Tufts University.

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The Last Class Session: How to Make It Count

April 13th, 2016

By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD

“First and last class sessions are the bookends that hold a course together.” I heard or read that somewhere—apologies to the source I can’t acknowledge. It’s a nice way to think about first and last class sessions. In general, teachers probably do better with the first class. There’s the excitement that comes with a new beginning. A colleague said it this way: “Nothing bad has happened yet.” Most of us work hard to make good first impressions. But by the time the last class rolls around, everyone is tired, everything is due, and the course sputters to an end amid an array of last-minute details. Here are a few ideas that might help us finish the semester with the same energy and focus we mustered for the first class.
Integrate the Content—Bring it all together. You could integrate things for your students, but it’s better if they do it themselves. In the interest of time, you’ll want to identify the pieces: the major concepts, important ideas, and a few significant supporting details. Then turn it over to the class and have students (individually or in groups) create a mind map that lays out the content terrain. Mind maps are a freer, more flexible format than concept maps. A whole-class review of some of these maps is beneficial so that map “accuracy” can be discussed and maybe corrected. If the course has several learning objectives, let each one be mapped by a different group.
Review for the Final—Make the students do the work. (See the January 23, 2016, blog post for ideas and activities.) Students are often at a loss when it comes to knowing how to study for comprehensive finals. Their method of choice is cramming. Consider devoting some time to working with them to develop a study game plan. How much time should they spend studying across how many days? What’s the best way to review notes? (Hint: it’s not to “go over them,” as in your eyes lightly touch the words on the page.) If they study together, what are some good ways to study with a partner or group? What strategies work when there’s lots of text material to review?
Get and Give Useful Feedback—Although institutions have all moved toward online, official course evaluations, why not use this last class to get and give feedback of a different sort?

• Activity 1: Create a “stop, start, continue” structure that lists every assignment students completed during the semester. Ask students to offer feedback on the features of each of those assignments in terms of what you should stop, start, or continue doing. Be clear that it isn’t about what they “like” but the ability of the assignment to help them develop learning skills and master the material.
• Activity 2: Working in pairs, have one student read the following prompt to his or her partner: “You’ve got an interview for your dream job. The interviewer, who may become your boss, is looking at your transcript and says, ‘Oh, I see you took INSERT COURSE NAME. Tell me what you learned in that course.’” The partner answers. Then the two talk about how that answer could be improved, which segues to a whole-class discussion.
• Activity 3: Give students feedback on how you experienced the course. Share five things you’ll remember about this class and one thing about teaching you’ve learned from these students.

Bookend Activities—Tie the end to the beginning.

• Activity 1: On the first day of class, give students a worksheet that they fill out (either in class or online). Make it a quiz that everybody gets full credit for completing. Use prompts like these: What do you know about INSERT COURSE TITLE? (No credit if you answer, “Nothing.”) What reasons justify making this a required class? (You don’t have to think they’re good reasons.) Are there skills that will you be needing as a professional that you hope to develop in this course? How many people do you know in this class? (List them by name.) Pass out the same sheet on the last day, give students time to complete it, and then return the one they filled out the first day. Have a brief discussion about the differences and similarities of the two sheets.
• Activity 2: Pass out a problem set on the first day. Give bonus points for answers and for work that shows the student spent some time searching for the solution. Calm students’ fears by indicating that they’ll see these problems throughout the course. Pass out the same problem set on the last day and watch for smiles.

Celebrate—It’s been a long semester. The class has a history; things have happened. Get everybody on their feet, walking around, talking, telling stories, and sharing memories. Be part of the crowd. Shake hands; pose for selfies. Bring snacks or invite students to contribute snacks. This is an absolutely unique collection of individuals who will never again be together with you and the course content. End with applause and say “Thank you” if it’s a class that’s made you thankful.

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Six Things You Can Do to Deepen Student Learning

April 11th, 2016

By: Mary Bart

For baseball fans and players, springtime can only mean one thing: spring training. Every year professional baseball players head to Arizona or Florida to hone their craft. These are professionals mind you, but they continue to spend hours each year working on many of the same things Little Leaguers work on during the start of their seasons—throwing, catching, hitting, base running, and so forth.
As they make minor adjustments in these fundamentals of the game, the overall outcome is a major improvement. The same is true for faculty who remain mindful of their fundamentals, and make small, incremental improvements to their teaching.
It’s against this backdrop that Tyler Griffin, PhD, associate professor at Brigham Young University, shared his six A’s for promoting deep and lasting learning in your courses.
1. Adjustments – Most courses don’t require a complete overhaul. Take a moment and write down a few of those common complaints or top frustrations you hear from your students year after year. Are there any small things that you could address that would make a big impact? If you’ve taught the course before, where do students tend to struggle? What can you do to support students through the most difficult spots? In most cases, it’s not possible to remove every obstacle to learning—a key concept may be difficult and you can’t learn it for them—but there are things you can do to better support their learning.
“Sometimes a particular unit is going to be a pain point for the students because it’s just plain hard and takes a lot of effort,” said Griffin. “Well, let them know that. Let them understand the significance of why this difficult unit is so essential to their overall education, especially in your course. And make them aware of the fact that you understand completely how difficult it is.”
2. Audience – The first step to learning more about your students is getting a baseline read on who they are, their backgrounds, their struggles, and their successes. You also need to know why they are taking the course. Is it just to fulfill a graduation requirement, or do they have an interest in the topic?
As you learn more about your students, you’ll be better able to monitor their engagement and respond accordingly. Do they get sleepy if you dim the lights for too long? Are they easily distracted by technology or others around them? Are there times when they are not really following the lesson or when they simply go through the motions of being a live body in the classroom?
“We’ve all had this experience … you’re teaching, you look out at your class, and you get this moment of recognition that, uh-oh, this isn’t going well,” said Griffin. “They’re dying on the vine. Or they’re struggling. Or they’re distracted. The knee jerk response is to do more … to push the gas pedal down even more. But you’ll find that if you actually do less and have them do more at those moments, you’re far more likely to re-engage a greater percentage of them.”
3. Applicability – The big question here is, so what? How is what you’re teaching going to help students not only in your class, but in their life and careers? One way to help students see the relevance of a particular concept or a course as a whole is to explain it early and often. Don’t keep your course’s relevance a secret or save it for the “big reveal” at the end.
“The problem is that often we save our applicability for the end, thus wasting or losing a lot of the effectiveness of the instruction time,” said Griffin. “So one simple thing you can do is to front load relevance to avoid this wasted instruction time.”
With an individual assignment, this could be accomplished by providing some context to what they will be reading or doing and offering clues as to what they should look for and be ready to discuss, he said.
4. Adaptability – Many of you have probably heard that students start going into cognitive overload after seven to 15 minutes. More recently, some researchers have started saying that it’s probably closer to three to five minutes. “We’ve got to find dynamic ways to stretch them without breaking them,” said Griffin, “but at the same time not completely sell out what we’re trying to do and what we have to cover in our courses.”
Delivering bite-sized chunks of content interspersed with appropriate active learning exercises and context builders is one way to keep students interested and engaged. Griffin is also a big fan of using what he calls the three Ex’s of instruction: explanations, examples (including non-examples), and experiences.
5. Accentuation – Learning is deeper and lasts longer when students process critical information in multiple ways, over time. But how do most students study? They cram, which typically means reading or reviewing their notes over and over the night before the exam. On the day of the exam, everything they crammed into their brain spills out into the exam booklet and is promptly forgotten.
Rather than being frustrated with this process of forgetting, Griffin encourages faculty to change the frequency, recency, and potency of students’ exposure to crucial information to make learning last.
“Begin by selecting the most crucial facts, theories, skills, or processes you expect students to remember the longest from your course,” he said. “Make sure they are exposed to these critical items more than once or twice in your classes—increasing the recency and frequency factors. Also make sure they interact with these vital elements in a variety of engaging and relevant ways—increasing the potency factor.”
6. Assessments – Too often students see course content as disjointed units, rather than building blocks to a deeper understanding of key concepts. As you design your course, think about the big-picture processes you want you students to be able to accomplish by the end of the term. Then create the relevant, increasingly complex assignments and assessments necessary to help build students’ skills as they progress through the course.
“Students are going to learn a lot better and retain learning a lot longer if they’re working on whole tasks,” said Griffin. “Make them feel like there’s purpose and meaning to the class, rather than just jumping through the hoops of learning what you want them to learn so they can regurgitate it on the test.”

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FAQs - Intellectual Property for Course Materials

1. When a faculty member prepares a syllabus for a course - who owns the material?
   
   When a syllabus is developed, and it does not fall within one of the categories of University-owned works set out in section 100.030.A.2 of the Collected Rules, the syllabus is owned by the author. The course belongs to the faculty member who developed it. As a general rule, the course syllabus, lecture notes, class handouts, lab manuals, and digital presentations are the intellectual property of the instructor who created them, unless they fall within one of the categories of section 100.030.A.2. Section 100.030.A.2. of the Collected Rules provides that the University owns the copyright in these categories of works:
    
   • Works that are commissioned for University use by the University
   • Works that are created by employees if the production of the materials is a specific responsibility of the position for which the employee is hired
   • Sponsored works, or works resulting from grants (but not if the production of the copyrighted work is ancillary to the purpose of the grant)
   • Works created with the use of substantial University resources
      
2. What role does copyright notice and registration play in protecting the work?
   
   If a faculty member holds the copyright to a work, it would be advisable to put the copyright notice on the work, which includes the copyright symbol, name of author, and year it was written, i.e., “ © Pat Doe 2010”.  Though this is not necessary to secure copyright protection, it may deter others from copying it.
   
   Registration of the copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office is a prerequisite to bringing suit for copyright infringement.  If there is any concern that the work may be infringed, a faculty member may want to register the copyright using the U.S. Copyright Office’s online registration process http://www.copyright.gov/eco/.
   
   If the university owns the copyright to the work the author may request the university to register the copyright.
3. Under what circumstances must I share my syllabus with my department?
   
   Excellence in teaching demands that faculty colleagues have access to syllabi that are prerequisite courses to theirs.  Likewise, faculty should know what the expectations are in the syllabi of courses for which theirs is a prerequisite.  Accreditation bodies, departmental curriculum committees and Promotion & Tenure committees would naturally have the right to review the course syllabus, assignments, lab materials, and exams.  This is important to maintain consistency between sections of a course and to maintain program quality.
   
   If a faculty member leaves the University, she would retain copyright to her syllabus and related materials.  In all instances, faculty should bear in mind the tradition of the academy to share as much information as possible to advance the mission of the university to educate and advance the discipline.
    
4. In the collected rules 100.030 one section refers to the concept "if substantial university resources will be used in the development of educational materials". What exactly does that mean?
   
   Substantial use of university resources refers to extensive unreimbursed use of university resources. Section 100.030.A.2.d. of the Collected Rules states that the following are not considered substantial University resources; "limited secretarial support, uses of the library for which special charges are not normally made, and the employees' own time except as covered by subsections 2.a and 2.b" of 100.030. In all cases, creators of intellectual property should consult with their department chair (faculty) or supervisor (staff) if they anticipate substantial use of university resources and negotiate an agreement if the determination is made that the use will indeed be substantial.  Significant resources may include special equipment and supplies, multimedia and technology staff support, instructional, lab, and video materials.
   
   Release time specifically granted to develop educational materials is considered a significant resource.
    
5. If a faculty or staff member develops elaborate materials for teaching his course including electronic materials that require the university to supply substantial resources in order to produce the course (e.g. technology or multimedia support, special equipment or supplies), who owns the copyright on the classroom materials?
   
   When substantial university resources and supplies are allocated for course development, the university can claim ownership of the copyright. By planning ahead and developing a written agreement in advance of commencing work, an author may negotiate the terms of copyright ownership. This process starts between the author and the department head of the sponsoring unit. Agreement should be reached on who will own the copyright, which units or persons will receive income from offering the course, and how the course will be updated and revised. To facilitate the effective development of author agreements, the University has a template which may be adapted by the parties to fit their specific needs (See Author's Agreement). The approval process to be followed to finalize the agreement is outlined in Sections 100.030.B.3 and 4. The Patent and Copyright Committee or the Chancellor's designee can also provide advice.
    
6. If a faculty member develops an eLearning course for teaching online for the University and receives assistance from the University in the form of instructional designers, computer technologists preparing learning objects, and significant help in preparing the course - who owns the copyright for the course?
   
   According to section A.2.d of the UM Collected Rules 100.030 the University of Missouri owns the copyright if the materials are "created with the use of substantial University resources which are specifically provided to support the production of copyrightable materials". However, this section articulates how course authors can develop written agreements stipulating terms for copyright ownership, division of any net income from the course, use of materials, and plans for revisions.
   
   In most cases, it's helpful for the faculty or staff members to create a written agreement spelling out their rights in advance of developing course materials if they will be utilizing significant university resources in designing and building course materials. These agreements allow the faculty or staff member to use the materials for educational purposes while at the same time protecting the University's investment and ability to continue to offer the course in the future.
    
7. If a faculty or staff member designs a course or educational materials and is paid a stipend for developing the course or materials - who owns the copyright?
   
   If a faculty member is paid a stipend by the University for developing a course then the University of Missouri owns the copyright pursuant to A.2.d.
    
8. What happens if substantial University resources are used to develop a course and there is no written agreement?
   
   If substantial University resources are used to develop instructional materials and there is no written agreement, the University may claim ownership according to section A.2.d.2. However, sections D and E of section 100.030 of the collected rules and regulations give the author additional rights for future use or royalties. As long as the author remains a University employee, the author has the right to approve the internal use of those materials by the University for any new purposes. When the author is no longer employed by the University, she will have a non-exclusive right to use the work for her own non-commercial educational purposes. For example, the author will not have the right to sell the materials to any third parties. Further, the University may continue to use the materials for its internal purposes.
    
9. If a faculty member or other employee whose job requires her to write publications for distribution as part of her duties, prepares materials for this purpose - who owns the copyright on the materials? What about materials that are created when creating materials are not a part of the standard responsibilities of the job?
   
   It is important to note that the Collected Rules Section 100.030.A.1 states that "The faculty will continue to hold copyright for traditionally accepted intellectual property that is developed in their roles as teachers and scholars subject to the provisions of section 2 herein. These include, but are not limited to such materials as books, workbooks, study guides, monographs, articles, and other works including music and performances, whether embodied in print, electronic format or in other media."
   
   The University owns the copyright, however, for materials that are written by an employee if they are written as a specific responsibility of the job.  For example, if an Extension employee were required to prepare training manuals for use of pesticides as a specific responsibility of their job, the University would retain copyright.
   
   As long you remain a University employee, you do have the right to approve the internal use of those materials by the University for any new purposes.  
   
   When the author is no longer employed by the University, the University does not need permission to use the materials for any internal purpose.  She would be granted a non-exclusive right to use the work for her own non-commercial educational purposes. She would not have the right to distribute, sell, or sublicense the material to any third parties.
   
   If the University wishes to use the material for external purposes, a written agreement with the author would be required regardless of whether she is still a current employee. 
   
   If writing the material is not a part of the author’s regular job duties, the University may still own the copyright if she was specifically asked to write the material by the University; if she used substantial University resources to create the work; or if the work was funded by an internal or external grant.  
   
   In any case where the University owns the copyright, the author cannot independently enter any agreements to receive royalties or other remuneration from these works without the University’s prior written approval.  If the University decides to license or sale the work for external use, a written agreement must be entered into between the University, the primary author, and any other authors.  This agreement should set forth the conditions of use and define any rights for periodic review and or withdrawal from use.  The typical distribution of net income from external use is 50% of net income to the department and 50% to the author(s), but the University may agree to other terms for dividing the income if there are special circumstances.  
   
   If writing the materials is not a part of author’s job description, and she was not otherwise asked to write the material by the University, she wrote the material on your own time and she did not use any substantial University resources (including internal or external grants), the copyright is hers. 
   
   In all cases, it is recommended that authors confirm your ownership and/or other rights in writing in advance in accordance with either 100.030.A.4.  or A.5.  to ensure there are no misunderstandings.
    
10. Can a University employee use material that he developed for a university course for a non-university purpose such as a short course or workshop?
    
    The employee retains rights to the course material and the entirety of the compensation as long as the material does not fall within one of the categories of works set out in section 100.030.A.2 and does not otherwise conflict with the university's policy on conflict of interest. The University's conflict of interest policy and policy on faculty consulting are both contained with the Policy on Conflict of Interest in Section 330.015 of the Collected Rules.
    
    If substantial University resources were used in generating the coursework material then the employee is required to negotiate with the University the distribution percentage of the compensation prior to conducting the event. Honorariums are specifically exempt from this requirement.
     
11. Who owns a course that is authored by more than one University faculty member or other employee?
    
    If the course does not fall within one of the categories of works set out in section 100.030.A.2., then the authors may be co-owners of the copyright. The federal Copyright Act provides that if authors of a joint work intend for their contributions to be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a whole work, then those authors will be co-owners of the copyright in that work. For example, if two authors decide to jointly prepare material for a course, and each one does contribute material with the intent that their contributions will be merged into one whole course, they would be co-owners of the copyright in the course. 
    
    If, however, they invite another faculty member to prepare and contribute material to the course after its inception, and that faculty member contributes separate material to fill in a gap in the course, not intending for it to be merged into the whole, that faculty member is not a co-owner of the copyright of the whole course.  One interesting facet of joint ownership of copyright is that a joint owner of a copyrighted work may license the joint work without the consent of the other copyright owners.  However, the joint owner must share royalties derived from the work with the other owners.

Note: This guide sheet is designed to provide some helpful information to assist with the questions about intellectual property for instructional materials developed by faculty. This sheet is NOT a substitute for the Collected Rules and Regulations section 100.030 and the Collected Rules supersedes any interpretation given here.

Reviewed March 24, 2016.

Copyright © 2003-2016 The Curators of the University of Missouri. All rights reserved.
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Using Rubrics as a Defense Against Grade Appeals

March 21st, 2016

By: Sydney Fulbright, PhD

S

Faculty dread the grade appeal; anxiety prevails until the whole process is complete. Much has been written about how to avoid such instances, but the potentially subjective assessments of written essays or clinical skills can be especially troublesome. One common cause of grade appeals is grading ambiguity in which the student and faculty member disagree on the interpretation of required content. Another cause is inequity, whereby the student feels others may have gotten more credit for very similar work or content (Hummel 2010). In the health-care field especially, these disagreements over clinical-skills assessments can actually result in student dismissal from the program and may lead to lawsuits.
In a federal court filing (Saltzman 2007), a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst complained that a faculty member and the university had violated his civil and contractual rights and intentionally inflicted emotional distress by giving him a C in a course instead of the 92.5 percent he felt he had earned. The teaching assistant told the student that when he began recording grades, they struck him as too high, so he graded everyone on a curve before assigning letter grades. Did the teaching assistant have any sort of scale or rubric for the grades or for randomly changing them because they “struck him as too high”? The court dismissed the case, but with more documentation, a reliable grading scale, and criteria in the form of a rubric for submissions, the months of anxiety waiting for a court ruling might have been avoided.
Rubrics provide the criteria for assessing students’ work. Giving students the rubric along with the assignment can clarify the instructor’s expectations. A rubric allows for much quicker, fairer, and more transparent grading. After an instructor grades 30 essays, fairness can become secondary to exhaustion. Following the rubric takes less time, and doing so allows grading the first essay to look exactly like grading the last essay. Students will be less likely to say, for example, “She got a 3 on this section, and I got a 2 for almost the same content.”
The following is an example of the first section of a rubric that our program’s faculty members use for students’ oral presentations. We expect students to be able to use these criteria and the rest of the rubric to develop good presentations for their classmates.

Category	Scoring Criteria	Total Points	Score
Organization (6 points)	The presentation is in line with the assigned topic.	2
	Information is presented in sequence No redundant statements or repeating information.	2
	Presentation appropriately cites the required number of references (3). Submitted before presentation.	2

In the clinical area, we use a rubric that assesses students’ skills performance as well as their attitudes and dependability, among other things; attitudes and dependability can be especially subjective. Using the rubric, the students understand all components of expected behaviors when caring for patients.

4

3

2

1

COOPERATION and ATTITUDE

Consistently works well with others.

At times, displays negative attitude toward others

At times, arrogant, passive, disrespectful, and/or surly. Counseled.

Causes problems and is quarrelsome. Has been written up for inability to work with others.

If a student wants to discuss reasons for receiving certain scores, the faculty member is able to provide documentation to demonstrate when the behaviors occurred that resulted in the student’s receiving a 3 instead of a 4, for example. Faculty must maintain documentation to support grade challenges.
Rubrics add transparency to the grading process. This is important when trying to explain to disgruntled students that they weren’t given a certain score because the instructor did not like them but because they omitted one or more components of the listed required criteria of the assignment. Developing markers or levels of achievement within the assignment (i.e., beginning, developing, intermediate, and exemplary) provides your students with a road map to excellence. Stop here and you receive a 1; make it to the next marker and you receive a 2. Putting forth the effort needed to reach each achievement marker is in the hands of the student, and if there is ever a grade challenge, the faculty member has the road map to show where the student ended his or her journey to excellence.
Rubrics not only provide criteria for reaching those learning outcomes that faculty members desire for their students but also can be used to essentially assess any criteria or behavior. Students understand the criteria to achieve, feedback is clearly provided, and rubrics give faculty the needed documentation of objective assessment that is ever so important for grade appeals and potentially in court.
References:
Hummel, P. (2010). A college instructor’s guide to avoiding grade appeals. Adjunct Assistance. Retrieved online February 17, 2016, from http://adjunctassistance.com/instructor-problems/grade-appeals-instructor-problems/dealing-with-college-student-grade-appeals
Maricopa Community Colleges, Tempe, Office of General Counsel. (2002, September). Going to court over grades. Retrieved February 17, 2016, from https://legal.maricopa.edu/department-publications/going-to-court-over-grades
Saltzman, J. (2007, October 4). Student takes his C to federal court. Boston.com. Retrieved February 17, 2016, from http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/10/04/student_takes_his_c_to_federal_court/?page=full
Sydney Fulbright, PhD, MSN, RN, CNOR, is an associate professor and executive director of surgical technology at University of Arkansas Fort Smith.

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It’s Not About Hard or Easy Courses

March 16th, 2016

By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD

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Now here’s an argument I haven’t heard before: Improving your instruction makes it easier for students to learn. If it’s easier for them to learn, they won’t work as hard in the course, and that means they could learn less. It’s called offsetting behavior and we can’t ask students about it directly because it would be disingenuous for them to admit to studying less when learning becomes easier.
Gee, I’m not sure exactly where to begin. We could start with what’s making the course hard. As Stanley, Delmontagne, and Wood point out in the offsetting piece, students may be finding the course hard because the instruction isn’t very good—not well organized, unclear explanations, content seemingly irrelevant, and poorly constructed test questions. Or, students may find the course challenging because the content isn’t easy and the instructor has high standards.
No doubt, ineffective instruction makes the students work harder, but what are they working harder at? Is it learning or cleaning up the clutter so that learning can proceed? And what about the conditions for learning created by poor instruction? Frustrated, angry students are not kindly disposed to the content or the teacher. Poor teaching does not usually motivate more learning. I just can’t quite wrap my head around the idea that poor teaching merits preserving because it makes students work harder. What’s the more salient issue? Whether students are working hard or whether they are learning the content?
The automatic virtue associated with hard courses is something we don’t explore as deeply as we should. I absolutely support courses with rigor and standards. I am not in favor of easy courses or easy A’s. However, when it comes to hard courses, there is a point of diminishing returns. The College Teaching article referenced below provides just one example of what’s well documented in the research. If students are convinced there’s no way they’re going to succeed in a course, the bulk of them stop trying, and that certainly effects what they learn in the course. Moreover, if the teacher has made a good faith effort to teach, the students have made a good faith effort to learn, and a majority of students are still failing or doing poorly, that’s a hard course whose virtue should be questioned.
I’m also troubled by the motivation behind making courses hard. It isn’t just (or even usually) about better learning experiences for students. No, it’s about the reputation of the course and its instructor. Even if you teach at an R1 institution where instructional sins are often tolerated, the one to avoid is teaching a Mickey Mouse course. What’s the definition of a hard course? It’s one overflowing with dense, complicated content and one with high standards, meaning few students get A’s. Is learning front and center in our thinking about hard courses? I don’t think so. Learning is assumed, which means it isn’t thought about much or at all.
Then there’s the easy courses—the ones we worry about are those with fluffy content and far too many students getting A’s. The ones we should be worried about are those where teachers are doing all the learning tasks for students. If teachers answer all the questions, solve the problems, provide the examples, do the previews and reviews, give students their notes and PowerPoint slides, and prepare the study guides, they’re doing those things that develop the skills students need to master the material at those levels we associate with deep learning.
I really don’t think hard or easy should be our default thinking mode when the issue is course quality. That leads us to dubious conclusions and directs our attention away from what matters most. What students need are not hard or easy courses, but course experiences that result in lots of learning—where they master the material, further develop the sophisticated learning skills necessary for lifelong learning, and where the encounter leaves them breathless to learn more.
References: Stanley, L. E., Delmontagne, E. M., and Wood, W. C., (2016).  Offsetting behavior and adaptation: How student respond to hard professors. Journal of Education for Business, 91 (2), 90-94.
Martin, J. H., Hands, K. B., Lancaster, S. M., Tryteen, D. A., and Murphy, T. J., (2008). Hard but not too hard: Challenging courses and engineering students. College Teaching 56 (2), 107-113.

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Rubrics: An Undervalued Teaching Tool

February 15th, 2016

By: Stephanie Almagno, PhD

English teachers know a few things about managing the paper load. But managing isn’t leading. We should do more than manage the load; we should lead our students through the writing process (invention, drafting, and revising) to help them become independent thinkers who can effectively present their ideas to an audience.
Rubrics offer an effective way to guide thinking and learning in any writing-intensive course.
HINT: Distribute the assignment sheet and rubric at the same time that you introduce a writing assignment. Students need this concrete information from the onset for self-improvement at all stages of the writing process. Your rubric should be clear enough that students understand your expectations even when you are not available for consultation.
Here are five different ways to apply the same rubric in your classroom.
1. A Rubric for Thinking (Invention Activity)

• Immediately following the initial discussion of a writing assignment and its corresponding rubric, allow students to work independently for a few moments, generating their initial ideas for their papers.
• After brainstorming, direct students to reflect on the rubric to encourage additional responses to the topic at hand. The rubric should spark thinking.

Hint: Work with struggling students during this process. Demonstrate ways to use the rubric to flesh out their initial responses. This is your time to answer authentic questions one-on-one.
2. A Rubric for Peer Feedback (Drafting Activity)

• Vomit drafts. Teachers don’t like to read them, so let the students read each other’s and score them against the rubric.
• Use rubrics for peer feedback at all stages of the writing process. If today is the day to review use of secondary sources and subsequent citations, pair students and set them to work.
• Students should respond to each other’s work using the verbiage in the assigned domains. Based on peer feedback, students should make adjustments and enhance their use of sources.
• Students can score their use of sources/citations against the rubric and discuss why these elements earn the grade they do. Remember, grades are earned, not given. Students should be able to align their essays and their components with established rubric categories and indicators.
• Use guided peer feedback throughout the writing process as homework or in class.

Hint: Rubrics should contain a discrete space for the name of the peer editor.
3. A Rubric for Teacher Feedback (Revision Activity)

• In this use of the rubric, you are offering a mulligan, a “do over”—students will appreciate this. Don’t worry about attributing points or grades to each domain on the rubric; instead, simply provide feedback. You are telling students, in so many words, “what works” and “what needs work.”
• Use symbols to convey quality of work. Stars and checkmarks indicate areas of strength. Or consistently use three emoticons: smile, meh, and frown. The emoticons speed up your response time, and while they provide authentic feedback, symbols don’t carry the same weight as a red-inked D. Reserve comments for clarification/remediation or indication of remarkable insight.

HINT: Student projects should include multiple drafts (look for development of ideas). Also collect peer feedback rubrics; “eyeball” these to ascertain the quality of student responses. Remember, teaching students to be good editors takes time and training.
4. A Rubric for Mini-Lessons (Data Indicate a Teachable Moment)

• Most teachers miss this use of rubrics. Prepare mini-lessons for authentic and immediate feedback to the entire class based on data gleaned from the rubric.
• After you respond to a set of papers, scan the rubric for the categories where the greatest number of students demonstrated proficiency and, conversely, showed need of remediation. Prepare mini-lessons to refresh or reteach the skills in the weakest category.
• Use students who excelled in this category to lead the discussion of the element being remediated.
• After a mini-lesson, students will have a better understanding of ways to improve the skill being discussed in the context of their own essays; this should lead to higher scores in that category and in subsequent revisions.

HINT: Return papers before the mini-lesson so students know that this lesson is for them.
5. A Rubric for Making Grades Visible (Student Investment in Grading)

• When students submit projects for grading, they should attach the rubric they used to score themselves. This combats the erroneous idea that grading criteria is vague or invisible.
• With this use, students assess their own strengths, weaknesses, and areas for revision.
• The teacher, in turn, responds to the projects on the same rubric. This is a check for inter-rater reliability. If the teacher and the student are close in their assessments, only moderate intervention is needed. But if the teacher and the student issue markedly different scores for a category, then remediation is needed—usually in the form of a quick in-class conference.

Hint: Always respond in a signature ink color. It should stand out against the students’ writing.
How often have we heard that students believe grades to be arbitrary or capricious? Repeated use of a single rubric is good for both students and instructors. Switching roles between author and editor results in students’ increased familiarity with the process and the components of good writing. Over the course of the semester, students will synthesize the rubric’s components into effective communication. The instructor, too, will shift from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side,” answering fewer questions (and answering the same question fewer times). In other words, students will gain greater independence as writers and thinkers. And this is good for all of us.
Stephanie Almagno is associate dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Piedmont College. 
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