Category: Teaching News

Dedicated to news and announcements for the CELT community.

Seeking student feedback (Teaching Tip)

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We often ask, how well are your students learning? What tweaks could be made to improve your teaching and enhance student learning?

The Plus/Delta tool is an easy way to seek valuable feedback from your students. It has students focus on advancing their learning in the course and what could be improved by the instructor and the student. It helps students think about their responsibility to the course and what they should continue doing to learn (PLUS) and what they need to change for the course to improve for them (DELTA) (Helminski & Koberna, 1995).

Students can complete the plus delta online using Canvas, or other anonymous survey software by responding to these four open-ended questions:
Plus

  • What is helping me to learn in this class?
  • What am I doing to improve my learning in the course?

Delta

  • What changes are needed in this course to improve learning?
  • What do I need to do to improve my learning in this course?

Once the students complete the plus delta, you collect the information and summarize it to report each category’s themes back to your class in the next session. The feedback loop creates the opportunity to discuss the shared responsibility for teaching and learning in your course. You may further specify what modifications will (or will not) implement based on their feedback. To learn more, visit CELT’s Using a PLUS/DELTA Assessment Technique webpage.
With a joy for teaching,

Sara Marcketti, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Helminski, L. & Koberna, S. (1995). Total quality in instruction: A systems approach. In H. V. Roberts (Ed.), Academic initiatives in total quality for higher education (pp. 309-362). Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality Press.

Full Teaching Tip

View the published CELT Teaching Tip: Seeking student feedback (September 10, 2020 – Constant Contact) page.

Prefer a Print version?

To view the Teaching Tip as a printable document with web addresses, download the CELT Teaching Tip for September 10, 2020 (PDF).

Procedures set for using recording classrooms

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The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching’s (CELT) media production team has a new website that provides faculty information about recording classrooms, available services, and how to request a room. Iowa State has five media recording classrooms, two in Curtiss Hall and three in Howe Hall, scheduled by media production staff. In addition to these classrooms, a few general university classrooms are equipped to record if there is demand. According to the CELT media classroom usage policy, there are three (3) one-month windows for submitting requests:

  • Fall term: April 1-May 1
  • Spring term: Sept. 1-Oct. 1
  • Summer session: Feb. 1-March 1

Media production manager Andrew Sevcik said the windows provide time for his staff to schedule classes in the rooms and for CELT to communicate with the room scheduling team. Production staff will take requests outside of the windows when needed. For additional information, visit the media production website or email celt-help@iastate.edu. 

(Announcement first published in the March 30, 2023 edition of Inside Iowa State)

Ready, Set…Here we go online! (CELT Teaching Tip)

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As we move to the online environment for teaching and learning, follow these fundamental principles:

Keep it Simple
Don’t try to create a whole online course now. While commercial and non-commercial companies are flooding your inboxes, now is not the time to try to learn and implement more technology than you and your students need. What are the essential skills, knowledge, and attitudes that students need to practice and show mastery? What are the simplest ways to assess these skills, knowledge, and attitudes? Do not lose sight of your primary purpose and student learning outcomes for your course.

Expect the unexpected
Technology will fail. People will have emergencies. The ability to concentrate will be less than usual (for our students and us). Test your technology before you use it. Have a backup plan if the technology fails. Determine what is necessary to keep in your course.

Consistency and Clarity are Key
In times of crisis, we need consistency and routine. Students expect syllabi and grades in Canvas. Canvas has many apps built-in, including course materials and Webex, so that students need to log into only one place and not figure out different apps, logins, and passwords. Remember, your students are in 3 to 5 separate courses. They need consistency and clarity of expectations. Consider numbering your announcements, or removing old announcements, such that information is up to date and precise.

Be Compassionate and Flexible
You and your students are under stress. Between changed routines and many uncertainties, choose to be kind, choose to be generous, choose to be compassionate, choose to be flexible.

Stay Connected
In this time of social distancing (pdf), we need community as much as we ever did, and it does not require lots of new techniques from you. Simple things like emailing your students once a week to check-in and offer updates are valuable for building community. Host office/student hours via Zoom or Webex. Provide individual feedback as much as you can. We are all in this global health pandemic together.

Practice Self-Care
Please take a moment for yourself when you need it. A few deep breaths can promote a state of calmness. A walk outside can be reinvigorating. Engaging in a creative activity like journaling or doodling can relieve stress. Keeping a gratitude journal can inspire hope. Please encourage your students to also pursue activities that bring them joy in this time of uncertainty.

To help you in this shift, CELT has created this Quick Start Guide page.

Our ISU Campus Partners are here to help, call us through the CELT Response Team 515-294-5357 (Monday-Friday, 8-5 p.m.). We have staff across campus willing to assist. If needed, the campus partners will meet with you virtually using Webex. Additionally, you may wish to contact one of the support units directly.

With a joy for teaching,

Sara Marcketti, Director
Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

This CELT Teaching Tip is adapted from resources on the Plymouth State University’s Preparing to Teach During COVID19 site.

Full Teaching Tip

View the published CELT Teaching Tip: Ready, Set.. Here we go online! (March 20, 2020 – Constant Contact) website.

Prefer a Print version?

To view the Teaching Tip as a printable document with web addresses, download the CELT Teaching Tip for March 20, 2020 (PDF)

A workaround for the disruptive trolling act known as “Zoombombing”

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Table of Contents

In response to the growing problem of ‘Zoombombing’, Zoom has updated the default settings. Updates include a ‘Waiting Room’ and password protection (updated on April 4, 2020).

Zoom workaround

To address this problem, Zoom has recommendations for avoiding Zoombombing.

Zoom Password Protection

A password is now required for:

  • All new meetings
  • All instant meetings
  • Participants joining by phone
  • Previously scheduled meetings – there are two options
    • Participants can enter the password when they join
    • You will have to resend the meeting link with the newly embedded password

To find the password settings, go to your online Zoom portal (Sign in with your ISU NetID and password at https://iastate.zoom.us/).

  • To resend the meeting invitation from the online Zoom portal, click on your specific meeting, then click Copy the Invitation
    • This link contains the embedded password
  • To resend the meeting invitation from the meeting room, click the Invite button at the bottom of the window, then Copy the Meeting Invitation

Zoom Waiting Room

  • Waiting Room allows the host to control when a participant joins the meeting. This can be disabled in the meeting room settings, as well as during the meeting.
  • When Waiting Room is enabled, you will receive on-screen prompts through the Participant box.
  • For more information about Zoom Waiting Rooms, visit their Waiting Room tips page.

Webex workaround

Zoombombing would also be possible if you are using the Webex tool (Not the Canvas Integration) and can be deterred by locking the meeting once everyone has joined.

NOTE:  If you are using the Canvas Integration this is not necessary and can cause issues with your meeting.

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