How Piazza Promotes Organization and Socratic Dialogue in a Large Chemistry Course

Michael J. Evans, School of Chemistry

Instructors of large courses often find that effective, intimate communication with students is an unmanageable task. Communication among students, much of which is invisible to the instructor, may encourage misconceptions or shallow learning. Forum tools that allow instructors to answer students' questions in a public arena and expose student-to-student communication to instructors represent one solution to these issues. Recently the Freshman Chemistry Program has begun using a web-based forum tool (Piazza) to answer students' questions about content and logistics. Piazza is designed to encourage organized, searchable discussions that operate in a Socratic manner, with an initially asked question serving as a root for "follow-up" posts. This session will focus on the organizational features of Piazza and best practices for discussions in an online forum environment.

Collaborative Teaching and Learning with Learning Catalytics

Jung Choi, School of Biology

Learning Catalytics (http://lcatalytics.com) is a web-based student response tool with enhanced capabilities for peer instruction, student engagement, and fine-grained assessment of student understanding. This session will give a short demonstration of some of its special features and highlight how it is being used in large intro biology classes and in smaller upper-level elective classes.  Participants should obtain a free instructor account on the site and bring their Smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

To register, go to: http://www.cetl.gatech.edu/civicrm/event/info?id=124&reset=1