Helping Faculty Design Assignment-Centered Courses

Faculty developers must help faculty shift from a teaching paradigm to a learning paradigm. Workshops that help faculty plan the assignment-centered course are a productive approach to that challenge. This article shows faculty developers how to plan and lead such a workshop. Research suggests that faculty often focus on content and coverage in their course planning. To combat this tendency, the workshop leads faculty through the course-planning process. In the workshop, faculty first develop learning objectives, then plan the assignments and exams that will both teach and test the essential skills and knowledge of the course. Then faculty choose and organize their instructional methods and the use of in-class and out-of-class time to maximize the development of the most important knowledge and skills. This approach contrasts with the text-lecture-coverage-centered course, in which the teacher concentrates first on the topics she or he will cover. The assignment-centered course is one of the strategies that research suggests will enhance students\u27 critical thinking in higher education

Dr. Barbara Walvoord: Increasing Student Motivation and Engagement

Dr. Barbara E. Walvoord presents an overview on increasing student motivation

Three steps to revising your writing for style, grammar, punctuation and speling

s.l.527 p.; 21 c

The Useful, Sensible, No-Frills Departmental Assessment Plan

Academic departments from physics to philosophy to physical therapy face new demands for “assessment of student learning.” It’s hard to argue against the basic idea of assessment: when a department invests time and resources trying to nurture student learning, it should ask itself: Are they learning? Yet departments may also fear that assessment will require them to dumb-down their teaching; use standardized tests; teach alike; or compromise academic freedom. Every department wonders how it will find the time and resources for one more thing. This essay suggests a simple, sustainable, and useful departmental assessment plan that capitalizes on what departments are already doing or should be doing, that can help improve student learning, and that can meet the requirements of accreditors

Dr. Barbara Walvoord: Increasing Student Motivation and Engagement

Dr. Barbara E. Walvoord presents an overview on increasing student motivation

Dr. Barbara Walvoord: Making the Grading Process Fair, Time-Efficient, and Effective for Learning

Dr. Barbara E. Walvoord presents an overview on making the grading process fair

Dr. Barbara Walvoord: Making the Grading Process Fair, Time-Efficient, and Effective for Learning

Dr. Barbara E. Walvoord presents an overview on making the grading process fair

Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments, and General Education Second Edition

Assessment Clear and Simple is a concise, step-by-step guide for the assessment process. This practical book provides cost-efficient and useful tools that fulfill the requirements of accreditation agencies, legislatures, and review boards to ensure a simple, successful assessment process. In an easy-to-read manner, Walvoord explores planning, budgeting, and changes in curriculum, pedagogy, and programming. The new edition addresses using standardized tests, portfolios, and e-portfolios for the assessment process, and includes new institution-wide planning tools developed by the author for anyone in higher education