The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is a group dedicated to improving teaching at NWP by providing resources, training, and more.
The following list, last updated December 12, 2024, contains books relevant to teaching and learning that are available at the Learning Commons.
The Learning Commons had licenses to various online materials that support teaching and learning.
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The following list, last updated December 12, 2024, highlights a handful of recent online materials (primarily ebooks) relevant to teaching and learning.\
Dear Colleagues,
It is my very great pleasure and privilege to write this first post from the Northwestern Polytechnic Centre for Teaching and Learning.
I know many of you have heard the CTL mentioned but haven’t seen a lot from us over the past few years. We have been trying to do a few things, but this year we’re back with somewhat larger plans and more people. One of the CTL members will be making one of these posts every couple of weeks. They'll be sent out by email and available on the new CTL course space we'll announce shortly.
I want to talk about classroom activity ideas and share a list with you. But first, let me introduce you to the CTL this year.
Please feel free to reach out to us if you think we can be helpful in any way – even if it’s just to chat about new ideas.
Now, back to classroom activities. It’s one of the most common questions we get in the new faculty Instructional Skills Workshop. What can I do besides lecture.
Many of you already use different ideas and I’d encourage you to share your experiences in replies (but not reply-alls). I want to share the attached resource which lists 226 Active Learning Techniques and highlight just a few I’ve seen or used.
I like this activity for review in my classes. Sometimes I’ll use large sheets of paper and write prompts on them. I post them around the classroom and have the students circulate in groups to add their thoughts. I’ve also had the students stay seated in groups and had the pieces of paper circulate instead.
In this you ask students to stand if the answer is yes to a question. One of the best demonstrations of this I ever saw was done by Ann Gish (one of our former librarians if you don’t know her). Ann was teaching about Boolean logic. She asked the class to stand if they liked cats, then to stand if they liked dogs, then to stand if they liked dogs and cats and finally to stand if they liked dogs or cats. It worked really well to show the students how the groupings varied.
My wife is an elementary school teacher and she mentioned Plickers to me. Jodi Peebles also used it in TEN. You give each student a card (you can print them; I like to make name placards for the students with the symbol on the back). You can give the class a multiple-choice question with up to four possible answers. To score it, you use an app on your phone to scan the room (it works really well even from across a large classroom). I like to use it to recap the previous week. You can also use it to check for understanding.
So please let me know what you’ve tried out or seen and with what results and watch for Jacob Fehr to make our second post in short order. We’re also hoping to share a new myClass CTL course space with you that will archive these posts for reference, provide space for discussion, and let us share resources.
Good morning everyone!
I hope you’re enjoying your brief breather before we plunge headlong into the final weeks of the semester.
During this year’s Instructional Skills Workshop, the facilitators emphasized planning using the BOPPPS method. It’s a legitimately great way to structure lessons to make things clear for students and ensure instructors are giving them opportunities to be active participants in their education.
However, BOPPPS has its limitations, and doesn’t necessarily apply well when writing assignment outlines. I assume you already have a method that works for you. But if you’re thinking about making a change or trying something different, I have a suggestion for a source of inspiration. It comes from an everyday event many of us will be dealing with during the holidays later this year.
How many of you have had family members teach you to play a board game?
I have. When my mom is teaching people how to play board games, her instructions sometimes sound like this:
“You do this and that during your turn. Oh, and there’s a special circumstance if X happens, but you want to watch out because it may make Y more difficult."
Eventually, I give up and read the manual myself. The reason is that (many) board game manuals are well-designed. They teach complete novices how to play a game without endless confusion and arguing over rules, and many of them share a similar structure:
I took some time and wrote up the rules to a common game in that format:
While reading that, did you compare it to game instruction you’re received in the past? When you learned how to play Go Fish, how many times did your instructor tell you to remove pairs from your hand? Did you have a discussion about whether you’re allowed to remove three-of-a-kind from your hand?
How similar were those discussions to the ones you have with your students regarding assignment outlines?
The next time you’re stuck while writing up an assignment outline, I suggest taking a break, having a cup of coffee, and taking a look through the nearest board game manual you can find. It might give you some ideas to work with.
Hello everyone,
This is Ben with the CTL and, as we move into final exams, I want to talk about synchronous quizzes on Brightspace.
As many of you know, up until this semester, Brightspace has only supported asynchronous quizzes. As instructors, you could specify a starting time window and a quiz length, but your students would always have the full amount of time to write the exam, regardless of when they started. I am pleased to say, you now have a different option.
As of the September Brightspace update, you now have the choice to hold your quizzes in a synchronous fashion. You can still specify a starting time window and a quiz length, but now the end time actually matters. Thus, you are able to say, “The exam will be over at [x] time” and have that be a true statement, as opposed to the old way where it was only approximate, as students would finish their quizzes as their individual timers ran out. This will let you better model the experience of writing a paper quiz in a classroom and how you might deal with students that start late.
To use this feature, go to the Edit Quiz screen. Under Timing & Display, check off Set Time Limit and then click Timer Settings to switch from Asynchronous to Synchronous.
I hope this is helpful. Please reach out to ctlrequests@nwpolytech.ca if you have any questions about this or anything else myClass related.
Good luck with the end of the term and happy holidays,
Hello Everyone,
As we finish up our classes it might be a good time to consider a new tool for your next course. There are many online learning tools but the one I am going to discuss is Kahoot, which can be an engaging and fun way to review material and to identify gaps in students’ knowledge.
The games can be played live where the questions are displayed through the projector and the students answer on their device. The students join on their device by going to Kahoot.it and enter the game pin, or by scanning a QR code. With a live game, the students get points for answering correctly and quickly, and the results display immediately after all of the players answer. This allows an opportunity to explain the concept or idea immediately before moving on to the next question.
To begin class, I use a ten to fifteen question live game based on the previous classes material. The questions are easy to set up in multiple choice or true and false format, and can have pictures inserted, which can be helpful when explaining the concept. The games can also be assigned to be played by the students on their own, which can work as a way for them to check their own understanding.
The students can play anonymously, and most enjoy the Kahoots and the friendly competition, but some students may not like having a time limit on the questions, so I don’t make playing them compulsory.
Here is a link to a demo game. It does include paid subscription material, but shows the basic questions as well. Here is also a link to one of my Kahoots on diesel engine emissions as an example of an assigned Kahoot and how the pictures can be used in the questions. Feel free to reply with any comments or questions.
I wish you a happy holiday season,
Happy New Year’s Everyone!
I hope you have all had a great start to the new semester, despite the frigid temperatures outside.
I’m not sure about you, but I spend a lot of my preparation time reflecting on how my instruction has gone, how well the students are learning, and what I can do to fill in some of the gaps that are present. In the summer, I spent stumbled across an article that discussed “The Intersection between Instructor Expectations and Student Interpretations of Academic Skills” published in The Canadian Journal for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2021). Parlette-Stewart et al. (2021) found that there was a 63% discrepancy between what the instructors expectations for the students and the students expectations for academic skill requirements and skill development within a course. Wow! What a difference in perception! Parlette-Stewart et al. (2021) have four recommendations to help reduce this discrepancy:
I encourage you to take some time to determine how you can decrease the potential discrepancy between your expectations and those of your students surrounding academic skills and their development within your courses. Remember the Learning Commons has online learning modules to share with your students, tutors, and they can develop specialized in-class sessions to help your students!
My goal is to create a resources to share with students at the start of the semester to outline course expectations and available resources to assist with skill development. Once this resource has been developed and trialed I will be sharing with you as a resource to integrate into your courses!
In the meantime, I’d love to hear back from you on what you do you in your courses to build required skills, share available resources, and incorporate self-reflection and feedback?
Years back, my mom told me a story about a new adult she worked with. This co-worker was friendly enough, but when the phone rang at the bookstore, they didn’t know how to answer it properly.
Nobody had taught them how to answer a phone professionally, and the bookstore owner and my mom simply assumed that everyone knew how to do it.
I’ve made similar errors. Years ago, when working at the public library, I trained new staff members who were salaried employees. In passing, I mentioned that if they worked extra hours, they would bank the time and take it off at another time.
One employee took it upon themselves to show up 30-45 minutes early, long before the library opened each day, and then expected to take the accumulated time off elsewhere.
I had assumed everyone would understand that the extra time worked was based on library need, not the staff member’s convenience. In the aftermath of the banked time discussion and an unrelated incident, I revised my training materials substantially to ensure I wasn’t making incorrect assumptions, and that my expectations for staff members were clear.
The same things apply to our work with students. Sometimes a gap is formed by our assumptions. To help deal with this gap, I suggest asking three questions:
“What are my expectations of my students, and am I communicating them?”
I assume most of us are already doing this through course syllabi, assignment outlines, and day-to-day interactions.
“What do I assume my students know?”
This is a trickier question because it’s not just regarding course content. For example, how many of us assume students here for the winter semester already know how to submit coursework through MyClass, or how printing works at the Learning Commons?
“Am I telling students where to find that information if my assumptions are incorrect?”
I personally think this last question is the biggie. If we’re telling students how to find this information, we’re setting a clear expectation that it won’t be covered in class, and that they’re responsible for following through and learning it.
For example, when discussing an upcoming research paper assignment that requires students to use peer-reviewed sources, why not say as an aside “If you don’t know how to find peer-reviewed sources, make a research appointment with a librarian at the Learning Commons”? Amanda and I would be happy to help them.
Hello everyone,
I would like to share my experience and the student feedback I have received from using recorded videos for feedback and student review, as well as the recording and editing program I used for the videos, which has both a free version and a paid version, depending on your needs.
I initially made instructional videos as a supplement to use with my Zoom classes when classes went online during Covid. I tried using Power Point recordings but I found them difficult to edit, so I switched to a program called ScreenPal. This program allows recording of computer screens, and also enables you to record your speech and image in a thumbnail while simultaneously recording your screen or PowerPoint presentation. It is also very easy to edit and you can add annotations to the recording.
Now that we have returned to in-person classes, I open the videos on MyClass after the theory class as a resource for students to review. The students are able to set the speed of the video to fit with their listening style and can pause and replay sections as needed. Students who use this have reported that it helps them when they replay sections they had missed or had not understood.
Here is an example of a recorded presentation that students could review after a class: Recorded PowerPoint.
The videos can also be used in quiz feedback when students get a question wrong in MyClass. Here is an example of a feedback video I use in a basic electrical question: feedback video.
On Monday I came across an article in Today’s Top Ten in Higher Ed which also “looks at the value of recorded lectures for students, particularly those who are neurodivergent or who have disabilities” and how it can be an inclusive learning tool. You can read the article here.
Feel free to contact me if you would like more information or would like to share your experiences,
Congratulations everyone on making it through another semester! Before you head off to teach the spring semester, conduct research, or take some well-deserved downtime, I’d like to give you something to consider over the summer months.
In February, the CTL arranged for the folks at MacEwan to present an online session discussing the ways they handle teaching and supporting international students.
The session covered a lot of important information, but I felt one portion didn’t attract much attention during the follow-up discussions: grading.
The presenters noted that there are some educational systems where a student’s course grade is based entirely on their mark for the final exam. They warned that students used to those educational systems will need explanations for weighted grading and that every (graded) assignment matters.
Their discussion on that topic dovetailed with something I’ve read about various times on the r/Professor subreddit. A few instructors have noted that some students do not understand when it becomes mathematically impossible for them to pass a class, in spite of their instructors’ best efforts and the grades displayed in their online learning platform. Some believe that acing a final worth 20% of their class grade will somehow be enough to overcome a semester of skipped participation and neglected assignments, and will refuse to withdraw while the option is still available.
(There are also students who refuse to withdraw due to minimum enrollment requirements for visas/financial aid/etc., but those students are outside the scope of this particular topic.)
I’m sure many of you already explain to students how weighted grading works and how the calculations are done, and that approach is fine. There is an alternative though. If you’re so inclined, you could set up assignments and tests to have a maximum score equal to their percentage of the grade mark. If a final exam is worth 40% of the course mark, you could design the exam to be scored out of 40 points. If a research paper is worth 30% of the class mark, you could design the rubric to score it out of 30 points. All your assessments together would total 100 points.
If you design your assessments this way, it’s simple to tell students “You need 50 points to pass this class” (or whatever passing grade is used for your particular course/program). They won’t need to calculate percentages of percentages to see if they can pass when they’ve only earned 12 points over the semester and the final exam is worth 20. It’ll just be a matter of adding things up and seeing if the total is greater than the passing mark.
Now, this grading approach isn’t a panacea. It won’t stop students from questioning their grades on individual assignments, nor making last-ditch attempts to eke out passing grades. However, it might remove one source of potential confusion and frustration for everyone involved. As for the remainder, I also encourage you to embrace something else repeated over and over again on r/Professors: the student’s final grade isn’t something you give them – it’s something they earn.
Enjoy your summer, folks!
Good Afternoon Academic Staff,
Today is International Day of Action for Academic Integrity. This year’s theme is “All Hands on Deck.” This emphasizes that everyone in an educational institution is responsible for upholding academic integrity.
What is our responsibility as educators? The attached infographic courtesy of Daryl White discusses some of the strategies instructors can use to discourage academic dishonesty.
The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) defines academic integrity as “the commitment, even in the face of adversity, to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage are invaluable” (2024). Class discussions around having the courage to stand up and do what is right are always valuable in promoting academic integrity.
Additionally, the ICAI has an interesting article titled If ‘Sharing is caring’, then does academic integrity meant not Caring? This could be used as a great starting point for discussions on this topic.
Happy Day of Action for Academic Integrity!
As I send this e-mail, there are 7 more sleeps until Halloween. I describe the countdown to family birthdays, vacations, and Christmas (62 sleeps, if you’re wondering) in the same way for one simple reason: clarity.
I have two children, and any discussion of the number of days remaining until a major event quickly devolves into a series of questions:
Do we count the current day? Is the answer different if we’re asking first thing in the morning, after school, or right before bed? Do we count the day of the event, and does that answer change whether the main event happens in the evening (trick-or-treating at Halloween) or the morning (opening presents at Christmas)?
If I describe the time remaining in number of sleeps, there are fewer things to debate. The number I give won’t change at any point during the day, and I will update it the following morning when we wake up.
Midnight falls into the same category. I was taught midnight is the first moment of a new day, but when my friends and I went to a midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith, my ticket showed May 18 – the day before the movie’s official release.
These are just two small topics related to date and time that can result in missed deadlines and painful conversations with sure-to-be-future-lawyers. In the interest of minimizing those kinds of debates, I encourage everyone to embrace AA: Avoiding Ambiguity.
When you’re planning due dates, I suggest using unambiguous times like “noon” and “11:55 pm” instead of “12:00pm” and “midnight.”
If you’re describing discussion frequency for an online class, try using phrases like “twice per week” or “every second week” instead of “biweekly.”
If an assignment includes a word count, I encourage you to be specific. There’s a world of difference between “400-500 words” and “400-500 words as counted by your word processor, excluding your title page and references.”
Finally, I encourage you to specify a required file type for online assignment submissions. As some of you have probably learned in recent years, Word will not open .pages files created by the Apple word processor.
I know this is a hassle, and that these suggestions aren’t magical solutions. However, they may eliminate one source of miscommunication between you and your students, leaving you with a little more time and energy to focus on important things.
Good Afternoon,
As the end of the semester approaches, final exams are just around the corner. This is a busy time for students and instructors, and careful planning can make the process smoother for everyone involved.
To support you during this period, here are a few tips and reminders to help you navigate final exams effectively:
Additional Resources for support:
If you’d like to share tips or collaborate on exam strategies, feel free to reach out to anyone on the Centre for Teaching and Learning committee.
Good luck with your exams!
Good morning,
As we reach the end of the term and start submitting marks do you feel disappointed in your students marks? Do you ask yourself if you could do better as an instructor? When I began teaching I taught in the way that I learned best but I found this did not seem to work well for everyone. I came across an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education several years back that resonated with me. The article “The Damaging Myth of the Natural Teacher” “Despite decades of evidence, good teaching is still considered more art than science. That’s hurting faculty and students alike.” which describes how good teaching is learned and not a natural gift. If you would like to read the full article above you can set up a free account for access. We have quite a few resources available which can help our teaching. We have professional development time and funds available each year which can support this. Here are a few suggestions:
One of the benefits of teaching is the opportunity to be a lifelong learner and I would encourage everyone to learn not just about your area of expertise, but also in teaching and learning.
Enjoy your well deserved break,