Cooperative learning involves having students work together to maximize their own and one another’s learning (Johnson, Johnson & Smith, 1991). This page provides resources about cooperative learning, designing effective small group activities, and guidance for creating and sustaining effective student learning groups in engineering and lab courses.
Peer review is an essential aspect of teaching evaluation, both for improvement and for personnel decisions, for several reasons. First, faculty are in a unique position to evaluate and provide feedback on aspects of their colleagues’ teaching that are beyond the expertise of students. These include the instructor’s knowledge of the field, how up to date the course materials are, the appropriate level of rigor, and contributions to course and curriculum development. In addition, as experienced teachers themselves, faculty can offer colleagues important perspectives to inform efforts to improve teaching, from discussions of course materials to debriefs of classroom observations. Finally, peer review – when done well – can lead to a number of benefits for the departmental and campus culture of teaching. These include the creation of a more robust conversation about criteria for excellent teaching, greater sharing of successes and challenges among colleagues, and an increased profile for teaching as an important part of the intellectual life of faculty and graduate students. The following resources offer guidance on various aspects of peer review. CRLT consultants are also available to consult with faculty committees, chairs, or associate deans who wish to set up or revise their strategies for peer review of teaching. To set up an appointment, complete our consultation request form.
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Student ratings of instruction (also known as student evaluations of teaching or course evaluations) are the most commonly used method for evaluating and getting feedback on teaching, as well as one of the most studied topics in higher education. Despite their ubiquity, misperceptions about ratings and problematic use of their results are common in the academy. This page provides resources specific to U-M’s online ratings system, overviews of the research on this topic, and suggestions for using student ratings results effectively, both for improvement and evaluation. To set up an appointment with a CRLT consultant to discuss results of your student ratings, complete our consultation request form.
While research indicates that ratings do provide one useful source of data about teaching quality, there is also widespread agreement that they should never be used in isolation. CRLT’s page on the evaluation of teaching offers an overview of best practices for teaching evaluation, as well as information about other sources of data, such as peer review.
Evaluation of teaching can have many purposes, including collecting feedback for teaching improvement, developing a portfolio for job applications, or gathering data as part of personnel decisions, such as reappointment or promotion and tenure. Most of the methods described below can be used for all of these functions. What follows are multiple methods for collecting information about instructors’ activities, accomplishments, and effectiveness in teaching, in the classroom and beyond. While this list includes best practices for using student ratings, it also offers suggestions for ensuring that student ratings are not the only source of evidence used to assess instructional effectiveness, an approach consistent with research. In addition, detailed resources are available on the topics of student ratings of instruction, peer review of teaching, and teaching portfolios and course portfolios. To set up an appointment with a CRLT consultant to discuss teaching evaluation methods, complete our consultation request form.
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In order for students to develop mastery in a particular field, there are many component skills they will need to gain in order to be successful. Therefore it can be particularly useful to spend time identifying those component skills and developing assignments or activities that aid students in developing those skills. This process can broadly be referred to as providing scaffolding for your course content.
Scaffolding Student Learning: Tips for Getting Started
This provides a basic overview of what scaffolding is and highlights the importance of making component skills explicit for students. Also, see the links to sample assignments at the bottom of the article.
Tomorrow's Professor Msg.#849 Supporting Student Success Through Scaffolding
This posting below at five scaffolding strategies to help novice learners: Procedural Guidelines, Partial Solutions, Think-Alouds, Anticipating Student Errors, and Comprehension Checks.
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The resources in this section compare the two, complementary functions of evaluation. Formative evaluation is typically conducted during the development or improvement of a program or course. Summative evaluation involves making judgments about the efficacy of a program or course at its conclusion.
Formative vs. Summative Evaluation (Northern Arizona University)
Questions Frequently Asked About Student Rating Forms: Summary of Research Findings
Related topics under teaching strategies:
Evaluation of Student Learning, (Testing, Grading, and Feedback)
The first days of class are important in setting the tone for what is to come, and it is crucial to think carefully about how you present yourself and how you get the course established. The links in this section provide information and suggestions for getting started effectively on the first day of class.
Learning Students' Names (University of Nebraska)
List of 23 techniques for learning students’ names in both small and large class settings.
The Most Important Day: Starting Well (Wright, 1999)
Ideas for faculty members on how to use the first day of class to start building relationships with students.
The First Day of Class (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
Seven tips for handling your first meeting with students, and specific strategies in response to common concerns of beginning teachers.
101 Things for the First 3 Weeks (University of Nebraska, Lincoln)
Specific ideas for generating interest in course material, building community in the classroom, helping students transition into the course, and encouraging active learning.
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Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) allow instructors to monitor students’ progress throughout the term. CATs help answer the questions, “What are my students learning? How effectively am I teaching?” The articles and links in this section provide comprehensive information about CATs, including their purpose and their use across disciplines.
Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs): An Introduction (Enerson, Plank, & Johnson, 2007)
Summary of Angelo & Cross’s volume, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. This handout briefly outlines those techniques that are easiest to use, interpret, respond to, and modify; detailed examples of each technique are included.
Classroom Assessment Techniques (National Teaching & Learning Forum)
Discussion of why faculty should use CATs, including benefits to students and instructors. Contains a table with descriptions of eight common CATs and how faculty members can use the data collected from them.
Ethical Reasoning Value Rubric (Association of American Colleges and Universities)
This rubric is intended to help faculty evaluate students’ work that demonstrates learning about ethics. The AACU defines Ethical Reasoning as “reasoning about right and wrong human conduct. It requires students to be able to assess their own ethical values and the social context of problems, recognize ethical issues in a variety of settings, think about how different ethical perspectives might be applied to ethical dilemmas, and consider the ramifications of alternative actions.”
Curbing Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses
Topics covered in this short article include conducting online assessments and combatting plagiarism. A list of resources on recognizing plagiarism and preventing academic dishonesty is also provided.
Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices
A successful course depends on the planning that precedes it. The articles and links in this section serve as planning guides for both faculty and GSIs. They provide instructions for creating a syllabus.
Preparing to Teach
This section of CRLT's website includes a variety of resources to help with syllabus construction. The first is a brief discussion of the purposes of a syllabus and important items and policies to include. The other three include examples drawn from the various settings in which GSIs teach.
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Creating Your Syllabus (pdf): This document provides information about how to compose a course syllabus, including what kinds of general and institutional information should be included. This checklist is particularly useful to new instructors designing syllabi for the first time.
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Sample Section Syllabi (pdf): This document provides two sample syllabi for courses with multiple sections. The first sample is from a sociology course, and the second sample is from a psychology course. This document, in tandem with the "Creating Your Syllabus" resource, is useful for new instructors designing syllabi for the first time.
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