New Educators Roundtable - SIGCSE 2011

	New Educators Roundtable - SIGCSE 2011
	Info People Advice Topics Schedule
	Things I wish I had known... Julie Zelenski, Stanford University Ask students to email you a self photo and save them. You can review them to learn names and use them to match names to faces later when you get rec letter requests and so on. I'm a big fan of late days -- give students a "free" number of small self-granted extensions. This conserves your time/energy by avoiding the small stuff. You only get involved on serious issues. Make notes to yourself post-mortem (how that lecture went, what students had trouble with on this assignment, what curve was produced by an exam problem) at the time when your memory is fresh. Then be sure to put that information where you will see it the next time you give a similar lecture/assignment/exam -- I tend to add it to the top of the document itself (my lecture slides, the assignment handout, etc.) in a stand-out font/color so I can't miss it. For me, it is near impossible to write an exam that is too easy and conversely quite easy to make it too hard. Even if you adjust points to "fix" after the fact, the too difficult exam still has many harmful consequences on student motivation and self-esteem. So I work to be mindful when creating exams, knowing my own tendencies are to err on difficulty. Starting from the learning goals and rubric tends to help keep me focused on making sure I'm testing exactly what I intend and getting the evaluation data I need while avoiding noise such as effects from time pressure, non-native language, and so on. Stanford has an excellent "Center for Teaching and Learning" , your school may have something similar, look into it. Our center helps with TA training, regularly bring interesting speakers to campus, arrange for workshops and discussions on educational issues, and so on. They also provide one-on-one consultation where they observe in your class and offer feedback and advice. Dave Reed, Creighton University Be realistic! With a full teaching load of three courses, I have found that I can be creative and innovative in only one course at a time. In the other courses, I need to rely heavily on past courses or material borrowed from others. Anything beyond this requires Herculean effort. For new faculty who are facing multiple new preparations, realize that you are going to have to rely on colleagues and textbook publishers for help early on. If you are teaching a course or topic you don't know particularly well, do what your students do - Google it. There are all kinds of tutorials about virtually every CS topic out there, not to mention many course lectures that you may find useful. Finding a good example for a topic, different from the one in the text book, can be very instructive for you and your students. Students really appreciate having all of the course materials (e.g., syllabus, reading and homework assignments, lecture notes) online. This can be done using course management software (e.g., Blackboard, Moodle) or just in a well-organized Web page. While students never like "hard" tests, they are much more upset by what they see as "unfair" tests. A test is not the place to surprise your students with new styles of questions that make them think in completely new ways. It is okay to have some "outside of the box" questions, but make sure that there is enough variety in the questions to allow students to show what they know and can do. Posting sample questions that show them the types of questions to expect will help students to prepare and perform to their ability level. In intro-level courses, I like to have frequent quizzes to provide feedback to the students on how they are doing (and to encourage them to keep up). Daily quizzes take a lot of class time, however. Instead, I have gone with random quizzes. I have made a Let's Make a Deal style board with two doors - one of which has a card saying QUIZ and the other NO QUIZ. A randomly selected student will pick for the class, and if the QUIZ door is picked, that day's quiz will be taken and graded. If NO QUIZ is picked, the students get the quiz sheet to take home and self-test. In large classes, you have got to go with a preset grading rubric and limit the amount of time you spend grading a programming assignment. In smaller classes, it is tempting to spend a lot of time debugging the student's code so you know exactly where they went wrong. This is a serious time sink. I try to set a time limit for each program. If I spend the allotted time on an assignment and still haven't tracked down every bug, I assign a grade based on my overall assessment, and encourage students who think that the assigned grade is too harsh to come to my office and work through the details to convince me. Instead of "grace days", I have a uniform policy on late assignments. An assignment can be turned in up to one week late for a 25% penalty. The penalty is harsh enough to encourage students to keep up, but a student who is far from done is given a full week to seek the help he/she needs and complete the work. When starting a new job, beware of walking blindly into departmental politics. Try to stay neutral in both personality and pedagogical conflicts until you have a chance to get to know the program, the people, and their motivations. Do everything you can to meet faculty members from outside your department. Attend college events and go to seminars in other departments. It is good to get a different perspective on your institution and your department early on. Plus, making colleagues and building an identity for yourself outside of the department will be key when it comes time for tenure. Likewise, try to develop colleagues at nearby institutions. They are great resources when you need to teach a new course or just need advice. Attending posted seminars, programming contests, or regional conferences such as CCSC are good ways to make connections. Valerie Barr, Union College Hand out large index cards on the first day that students make into name cards for their desk. Have them bring them to class every day until you learn their names. Before you make an exam, make a list of what knowledge and skills you are testing. Then make problems that test those items. Make sure that there is a mix of difficulties, some problems that are straightforward repeats of things done already, some problems that demonstrate ability to apply knowledge. Do the exam yourself, and have at least one colleague read it over. Don't be afraid of silence in the room when you ask a question. Listen to the tone of your voice. Don't be patronizing, no matter how hard it is to believe that a student doesn't understand something. And sarcasm does not work in the classroom! It can be very effective to have students answer each other's questions. But it can also be very effective to have students restate the question! Keep track of who speaks up, who asks and answers questions. Develop mechanisms for making sure that everyone gets called on at some point, and announce these in class. Quiet students often need to know in advance that it's going to be their turn. If you are walking code, go around the room and have each student say what happens next. They need to hear their own voice in the room in order to become comfortable speaking up. Get groups working up at the board together! This is great, even better than pair programming (though only effective if the class is small enough for them to all get board space at once). Do all the assignments and projects in advance, before assigning them. If you "borrow" projects or assignments from colleagues, make sure all the software runs appropriately on your system before you have the students start working on it. You will have to be more patient than you thought possible. There's nothing quite like the AHA moment, especially when it comes in the middle of class and everyone realizes that someone just got it! Susan Haller, State University of New York at Potsdam Everything that everyone else has mentioned. Be punctual and organized. They will do what you do. Take time to use the board now and then. If it is a big class, the board on a tablet PC works. It slows down the pace, and gives students a chance to follow what is going on. Pick your battles. The students are not going to be perfect. Decide what outcomes are most important in your course. Focus on those. Reinforce thinking in class. Even if they are on the wrong track, take the time (sometimes) to work through their bad reasoning until they see what their own problem is. Remind them that it is fine to make mistakes, big mistakes that consume lots of time. It is a valuable form of learning. Stuart Reges, University of Washington Solve your own homework Until someone writes a solution to the homework, you don't know whether the level of difficulty is right or that it even can be solved with the techniques you have taught them Even if someone else has solved the problem, it is important for you to solve it so that you can get into the right mindset to teach the material leading up to the assignment and to make sure the writeup gives appropriate guidance Encourage your best students You may not realize how much power you have to influence your students with just a few words of encouragement We often devote an inordinate amount of our time to our worst students, so it's important to make time for the best Personal encouragement is best, but even mass emails can be effective (e.g., "Your grade in this class indicates to me that you have a talent for computer science and would do well in the major...I would be happy to talk to you about this") Partner with talented undergrads Undergrads are an underutilized resource Ownership is key: a partner with significant responsibility, not a worker who takes orders Undergrad-TA program at Stanford, Arizona, Washington: TAs teach section, grade, serve as on-duty helper in the lab Undergrads coordinate the program, including selection and training of new TAs emphasis on community, teaching Range of questions on exams Have a range of difficulty in your exam questions: Some simple, mechanical, confidence building questions Some medium questions that require nontrivial problem solving at least one challenging question to distinguish at the high end My cs1 midterm: 60 points mechanical 30 points problem solving 10 points "super hard" "Program Mystery" questions Computer scientists are good at simulating the execution of arbitrary bits of code (algorithmic thinking) We should encourage this in all of our students by asking "What does the following code do?" Effect of b = (b == false) for boolean b? Use it for: expressions, parameters, if/else, loops, arrays, recursion, inheritance Distribute sample exams Best way to prepare your students for exams Use old exams as your source Show them exactly what structure you have planned Reduces test anxiety while allowing you to still ask hard questions Leads to extra learning because you've told them exactly what to study Pass it out a week before the test, distribute a key in the lecture before the test Second sample exam/key in section Section participation score As an incentive to attend section, have a participation score equal in weight to a weekly programming assignment Make it fairly easy to get 100%, even if you miss some sections I give 3 points per section up to 20 (full credit for attending 7 of 10) Especially helpful in cs1 for nervous students Problem/Key handouts Give your TAs two handouts to copy each week: problems and a key Recycle old exam questions into section handouts Overload the handout so students have lots of practice problems to do on their own (do only a few in section) Don't post section handouts on the web (encourage them to go to section) Adjust exam scores Even experienced instructors badly misjudge exam difficulty and give �killer� exams This can be devastating to some students (especially women) and can poison the classroom atmosphere If your exam is too hard, add points to everyone's score right away Students will forgive anything if you're honest and willing to admit a mistake To adjust I aim for a midterm median of 80, a final median of 75, at least 20% A's Offer an Honors Section Meet weekly with honors students (and others with high grades) Most important thing is interaction with you (seeing a real computer scientist up close) Second most important is interaction with each other (they're your smartest students) Read a book with them (e.g., Battelle's The Search) Discuss whatever you find fun: Rubik's cube, Qubic, meta, memes, infinity, liar's paradox, RSA encryption, halting problem Steve Wolfman, University of British Columbia Time spent reflecting on your teaching and writing about it has a huge "return on investment", even though it feels like a waste of time you cannot possibly afford at the moment you do it. At least if you teach big classes, be more organized and punctual than you can possibly imagine everyone else being, even if that's entirely contrary to your nature. (E.g., I make--and post in advance--detailed staff meeting agendas every week for the 22 TAs in my two courses this term.) From the 2010 New Educators Roundtable... Mark Stehlik, Carnegie Mellon University Teaching takes time! Prep time - I used to write out all my lectures in advance to help plan the flow. Office hour time - if you're not knee-deep in office hours, you're probably not aiming high enough! Check time - make sure you or, if you are fortunate enough to have them, your TA's write solutions to assignments and exams in advance. A good rule of thumb is a factor of 3 or 4 (i.e., if it takes you 2 hours to write the solution, it will take them 6-8). Be enthusiastic This is not a personality issue, though it sounds like it is - regardless of how enthusiastic you are, you can always demonstrate enthusiasm for the material. Put another way, if you're not excited about what you're teaching, why should your students be? Get to know your students! Of course, the best way is to take roll early and often, but this can also be accomplished with quiz/assignment handbacks. This is hard in large lectures, but even there, one can at least familiarize oneself with the students who come regularly to office hours. Be flexible! Across multiple dimensions: Yours is not the only course they have, so be prepared to alter a due date or exam date so as to not overwhelm everyone with N things in a day. We've had sophomore courses that students take concurrently have due dates fall on the same day of the week - that's guaranteed to result in problems. A particular lesson might not work - be prepared to re-do a topic if the students haven't picked it up, or to jettison a thread that isn't working. And if something doesn't work, try to figure out why - was it you/them/the weather? A particular exam question (or exam!) might not work - be prepared to normalize if necessary But hold the bar high and make sure you're pushing all the students Have bonus questions on assignments to challenge the high achievers, and support the bottom-end with office hours to get them over the bar Exams... Exams in a course serve two fundamental purposes: (1) to indirectly measure a student's mastery of course material in order to determine a grade, and (2) to provide feedback to both students and the course instructor concerning what material has been mastered (well taught) or not mastered (poorly taught). It is often easy to focus on the first objective and ignore the second. The second, though, is the more important objective. If you design your exams to provide excellent feedback, they should also provide a solid basis for determining final grades. Each problem or subproblem should test one concept or skill which was to be learned in the course (with the exception of synthesis questions). Testing different concepts or skills in different problems or subproblems maximizes feedback. Try to decouple subparts of a problem. This facilitates grading and is fairer to the student who may miss one part and otherwise give up on the rest of the problem. Only exceptional students can be expected to solve a "novel" problem under exam conditions. State the problem as clearly as possible and proofread your questions carefully, not only for typographical errors, but also for ambiguous problem statements. This is especially important for exams! If possible, have a colleague review the questions and provide pre-exam feedback. Some ideas on assignments It should be possible for students to be successful on some part of the assignment, which augurs against large, amorphous assignments. Set explicit milestones (even virtual, self-check ones) for large assignments given over a period of weeks to make sure students are making progress Know What You're Asking For - make sure you have a clear picture of the concepts and skills which the student is demonstrating by completing the assignment. Clear, Unambiguous - ideally, no assignment would need clarifications. The more people who see it prior to release, the less likely clarifications will be needed. Be attentive to bboards and mail shortly after the release of an assignment! Require Minimal Unrelated Knowledge - a student shouldn't need to know how to play bridge or some other random thing (or have to learn in real-time) in order to do the assignment. Interesting! - perhaps more important than anything else. More than anything else, students detest boring assignments (either contextually boring or an assignment which deals with minutiae rather than an important part of the course). Solicit feedback An early in the semester index card (first couple weeks, perhaps) with two questions on the order of What was the best thing that happened in class this week? What one thing should I do differently? can go a long way toward heading problems off at the pass. You're not alone if you're struggling to come up with an assignment, or how to present a topic, ask a colleague (either local or on the SIGCSE or other list) - of course, you can't do this for everything, but we've all got a few go-to people when we need an answer to a question; also check out the Nifty Assignments page for ideas. Eugene Wallingford, University of Northern Iowa Be honest. Students value honesty. Even the best students will fall down occasionally. There isn't anything wrong with them, or you. Give feedback on assignments promptly. The previous advice is a specific example of something more general: Most students don't handle uncertainty well. Even students who "get it" might think they do not. Setting draconian standards and policies does more harm to your learning environment than it buys you. Instead, set reasonable, firm, and challenging standards. Students appreciate that they are expected to accomplish something meaningful. A lecture or classroom activity is only as good as what it helps your students do. From the 2009 New Teaching Faculty Roundtable... Claire Bono, University of Southern California (Curriculum) There's that saying "teach the students you have, not the ones you wished you had." I still struggle with this sometimes. (Curriculum) Keep notes about what worked and what didn't that semester (e.g., changes needed to an assignment, a new lecture topic you want to add) in one document (I just use a text file); update it as you think of things throughout the semester so you won't forget. Then refer to it the following semester as you go along in the same course. You can also keep notes with your lecture notes for that day, for when you go to review them next time. (Exams) Keep ideas for exam problems in one document (I just use a text file), and write them down as you think of them, and then look through it as you are making up the exam. (Exams) Publish previous exams. You don't have to worry about students getting illicit copies themselves. Lets them know the style of your exams for better studying. I provide solutions for some of the exams. (Policies) If you want students to do something you have to make it worth some course credit (doesn't apply to 100% of students). E.g., I would like the labs to be worth nothing, because I want them to be a low-pressure activity; they aren't really a means for evaluation, just learning. But I make them worth 10% total so they will do them (there are some slop points too to reduce the pressure). (Policies) A policy of no make-up exams has worked well for me. The policy is that if a student is very sick or whatever, I'll scale their scores on their other exams. I don't have a lot of students missing exams, and don't have to put in effort making up extra exams. (Labs) Do lab assignments for beginning (CS I / CS II) programming courses. It gets them programming right away, and often, and focusing on practicing the current topic with help readily available. Other useful lab activities (besides programming): trying out software development tools (e.g., give them a program to debug, and have them show results in the symbolic debugger), timing programs using different algorithms to solve the same problem, demonstrating their working milestone for the current programming assignment, presenting their design proposal for current programming assignment. (Assignments) Nifty assignments has been a great resource for me. Dan Garcia, University of California, Berkeley Here are 10 I talked about at the Teaching Tips We Wish They'd Told Us Before We Started (Panel) at SIGCSE 2007. (Policies) Slip days The tired "my dog ate my homework?" excuse probably isn't used much anymore, but I've certainly heard my share of "the network / system / RAID / database was down". These are a thing of the past, thanks to slip days. Slip days are one-day virtual tokens (students are usually given three at the start of a term) that can be used to grant themselves a single day's extension for any homework or project deadline. They could have a single day's extension for three assignments, save them up to use all three at once, or anything in-between. Our submission script automatically keeps track of how many slip days they've used to date, so there's no extra bookkeeping overhead. Whenever someone approaches with a sob story when they're clearly fishing for an extension, one can cut them off and suggest they use a slip day token. (Office Hours) TALC The Astronomy Learning Center (TALC) on campus runs large, collaborative "watering holes" where students gather to work on their homework in an informal, open setting. While I did not duplicate their very successful center, I did adopt some of their strategies for my own office hours. The most significant was to let the students drive as much as possible. It's so easy to lapse into lecturer mode when a student asks an innocent question, like "I don't understand ____". TALC suggests biting your tongue, avoiding the chalk, and instead spending your efforts supporting the inner teacher in the other students. You act more as a facilitator between the confused student and their "peer instructors". Once one student has explained the answer, you ask a second student to give an "instant replay" for the benefit of all. You are allowed to step in for a "slow motion instant replay" when appropriate, but only as a last resort. There are other subtle points TALC mentions, like standing within a group (not in front), avoiding getting bogged down with a single question or individual, and having the "driver" recap whenever a student joins in the middle of a discussion. One role I sometimes assume is that of a very confused student. I'll sit in the back and ask very fundamental questions and all the students in the room act as a single entity to explain things to me. (Lectures) Team-teach (faculty and TAs) Rather than having a single person teaching every lecture/section, if two can attend each other's sections, have them trade off alternate weeks. The week they are "ON", they'd teach all lectures/sections. The "OFF" person attends the first section, and sits in the back as observer, taking notes of how well the "ON" TA did that week, and debrief immediately afterward TAs Buddy TA in weeks 2 through n-1 (not first and last) (Grading) Englighted grading Absolute grading, bump up but never down Allow the final exam to replace the grade from earlier midterms (Cheating) Cheaters? Think movies! "bring in the cavalry" when confronting them, have really good evidence (high cheating bar) and have several TAs in the room at once. No he-said, he-said. "we can do this the easy way, or the hard way" (i.e. plea bargaining) Provide a lenient option if they confess, keep it internal, write the letter to the office of student judicial affairs saying it's resolved, and minimize the effect (perhaps just neg pts for that project). If they don't confess and the SJA determines they're guilty, throw the book at them (fail the class) Remind them that if it goes to SJA, they often call parents in. To many, this is the fact that breaks a case open. (Lecturing) Use PRS/CPS clickers in lecture (Exams) Bring laptop to exams Visible Timer. I use HBTimer 1.5.1 Powerpoint bug fixes (and then fix immediately!) Auto-announce 30-min left, etc. Here's my script I run at all 3-hour evening exams (substitute your own mp3 files): (Lecturing) Consider web technology (webcasting, podcasting), audio only "The current flows from 'here' to 'here'" is useless if audio only (or for visually impaired students)! (student asks un-miked question) "Yes" is useless! Repeat question! (Lecturing) Share your CS passion I try to show animations from SIGGRAPH's ET before every lecture (Staff) Empower TAs, support readers Ask TAs teach a lecture Have TAs and readers help write, beta-test, grade exams Let TAs participate in syllabus discussions Open your life to your TAs Share cell numbers (great for emergencies) Grade an exam at your home (Professional Growth and Development) Read "How Children Fail" by Holt. Again. Insights of a great teacher that have stood the test of time. The most important idea: Let the students drive their learning! (Policies) A big class is like the Queen Victoria... (in which making a right turn takes 50 miles) If you change a policy, it'll be months before the entire class knows the change, if ever. David G. Kay, University of California, Irvine (Meta) Teaching is a design activity; there are almost always tradeoffs. There are many tips/techniques/approaches, each with strengths and weaknesses. You should build a large repertoire of alternatives and the ability to choose the right one for a given situation. It's not either "Always enforce due dates strictly" or "Always give deserving students leeway"; it depends on why you have the due date in the first place (fairness, pacing, grader convenience), the size and level of the course, the size and duration of the assignment, and more. (Mentoring Students) Be a model of professional behavior, even if your students flake out or tick you off; they may not have that much experience seeing how professional people behave. (Professional doesn't have to mean stiff, stilted, or stand-offish; it does mean being forthright, reliable, and focused on getting the job done.) Treat students with respect (even if they talk in class, play World of Warcraft, dress outlandishly). Students aren't your customers (they're not always right), but they are your clients in the professional sense: You should do your best to serve their needs, but you (like their doctor or lawyer) have an independent professional obligation to do what you think is best, not to just give them what they want (not to prescribe the marijuana in every case, not to give them As when their code doesn't work). (Exams) On the way back to your office after every lecture, think of one exam question you could ask about what you just taught. Your memory will only fade over time. (Lectures) If you're projecting anything, let students have a copy of the same thing on paper while you're projecting it. Otherwise, they'll concentrate on transcribing the screen (even if you tell them not to) and not listen to you. (Evaluations) Use mid-term course evaluations. It shows students you care, which will motivate them to work harder. The form doesn't matter; you could be as minimal as, "How can I improve this course?" If people have something to say, they'll say it. But they're unlikely to be nasty, since they have to live with you for the rest of the term. Then address the most common comments in class (without sounding defensive) and invite anyone with a concern you didn't address in class to come chat with you about it. (You don't want to use class time to go through every individual grievance.) (Professional Growth) Visit your colleagues' classes, and invite them to visit yours. It sounds strange, but teaching is one of the most isolated academic activities (not from the students, obviously, but from one's colleagues, who typically have no idea what you do in your class). Have coffee afterwards and talk about what you saw. (Labs) Practice pair programming. It's a winning strategy all the way around, and one of the most thoroughly studied pedagogical practices. (Retention, promotion) Know who will be evaluating your performance and retaining/promoting you. You want them to be as comfortable with you as possible. Be around; volunteer to do things; behave in ways compatible with how the decision-makers behave. (Professional Growth) Never throw anything away that you have created: notes, slides, software, exams, whatever. You never know when, decades later, you might find yourself teaching the same or similar topics. You also never know when you might need to change jobs, and you'll want to be able to show samples of your work. (Office Hours) Don't touch the pen (chalk, marker) during office hours; put it in the student's hand. If you do, you'll be tempted just to work through the problem in lecture mode. Instead, let the student write. (Mentoring Students) Help students make the transition from high school to college. It's not just more school; the whole ballgame is different. See http://www.ics.uci.edu/~kay/college.html . Lester McCann, University of Arizona (Lecture) facial expression for "bored" == facial expression for "lost" (Time Management) athletes are expected to give 110%; faculty are expected to give 125+% (Tenure) the politics of the tenure process