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By: Robyn Brown

Canvas Gradebook: Grading Systems

Regardless of whether it is for a face-to-face, online, or hybrid course, or whether you are using Canvas, spreadsheet or pencil and paper, selecting the grading system you will use is the first step in building your course grade book. Grading systems dictate how the graded items in your course will calculate students' final grades.

Graded items may include (but are not limited to):

Participation scores

Assignments (e.g. homework, readings, papers, labs, projects, presentations, etc)

Discussions

Quizzes/Exams

The two most frequently used systems are:

Total Points: graded items are each worth a specific number of points that are combined to calculate the final grade

Weighted Grades: graded items are assigned to categories; each category is assigned a percentage of the overall final grade totaling 100%

In a Total Points system, each graded item is assigned a point value, any value. It is not necessary to use round or even numbers. Any figure will work.

To calculate individual student final grades, add up the total points earned on each graded item and divide that sum by the sum of the total maximum points assigned to each graded item. Multiply by 100 to get the percentage.

Student total points earned on graded items: 879
Maximum total points assigned to all graded items: 1019

879 points ÷ 1019 points = 0.8626
0.8626 x 100 = 86.26% Final Grade

Benefits of Total Points:

There are several benefits to using a Total Points system for both student and instructor, including:

Easy for students when they are looking at their overall course grade

Easy for instructors to build their Gradebook

Drawbacks of Total Points:
The most noteworthy drawback of a Total Points system is that it may impede flexibility if you are an instructor who likes to add graded items as you progress through a course. For example, let's say that your class this term needs additional homework exercises in order to get more practice with the content. So, you add 5 more homework assignments. Depending on the value of points assigned, adding the extra homework assignments may significantly increase the influence of homework scores, and decrease the influence of exam scores, on the final grade. In other words, the proportions of graded assignments in calculating the final grade may no longer reflect the most important aspects of the course. You may also direct them to the What If? grade function in Canvas, which allows students to calculate their overall grade by entering hypothetical (aka What if...?) grades for assignments.
Additional Notes

The sum of the maximum point values for all assignments combined does not need to equal 100 (in fact, it probably shouldn't to make it easier on you!), nor does it even have to be a nice, round number. Any maximum total point value for your class will work.

Although it is not necessary to assign your graded items to 'categories' in a Total Points system, you may find it helpful to have the assignments categorized. Canvas shows grades based on individual assignments as well as categories. Looking at graded items and grades categorically may make it easier to identify areas of concern more quickly, as well as a quick way to examine distribution of points.

One thing you need to ensure is that the maximum points assigned to each graded item reflects how much you want each item to be 'worth' in the big picture (aka. Final Grade). For example, if you were to assign a maximum points value of 50 points to each of your 20 homework assignments (for a total of 1000 points for homework), and a maximum points value of 100 points each to your mid-term and final exams (for a total of 200 points for exam grades), final grade scores in your course would be heavily skewed toward performances on homework as opposed to exams. In other words, the weight of a graded item in the calculation of the final grade is directly tied to the number of points assigned to that item in comparison to values assigned to the other items. It is important to be aware of how you've balanced the assignments across the gradebook.

In a weighted grading system, individual assignments are grouped into Assignment Categories. Each Category is worth a percentage of the Final Grade, combining to equal 100% of the final grade. e.g. Discussions 25%, Labs 15%, Papers 35%, and Exams 25% = 100% Final Grade Individual graded assignments in any category may be assigned any value of points, but their contribution towards the category they belong to, and the final grade, is the percentage value (weight) assigned to them.

You can weight final grades based on assignment groups. Selecting this option assigns a weight to each assignment group, not the assignments themselves. Within each assignment group, a percentage is calculated by dividing the total points a student has earned by the total points possible for all assignments in that group.

For example, if an assignment group included three assignments totaling 25 points, and a student's scores totaled 15 points, the student would earn 60% for the assignment group (15/25). This percentage is then multiplied by the selected group weight. Each assignment group calculation is added together to create the final grade.

Benefits of Weighted Grades

There are several benefits to using a Weighted Grades system for both student and instructor, including:

Helpful to students as they monitor performance through scores calculated within each assignment category.

Greater flexibility to add or remove graded items as needed without affecting the overall point structure for the course.

Drawbacks of Weighted Grades
Some may argue that one of the disadvantages of using Weighted Grades is that students may have trouble identifying which graded items are more 'important' if they are accustomed to a Total Points system in which more points equals more important. With a little bit of coaching, students may begin to understand how the system works. You may also direct them to the What If? grade function in Canvas, which allows students to calculate their overall grade by entering hypothetical (aka 'What if...?) grades for assignments. Weighted Grades is also perceived as 'complicated' for the instructor. With some planning and thoughtful construction, grading in a Weighted Grading system is no different than in a Total Points system.
Additional Notes

Instructors may predetermine how much of the student's final grade will come from each category - although this may also be structured using a Total Points system, Weighted Grades affords greater flexibility to add or remove graded items as needed without affecting the overall point structure for the course.

Since it's the category's weight (combined %) and not that of an individual graded item's value that informs the final grade, it is important to note that final grades are inaccurate until all the items in the category are graded. Therefore, it is difficult to share final grades with students before the end of a course.

It is also possible to have a category weighted at 0% of the overall grade, which maybe useful for "no-stakes" engagements such as Module 0 or practice assignments.

Extra Credit in a weighted system (managed in Canvas) is a bit persnickity. It is not as easy as simply adding an extra credit assignment worth 0 points as you can in a Total Points system. Rather, extra credit assignments may be housed within an existing assignment group that has at least one assignment worth more than zero points. Then, when the student completes the extra credit assignment, you may manually enter the points to the Gradebook.

You may also be interested in:

If at any point you would like support or guidance while you are teaching a distance learning course, please connect with us! We are here to help.

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Canvas Gradebook: Total Points & Weighted Grades

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Regardless of whether it is for a face-to-face, online, or hybrid course, or whether you are using Canvas, spreadsheet or pencil and paper, selecting the grading system you will use is the first step in building your course grade book.

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Of course, you can use a wide variety of poll questions; Multiple Choice Polls, , and Rankings slides offer plenty of options no matter the situation. With all that in mind, we have compiled an array of different slide types you can use now or as inspiration for some time down the line.

Live Polling Tools

There are plenty of tools online that will help you run a live poll no matter if you are standing in front of a marketing department, or a lecture hall full of students. It can, however, be tough to navigate the endless Google search results. You will likely need something that is easy to use and lets anyone in the group quickly have their say or vote on your poll.

Another major benefit would be seeing results appear on screen in real-time.

What are good poll questions?

A good poll makes everyone think about their answers and take each option into account before making their decision. If you want to ask an icebreaker question then a good poll would require people to take a moment to consider their answer and warm up the creative thinking part of their brain.

If you want to gather opinions during a meeting then a good poll would have a few options that might be tough to choose between. For classrooms and polls to ask students, then you probably don't want to make the answer too obvious but use the poll as a way to properly assess understanding and avoid confusion. So, to help you create your polls, we have put together some categories you can use as inspiration.

Fun Poll Questions

It can be tough to kick off a meeting, a brainstorming session, a team sync, and an all-teams meeting. So often you need something to help get the ball rolling. Here are a few fun icebreakers designed to kindle some chat, spark some ideas, and ignite your next meeting.

Interesting polls

1. What's your favorite app?

2. What's your favorite pastime?

3. What's your deepest fear?

4. If you could pick a superpower what would you choose?

5. What famous person, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?

Pin on Images

6. Which Harry Potter house do you belong to?

7. Where in the world do you most want to live?

8. Where's Waldo?

9. How strongly do you take your coffee?

10. At what ripeness do you eat your bananas?

Rankings polls

11. What's the best pizza topping?

12. What's the cutest animal?

13. Which country has the best accent?

14. What do you find scariest?

15. What was the best series?

Multiple Choice questions

16. What is your favorite holiday of the year?

17. If you could play one instrument well, which would you pick?

18. If you could visit one fictional world, where would you visit?

19. Which of these dwarves best describes you?

20. Which of these would be the hardest to live without?

Meeting Polls

No matter if you manage a small or growing team, poll questions are an excellent way for your team to share opinions and feedback. Scales and Ranking questions are just two slide types that can help you better understand what your team is thinking.

Scale polls

21. Strongly Agree / Strongly Disagree Scale

Meeting Efficiency Reflection

22. 1 - 10 scale

23. Unclear - Clear scale

24. Needs Improvement - Excelling

25. De-emphasize - Prioritize

26. Not meetings goals / Exceeding Expectations scale

27. Very unhappy / Exceedingly happy scale

28. Needs improvement / Working well scale

29. 1 - 10 How well does it work scale

30. Extremely unlikely / Extremely likely

Rankings

31. Plan the Next Quarter

32. What do you value most personally?

33. What do we need to focus on this quarter?

34. What do we do well?

35. How can we improve the value of these meetings?

Word Cloud

36. What topic do you want to cover next week?

37. What is our biggest challenge as a team?

38. Who do you think deserves praise for their work?

39. What is our main strength/weakness as a team?

40. Are there any new projects we should look into?

Open Ended Questions

41. Is there anyone in the company you think deserves a shoutout?

42. Do you have an idea for a fun bonding session?

43. Is there anything we as a team could present to the company?

44. What other team would you like to collaborate with?

45. Are there any other metrics / KPIs we should prioritize?

46. What can we do to make the post-Covid world easier for employees?

47. Are our performance reviews done smartly and efficiently?

48. Is there anything causing you stress right now?

49. What can we as a company do better?

50. Is there an area we should consider investing more time and effort in?

Multiple Choice

51. Which of these initiatives do you think sounds best

52. How do you feel last quarter went?

53. Are you happy with the direction the company is going?

54. What projects are you most proud of?

55. Where do you prefer to work?

Word Cloud Questions

56. How can we improve customer satisfaction?

57. How do you feel about leadership?

58. What additional training would you like to see offered?

59. How would you describe this company?

60. How would you describe our company culture?

Classroom Polls

The business world isn't the only time we can use poll questions. Gathering information from students is also a vital part of both school and university life. So with that in mind, let's dive in and look at what pertinent questions you can ask your students.

Word Cloud Questions

61. Language Class Word Cloud

62. What words come to mind when you think about climate change?

63. What is your favorite thing to do in class?

64. What is your favorite subject?

65. What do you think of (insert subject of choice here)?

Open Ended Questions

66. What did we do in today's lesson?

67. What topics do we need to cover before the exam?

68. Which subjects have you enjoyed the most this year?

69. How do you study and what materials work best for you?

70. Was there anything you wish we did more / less of this term?

Multiple Choice Questions

71. My favorite type of learning material is

72. How has your understanding of this subject changed throughout the year

73. Do you feel about your exams

74. Was this class what you expected?

75. Would you take this class again?

Icebreaker Polls

Our goal at Mentimeter is to make meetings more exciting, engaging, interactive, and interesting. So we have whipped up some extra special slides for you to use!

76. We're relocating our HQ, where shall we go?

77. Back to the office dress code?

78. What is your work situation looking like these days?

79. Pineapple on pizza. Acceptable?

Interactive Polls

Maybe you're looking for something a little bit more advanced; something to make your audience think, "wow this presentation has stuff I've never seen before!" Well, you're in luck because, while all of our slides are interactive, we have some that jump off the screen!

80. Company and Competitor matrix

81. Action Priority Matrix

82. DiSC Analysis

83. Growth Share Matrix

84. Eisenhower Matrix

85. Ansoff Matrix

Opinion Polls

Opinion polls can be a great way to understand what your team or students prefer. How they view your leadership or teaching style. Or just what they think about the world.

86. What day of the week do you want to have our weekly meeting?

87. what format should our end-of-year exam be?

88. What political party do you trust the most?

89. What is your view on the recent political crisis?

90. Do you think tools like ChatGPT should be banned?

Need some more poll ideas?

Perhaps you need some more ideas and inspiration or maybe you would prefer to run a survey rather than a poll. Have no fear because we have plenty of other articles on our blog for you to read. But if you want to get started right away and create some amazing polls, then we have a plan that will meet your needs.

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Are you stuck and in the need of some useful, intriguing, and creative poll questions? Well we have 90 of the very best compiled here in this article.

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Teaching In Higher Ed Podcast - Teaching in Higher Ed

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This is the space where we explore the art and science of being more effective at facilitating learning. We also share ways to increase our personal productivity, so we can have more peace in our...

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Baseline Canvas Requirements for All Courses

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Baseline Canvas Requirements for All Courses

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Baseline Canvas Requirements for All Courses

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Baseline Canvas Requirements for All Courses - Design & share beautiful engaging content with Visme

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Building Quality Content

* The Why behind the updated checklist What's Included in This Post?

* The Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist v3.0

▶ (shared as an easy-to-copy preview via Google Docs) so you can customize it for your institution. Or Make a copy of the download a PDF version. Note: We ask that you comply with the Creative Commons licensing located at the bottom of the document. Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist v3.0

Educators, regardless of their level, recognize the importance of incorporating best practices and reflecting on the effectiveness of their teaching strategies to benefit their learners. Our widely used Course Evaluation Checklist has led to an increasing number of requests for feedback on full content builds in Canvas. The newly improved Course Evaluation Checklist v3.0 builds upon the previous version (2.0) and introduces, for the very first time, guidelines for assessing both course content and curriculum! We also took a look at our Mobile checklist and wrapped it into 3.0 to give you a one-stop shop when evaluating your course. Evaluating the efficacy of course content can be tricky, which is why we have included comprehensive guidelines to support this evaluation process.

The purpose of the Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist has always been to support Canvas course creators in enhancing the quality of their Canvas courses. With version 3.0, our focus shifts towards full course builds in Canvas, which extend beyond synchronous course content to promote ongoing independent learning.

This version of the checklist remains dedicated to supporting various course creators, including instructional designers, K12 teachers, and higher ed faculty, across diverse learning settings, such as brick and mortar, hybrid, and fully online environments, as they design and create Canvas courses for learners of all ages. Once you make a copy of the checklist, you have the flexibility to modify it according to your specific needs and goals.

Since Version 3.0 targets full course builds, we have kept Version 2.0 available for those who prefer to continue to use it for courses without quite as much asynchronous content. It's important to note that neither v2.0 nor v3.0 are intended to compete with or replace proprietary evaluations. Instead, these free tools serve as valuable starting points for institutions to make a copy and tailor it to meet their individualized requirements.

That's why we continue to share these types of resources in the Canvas Community - to encourage conversation among Canvas users and create a space for ongoing dialogue on how best to enhance course creation in Canvas for all users.

Just as with v2.0, we continue to encourage you to:

Share this checklist with your colleagues

Apply the principles to your own course

Elevate the quality of your institution's courses

The Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist v3.0 marks a significant step towards elevating the quality of online courses for all learners. With enriched guidelines for assessing both course content and curriculum, v3.0 empowers educators (and other course builders!) to reflect on effective teaching strategies and create courses that foster engaging and ongoing learning. Instructor-led courses can benefit significantly by improving instructor-student communication through well-structured designs. Asynchronous courses can also benefit by offering learners the necessary tools to independently complete coursework while seamlessly integrating with Instructure's technological resources. So, let's leverage this valuable tool, share it with colleagues, and elevate the quality of our courses for an enriching learning experience!
Check out some other useful checklists in the community:
Please comment below. We'd love to hear from you!

Our Design and Curriculum teams offer a variety of services, including course templates, consultation hours, badging and certificate services, course reviews and evaluations, instructional workshops, course authoring, content reconstruction, and much more! If you would like to learn more about our services, please contact your CSM or our Design/Curriculum Managers, Learning Services: @rosina_marie, via rmonteiro@instructure.com, or @mirandamcintosh, via mmcintosh@instructure.com.

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Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist v3.0 Building Quality Content What's Included in This Post? * The Why behind the updated checklist * The Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist v3.0 ▶ Make a copy of the Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist v3.0 (shared as an easy-to-copy preview via Google Docs) so you ...

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150 Tech Tools for Teaching in the Classroom or Online

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150 Tech Tools for Teaching in the Classroom or Online

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Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

I've held numerous positions where I've needed to offer bookable appointments and trying to find a cost-effective bookable appointment solution was a never-ending challenge.

Fortunately, Google has added such a feature to its Calendar service and I'm here to tell you it's pretty sweet. Even better, the new bookable appointments feature is available to both the paid and free accounts.
Also: How to access thousands of free audiobooks, thanks to Microsoft AI and Project Gutenberg
Google's new bookable appointments feature is easy enough that anyone who knows their way around Calendar will have no problem adding it to their calendar. Once you've added a block of bookable appointments, you can then share it, so people can use it as a self-serve appointment calendar. It's simple enough on both ends that no one should have trouble using the feature.

However, I will offer one word of warning. If you use multiple calendars and want your bookable appointments to live only within a non-default calendar, you're out of luck. Even if you assign a block of bookable appointments to a non-default calendar, it will still show up in your default calendar as well. However, if you don't use multiple calendars, you won't notice a thing.

Let me show you how to add a block of bookable appointments to your Google Calendar.

How to create a block of bookable appointments

What you'll need: The only things you'll need are a valid Google account and a web browser (as the feature has yet to roll out to the mobile app). As I mentioned, this can be either a free or paid account.

Sharing your appointment schedule

If you click the small calendar icon in the upper left corner of the appointment schedule, a popup will appear, where you can then click Share.

In the resulting popup, you can then select how to share the appointment schedule (via link or website embed). You can then either copy the link and send it to those who need access to the appointment schedule, or you can embed the appointment schedule in whatever website you choose.

When someone visits the link (or views the embedded link in your web page), they'll see a page that makes it very easy to book an appointment with you.

And that's all there is to using the new Google bookable appointment scheduling feature. This is a great way to offer office hours or any other type of bookable appointment you might need.

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Google Calendar just added bookable appointment scheduling, and it's pretty sweet

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If you've been looking for an easy way to offer bookable appointments, Google has you covered on both free and paid accounts now. Here's how to use the new feature.

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DanielleLentz

After 8 years of teaching students in various K12 and HE English and Science courses, Danielle is now a HE Customer Success Manager. She also previously served on the Instructure Training Team. She earned a BS in Education (minor in Communications) from Cornell University, and a MS in Leadership and Communications from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has taught in Queens, Nashville, and Knoxville at the middle school, high school, and higher ed level. On the weekends, Danielle's hobbies include attending concerts, reading, going on hikes with her beloved pup, Chesney, and game nights with her equally competitive better half, Nick.

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Below you will find all of the Dear Danielle videos. Have an idea for a future video? Please make sure to fill out the form to indicate what you want to hear about next! Assignments Differentiated Assignments Features Appointment Groups/Office Hours Groups KB Consolidation Module Requirements ...

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Smooth Sailing for the Student Experience

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Smooth Sailing for the Student Experience

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By creating environments that allow students to make their own choices about how, where, and when to learn-as well as which technology tools to use-higher education institutions will not only streamline the student experience but also increase student success.

Optimizing Choices

Empowering Students

Embracing AI

Hear from the Community

Go Further

Learn from Your Peers

Feed Your Curiosity

Dig Into the Library

Connect with Community Groups

We hope this Showcase gives you new ideas for streamlining the student experience. In our last Showcase of 2023, " Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan: 2024," we'll empower you with resources for strategic planning into 2024 and beyond.

Gartner, Digital Business Ambition: Transform or Optimize?, By Hung LeHon and Graham Waller, Refreshed 9 June 2022, Published 15 January 2021.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's Research & Advisory organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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Smooth Sailing for the Student Experience

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By creating environments that allow students to make their own choices about how, where, and when to learn-as well as which technology tools to use-hi

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Stop "Fixing" Your Brain by Believing in Learning Styles

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Stop "Fixing" Your Brain by Believing in Learning Styles

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Imagine that a struggling college freshman confides in you that they are having difficulty learning the material in one of their classes. When you ask what specific problems they are having, the student says, "I go to class and the professor lectures for the whole 80 minutes. I try to listen and write down what the professor puts on the PowerPoint, but I miss what he is saying. I am a hands-on learner, and this class is going to be the death of me."

Of the two choices below, which one would you select as a response to this student?

A: The professor is not teaching to your learning style, so I would recommend that you seek out a professor who would teach with more hands-on activities in order to ensure success.

B: The problem you are having right now is that you are limited in the strategies you are using to make sense of the information the professor is sharing. You can be successful in this class if you just develop better learning habits.

Whether you select option A or B, your decision stems from an underlying belief about how people learn. Beliefs about learning-once established-tend to be deep-seated, difficult to change, and have a considerable impact on one's motivation, behavior, and achievement (Bandura, 1997; Pajares, 1992). Thus, it is important that people have adaptive rather than maladaptive views of learning.

For those of you who selected option A, your ideas align with those of many college students, higher education faculty, primary and secondary teachers, and members of the general public who believe that teaching to a student's learning style enhances learning. Unfortunately, you have fallen prey to a popular learning myth or misconception about the brain and its functioning (Dekker et al., 2012; Howard-Jones, 2014; Macdonald et al., 2017).

The visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (VAK) learning styles myth is arguably the most well-known and influential of the 70-plus learning style models found to date in the literature and on popular consumer websites (Coffield et al., 2004). The VAK learning styles myth rests on three problematic assumptions (e.g., Kirschner, 2016), each having research to refute them.

Assumption 1: The learner has a dominant sensory modality. This sensory modality processes information independently, and thus more efficiently, in the brain than do the other sensory modalities.

Refutation: Visual, auditory, and motor input modalities in the brain are interconnected. This interconnectedness helps individuals process information. In addition, multisensory cues enhance detection and identification of stimuli and improve reaction time (Calvert et al., 2000; Dehaene et al., 1998; Hershenson, 1962; Morrell, 1968). In other words, your brain is more efficient when it processes similar information through multiple senses at once (Clark & Paivio, 1991).

Assumption 2: One's dominant sensory modality (i.e., learning style) can be definitively determined through self-identification or testing.

Refutation: People often identify as a specific type of learner because they have experienced success using a certain learning strategy (e.g., writing detailed notes) or being in a given learning environment (e.g., teacher models a procedure and the students follow). This success inspires repetitive practice, increased efficiency, and comfort, which people attribute to a learning style rather than to a preference that can change with other experiences (Riener & Willingham, 2010).

For many strategies or learning environments, people fail to realize they are engaging more than one sense at any given time. Engaging more than one sense at a time has a significant impact on the brain's processing capabilities and outcomes (Clark & Paivio, 1991). For example, a person identifying as a "visual" learner might prefer to take notes because they need to "see the material to learn." However, when the learner is taking notes during a lecture, they are actually engaging sight, sound, and touch-not to mention the cognitive resources required for successful learning like attention and encoding!

Furthermore, learning styles identification via testing is also problematic because of reliability and validity concerns of the instruments people use to assess learning styles (Coffield et al., 2004; Peterson et al., 2009). The phrase "learning style" can be defined in a number of ways (e.g., a preference in strategy, an instructional approach, a faulty view of how the brain works). As such, great inconsistencies in learning style measures exist which weaken any predictive power (Kirschner, 2016).

Assumption 3: Aligning instruction to learning style results in optimal learning.

Refutation: Numerous studies have found no improved learning outcomes when instructional method was matched to VAK learning style (e.g., Krätzig & Arbuthnott, 2006; Rogowsky et al., 2014). Pedagogical effectiveness is predicated on the careful consideration of evidence-based best practices for the content in relation to students' prior knowledge, ability, and interests-three key areas where students differ (Riener & Willingham, 2010), not on a match between supposed learning style and instruction modality.
Why is it a problem if people believe in learning styles?
Problems arise when people believe in the VAK learning styles myth. In the classroom, a teacher who believes that children learn most information via one predominant sensory modality may waste a lot of time and effort attempting to identify each student's learning style and creating learning experiences to match. These efforts waste time, energy, and precious financial resources (Newton, 2015; Willingham et al., 2015) with little payoff.

In addition, when teachers limit the types of experiences students have (e.g., giving auditory learners excessive opportunities to listen to material rather than view or physically experience), they may be limiting the brain's natural capacity to engage in important synaptic changes (i.e., neuroplasticity) which are important for healthy brain development and information processing (Voss et al., 2017). Because teachers are trusted adults, children often adopt similar beliefs about VAK learning styles; these beliefs often handicap learners as they advance in the education system.

A student who believes they only learn one way might adopt a fixed mindset or idea that human attributes (like intelligence or ability to learn) cannot change (Dweck, 2006). Those who have a fixed mindset often struggle when faced with academic challenges, resulting in lower engagement, motivation, grade-point averages, and overall success compared to students who have a growth mindset, the belief that increased effort and strategy use can improve learning outcomes (Dweck, 2006). Thus, poor performance may be blamed on (or attributed to) being incapable or on the teacher and learning environment, rather than on a learner's effort or strategy implementation (Sinatra & Jacobson, 2019). Because students gravitate towards what they deem as their dominant learning style, they may be limiting their experiences in a variety of subject areas and as a consequence reducing career options unknowingly (Newton, 2015; Willingham et al., 2015).
We can change our brain.
In our experimental research, we have been successful at changing the way our participants think about learning (Collings & Duffin, 2018; Duffin & Collings, 2019). We have found that when college students learn about the brain and its capacity to change (i.e., neuroplasticity; Boyd, 2015; Sentis, 2012), explore the research that refutes the assumptions underlying learning styles (Memorize Academy, 2017), and investigate specific strategies for better learning (i.e., ANSWER method; Memorize Academy, 2016; Weinstein et al., 2018), they feel more empowered in their own learning. Whether participants engaged in a one-time, 20-minute online intervention or a semester-long, face-to-face intervention, we have seen a significant decline in the prevalence of VAK learning style beliefs measured both quantitatively (Dekker et al., 2012; Rato et al., 2013) and qualitatively. The impact of the work is best described by one of our participants who was a junior elementary education major at the time of the study:
"Knowing now that I am not limited by a specific learning style and that I can grow my brain through challenge and experience has liberated me. I feel so stupid that I believed what I was told instead of questioning authority and evaluating the research for myself. Your brain is a complex organ; why on earth would we want to simplify it? I am so grateful for this opportunity because now I have tools to be a better learner, a better consumer of information, and a more equipped agent of change."
Feel free to explore the intervention materials here.

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Stop "Fixing" Your Brain by Believing in Learning Styles

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Using a growth mindset intervention to challenge ideas about learning.

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Please refer to the Schedule & Checklist for more information on workshop requirements. Note that the Schedule & Checklist for Independent sessions may vary from the Schedule & Checklist provided here.

QM's flagship workshop on the QM Rubric and its use in reviewing the design of online and hybrid courses is intended for a broad audience, including but not limited to faculty, instructional designers, administrators, and adjunct instructors. It is particularly helpful to those new to QM or those considering the adoption of a quality assurance process for online and hybrid learning.

In addition to learning about the QM Rubric and the course review process, participants will learn to apply the concept of alignment and draft helpful recommendations for course improvement.

The APPQMR is the prerequisite for the Peer Reviewer Course, which is the required course to become a QM Peer Reviewer.

* Those looking to understand the QM Rubric and course review process.
* Members with a stand-alone CPE membership.
* Those who wish to complete the Higher Ed Peer Reviewer Course.

After completing this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the origin and scope of Quality Matters.

2. Identify the critical elements of the QM quality assurance program, including the QM Rubric, materials, processes, and administrative components.

3. Apply the QM Higher Education Rubric to review online courses.

4. Make decisions on whether the demo course meets selected QM Rubric Specific Review Standards.

5. Apply the concept of alignment.

6. Draft helpful recommendations for course improvement by citing Annotations from the QM Rubric and evidence from the course.

Ability to Read and Write Standard Business English

Online option: A minimum commitment of 10-12 hours per week is recommended for achieving the learning objectives.

Virtual option: A commitment of 7.5 hours to attend the workshop - either as one uninterrupted full day or two half days.

Offered as Virtual Workshop for a Group:

Offered as Online Workshop for a Group:

Offered as On-Site Workshop for a Group:

Virtual or On-Site Group Session Fee with Membership:

Virtual or On-Site Group Session Fee:

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Please refer to the Schedule & Checklist for more information on workshop requirements. Note that the Schedule & Checklist for Independent sessions may vary from the Schedule & Checklist provided here. QM's flagship workshop on the QM Rubric and its use in reviewing the design of online and hybrid courses is intended for a broad audience, including but not limited to faculty, instructional designers, administrators, and adjunct instructors.