ISSUE
05
Winter
2009
NTLC Reports
Nakatani Teaching
& Learning Center
at UW-Stout
Teaching and learning methods changing course . . .
One of the NTLC goals is to encourage the sharing and valuing of teaching and learning
by all members of the University of Wisconsin-Stout community. To this end, we have
included in this edition thoughts from four UW-Stout instructors who were asked how
they have changed their course and what have been the benefits after taking the summer
’09 institute Course Assessment/Naked Teaching by Barbara Walvoord.
A
NTLC Vision
Statement . . .
The Nakatani Teaching and
Learning Center nourishes a
campus culture of learning and
teaching characterized by
discovery, curiosity, innovation,
collaboration and research.
NTLC Mission
Statement . . .
The mission of the Nakatani
Teaching and Learning Center is
to share and value teaching and
learning. Programs sponsored by
the NTLC will especially
support the University’s
priorities, its Enduring Goals,
and the mission of the NTLC.
manda Brown’s experience at Barbara Walvoord’s summer 2009 institute was
eye-opening: “I wanted to follow her out to the car. She made me feel free.”
Because of Walvoord’s concepts, Brown changed her assessment and class procedures.
She began to use on line quizzes that students filled out before class. In class they
discussed concepts that students had difficulty with and skipped over concepts that
students clearly knew. Using D2L’s grading functions Amanda is able to see a class
composite bar graph that shows how the class performed on each question. The topics to
discuss are the ones with the short bars. While it is more work to set up a class using these
out-of-class quizzes, Amanda feels that students learn concepts more thoroughly because
the regular quiz discussion cycle gives them—and her—feedback immediately, rather
than coming after a major test. Brown says that now, since she lectures less, she is able to
spend more time on individual performance. For instance rather than lecturing on how to
interact with PowerPoint during a speech, she now has students work through actual
presentations in class. Students develop their speaking skills but also their technological
skills. “This is a paradigm shift,” says Amanda, “about how we do and think about
learning.”
K
im Martinez was encouraged by Barbara Walvoord’s
suggestion to get ‘first exposure’ outside of class. In order
to incorporate ‘first exposure’ in her class reading assignments,
Martinez gave her class an introduction to the material and a
guide as to what to pull from the reading. The reading
assignments were then completed outside of class. Afterwards,
there was in-class time to discuss and build on what was read,
then work on a scenario in a group situation to hear ideas,
perceptions, and solutions from others, learning that there is
usually more than one way to solve something.
“Not using class time for presentation of material but trying
to get students motivated to want to learn a little bit about the
material outside of class is beneficial,” says Martinez .
Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center • U W‐Stout • tlcenter@uwstout.edu • 715‐232‐5196 or 715‐232‐1131 http://www3.uwstout.edu/ntlc/ 2009 Winter Newsletter
University of Wisconsin-Stout
L
eni Marshall has used ideas from Barbara Walvoord’s summer 2009 institute to change her course. Of special
interest to her was the idea of asking students to value process as well as product. Marshall has been able to see her
students achieve this goal by giving them feedback on their writing at each step in the process. Another big part of her
change in course has been to give the students a larger percentage of the grade on each of the process steps, with a
smaller percentage of grade on the final product.
Marshall says, “If by using Walvoord’s ideas I can get students more engaged and more successful in their writing,
then I know I am helping their careers, in a way that they might not know quite yet, but in a way that will be truly useful
no matter what field they’re going into.”
January Professional Development Day . . .
The Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center will sponsor
Naked Teaching: First Exposure Outside the Classroom
Thursday, January 21, 2010 · 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
in the Memorial Student Center, Great Hall.
Participants in last summer’s Walvoord Assessment Institute,
sponsored by Title III, will explain how they have moved ‘first
exposure’ outside of class and have focused on helping students
understand the material. For more information, please contact
Dan Riordan, riordand@uwstout.edu.
M
ark Fenton had this to say about the Walvoord institute…
“Barbara Walvoord talked about eliminating teacher
micromanaging in classes. In my capstone course,
Entrepreneurship, my students cultivate a business plan.
Historically I’ve micromanaged the project. Students reported to
me every day and I acted as a pseudo-team member. This semester
I abandoned micromanaging and play the role of consultant. I give
them the assignment all at one time, early in the course. That’s all
the instruction they need. I also give them access to the rubrics that
I will evaluate them on. I’ve increased the length of the project
from 6 weeks to 12 weeks and in those 12 weeks the teams set up
their own calendar, make sure they have accurate research, and
consult with me. They can come to me if they have questions. I
help make sure they stay on track. And since I play the role of
consultant, they get more class time to ask questions.”
“One key benefit is that playing the role of consultant reduces
my stress and puts the responsibility on the students, which is
something that I haven’t done before. I no longer ‘teach to the test.’
I ‘teach to the project.’ Another benefit is that the projects are
better. This semester a lot of teams focused on sustainability. Their
ideas are real and pragmatic and they have some very interesting
projects. I also have two teams that are partnering with outside
organizations. The students have really kicked it up a notch.”
Join a Sharing Community
this spring . . .
 “Mother and Academic”
 “Student Expectations and Motivations”
 “Getting Started with Undergraduate
Research”
 “Laptops and Large Classes”
 “NTLC Reading Group: What the Best
College Teachers Do”
 “Naked Teaching Grants: Following Up
Barbara Walvoord’s Strategies”
For descriptions and schedules, visit the
NTLC website:
http://www3.uwstout.edu/ntlc/
To join a sharing community, please
contact Millie Kotulek
(kotulekm@uwstout.edu); 232-1131
Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center • U W‐Stout • tlcenter@uwstout.edu • 715‐232‐5196 or 715‐232‐1131 http://www3.uwstout.edu/ntlc/