RSOM Faculty Development Guide: Start a Teaching Renaissance

We always want to make sure our assessments align with our learning objectives.

You should ask yourself: What are your student learning objectives for a given unit/class? What classroom assessment techniques will help you assess attainment? Use Blooms Taxonomy to help you come up with your SLOs  and CATs.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning has a really tool to help you use Bloom's Taxonomy to to create SLOs and CATs.  You can access it here: Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel

Below are tips for designing and implementing different types of classroom assessments.  Also included is the levels of Blooms Taxonomy that each questions reaches.

Tips for Preparing Items:

• Use Multiple Choice Questions that require memory and understanding to apply a concept.
• Revisit your learning objectives to determine topics/target levels of Bloom’s taxonomy
• Do not use multiple choice questions for learning outcomes better assessed by other methods
• Draft potential items when preparing lessons/lectures
• Cover topics that students have questions on in class
• Consider common mistakes students make on homework or assignments
• Write the stem first, then the correct answer, followed by the distractors

Tips for Implementing:

• Use clickers or unofficial polls to indirectly assess understanding
• Pause throughout delivery of content to conduct
• Gauge how students are feeling about new content
• Do they need more practice/review?

Uses of Role-play and Simulations:

• Form triads with a patient, doctor, and observer (provides feedback after the role play)
• Fishbowl - have some students act out a scenario while others observe and provide feedback
• Have students create the case based on a diagnosis.

Example of a Role-Play Scenario

A 62-year-old man returns home from playing bingo, complaining of midline abdominal pain. He denies being hit or suffering any other trauma. Over the next few hours the pain does not remit but becomes more severe and is localized to the lower right quadrant. He also develops nausea and vomiting. He denies diarrhea and has not had similar episodes. The patient lies down in bed, and over the next 24 hours, the pain worsens and he develops fever and chills and is brought to the emergency center. On examination, he has a temperature of 38.8°C (102°F) and appears ill. His abdomen is mildly distended and has hypoactive bowel sounds. The abdomen is diffusely tender to palpation, particularly in the right lower quadrant.
 

Implementing a Defining Features Matrix:

• Students differentiate between two similar, often confused concepts
• Categorize a list of defining features into one of the two concepts
• Use tools such as Google Slides to have students work independently or in groups

How to Implement Case Studies with AI

• Use generative AI to Diagnose Cases
• Have students critique the response
• Use ChatGPT to test one of the cases you use in your course

Strategies for Using Cases and Documented Solutions:

• Have students analyze cases and write out their solution process.
• Have students sharing in small groups for feedback