Student Evaluations

At the end of last week I had a rotten day, made more so by reading student evaluations from a first-year writing class, in which several students commented that I was "too dry" and that I should be "more entertaining." Meh. I hate student evaluations.

When I went back and looked at the ratings they gave for how useful the session will be as they do the research required for the course, they were consistently 4-5 with a few 3's thrown in, on a 1-5 scale. OK, not so bad after all, if I focus on their perception of learning.

Today, I made more of a conscious effort to move around while I talked, making eye contact, and varying my voice pitch and tone. One of the students wrote, "she was the best instructor I have had since I have been in college" (this from a 5th year student). Pretty affirming. Still, I remind myself that student evaluations are very subjective, and wonder why they elicit such strong feelings in us. After all, can an evaluation form get at whether or not students really learn in these sessions? No, not really. So it's about the sense of self, and ego.

Yet this form is a required part of assessing "teaching effectiveness" at GVSU along with self-evaluation and peer-evaluation.

As far as assessing learning, professors who teach semester-long courses also have tests, essays, etc., to measure learning (if it's possible), and assessment to take an overall look at student learning within a program. The library isn't quite there yet. There just isn't a good way to assess student information literacy in the context of single instruction sessions. We have tried the SAILS test a couple of times as a program assessment but see some problems with it. There are now newer assessment tools and I'd like to know more about them.

In the meantime, I realized that it's also time for me to get some feedback from disciplinary colleagues again. What are their perceptions of my teaching effectiveness and student learning?

This journal forms part of my self-evaluation. This fall, I've been making more of an effort to write down the learning objectives and talking those over with instructors and students. Other than that, I just reach into the "bag of tricks" (aka "teaching toolbox") developed over 20 years and do my best....

FGC Gathering

Last week we attended the Gathering ("Quaker camp" in church terms) for the first time. This year it was at Bowling Green University in OH. It was a mixed experience.

The best parts were: the plenaries (pre-talk singing, George Lakey, Phil Gulley, mini-concerts); the week-long workshop (mornings 9-11:45; we attended the workshop on non-violent communication); and the people we met.

The worst parts were: the distance between buildings (7/10th mile from the dorm to the main building; 2 miles to the parking lot where our car was); the heat & un-airconditioned dorm; Amy's & my own injuries. I have a stress fracture in one foot, which is painful but not horrible; still, it swells after a day of walking around. On Monday of the Gathering, we were riding on a golf cart from our dorm to the dining hall for dinner; we were on the backwards-facing seat. My hat wasn't secured with the chin-strap & flew off my head. While I was contemplating options, Amy stood & stepped off the cart, went down onto the concrete sidewalk on one knee & bounced off it onto her back, hitting the back of her head (i.e., her superhero cape didn't work!). Results: a strained ankle, twisted & abraded knee, & mild concussion, which we didn't realize at the time. She insisted that she was okay enough to go on to dinner & the plenary, not to a doctor, & I wasn't insistent enough until Thursday that she see a doctor. We did get her knee cleaned up, & an energy-worker sought us out before the plenary. I felt guilty about my hat (& kept the strap on after that!), embarrassed about needing to ask for help, miserable with the heat, & grouchy about the noise & chaos of the dining halls. On Thursday afternoon, the doc wrapped her ankle & told Amy to stay off her feet & keep the ankle elevated & iced. We came home a day early, after our workshop concluded & we ate lunch on Friday.

I was grateful for the healing center, the volunteer doctor, the organizer who got us into an air-conditioned dorm (even if it was only for 1 night), the volunteer golf cart drivers (yes, we kept riding!), & those who helped me move from one dorm to another.

Our "lend a hand" volunteer gig was a couple of hours in the healing center (massage & energy workers had 10-12 tables set up in the room; compassionate listeners could use the loft). We "held the space in the Light" (aka prayed & meditated & concentrated on the energy flow of the space). I experienced really deep worship/meditation, & afterward experienced a couple of hours of serious grouchiness. Does this happen to others? Why?

The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day

The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day is by Sigve K. Tonstad, published by Andrews University Press in berrien Springs, MI, 2009.

The idea which touched me the most was that the sabbath is a "relational marker" (32) between God and the creation/humankind. It is God enjoying intimacy, feeling the world, recognizing, loving, and being affected by the created (34-5).God is expressing commitment to being with us as a priority, as a beginning. "The Sabbath brings a message of togetherness instead of separation...God's presence...wholeness instead of disintegration, other-centeredness instead of arbitrariness...." (514)

Also appealing is the idea that the sabbath interrupts clock time and returns us to observing the natural light (382), resetting our priorities from productivity and consumption to reconnecting to God, community, and the earth (384-5). "The need for belonging, the necessity of rest, and the encounter with something larger than oneself all find expression in the blessing of the seventh day" (505). It is "a missing zone of quietude and community, a time protected from commerce and commotion...." (502-3).

Finally, "entertain the possibility that God was singing at Creation" (515), especially as God "blessed the seventh day and hallowed it."

WILU 2010 Conference: Lightning Strikes/Birds of a Feather

"Lightning Strikes" were 7-minute presentations to the whole group. I liked the format.

"Building educational video games for non-programmers," Sarah Forbes, U-T Scarborough.
They used gamesalad.com (mac-based). The gamesalad creations can also become apps for the iPhone/iPad. Game Maker (Yo Yo Games) is the equivalent pc-based software.

"Legal Research Literacy--blended learning & learning community strategies," Julie Lavigne, Univ of Ottawa Law Library.
Use 2 models:
Learning community--in an upper-level course on legal research & writing-- team-taught by librarian, professor, and local practitioner (lawyer).
Blended learning--web self-instruction modules in Blackboard.

"Digital classroom for information literacy, " Janet Goosney, Memorial Univ.
Cutaway computer tables (I have asked her for an image to give to our new building committee).

"Birds of a Feather" were self-selected table topics.

Student-designed curricula discussion--could the students in CAP 115 create LibGuides themselves, one per section of the course? (No, unfortunately.)
At Dartmouth, a Library Resources box similar to that which Laura created for Blackboard is automatically added to all of Dartmouth's BB course sections. Could ours be?

One library has a student advisory committee to the library which reviews the website, etc., and they receive letters of recommendation from the library dean (or designate/s). To get student participation on the committee, they put a note on the library's website, advertise through Student Services, etc., and provide food at meetings.

WILU 2010 Conference: What I really learned

18-20-year-olds don't have long-term planning skills.

To Do: match the ILCCs to my library instruction sessions from Fall 2009-Winter 2010 & make a chart by department & course of where ILCCs are being met.
School | Department | Course # | ILCC
___________________________
SoC | Photography | CPH 279 | ILCC....

Also, add the ILCCs to my libguides.

Take a look at the LibGuides stats for my pages--which links get used the most? Re-order items according to this info.

Ask students for feedback on the LibGuide itself during the library instruction session, using the Comment link.

Since deep learning means that learners use their new knowledge and skills in a new context to solve a problem (extrapolation/transfer of knowledge to a new situation), then assessment has to employ problem-solving (as in the CLA), not be a typical standardized test such as SAILS or the JMU test.

In CAP 115, how can I apply deep learning and activity theory? After students have annotated their topic & research tool handouts (or groups' blog/wiki entries on search engines/websites), have them trade handouts (or blog/wiki entries), use the tool the student noted on the handout/blog/wiki entry, and see if it provides something useful to the person reading the handout/blog/wiki entry.

In Writing 150, have students trade essays/papers to see how the quotations or referenced items actually contribute to the point of the paragraph and overall thesis? Is it clear how it changes or adds to the student's thought?

McMaster University has a training program for COTs on the single-service-point desk. I passed the info along.

One library used their graduate library-school intern to organize the internal staff wiki. The intern made a 3x5 card to represent each page, and another card for the various headers, and asked the librarians individually for feedback about which pages went under which heading, and took notes as the librarians talked and/or moved the cards around.

WILU 2010 Conference: Sessions

2B: "Good, better, best! - in peer learning." Karen Hering, Grant McEwan University.

"Polishing Diamonds" is a tool for fostering professional development in teaching excellence. It is a non-evaluative self-assessment through reciprocal peer observation. They ran a parallel program for librarian teachers under the FTLC (equivalent).
Time commitment=1.5 hours/week for 7 weeks.
Ground rules:

• 4 people/group ("diamond")
  
• only 1 observer/instruction session
• make only positive observations, not judgments--reflect on things you saw which you could use to improve your own teaching (don't comment on the librarian's teaching!).
  

Buy-in came from the library director encouraging the librarians to participate. Run program every 2 1/2 years with different groups each time. Meet at beginning of semester with all participants to go over ground rules. Each diamond meets after everyone has observed a session to share reflections. All participants met at end of semester to wrap up.

3A: "From active learning to activity: Getting beyond busy work and into deep learning." Wendy Holliday, Utah State University

Students were engaging shallowly with information in writing classes & perceived their assignments as busy work. Activity theory--deep learning requires a contradiction or bind in which your current tools don't work. Learning is a social/joint activity.

4B: "Sources as social acts: Using Genre Theory to transform information literacy instruction." Joel Burkholder, York College of Pennsylvania.

Use social purposes to define & classify:

• language used by a community to accomplish tasks
• guidelines for participating in community.

Evaluation should expose context. Is it useful? Not? Helpful? What's appropriate & when?

5A: "From pre-defined topics to research questions: An inquiry-based approach to knowledge." Michelle Allen & Benjamin Oberdick, Michigan State University

"Cephalonian" method. Inquiry-guided learning. First-year writing students "read" & regurgitate without processing material in any fundamental way when doing traditional research papers.

Inquiry-guided learning:

• questions, problems, issues
• investigate, create new knowledge (this is the model Wendy Nelson used)
• show a 1-2 minute YouTube video to spark curiosity or show a picture (e.g., Climatechallenge.gov.uk)
• have students write a question during the video & volunteer them ("those are all great questions")
• get to the researchable questions; pick one
• tell students to use this process to analyze & develop their own research questions
• give a few minutes to search however they want to
• each group sends 1 person to demonstrate on the instructor pc/display
• ask: what can we learn from this (article, etc.)--access, evaluation--then guide them to parallel library resources
  

WILU 2010 Conference: Keynote address

Keynote speaker: James Paul Gee.
Libraries should be the interactive space for 21st-century learning. Games like Yu-Gi-Oh, Sims, & World of Warcraft optimize:

• play
• analysis of theory & practice
• fun
• learning ultra-technical language (despite gamers' reading level academically)
• problem-solving
• technical skills development
• interaction between people of varying ages--the best learning communities are not age-related or age-limited
  
• interest-driven learning--when learners design their own curriculum (as they do games)
  
• role trading (leadership is distributed; eroded distinction between amateurs & professionals/experts
• distributed knowledge --the community is the expert, not individuals
  
• personal responsibility for the learning
• clear, concise, instant, & community-based feedback
• high tolerance for frustration and for community feedback & mentoring
• play/learning in either virtual or physical space.

This type of learning can't happen in schools because of societal inertia & because schools are organized to create a bell-curve (i.e., some learners succeed & some fail). Schools emphasize individual, not communal learning. But libraries can facilitate 21st-century learning: libraries were behind the surge in 19th-century literacy; libraries include many learning tools; librarians are designers, team leaders, organizers of play & cooperation; they provide resources.

From gaming we know that reading levels are directly correlated to interest & knowledge. Learners can be organized by their passion for something, not age or race, etc. Everyone has a passion for something & a deep skill in it. This is a different model from the curricular model of everyone knowing the same thing.