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November 16 Teaching & Learning Newsletter

Nov 16, 2017, 13:49 PM

 

View the CITL Teaching & Learning Newsletter November 16

Announcements

EOL 585: College Teaching Course, Spring 2018, Registration now Open

This course builds on the scholarship and best practices in higher education related to effective teaching and learning.  This will be a highly interactive course as we explore the literature and discuss ways in which we can develop and sharpen our instructional abilities for the benefit of our current students and for our future careers. There will be opportunities for you to question, wonder, and practice various approaches to teaching and to create a teaching portfolio documenting your efforts. The course fulfills one of the requirements for the graduate minor in college teaching and for one of CITL’s teaching certificates. This course is offered by CITL and the Department of Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership. It will be in the 2nd half of the spring semester as a weekly synchronous online course on Wednesdays from 5:00 – 7:00 pm.  Follow this link for more information about this course.

Deadline to order ICES forms is November 21

If you are teaching this semester as an instructor or a TA, be sure to check with your department to see if it is your responsibility to order your own ICES forms.  The deadline for ordering is November 21.  See the ICES FAQ for more information about ICES and how to order your forms.

Final Exam Hours - Exam Services

Exam Services will be open for final exams week the following hours:

  • Fri, Dec 15th 8:30am - 6pm
  • Sat, Dec 16th 10am - 2pm
  • Mon Dec 18th - Thurs Dec 21st, 8:30am - 6pm
  • Fri, Dec 22nd, we will be open our regular hours, 8:30am - 12, 1-5pm.

We will reopen after the holidays on Tues, Jan 2nd, 2018 at 8:30am. We are located in room 247 of the Armory Bldg. Contact us at #244-3839 or exams@illinois.edu.

CITL Events & Workshops

Want to see what workshops and events are coming later in the system? Look at our full calendar for more information.

Tuesday, Nov. 28
Grading Without Losing Sleep
2:30 P.M. - 4:00 P.M., room 428, Armory 
Speaker: Kazem Alidoost (CITL Graduate Affiliate)

Teaching Tips

Not just the same old drill: Student-authored test questions improve critical thinking

Faculty frequently name critical thinking as one of the most important goals for student learning. However, a key challenge to cultivating critical thinking can be the development of complex assessments. This can be especially difficult in large classes, when many tests and quizzes are in a multiple-choice format. In a recent study published in the Journal of Dental Education, a team of U-Michigan faculty investigated a new approach to mitigate these challenges. This student-centered approach to testing asks students to work in teams to design their own multiple-choice questions. One result is that students reported that it helped them on exams and enhanced their critical thinking skills.

Advantages and disadvantages of different types of test questions

It’s good to regularly review the advantages and disadvantages of the most commonly used test questions, such as multiple-choice, true-false, short answer, and essay.  Also important is to think about the considerations when using the test banks that now frequently provide these questions. There are also several interesting variations that build on the above options

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