TLTT Entry Ticket #7A. Judy Herbert by Judy Herbert

How Do I Know Students are Learning?

herberj2 — 2024-07-24 18:58:52 UTC

They stay awake during class

herberj2 — 2024-07-24 19:00:36 UTC

My in-person class at LCC met from 6:10 pm - 9:00 pm. All of the 5 students in the class worked either part or full time. They also took a lot of other courses. Several of them would nod off during class, which told me that I was not holding their interest or providing enough stimulating learning activities.

They show interest and curiosity about the subject matter

herberj2 — 2024-07-24 19:02:47 UTC

Successes last semester included creating in-class activities which engaged students. One example was I had them work in groups to create a construction site plan for a project. They successfully completed the assignment and we had a very good discussion after the assignment was completed.

They demonstrate what they have learned

herberj2 — 2024-07-24 19:10:19 UTC

Creating assessments was difficult for me so I tried some examples out of Small Learning by James Lang. I tried out Predicting by giving the students a non-graded quiz about the information to be presented that evening. This worked okay. I also tried Retrieving by having them discuss what we previously learned. I also created quizzes and exams, but I am not sure this really showed what they were learning, especially if the quizzes and exams were mostly multiple choice or true/false. I did allow for open-book exams, and found more success with open-ended questions.

They are able to apply what they have learned to a real-life scenario

herberj2 — 2024-07-24 19:14:11 UTC

Construction Management is all about applying skills to the real world. I started the class with an activity that asked the students to plan (the what, why, who, when, and how) a small specialty grocery store in the Lansing area. We also used the same set of plans throughout the course for estimating and scheduling. The plans were for an actual project that had already been built.

They are comfortable providing feedback about class

herberj2 — 2024-07-24 19:15:52 UTC

There was a student that constantly left the class early and seemed very disconnected during the class. I finally provided him with an opportunity to give me feedback. This helped me to see where I was not effectively presenting the material. I also regularly reached out to students for feedback. This really did not work because it put the students on the spot. For my upcoming classes, I will be providing a way for students to anonymously provide feedback.