We're fortunate enough to live near Busch Gardens, a beautiful theme park in Virginia. Needless to say, we've visited many times. As veterans, we recognize the importance of planning to maximize our fun. Even for a full day, there's too much to see and do to fit it all in. Consequently, we have to choose what and when we do things to get the most out of the day. For example, it's never a good idea to have a funnel cake immediately before hopping on a roller coaster. We also have different interests, so we try to mix up rides with carnival days and food during the day. With these options and the strategic planning, we all go home happy.

What we can learn from a day at the amusement park for our instructional planning
We can learn a lot from our experience at an amusement park in planning instruction for a class session or course. Just as we consider the possibilities available at the park, we have a number of options for teaching and learning activities. We need to be strategic in selecting and sequencing them for class sessions to create powerful learning experiences for our students.

One challenge we have as instructors considering teaching and learning options is to recognize the full range of the options we have. After all, it's easy (and only natural) to fall into ruts where we default to a small subset of the possibilities in our teaching. This is a big part of the reason that I developed the Higher Education Learning Activity Taxonomy (HELAT). The current version of the taxonomy includes 20 different learning activities you can consider in your planning.

You may be thinking that it's nice to have all these options, but wonder how to select, sequence and combine them into learning experiences for your students. While it's critical to begin by considering the big ideas in your course, build from your learning goals, and factor in students' needs and preferences, you may still be looking for some guidance in the process. Below I share three different strategies that you can use to build your teaching from the HELAT.

Build around cognitive levels
One effective and time-tested approach to selecting learning activities is to select appropriate activities based in part on the cognitive level of the targeted learning goal(s) using Bloom's Taxonomy. Developed originally in the 1950's, the revised version of the taxonomy offers a framework to consider the cognitive level of different learning tasks in the following categories:

• remember
  
• understand
  
• apply
  
• analyze
  
• evaluate 
  
• create
  

So, for example, if the learning goal is focused upon students developing a basic understanding of a topic or concept, a class discussion or focused exploration might be more appropriate than conducting research or engaging a problem-based learning experience. Both of these latter activities would probably be more effective with learning goals that require a greater level of analytical thinking. To assist you in selected learning activities based on the cognitive level of the learning goal, the HELAT activities are organized according to the six levels of Bloom's taxonomy.

Leverage content learning to build 21st century skills
Another strategy for selecting learning activities is to consider what skills you would like students to develop as they learn. A great framework to consider these kinds of skills is the 21st Century Learning Design framework. The framework includes the following six skills:

• collaboration
• knowledge construction
• self-regulation
• real-world problem-solving and innovation
• use of ICT for learning
• skilled communication

While some bristle at the notion of 21st century skills, I think most of us would agree that these are the kinds of skills that not only will be important for students in their future careers, but also help to enrich content-based learning experiences in our courses. To make it easier to zero in on the learning activities that are particularly suited to help students to develop these skills, in the HELAT taxonomy you'll see icons representing each skill "tagged" to specific learning activities.

 Assessment for learning
For many faculty, assessments may equate to quizzes, tests, and term papers. We may have a tendency to think of learning activities and assessments as two different things. In reality, many learning activities can be used as formative or summative assessments of student learning. The key advantage to considering assessments more broadly is that you can vary the options for students to express their understanding – an important component of Universal Design for Learning.

The HELAT includes a number of learning activities that can serve as formative (e.g., write/respond, compare/constrast) and summative assessments (e.g., develop a model, perform an experiment/procedure). When you view them in this light, you can combine these assessment activities with activities that are more focused on helping students build their knowledge. If you can combine a range of these assessments over the course of a semester-long class, you'll have great insight into student learning beyond the more typical approaches to summative assessment.

What do you consider when selecting and combining learning activities in your planning?
Please post your comments below.

As the semester winds down, we shift our focus from class preparation to assessing student work. Beyond just assigning a grade, assessment provides us with an opportunity to offer feedback to our students, helping them to grow and develop in their discipline. It can be extremely time consuming, however, to provide substantive feedback to our students.

Ten years ago, I would print student papers and projects, mark them up with a pen, fill out a rubric and return both during the next class or leave them outside my office door to pick up. Five years ago, I would have my students email me digital copies of their work. I would then use the Commenting features in Microsoft Word to provide feedback, fill out a separate rubric and then return them. These days, I take advantage of the assignment submission, rubric, and inline commenting features all within our BlackBoard learning management system (LMS). While grading is still one of the least favorite parts of my job, these tools make the process much more efficient and enable me to provide substantive feedback to my students.

Rubric based assessment for efficiency
I’m so glad I’ve moved on from asking my students to submit their work to me via email. My inbox piles up quickly enough without 30-40 emails from students with their work attached. Within BlackBoard (and probably most other LMS platforms), I can create assignments that provide students the opportunity to upload their work directly to me within the LMS. I can set the parameters for when the submission window is open. The system then marks an assignment late if it’s turned after the specified deadline. Once submitted, I can begin to comment on the work.

When I set up an assignment for students to submit a paper or project, I can also create a corresponding grading rubric to assist me in assessing the work. For example, in my educational technology courses I ask students to create a technology-infused lesson plan. Here’s what the rubric looks like in BlackBoard:

Once completed, the scores that you enter on the rubric are automatically added to the Grade Center. Students are then able to view the rubric and comments along with their grade. I must say, this works extraordinarily well. The Inline Grading feature, however, takes it to another level.

Inline commenting for substantive feedback
For me, using a rubric right alongside the student work is useful. The addition of the inline grading tool enables you to also embed comments directly in the student’s paper. You can add comments, draw on the document, highlight and cross through text.

These markups are then saved with the document and can be viewed by the student. Being able to anchor my comments to specific parts of their document helps me to be more specific and targeted than would be possible (or at least practical) than just adding comments in a single text box for the assignment.

Grading student work is certainly not my favorite aspect of teaching. I must say, however, that the simplicity and flexibility of the rubric and inline grading features of BlackBoard make the process both more efficient and more effective.  Now, back to grading...

What strategies do you use (with or without technology) to provide students with efficient, but substantive feedback?
Please post your comments below.

“He listens well who takes notes.”
- Dante

As students encounter new information, ideas, and concepts through readings, lectures, discussions and course activities they can internalize the ideas and record their insights by taking notes. While the structure, format and even purpose for note taking can vary, this activity helps student process new material in order to make connections to what they already know and understand. In this second installment of the Higher Education Learning Activity Types taxonomy, we explore multiple strategies to engage students in effective note taking.

Key features of the strategy
Note taking is an excellent way to not only record, but to process information. This focus on processing and understanding both during and after note taking is a key element of success.  The University of Reading offers some helpful tips on note taking practices for university students that highlight the difference between passive and active note taking:

Passive note-taking includes:

• underlining words
• cutting and pasting from online documents
• trying to write everything you hear in a lecture
• copying slides from the screen
• copying lots of direct quotes rather than putting the ideas in your own words 
• writing notes on everything you read, because you're not sure what will turn out to be important 
• not evaluating or critiquing the sources you use, but just accepting them as suitable evidence 

Active note-taking means:

• thinking about what you want to get out of your research before you start
• looking for answers to any questions you may have about the topic
• looking for connections within the topic you're studying, and to other topics on your course
• writing notes mostly in your own words - your own explanation of what something says or means
• recording direct quotes only when it's important to have the exact words that someone else has used (i.e. when how they say something is as significant as what they say) 

By providing students with specific strategies like the ones below, students can actively engage with lectures and learning materials.

Examples and Variations

• Nilson (2010) suggests teaching students specific structures and approaches to note taking including creating formal outlines, using the Cornell system, and organizing ideas with concept maps. 
• Weimer (2013) suggests beginning class with a question that can be answered by the end of the class session, providing skeletal notes, offering a list of key terms that would be covered in a lecture, and providing charts, tables, or graphics that help students synthesize information. 
• Gross Davis (1993) suggests stopping class at strategic intervals to review their notes from previous class sessions to help them to make connections between ideas. At the end of class, the instructor can encourage students to review the notes they’ve taken for the day and highlight or underline particularly important concepts or to paraphrase some of the essential takeaways. 
  
  

Connections to 21st Century Skills and Technologies
Student note taking can support the development of two key 21st century skills – knowledge construction and self-regulation. As students take, synthesize, transform and review their notes, they are building their knowledge relative to the concepts and ideas presented in class or through texts and other materials.  Less obviously, perhaps, effective note taking processes can help students with self-regulation. By actively and strategically taking notes in class, students help to focus their attention and remain engaged in the learning experience. As they use their notes to actively process information and prepare for papers or exams, they are developing the discipline and habits of mind to support their learning.

Digital and non-digital technology tools can be extremely helpful in the note taking process. Many students prefer (and studies support) taking notes by hand. The limitation of course, is that these notes are not as easily searchable as digital notes. Fortunately, with the optical character recognition built into many software applications like Evernote and OneNote, when students scan their handwritten notes, they can be archived and searched within the software programs. Of course, these same tools (and many more) can be used to capture notes directly. These software applications have the added benefit of being able to include supporting materials (including digital images, audio files, presentation slides, etc.) to supplement notes taken during class and readings. Finally, both Evernote and OneNote have Web clipping features that enables users to capture whole Web pages or selections to a particular notebook.

What strategies do you use to help students take more effective notes in your courses?
Please post your comments below.