Louise Dennis: Teaching Portfolio

Home The Six Areas of Competence Support of Learning Design and Planning of Learning Activities Assessment and Giving Feedback Developing Learning Environments Evaluating Practice Using Research to Inform Teaching Role as a Professional Access Disability Diversity Accountability and Quality Critical Appraisals Group Project Individual Project Other Teaching Philosophy Mapping Document Reflective Statement Reference (Word) Statement of Intent Evidence	Developing Effective Learning Environments and Learner Support Systems For my current modules I have a bespoke online learning environment which is used to support the student activities. However I also have some general activities I pursue in order to try an create an effective environment. Mathematics Tutorials For the G51MC2 module I offer weekly tutorials for all students. These are primarily intended as a mechanism by which the students get to practice the techniques described in lectures. I advise tutors to run the tutorials in the manner I have personally found most effective. The students work in groups on an exercise and then each group presents the answer. I believe this system encourages the students to actually work on the exercises (they know they will have to present an answer) while making them less exposed should the answer be incorrect. Programming Laboratories For the G51SWT module I run weekly lab sessions. These are intended primarily as trouble-shooting sessions. The labs are run in a large computer terminal room within the department in which I have booked about 70 terminals. During the labs I am present in the room, with additional helpers just before coursework deadlines. I generally wait for students to put their hands up to ask a question but also periodically walk around the room. In general, except when a coursework is due, they are relatively poorly attended. The students have requested "more teaching" in these sessions however I deem this inappropriate since the object of the exercise is to support them in becoming independent programmers. Online Learning Environment This e-learning environment was developed for my use by a Project Student, Jasdeep Kalsi, though I have since adapted and upgraded much of it. My particular requirements, meaning that WebCT and Blackboard were inappropriate, were that it should also be possible for students to submit programming assignments through the system and test how those assignments ran in the test environment. At the time the CourseMarker system developed by CSiT was not easily extensible to the programming languages I was using and so an alternative was needed. Students generally give very positive feedback about the resource, though obviously it is very specifically tailored to the modules it is used in. You can examine a dummy version of the environment using the form below. You can log in as either a student or an instructor with the usernames "student" and "instructor" respectively. In both cases the password is "pgche". This is only available from Nottingham University machines. Sorry disabled! Username Password Particular features students find useful are the ability under the Progress menu item to view their current submission, and to run it through a test rig. In this example environment, the student user has submitted one file out of two for the coursework. And you can view the submitted file and the results of running it through a test rig. This test rig can be adapted so that it uses a different set of tests for the student than the tutor, but nevertheless allows the student to check that the stored program runs. In general, obviously, the tutor tests are usually a simple extension of the student tests. The students may also view the marks they have been given for a coursework and a breakdown of those marks related to the published mark scheme by selecting the Feedback menu item. In the instructor interface there are two additional menu features, Student Progress and Give Feedback. Student Progress lists all the users of the system (including the instructor since this can be useful for test purposes) together with the courseworks they have submitted and whether they have been returned any marks for that coursework. The instructor can click on the "files submitted" link. This displays marking information in a separate window, specifically it gives submission dates (to check for late submissions), test rig output and presents the code itself, this is shown in a separate window so it can be constantly referred to while the mark sheet is filled in. On the progress page each student submission is also associated with a "Send Feedback" link which displays a form based on the mark scheme for the exercise. This can be filled in by the marker, giving extra comments where appropriate and saved. The generated feedback is not delivered immediately to the student, but stored separately so that the marker can send feedback to all students at once when marking is finished. If the marker changes their mind about feedback the message can be deleted or simply generated afresh by filling in the form once again. The Give Feedback link on the instructor menu is simply a second route into this process.

Developing Effective Learning Environments and Learner Support Systems

For my current modules I have a bespoke online learning environment which is used to support the student activities. However I also have some general activities I pursue in order to try an create an effective environment.

Mathematics Tutorials

For the G51MC2 module I offer weekly tutorials for all students. These are primarily intended as a mechanism by which the students get to practice the techniques described in lectures. I advise tutors to run the tutorials in the manner I have personally found most effective. The students work in groups on an exercise and then each group presents the answer. I believe this system encourages the students to actually work on the exercises (they know they will have to present an answer) while making them less exposed should the answer be incorrect.

Programming Laboratories

For the G51SWT module I run weekly lab sessions. These are intended primarily as trouble-shooting sessions. The labs are run in a large computer terminal room within the department in which I have booked about 70 terminals. During the labs I am present in the room, with additional helpers just before coursework deadlines. I generally wait for students to put their hands up to ask a question but also periodically walk around the room. In general, except when a coursework is due, they are relatively poorly attended. The students have requested "more teaching" in these sessions however I deem this inappropriate since the object of the exercise is to support them in becoming independent programmers.

Online Learning Environment

This e-learning environment was developed for my use by a Project Student, Jasdeep Kalsi, though I have since adapted and upgraded much of it. My particular requirements, meaning that WebCT and Blackboard were inappropriate, were that it should also be possible for students to submit programming assignments through the system and test how those assignments ran in the test environment. At the time the CourseMarker system developed by CSiT was not easily extensible to the programming languages I was using and so an alternative was needed. Students generally give very positive feedback about the resource, though obviously it is very specifically tailored to the modules it is used in. You can examine a dummy version of the environment using the form below. You can log in as either a student or an instructor with the usernames "student" and "instructor" respectively. In both cases the password is "pgche". This is only available from Nottingham University machines.

Particular features students find useful are the ability under the Progress menu item to view their current submission, and to run it through a test rig. In this example environment, the student user has submitted one file out of two for the coursework. And you can view the submitted file and the results of running it through a test rig. This test rig can be adapted so that it uses a different set of tests for the student than the tutor, but nevertheless allows the student to check that the stored program runs. In general, obviously, the tutor tests are usually a simple extension of the student tests. The students may also view the marks they have been given for a coursework and a breakdown of those marks related to the published mark scheme by selecting the Feedback menu item.

In the instructor interface there are two additional menu features, Student Progress and Give Feedback. Student Progress lists all the users of the system (including the instructor since this can be useful for test purposes) together with the courseworks they have submitted and whether they have been returned any marks for that coursework. The instructor can click on the "files submitted" link. This displays marking information in a separate window, specifically it gives submission dates (to check for late submissions), test rig output and presents the code itself, this is shown in a separate window so it can be constantly referred to while the mark sheet is filled in. On the progress page each student submission is also associated with a "Send Feedback" link which displays a form based on the mark scheme for the exercise. This can be filled in by the marker, giving extra comments where appropriate and saved. The generated feedback is not delivered immediately to the student, but stored separately so that the marker can send feedback to all students at once when marking is finished. If the marker changes their mind about feedback the message can be deleted or simply generated afresh by filling in the form once again. The Give Feedback link on the instructor menu is simply a second route into this process.

Louise Dennis: Teaching Portfolio

The Six Areas of Competence

Role as a Professional

Critical Appraisals

Other

Developing Effective Learning Environments and Learner Support Systems

Mathematics Tutorials

Programming Laboratories

Online Learning Environment