Teaching Tips: Teaching with Technology

Dear Colleagues,

Let’s face it: technology can be a blessing and a curse, and often there’s a learning curve involved. These days, there are more educational software options than you can shake a stick at. Here are a few examples of free (and vetted) software options for you and your students:

• UT Instapoll, an in classroom response system:  LAITS developed an in-class response system that’s now available for free on Canvas for the whole university. If you’ve used other similar products like TopHat, SquareCap, and iClicker you’re familiar with the idea. Asking students to answer questions during class on a device is a great way to keep them engaged, perhaps as part of a Think-Pair-Share and/or to provide them with informal assessment feedback a few times during class. UT Instapoll isn’t as fully featured as some of the commercial response systems out there, but they are taking feature requests and it’s an easy way to explore using an in-class response system without charging students. So, use it as often or as infrequently as you like!  Access it on your course Canvas page by going to the UT Canvas Apps link on your course menu. Help is also available from the UT Canvas Support Team during office hours or by scheduling a one-on-one consultation here.

• Peer Review: LAITS created an in-house Peer Review Grading Tool, also integrated into Canvas. After peer reviews are completed, the grading tool will average rubric scores, make comments available and import scores into the gradebook. Access it on your course Canvas page by going to the UT Canvas Apps link on your course menu. To learn more about the Peer Review tool, contact the Canvas Team or visit them during office hours

• Gradescope is a homework and exam grading tool for faculty and TA’s that allows for synchronous, fast, and consistent grading, and provides statistics on each question.  Some popular features include the ability to have multiple graders work on the exam at the same time, custom adaptive scoring rubric (so you can change or create your grading rubric on the fly, and don’t have to write the same comment on multiple exams), automatic rescoring of all exams if you decide to change a point value for question while grading, and the ability to hand back exams digitally (no need to take class time). You can find a 15 minute walkthrough of many of the Gradescope features here. I’m happy to announce that we have a site license for Gradescope this year, so it is already integrated into Canvas! Access Gradescope on your course Canvas page by going to Settings>Navigation and follow directions. 
  
  If you have time this week, join us (virtually) for the online Fall '19 Gradescope workshop. You will learn how to:  
• Grade your existing exams and homework on Gradescope
• Grade groups of answers at once
• Make rubric changes as you grade - changes apply to previously graded work to maintain consistency
• Write each comment only once - apply previously used comments with a click
• Create better rubrics to increase student learnin
• Use 'assignment analytics' to gain insight into student learning

• Two available workshops:

  • Thursday, September 12, 10am - 11am CT
  • Friday, September 13, 10am - 11am CT

  Register and reserve your spot here. NOTE: Instructors are welcome to invite their TAs and grading staff.  For more information, contact Mario Guerra.
   

• Finally, I’m excited to announce two Event Series happening this Fall.
   
  • First, the Provost’s Teaching Fellows are hosting six Think Tanks about topics relevant to UT instructors ranging from Active Learning to Teaching Difficult Subjects. PTF Think Tanks invite all instructors to workshop problems and tackle tough topics in a safe environment among a diverse group of fellow faculty, and are led by members of the Provost's Teaching Fellows program. 
    
    This month’s Think Tank topic is E-Portfolios, and the facilitators will be Senior Fellows Adam Rabinowitz (Classics) and Erika Bsumek (History). You can find more information about the September Think Tank here. 
     
  • In concert with the Think Tanks, the Faculty Innovation Center will be hosting a series of six workshops addressing the same topics as the Think Tanks with a more generalized scope. The associated workshop for September, Getting Started with E-Portfolios, will be led by Educational Consultant Matthew Russell (FIC), and more information can be found here.

I hope that some of these tools will come in handy for you in your courses.  See you next month!

 

Sincerely,