Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Daniel, You're right. Each component should be there for a reason, and one test for whether that is successful would be to ask the students to explain the rationale for why each grading component was chosen by the instructor. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Informing students of status in course

Daniel, Right. And assisting students understand what can be improved in a setting of encouragement and support is important, and may lead to improved mutual trust and respect. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Awarding extra credit

Daniel, I agree. EC is about points and grades and rarely has much to do with student learning. It also creates difficulty in grading fairly, and can create grade inflation if too much is used. I have not had positive experiences with EC, so I just choose not to give it. I am not opposed to extra asignments for students to demonstarte learning, but not if they only do it for credit. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Using pretests as planning tools

Daniel, My best results with pretesting came when I realized a lot of time (several days worth) was not needed because the students had previously mastered the material. On another occasion, assuming students had the material down, I learned they did not, so I was able to make an adjustment that ended up working out successfully for my students. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Selecting sufficient course content

Daniel, Back up plans are great to either fill empty time or to substitute when more emphasis may be needed to assure adequate understanding is achieved. It is a bit of trial and error until we strike the right amount of time to get the information across. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Selecting sufficient course content

Eddy, If we stay focused on course objectives, student learning outcomes, and program goals, this will naturally lead us to selecting topic-appropriate course content. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Selecting sufficient course content

Eddy, It does take a balance of different methods to reach everyone in class. In general, the more senses involved, the better will be the retention of information. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Reengaging off-task students

Eddy, I'm not always sure why students get disengaged, but I know they do, and smaller, simple techniques may be adequate, or I may need to be more aggressive, such as switching to another activity to get the students attention. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Mistakes made when selecting course content

Eddy, Media resources ought to follow the objectives, and there is so much available these days, we really have to be choosy in order to find the best among the just OK. Barry Westling

Barry Westling

Discussion Comment

Developing instructional backup plans

Daniel, This sounds great. These activities are sometime refrered to as "chunking", as in providing small digestible chunks of information in a short period. Soliciting resources from others is terrific too. Barry Westling