We are familiar with what both sides want by the end of the term. The educators want the students to learn the course materials. The students want to receive an A in the course. These two desires are not always associated. But as the course instructor, you seek to correlate learning achievements with appropriate score outcomes. You aim to master the intersection among the instructional practice, identification of your classroom implementation and your teaching philosophy.
Instructional practice
Where did the idea that somehow a graduate student would magically
know how to be an instructor as a result of completing his/her graduate
degrees? Nevertheless, this notion is erroneous. The traditional graduate school experience does not prepare you for organizing, leading and managing a classroom of students. The priority in graduate school is in developing research scholars, where instructing and teaching assistantships serve as a mechanism to financially support your scholarly pursuits. Thus, the transition from graduate student learner to professor instructor is a colossal leap.
You must learn how to teach for different discipline concepts, class sizes and student learning styles while also establishing your own
teaching style. The subject matter should be relatively easy since the topics appeared in your undergraduate and graduate studies. It is refreshing your memory about the course topics. However, constructing manageable learning modules for students takes study and practice.
Teaching styles range from dull to exciting. Death By PowerPoint is the dullest of them all. A large set of dense slides. Students are overwhelmed with content, but instructors can easily execute. A blend of PowerPoint slides, individual/group problem sets and in-class discussions is one of the most exciting. Students are actively engaged in course topics, while course instructors must thoughtfully plan lecture activities. Check out one of many articles and resources on designing more effective lectures: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-build-dynamic-lecture-todd-finley.
I have yet to cover teaching for different class sizes and student learning styles. Well, they will be covered in next in classroom implementation.
Classroom implementation
Class size can be a contributing factor to which teaching style you use. Small class sizes, less than 25 students, allow for lectures to be more of a discussion and conversation that supports a personalized learning environment. Large class sizes, more than 100 students, trigger a structured learning environment with formal content presentation and small group problem sets/discussions that provide the course instructor informal feedback on students' learning. If you are unfamiliar with Bloom's Taxonomy, then I strongly suggest you take a look. Bloom's Taxonomy is an example of how to classify a student's learning (from the simple recollections to advanced abilities in connecting concepts). I find that undergraduate students are comfortable to receive knowledge and show some comprehension with some instances of successful application, while graduate students are more comfortable with application and analysis via showing some evidence in their ability in evaluation. Regardless of the class size, the course instructor should have mechanisms to uncover the class's learning gaps.
The class composition can also influence the effectiveness of your teaching style. For example, college freshmen have a different level of emotional and intellectual maturity than college seniors. The same observation can be said for graduate students and undergraduate students. Undergraduate students tend to ask more detailed questions about format and presentation, e.g., response length, while graduate students ask more detailed questions about technical content, e.g., which method best suits a particular problem. Class composition includes the students' learning styles. The seven learning styles are visual (spatial), aural (auditory-musical), verbal (linguistic), physical (kinesthetic), logical (mathematical), social (interpersonal) and solitary (intrapersonal). You may wonder "how will I apply my teaching style to my class based on differing learning styles?" As the course instructor, you should conduct a mix of different exercises that benefit certain learning styles early in your term to determine the best universal construct for your class.
At the end, you must accept one cold-hard fact: you can not make all students happy or satisfied with your teaching performance. You must stay true to your teaching philosophy.
Teaching philosophy
Simply put, your teaching philosophy is an expression of your morals, values and ideals as it pertains to student instruction. The teaching philosophy evolves as your instructional practice broadens and your classroom implementation matures. Since your teaching philosophy is unique to you, I can only offer up an excerpt of mine as an example.
My teaching philosophy is best described by Bloom's Taxonomy: striving for synthesis, "[to] compile information together in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions". Learning occurs
within and outside the context of the structured assessment mechanisms of quizzes, assignments,
exams, projects, etc. But in an effort to minimize subjectivity, these assessments are
established to provide the student a gauge on their learning and growth. As a natural result, students associate learning and aptitude with their grade.
I have seen students struggle to understand (and accept) that every course concepts
can not be segmented into measurable units. There are many repetitive tasks in which there is no grade. For example, let us take learning how to washing your clothes. You learn how to separate your clothes based on color and fabric. You learn when you should versus need to wash your clothes. The larger, more applicable life lesson is about understanding responsibility, accountability and consequences. A classroom is truly no different. There are course concepts having surrounding contexts and effects. The high
priority concepts are assessed and the other ones are their backdrop. You can not deeply know a course concept without comprehending the proper context. This context reveals a concept's benefits and drawbacks.
It is the beautifully frustrating ebb and flow of learning.
Disclaimer: I'm not a computing education
researcher. My comments here are the result of 8-semesters as a graduate teaching assistant and 12-semesters as an Assistant Professor.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Research, Teaching & Service: Let's talk service
The three initiatives of a higher education faculty member are research (r), teaching(t) and service (s). Each institution has a particular weighed value structure assigned to each initiative, w1, w2, w3 respectively. It's best to consider it a simple linear combination:
S = w1*r+w2*t+w3*s where w1+w2+w3 = 1 s.t. wi > 0 and r+t+s = 1 s.t. r > 0, t>0, s>0
This post and next two posts will be dedicated diving deeper into a faculty's research, learning and service initiatives. Most institutions value research, then teaching, and lastly service. But, I'll discuss service first since it results in the most direct impact on an individual faculty member, and thus a cascading positive impact on your home institution.
External service, sometimes called engagement or outreach, is serving as an subject-matter expert (SME) reviewer for technical journals, conferences, workshops and industry/government funding agencies. To offer your expertise in reviewing papers and/or proposals is a great opportunity to keep up-to-date on the technical advances within your specific field. It is a donation of your time and expertise. It's also a bit of flattery for you to be asked to serve in this reviewer capacity. External service can be a distraction from promotion & tenure (P&T) focused activities, e.g., research. But, this is part of a time-intensive multi-year effort to carve your research niche, to academically brand yourself and to show consistent evidence of your good stewardship.
What's your "reward" for this time and expertise donation? (1) you can providing tangible evidence of societal impact of your research and teaching efforts and (2) you have access discipline-specific colleagues e.g., research collaborators, P&T external letter writers, position reference letters and career opportunities. Essentially, the benefits are building your technical reputation and growing your professional network which outweighs the time spent reading and writing your reviews. SME reviewing is a byproduct of submitting grant proposals, publishing journal articles/conference papers and attending technical and professional development conferences. As your good reputation grows, you will become the chair of workshops, conference and/or serving as a journal editor.
Naturally, you may wonder how do you become a reviewer? (1) you must do good work, (2) you should publish it in a well-respected technical venue and (3) you should have at least one influential member within your field to introduce and advocate for you. To do good work, you must know the related literature, articulate your problem's scope, significance and motivation. Then, you must formulate a novel solution and conduct experiments that show the intellectual merit of your solution. A peer-reviewed, high-quality and preferably low-acceptance rate publishing venue is optimal for your research work. Your instructor or MS/PhD advisor suggest the publication avenue initially. If the research is accepted for publication and you are presenting the work, a seasoned member of the community, e.g., your instructor, MS/PhD advisor or co-author, can be a great gateway to meet others and could lead to more opportunities.
For us #dataheads, data-centric publication venues and meetings are plentiful so I won't be providing a comprehensive list here. In fact, I'll direct you to the KDNuggets monthly list: http://www.kdnuggets.com/meetings/. As for me, I will be reviewing conference and workshop papers by serving on 4 Program Committees this summer:
The advice typically given to new faculty is don’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ right away. You can say you have to review your schedule or you may decide ask follow up questions as to the amount of time and/or responsibility affiliated with the committee. Then you can make a better informed decision. The impact of accepting too much or less-beneficial-to-your-academic-career committee work may cause havoc to fulfilling your research agenda.
I rank committee work impact and its time commitment (from most desirable to least desirable) for any faculty member as follows.
S = w1*r+w2*t+w3*s where w1+w2+w3 = 1 s.t. wi > 0 and r+t+s = 1 s.t. r > 0, t>0, s>0
This post and next two posts will be dedicated diving deeper into a faculty's research, learning and service initiatives. Most institutions value research, then teaching, and lastly service. But, I'll discuss service first since it results in the most direct impact on an individual faculty member, and thus a cascading positive impact on your home institution.
External service, sometimes called engagement or outreach, is serving as an subject-matter expert (SME) reviewer for technical journals, conferences, workshops and industry/government funding agencies. To offer your expertise in reviewing papers and/or proposals is a great opportunity to keep up-to-date on the technical advances within your specific field. It is a donation of your time and expertise. It's also a bit of flattery for you to be asked to serve in this reviewer capacity. External service can be a distraction from promotion & tenure (P&T) focused activities, e.g., research. But, this is part of a time-intensive multi-year effort to carve your research niche, to academically brand yourself and to show consistent evidence of your good stewardship.
What's your "reward" for this time and expertise donation? (1) you can providing tangible evidence of societal impact of your research and teaching efforts and (2) you have access discipline-specific colleagues e.g., research collaborators, P&T external letter writers, position reference letters and career opportunities. Essentially, the benefits are building your technical reputation and growing your professional network which outweighs the time spent reading and writing your reviews. SME reviewing is a byproduct of submitting grant proposals, publishing journal articles/conference papers and attending technical and professional development conferences. As your good reputation grows, you will become the chair of workshops, conference and/or serving as a journal editor.
Naturally, you may wonder how do you become a reviewer? (1) you must do good work, (2) you should publish it in a well-respected technical venue and (3) you should have at least one influential member within your field to introduce and advocate for you. To do good work, you must know the related literature, articulate your problem's scope, significance and motivation. Then, you must formulate a novel solution and conduct experiments that show the intellectual merit of your solution. A peer-reviewed, high-quality and preferably low-acceptance rate publishing venue is optimal for your research work. Your instructor or MS/PhD advisor suggest the publication avenue initially. If the research is accepted for publication and you are presenting the work, a seasoned member of the community, e.g., your instructor, MS/PhD advisor or co-author, can be a great gateway to meet others and could lead to more opportunities.
For us #dataheads, data-centric publication venues and meetings are plentiful so I won't be providing a comprehensive list here. In fact, I'll direct you to the KDNuggets monthly list: http://www.kdnuggets.com/meetings/. As for me, I will be reviewing conference and workshop papers by serving on 4 Program Committees this summer:
- International Workshop on Big Data Security and Privacy 2014
- International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics 2014
- IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia 2014
- IEEE International Conference on Data Mining 2014
The advice typically given to new faculty is don’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ right away. You can say you have to review your schedule or you may decide ask follow up questions as to the amount of time and/or responsibility affiliated with the committee. Then you can make a better informed decision. The impact of accepting too much or less-beneficial-to-your-academic-career committee work may cause havoc to fulfilling your research agenda.
I rank committee work impact and its time commitment (from most desirable to least desirable) for any faculty member as follows.
- high impact, minimal time, e.g., graduate applicant selection committee
- low impact, minimal time, e.g., e.g., faculty grievance committee,
- low impact, exponential time e.g., faculty search committee,
- high impact, exponential time, e.g., departmental accreditation committee, curriculum committee, faculty senate/university senate (typically an appointed tenured faculty member)
Sunday, May 11, 2014
#GradingJail
Teaching and student learning can become hefty part of the college professor life. Instructors must consider what are the students’ prior knowledge, students’ expectations, reasonable course topic presentation order, course assessment mechanisms and degree program’s learning outcomes.
End of term grading (EOT #GradingJail) includes, but not limited to: the duration between end of classes and when term grades are due. It's one of the academic stressors. First, there is a short amount of time to score the last assignment, final project deliverable and/or final-term exam. Second, students seem to all of a sudden know my name, email and office location by end of the term in an effort to meet with me about their performance, or lack thereof, in the course. Third, the non-teaching responsibilities mound as internal and external reports are due to various levels of the institution's administration. But the #GradingJail stressor can be managed. The one and only rule I have to share is protect yourself from the potential disgruntled students and grade appeals.
Course Syllabus
EOT #GradingJail starts at the beginning of the semester. Here's a highlight reel of my course policies:
Instructor Feedback
Providing feedback, especially in a timely fashion, is important for student learning. However, students attempt to garner favor at every turn so being savvy to their tactics is must. Hold them accountable and be accountable. Be consistent and tough but fair in your grading. Be prepared to easily (and frequently) answer 5 of 6 information gathering questions concerning your coursework feedback policies.
Academic Integrity and Dishonesty
As required by every institution, instructors are to include the student plagiarism policy to their course syllabus. My years as a GTA and instructor has taught me the following. Those who plagiarize know exactly what they chose to do. Most of those who plagiarize then expect grace and mercy. I give them none. I suggest you do the same.
We mark the end of another term. Spring 2014 is put to bed. Congratulations, you survived it.
------------------------------------------------
More On Brandeis Marshall's Teaching Credentials
End of term grading (EOT #GradingJail) includes, but not limited to: the duration between end of classes and when term grades are due. It's one of the academic stressors. First, there is a short amount of time to score the last assignment, final project deliverable and/or final-term exam. Second, students seem to all of a sudden know my name, email and office location by end of the term in an effort to meet with me about their performance, or lack thereof, in the course. Third, the non-teaching responsibilities mound as internal and external reports are due to various levels of the institution's administration. But the #GradingJail stressor can be managed. The one and only rule I have to share is protect yourself from the potential disgruntled students and grade appeals.
Course Syllabus
EOT #GradingJail starts at the beginning of the semester. Here's a highlight reel of my course policies:
- Assignments are due on a <date> at <time>. Any assignment will be penalized 25% of the original possible score if it is turned in within 24 hours of the due date and time. It will be graded based upon 50% of the original possible score if it is turned within 24 to 48 hours of the original due date/time. No assignment will be accepted later than that.
- Graded exams and quizzes will not be returned. To review a graded exam or quiz, the student must make an appointment with the instructor.
- To discuss a grade-related matter, the student must make an appointment with the instructor. The instructor will not discuss any grade-related matter over email or in the presence of other students, unless it’s concerning a team project.
- A student has one week to inquire and submit an appeal about his/her score after it is posted to Blackboard. After one week, the score will be final. The GTA (graduate teaching assistant) or I will send an announcement via Blackboard when scores are posted. Note: The one week appeal period helps circumvent student EOT point haggling.
- Life is not True/False or Multiple Choice so neither are any assignments in this course. In other words, no T/F or MC questions.
Instructor Feedback
Providing feedback, especially in a timely fashion, is important for student learning. However, students attempt to garner favor at every turn so being savvy to their tactics is must. Hold them accountable and be accountable. Be consistent and tough but fair in your grading. Be prepared to easily (and frequently) answer 5 of 6 information gathering questions concerning your coursework feedback policies.
- Q1: Who provides the feedback?
- A1. Instructor and/or GTA
- Q2: What are the feedback avenues?
- A2. Assessment mechanisms can include homework assignments, labs, exams, in-class exercises, course project deliverables and peer reviews.
- Q3: When will the student receive feedback?
- A3. Digitally through comments on graded homework and lab assignments. Face-to-face conversations during lecture, office hours and scheduled appointments
- Q4: Where will the student receive feedback?
- A4. For the online submitted assignments, Blackboard or another course management system. For written submitted coursework, comments are hand-written on the coursework so the student must see the instructor to view these comments.
- Q5: How will the feedback be given to the student?
- A5. Typed, written and orally. I strongly suggest that instructors devise an evaluation/grading rubric for each assignment. When students argue for points, and they will, you reference your grading rubric. I am in favor of using a matrix-style rubric. The rows are the instructor-defined evaluation criteria and the columns are labelled no evidence, does not meet expectations, meets expectations and exceeds expectations. Then, the instructor can assign the point structure as appropriate. The release of the grading rubric to the students is at the instructor's discretion.
Academic Integrity and Dishonesty
As required by every institution, instructors are to include the student plagiarism policy to their course syllabus. My years as a GTA and instructor has taught me the following. Those who plagiarize know exactly what they chose to do. Most of those who plagiarize then expect grace and mercy. I give them none. I suggest you do the same.
We mark the end of another term. Spring 2014 is put to bed. Congratulations, you survived it.
------------------------------------------------
More On Brandeis Marshall's Teaching Credentials
I have integrated my business intelligence expertise into Purdue's CIT undergraduate and graduate curriculum. With over 250 student enrollments, I have incorporated problem-based learning as a central theme into CNIT 39200 (Enterprise Data Management), CNIT 31500 (Systems Engineering) and designed CNIT 49900 (Data Integration on the Web) an elective undergraduate course, CNIT 58100 (Data Integration on the Web) for graduate students interested in information retrieval and CNIT 62300 (Research Methods in Computing) for MS Thesis graduate students. To expand my teaching strategies, I was awarded Purdue's Teaching for Tomorrow Fellowship for the 2013-2014 academic year. In addition, I have participated in graduate research mentorship as a member of 20 committees, 1 of which is a PhD Dissertation committee, chairing 6 MS Theses and co-authored 8 refereed publications with graduate students. I have graduated 5 MS Thesis students to date.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Email: A Communication Archive Engine
Email is slow according to today's
high expectations of immediate response and feedback. However, it is
considered the more formal mode of communication, especially for
employers. Email etiquette is synonymous with writing a
hand-written note and sending it via USPS. To understand and perform the sweet science of emailing, you can purchase any number of books or for free via articles/blogs on the subject, e.g., "The Art of Email Writing" by P. Vassallo.
Nevertheless, email writing rules mimic those of letter writing: greeting, body introduction, body content,
closing, signature.
Email writing and responding, circa 2014, is a necessary evil. Admittedly, I have a love-hate relationship with email. I have two big pet peeves. The first irritation is receiving an email indicating that another email is en route in the near-future. I mean, why even bother sending the email in the first place? I just don't get it. I wish the sender would just wait and send me all the information in one email. Or better yet, call me or tell me in a face-to-face conversation. Woah, crazy talk. It sounds too much like right. Let me just move on. The second irritation is the inappropriate use of the "reply all" feature. The situation is all too common: an email with a list of recipients is sent and the recipients respond to all on the original email rather than just the proper individual, e.g. congratulatory notes, e-introductions, etc.
Quick "Reply All" usage tip: do not "reply all" UNLESS one of these conditions holds true: you are sharing common information to a group e.g., reporting up your chain of command (cya/cyoa), you are eliciting a group-email discussion, e.g., when/where to meet, or you are attempting to resolve some sort of small miscommunication.
Email has unfortunately been used as a replacement for, rather than to augment, face-to-face conversations. Misinterpretation, miscommunication and downright rudeness are the bad effects. Hence, my love-hate relationship with this technological advance. In recent months, many strive to obtain the inbox zero status - an email management effort to have as few (optimally zero) messages in your email inbox. Effective organization of folders and email deletion rules can help achieve the zero inbox. The benefits purported as less clutter, less stress and focusing your attention on important things. I'm marching toward the zero inbox, but I ran into a hiccup on my Apple devices. The Apple folder structure doesn't exist (essentially you must create another mailbox), which is not viewable to the root mailbox. I rely on email deletion rules, Evernote and leveraging my laptop's folder structure. I've reduced my professional email box count from ~2000 to ~1000 messages.
The introduction of other digital communication mediums (messaging, texting, FB inbox, tweeting and all other social media) has rendered email archaic. But I've discovered a revived appreciation for email during this zero inbox experience. Email has one last stand, one significant advantage that those other digital communication mediums. Conversation archiving. I have found myself in situations over the past few months where being able to quickly access (and then forward) the original email or email exchange has circumvented additional emails and stress. I no longer desire the zero inbox instead I strive for periodically identifying and archiving relevant email conversations.
Quick email tip: some individuals are more comfortable using email, rather than face-to-face or phone conversations. When I encounter this situation, I sculpt my email to elicit a response from them, usually by ending my email with a question.
Here's a few of my email inbox management tricks. To better understand my tricks, I receive email from the following groups as a college professor: my institution's administration, colleagues/peers, graduate students, undergraduate students and prospective graduate students.
I classify email messages into three bins:
Email writing and responding, circa 2014, is a necessary evil. Admittedly, I have a love-hate relationship with email. I have two big pet peeves. The first irritation is receiving an email indicating that another email is en route in the near-future. I mean, why even bother sending the email in the first place? I just don't get it. I wish the sender would just wait and send me all the information in one email. Or better yet, call me or tell me in a face-to-face conversation. Woah, crazy talk. It sounds too much like right. Let me just move on. The second irritation is the inappropriate use of the "reply all" feature. The situation is all too common: an email with a list of recipients is sent and the recipients respond to all on the original email rather than just the proper individual, e.g. congratulatory notes, e-introductions, etc.
Quick "Reply All" usage tip: do not "reply all" UNLESS one of these conditions holds true: you are sharing common information to a group e.g., reporting up your chain of command (cya/cyoa), you are eliciting a group-email discussion, e.g., when/where to meet, or you are attempting to resolve some sort of small miscommunication.
Email has unfortunately been used as a replacement for, rather than to augment, face-to-face conversations. Misinterpretation, miscommunication and downright rudeness are the bad effects. Hence, my love-hate relationship with this technological advance. In recent months, many strive to obtain the inbox zero status - an email management effort to have as few (optimally zero) messages in your email inbox. Effective organization of folders and email deletion rules can help achieve the zero inbox. The benefits purported as less clutter, less stress and focusing your attention on important things. I'm marching toward the zero inbox, but I ran into a hiccup on my Apple devices. The Apple folder structure doesn't exist (essentially you must create another mailbox), which is not viewable to the root mailbox. I rely on email deletion rules, Evernote and leveraging my laptop's folder structure. I've reduced my professional email box count from ~2000 to ~1000 messages.
The introduction of other digital communication mediums (messaging, texting, FB inbox, tweeting and all other social media) has rendered email archaic. But I've discovered a revived appreciation for email during this zero inbox experience. Email has one last stand, one significant advantage that those other digital communication mediums. Conversation archiving. I have found myself in situations over the past few months where being able to quickly access (and then forward) the original email or email exchange has circumvented additional emails and stress. I no longer desire the zero inbox instead I strive for periodically identifying and archiving relevant email conversations.
Quick email tip: some individuals are more comfortable using email, rather than face-to-face or phone conversations. When I encounter this situation, I sculpt my email to elicit a response from them, usually by ending my email with a question.
Here's a few of my email inbox management tricks. To better understand my tricks, I receive email from the following groups as a college professor: my institution's administration, colleagues/peers, graduate students, undergraduate students and prospective graduate students.
I classify email messages into three bins:
- Informational: These messages are meant to keep you in the loop. You must decide if being in the loop is what you want. If so, you can note the information. Regardless, simply delete the email. Disclaimer: Email responses are not warranted. Depending on the email culture, a corresponding acknowledgement message may be considered the proper rules of engagement.
- Discussion: These messages are meant to help minimize miscommunication and misinterpretation of the email recipients. The sharing of ideas and solutions tends to ensue as the different perspectives reveal themselves. In my discipline of computing, we call this sentiment analysis or opinion mining. It's very hard to accomplish through email exchanges. I prefer to handle these situations either face-to-face or over the phone. If a resolution has not been reached, then keep the most recent email, which should include the entire email chain. You avoid information loss and you can delete the other intermediary emails. Disclaimer: email responses are expected but not required.
- Decision: These messages are an attempt to reach a consensus of a group. Most recipients elect to use the Reply All feature in an effort to come to a consensus quicker. In the professional environment, a decision maker is met with either joy or dislike. Joy to those who are indecisive or prefer not to make a decision. Disliked by those who don't agree with the decision rendered. In most cases, it's email polite to state your decision clearly. As with the discussion emails, keep the most recent email, which should include the entire email chain, and delete the rest. Disclaimer: You may not actually care about the topic in which your decision is required. But the decisive trait and making good decisions reveals your potential for future promotions.
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