David+S.+Kump+-+CRCU

Course information
Course: BIO 3310 Biology of Aging Course instructor: David Kump Semester and year: Fall 2010

Context

 * Describe your course and major challenges in its teaching:
 * BIO 3310 is a particularly challenging course because although it is an upper-division course in the biology major, the majority of students who take the course are gerontology students for whom the course is required. The gerontology students do not have the biology background that the biology majors have, posing a problem to keep the course biology-based while making it challenging for both sets of students. In addition, this has traditionally been a content-based course with little emphasis on application. To make the course meaningful for both upper division gerontology and biology students, it is necessary to bring the application component into the classroom.
 * Describe your teaching style
 * My teaching style varies depending on the course and the level of course to which I am assigned as an instructor. However, my simple overall philosophy is that my job is to help students understand what they need to know.
 * Describe your students' major characteristics
 * My students are upper-division students, most of whom are interested in the course material. Because they are upper division students, they have succesfully matriculated through course requirements and lower-division classes, making them far more mature than average freshman or sophomores. For the gerontology students, many of them work in nursing homes or care centers and bring real-life experience with the subject matter into the classroom.
 * Describe the innovation that you want to do, the expected impact on your class, and the means to collect evidences about the impact
 * I'm not sure that what I am doing is particularly innovative, but I have re-designed the way the course is taught. Formerly, it was a content-based course driven by the assigned textbook with a term paper. With the re-design with the emphasis on understanding course material for long-term retention, I am doing the following:
 * I will provide background information on basic aging and disease processes that are generalized.
 * I will provide background anatomy and physiology information needed to understand the aging process.
 * Students will provide instruction on aging-related diseases, meaning that students will teach over half of the course.
 * There will be ~10 short writing assignments, with an emphasis on mechanics, paraphrasing in one's own words, and scientific content. The last assignment will be a 1-2 page essay on a course topic of choice, with refelections on what was learned by the student.
 * I will introduce primary and review articles from the literature for discussion, helping students get to know the types of research taking place in aging.
 * We will discuss news articles related to the biology of aging.
 * Rather than frequent multiple-choice exams to test on content, there will be only two exams, consisting of all short answer questions.

Processes

 * September 17, 2010** Having now finished the third week into the semester, the class is well underway. Students started this week providing the instruction on some of the topics. It has been interesting at best. Some of the students do a great job, and some need some substantial improvement. I hope they are growing through the process. I am not sure how to push the students to probe more than the superficial knowledge on a topic. My biggest concern is that their fellow classmates are also learning the material, as they are required to take notes and will be tested on it. But for Student-Led Instruction, I think it is a cautious so far, so good. Two other things I have tried with limited success. First, we read and went over a primary journal article from //Science//. Deep stuff, but I thought that the students should be able to understand the figures based on what we discussed in class. Biology majors seemed to really enjoy it, while I think the Gerontology majors found it nauseatingly painful. I have two more articles coming up next week (review articles, however) and am going to give homework on Blackboard to answer some questions about it. Second, I had the students write one to two paragraphs on a topic that was coming up in class, hoping that it would give them some good background information. I think it may have been a success for the students, but it has been disastrous for me. Tyring so many new things takes a great deal of time, and even though they were due a week and a half ago, I have yet to grade them. This is entirely unlike me, as I usually hand homework back to students during the very next class period. I would still like to have them continue to do this, but I need to work out a way to fit it in better. Otherwise, my first semester without the textbook has been a substantial improvement. I would still like them to have a textbook, because I believe it would actually improve the other components of the course that I am trying to do. Problem is that I need to write it myself, and my time is more valuable than gold.


 * October 1, 2010** I recognize the goal of changing the course is to improve student learning, but I have noticed that both with this and another course, I enjoy teaching the courses much more. Moving from Power Point-based lectures to whiteboard-based lectures has helped to slow me down and make sure I explain things in ways that can be understood. I believe it will help students perform better on exams as well. While it has taken some work to get the writing assignments in place, they are now set up. It will be interesting to see if student writing improves over the course of the semester. Student-led instruction has been great. It took some faith on my part to turn the instruction on important material over to the students, but for the most part they have done a great job. I am curious as to how well they will know this material on their exam.
 * October 12, 2010** Having completed a mid-term exam and posted mid-term grades, it seems an appropriate place to stop and reflect on what has and has not been successful. Whiteboard lectures (as opposed to Power Point) get two thumbs up. It forces me to go more slowly, and I believe that student understanding is enhanced. Student-led instruction (SLI) gets more than two thumbs up. Students are doing a great job and finding the most salient information on a topic and teaching it to the class. While oral presentation skills are still developing for some of the students, this is a chance for them to improve those skills. One caveat is enhancing student understanding. The instructor gets a great understanding of the topic, but other students probably have to spend a little more time on that topic than they would on the whiteboard lectures (mostly because I am very direct). Writing assignments receive a neutral. I realy only got these deployed late in the first half of the semester, so I will withhold judgment until I have had adequate opportunity to observe. The use of journal articles also receives a neutral. Students seem intimidated by them. I need to re-evaluate what the purpose is of using journal articles, because they could be a major distraction if not approached appropriately. Lastly, the mid-term short-answer exam yielded mixed results regarding student understanding. A large number of students were outstanding, demonstrating a true understanding and retention of the material. However, there were a number of students who performed quite poorly. I am certain that the difference between the students is the effort they put into studying and preparing, but it leaves me with the dilemma of how to help those students to make sure they have the skills they need.


 * Friday, October 30 ** S tudent-led instruction continues to be the best change that I have made to this class. However, it does not come without its own set of problems. Because students are responsible for the teaching of certain topics, I do not necessarily have control over what they emphasize or how well they teach it. Because of time constraints, it is difficult to clarify points that I think may have been a little muddy. Moreover, I don’t want to usurp the experience of the student instructor in learning and presenting.

Another problem with which some of the students have struggled is that in testing on content, there is only a mid-term and a final. While many students did extremely well, there were an equal number of students who struggled with the amount of material. I’m not sure how I want to address the problem, because I feel that if students review their notes frequently the problem would be solved. I have review questions for each topic, and they could spend time writing out their responses as we go along. I know that many students were trying to do this in the 24-48 hours before the exam, and that these are the same students who struggled. For now, I’m going to offer a portion of the final exam as a take-home only for the students who want to do so. This will allow extra work for those who are struggling, while those who are doing well will not need to do this.

Another area with which I am struggling is the writing assignments. Although the assignments are typically only one paragraph, it has been extremely difficult for me to keep up with grading them. Part of the problem is that I did not anticipate as large a class as I have, so grading becomes extremely time consuming. The other part of the problem is that I am trying to use turnitin.com for the grading, and I find it cumbersome. Rather than switch methods on the students, I am learning from this process and have decided that next year I will use turnitin.com only for checking for paraphrasing in their own words; for grading, I will have the students send me an electronic copy and use “track changes” on Word. I think the students will benefit more from this as well.

__November 16, 2010__ Overall I am pleased with the way the class is going. For the student-led instruction, I would probably add a requirement that all students submit 3-5 potential test questions with their instruction. Although writing assignments have been difficult to keep up with, one student told me that she liked the assignments and learned a lot from them. One area with which I am concerned is attendance. Despite changing the format of the course, attendance is poor (probably around 80%). I think I will give grades to the students for evaluating the student instructors the next time I teach, with the hope that since it will be directly reflected in their grade, they will attend.

__November 30, 2010__ Students are finishing up the big idea project at the end of the semester, and overall I am pleased. Students have been quite innovative in the products they have found related to the biology of aging. If I have one complaint, they have not discussed enough biology in presenting their product. That is probably my fault for not making it clearer. For next year, I will revise my guidelines and the grading rubric, as I have found that students will generally follow guidelines fairly well in making presentations.

Products
This file contains the instructions for the assignment and the rubric by which it was graded. This file contains a student's product presentation. He has granted permission to post it.
 * Product Presentation.** I think it would be prudent to include an example from each of the grading areas. The file on this page "Dakim Brain Fitness" comes from a student presentation of a product targeted to the elderly and related to the biology of aging. I initially imagined that students would present supplements that would easily tie in with the course topic. While many products were along these lines, students also presented products ranging from computer software (the Dakim Brain Fitness file; this product is geared toward improving cogntition and memory), Wii video systems (being tested on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients), a computer robot that leads exercises (with a large market base in Japan), and Depends undergarments. While sometimes the students failed to relate enough biology, the range of products encourages me that the students, especially gerontology majors, are learning those things that will be most beneficial to them in their professions.

This file contains guidelines and the grading rubric for student-led instruction. Each student taught twice. This file contains a sample of the materials a student used for instruction. It is posted with permission. This file contains the complied evaluations for a student.
 * Student-led instruction.** Although there was an occassional shaky presentation, the vast majority of instruction led by the students was outstanding. As an example, I have attached the file from a student's instruction on presbyopia (the reason we need glasses as we grow older). In his instruction, this student carefully reviewed the relevant parts of the eye (we had previously covered this in class), what happens with aging that causes the lens to stiffen, and how that leads to the need for glasses. The prepared Power Point was very good and helped the student instructor to be organized in his explanations. I believe that for the most part, students have been able to learn well from their fellow students (proving you don't have to be an expert to teach a topic).

The above file contains a review article that was used during the semster. This article was presented with the unit on the skeletal system and aging and details the role that dietary calcium plays in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis. Students completed a reading quiz on Blackboard for this article. The above file contains a primary research article providing evidence that mitochondrial free radicals are involved in the aging process. This theory was first set forth in the 1950s, but was not proven until this 2005 article. Because of the difficult nature of the material, we discussed this article in class by going over each figure and explaining what was being shown.
 * Journal articles.**

This file contains a master list of each of the twelve writing assignments. All assignments were submitted via turnitin.com. This file contains the grading rubric for writing assignment #7, providing an example of how assignments were graded. This file contains review questions for each unit covered. This file contains the mid-term exam. This file contains the rubric which was used for grading the mid-term exam.
 * Writing Assignments.**
 * Exams.**

Lessons learned
Lessons I have learned over the course of the semester include the following: 1. I learned that this is a very time consuming way to teach a course. This is not necessarily a negative, but probably more important is that I learned I have to budget time for this specific course to effectively evaluate the different course components. Fortunately, now that the foundation has been laid, it will take a little less time next year. 2. I learned that this is an enjoyable way to teach a course. I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with students this year. 3. I learned that this was an effective way to present the course material. I think the students this year learned far more than they have in past years. While this is purely subjective on my part, I think the approach taken allowed us to delve deeper into topics than we otherwise might have done. 4. I learned that a textbook is not necessary. We survived without the proverbial textbook. I still plan on writing one (eventually), but intend it to be a resource that students can turn to as they review rather than a primary source of learning. While we did not have a textbook, students still had required reading material in the form of journal articles, and they had to find their own resources to support the student-led instruction and writing assignments. 5. Regarding each of the components of the course,  a. I learned that writing assignments can help students to learn, although it depends on the effort of the individual student.  b. I learned that students can learn from doing on-line reading quizzes over review articles.  c. I learned that it can be very difficult for students to grasp primary research articles. I think I initially expected too much of the students, and even by the end of the semester was struggling just a little bit to help the students better understand the articles.  d. I learned that students can do an exceptional job at providing instruction for the course material, but they may need prodded just a little bit. Asking the right questions at the end of instruction was a way for me to highlight and emphasize what I felt were the most important areas. However, I also learned that students do not feel obligated to come when other students are presenting, something that I need to better address.  e. I learned that even after a semester, some students still struggle to relate biology to their subject (in this case, the product they presented). I accept the responsibility for this failure and think that with better explanations and better written guidelines, this should improve.  f. I learned that students can cover and retain a large amount of information for a short answer exam. The mid-term and final exams covered a tremendous amount of material, and while not all students performed well, a large number did extremely well. 6. Perhaps the most important thing that I learned (or accomplished) was successfully helping both Biology and Gerontology majors to learn the material and succeed in the course. This has always posed a challenge, but the format of the course allowed both sets of students to have their strengths offset their weaknesses and permitted both a chance at success. Indeed, the only students who are struggling to pass the course are those who have simply not done the work. 7. I learned that while this approach is generally more difficult (for both students and the professor), that students do learn the material better. I felt that rather than teaching for a test, I really was teaching for learning. I hope the students felt the same way. That many students had comments or raised questions in the latter part of the course based on material from the course supports that they did retain the material better. They may not always remember all of the specifics, but they remember the main points and the general ideas (i.e. the enduring understandings). Importantly, despite the increased difficulty of the course, the overall grades for the course went up. In the past three years of teaching, I have awarded two A grades (out of a total of about 37 students). This semester, there will probably be five to six A grades out of 20 students. While this is not an indicator of success // per se //, it does show that students can succeed despite the increased rigor of the course.

Future actions
As I have reflected over the course of the semester, there are many changes that I would like to implement next year when I teach this course. Some of these changes are pedagogical, some are content-based, and some are simple tweaking like having improved writing instructions. Here is a complete list that I will refer back to when the time comes to prepare for next year: 1. In addition to review articles and primary journal articles, I would like to add a few news articles (or have students find their own) that can be used to support topics. 2. I will change the student-led instruction grading forms to include a line for the name of the student grader. Submitting their name will make students more accountable for their grading and will encourage them to be there. This grading will also count toward their final grade (they will not be graded on the quality of their grading, just that they were present and did it). 3. I will re-write the student-led instruction guidelines to better reflect my expectations. 4. I will change the Product Presentation guidelines and rubrics to better reflect my expectations, particularly in the area of relating their product to biology. 5. I will re-do the Review Questions to better reflect what I expect them to know. 6. I will re-write my notes, making sure to include any new topics (such as low-grade inflammation) that were not covered this semester. 7. I will re-write Learning Outcomes 4.1 and 4.2 to better reflect what I expect students to gain through the use of articles and make sure assignments are aligned with the expectations. 8. I will change the way that grades are weighted. Based on my experience this semester, the exams actually represent a much smaller degree of effort compared to other grade components, so the weighting for exams will be decreased. Attendance (based on student grading of student-led instruction) will contribute to the overall grade. Reading quizzes and written assignments will be split into two separate categories rather than being in the Homework category. 9. I will change the student-led instruction topics. Some will be deleted because they were too minor, but others will be added to take their place. 10. I will take more class time to discuss specific primary journal articles, making sure that students are able to follow what is being discussed.

For colleagues teaching similar courses, I would suggest first considering what it is you really want your students to remember and know at the end of class and for years to come, then design the course in a way in which the students will learn those things. I have included many different components because of the diverse students for whom this course is required; it is certainly not necessary to do all of these. It is wise to consider what methods will be the most effective, then carefully plan for those methods. While I had taught this course before, my radical changes resulted from throwing out what I had done and deciding to start from scratch. This is probably not necessary for most courses, which probably only need some revision. For professors using student-led instruction, be prepared to allow your students to teach and for you to sit back and take a secondary role. For using review articles, be prepared to dissect them yourself very well first so that you know what it is you want your students to learn from the article. For primary articles, there are probably several different approaches that could be successful. I think if I would have had all Biology majors, my approach may have been different. But because I have majors with no real solid biology background, I have to spoon-feed the students a little bit more on the primary articles (in fact, I didn't spoon-feed enough). In the end, I think that students should be able to look back at a figure and analyze what it is demonstrating. For writing assignments, assess what your priorities are for the writing assignments, then grade accordingly. What I have done has worked well for me in this course, but it probably would not work for other courses that I teach. Because every instructor and every course is different, perhaps the most important thing is carefully considering: what will best help my students to learn?