109 Outcomes on Canvas with Naomi Salmon- 03.09.2018

At the March 9, 2017 Active Teaching Lab, we looked at the Outcomes in Canvas. Naomi Salmon shared how she uses the Outcomes feature in her English 100 lab to encourage revisions and a growth mindset instead of using a points-based punitive rubric. Try it for yourself with the activity sheet from the session.

Takeaways

• Uses Canvas Outcomes for a small group of 19 students 3x/week in a writing intensive course.
• Naomi says you can think of it as a hyped up rubric, with categories and levels.
• She changes all the point levels to 0 (across the board) and used qualitative statements instead in order to focus on support of risk-taking and learning instead of punishment (and implicit encouragement of “playing it safe”). Encourages revision.
• “Outcomes-Supported Contract Grading”: can take multiple forms (semester-long and specific grading), instructor as coach vs gatekeeper. Can be confusing for students (does “meets expectations” mean I got an A?)

Video

Active Teaching Labs are held Fridays from 8:30-9:45am in room 120, Middleton Building (1305 Linden Dr.) as well as some Wednesdays from 12:30-1:30pm in room 302 Middleton Building. Check out upcoming Labs or read the recaps from past Labs.

Similar to the Active Teaching Labs, Active Teaching Exchanges feature instructors sharing their teaching experiences with tools and techniques, but provide more time for discussion without the hands-on investigation time. Exchanges are are held Thursdays from 1-2pm in room 120, Middleton Building. See the full calendar of both events. Stay informed about upcoming Labs and Exchanges by signing up for regular announcements by sending an email to join-activeteaching@lists.wisc.edu.