Teaching Learning Activities (TLAs)
The teaching strategies and learning activities that instructors implement should arise from their teaching philosophy, reflect the overall course design and promote the achievement of learning goals.
Departments may invite instructors to provide an interpretive framework that situates the teaching materials and student work within this context.
When creating the interpretive framework, instructors should highlight the connections among course materials, learning goals and elements of their teaching philosophy. This will facilitate evaluation of those connections by peer reviewers.
As a TA in Engineering, I try to involve students during tutorials to come on board to solve problems. This way they are active and not just sitting down and noting down the answers. I also try to get the students in groups and discuss particular questions.
Moreover, since engineering units have labs as well, I make sure each student contributes equally in its respective lab groups. If a particular lab equipment is not functioning properly, I encourage the students to identify the problem themselves before informing the technicians. This way they will have real life experience of diagnosing faults.
Some teaching strategies that also need to be mentioned are:
· creating a positive class atmosphere
· inclusive teaching
· motivating students
· discipline and class management
· use and role of technology
· adjustments to the syllabus
Finally, few other learning activities I encourage are:
· reading questions
· problem sets
· case studies
· student-conducted interviews
· research projects
· role-playing
· essays, research reports, and other written work
Mapping the curriculum
Curriculum mapping is aligning the curriculum to steer it in the right direction. By addressing academic gaps, redundancies, and misalignment, curriculum is to be restructured and improve the quality of outcome. This ensures that the curriculum is mapped according to the ILOs of the course.
According to Rahimi (2010), the main objective in curriculum mapping is designing a written document about what has been taught during a term. It should be noted that a lesson plan is what a teacher is going to teach but curriculum mapping is what has actually been taught (Clough, James & Witcher 1996).
Jacobs (1997) emphasizes the fact that curriculum mapping and lesson plan are never the same. Lesson plans show what the instructor is seeking for and it never presents a real picture of what actually happens in the class. English (1984) believes that curriculum mapping is nothing but representation of the content taught and the time spent on its instruction.
Reviewing the curriculum so it matches the initial layout of the program is important to know that the curriculum is structured on the right track.
Steps to follow when doing curriculum planning are as follows:
- Identify program goals- these program goals are written by an accreditation body or a curriculum team.
- Identify course learning outcomes- The achievement of the course objectives should provide students what they need to eventually achieve the program goals.
- Prepare instructional support materials- This is the information students will need and might include a textbook, open educational resources, videos, supplemental resources, learning objects, software or web tools, and others.
- Plan for formative course assessment - identify and plan activities or assignments that will allow both the teacher and the students to informally assess their achievement of the course objectives.
- Plan for summative course assessment- This is the time for students to demonstrate their levels of achievement.
For instance, the Bachelor of Engineering (BE) program has been granted a provisional accreditation and is seeking for a full accreditation from Engineering New Zealand. The BE program is aligned and structured in such a way, that every unit in each semester has been linked to the units taught in previous semesters. This way, students have a background knowledge on what is supposed to be covered in the current course.
To ensure the curriculum is correctly mapped, the engineering department has gone through all the course outlines and restructured it so that it meets the accreditation standards. Redesign of few units to make it full course-based assessment has been done. Upgrading of engineering equipment and introducing new units are some of the changes brought in. This way, the curriculum is mapped according to the accreditation standard.
References
English, F. (1980). Curriculum mapping. Educational Leadership, 1(37): 558-559.
Jacobs, H. H. (1997). Mapping the big picture: Integrating curriculum and assessment K-12. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Rahimi A. 2010. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences. Science Direct 9. 2069–2073
Intended Learning Outcomes
ILO gives a fair idea to the students as to what is expected at the end of the course. This way students will be knowing what knowledge they will have gained. The expected achievement at the end will encourage students to be engaged in personal research and help them prepare better for the course.
Knowing the ILOs at the beginning of the course is a great advantage. I have personally seen students doing research and trying to gain a basic knowledge of what is expected from a particular course.
Constructive Alignment
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs), Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) and Assessment Tasks (ATs) are three main components of a course. These 3 components needs to be properly aligned to achieve effective learning from students. Having said this, Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) are the core of Constructive Alignment (CA).
With a proper constructive alignment of a course, I am able to achieve the best outcome. Assessment tasks are created in my course to keep track of student’s performance. Rubrics are designed to assess the work and reflect back to see if the ILOs, TLAs and TLAs are constructive alignment.
Designing Assessments that Demonstrate ILO’s through Constructive Alignment
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Course Audit and Redesign
According to Prof. Offorma (2014), proper planning of curriculum leads to a well-structured curriculum for an institution. Once established, proper assessment needs to be carried out. Angelo T. & Cross K. (2010) states that assessment is an approach designed to help teachers find out what students are learning in the classroom and how well they are learning it.
The course which I chose to audit and redesign is EE222 (Digital Logic Design). The aim of this course is to provide the student with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the digital electronic devices as well as the methods used in designing digital circuits.
The new ideas which I proposed are:
- Build a strong background of digital engineering and the purpose it serves.
- Update the LogiSim software to the latest version.
- Introducing weekly quizzes
- Introducing Viva or oral lab examination
- Use of concept map
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