Teach.Learn.Share

How can sustainability transform not only what we teach but also how we go about our teaching? In this episode, Prof. Mylène Riva and PhD student Laurianne Debanné share their journey—including challenges and triumphs—redesigning a Health Geography course to incorporate sustainability principles. Along the way, they learned principles of sustainable course design, the importance of transdisciplinarity, and practical strategies for ...

Have students’ perceptions of engagement changed after the Covid-19 pandemic? Is it harder to focus on lectures in the “attention economy” with overwhelming amounts of information designed to engage us to click and scroll? Are students engaging with learning in ways that are more autonomous—such as watching recorded lectures? In this episode, we speak with Kai Gutteridge and Lavínia Travassos to learn about their experiences with e...

Interested in learning about different ways to implement two-stage exams? In this episode, McGill instructors Lawrence Chen, Alice Cherestes, Laura Pavelka, and David Titley-Peloquin join Jasmine and Margo for an exchange about how they use two-stage exams to assess their students’ learning. Listen in to hear them compare their practices and offer recommendations for instructors who are thinking about adopting this assessment strat...

In our inaugural season, we spoke to members of the McGill community about how to leverage learning-focused assessment practices with the aim of improving student well-being. Among our guests was Kira Smith, who spoke to her research on post-secondary instructors’ engagement in supporting student mental health by means of their assessment strategies. In this episode, Kira returns to help Jasmine and Margo explore some of the obstac...

Many undergraduate students may go on to be policy-makers. Why not have them practice the skill of translating complex concepts and issues into a “pitch” that shows students’ engagement with the course content? This idea became Dr. Tari Ajadi’s three-minute micro lecture assessment, a strategy that he first tried when asked to prepare one himself for a conference. As they engage with a format that is less familiar to them, students...

In her introductory computer science class, Dr. Giulia Alberini asks her approximately 600 students whether they want to be “code crafters” or “problem solvers.” The first group will write two midterms and a final coding project. Instead of the final project, “problem solvers” prepare a technical interview that simulates an authentic real-world experience. This choice allows students to work to their strengths, be it programming al...

Low or no-stakes assessment tasks give students the opportunity to focus their practice on what they aim to learn and allow them to try their hand at failing. When what they’re learning means recognizing implicit biases in themselves and others, it’s key that students have multiple opportunities to practice developing this skill. In this episode, Dr. Alissa Levine describes her multi-pronged approach to assessments that help studen...

Quizzes are a tried-and-true way to prepare students for higher-stakes exams, but do they allow you to assess the progress of students’ learning? To ensure her students’ learning is on track, which in this case means thinking critically about the immune system, Dr. Jasmin Chahal has her students design concept maps, draw cartoon diagrams, and write problem-solving exam questions. In this episode, we learn about the flexible and cre...

In this episode, we learn about a two-staged mid-term exam where students do a collaborative version of the exam before trying their hand at an individual exam. For Dr. Laura Pavelka, having students work collaboratively and ask questions in an introductory science course were key in helping students understand how science works, so she designed those elements into her assessment strategy. Easing exam-related student anxiety was an...

Welcome back to Teach.Learn.Share’s exciting new miniseries! Join us over the next five episodes as we delve into creative, concrete, and transferable assessment strategies centered around assessment for learning. In each episode, we sit down with instructors from various Faculties at McGill University to explore a new strategy, discussing its design and implementation. Listen in as instructors share what works and where the challe...

Do the assessment choices instructors make support students’ learning and their well-being? To close our five-part miniseries, we wanted to hear an instructor’s perspective. In this episode, we’ve invited Dr. Andrea Creech, Professor of Music Pedagogy at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, to join the conversation. Andrea shares insights into how assessment forms an integral part of her pedagogy, which is shaped and gu...

Getting assessment right—being fair, consistent, equitable, and conscientious of students’ and instructors’ well-being—leads to healthier learning environments in university settings but is a difficult balance to strike. In this episode, we talk to two graduate students who share their experiences with the assessment and well-being connection in their contexts. We also discuss fairness and reliability in grading, student-instructor...

Interested in knowing what students think about sharing the responsibility of improving assessment practices in higher ed? In this episode of our miniseries on assessment and well-being, we ask Jordan and Woo to explain their perspectives on the emotions bound up with assessment and their potential impact on learning. Listen to Woo and Jordan describe hurdles they’ve faced, as well as assessment tasks that challenged them academica...