Motivating students - resources, tips, considerations

It is the week after spring break, the halfway mark for the spring semester, and campus is back in the swing of things.  Well, everyone is back, but the level of motivation might not be what is was at the beginning of the semester.

In looking around for some suggestions for instructors on motivating students in the middle of the semester, I first stumbled on a wealth of advice and thoughts on the "mid-semester slump" geared towards students.  So, instructors, the first thing to keep in mind is that the lower level of motivation and enthusiasm that you are sensing in the classroom midway through the semester may be much more general than it feels initially.  Don't take it personally!  The middle of the semester often coincides with a change in the weather and, in the case of the weeks following spring break, the challenge of transitioning back to a more regimented schedule when summer is just weeks away.  

There are a number of great suggestions out there for instructors who want to make adjustments in an effort to improve students' motivation.  However, much of this advice is best suited for the beginning of a new semester.  The Center for Teaching + Learning at University of Texas, for example, offers some excellent advice for motivating and engaging students; Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty by Elizabeth F. Barkley is another great resource.  Unless your class is facing a dire situation, however, modifying core, foundational details of the course (how grades are determined, learning objectives, etc.) is more likely to lead to frustrated rather than motivated students.

So what is an instructor to do when it is the middle of the semester?

Here are a couple of resources that may be helpful at any point during the semester:

"Solve a Teaching Problem" tool from the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon

In Step 1, a list of possible issues is presented; the top of the list focuses on issues related to attitudes and motivation.  Clicking on any one of the options will produce a list of possible reasons for what you are observing (Step 2) which then leads to some ways of addressing the problem (Step 3).  For example, does it seem like students lack interest or motivation?  One possible reason (out of six that are provided) is the variety of other priorities that compete for students' attention.  These selections lead to four possible strategies in Step 3; out of these strategies to explore, at least three, if not all four, can be reasonably implemented in the middle of the semester.

"Motivating Students" from the Teaching Effectiveness Program at University of Oregon

This list of FAQs includes a number of inquiries that coordinate with what we see in the classroom in the middle of the semester including some suggestions for working with groups are no longer collaborating successfully, elevating student interest in the material, and increasing the odds of students reading or preparing prior to class meetings.

Hopefully one of these tools will provide you with an idea worth implementing as you attempt to counteract that mid-semester slump!  

  

Reference

Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Strategies for lectures in an active learning classroom

Is it ok to lecture in an active learning class or classroom?  Absolutely.  A short lecture can be used to present background information that students will analyze or assemble as part of an activity.  Or, instead, students may be confused and in need of clarification and guidance in order to move forward with confidence.  These are just two out of many reasons why a lecture may be a beneficial component of a class, even one that meets in an active learning classroom.

Strategies for improving the effectiveness of lectures, regardless of classroom, center on breaking up the lecture into digestible pieces (~15 minutes or less) that are interspersed with short activities that engage students.  And by short, we're talking 2-6 minutes!  Johnston and Cooper (1997) offer eight different "Quick-thinks," a few of which are highlighted below.  See the full list of Quick-thinks, with examples, reprinted with permission by Tomorrow's Professor on this page.

Overview of select Quick-thinks from Johnston and Cooper (1997):

• Select the best response

This may be the quickest of the Quick-thinks as long as you have some multiple choice questions on hand.  Don't be tempted to identify the correct answer right away though!  Give the students some time to grapple with the options and why one of the options is the best out of the bunch.  I often used old test questions for this sort of exercise in my lower-level classes and found that some of the distractors provided much-needed opportunities to address misunderstandings or preconceived notions.

• Complete a sentence starter

The sentence starter can be simple and focused on recall (e.g., List the three main points of...), ask students to apply information from the lecture (e.g., Predict what will happen if...), or even venture into analysis (e.g., ______ is in direct contrast to ______ because ______).

• Reorder the steps

Great option for anything process-oriented.  Provide students with the name of each step but in a random order and provide them with 2-3 minutes to put the steps in the correct order.  

• Paraphrase the idea

Ask students to express an important idea, statement, or argument from the lecture in their own words.  Johnston and Cooper (1997) recommend also identifying the audience for the rephrased content, e.g., classmate, internship supervisor, parent.

The physical setup of an active learning classroom, however, may pose some challenges to delivering a lecture.  The active learning classrooms are clearly set up with students working and communicating in groups as the default setup - great for group activities, but creates a challenge when a central focal point is desired.  This is not a UWEC-specific issue; University of Minnesota describes the lack of a central focal point as a potential consideration for instructors in active learning rooms, and I agree with the recommendations to:

• use amplification - so important when some students are facing away from you!
• provide students with a cue to shift focus from groups to instructor and/or screen.

All active learning classrooms at UWEC are equipped with a wireless lapel mic, so amplification is available.  Believe me, I'm not a microphone person, but the mic's impact is noticeable to those in the room, especially those seated facing away from the instructor.  It is a worth a try!

Note, also, that these two recommendations can be one in the same.  The cue for students to transition from interaction within the group to something being presented to/shared with the whole class could be an announcement by the instructor using the microphone.  Communicate this - or any cue - with students in advance so that they know what to look and/or listen for!

Reference

Johnston, S., & Cooper, J. (1997). Quick-thinks: Active thinking in lecture classes and televised instruction. Cooperative Learning and College Teaching, 8(1), 2-6.

Online whiteboard tools

A few months ago, I offered a handful of options for students reporting out in the classroom, and it is time to add a few more to the list.  I've spent some time trying out various online whiteboard tools this week, and since Richard Byrne at FreeTech4Teachers offers a great summary of several of these tools in this blog post, my focus here will be on some potential uses for online whiteboard tools.

Quick, informal activities

• Underline or highlight key text in a short excerpt from an article or other reading
• Draw a diagram (e.g., structural formula in chemistry, consumer surplus in economics)
• Annotate an image

Keep in mind that an image can be of just about anything - a photograph, political cartoon, map, screenshot of text from a webpage or an article, foundation for a concept/mind map, etc.  This is where an online whiteboard tool may be preferred to the physical whiteboard surfaces available in the classrooms; the physical whiteboard is a blank slate but an online whiteboard tool offers more options for using a "pen" to markup or add to an existing object.

Online whiteboard tools that may be best suited for quick, informal activities include: Stoodle, Web Whiteboard, and PixiClip.  Why?  No need to sign up for an account to use Stoodle and Web Whiteboard even for those interested in collaboration - just send your class/teammates the URL.  PixiClip offers some different features, but the online whiteboard tools can be used without signing up for an account.  You may want to consider creating an account if interested in sharing online; however, if the goal is to share in the active learning classrooms, it may be easiest to use the teacher station controls to send a group's screen to the rest of the monitors in the room for discussion.

The online whiteboard tool available from Stoodle.

Activities that are more formal and/or might need additional features

• Annotating or commenting on anything more than a brief excerpt from a script, article, case study, etc. (e.g., each team member is assigned a section from an article but the team has to collaborate to identify strengths, weaknesses, and contributions to the discipline)
• Building a comprehensive concept/mind map
• Creating visual maps of a timeline of events or a process

A tool like RealtimeBoard might be a better choice for an activity that is more formal either in its level of collaboration or the tasks it involves.  Premium features are available for free with an educational account which applies to both instructors and students (note that the verification process takes up to 24 hours).  In addition to features that you might expect from an online whiteboard tool, RealtimeBoard makes collaboration from a distance easier with a live chat feature and the ability to start a conversation within the whiteboard through the "Comments" tool.  The ability to zoom in and out and move freely around the whiteboard space seems like a good fit for building and organizing a visual map of any kind; the whiteboard doesn't appear to be restricted in size or by where the first stuff is added (you can still move up and/or left from where you start on the board).  You can check out more of RealtimeBoard's features in one or more of these video tutorials.

RealtimeBoard's interface and available tools.

Do you use a rubric or grading criteria when evaluating student work?

Consider providing opportunities for students to practice applying the criteria to sample work.  Discussion is likely to ensue, which is a great thing!  Students have a chance to ask clarifying questions and explore the meaning of items listed in the rubric or grade sheet before their own work is evaluated based on its contents.  This process can get a lot of the confusion out of the way early on and may even result in a greater number of high quality submissions from students(!).

For my intro-level class, I collect samples of student work across semesters, maintaining a collection of a few samples for each assignment type.  Important: I only use samples for which I have the student's permission - their work is their work!  I remove any of the student's identifying information and replace it with a generic label for each sample (e.g., Sample X, Sample Y, Sample Z) to use for reference purposes.

I am a fan of using the same type of assignment (as part of a variety) at least a handful of times throughout the semester, simply adjusting the topic to coordinate with our focus at various points in time.  I then vary topics from semester to semester, which works out well for practicing with the rubric as an in-class exercise.

Example:

The first short writing assignment from last semester focused on consumer spending, so when it is time to discuss consumer spending this semester, I pull out the coordinating student writing samples and set aside class time for the rubric practice activity.

• Step 1: The students cluster into small groups (size of group = number of samples), and I provide each group with a set of the student samples and multiple copies of the coordinating rubric (one for each student).   

• Step 2: In a round robin fashion, the students are to rotate through the samples, marking down their evaluation of each on their copy of the rubric.  Depending on the assignment type and the size of the groups, 10-15 minutes may be needed for this step in this process. 

• Step 3: Group discussion of evaluation results.  Some questions for the students to explore and discuss include: How similar are the group's ratings for each writing sample?  What the reasons for any differences in the ratings for a particular writing sample (be specific!)?  What details in the rubric need clarification before your group is comfortable re-evaluating the writing sample(s)?  Estimated time: 7-10 minutes

• Step 4: Debriefing with the whole class.  This is a great opportunity to hear from the groups about any sticking points with the rubric and to answer any lingering questions.  Estimated time: 7-10 minutes

I started using this activity in my classroom after taking part in an artifact read.  As the group of reviewers, we spent a considerable amount of time "calibrating" our use of the rubric and discussing the details it contained.  This was a necessary part of the process, particularly because the work we were reviewing fell outside our of primary disciplines most of the time.  When it came to disciplines for which I would consider myself a non-expert, the rubrics often seemed to be filled with jargon and muddy details; I often found that I could make more sense out of the language in a rubric once I saw a few examples that coordinated with the various levels.

As non-experts, especially in an intro-level course, I figured students might also benefit from a set of examples and practicing the art of matching them up with the criteria stated in a rubric.  The first time I tried this activity, I figured the minutes spent in the classroom would pay off in terms of students having a better understanding of the assignment type and how their work would be evaluated.  However, since the rubric contains elements for accuracy and clarity of the information about the topic, we often end up having great conversations about the topic itself, particularly when groups have feedback about examples/applications shared in the writing samples or share additional examples that may better illustrate the concept.

Students are expected to do more in active learning - and they deserve to know why.

When it comes to what is happening in the classroom, an active learning approach requires that students do more when compared with a traditional lecture-based class.  Comments about this often sneak their way into course evals, prompting frustration from instructors who have spent countless hours preparing and integrating active learning strategies into a course (myself included!).

Take the time to explain why you are incorporating active learning to the students.  Better yet, demonstrate to students why active learning is beneficial through an activity.

This recommendation lands squarely at the top of the list of "Do's" when it comes to active learning.  David Gooblar's recent post on Vitae, "Why Students Resist Active Learning," offers this tip as one way to help combat student resistance to doing more in the classroom.  In Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Centered Environment, Doyle argues that student buy-in is the biggest hurdle instructors face when trying to adopt a learner-centered approach to teaching (p.17).  Telling students that the class will include active learning is not enough - it is the "why" that is so important here.

If I have learned anything from ten years in the classroom, it is this: be as obvious as possible.  Sure, meeting in a classroom that is arranged in pods (instead of rows or individual desks) is a visual clue that the class meetings may run a little differently than what students are used to.  Clues are not enough, even when they seem glaringly obvious.  Talk with the students about active learning.  Explain why it is being used in conjunction with (or as an alternative to) lecture.  Provide an opportunity for students to ask questions about it.  Also, be prepared to offer the "why active learning" message throughout the semester.


Including students in the conversation about active learning during the semester may help to alleviate some of the backlash that would otherwise show up on course evals.  After all, if a student's first opportunity to say something about active learning is on the course evaluation handed out at the end of the semester, then the comments are most likely to surface right then and there - on paper (or an online form) at the end of the semester.  This is less than ideal for a couple of reasons: (1) there is no longer an opportunity for a conversation, and (2) the next opportunity to make adjustments will be in a future semester with (most often) a different group of students.  Start the conversation about active learning early and keep it going throughout the semester.

Looking for more on discussing active learning with students?  Here are a couple of options:

• Check out instructor-created resources on Framing the Interactive Engagement Classroom available from the Science Education Initiative at University of Colorado - Boulder.  Resources include slides, clicker questions, video clips, procedures and materials for classroom activities, etc.
• Pick up a copy of Helping Students Learn in a Learner-Centered Environment by Terry Doyle; Chapters 3 and 4 offer research-based guidance on talking with students about how we learn and coordinating reasons for modifying our approach to teaching.

Reference:

Doyle, T. (2008).  Helping students learn in a learner-centered environment: A guide to facilitating learning in higher education. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

Quick activities to get students talking with each other

Our campus was fortunate enough to have Dr. Christine Harrington on campus last month for a series of workshops.  An active learning classroom turned out to be a good fit for Christine's lively, participant-centered style of workshop delivery; the fact that each session was peppered with a variety of classroom activities turned out to be an added bonus of being a workshop participant.  A few of my favorite activities from the sessions are shared below.  Each activity described here makes use of index cards but small pieces of scratch paper are likely to work just as well.  (UWEC instructors - stop by Printing Services in Schofield 18 to pick up free pads of pre-cut scratch paper.)

Five Card Pass (in 5 minutes or less)

Provide students with a prompt (answer a question, make a list, etc.) and 1-2 minutes to write down their anonymous response on an index card.  With everyone out of their seats, students then exchange cards five times - the exchanges have to be with classmates that are not sitting at their pod/table.  The cards (and ideas) have now been randomly shuffled, so to speak, and students can be asked to do a number of things with the info on their new card - add, discuss, find an example, respond, etc. 

Brainwriting (5-10 minutes)

Provide students with a prompt, index cards, and 1-2 minutes to respond with one item or detail, writing it at the top of the card.  Next, instruct students to pass the index card to the right and write down another item/detail on the card that is now in front of them.  Same prompt, but the response must be unique - i.e., it cannot be the same as one written or read on other cards.  Continue passing and responding until the time is up or the possibilities have been exhausted.  

A more thorough overview of brainwriting is available on the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit wiki.  For an argument in favor of using brainwriting, check out this video from the Kellogg School of Management - it also highlights a variation of the brainwriting exercise described above.

Save the Last Word for Me (10-15 minutes)

This activity is designed to give everyone in the group a chance to be heard and practice listening skills.  Plus, it gives students something to do with an assigned reading and gets them talking (with each other!) about it.  See more information about this activity on The Teacher Toolkit site.

Often times, students are accustomed to directing questions, comments, responses, etc. to the instructor and need an extra nudge to, instead, exchange ideas with one another.  The activities shared here are relatively low-prep ways to get students engaging with one another in the classroom - and each has the possibility of being implemented in 15 minutes or less.  Perfect for getting students talking with one another with little preparation and each of these activities can be adapted to a wide variety of topics, prompts, and readings.

Options for randomly selecting students or groups

Reporting out and sharing with the class often act as a transition from students working in small groups to bringing the whole class back together.  Making sure that all students are contributing to the larger group/class effort is important; for a class to be a learning community, ideas and information must be shared by all members (Barkley, 2010, p.122).

What are some ways to include everyone?  Having a go-to strategy for determining who reports out can be handy, and fairness is key.  Students do not want to feel like they are being singled out; instead, it needs to be clear that everyone has an equal chance of being called on.  Some instructors write students' names on index cards, shuffling through to select the next contributor and making note of how many times each student has contributed to the class discussion.  Similarly, student names can be placed on strips of paper and randomly pulled from a bag, box, or whatever is convenient for the classroom.  Here are a few tech-based options that may be worth considering too:

• Random Name Picker! from ClassTools.net

If your class has 50 or fewer students, this web-based tool might be worth checking out.  I love its colorful, attention-grabbing design, and the fact that it is easy to use doesn't hurt either!  No login needed; it is easy to copy-and-paste student names from a text or Excel file and then save to access in the future with a unique URL.  

• Random Name Selector from Primary Technology

The Random Name Selector is also web-based and easy to use.  Copy students' names from an existing document or spreadsheet and paste into the Change Names area, click Go! and let the tool do the work.  The Save and Share button provides a unique URL so that the list of names can be accessed each time you use it in the classroom.  One advantage over the Random Name Picker is its ability to accommodate more than 50 names.  (I used it successfully with 90 names which accommodates most class sizes on our campus.)

• The Hat from Harmony Hollow Software

I heard about The Hat from J. Ricky Cox during his session on engaging large classes at the Teaching Professor Technology Conference.  It is a free download designed for Windows machines, and one of the potential advantages this tool offers is its ability to select more than one name at a time - useful for randomly assigning partners or groups.  See the short demo video from Harmony Hollow for more.

Entering group numbers instead of individual student names is also an option for each of these tools.  In the middle of a class period, I have a tendency to want to call on the groups who either finish first or are most likely to complete high quality work, but it is important to share the wealth and hear from each group (over time).  Having a way to randomly call on groups keeps them on their toes and helps guard against groups thinking that they can "get out" of sharing simply by not completing the task in the allotted time or doing poor quality work.

Reference

Barkley, E. F. (2010). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.