Asking & Receiving Quality Feedback from Students

Asking & Receiving Quality Feedback from Students

Students have great insights of our teaching and lessons.  I have worked this year to actively seek out feedback from my students and ask them to reflect on my teaching and their learning.  While this has the potential to open myself up to some sharp criticisms, I...
Using Moodle “Quiz” feature for class feedback & reflections

Using Moodle “Quiz” feature for class feedback & reflections

I have started using the Quiz feature in Moodle to collect feedback and short-essay reflections from my students.  This feature has proven to allow students a greater amount of time to reflect on the content/experience, and thus the responses I receive are more...
Beginner’s Mind

Beginner’s Mind

Last week at a conference I learned the term “Beginner’s Mind.” I had never heard that term before but it comes from Zen Buddhism. It is the idea that as we become more expert at something, we stop seeing possibilities. We close our mind to new ways of seeing and...

The Double-Edged Sword

Watching the digital dashboard after enrollment opens is especially gratifying when the numbers are ahead of last year.  Take today for example, we are 565 students ahead for spring enrollment than we were on the comparable date in 2015.  Comparing enrollment with the...

Using Metacognition: The Mid-semester Check-in

Two weeks ago, I handed out mid-semester feedback forms to my students. They got two forms–one where they gave me feedback on my leading of the class, and one where they did some reflecting on their own success and challenges so far in the class. I think this...