Great Teaching at University of Michigan

Using CTools chats to conduct online office hours

Sherrie Kossoudji (kossoudj@umich.edu), LSA - Economics and Sociology, employs the Ctools chat function to conduct online office hours for her students enrolled in the large lecture course Economics 101. During a two-hour block each weekday evening, students can electronically communicate with a GSI to get immediate assistance with their coursework. The transcript of these conversations is then available on CTools after the session is over. This online "Q & A" is available to all students and GSIs in the course and is an archive for future reference by instructors and students. 

For specific questions about Kossoudji's online office hours, contact her at the email address above.

 
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Improving clinical skills for health professional students through simulations

Rajesh Mangrulkar and Richard D. Judge, Medical School, have lead the development and use of the Professional Skill Builder. This tool is a web-based case simulation tool, to improve the history-taking, physical examination, and case management skills of health professional students.

The program contains authentic presentations of real patients and allows the student to interactively progress through each case. Expert feedback is provided to the student along the way, along with a robust decision-support module (called Toolbox) designed to provide "just-in-time" learning. The project is centered at the Medical School through and University of Michigan Health System, but involves extensive collaborative efforts from other University units, including the Duderstadt Center, and a private company.

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Online Portfolios and Websites Encourage Student Investment in their Learning

Eric Rabkin (esrabkin@umich.edu), LSA-English, is a campus leader in the area of instructional technology. An example of his work with teaching and technology is English 414: Multimedia Explorations in the Humanities, a course that offers students the opportunity to create and/or augment web-based resources. Students create individual online portfolios to showcase their ongoing mastery of computer programs and reflect upon their learning process. They collaborate on group projects in which they research and write on a humanities topic of their choice and create a website that becomes a permanent resource for the UM community. For more information on English 414, as well as Rabkin's other instructional technology projects, visit his homepage at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~esrabkin/.

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Students Create Websites to Engage with 18th Century Literature

David Porter (dporter@umich.edu), LSA - English and Comparative Literature, is responsible for the design and implementation of the Eighteenth-Century England website, an ongoing, collaborative project by U-M students studying eighteenth-century literature. As an alternative to the traditional term paper or final exam, Porter encourages students in his classes to work in small groups to write and design a set of webpages that explores some aspect of life and culture in eighteenth-century England. Porter’s website combines an ever-expanding showcase of completed student research projects with an extensive set of resources and guidelines designed to help students develop new material for the site. To view the Eighteenth-Century England website, go to http://www.umich.edu/~ece/

 

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Interactive Website and Online Discussion Enrich a Partnership with K-12 Classrooms

Joe Trumpey (jtrumpey@umich.edu), Associate Professor, School of Art and Design, expanded an existing course, Scientific Illustration Field Sketching, to create an interdisciplinary, online collaborative program called Eco-Explorers that combines science, art, and environmental education. The course is currently listed with the School of Art & Design and School of Natural Resources and Environment. During each winter term, U-M students enrolled in Trumpey’s course compare and contrast a Michigan ecosystem and a distant system in order to research, study, and sketch the native flora and fauna. Students collaborate with K-12 classrooms around Michigan via a distance learning project that combines an interactive website and online discussions with personalized classroom visits. To view the Eco-Explorers website, go to
http://www.art-design.umich.edu/ecoexplorers/

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