Discussions

The Road to Authenticity through a Pressbooks Resource

Linda Facchini from The Teaching and Learning Centre at Seneca College presented at the Virtual Institute on Alternative Assessment in Higher Education on November 23, 2022. Seneca is in Toronto, Canada. The title of the session was “Road to Authenticity.” Seneca has multiple campuses with diverse programs. They offer diplomas, certificates, bachelors degrees… in-person, hybrid, […]
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Overview of the Digital Literacies Toolkit

Nadine Aboulmagd and Samah Adel presented “Alternative Assessments to Enhance Students’ Digital Literacies.” They both are instructional designers at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. They talked about the digital literacies toolkit. They asked the audience to share in the chat their familiarity with digital literacies. The majority “heard but don’t understand.” They then asked […]
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Digital Narrative Assignments and Experiences of Visually Impaired Learners

Yasser Atef presented at the Alternative Assessment Institute 2022 on the experience of a visually impaired student. Atef is at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Atef shared their experience and spoke about self-reflection, self-assessment forms, and digital narratives. Atef explained how they navigate assessments and use self-assessment forms to enhance their learning. They spoke […]
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Assessment Literacies?!

As part of the Alternative Assessment Institute 2022, Andrew G. D. Holmes and Dom Henri from the University of Hull, UK spoke about “Assessment Literacies/University Literacies.” This twenty-five-minute session started with the presenters describing the challenges of reducing the “hidden curriculum:” “tacit and unwritten ‘taken-for-granted’ aspects of the curriculum that some students know and some […]
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Grading Options

Today I watched the 2022 Keynote Speaker for the Alternative Assessment Institute, David Buck. Their title was “Ungrading: A Road to Equity.” They mentioned that “ungrading is a pedagogical mindset (philosophy) that de-centers the control-based function of grades to create space for learning that’s divorced from stress. The learning process is centered, students display agency, […]
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Evaluation of Retention Strategies for STEM Students at Neumann University

Tonight I watched the recorded session for the ASMCUE poster entitled “Instructional and Retention Strategies for STEM Students Using Co-Curricular Science Courses.” Matt Mastropaolo from Neumann University spoke about their NSF-funded program for first-year students. The program supports “24 academically gifted students” who also have financial needs. The research team evaluated their program and learned […]
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Impact of Personal Medical Experiences on Engagement and Motivation in Science Courses

Porter Bischoff is an undergraduate student who spent months in the hospital as a child. They worked with Anette Lewis, Dr. Joshua Premo, and Dr. Brittney N. Wyatt on this educational study funded by NSF. They presented their work at ASMCUE 2022 as a recorded poster session entitled “Medical Experiences’ Influence on Science Motivation.” Bischoff […]
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Convenient Office Hours?

Tonight’s ASMCUE 2022 poster session recording was entitled “A simple intervention to schedule unique weekly office hours increases student access.” Caitlin Lee Williams is a SPIRE postdoctoral fellow at UNC and taught at UNC-Pembroke. They spoke about barriers to office hours and little research on these barriers. Williams mentioned there is one large exploratory, survey-based […]
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Communicating Science in the Classroom

The last plenary of ASMCUE 2022 was entitled “Communicating Science: Building Bridges not Barriers/Closing comments” and presented by Nancy Boury from Iowa State University. This was the last talk of ASMCUE. Boury teaches general microbiology, genetics, and biology as well as some advanced courses. Boury shared a quote from an introductory first-year biology course with […]
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Lessons and Resources from CourseSource

Tonight I watched the ASMCUE 2022 session entitled “Inspiring Evidence-Based Teaching Innovations in Biology Classrooms with the Journal CourseSource.” Jenny Knight, the Editor in Chief at the University of Colorado Boulder, presented this session about CourseSource. I attended this session live, and likely missed key information! There are 39 editors, 12 advisory board members, and […]
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