Effective Teaching and Learning

The first module of the teaching online workshop begins with faculty reflecting on their own personal learning experiences to identify teaching practices that are effective in promoting learning. They consider the following questions;


-Describe a positive teaching/ training session you have experienced.

-What did you learn?

-How did you learn it?

-What teaching practices did the instructor employ to make it a positive learning experience?

-Describe a negative learning experience?

-What had you hoped to learn?

-What teaching practices where not employed and made it a negative learning experience?

Subsequently, they form groups and share their learning experiences. Together, they establish a consensus on a list of 5 best practices for teaching.

Througout the workshop we try to model the Seven Principles of Effective Teaching: as outlined by Graham et. al. (2001) in their adoption of Chickering & Gamson's (1987) criteria for evaluating traditional teaching practices.

This is followed by a presentation from a faculty mentor who shares their insights and experiences with web-based instruction, including some practical strategies for engaging students online.

Sample Faculty Mentor Profile

L is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biomedical Communications where she has taught a visual problem solving course since 1983. In 1999 she integrated Web Knowledge Forum with f2f learning strategies in this course. Student feedback was extremely positive and resulted in 2 teaching awards and 1 division award. Recently she successfully conducted a comparative study using Web Knowledge Forum and WebCT in a UT interprofessional health sciences education initiative. L has a B.A. in English and Fine Arts, a B.Sc.AAM in Art as Applied to Medicine, a M.Ed. in Higher Education (Health Professional Specialization) and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the same field focusing on Knowledge Building/Knowledge Forum.

The purpose of the presentation is to illustrate how the practice of teaching is translated into the online medium. The focus in the first unit, on the practice of teaching and the process of learning reinforces the importance of the pedagogical considerations in adopting educational technology. The activities in this unit are designed so that faculty examine their current teaching practice and identify an appropriate instructional paradigm given their preferred teaching style, learner characteristics and subject matter. Once faculty have clearly articulated a model for teaching, they are in the position to begin analyzing their instruction to discover an opportunity for adopting technology and an appropriate strategy within their course.

References
Chickering, A., & Gamson, Z. (1987). Seven principles of good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39, 3-7.

Graham, C., Cagiltay, K., Lim, B., Craner, J., & Duffy, T. M. (2001). Seven principles of effective teaching: A practical lens for evaluating online courses. The Technology Source, March/April. [online ] Available: http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=839.