Group items tagged

The author details a number of critiques of Turnitin's recently released study purporting to show that Turnitin use results in a major decrease in plagiarism at institutions where it is used. The core of the critique is that Turnitin tends to start in classrooms where plagiarism has been a problem so the baseline is high and that it is often used in conjunction with a campus discussion about academic honesty and how to teach in ways that inhibit the drive to plagiarize.

A review of a free e-book on current research into the psychology of learning, written specifically to bring that work and its instructional implications to higher-education faculty.

Interview with James Lang, the author of "Cheating Lessons." The soundbyte from the interview might be this: "The fascinating discovery I made in my own research was that the features of a course that do tend to induce cheating were also ones that tend to reduce learning."

A 44-question online questionnaire which can help students understand their own learning preferences. The site also includes supporting research on the instrument. Interesting for measuring learning preferences along 4 separate dimensions, instead of looking for a single dominant preference.

I had a conversation recently with a faculty member who claimed that she could not possibly write about research in college teaching, despite her many years as an effective teacher! There are multiple scholarly approaches to what happens in the classroom, and they can all be applied effectively.

Interesting report on social media use by professors for teaching (and research / professional development). Faculty members use social media personally, including among their professional colleagues, much like the general population does. Classroom use is still slowed by privacy concerns, relating to both the student-teacher relationship and the classroom's privacy from the rest of the world. How would you answer their questions? Issued in 2013 by Pearson Learning Solutions.

A quick guide to visual literacy and sources for more information, from the Association of College and Research Libraries

A good research or critical thinking assignment teaches students to refine their questions as they gather and review evidence. Do we give enough attention to the process of generating those first introductory-level questions?

This report is about a "nationally representative" survey which finds that educational attainment is one of the best predictors of high technology and information literacy skills - so I would assume that the results aren't quite as dire for those Millennials who go to college. That said, it's a good reminder that many so-called "digital natives" are not (yet) sophisticated creators and managers of information with their devices. I also want to point out that the kinds of information management tasks tested are perfectly relevant to research in the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts, not just STEM as the think tank suggests.

This will be an interesting topic to watch. How can we help students learn the habits of complex thinking, and unlearn the habits of shallow thinking? If the best practices of effective study become automatic, the student will be more able to focus on new ideas.

"When I first taught Intro­duc­tion to the Dig­i­tal Lib­eral Arts, I named it so in order to include projects going on in bio­chem­istry and the per­form­ing arts as well as those that fit the more tra­di­tional pro­file of DH, such as the­matic research col­lec­tions of writ­ers and his­tor­i­cal peri­ods. All of these fields are expe­ri­enc­ing changes due to the inno­v­a­tive use of tech­nol­ogy in both teach­ing and research, and all of them are par­tic­i­pat­ing in a com­mon move­ment that can­not be described as DH, even though the lat­ter is inti­mately con­nected with much of it."

Federal agencies are looking at updates to the "Common Rule," which impacts local IRB processes.

I've spoken with faculty who are using Problem-Based Learning effectively in their classrooms but were not aware the practice had a name, nor that it had a substantial body of research literature. Here's a sample that outlines the reasons it is an effective practice, best practices, and practical examples plus a brief discussion of the constructivist principles at work. It comes to us at Kenyon through JSTOR.

Our discussions about writing often come around to whether students actually read (and internalize) the comments. Sometimes we hear about students not knowing how to turn on Track Changes or the GradeMark panel in Turnitin, so at the most basic level electronic comments do introduce friction for some students. What do you think of the research project proposed here - do students actually approach electronic feedback differently?

A quick list of 8 tips which students could use to learn more deeply. Hat tip to Judy Holdener, for recommending this article.

According to the authors, much of what is widely claimed about learning styles - primarily that learners learn best when they learn in their preferred mode, be it visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically - is simply not backed up with research. They believe that the widespread belief in learning styles has real costs to teachers and students. Faculty neglect other, well-established learning theories and students neglect other modes of learning out of a misplaced belief that they can't learn well in those modes.

"Students select or reject majors based in large part on the quality of the first college instructor they have in the discipline, new research finds."

Like many people, I prefer to take notes on my computer rather than writing with a pen or pencil because I can type much faster than I can write longhand. The authors report on a study which indicates conceptual understanding is deepened when one takes notes by hand. The study points to benefits resulting from a greater level of "encoding" of the information because of "selective strategies" employed when a person can't simply type everything verbatim.

Interesting implications here for how we schedule review sessions and talk to students about studying. (And probably for our own practices around conferences and research and committee/department meetings...)

Not making the progress you wanted on your summer projects? Blame the weather. (Or better still, account for it.)