Expert TA Blog

Instructors have a long history of sharing resources between one another within departments and among those who teach the same course, or a follow-on course. With the growth of readily available digital resources on the internet, this sharing culture has grown exponentially. While this can significantly reduce the effort required for instructors to develop materials, emerging research suggests this type of sharing could also offer a direct benefit to students and teachers in the long run.

It is very reasonable for new faculty at any high school or college to be provided with a template of course materials previously used to teach a class. This can include textbooks, lecture notes, and homework assignments. It would make little sense for an instructor to always start from scratch and require them to develop everything on their own. Free Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to enhance this practice through large-scale collaborative efforts designed to continually improve course materials.

As noted in The Benefits of Sharing: Student Success and OER from an open faculty development course hosted on the Canvas Network of open courses, faculty can benefit from newly updated or re-worked course materials to ensure latest trends in education are adopted. The benefits of regularly enhancing a course can also lead to exposure and subsequent utilization of new learning technologies as well. The positive impact is not just limited to the course material itself, students also tend to have elevated perceptions of the course and institution attributed to the focus on reducing their financial burden.

Furthermore, as we have highlighted in a previous Expert TA post on academic integrity, Instructors who choose to update their class materials regularly may also limit the ability for students to cheat. As Dr. David Pritchard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology points out, changes in course format and instructional practices can help to reduce students from copying work by nearly a factor of four.

“Additionally, teachers can write their own questions, use a homework system that proactively guards its answer bank, and structure their classes in such a way that homework can have value once again, ” says Pritchard.  Instructors no longer have to turn a blind eye to this serious problem.

There are many avenues instructors can utilize to share their material. Some learning management tools such as Canvas allow instructors to share materials for classes from directly within the program (in Canvas this area is known as Commons). Much of the content found here falls under the Creative Commons License, and you can find more information here about how to utilize this type of material in your classes.

There are also numerous niche websites and forums that provide instructors the ability to collaborate and share materials relative to the subject or discipline. One specific site for Physics and Astronomy is comPADRE. This network of resources is a part of the National Science digital library used by educators, researchers and even students in college-level introductory Physics and Astronomy classes. We plan to dive deeper into comPADRE in the coming weeks.

Sharing course content lets instructors see different teaching perspectives from colleagues in the department, at other schools, or from those providing independent research. A good way to stay great at teaching is by seeing how others teach, and learning valuable best practices and tips from one another.

There are certainly more benefits to instructors sharing resources like their class notes, assignments, and course other materials.  Let us know others you think we should have mentioned!

Classroom demonstrations can be a great way to get students excited about what you want them to learn, and in-class physics demonstrations can be easier than you realize. If you are not doing any in-class demonstrations, then you are doing too few. Here are some thoughts about getting started with demonstrations that are both affordable and effective.

1. Wow them! If you want to get students’ attention, show them something they aren’t expecting. Who doesn’t love a good trick by David Blaine or David Copperfield? There are plenty of physics experiments where the outcome is counterintuitive. When students guess one outcome and see another, not only does it grab their attention, but it also sparks interest in finding out why things behaved differently than they expected.

2. Classic examples of Counterintuitive Demonstrations: The two-part spool experiment is one that any instructor can do in class with minimal cost and minimal setup. All you need is a basic spool with rope or yarn on it. You can get a spool and rope at a home improvement store like Home Depot or a craft store like Michaels. It is important that the spool have an inner diameter that the rope is wrapped around. Simply put the spool on a tabletop, and ask the students which way the spool will roll when the rope is pulled horizontally. You can do this with the rope coming over the top of the spool and underneath the spool. The result will surprise some students. Here is a link to a video that shows this demonstration.

3. Sometimes a video can do the job. There are some nice experiments out there that involve set-ups that are either too complicated or too dangerous to do in the classroom. Dropping a tennis ball onto a basketball allows for the tennis ball to bounce back to a height much higher than its starting position (see a video here). You could probably do this demonstration in your class. However, if you want to include a golf ball, which goes to a height of about 27 feet when dropped from 3 feet, the demonstration probably becomes unsafe. If the golf ball rotates and is launched at an angle, rather than straight up, it could be directed at a student and cause injury. You can still get a reaction from your students when you show them the video. Ask them how high they think the top ball will reach and show them the video. If you really want to integrate the demo, go through all of the calculations together or get them started, and make it a group project.

4. Bullet block demonstration: For obvious reasons, it’s not possible to shoot bullets into wooden blocks in your classroom. This video demonstration shows a wooden block that flies into the air when hit in the center with a bullet. The demonstration will challenge your students with this question: When a block is shot off-center, will it fly higher, not as high, or the same height as the block that’s shot in the center? Again, the answer will surprise many. See the video here.

A teaching assistant (TA) is an individual who assists a teacher with instructional responsibilities, and as many of you know, TAs are a big part of the college classroom. The duties of a TA can include research-based projects, but many spend the majority of their time on lab work and grading.

These educational helpers are hired to assist with various instructor functions as a means to supplement graduate expenses. However, since most TAs are heavily involved with their own graduate studies, their availability is often limited to a few hours each week.

The popularity of electronic homework in recent years has changed the role of TAs in college classrooms, giving them much more responsibility to work directly with students rather than using all of their weekly hours putting red ink onto papers.

Dr. Stephen Remillard is an associate professor of physics and the department chair at Hope College. He describes the evolution of the role of teaching assistants for their physics faculty, "Rather than using some or all of five hours per week to grade, they use all of their time to interact with students now.” The TAs at Hope College already had limited participation in learning sessions, but now they are leading the majority of the student study groups in the department. Dr. Remillard continued:

Students sign up for a TA-led study group with 10 to 15 other students. The group meets once per week to work through exercises intended to address common sticking points associated with that week's topic. Because there is no professor present, the TA learns how to lead groups of people through [various] learning exercises.

Many universities, like UNC Charlotte, provide valuable resources for their TAs as they learn how to teach and lead. UNC Charlotte’s “A Brief Survival Guide for New Graduate Teaching Assistants” is a great guide for their TAs with specific resources and planning materials ranging from planning what you’re going to teach to dealing with problem students.

Drexel University’s “The Effective Teaching Assistant” is also a valuable resource. It provides a full guide to preparing lectures and recommendations on being effective in the new position.  

As Drexel points out to its TAs:

Teaching assistants are expected to maintain the same standards of professional ethics as any member of the Drexel University faculty.  Always come to class on time and prepared to teach. You may have expected your duties to consist simply of research and grading, but find yourself with sole responsibility for one or more classes.

TAs are certainly more than just homework and lab graders now. Many will be able to include significant teaching responsibilities on their curriculum vitae, which can be an important deciding factor for future job applications.

This blog post is not meant to equip you with the complete knowledge to get started down the path to the flipped classroom—although we do plan on writing a “Getting started with the Flipped Classroom” primer in the near future, which will introduce an entire series on best practices for the flipped classroom. We simply want to state a case for experimenting with a few aspects of this new method and why recording one or two lectures to video is an effective way to try it.

So what are the Pros and Cons?

Cons

• Without feeling the need to present a detailed and exhaustive list here, let’s just say that it certainly is a lot of work. Making any change to a class can require a lot of time and effort, and recording, editing, storing, and posting videos will take time.
• Some instructors’ teaching styles are not conducive to a flipped classroom. If you are a fantastic lecturer and feel that your students connect with you well in person, flipping might not be for you.
• Similarly, some students’ learning styles might not match a flipped classroom if they respond well to personal instruction.

Pros         

• Flexibility. Class time becomes more flexible. If you can deliver some of the course material outside of class, you free up more time in class for anything that would help your students learn better. For example, if lectures were watched by students before class, you could spend more class time on problem-solving. (See an example of an Expert TA instructor experiencing this with her blended classroom.)
• In a live lecture, students cannot pause, rewind, or re-watch material. With a video, each student can watch the material at his or her own pace.
• The possibility of perfection. When you video a lecture, you have the opportunity to make it as perfect as you can, much more so than in a live lecture setting.
• Less future work. Rather than preparing for a perfect lecture every day, every semester, you can make a good video once, reducing your future workload.
• Better communication. In a lecture setting, many students are intimidated and don’t always ask their questions for fear of looking like they’re the only one who doesn’t understand. If you get the right communication lines established (forums, email, etc.), you can actually see increased questions and communication from your students.

Although making videos can be time-consuming up front, it’s probably easier than most professors realize. And, like most things, it’s something you get better at with practice. We plan to post a basic guide to recording video lectures in the near future, which will be complete with reviews of specific software that you could use, best tips on recording, and how to post them.

For now, consider the convenience factor associated with having a few lecture recordings. If you need to travel, you no longer have to cancel class. Students can view the lecture and then either do work outside of class or participate in group work sessions facilitated by a TA.

In many ways, having lecture recordings affords a lot more flexibility for instructors. Our suggestion? Try easing into the model with one or two recordings. You might find yourself on a path that you really like.