Data-Driven Instruction
In addition to the D2L resources on the Monitoring Student Progress page to assess student engagement with course material, check-out this video from the LITs team or the resources below for strategies to implement data-driven practices when teaching your course.
Use live polls before we review material to determine student progress on key course objectives or concepts. Then, we can focus on reivewing the areas that are still challenging them. Many of us are already using polling, or similar methods of data collection, in our classes. Sometimes, we forget that this is data-driven instruction. If you are looking for some new ways to poll or meet your students where they are at, please check out the tools below.
a) Check out this quick PD on engaging classroom tools, which includes Kahoot - a fun way to review or poll your students.
b) You can poll directly in Zoom, as well!
c) If you haven't tried Socrative, it's another great tool for entrance and exit tickets, or any other polling you might want to do.
Review assigned assessments before coming to class. This does not mean we have to grade them, but doing a quick check of the assigned quiz, project, or paper assigned last session is a solid way to determine a starting point for today's review. Here are a few recommended places to look for data.
a) Check our quizzes (D2L or Adaptive Courseware, if quizzes are included) - Looking for trends is a good place to start: Did students frequently answer a specific question incorrectly? If multiple quizzes were assigned, did the class score lower on one of them than the others?
Action Item: If so, consider creating an activity that asks students to relate this information to a current event or their own experiences. Personalizing the content will often help it stick.
b) Review Written Assignments - Skim through the assignment from our last session and note any sections of the assignment that seemed to lack detail. Specifically, note parts of the rubric that were not addressed or could have used more detail.
Action Item: Linking the parts of the assignment prompt to the rubric can help students understand how to better meet our expectations from them on the next assignment.
If we have a student who is struggling, the notes entered by our colleagues in RetAIn can inform us about how to encourage and motivate them. We can also determine if students are missing many of their classes or just our class. This may be cause to pause and reflect on our approach to that student or our class as a whole.
Action Item: Check cases that were assigned to us and review cases from earlier in the term. Reach out to students who have been moving in an upward direction and offer praise. If students started off strong but may be faltering, reach out to see if anything has changed—and offer assistance.
Click image to visit Retain
