Teaching and Learning News

By Helen Luo, Work-Study Student, Teaching and Learning Centre

SFU’s Learning Garden, shown in March 2013 as it was being developed, is visible from the south walkway along Convocation Mall.

A tour of the garden

SFU’s Learning Garden is an outdoor space established this year by Sustainable SFU near Convocation Mall on the Burnaby campus. It offers student groups a chance to grow their own food on rented plots of land, and on June 5 it was the site of the first event marking UNEP World Environment Day at SFU: a tour led by gardens manager Athenaise Guertin that demonstrated the potential of the space as a location for learning about food, garden management and sustainability.

A dialogue about food

In all, Sustainable SFU and the Teaching and Learning Centre collaborated on three events to address the day’s theme of “think-eat-save.”

The second event was a dialogue titled “Talking about Learning about Food.” Diana Bedoya, an SFU kinesiology instructor, shared her experience with KIN 110 Human Nutrition: Current Issues, in which students are introduced to concepts related to nutrition and food choices. Bedoya noted that the course attracts students from various disciplines with dynamic opinions about food and nutrition issues. She described the Diet Analysis assignment, an important component of the class in which students record their diets for three days and then analyze the nutritional content. Students reported that the course caused them to become more conscientious about their food choices and prompted them to speak with friends and family about the importance of good food choices.

Bedoya also spoke about her use of iClickers, an audience response system used to facilitate in-class participation. She found iClickers to be a powerful tool for getting students’ attention, encouraging participation and helping them understand their level of comprehension of course material.

The next speaker was Eric Sannerud, a recent graduate and Udall Scholar from the University of Minnesota. Sannerud shared stories about Cooking on a Student’s Budget, a course offered at the University of Minnesota’s Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute. The course is intended to teach students about food security through the preparation of nutritious meals. The lab component incorporates topics of food safety, basic nutrition, cooking instruction, budgeting, time management, menu design, and food preservation and storage. Students take on a project that will create a resource to benefit the local community. Through weekly assignments (e.g., a blog post about a trip to a local farm) as well as through acquisition of cooking techniques, they obtain hands-on experience with food.

Both Bedoya’s and Sannerud’s courses offered experiential learning opportunities for students, including self-reflection on diet and food choices and activities that improved analytical and problem-solving skills.

Embedding experiential education

The day ended with a workshop for instructors and students interested in planning an experiential education activity within a course. Eric Sannerud was joined by David Zandvliet, an associate professor in SFU’s Faculty of Education, in a presentation that aimed to empower students and challenge faculty members to view education as a dynamic space for student-driven learning and impactful experiences.

The workshop began with a discussion of the pedagogical approaches that underpin, respectively, environmental learning and sustainable agriculture education. Sannerud presented a case study about Cornercopia, a student-run certified organic farm that produces more than 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables and provides students with valuable skills in farming, business management and marketing.

Zandvliet then illustrated Kolb’s experiential learning theory with a short video about a group of elementary students and teachers who tried the “100 miles diet” in Victoria, B.C. (Kolb’s theory proposes a four-stage learning cycle consisting of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation.) Class activities included visits to local farms and meal preparation using ingredients grown within 100 miles of Victoria.

Workshop participants were then put into groups to devise a plan to use experiential learning to make a change at SFU. The activity was designed to simulate the decision-making process of a student-led experiential education session.

Related links

Learning Garden

Sustainable SFU

Teaching and Learning Centre

David Zandvliet’s web page

The alien head (above) is actually an immersive environment: by blocking external sights and sounds, it deepens the experience delivered by the audiovisual equipment inside (right, below). The head was part of a showcase organized by Bernhard Riecke (right, bottom) and students in his IAT 445 Immersive Environments course.

IAT 445 Immersive Environments has traditionally been a hands-on opportunity to learn about animation software. When Bernhard Riecke took on the course this past spring, he decided to re-invent it in a way that would enable his students to develop abilities like self-management, creativity and motivation in addition to technical expertise. The result was a teaching and learning experience that stretched both instructor and students.

Flipping the classroom

Riecke, an assistant professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) at SFU’s Surrey campus, is convinced that instructors need to find new ways of engaging with students.

“I feel like we’re living in the post-lecture world, in a way, because you have all these things online—so we have the gift of physical, face-to-face contact, and I feel that I should really spend it on something that’s useful.”

For Riecke, that meant flipping the classroom: having students learn software skills by watching specified Lynda.com tutorials on their own time, applying those skills to solve a given challenge, and then gathering for interactive activities during class time.

“Our students are tech savvy,” he says. “I mean, they’re happy to watch things online, they’re always connected more than we, so what can we do in the lectures that makes sense, that they really benefit most [from]?”

Now, he notes, “sometimes half of the lecture is spent basically showing them examples and giving them little questionnaires and basically provoking questions where they need to really think and apply what they see.”

Transferable skills

That approach wasn’t always easy for the 30 students in the class. Some wished for a traditional format in which they could simply sit back and listen. But others indicated that the lessons they learned about things like self-management and finding passion were very useful—and that’s what Riecke thinks is important.

“In a way that’s the only thing that really transfers, hopefully. I mean, I want transferable skills. I don’t care about the fact learning, the rote learning. They forget all about this in a few weeks afterwards, and the question is really what will help them to succeed in the future and what do we need to teach our students.”

Taking ownership of learning

The emphasis on helping students take control of their own learning applied to the way assignments were marked as well. Riecke provided clear and open rubrics and then asked students to demonstrate to him that their work met the requirements.

“One of the visions of the course is really to help them become more proactive and really take full ownership and responsibility of their own learning, their projects, their career. You need to present to me why you did a good project. You need to provide me with the arguments why your project is good or not, and then I either accept the arguments or I challenge you,” he says.

The lesson was reinforced by a final showcase held in early April on the Mezzanine of the Surrey campus. Student groups invited passersby to try out the immersive environments they had built, which ranged from video games played inside curtain-shrouded boxes to a giant wearable head equipped with audio and video signals (see the “Related links” below). The interaction with end users was uncomfortable for some students, but also enabled them to see whether their projects worked as intended in the “real world.”

Continual adaptation

Riecke’s work was supported by an SFU Teaching and Learning Development Grant. He also received “incredible help” from Barbara Berry, an educational consultant in the Teaching and Learning Centre who, he says, challenged him similarly to the way he challenged his students. He hopes to apply some elements of his approach to other courses he teaches and feels that instructors in other disciplines could use parts of the approach.

In particular, he emphasizes the benefits of continually adapting courses in response to feedback from students: “I use … just-in-time teaching approaches sometimes, so I get immediate feedback every week. They really help me to tailor the course for them, and I think they appreciate that they do have an influence.”

Related links

Riecke has showcased the results of his students’ work on the iSPACE website:

Final showcase of projects (photos)

Final projects (videos and e-portfolios)

Bernhard Riecke’s web page

Sophie Lavieri (top right), a senior lecturer in Chemistry, presented a poster at the Symposium along with Dev Sharma (top left), also a senior lecturer in Chemistry. Cheryl Amundsen and Esma Emmioglu (bottom left), a professor and postdoctoral fellow respectively in Education, were also happy to share their research during the poster session. Nienke Van Houten (bottom right), a lecturer in Health Sciences, did double duty as a presenter and member of the Symposium Planning Committee.

The 2013 Symposium on Teaching and Learning took place on May 15 and 16 at SFU’s Burnaby campus. More than 190 SFU faculty, staff, and students registered for the event, which featured 15 concurrent sessions and 13 posters in addition to plenary sessions.

Gloria Rogers, a scholar with the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and a well-known consultant in the area of quality assurance, learning outcomes, assessment, and accreditation, presented the keynote address. Rogers tackled questions related to the implementation of learning outcomes in a direct and pragmatic way. The title of her presentation—“Satisfying mandates while honouring faculty time: Is it possible?”—demonstrated an awareness of the practical issues that are intertwined with the philosophical questions of learning outcomes and assessment. She emphasized the importance of building the definition and evaluation of learning outcomes into existing curriculum development and review processes rather than creating new (and burdensome) administrative structures. She also noted that learning outcomes should be approached within the context of programs rather than as a means of evaluating individual courses. Her presentation will be made available to the SFU academic community as an archived webcast.

Another plenary session featured a panel discussion on “Embracing, managing, or resisting change.” SFU’s Russell Day, a senior lecturer in Psychology and co-facilitator of SFU’s Certificate Program in University Teaching and Learning, joined three panellists from other universities to facilitate a lively and provocative exchange that drew in audience members.

The concurrent sessions and posters covered a variety of areas, but many focused on new instructional approaches within the classroom. Among the approaches covered:

• Evidence-based teaching (Nienke van Houten, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Cindy Xin)
• Integrated, interdisciplinary, and project-based teaching in science (Uwe Kreis)
• Experiential learning and student-directed courses (Dan Burns, David Zandvliet, John Clague, Vance Williams)
• Active learning (David Kaufman)
• Team-based learning in science (Laura Hilton, Lynne Quarmby, Cindy Xin)

Many of the presentations and posters were developed with the help of Teaching and Learning Development Grants, which are administered by the Teaching and Learning Centre and the Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines (ISTLD). PDF versions of some posters will be made available on the ISTLD website and on SFU’s institutional Teaching and Learning website.

Related links

Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines

Teaching and Learning Centre

Symposium on Teaching and Learning

By Stephanie Chow

This post is reprinted from the SFU News blog. Read the original post here.

PhD student Evgeny Vinnik (right) and his professor Arrvindh Shriraman (standing) have introduced a new approach this semester to teaching computing science CMPT 300, a course about modern computer operating systems and the services they provide.

Rather than applying rigid traditional teaching methods, they’re experimenting with a “flipped classroom” method that uses social media and interactive components such as YouTube and Google Group to deliver lectures.

Shriraman came up with the idea last semester after students asked him to post videos of his lectures online. Now he records and uploads videos of his lecture slides along with additional commentary to the course’s YouTube channel so students can watch it all before attending class.

“By pre-recording the videos we’re able to slash one hour of lectures and spend more time discussing interesting or complex concepts and organizing hands-on labs,” says Vinnik.

The duo has also arranged a private Google group for further dialogue and questions regarding assignments and course material.

“We want our students to be more engaged, to actively interact with the course material, because in this way knowledge is retained better,” says Vinnik.

While the course elements are virtually based, Shriraman says the “flipped classroom” is different than an online classroom because students do attend class regularly and the online material supplements class-based learning.

So far, he says students are positively responding and are more engaged in classroom conversations.

Related links

CMPT 300 videos on YouTube

By Erin Aspenlieder, TLC Educational Consultant

On January 17, instructors from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) gathered to share “one great idea” for encouraging compelling student writing. Faculty members Alec Dawson, Sean Zwagerman, and Adrienne Burk began the discussion by highlighting approaches that have worked well in their classes.

Don’t invent ideas – discover them

Zwagerman, a member of the Department of English, suggested that writers must “discover” ideas rather than invent them. In encouraging his students to discover, he draws on stasis theory, an approach to writing that leads students through four major lines of questioning: fact, definition, quality, and policy. Examples from each respective category include “What are the causes [of this problem]?” “What is threatened by this problem?” “Whom might it affect?” and “What should be done about this problem?” Zwagerman has found that when his students consider these questions either in discussion or as a pre-writing exercise, they “discover” assumptions about a problem/idea and in turn demonstrate richer analyses.

What do you care about?

Alec Dawson’s premise is that to write well, students need to care – or “give a shit” – about the topic. The richest analysis and most compelling writing emerge when students have something they want to share with an audience. Dawson, a history professor and Director of the School for International Studies, encourages his students to reject the staid emphasis on a “thesis” and determine instead what they care about with respect to a particular topic. Once students have found something that excites, troubles, or confuses them, they are able to use their enthusiasm for the topic to direct their research and guide what they want to say. Writing serves as a means for students to come to a greater understanding of both the topic and their reaction to it.

Think about the audience

The idea of inspiring students to find enjoyment and enthusiasm in writing underlies Adrienne Burk’s writing idea too. Burk, a Faculty Teaching Fellow from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, shared an assignment she uses in her anthropology classes that invites students to analyze “found objects” – ordinary objects from everyday life – and to share, in writing, the social, cultural, and visual elements of the objects. Significantly, she requires them to write for an audience simultaneously similar and dissimilar to themselves: “someone your own age, who is also a college student, but who is not known to you and who lives in another culture and so may not understand your cultural assumptions.” Burk has found that thinking about their audience allows students to discover how writing is shaped by its context. She also noted that an assignment like this one – that is, an assignment that differs from the traditional research essay – requires added classroom support in the form of modelling and the provision of early and regular feedback.

More great ideas

Following these three presentations, the assembled instructors engaged in a lively discussion and highlighted some of their own great ideas for encouraging compelling student writing. A brief sampling of the suggested ideas:

• Invite students to write the same content in several different forms (a blog post, an email, a letter to the editor, a tweet, a poem, an advertisement, etc.).
• Assign students the task of writing or editing a Wikipedia article on a course topic.
• As a class, analyze a common media form – for example, a magazine or a blog – and reconstruct the form using course material. Require students to research and write the content, design layout, and produce the media.
• In student oral presentations, require that the oral presenter assign his/her classmates a writing assignment based on the contents of the oral presentation. If the writing assignment is untraditional, also require the presenter to provide marking criteria.
• Model a writing assignment by completing it yourself. Share your mock assignment with your students and ask them to analyze how/why you wrote the way you did.
• Ask students to provide “meta commentary” of their writing assignments before handing them in; that is, require that they point out in the margins the writing strategies they used in the assignment. Encourage students to indicate where they would like feedback. This strategy can be used as a precursor to peer feedback or to feedback from the instructor.
• Identify a blog that relates to your course topic – for example, a French news blog for a French composition class – and require your students to post a response in the blog discussion forum as if they were a part of that community.

Related links

Adrienne Burk’s profile page

Erin Aspenlieder’s profile page

Audio files of faculty members’ “One Great Idea” presentations and comments:

Sean Zwagerman (English) (10:28)

Alec Dawson (History), Part 1 (8:53)

Alec Dawson (History), Part 2 (2:39)

Adrienne Burk, Sociology and Anthropology (7:44)

Catherine XXXXX (French) (12:05)

Erin Aspenlieder (English) (3:10) – Transposing writing into different forms; combining oral presentations with written assignments for listeners; rubrics for novel forms of writing; writing Wikipedia entries

More than 30 people (see the photo) – program participants, instructors, mentors, administrators, and proud family members – attended a celebration to mark the conclusion of the fall 2012 Certificate Program in University Teaching and Learning (CPUTL) on December 4. The highly popular program, facilitated by educational consultants Erin Aspenlieder and Kathryn Ricketts of the Teaching and Learning Centre along with Russell Day, a senior lecturer in Psychology, is designed to prepare graduate students for post-secondary teaching careers, and the tributes offered by the participants suggest that the program organizers successfully practice what they preach.

Several students spoke of their experiences within the program. Scott Kristjanson, a graduate student in Computing Science, identified the importance of defining learning outcomes and aligning assessments with those outcomes as a key concept. He also singled out the program’s emphasis on participatory learning as an important influence on his thinking. John Birmingham, a PhD student in Communications, expressed appreciation for the program’s emphasis on developing a teaching philosophy. Pat Feindel, a PhD candidate in Anthropology, noted that the course had restored her enthusiasm for teaching “and in fact [had] instilled an excitement that wasn’t there before.” She quoted other colleagues to demonstrate the benefits of the course:

“It’s hugely practical.”

“It helps with first-time teaching nerves.”

“It challenges your basic assumptions about teaching and learning.”

“Exhausting, but well worth the exhaustion.”

“Moved me from a focus on content to student-centred learning.”

“Before this I was just googling ‘how to teach.’ ”

“I’ve come out of the dungeon into the light.”

Jon Driver, Vice-President, Academic, attended the ceremony to congratulate the graduates. He expressed pride in the program, which he had a role in establishing, and was pleased to note the interdisciplinary composition of the group. The program will run again in January.

Related links:

CPUTL web page

This post is drawn from an article on the Beedie School of Business News blog. Read the full article here.

For a group of undergrads (above) in the Beedie School of Business, classroom theory has been complemented by practical experience in the world of finance, with positive results on multiple levels.

The students act as managers of the Beedie Endowment Asset Management (BEAM) fund, an investment fund launched in 2011 with $5 million in Canadian equities, fixed income, and cash. It’s the largest undergraduate-run fund in Canada and is designed to give students hands-on experience in investment research, analysis, and trading in bonds and equities markets.

During the third quarter of this year, the fund yielded a return of just over 3% and a profit of $147,000, bringing the portfolio above its starting level for the first time since it was established. Ryan McCutcheon, a student who acted as chief risk officer and diversified sector co-manager of BEAM, notes that the program’s benefits go beyond dollars and cents: “Managing the BEAM fund is an incredible hands-on experience, one which I would recommend to anyone with an interest in finance. The calibre of technical knowledge and networking experience you gain from taking part in such a real-world exercise is amazing. Participating in BEAM is far above and beyond regular school and forces you to learn many things which you would not otherwise be exposed to.”

As part of their experience, the BEAM program participants travelled to Toronto for a tour of the city’s financial sector, including visits to the head offices of several banks and hedge funds and guided tours of some of the largest trading floors in North America.

“The trip to Toronto was an amazing experience and really gave us an insight into what it would be like to pursue a career in Canada’s financial hub,” says McCutcheon. “At each visit we had industry professionals waiting to talk to us about their roles and what it was like to work for each company, which was very impressive. Just being able to network with that level of professionals and hear their insights into the markets was a major highlight of the trip.”

The BEAM program is one of many initiatives at Beedie designed to extend student learning experiences beyond the classroom.

This post is drawn from an article on the Beedie School of Business News blog. Read the full article here.

Related links:

Beedie Endowment Asset Management program >>

Beedie School of Business News blog >>

Beedie teaching website and teaching news blog >>

By Sarah Louise Turner (above), TLC Teaching Enhancement Specialist

“The human race has never found a better way to convey its cumulative wisdom, dreams, and sense of community than through the art and activity of storytelling.“ – Dan Yashinsky

Several weeks ago I experienced an unusual case of synchronicity. While reading Suddenly They Heard Footsteps, a book by Dan Yashinsky that documents the author’s 30-year career as a storyteller, I had the opportunity to hear Mary Ellen Kelm, an associate professor in History, deliver a one-minute introduction to the bubonic plague in the form of a story. Kelm wove facts, figures, social history, and medical descriptions into an unforgettable tapestry that left me feeling wiser, richer, and more connected to every person in the room. I found myself both envying her students and convinced of the veracity of Dan Yashinsky’s words: “The human race has never found a better way to convey its cumulative wisdom, dreams, and sense of community than through the art and activity of storytelling. “

Suddenly is an account of Yashinsky’s life as a storyteller, covering everything from the challenges of his first attempts to tell stories to a group of troublesome boys at a summer camp to his quest for a storytelling mentor. He describes three decades of research on the art and craft of storytelling done over cups of tea, in dark coffee houses, in libraries and schools, and at festivals around the world. Every experience is illustrated with a story or two. Yashinsky delves into both the decline in storytelling since the advent of writing and its recent re-emergence as a popular craft, and he examines the sociological reasons behind these trends.

Once the reader’s interest is piqued, Yashinsky carefully outlines the techniques and approaches needed to become a skillful storyteller. Using the words of his mentors and his own experiences as a teacher of the form, he guides his readers through the process of choosing, remaining faithful to, and making a relic of the oral tradition your own. He offers four crucial counsels for developing the art form, but, in his simultaneously playful and serious manner, acknowledges that “… they won’t save you from your own stumbles and they probably won’t speed your own discoveries.” For Yashinsky, it is telling a good yarn and listening to a great tale that develops your skills and hones your craft.

For anyone who loves language and words or is curious about the benefits of exploring “story” in their teaching, presenting, or daily life, reading Suddenly They Heard Footsteps will equip you with a myriad of resources and leave you far from sated.

On October 15, Glyn Williams-Jones from Earth Sciences delivered an engaging lecture on mass wasting to a class of EASC 101 students. What made the event noteworthy was the presence of four attentive colleagues among the students. The faculty members were there as part of a teaching circle to observe Williams-Jones’s use of photos and personal stories to capture the attention of the class. After the lecture, Williams-Jones and his colleagues met to consider the theme of “diverse audiences: teaching to breadth and majors.” Below are some key points that arose from the observation and the lively discussion that followed.

• Relate to what students care about and already know. One of the most impressive things we noticed was Glyn’s use of real-world examples that students could easily relate to. He showed photos of the 1965 Hope mudslide and the 2008 Sea to Sky highway rockslide to illustrate the factors that cause mass wasting.
• Make it personal. It is no secret that students love stories, especially when they are personal. Glyn shared experiences from his post-doc years in Hawaii and observations from an outing with his kids a weekend before to make his points.
• The textbook is a resource. One participant, Diana Bedoya from Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, recalled that she once asked an undergraduate student what makes a good lecture. The student replied that he liked professors who could give him something he couldn’t get from the textbook. To which Glyn responded, “To me the textbook is a resource. It is never your spin.” Glyn emphasized the importance of adding value by giving students one’s own interpretation and providing them with the big picture. This often involves combining materials from multiple sources: other texts, personal experiences, and one’s own research.
• Teach students how to take an exam. Glyn spent the first five minutes of the class going over basic exam-taking techniques in anticipation of the mid-term. More and more we hear instructors lament that their students don’t know how to take exams — that they don’t read questions carefully or that they get bogged down by one question and leave no time for other questions. This complaint reflects a more general issue: students’ lack of self-reflection about their learning and the strategies they use. Instructors who take the time to coach their students on these meta-cognitive skills will help them go a long way.
• Images and photos are effective. Glyn’s lecture revolved around photos and images that he gathered from various sources. Each image spoke meaningfully to a concept or a set of concepts he was teaching. Together they were succinct and powerful.
• Work with diverse students. EASC 101 is a breadth course. Glyn’s class has students from both science and non-science Faculties. He sees clear differences in the ways the two groups of students think and write. He intentionally coaches students to think and write in new ways.
• Practice makes perfect. The lecture was very well paced: a substantial but not excessive amount of content was covered, and it started and ended right on the dot. We asked Glyn how he managed this feat. He replied, “I know how many slides I can reasonably get through in a 50-minute lecture. Having taught the class many times before helps, and I watch the clock closely.”

For the next Science teaching circle on October 31, participants will attend Cindy Hansen’s lab of EASC 101 Physical Geology. For information, see www.sfu.ca/tlc/programming/scienceteachingcircles.html. To register, please email Erin Barley (ebarley@sfu.ca). Note that space is limited.

Related links:

Faculty of Science Teaching Circles web page >>

Glyn Williams-Jones’s profile page >>

Cindy Xin’s profile page >>

Posted by Cindy Xin, Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) educational consultant

The role of a teaching assistant is complex. A handbook developed by Erin Aspenlieder and Daria Ahrensmeier of the Teaching and Learning Centre provides SFU TAs with information and resources to help them handle their multiple responsibilities with greater confidence. The handbook, titled A Guide for Teaching Assistants at SFU, was released in early October as a PDF file. It covers the many challenges and duties that TAs face and offers advice for dealing with common issues that can arise in labs, classrooms, tutorials, or in relationships with professors and students.

The book’s ten chapters address practical issues (for example, setting office hours and responding to email), pedagogical issues (for example, how to grade quickly and fairly and how to prepare for and lead a tutorial), and professional issues (for example, how to evaluate and improve one’s performance). The guide also includes links and references to a multitude of teaching resources both inside and outside SFU.

For more information about the handbook or about performing effectively as a TA, contact Erin Aspenlieder at erin_aspenlieder@sfu.ca or Daria Ahrensmeier at daria_ahrensmeier@sfu.ca.

Related links:

A Guide for Teaching Assistants at SFU (PDF)

Daria Ahrensmeier’s profile page >>

Erin Aspenlieder’s profile page >>