The old adage suggests, “You’ll have never have a second chance to make a first impression.” This is true in our interactions with others, but also with our students. Nothing sets the tone for a new semester like the first day of class. Blogger Michael Hyatt refers to making a positive impression as creating a “wow experience.”  While not an educator, I think the way he characterizes “wow” can be really instructive for us.

For Hyatt, creating a “wow” experience begins with first determining the specific expectations a customer (or student, in this case) brings to the experience. From there, you determine what both meeting and failing to meet those expectations looks like. With these in mind, think about what it would mean and look like to exceed their expectations.
 
Let's consider how we might create a “wow” experience for our students on the first day of class. First, though, let’s consider a typical first day.
 
What is a typical first day like?
On the first day of class, students are typically nervous, unsure or overwhelmed. If they registered for your course as an elective, they really have no idea what to expect other than the short blurb in the course description and what they hear through the proverbial grapevine. If they are a major in your department, they might have additional anxiety related to the pressure of doing well in their major course of study as well as to impress you as a potential mentor or advisor. They also might feel overwhelmed as they receive syllabi from all the courses and may be wondering how in the world they will get all the work done over the course of the semester.
 
So what do these students typically experience? Speaking for myself, I know that I’ve been known to go over the syllabus in painstaking detail. I’ve also gone to great lengths to explain my rationale for the course, why I structured assignments the way I did, research I’ve conducted, and more not-so-exciting activities. When I shift perspective and put myself in their shoes, I have a really different view of how I have approached the first day. It’s not exactly the kind of “wow” experience I’d like to create.
 
How might we “wow” our students instead?
This was essentially the question my colleague Lindy Johnson and I posed to our school’s faculty in our opening faculty retreat. Specifically, we asked small groups the following three prompts:

1. What specific expectations does a typical student bring to the first day of class?  What might they be feeling and thinking?
2. What does failing to meet students’ expectations for this experience look like?
3. What does exceeding students expectations for the first day look like?  How might you “wow” students to set the stage for a meaningful and engaging semester?

 
At the conclusion of this simple, 15-minute empathy exercise, our colleagues had some amazing ideas. Perhaps some of these ideas will inspire you as they did us…

• Begin class by introducing a controversial case to begin meaningful discussion and engagement right away.
• In a course focused on teaching reading, students develop timelines of books that have been very important in their lives and then share with a group. This helps to kindle the passion for reading and inspires students.
• Begin class with common false assumptions or misconceptions related to the focus for the class. This captures students’ curiosity and draws them in.
• Students begin by sharing in small groups the experiences in their lives that brought them to where they are today. The instructor then bridges this to encourage them to think about how the course might help them in future efforts.
• Because many students have anxiety related to courses, one instructor plans to encourage them to name and share their concerns about the course. The instructor can then tie back to these concerns to illustrate how the course will help them alleviate their fears.

 Sometimes developing empathy for our students can lead to simple or substantial shifts in our practice. Like a lot of elements of teaching, it’s important to remember that even small shifts in our practice to enhance the student experience can have a significant impact.
 
Armed with this new perspective and hopefully inspired by these new ideas, how might you “wow” your students on the first day of class?

Last week, my colleague in Hispanic Studies, Jonathan Arries, led a faculty seminar exploring personalized learning through an engaging, thought-provoking exercise. And despite all my experience with UDL (yes, I know, I’ve written about it quite a bit here), it led me to acknowledge and confront a major disconnect in a course I teach every year. In fact, I’ve replicated this mistake approximately 12 years in a row. This post will help you to learn from my less-than-optimal practice.
 
UDL meets UbD
Jonathan structured the seminar session around a classic reading in K-12 instructional design called Understanding by Design (or UbD). Developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, UbD encourages instructors to design their instruction “backwards.” In this backwards design approach, rather than jumping right from learning goals to instructional strategies or learning activities, Wiggins and McTighe encourage teachers to think first about what kind of performance or product students could create that would demonstrate mastery of the learning goal. While not rocket science, this is a powerful and productive reframing of what I think is more typical practice. It also connects masterfully with UDL, which we’ll explore below.
 
In the exercise, Jonathan shared this planning document that we used together to explore a unit of study in one of the courses we teach. He asked us to begin individually first to identify the two to five “priority understandings or skills” connected with the content/skill focus we’d selected. We then shared these ideas with another participant in the seminar. Then, for one of the priority understandings/skills, he asked us what might serve as evidence that the students had mastered the understanding or skill. In this case, he challenged us to identify four different alternatives. As time permitted, we repeated this process for the other priority skills. We then shared these ideas with our partners and often identified several other possible performances/products that might serve as well or better than those we’d identified individually.
 
The exercise to this point was classic UDL principle II – identifying alternate means for students to present their understanding. The “ah-ha” moment came for me in the next part of the experience. In this next step, for each performance or product identified in the previous step, we were challenged to identify the knowledge (facts, concepts, principles) and/or skills (processes, procedures, strategies) that students would need to possess or draw upon to successfully complete the performance or product. We then shared these with our partners. In this process, I identified a major mistake (in UDL terms) that I’d made in a core assignment in a class I teach every year – a mistake I’d repeated 12 years in a row.
 
The Case of the Unnecessary Barriers
The assignment I unpacked in this exercise was from my Designs for Technology-Enhanced Learning course that I teach in our teacher preparation program at William & Mary. I approach the course like a teaching methods course, encouraging students to bridge theory and practice to identify ways to and design lessons that integrate educational technologies to support curriculum-based learning. One of the signature assignments focuses on how K-12 students learn from digital media and technologies. I’m most interested in students making connections between multimedia research and classroom teaching practice. I’ve always had them complete some form of a research synthesis paper as their learning product.
 
In this exercise, however, I identified several other possible performances/products that would also connect with this learning goal. I realized that they might also read research to prepare to engage in a case study to apply the findings and principles they explored. They might also create a concept map or table with evidence to present their understanding. Finally, they could create a brief presentation that they could share with colleagues in their placement schools as an authentic means to teach others. If I’d had the Higher Education Learning Activity Types Taxonomy handy, I could probably have identified even more.
 
When I unpacked the facts/skills, concepts/procedures, and principles/strategies that were required in the research paper assignment, I realized that this type of product introduced a number of extraneous barriers to students’ learning and most likely has limited the utility and effectiveness of the assignment. I realized that in addition to students needing to read, analyze and synthesize the research – the core elements of the learning goal – the research paper also required the students to organize their ideas for writing, adopt an academic tone to convey their ideas, and navigate the intricacies of APA style. I realized that none of these intellectually demanding aspects of the assignment really contributed to the learning goal. Is it important for students to write academic papers? Sure. Was it important for this learning goal? Nope.
 
Lesson Learned
In my conversation with my partner, I was able to think through other possible products that my students could create. We determined that some form of concept map or table with evidence would not only reduce the complexity of the assignment, but also make it easier for students to make literal and conceptual connections to the ideas they had explored. This approach would also help them to connect what they learned to classroom practice more effectively. The format and tool that students could use to create their concept maps/tables (e.g., Word, Google Docs, Mindmeister) was not important. In fact, allowing students to choose their tool and how they present their work is a nice way to connect UDL principle III – multiple means of engagement.
 
I’m excited to try this new approach next semester. I honestly believe that not only will I reduce some barriers I’d inadvertently put in my students’ way; I think I’ll get products that are better developed as well. I’m also excited to have a new tool – Jonathan’s planning chart – at my disposal to serve as a “check” for my application of UDL principles in my teaching.  

What projects, assignments or experiences can you offer your students to help them provide evidence of their learning?
Please post your comments below.

The following article is a guest post from Barbi Honeycutt, a speaker, scholar, and author. Dr. Honeycutt is the founder of FLIP It Consulting in Raleigh, NC, and an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University. She facilitates workshops, shares strategies, and creates resources to support educators who want to develop learning environments that involve students, increase engagement, and improve learning. You can connect with Barbi at flipitconsulting.com & @barbihoneycutt

For the past five years, the “flipped classroom” model has dominated conversations in all areas of education. From K-12 classrooms to college lecture halls to corporate training programs, educators continue to experiment with the design and analyze the results to determine if the approach actually improves student learning and engagement. Now as more educators are becoming well versed in the approach and have started implementing flipped strategies in their courses, they are beginning to ask more questions and share their experiences. Here are the top three most frequently asked questions I hear from faculty about the flipped classroom model in higher education:
 
1. What is the flipped classroom?
This is probably the most controversial question. Depending on where you look and who you talk to, you will find different definitions, models, and interpretations of what a flipped classroom is. My mission for the past five years has been to encourage us to expand what we mean by “flipped” classrooms. Most of the discussions focus on the use of videos which students watch before class. However, many of us in higher education have pushed against this limited definition. There’s more to student engagement than watching videos of lectures. And a video of a lecture is still a lecture. Even with more innovative and engaging videos, most educators are expanding on their interpretations of what it means to flip a classroom. The model was first introduced as “inverted” instruction by Lage, Platt, and Treglia in the Journal of Economic Education in 2000. Many educators who are using the flipped classroom model may not be familiar with this history, and I encourage you to take a look at that article for some of the original thinking as this idea was beginning to take shape.

In my work, the FLIP means to “Focus on your Learners by Involving them in the Process.” It’s actually based on my teaching philosophy and my research. I have developed a 4-part framework which includes the integration of student development, instructional design, learning environment research, and faculty development. All of these components are essential to creating a successful learning experience.
In this framework, the pre-class work focuses on the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and the in-class work focuses on the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. I show educators how to design active learning strategies to involve students in the process of applying, analyzing, and creating knowledge during class time.
 
2. How do you encourage students to actually DO the pre-class homework and come to class prepared and ready to participate?
This is the number one most frequently asked question!  It’s not a unique problem to flipped classrooms since we have always assigned homework and expected our students to come to class prepared. But since the flipped classroom relies heavily on the pre-class work for student engagement, more faculty members want to know how to encourage students to actually DO it.  I recently wrote two articles to help address this question, and I approached them from different perspectives in an effort to start analyzing how we can address this challenge. In the recent Faculty Focus article, I address the challenge from the perspective of holding students accountable and making the learning visible. In a separate blog post titled 3 Strategies to Encourage Students to Complete the Pre-Class Work in the Flipped Classroom, I addressed the question from the perspective of student motivation. Using Dan Pink’s AMP model as a framework, I encourage you to take a closer look at how your pre-class work is designed.
 
The main point is students have to know their pre-class work is valued, relevant, and not “busy” work. Once you meet that expectation and they see how their work contributes to their success in the classroom, they are more likely to do the work and not get left behind when their peers are prepared.  And peer pressure can be a strong motivator too!
 
3. What can I do about student resistance? What if they still don’t do the work or participate?
This is the second most frequently asked question!  I don’t know if I’ve ever talked with a faculty member who had 100% of the students 100% prepared and 100% engaged all of the time in every class. Students have “off” days just like we do, and sometimes life gets in the way of the best laid plans.  However, the first place to start is to understand where the resistance might be coming from.  The college classroom can be a scary and intimidating place for some students. And when we add a new way of learning on top of that stress, some students may shut down or choose to disengage. My favorite resource for addressing this challenge was written by one of my teaching mentors, Dr. Richard Felder. His work on the intersection between the active learning classroom and the stages of grief is fascinating, and I wrote an article titled 5 Ways to Address Student Resistance in the Flipped Classroom based on his findings. It might be a helpful place to start as you think about who your students are, where they are coming from, and what prior experiences might be influencing their behavior. I always say, “Support your students in flipped and active learning classrooms. Just as you are learning how to teach in this way, they are learning how to learn in this way.”

Please post your comments below.

Design thinking is a hot topic in education from elementary school to continuing professional education in a wide variety of industries. According to IDEO, a global design firm and one of the key players in this space, design thinking is “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” While not dramatically different than other approaches to creative problem solving, the focus on empathy, rapid prototyping and iteration make design thinking highly relevant in courses and programs that attempt to encourage innovative thinking.

Interest in design thinking in higher education in particular has exploded in recent years. I was introduced to design thinking through Professor Michael Luchs from the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary. In this Luminaris podcast episode, Luchs explains why design thinking resonates with him and how he leverages the approach in a course he teaches on Sustainability Inspired Innovation and Design. Since their initial forays into design thinking, the Mason School has launched the Jim and Bobbie Ukrop Innovation and Design Studio – an amazing space that encourages innovation and creativity. Under the guidance of Mason professor Graham Henshaw, we recently engaged in a design thinking bootcamp to help reimagine a more student-centered approach to high school.

Just as with personalized learning, it can be difficult to wade through the myriad resources available online to learn more about design thinking. In this post, I wanted to provide a quick annotated list of resources related to design thinking that I’ve found helpful. Like in the personalized learning post, I hope that these resources will help to get you started on your own exploration of this engaging approach to innovation and problem solving.

Curated list of design thinking resources
Design Thinking – A Unified Framework for Innovation – In this article from Forbes written by Reuven Cohen, readers are introduced to design thinking. Cohen walks us through his three-day bootcamp experience at the Stanford d.school. This walkthrough of engaging in a substantive design thinking experience really provides some insights on the process from a participant’s perspective.

Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking – Offered through the d.school at Stanford, this toolkit provides everything you need to host a design thinking short course using the design thinking methodology. The site provides step-by-step instructions on how to prepare for the short course, a playbook for facilitators, videos, and sets of really interesting “mixtapes” to go for a deeper dive into understanding and experimenting.

Design Thinking for Educators – IDEO has created this helpful toolkit for educators to integrate design thinking in their teaching. The site provides a great overview of IDEO’s approach to design thinking, four great examples of design thinking in schools, a number of high quality videos, and a free design thinking toolkit. While designed for K-12 teachers, the toolkit can be useful for educators at all levels to create design thinking activities for the classroom.

IDEO U – IDEO has designed and offers three online courses exploring different aspects of design thinking. While I haven’t taken any of the courses, given the high quality of IDEO’s materials and deep expertise in design thinking, I’m sure they will be good.

Design Kit: Facilitator’s Guide – This free, online course will equip you to offer your own design thinking workshop. The outcome of this asynchronous course is that you will develop the plan for a full-day, hands-on, introductory workshop for 5-20 participants on design thinking. The Facilitator’s Guide includes all of the materials you’ll need as well. I’m looking forward to beginning this experience in early February.

What resources have you found useful for design thinking?
Please post your comments below.