Three Questions: Ellen Auster (Professor of Strategic Management), Schulich School of Business at York University,
We ask experienced faculty what three issues they feel are most important when planning and teaching courses and what they do to manage these challenges. Ellen Auster was kind enough to share her “Three Questions” and answers to these questions.
Three Questions:
1) “What are some things to think about when preparing for class?”
2) “What are some tips for delivering a class?”
3) “How can I learn from what I do in class?”
1) “What are some things to think about when preparing for class?”
Determine what content will be covered
- Ensure content covered in class reinforces core learning objectives
- Don’t try to cover everything
- Play to your strengths
- Apply learnings to real life organizational challenges
- Add story to build emotional connections
Determine how content will be delivered
- Plan agenda
- Select varied delivery modes (lecture, pair chats, debates, role plays, cases, utube clips etc.)
- Build a process map (content/timing/process)
- Focus on nurturing the learning community as well as content
2) “What are some tips for delivering a class?”
Emphasize key learning points
- Share learning objectives at the beginning of class
- Reinforce key learnings during class
- End each class with a wrap-up (ask them for key learnings? pair chat? post on-line – vary modes)
Involve your students in your classes
- Leverage students’ experiences and inputs (have students fill out info card at beginning of term)
- Manage student participation effectively (play volleyball not ping pong)
- Encourage quieter students to participate (side bar before class, heads up on possible topic, wait before calling on someone to give quieter students a chance to raise their hands)
- Respond to questions you are unable to answer with honesty
- Inject energy into the class(move around the room, enjoy the class and they will too)
Adjust your plan in “real time”
- Consider modifying delivery modes if needed
- Spend more or less time on a class segment – ask them if they’re ready to move on?
- Adapt when you run out of or have too much time
3) “How can I learn from what I do in class?”
Use informal feedback to adjust your teaching plan on the fly
- Monitor non-verbal cues to assess student interest and engagement
- Obtain verbal feedback by asking students for direct input (e.g. have you covered this in core OB?)
Take the time after each class to denote how things went
- Highlight key points to incorporate into the next class
- Note thoughts and ideas for the next time you teach the course
Collect written feedback to make ongoing improvements to the course
- Determine what elements of the course you want to assess (pace, content, delivery, evaluation etc.)
- Obtain the input you need (e.g. ask what’s working well? what ideas do have for improvement? anonymous forms handed in)
- Develop a plan to act on the input (some things you may change but also sometimes just making students aware that others feel differently is useful)
- Share and discuss your plan with the class
Leverage end-of-term evaluations to improve the next iteration of your course
- Conduct any evaluation processes required by your school
- Supplement with customized feedback to obtain more detail
- Synthesize findings to determine what to do differently next time