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Helping Students Succeed in "Scary" Classes

Mary Jo Davidson, PhD

Jarvis School of Computing and Digital Media

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DePaul University

Teaching and Learning Conference – 2023

May 5, 2023

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Today's Conversation

  • What is a "scary" class ?

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  • My experience….how I came to this topic

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  • Possible Outcomes of a "scary" class

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  • How to obtain good outcomes

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  • Suggested philosophies/techniques

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What is a "scary" class……?

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  • One that a student "has to" take or "needs" to take

………but doesn't feel good about it/thinks it will be a bad experience

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  • For me
    • High school – Typing
      • Poor finger dexterity, no interest in practicing, little understanding of the value

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  • For our students
    • Liberal Studies courses - an important part of a liberal arts education

…but……..I have never been good at "yyy" *****of greatest interest for today's topic*****

    • "Grinder" courses in their major – organic chemistry for pre-med

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My experience …how I came to this topic

  • Teaching "scary" classes in Liberal Studies Program at DePaul

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    • LSP 121 – Quantitative Reasoning and Technological Literacy II
    • IT 123 – Intro to Computational Reasoning

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  • Both are attached to that consistently "scary" topic – math

…and attached to that "scary" unknown topic – computing

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  • When asked about concerns for the class in student survey…

Frequent comment:

"I've never been good at / don't like / have had bad experiences with

…. math……computers……."

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Possible outcomes of a "scary" class

  • Bad
    • Greater fear of the topic
    • Continued prejudice
    • No/little learning
    • Anger at sponsors of the course
    • Cheating – academic integrity violations

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  • Good – beyond knowledge of the topic
    • "I can do this….I can do anything I set out to do"
    • Greater confidence/resilience/courage
    • "Life-long learning" mindset
    • Increased interest in topics beyond their current favorites
    • Ability to overcome challenges
    • "I will reach out when I need to"

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How to obtain those good outcomes

  • Recommended Philosophies/Techniques

  • Patience ….don't jump

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  • Learn from students…and others

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Recommended Philosophies/Techniques�

  • Structure
    • Consistency
    • Weekly Modules
    • The Latest News
  • Scaffolding
    • Use-Modify-Create
      • Models and how to use them
  • "Where do I stand ?"
    • Early feedback
    • "Fastest grader in the West"
    • Points earned to date
  • "Blown To Bits" - our textbook and Discussion Postings
    • Recommended Follow-up readings
  • What to do about cheating
    • The stick
      • Penalties for Academic Integrity Violations
    • The carrot
      • This class is important

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Structure – Consistency

  • Weekly Modules
    • Each module build on the prior modules
  • All work for a module due on the same day/time each week
  • D2L can be our greatest ally
    • Organization
    • Guide to each module
    • For each module
      • Lectures and Activities
      • Readings
      • Assignments for Evaluation

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Declutter

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Scaffolding

  • Use – Modify - Create
  • Especially effective for rookies
  • Provides an example/model as a starting point
  • Models must be straight-forward
  • Most successful models relate directly to the module project assignment
  • Instructions for using models must specific
  • There is a fine line between using a model to create new work and copying/cheating
    • You must know the model very well in order to recognize the difference

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Providing a Starting Point and Iterating

Use, Modify, Create: Comparing Computational Thinking Lesson Progressions for STEM Classes

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"Where do I stand ?"

  • Early feedback

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  • Fastest Grader in the West

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  • Points Earned to date

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Early Feedback

  • Gives students a better sense of their own status in class
    • D2L supports this very well
    • Review student work submitted to D2L before the due date/time (at least a day before)
    • Send student feedback via email (including issues to resolve) and post feedback on submission in draft mode
    • Student may revise and re-submit before the due date/time

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  • Benefits
    • Gives student greater confidence
    • Gives me an early look at the work and spreads evaluation effort out

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Early Feedback - D2L Main Page

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Work Available

for review

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In the course section you want to review

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D2L Submissions

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New – un-graded

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Review the Submission –�with comment on issues in draft

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Create email via D2L Classlist

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Email to student – review shows issues

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Review the Submission –�good news in draft

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Email to student – good news

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"Fastest grader in the West"

  • Early feedback helps

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  • D2L components support the process

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Points Earned to Date

  • Final grade based on 1000 points for the quarter

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  • Calculated D2L grade item that shows points earned to date and percentage

(Center for Teaching & Learning folks helped immensely on this)

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Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion, second edition

  • Our text book

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Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen,Harry Lewis,Wendy Seltzer

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https://www.bitsbook.com/

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B2B - Discussion Topic�what would you like to know more about?

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Tells me what to recommend

they read next (optional for them)

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My treasure trove of readings to recommend�for each module

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What to do about Cheating

  • The stick
    • Academic Integrity Violation reporting and follow-up
    • "I will report you if you copy/cheat"

(I have done that….it is grindingly sad and sends my energy in a bad direction)

    • Notes in syllabi to outline consequences

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  • The carrot
    • The message to convey
      • This course is important …..and here's why

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This course is important ……and here's why

  • Presented in IT 123 – Spring 2022-2023

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  • For Autumn 2023-2024 ………..adding in thoughts from:

Jobin, A., Ienca, M., & Vayena, E. (2019). The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1(9), 389-399.

Principles

Non-maleficence (do good things, no harm)

Responsibility or accountability (who is responsible when things go wrong?)

Transparency and explainability (can you explain why AI produced these results?)

Justice and fairness (is this fair?)

Respect for various human rights, such as privacy and security (are rights protected?)

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Patience

  • Don’t jump to conclusions

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  • Sometimes students answer their own questions

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Learn from students ….and others

  • Evolve it

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  • See above – This course is important…and here's why

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Thank you for your kind attention to my musings

Please let me know if ……

you have questions or comments or follow-up

Happy Trails to You

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Mary Jo (MJ) Davidson

m.j.davidson@depaul.edu

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