Exams before every class

Using your LMS can help greatly.

–How to create tests in Blackboard:

http://help.unc.edu/5476

http://at.boisestate.edu/elearning/blackboard/faculty/QGenerator/help.asp

http://blackboardtips.blogspot.com/2007/01/tips-for-deploying-test-in-blackboard.html

Exams create more class time and raise standards while also lowering the stakes.

Just in Time Teaching (JiTT):

Learn more: http://jittdl.physics.iupui.edu/jitt/

http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/justintime/index.html

There is more on writing better multiple choice questions and using Bloom formats in the General Resources Section: LINKS

Undermining Google: Using Summary Sights.

Students use them anyway, so enlist them in student preparation.

1. Describe: Have students read two very different summaries or views and have them describe the differences. Then have them read the original source material, so that they have a basis for comparison.

2. Compile: Make a chart of the differences among a large body of summary sites to find the best one.

3. Compare: Give students an authored site that you know is good (perhaps an academic site) and have them compare it a blogged source or to one they find through Google. Give them a structure to help them make the comparison.

4. Evaluate: Find the best animation or tutorial on general relatively, Picasso or the Electoral College. Why is it better?  For a variation, require half of your students to read the textbook and allow the other half try to figure out the concept using the internet.

5. Critique: Ask students to critique a popular online source.  Is there a bias in the Wikipedia article on George Washington? Are there factual errors?  What information is left out?

Ask students to write down these analyses before class (blog or post works) or have them bring an index card with this on one side.  Then exchange index cards, and have other students respond/critique.

Book José Bowen to come to your campus and talk about improving your students’ preparation.