Tools and Resources List

This PowerPoint presentations describes the instrument called the Perceived Difficulty Assessment Questionnaire and provides its theoretical background. A few examples of its use are also included.

A handout to list courses and identify which ones have a particular goal(s).

A collection of active learning strategies that can be used in a variety of instructional settings.

Active Learning, Strategies for Success is written for instructors who are not practiced at teaching actively. It was created after hearing from faculty "That active learning stuff doesn't work for me. I tried it and the students hated it!" Following a 4-step process can help ensure that your early attempts at active teaching are more successful. These steps have been used by hundreds of faculty to effectively introduce students to active learning. For suggestions of activities look for "Interactive Learning" in the repository search box.

This is a matrix that can be used to align course assignments with program goals for faculty working on program assessment.

Brief explanation of several easy-to-use Classroom Assessment Techniques, with examples.

Guidance on how to interpret student feedback shared through MSEEQ and SEEQ instruments.

Instructional development philosophy (aka, faculty development philosophy, educational development philosophy) written by Dr. Angela Linse, Assoc. Dean and Executive Director, Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence

Considerations for using AI (artificial intelligence) tools in our teaching: when planning a course, when planning an assignment, when considering implications for equity, accessibility and academic integrity.

This essay, written by Penn State's Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, John Lowe, describes several useful strategies for collecting course-level assessment about students' study habits and learning, which can be used to improve student learning.

The current violent international conflict in Israel and Gaza may cause your students to be concerned about their safety and that of family and community members. The tensions may lead to increases in hate crimes against Jews and Muslims around the world. The conflict could also trigger strong emotions and opinions, which may impact your students. This resource provide guidance about course discussions of the conflict and how to avoid (or confront) antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Best Practices in the Evaluation of Teaching, by Stephen L. Benton, The IDEA Center and Suzanne Young, University of Wyoming
Effective instructor evaluation is complex and requires the use of multiple measures—formal and informal, traditional and authentic—as part of a balanced evaluation system. The student voice, a critical element of that balanced system, is appropriately complemented by instructor self-assessment and the reasoned judgments of other relevant parties, such as peers and supervisors. Integrating all three elements allows instructors to take a mastery approach to formative evaluation, trying out new teaching strategies and remaining open to feedback that focuses on how they might improve. Such feedback is most useful when it occurs in an environment that fosters challenge, support, and growth. Rather than being demoralized by their performance rankings, faculty can concentrate on their individual efforts and compare current progress to past performance. They can then concentrate on developing better teaching methods and skills rather than fearing or resenting comparisons to others. The evaluation of teaching thus becomes a rewarding process, not a dreaded event.
Keywords: Evaluation of teaching, summative evaluation, formative evaluation, mastery orientation

Overview of biases faced by individuals from marginalized groups and strategies to interrupt bias in evaluations and hiring committees. People from groups stereotyped as less competent regularly have to prove themselves over and over. Others walk a tightrope because acceptable workplace behavior falls within a narrow range for women, people of color, and class migrants, and immigrants. Parent bias can affect mothers, fathers, and those without children. Bias such as tokenism, a loyalty tax, and higher standards also exist among people from underrepresented groups.

This is a bibliography compiled by the University Libraries' Daniel Mack in 2009. It lists many resources on the topic of interdisciplinary teaching in higher education.

A list of active verbs for use in crafting learning objectives based on Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.

Handout contains prompts for reflecting on one's syllabus, a class, an assignment, and student learning. Reflective prompts that support brainstorming ideas for the portfolio support the early stages of the development of a teaching portfolio.

This document provides suggestions for thinking about addressing diversity in the classroom and incorporating those thoughts into your teaching portfolio.

This is a 2-page flyer provided by the CIRTL Network (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning). It includes quotes from participants about how participating benefitted them. Many are now professors. The second page is focuses on additional benefits for students, faculty, and academic units.

This document is a 1993 teaching newsletter from Stanford University that addresses the topic of classroom assessments - brief, typically non-graded assignments, that reveals to both teachers and students the extent to which students have the knowledge the teacher expects them to have.

Case study for classroom management

IST's 2010 master assessment plan is a great model for similar programs trying to map their objectives, courses, and assessments.

Document describes components of A teaching portfolio: summary of teaching responsibilities, statement of teaching philosophy, teaching goals and methods, evidence that goals have been achieved, and future goals. Document provides links to examples of teaching portfolio components.

This document describes how concept maps can be used as active methods for students to learn course material.

This document describes several active learning methods for helping students learn how course concepts are organized.

Course assessment plans help us ensure that course learning objectives (CLOs), assessments, and instructional activities are aligned. They also assist with planning the sequencing and timing of assessments, so students have multiple opportunities to practice applying what they learn before attempting a major assignment or exam. This template can be used to map assessments at any level of attainment, in any modality, for any length time, and it can be expanded or contracted for any number of learning objectives.

Links to resources for instructors responding to student comments, disruptions, or microaggressions. Also included are SITE faculty consultants' most recommended course norms, discussion guidelines, ground rules, and netiquette.

This file contains a list of six course design models chosen as "favorites" by the POD Network members, pulled from a thread on the POD Network Open Discussion Group. The six models are: Purdue’s Interactive Course Re/Design (ICD) Wheel; Connection-Engagement-Empowerment (CEE); Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework; Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle; Fink’s Integrated Course Design; and Backward Design. Moji Shahvali

Most course observations involve pre- and post-observation discussions between the observer and the instructor. A pre-observation conversation builds trust and ensures that the observer understands the instructional context. A post-observation debriefing should highlight effective instructional practices, as well as collaborative identification of improvements. The following can also be used to guide a written summary by the observer.

Course outlines provide an overview of a course to ensure that all of the required or desired elements are present and that course goals, objectives, topics, assessments, and instructional activities are aligned. They also assist with organizing content into coherent modules and with planning the sequencing, timing, and outlining of individual class sessions. The template can be used to design courses at any level of attainment, in any modality, for any length time.

Questions and advice to guide pre- and post-observation conversations for faculty peer review of teaching. These questions can also be used to guide a written observation summary letter.

Creating a Culture of Academic Integrity publication by Herteis. This document includes a definition of plagiarism, facts about the extent of cheating, why students cheat, and strategies for designing written assignments that reduce plagiarism (among other topics)

This document describes the process for creating permanent groups (teams) for collaborative learning.

Inclusive Teaching. This document includes the slides and handouts used in Linse & Weinstein's workshop introducing faculty to specific actions that they can take immediately to make their courses more inclusive. Based on our experience, it is best to provide the Strategies early in the workshop because it addresses faculty members' primary concern--what to do! By addressing faculty needs first, we have found it allows us to have richer discussions about the two most intractable issues to creating inclusive learning environments, Microaggressions and Stereotype Threat.

Aspects that are generally considered to be part of Critical Pedagogy.

A sense of belonging is students’ perception of social support on campus, connectedness, and experience of feeling accepted, respected, mattering, and valued by the community or people on campus, such as faculty, staff, and peers (Strayhorn, 2012). Based on four domains of sense of belonging that Ahn and Davis (2020) suggest (academic engagement, social engagement, surroundings, and personal space), this resource provides practical guidance for cultivating a sense of belonging in learning environments.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a pedagogical approach that recognizes the importance of cultural diversity in the teaching and learning process. The core emphasis of CRT is the inclusion of diverse cultures in the design of instruction (Addy et al., 2021). Gay (2010) defines CRT as “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (p.31). This resource expands on the understanding of culturally responsive teaching and provides practical suggestions for teaching in higher education.

A handout that describes problem-based learning and provides an overview of the instructional steps.

This file is a brief overview of how to develop a rubric, which can be useful for grading essays or other student projects. Rubrics make grading easier and more consistent as well as provide information to students that helps them do well on the assignment.

Abstract: Writing multiple-choice test items to measure student learning in higher education is a challenge. Based on extensive scholarly research and experience, the author describes various item formats, offers guidelines for creating these items, and provides many examples of both good and bad test items. He also suggests some shortcuts for developing test items. All of this advice is based on extensive scholarly research and experience. Creating valid multiple-choice items is a difficult task, but it contributes greatly to the teaching and learning process for undergraduate, graduate, and professional-school courses.

Author: Thomas M. Haladyna, Arizona State University

Keywords: Multiple-choice items, selected response, test-item formats, examinations

Examples of rubrics for 1) Class participation; 2) lab reports; 3)oral participation; and 4) a teaching portfolio. Document also includes rubrics of different grain sizes: holistic rubric compared with grading checklist. There is also a case study about a request to have an assignment regraded.

This report focuses on using student feedback in faculty evaluation process. It is based on Linse's 2017 peer-reviewed publication, with additions specific to Penn State and the SRTEs. Linse, A. R. (2017). Interpreting and using student ratings data: Guidance for faculty serving as administrators and on evaluation committees. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 54, 94–106; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2016.12.004.

The Faculty Senate revision to Student Policy 42-27 Class Attendance states that instructors may provide remote asynchronous instruction on a November election day so students can participate in or work the polls at local, state or federal elections. We offer this guidance in preparation for such instruction.

Penn State’s Faculty Assessment of Teaching Framework assesses teaching using evidence from three sources, peer review, self-assessment, and student feedback. The framework also identifies four Elements of Effective Teaching, which provide a foundation of understanding, advance a shared language for communication, and serve as standards against which the combined sources of evidence are judged. Academic units may also use the elements as an invitation to discuss other important aspects of effective teaching. This document includes teaching examples by element.

Everywhere you turn, colleagues are talking about evidence-based teaching. But even when
the evidence is convincing, it can be tough to choose a strategy and begin using it well. This
navigational guide will help you get started.
Horii, C. V. (2018) Wise Instructional Choices in an Evidence-driven Era. NEA Higher Education Advocate, 36(3), 6-9.

Exit slips are an active learning strategy that requires students to put information into their own words, so they can internalize the content, identify gaps in their understanding, or alert the instructor to potential problems. This document contains examples of prompts for use in any course.

The University of Montana Curry Health Center developed this toolkit for faculty based on the well-documented concept that student wellbeing is critical to learning, success and persistence. The toolkit includes course design suggestions about a wide variety of topics including student's personal development, flexibility, social connection, optimal challenge, developing a positive course culture, inclusivity, instructor support, and responding to a crisis.

This document lists pros and cons associated with fair use of multimedia works in a checklist format.

A brief overview of the From Workshop to Action program offered by SITE. The overview includes a description of the program and its objectives, the current facilitators of the program, and the requirements to complete the program.

This article, from Stanford's teaching and learning center, addresses strategies for improving assessment and grading practices in the classroom.

Writing learning goals and explicit learning objectives will make it easier for students to understand what is expected of them in your course. Goals communicate what students will learn and objectives communicate the kind and quality of work you expect of them. Explicit objectives also make it easier for faculty to make decisions about course content, activities, assignments, and grading.

Focuses on program assessment and the role that grades do (or do not) play in providing evidence that program goals are being met.

This is a grading rubric to use with scoring an internship journal. It would be a helpful model for someone exploring how to build a rubric generally.

There are 4 tips to help bolster grading efficiency and to deal with student grade complaints.

This document describes an alternative method for assessment in which students work collaboratively on an exam.

This document describes the process of assigning a group written position paper.

This document describes strategies for using group quizzes to assess student knowledge.

Item Analysis (a.k.a. Test Question Analysis) is an empowering process that enables you to improve mutiple-choice test score validity and reliability by analyzing item performance over time and making necessary adjustments. Knowledge of score reliability, item difficulty, item discrimination, and crafting effective distractors can help you make decisions about whether to retain items for future administrations, revise them, or eliminate them from the test item pool. Item analysis can also help you to determine whether a particular portion of course content should be revised or enhanced.

This is a quick start guide for engaging in self reflection on teaching. It can be helpful to support the production of the reflection portion of the dossier for P&T and/or annual review for Penn State faculty.

The Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary developed the Taylor Institute Guide on Teaching Dossiers (aka Teaching Portfolios) and Philosophy Statements. This guide is a comprehensive resource for creating a teaching dossier that presents an integrated summary of your teaching philosophy, approaches, accomplishments, and effectiveness. Based on a compilation of current scholarship and open access resources this guide uses a literature-informed framework for developing teaching expertise to lead you through a series of practical exercises to develop and strengthen your teaching dossier and philosophy.

All materials are licensed under the creative commons and we invite you to share, use and adapt this guide within your local contexts and/or educational development initiatives.

This document describes several strategies that can be used to make concepts "concrete" and provide tactile material that can help students learn.

We use this handout in our inclusive teaching workshop. It is adapted from “Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom” by Lee Warren at Harvard's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. It includes suggestions about how to manage difficult conversations by planning before the course as well ideas for what to do during the course ("in the moment").

This IDEA paper from the Kansas State IDEA Center Resources provides many strategies for improving essay tests.

This IDEA paper from the Kansas State IDEA Center Resources provides guidelines for creating effective multiple choice tests.

Professor Christine Hockings (UK), April 2010
Inclusive learning and teaching in higher education refers to the ways in which pedagogy, curricula and assessment are designed and delivered to engage students in learning that is meaningful, relevant and accessible to all. It embraces a view of the individual and individual difference as the source of diversity that can enrich the lives and learning of others.
This publication includes summaries of key research on how inclusion practices impact students' learning, identities, and belonging.

Creating a sense of belonging is critical for student learning and setting the tone for an inclusive classroom begins on, or even before, the first day of class. This handout provides sample questions for a questionnaire you can use to get to know students, a few considerations for your own introduction as an instructor, and suggestions for introducing your course.

Larger courses can present challenges for instructors aiming to provide personalized and inclusive learning experiences for students. Inclusive teaching refers to an intentional practice of recognizing and mitigating biases that may lead to the marginalization of some students (Dewsbury & Brame, 2019) and supporting all students to reach their full potential (Addy et al., 2021). This resource provides suggestions for inclusive teaching practices for larger courses.

This list of inclusive teaching strategies was created as part of the Schreyer Institute's Creating Inclusive Courses workshop. The workshop activity is also available in this repository. The list was compiled over many years and is intended to help instructors recognize what they might already be doing to demonstrate that all students are welcome contributors to the course learning community. This is not a "checklist." Creating inclusive course environments requires sincerity, intentionality, and reflection, not simply enacting a list of strategies. These strategies are most effective when combined with other efforts such as critical self-reflection reflection, learning about antiracist pedagogies, and taking steps to decolonize our classrooms.

This is a workshop activity used in our Inclusive Courses workshop. It is intended to help instructors to recognize the wide range of things that they currently do, or can do, to demonstrate to students that each has unique contributions to make in the course learning community.

This is a ready-to-use template for collecting mid-semester or end-of-course open-ended feedback from students.

Short descriptions of 22 activities to engage students in both large and small classes.

This document is the master Learning Outcomes Assessment plan for the College of Information Science and Technology.

This document describes a specific strategy that provides a collaborative learning experience for students.

This FAQ sheet offers many suggestions for making good use of teaching assistants and classroom space.

Research indicates that learner-centered syllabi positively impact students’ perception of instructor
effectiveness and rapport with instructors (Harrington & Gaber-Quilen, 2015). Moreover, learnercentered syllabi can lead to higher levels of motivation and engagement, achievement, and rapport
between students (Karanja & Grant, 2020). This resource provides suggestions for constructing a
learner-centered syllabus.

Well-written course learning goals and objectives based on Bloom's taxonomy communicate what students will learn and how they'll demonstrate their learning. They also facilitate the design of measurable activities,
assignments, instructions, and grading criteria.

Learning Objectives article, 3 pages, published in the _Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal_ by Patricia B Nemec and Evelyn Bussema. They state." The article differentiates between general goals and instructional objectives. The article is copyrighted by the APA.

The Lecture/Discussion Facilitation Template was distributed at the 2017 Lilly Evidence-based Teaching & Learning Conference held in Bethesda, MD June 1 - 4, 2017. Use it during lectures as a low-stakes, largely anonymous method to gauge students’ understanding, as a pop quiz or survey, or to keep track of in-class group activities. The template can improve student participation and engagement by minimizing their fears of low (or even “too high”) performance before their classmates, and it provides a demonstrable, observable, measurable, and active way to gain a sense of how well students are “getting it,” beyond the glint in their eyes. In that sense, it serves as a quick formative assessment tool that can be customized on demand.

This is a full guide for internship supervisors in the College of the Liberal Arts. It would serve as a great model for other programs seeking to develop a similar document.

A Likert scale type tool for evaluating a syllabus.

There are matrices to use when aligning specific General Education courses with core competencies.

This is a true and false quiz to test assumptions about student ratings.

The Midterm/Midsemester Class Interview (or Small Group Instructional Diagnosis, SGID) is a process designed to help instructors learn what their students think about how the course is going. Students identify elements of the class that are helping them learn and offer suggestions to strengthen the course. We recommend using this procedure in the middle of the semester, after students have received at least one grade. The process involves three steps: 1) meeting with an instructional consultant to discuss the instructor's objectives for the process; 2) a class interview with small groups and a whole class discussion; and a post-interview summary and discussion of the results with the consultant.

The Midterm/Midsemester Class Interview (or Small Group Instructional Diagnosis, SGID) is a process designed to help instructors learn what their students think about how the course is going. Students identify elements of the class that are helping them learn and offer suggestions to strengthen the course. We recommend using this procedure in the middle of the semester, after students have received at least one grade. The process involves three steps: 1) meeting with an instructional consultant to discuss the instructor's objectives for the process; 2) a class interview with small groups and a whole class discussion; and a post-interview summary and discussion of the results with the consultant.

SEEQ & MSEEQ availability by calendar year; updated annually in January.
Page 1 includes full term Semester dates only: Spring, Maymester, Summer, and Fall.
Page 2 includes dates for shorter terms (S71, S72) Maymester, Summer (S1, S2), and Fall (F71, F72).
Page 3 includes an accessible list of dates for all semesters.
See also an accessible list at: https://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/pdf/MSEEQ_&_SEEQ_DatesList_accessible.docx

This handout was provided at the workshop "Writing High Quality Multiple Choice Questions" (10/26/2018) by Hoi K. Suen

Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Educational Psychology

The Penn State University

https://pennstateoffice365.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/SITE/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B84469AA6-E4B8-44FB-8117-FF168CAFDA46%7D&file=Navigating%20microaggressions%20in%20Learning%20Environments.docx&action=default&mobileredirect=true

Disruptions might include a sudden eruption of distress, a disturbance, or a challenge in the classroom. They result in a charged juncture that requires the instructor to intervene. These stressful moments or emotionally challenging situations can negatively impact the integrity and safety of the learning environment.

This document describes the difference between goals and objectives and provides lists of explicit verbs that can be used to write clear, action- and behavior-oriented objectives for students or faculty (depending on the focus of your proposal) that will demonstrate project success.

This file describes the characteristics of adult learners and strategies for instructors who teach them.

This document describes the use of partners who learn the course material together.

Often called “peer observation of teaching ” or “peer evaluation of teaching,” peer review of teaching (PRT) involves seeking feedback from an informed colleague for the purposes of improving one’s practice (formative assessment) and/or evaluating it (summative assessment). Texas A&M University's Faculty Performance Evaluation Task Force recommended having separate review processes for formative and summative assessment using multiple sources of data from students, peers, administrators, and as well as faculty themselves for evaluating teaching. Includes institutional perspectives and supporting videos from the University of Texas.

This is a survey report along with supplemental readings about Penn State as a community of learners.

Three learning outcomes from Penn State Mont Alto along with suggestions on next steps are briefly described in this paper.

2011 report on survey of student views on the quality of instruction at Penn State.

This report is the first in a series encompassed by the Quality of Instruction project. The research question guiding this report is: How do students and teachers view the instructional process at University Park? Information to address this question was obtained by surveying both students and faculty concerning their attitudes and experiences at University Park during the 1995-1996 academic year. These student and teacher surveys were made possible by support from the Penn State Alumni Association provided Fern (Bunny) Willits as the 1995-96 Alumni Teaching Fellow awardee and the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. Class Attendance data were provided by the Office of Student Affairs Research and Assessment Pulse Survey.
The complete citation for the report is:
Willits, Fern K., Moore, Betty L., & Enerson, Diane M. (1997). Penn State, Quality of Instruction: Surveys of Students and Teachers at University Park. Pennsylvania State University.

2011 report on survey of student views on the quality of instruction at Penn State

The third in a series of reports dealing with the views of students and faculty about undergraduate
education at Penn State.

An eight question survey for students to assess how they prepared for a class and how they rate the difficulty of the exam.

Recommendations for contingency planning and building flexibility into courses to lessen the impact of unplanned absences, including your own.

This document describes the process of writing problems for use in helping students learn course material through problem-based learning.

List the program outcomes that are addressed in a course and identify the specific student work in the course that can be used to document evidence of achievement for each relevant outcome.

A one page worksheet that to list program goals and then identify existing evidence for obtaining goals.

This is an electronic handbook on how to successfully use teams in instruction.

Drawing upon data from surveys of students and instructors at the 19 Commonwealth Campuses during 2012, this report addresses the following research questions:

• What are the instructional elements that Commonwealth Campus students and teachers view as important for quality teaching?
• How frequently are these elements realized in the teaching that actually occurs?
• How favorably do Commonwealth Campus students rate the overall quality of the instruction they receive?
• What factors relate to differences in how students' perceive instructional quality?
• Do the perceptions of undergraduate students at the Commonwealth Campuses concerning the quality of instruction differ from those at University Park?
• How, if at all, have the perceptions concerning instructional quality changed across time?

Report of results from a 2012 survey of student and faculty perceptions of the quality of instruction at Penn State’s Commonwealth Campuses. This study focuses on what Commonwealth Campus students and faculty believe are the most important elements of quality instruction, their frequency at the campuses, students' ratings of their instruction, factors that differentiate how students perceive quality, comparison of results from Commonwealth Campuses and University Park, and whether perceptions have changed over time.

Report of results from a 2011 survey of student and faculty perceptions of the quality of instruction at Penn State’s University Park campus. This study focuses on what students and faculty believe are the most important elements of quality instruction, their frequency at University Park, students' ratings of their instruction, factors that influence students' ratings, and changes in perceptions compared to 1996 survey results.

Report of results from a 2012 survey of student and faculty perceptions of the quality of instruction of courses offered through Penn State’s World Campus. This study focuses on what students and faculty believe are the most important elements of quality instruction, their frequency in World Campus courses, students' ratings of their instruction, factors that influence students' ratings, and comparison of results from World Campus, the Commonwealth Campuses, and University Park.

Drawing upon new data obtained from surveys of students and instructors at the University Park Campus of Penn State carried out in 2011, this report addresses the following research questions:

• What are the elements that students and instructors believe are most important to achieving quality teaching?
• How frequently do these occur in University Park classrooms today?
• How do University Park students rate the quality of the instruction they receive?
• What factors influence students’ ratings of teaching quality in a course?
• How have the perceptions of students and instructors changed since the 1996 survey?

Fern K. Willits and Mark A. Brennan 2016 Changing Perceptions of the University as a Community of Learning: The Case of Penn State. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 28(1), 66-74.
Supported by a grant from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence

This activity involves students pairing up to answer questions about course content and can be used for review of material before a test, for example, or for practice.

This Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT) was developed by Stephen Brookfield, author of Becoming A Critically Reflective Teacher (San Francisco: Jossey Bass 1995). He refers to it as a “Critical Incident Questionnaire," but the questions can also be provided to students in advance to students as a way to jump-start conversations during office hours (remote & in-person).

This strategy involves posing relevant open-ended problems for students to discuss.

This is the second report of the Committee on Assessing Teaching Effectiveness submitted to Kathy Bieschke, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. This report is recommends options for improving future evaluation of teaching for tenure, promotion, annual review, and reappointment. The committee's recommendations address the unacceptable over-reliance on student feedback in the process of evaluation--specifically the numerical ratings of the Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness (SRTE) and the ‘Open Ended Item’ responses, which serve to amplify systemic inequities and hierarchies within our teaching community. The first report of the committee provided recommendations for evaluating teaching for promotion & tenure during the pandemic of 2020.

This is the committee's second report [for Report 1, see Appendix M in the NEW: 2020-2021 Administrative Guidelines for Policy AC23 (formerly HR23): Promotion and Tenure Procedures and Regulations]

Created for faculty and other academics who are interested in getting involved in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Recommended resources include the following topics: "Preparing to do SOTL," "Books on SOTL Research," "Journals for Educational Research," and "Videos of SoTL researchers discussing different aspects of SOTL."

Selected resources for interdisciplinary education created by Penn State librarian Rosemary Mack.

In this rationale, Natalie Parker, Director of CETL and Distance Education, Texas Wesleyan University, advocates for replacing high stakes exams with multiple-attempt, low-stakes quizzes. The “testing effect”, in which students recall more information about a topic after testing than after re-reading the material, was first reported by Abbott in 1909. Subsequent studies have confirmed that repeated testing is an effective way for students to recall material.

This document describes how to use role-playing exercises to help students grasp certain concepts.

Round Robin is a systematic technique that allows students to brainstorm answers to questions. It allows all students an opportunity to contribute.

A rubric for assessing oral communication work.

This sample score report is generated by our paper exam scanning system. The score report is an important tool that will help you evaluate the effectiveness of a test and of the individual questions that comprise it. The evaluation process, called item analysis, can improve future test and item construction. The analysis provides valuable information that helps instructors determine which are the “best” test questions to secure and continue to use on future course assessments; which items need review and potential revision before a next administration, and which are the poorest items which should be eliminated from scoring on the current administration.

This sample rubric for a writing assignment can provide instructors with an adaptable rubric model that can be used to grade writing assignments more quickly and accurately.

This is a checklist for instructors to use when dropping off their scanning materials at Scanning Operations in 105 Pollock Building.

This file is used by scanning operations to match questions on different test forms.

Form for weighting items for exams with items that have different weights. Used for scanning multiple choice tests that use bubble sheets.

Form used for scanning exams that use bubble sheets when the instructor wants responses to have different weights.

This file is an example of a rubric that can be used to grade a science experiment. The use of a rubric can help instructors to grade more accurately and more quickly.

Teaching Professor 2013 Presentation. This presentation describes the characteristics of a positive peer review that encourages community.

This coversheet provides an overview of why the SEEQ is different from the preceding SRTEs. It may be added to an application packet if an explanation of the change is necessary.

Presentation to the Faculty Senate in 2010 on the Faculty Communities Hub.

A simulation provides a way for students to experience the content in action and spark discussion.

Learn how the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence supports Penn State faculty. offerings, services, and events and how to contact us. Our interactions are voluntary, confidential, and free. We offer a variety of services and programs. Choose what suits you best.

Learn how the faculty at the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence supports faculty new to Penn State. Your interactions with us are voluntary, confidential, and free anyone who teaches Penn State students at any location. We offer a variety of services and programs in different modes.

This resource includes summaries of all texts prepared for and discussed by SITE's DEI Journal Club, starting Summer 2022 to present. This resource is both for those interested in joining our journal club, so that you can get an idea about the topics and texts we discuss, and for those already members of our group, so that you can return to the texts with which we have engaged.

This strategy involves students working together in groups to research the solution to a problem.

These PowerPoint slides accompanied a presentation by James M. Lang delivered at University Park on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Research from the learning sciences and from a variety of educational settings suggests that a small number of key principles can improve learning in almost any type of college or university course, from traditional lectures to flipped classrooms. This workshop will introduce some of those principles, offer practical suggestions for how they might foster positive change in higher education teaching and learning, and guide faculty participants to consider how these principles might manifest themselves in their current and upcoming courses.

This is a peer-reviewed article published in the journal of Studies in Educational Evaluation. Its focus is the accurate interpretation of student ratings data (including Penn State's SRTE) and appropriate use of the data to evaluate faculty. It includes recommendations for use and interpretation based on more than 80 years of student ratings research. Most colleges and universities use student ratings data to guide personnel decisions so it is critical that administrators and faculty evaluators have access to the cumulative knowledge about student ratings based on multiple studies, rather than single studies that have not been replicated, studies based on non-representative populations, or that are from a single discipline.

The article provides an overview of common views and misconceptions about student ratings, followed by clarification of what student ratings are and are not. It also includes two sets of guidelines for administrators and faculty serving on review committees.

One-page handout of information about the Schreyer Institute and Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness (SRTE)

One page handout summarizing research literature on the correlation between student ratings and grades.

This book is a collection of essays from the Journal of College Science Teaching which describes in detail the case study method as applied to the sciences. The book offers strategies, tips, examples, ideas, and resources as an alternative to traditional lecture formats.

Statement of Practices for the Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness for Promotion and Tenure
This document was created by the University Faculty Senate as an Advisory and Consultative report on April 30, 1985. The Statement of Practices was revised by the faculty senate on February 21, 1989, and again on September 16, 2003. This statement was extracted from Appendix A of the 2021-2022 Administrative Guidelines for Policy AC23 (formerly HR23): Promotion and Tenure Procedures and Regulations 2021-2022.

Concept inventories are designed to assess student's knowledge of particular scientific concepts. This is an article that describes a concept inventory that assesses statistics knowledge. This link does not take you to the concept inventory itself, but provides information about how to access the inventory.

The purpose of this article is to provide a process for centers for teaching and learning to demonstrate their success and their value to constituents. Faculty developers have long requested an approach that would guide relevant and meaningful data collection. Nearly every CTL must develop a strategic plan, but too often they sit on a shelf gathering dust. The purpose of a strategic plan is to guide decision-making about how the unit spends its resources in service of its purpose (mission).
Linse, A. R. & Hood, L. N. (in press). Building a strategic plan that guides assessment: A case study from a teaching and learning center. Journal on Centers for Teaching and Learning.

Large classes are among the most important because many students enrolled are new to the college experience. The big challenges of teaching large classes include finding ways to engage students, providing timely feedback, and managing logistics. When faced with these challenges, many instructors revert to lectures and multiple-choice tests. There are alternatives. This special report describes some alternative teaching and course management techniques to get students actively involved without an inordinate amount of work on the instructor’s part. From the Teaching Professor, Magna.

Brief (2-page) handout about strategies to promote effective student discussion.

Handout from Cindy Raynak's 2012 Teaching Professor presentation in Washington, DC. Describes the concept of "student-centered discussion," it's advantages for student learning, and how the process works.

PowerPoint presentation, authored by Cindy Raynak, that describes "student centered discussion."

Student collaborative writing (peer writing) is a strategy in which students work together on all aspects of a writing project. It can reduce the need for the faculty member to spend time reading and commenting on drafts.

Many instructors feel that the student ratings process is something 'done to' them. Annotation offers a way for instructors to interpret their own ratings rather than rely on accurate interpretation by others not involved in the course. The annotation serves as a cover page for the summary report available to faculty from the Student Course Feedback (e.g., SRTEs) the student ratings system (rateteaching.psu.edu). This document identifies key elements of an effective annotation as well as an example of a one-page annotation for a fictional course.

The questionnaire includes seven items, which are the same for every instructor. Responses to items 1-4 are available to the instructor and their academic unit head. Items 5-7 are provided only to the instructor. Fall semester 2023 is the first to use this questionnaire. It replaces the SRTE.

This document describes the use of student peers to provide feedback on written assignments by fellow students.

The Student Success-Oriented Action Plan is a six-page guide to methods and techniques to increase inclusion and equity through course design and delivery.

This document describes how to facilitate discussions that are led by students in small groups.

The first few weeks of the semester set the trajectory for students’ behavior and success in a course. This resource for intructors provides an overview of Starfish as a student success resource.

The Syllabus Checklist document provides a syllabus template that includes elements required on all syllabi by Penn State, plus additional recommended best practices in syllabus design.

Research suggests that the tone of the syllabus communicates an instructor’s teaching philosophy and how the instructor communicates with students (Boysen et al, 2015). Additionally, the tone of the syllabus evokes perceptions of the instructor being warm, approachable, and motivating for learners (Harnish & Bridges, 2011; Wheeler, 2019).

This worksheet can be used to help instructors develop classroom activities that align learning objectives with assessments and course activities.

Tasha Souza developed this communication framework as an interactive response so that instructors can have response strategies they can activate in critical moments to maintain inclusive teaching environments. Having language/phrases that we can see ourselves use, can be a critical step in our immediate responses to microaggression and an important action to take to support those who have been targeted by a microaggression.

All instructors will need to address a course disruption at some point in their teaching career. When instructors do not have response strategies that can be activated in that moment, it can lead to undermine student confidence in you and may send the wrong message to those who have been targeted. The phrases below can be adapted so that you are prepared to use them. Developed by Tasha Souza, Ph.D., Director of the BUILD Program at Boise State University, developed this interactive communication framework for instructors to use in the immediate moment.

Students may feel uncertain about the ethical use of AI in a given course and academic/professional field, and instructors may find it helpful to understand how students think about the ethical aspects of using AI and how they are using AI tools as learners. This resource offers recommendations for starting conversations with students about AI.

Instructors are the most important determinant of student participation in the Student Educational Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ). Students are more likely to complete the questionnaire if they know that instructors read their feedback and value it as a source of ideas to improve the course.

Instructors are the most important determinant of student participation. Students are more likely to submit feedback if they know that instructors value their feedback and use it to make improvements in the course. Below are suggestions for how you might discuss mid-semester feedback with your students.

Starfish progress surveys are a critical tool instructors can use to support student success. This resource provides a few suggestions for how instructors might talk with their students about Starfish and the messages they receive through this tool.

Listing of the Atherton Award winners up to 2010.

Listing of Teaching Fellow Award winners from 1986 to 2010.

These PowerPoint slides accompanied a presentation by James M. Lang delivered at University Park on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. As faculty struggle with the problem of distracted students on our campuses and in our classes, they have become increasingly frustrated by the ways in which digital devices can interfere with student learning. But are students today more distracted than they were in the past? Has technology reduced their ability to focus and think deeply, as some popular books have argued? This interactive lecture draws upon scholarship from history, neuroscience, and education in order to provide productive new pathways for faculty to understand the distractible nature of the human brain, work with students to moderate the effects of distraction in their learning, and even leverage the distractible nature of our minds for new forms of connected and creative thinking.

Information for instructors who want to learn more about how to plan for instruction before and after a presidential election.

A brief overview of dos and don’ts to assist your planning for class sessions prior to and after a presidential election.

Students may bring their thoughts and feelings as well as their trauma related to the violence and humanitarian crisis of the Israel-Gaza conflict into your course, even if your course material is not related to current events. This resource describes actions you can take for your students (and yourself) as well as Trauma Informed Pedagogy.

Rubric used to evaluated teaching grant proposals.

This is a one-page tip sheet that guides instructors in thinking about instruction beyond just covering content.

This one-page tip sheet provides background and approaches to guide instructors in directing students toward mastery of content.

This one-page tip sheet discusses the idea of "differentiated instruction" and suggests ways instructors can differentiate their own instruction with respect to content, processes, and products.

This one-page tip sheet guides instructors through evidence-based components of an effective lesson plan.

This is a one-page tip sheet that guides instructors in thinking about how to "decode" their discipline for students and to strategize ways to help students navigate the challenges of learning in the discipline.

This classroom observation form (faculty peer evaluation) provides both scaled and open-ended questions for use by anyone who is observing an instructor.

This resource was designed to help UBC instructors self-assess their teaching dossier (portfolio) and reflect on its content. It can be used alongside the detailed information in the Teaching Portfolio section at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia.

This document describes how to use case studies as strategies to provide active learning experiences for students.

This document was created to provide you with a source of options for gathering data on teamwork assignments and projects. You may choose to adopt one of the examples as is, combine elements from several of the examples, or use the examples to identify characteristics that correspond to particular aspects of your assigned work, course content, or student population.

This template can be used to develop a curriculum map, or matrix, which allows faculty to see which courses address each program level learning objective. Developing a curriculum map is an important step in the learning outcomes assessment (i.e. program assessment) process.

This document suggests a variety of testing models and explains why each is effective. They are alternatives or supplements to the "mid-term and a final" model.

This is an allegory to the banking model of instruction. It makes reference to epistemic justice and discusses the relationship between expertise and knowledge.

This is the PowerPoint presentation that includes information from Dr. Susan Rankin's national study of the state of higher education for LGBT people. Dr. Rankin presented this in a session for the Schreyer Institute in April of 2011.

This document describes the ten features of the banking model as described by Paulo Freire.

This document describes a strategy for getting students involved with the content by having them pair with other students to discuss the answer to an instructor-posed problem. The pairs then share their answers with the class.

Addresses common challenges instructors might face when creating a teaching portfolio. Offers how-to suggestions for getting started with the development of a teaching portfolio.

This resource is from Texas Tech University and is written by Jenny Lloyd-Strovas, Ph.D. at TTU's Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center
Texas Tech University in August, 2015.
Teaching large classes can be a daunting experience. How do you keep students engaged and active without losing control of the classroom? With so many students, how do you know if they are learning? Should you attempt to take attendance or risk losing students? How do you build rapport when learning 200 names isn’t a possibility? If you have taught (or are preparing to teach) a large class, you have probably asked yourself these questions. Here, I will discuss possible solutions for these challenges and more. This resource is organized to be a quick and efficient reference for challenges that you are experiencing in your classroom.

This resource offers principles of trauma-informed teaching and recommendations instructors
might consider as they are developing trauma-informed practices for their own courses.

This document describes a strategy to help students get more involved in lectures by periodically posing an question and having them discuss with a neighboring classmate.

This paper outlines twelve tips for undertaking peer observation of teaching in medical education, using the peer review model and the experiences of the authors. An accurate understanding of teaching effectiveness is required by individuals, medical schools, and universities to evaluate the learning environment and to substantiate academic and institutional performance. Peer Observation of Teaching is one tool that provides rich, qualitative evidence for teachers, quite different from closed-ended student evaluations. When Peer Observation of Teaching is incorporated into university practice and culture, and is conducted in a mutually respectful and supportive way, it has the potential to facilitate reflective change and growth for teachers.

Microaggressions are verbal, behavioral, or environmental actions that communicate hostility toward
the targeted group either intentionally or unintentionally (Sue et al., 2007). Microaggressions can
target many aspects of one’s identity, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, mental health, or
socioeconomic backgrounds. This resource provides insights on the adverse effects of
microaggressions on the targeted group and on microaggressions in academic settings.

FERN WILLITS AND MARK BRENNAN (2015) The University as a Community of Learning
Perceptions of Students and Teachers in Three Settings, The Journal of the World Universities Forum
Part of the Quality of Instruction (QOI) series supported by a Schreyer Institute grant

PowerPoint presentation on Blended Learning from Abington Colloquy, January 18, 2012 by Stephen Pyser.

The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment: Background for the Community. As a land-grant institution, Penn State takes seriously its role in promoting and supporting free speech under the law. Freedom of expression is a bedrock principle of our University and is essential to our core educational mission. Free speech is foundational to a democratic society, even when it tests the limits of our tolerance.

Student ratings are not the only option to provide evidence in the evaluation of teaching. There is a broad range of alternatives to consider beyond student ratings in the delicate decision-making processes to improve teaching and determine the promotion and tenure of faculty. Yet, despite the constant barrage of attacks on the integrity, reliability, and validity of student ratings, their use in higher education is at an all-time high.
So what do student ratings actually contribute to decisions about teaching and faculty? Should they be abandoned? Should you focus on the other options? This article examines student ratings and 14 alternatives to guide your plans to evaluate teaching in your department.

This faculty resource, What to Do Instead of Using AI Detectors, provides evidence-based strategies for promoting academic integrity through assignment design, trust-building conversations, and transparent AI policy development, offering practical alternatives to unreliable AI detection tools.

The purpose of this activity is for participants or students to get to know each other as individuals with distinct histories, backgrounds, and traditions. Knowing something personal about others helps learning communities and teams function more effectively.

The Where I'm From icebreaker activity was developed based on a poem by George Ella Lyon (http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html). This teaching activity is described in: Christensen, Linda (1998) Inviting Student Lives into the Classroom: Where I'm From. Rethinking Schools, 12(2): 22-23. Available on-line at: https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/where-i-m-from/

This resource provides a definition of diversity and explores the rationale for advocating for diversity within educational settings. It serves as a guide to better understand the advantages of intentionally integrating diversity, in terms of representation, perspectives, and experiences into the learning environment.

This handout provides a step-by-step guide for writing a “How to Contact Me” statement to include in your course syllabus or LMS.

A teaching philosophy is more than an instructor’s beliefs about teaching and learning and paints a picture of what it is like to be a student in the course. It explains why a faculty member does what they do in their courses. It can be a foundational document for course design, narrative statements, and self-reflection.

A teaching philosophy is typically a 1-2-page narrative. It describes how learning happens in a course through examples learning activities, instructor- and student-student interactions, assessments. See Writing a Teaching Philosophy.

This file contains a list of "item-writing rules," which will help you to write multiple choice questions in a way that will improve the ability of the test to focus on the content and prevent students from guessing the correct answer without knowing the material. The rules were developed by experts in the field of psychometrics, like the people who write questions for SATs or GREs.