Last night I put the finishing touches on some of the assignments for my intermediate algebra course, and I wanted to write a little bit about media assignments. In the assignments I created I added some short conceptual and example videos from the textbook. (The goal was to provide some direct instruction and review into the assignment.) I was able to do this by creating a media assignment in MyLab. Creating a media assignment is just like creating a standard…
Each Thursday this semester I will be blogging about a technology related topic. If there is a technology question, or if there is a technology post you’d like to make (guest bloggers always welcome!) please leave a comment on the blog. One of our favorite TV shows to watch as a family is ABC’s Shark Tank. (My family always asks how I calculate the valuation so quickly, and that gives me an opportunity to remind them all that speed is…
I have decided that each Wednesday on the blog this semester will be “Wildcard Wednesday”. In other words, there will be no theme. Instead I will write about whatever happens to be on my mind. I’ll begin by sharing two books that apply to all math instructors. The Fall 2017 semester starts next week for us at College of the Sequoias. One of my favorite summer pastimes is to read books on instructional strategies and books that inspire my teaching…
This semester on the blog Tuesday will be “TeachBetterTuesday” or TBT. I will be posting articles focused on getting the most out of your teaching by focusing on new approaches and student-centered instruction, as well as looking for areas to improve my own teaching. I’ll begin this series by sharing my approach to the most important day of the semester: the first day of class. On the first day of class, especially in a developmental math class, our students are…
This semester I am devoting Mondays to getting the most out of MyLab for math instructors – MyLab Monday! If you have topics related to MyLab that you’d like me to address, or if you have questions about MyLab, please reach out to me by leaving a comment or by visiting the contact page on my website: georgewoodbury.com. Starting from Scratch If you are a first time user you will need your Pearson rep to create an account for you….
I am teaching an online statistics class this summer, and things are going really well. One reason behind that is the Facebook group page I created for the class. Here are a couple benefits that I have observed. Ability to Contact Students when Course Site is Down Pearson performed some scheduled maintenance on their site during the first weekend of the class. Due to some issues, it took about a day longer than expected. Without the Facebook group, my only…
I am starting a new blog to document my day-to-day activities in my introductory statistics classes in Fall 2017, as well as sharing general thoughts on teaching statistics, using Interactive Statistics, incorporating technology, and many other ideas. I will also be sharing classroom materials as I use them. You can check it out here: George Woodbury’s Statistics Blog: https://georgewoodbury.com/statblog/ I have included buttons for following the blog via email or WordPress. George
I’m really proud of this latest study involving our Interactive Statistics (I am a co-author with Michael Sullivan) by Sam Bazzi at Henry Ford College. I saw Sam present his results at ICTCM and was really impressed. I encourage you to check out his case study. Read the Study Here This reinforces the fact that there is not a better product to use in an online statistics course: students persisted at higher rates and their test scores improved as the…
This semester I am teaching a short term Intro Stats class, and I have found it more challenging to flip this class. The class meets 4 days a week for 2 hours a day. This can be difficult because I typically have two main concepts to cover, and students have trouble preparing for a second topic until they get a chance to work on the first concept in class. I will share some of the strategies I have used. The…
One of the highlights of the recent ICTCM conference was Eric Mazur’s keynote address about “Assessment For Learning.” He mentioned an assessment technique known as IF-AT (Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique) that reminded me a great deal of the review strategy I have been using in my intermediate algebra course. (Here’s a blog on that review strategy.) I thought it was a great idea to try, so immediately postponed my elementary algebra exams on systems of two linear equations in two…