Sunday in the office

It's not unusual for me to spend some time in my office on the weekends. There is almost always grading to do, and it's easier when there is no one around and no one knows where I am. And on a beautiful autumn day like this, no one in their right mind would expect me to be in the office. I will only be here for an hour or so, but I can grade a lot of discussion responses in an hour when it is totally quiet and there are no other distractions. When you teach online, all of the discussion that is normally oral in the classroom is written and needs to be read and scored. That's my job this afternoon.

Assessment

Today I had to send the Director of General Education a preliminary report regarding assessment of my Intellectual Issues course (PBJ 377, Choosing to Die: Suicide, Assisted Suicide, and Euthanasia). In the report I had to explain how certain assignments in the course meet the learning objectives for the intellectual issues requirement and how I am going to assess them. That means, if I give students an A, B, or C on the assignment, what did they have to know and do in order to get that grade? Thinking about the purpose of the course, the means of achieving that purpose, and how the assignments evaluate whether students are learning what we expect them to learn makes us better teachers, in my opinion.

Busy Day Ahead

Here I am in the office, and it's 10AM already and I haven't done anything yet except set up this blog. Lots of assignments to read and grade today, plus a report to send to General Education about my Intellectual Issues course. It's a wet gloomy day, and I am not exactly my usual cheerful self. Oh well, it'll get better. Michele is sick, which is not good. Well, can't keep my students waiting any longer. It's strange to teach exclusively online and have only that connection to my students. That is something I'll probably talk about frequently. Now, to work!