Group items tagged

How do we talk with students about the way we use the data available in systems like Banner, Moodle, and online textbooks? Would national standards like this help?

How are you storing your research data, and how are you sharing it? Funders are starting to require formal data management plans, including open accessibility, as part of grant applications. Are you talking to your students about these issues?

There's some interesting potential for a "big data" approach to publishing syllabi.

Admittedly this example covers engineering students and is limited to just two semesters worth of data from a large, public, research university. However, the results are encouraging if you ever wondered whether or not students might actually watch the screencast videos you are making (or plan on making).

Analysis of discussions on a site called Piazza suggest that requiring students to post an introduction can improve the amount of discussion on the boards, while heavily-graded discussions can lead students to "grind for grades" instead of authentically participate.

Show me the data! Frankly, I think any survey that includes 722 physics faculty members has to be worthwhile -- that is quite the sample size! Moreover, this is likely to be pretty representative. While it is impressive that a very large majority (88%) were aware of certain "research-based instructional strategies," what is even more impressive is that 82% of the respondents had tried some of these strategies. True, 1/3 of these have given up and gone back to traditional lectures, but I agree with Eric Mazur's comment that this means that 2/3 are still plugging away. The follow-up studies should be interesting, especially if they shed light on what drove the 1/3 who gave up to do so.

How do you look at a map, and understand it as an argument about data? And how do you recognize common holes in those arguments? This might be a useful reading for courses with a mapping (or map-reading) component.

Infographic creation tools let students explore data in different ways, think about different ways to present that data to make an argument, and become more critical consumers of the glossy charts and graphs which are increasing in our media.

Many institutions are finding that the analysis of data about student behavior allows them to identify at-risk students earlier and offer interventions which improve academic success. Most of the case studies are being done at larger institutions with lower graduation rates than Kenyon, but the possibilities and risks involved in the process are worth keeping an eye on.

Rick Detweiler, president of the GLCA, presented data on the outcomes of a liberal arts education at the recent meeting of AAC&U.

There's a survey instrument attached which you can use to have students reflect and report on how they study for exams. They can then ask themselves if their approach is working - or you could tally the data and tell them which approaches are being used by the students getting the best grades.

A great article about map design, from the simple ("does that data really need to be on a map?") to the complex ("normalize your cloropleth"). Includes a couple of recommendations for mapping tools at the end.

This course redesign "formula" may not work for all courses, but perhaps it can work for you. The article describes what amounts to a course redesign that results in a blended classroom, using the technology available through the text publisher as the source of outside data. The six guidelines they propose can be boiled down to: (1) guide students in active learning; (2) enforce deadlines to keep students on task; (3) reward students for real effort, which translates into real learning; (4) provide regular assessment (immediate feedback via technology, if possible); (5) accommodate varied learning styles; and (6) keep on students to do their work (again, technology can help with this).

The productive (and appropriate) use of data about student use of online resources is going to be an interesting part of teaching in the future, and a difficult one.

A report from Data & Society provides an approach to "racial literacy" in technology companies, which would also be appropriate in other disciplines.