Evaluating the Work of Your Student

1. Evaluating the Work of Your Student Jamil A. Khan, Ph.D., P.E. Associate Professor Mechanical Engineering

2. TA TRAINING • http://www.me.sc.edu/grad/TAtraining.html.

3. Evaluation of this workshop • Q#1. • What are the three important traits of a good teacher? • Q#2 Fill in the blank: • A carefully prepared detailed syllabus may prevent potential _______ during the semester • Q#3 • In one sentence, write down what you would want me to do differently if I were to teach this workshop again.

4. Modeling Critical Thinking • Assign open ended-problem • Solution should meet some constraint but is not unique • Brain storm ideas • Encourage out-of-the-box thinking • Let me hear your ideas

5. Effective teaching • Spotting students who are having unusual difficulty and directing them to USC resources for help • How to gauge your impact on students • Reading signs, seek feed back • Ask questions outside the class (one on one) • Is the end of the semester student evaluation sufficient? Isn’t it end-of-the-pipe inspection? • How to know when to make changes in teaching the class • Syllabus • Other changes • Taylor your teaching at the level of your students • Honors class teaching • Balancing your own research, class schedule with teaching schedule

6. Grading Student work(Why?) The Shewhart Cycle

7. Test Construction • Don’t go to outer space to pull test material • Comment on trick question • Test should show that you are meeting the course objectives • Be concerned about the reliability of the test. Test questions should be clear. • Have it checked out by your peers or by yourself • Frequency of testing. I prefer frequent short tests leading to big test • Make the test close to reality. • In-class test are artificial • I real life problem solving is different from in-class test

8. Perspective • Grades measure what is known at the time of the test • Students are very interested in grades • In fact way too much focus • Quality of the instruction may be reflected in grades • Don’t teach like elementary school at the same time do not teach like a monster • Remember learning is student’s responsibility, you can not do it for them • You certainly can find out why a student is not learning

9. Grading • As a teacher you have to demonstrate that you have the ability to grade • You can demonstrate this by helping the students continuously improve • Do you have the credentials? • Be unbiased • Grade should reflect connection between what was asked and what was turned-in • Grades are feed-back • This feed-back should focus on the work not the person • Separate the work from the student

10. Testing students during the semester • When to choose essay questions • When to use short-answer questions • Class size • Pop quizzes • Regular short quizzes (announced)

11. Projects • Are open ended but still has some limitations (constraint) • Objective is to develop critical thinking • Time constraint • Know how far you can push the students • Share the best method for completing the project • It is always good to break-up the project into separate groups and assign weighted grades a

12. Papers • Teaches communication skills • Follow proper format

13. Evaluating essays and answers to essay questions

14. Oral Presentation • What do you look for • Introduction • Problem statement • Body language and delivery • Technical contents • Audio visual aid and its use • Conclusions • Question/answers

15. Grading a Laboratory Report • COMPONENTS REQUIRED: • 1. Title page - lab title, author(s), lab section, date • 2. Objective • 3. Actual data sheet - with observers and date of experiments • 4. Sample calculations • 5. Results (tabular and/or graphical) • 6. Discussion of results • 7. Conclusions • PREPARATION GUIDELINES • 1. Use white, unlined paper with no tattered edges. • 2. Must be typed. • 3. Graphs and tables should be professional quality. No free-handing of curves permitted. Coordinates should be neatly labeled. All figures must have a number and a title.