Synthesis of Assessments: Promoting Higher Level Learning Outcomes Through Activity Design*

*For use only by project participants. Not for promotional or other commercial uses.

Assembled by Kristen Dvoracek

Introduction

On October 7th, 2003, Pacific Crest facilitated a workshop held at the University of Idaho in Moscow. This workshop was funded by the ELE project at UI under the NSF. Additional funding came from the College of Engineering at UI. The workshop was organized by Steven Beyerlein and facilitated by Dan Apple, President of Pacific Crest.

Faculty members and students from UI and WSU attended this interdisciplinary workshop. The workshop had four primary objectives:

  • Understand the role and benefits of structured activities in an active learning environment.
  • Write effective inquiry/critical thinking questions.
  • Establish clear performance expectations for strong learning objectives.
  • Integrate skill development and content mastery through activity design.

Methods

  • Participants who had attended the workshop filled out an assessment form at the conclusion. The number of assessment forms filled out was 15.
  • Quantitative data from the assessment form was gathered into Excel and averaged.
  • Qualitative data from the assessment form was reviewed and paraphrased.

Results

Quantitative Evaluation: (1-10, 10 being high)

How valuable was the workshop?8.3

To what degree were your goals/expectations for the workshop were met?8.6

How much did you learn about the teaching/learning process?8.4

How effective was the facilitator?8.8

How effective were the workshop handouts?7.2

What is your level of interest in attending addition workshops?8.9

Qualitative Evaluation:

(Strengths of the workshop)

  • Workshop agenda was assembled from real-time wants by participants. Excellent job was done by facilitator in satisfying most of these by the end of the workshop.
  • Relaxed informal facilitation builds trust, comraderie, and passionate dialogue.
  • Reinforced principles introduced in previous ELE faculty development events.
  • Audience was not beaten down with a long string of Powerpoint slides.
  • Faculty interest and interaction was high, leading to many good questions and insightful dialogue about specifics of activity design for cooperative learning.
  • Step-by-step process for activity design presented by knowledgeable facilitator.
  • Bloom’s Taxonomy (knowledge levels) and Forms of Knowledge are two schemes that I can use to good advantage in future course design.

(Areas for Improvement in future workshops)

  • Continue to reach out to involve more faculty from across campus in ELE faculty development activities.
  • Most of the activity examples came from Freshman/Sophomore courses. Include some examples from upper-division classes.
  • Use workshops to set up a network of instructors who would like to meet regularly for “accountability” to implement new teaching/learning practices and classroom innovations.
  • Regularly invite one of the participants to take minutes in the ‘public’ journal. It increases concentration and retention. Circulate this responsibility. It’s exhausting.
  • Give more background about the ‘big picture’ of a process-oriented classroom against which individual activities should be designed.
  • Engage participants in more team activities with shorter duration when presenting new material. Some segments seemed too long and too tangential.
  • Dan generally does a good job listening, but occasionally interrupts participants when they are speaking, thinking that he knows what they are saying, when he is incorrect in his assumptions. He could work on letting participants finish before responding.
  • Workshop outcomes could have been scoped down more, providing time for deeper immersion of participants in fewer areas.
  • Make sure to post the journal and requested materials as promptly as possible. Better yet include more supporting materials in the workshop handouts and get these to participants ahead of time. Hold participants accountable for their reading!
  • Address issues of mismatch between standard textbooks and best practices in teaching and learning.

(Insights from the workshop)

  • Learning activities can occur outside of class -- during lab and homework sessions.
  • Hold students accountable for reading assignments at the start of class.
  • Material in handouts is very detailed and will have long-term reference value.
  • Level 2 activities are critical in knowledge construction and can be promoted by social learning practices in the classroom. We probably spend too much in-class time on Level 1 and Level 3.
  • Classifying knowledge by its form is a new way of looking at learning outcomes.
  • The concept of a minimum competency threshold is something that I will pay more attention to in future course design and classroom facilitation.
  • Even though my teaching is evaluated favorably, it needs significant changes for students to become better self-learners.
  • My ability and confidence to engage in dialogue with other participants in faculty development events as advanced considerably since the Teaching Institute in June.
  • Dan is a 6th degree intellectual black belt. It’s healthy to go a few of rounds with him.
  • I often forget what I’ve learned and revert back to old teaching habits when I’m not surround by like-minded supporters on a regular basis. This underscores the importance of a community of scholars at the University of Idaho.

Electronic journal and documents requested at the workshop

Participants (16) of the 2003 Activity Design Workshop:

Name / e-Mail / Institution / Dept / Interests
Steve Beyerlein / / UI / ME / design pedagogy, faculty development, educational research
Don Elger / / UI / ME / design pedagogy, mentoring, educational research
Eric Aston / / UI / CHE / curriculum design, educational research
Barbara Williams / / UI / BSE / curriculum design, mentoring, educational research
Ken Noren / / UI / ECE / mentoring, curriculum design
Linda Morris / / UI / Business / curriculum design, professional planning
Dan Smith / / UI / Business / professional development, strategic planning
Alex Korzyk / / UI / Business / curriculum design, professional planning
Steve Zemke / / UI / ME / mentoring, educational research
Jenni Light / / WSU / CHE / mentoring, facilitation, curriculum design
Dan Cordon / / UI / ME / mentoring, curriculum design, educational research
Charles Pezeshki / / WSU / ME / design pedagogy, faculty development
Denny Davis / / WSU / BSE / design pedagogy, curriculum design, classroom assessment
Patricia Hart / / UI / JAMM / classroom assessment, program assessment
Bob Stephens / / UI / ME / mentoring, curriculum design
Lauren Fins / / UI / CNR / classroom assessment, educational research