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?

As we wind down another semester, it's time to consider student course evaluations. While there is certainly much discussion, disagreement, and critiquing of the validity and utility of student evaluations, I've found that they can be very helpful in informing my course design. The key is crafting questions that provide the kind of information that will be helpful to you as a teacher and instructional designer.
 
Standard course evaluation forms
My university uses a standard course evaluation form across courses which is required across the university. This standard form includes the typical kinds of items that I imagine are pretty common across higher education. For example, students are asked Likert scale questions about:

• The instructor's knowledge of the subject matter of the course
• The organization of content and learning experiences of the course
• The instructor's presentation and explanation of course content
• The instructor's openness to diverse opinions and questions

 
I'm sure your unit has similar standard questions. While I find these helpful, I like to ask a few additional questions that provide me with the information I need to modify the course content or my teaching in future semesters. We now have a way to do this within our course evaluation system. Prior to this, I used Survey Monkey to create a second course evaluation form for students to complete. Below I offer some suggested item types that you might find helpful in eliciting productive student feedback.
 
Mode and format
When trying out different course modes and options, it can be very helpful to get feedback on what the students think. For example, two years ago, I flipped much of the class, so that students would work through material prior to class time. For the most part it seemed to work well, but on the course evaluation form I created, students reported frustration with using several different technology tools during this time outside of class. The next semester, I pared down the number of technologies, and students responded much better to these outside activities.
 
Key elements of the course
In a similar vein, if you're trying out new elements in a course, you should ask specific questions to gauge students' engagement. Last year I implemented a three-week fully online activity during a primarily face-to-face course. I initiated this in part so that students could work more independently and at their own pace. On the evaluation form, however, students reported feeling isolated and disconnected from both me and their peers during this online module. In the fall, I plan to build in more opportunities for communication and collaboration to encourage this sense of connection.
 
New strategies or ideas
This semester, one of my colleagues is experimenting with Zaption - a tool that allows the instructor to create interactive, video-based lessons. The instructor selects and sequences video clips, interspersed with questions, discussion prompts, and other activities to guide the learning experience for students. While her in-class feedback on the activities has been positive, sometimes students are more reflective and/or honest in their feedback on an anonymous evaluation.
 
Assignments/activities
In my courses, I often have a number of different assignments and projects over the course of the semester. It can be difficult to judge, however, which of these experiences are most beneficial for students. Typically, I ask students to rank them in order based on what was either most interesting or most helpful in their learning. I've also offered opportunities for students to add comments on particular assignments as well.
 
Most significant experience
I've just recently started adding questions like this, "Please tell me about the most significant learning experience for you in this course. Be sure to include why it was particularly meaningful for you." This question has elicited some interesting and substantive responses from my students. When I see that a particular course reading, assignment or activity was most significant for a number of students, I know that I'll want to keep this in future iterations of my course. I also suspect that as I use this question across courses, I can better understand the kinds of experiences that are most powerful for my students.

What course evaluation questions do you find helpful?
Please post your comments below.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with a group of colleagues from across our university in a faculty seminar focused on finding ways to personalize learning for our students. We’ve approached this using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework to guide our discussion and design efforts. Recently, I wrote about an activity in which we focused on removing unnecessary barriers from our teaching. We’ve each chosen to work on one element of a course we teach. I decided I’d analyze and revise the syllabus for one of my courses to more fully integrate UDL principles.
 
The process
For this exercise I selected a course that I teach each year, Designs for Technology-Enhanced Learning. The course is part of our teacher preparation program and challenges students to identify, assess, and select technologies to support their teaching practice. It’s a two-credit course that meets once a week for 15 weeks. You’ll see the basic outline of the course below.
 
In order to analyze my course, I dissected the process of the course in terms of the three UDL principles:
 
- Principle 1 – how do students access content and concepts in the course (e.g., readings, materials, presentations, etc.)?
- Principle 2 – how do students interact with each other and express their understanding?
- Principle 3 – how are students engaged in their learning (e.g., real world audience, authenticity)?
 
Rather than try to make sure that each week of the schedule addresses all of the principles, I focused on taking the semester-long view to create a balanced experience for the students. Below I discuss a summary of what I learned about my course and how I plan to modify it for the fall semester.
 
The (old) course
In terms of principle 1, my analysis revealed that I relied almost exclusively on Web-based readings and class discussion to introduce students to the course content. In some cases, I gave students some choice in their reading – but all text-based readings. I also noted that during class I only used one brief slide-based presentation the entire semester. Instead, I relied on class discussions and demonstrations. While this would be considered a more student-centered approach, many students enjoy and benefit from brief lectures and the ability to access the slides afterwards.
 
For principle 2, I think the projects I employed provided at least some options for presenting their understanding. For the first assignment, students had the option of writing a paper or creating a Web resource. They also had choice in terms of the focus of their research and curriculum development project. I also set up some course experiences where they worked together in class and through asynchronous online work.
 
For engagement, I relied mostly on student choice to motivate students in their learning. Many of the projects they completed and materials they developed could be used in their teaching placement. This contributed to authenticity for the assignments. In reviewing the syllabus I also realized that there were opportunities to frame the work in more interesting ways as well as to provide students with an authentic audience for their work.
 
The (revised) course
After I realized that I relied so heavily on Web-based texts and class discussion, I made a concerted effort to provide more variety for my students to access the course content. The first change I plan to make is to incorporate five brief slide-based lectures to introduce topics. I will then post these slides on the class Web site so that students have access to them for future reference. I also have identified several video clips, podcasts, and infographics that connect with course topics. I plan to allow students to select from among these different options for each outside reading. I like the idea of one core reading (or video) with additional options in different formats.
 
I don’t have any major changes in mind for principle 2. I may offer multiple options of “deliverables” for the major topics, but there is already a good variety of ways for students to express their understanding during the semester. I think I may also formalize an opportunity for students to propose an alternate product that would meet the learning goals.
 
In terms of engagement, the one real missed opportunity I identified relates to audience. One way to encourage students to really grapple with the content and maximize their effort is to provide an audience beyond the class. Because the products they create are digital (slides, Web-based content, etc.), it’s easy for them to share their work. In the course, we explore social networks (particularly blogs and Twitter) as important elements of their personal learning networks (PLN). It would only be natural to ask students to consider how they can share what they learn and create to “pay it forward” to others in their PLN. It could be different for each student, but if they know they will share what they create, I suspect they will have more ownership and invest themselves more in the process.  
 
While I’m not sure I identified any mind boggling new opportunities in this process, I found it helpful to see the course through my students’ eyes in these three areas. I teach about UDL (including in this course) and have significant experience in UDL course design, but I still found multiple ways I could strengthen my approach. I hope that this simple process may inspire you to consider your own course with a UDL lens.

What might you change about your course to better incorporate UDL principles?
Please post your comments below.

One of my favorite parts of teaching is designing and then facilitating student projects. I feel like students derive a lot of benefit from working with simulated or authentic tasks that are relevant to my course work. Whether it be an inquiry project, a service learning experience, a case study or some other learning activity, I really value challenging my students to apply what they’re learning in the form of a project.
 
I don’t know about you, but I find that I meet with mixed success in these efforts. Some projects work really well while others don’t go nearly as smoothly or don’t seem as valuable. In other words, not all projects are created equal. I recently read a great post on the Creative Educator blog called, What Makes a Good Project. The author shares eight elements that make for a successful project:

• Purpose and Relevance – will the project be meaningful for students?
• Time – will the students have enough time to engage in deep learning?
• Complexity – will students have to draw on concepts, skills, and practices in other courses or even other fields to complete the work?
• Intensity – will the project inspire the students to engage in intense work?
• Connected – will the students collaborate with each other and/or experts in the field as they learn?
• Access – will students access a range of materials and resources?  
• Shareable – will they share their work with an audience beyond the classroom and instructor?
• Novelty – will students encounter a new challenge or experience in the work?  

 
I thought I might pull back the curtain a bit and share my thinking about redesigning a project for a course I’ll teach in the fall.
 
The existing project
One course I frequently teach is called Designs for Technology-Enhanced Learning. It’s a course for Undergraduate and Masters students in our teacher training program. The core goal for the course is to help the students build the requisite knowledge and skills to integrate technology in their teaching. The course includes a number of different assignments, but there’s one that I think has great, but unrealized potential.
 
Towards the end of the course, I challenge students to identify an opportunity or challenge they have observed in the K-12 teaching placement that they think could be approached through the use of technology. The students form design team groups around a shared interest in the problem. Then, they collaboratively explore the issue and develop a plan to approach the opportunity or challenge they identified. As it currently exists, I think that it incorporates several of the elements described above, including purpose and relevance, complexity, connected and access. I think, however, there are opportunities to tweak the project to make it even more meaningful for my students.
 
The “good” project
Of the missing elements, I think the two biggest missed opportunities of the current version of the project are intensity and shareable. Because the semester is winding down, I don’t see the engagement and intensity on the part of students that I’d like to see. They go through the motions, complete the work, and occasionally get fired up about it, but I think there’s a real need to ramp up the intensity.
 
I think one way to do this is to increase the authenticity a bit. While the opportunities or challenges they select are authentic given that they have identified them based on their experience in the school, they sometimes are still a bit contrived. I think I could increase the intensity and authenticity by involving the K-12 classroom teachers as clients for the work. Rather than asking the students to identify the opportunity or challenge, I could ask their mentor teachers what they see as important in their classroom. The students could still group up based on their interest. In this case, though, the intensity would be ramped up knowing that a teacher would be counting on them to create a realistic and viable approach that would actually be implemented with students.
 
In terms of “shareability,” in the past, I’ve only asked students to either briefly present their work in class and/or post their work to a class discussion board. There’s no reason that they shouldn’t share the work more broadly. I’m thinking it would be great to host an after-school poster session event for teachers in our local school division to share the work. Students might also vote on one or two projects to share as formal sessions to the whole group in addition to the poster sessions. This approach would also ratchet up the intensity and perhaps also be a novel experience for the students.
 
While we could undoubtedly identify additional elements that define a meaningful project, I think these eight elements are a great place to start when designing a new project or breathing new life into a tried and true project.

What kinds of meaningful projects do you incorporate in your courses?
Please post your comments below.

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.