At a Glance
Institution:
Brock University
Instructor:
Cathy Mondloch
Course Name:
Life-span Development
Course Material in Use:
Santrock, Life-Span Development, 2ce
Resource in Use:
Connect + Online Quizzes + Quest
Course Type:
Face-to-face
Integration:
Sakai
Course Enrollment:
220 students total per academic year
Before using Connect, most students arrived to Professor Cathy Mondloch’s class unprepared, having not read the text or thought about the material. This made it hard to ensure that class time was interesting as it required spending too much time on the basics, to the frustration of those who did prepare. A significant amount of in-class time was also being spent testing students and Professor Mondloch found it difficult to keep students engaged with material and see its application in daily life.
Professor Mondoloch was looking for a solution to ensure students were reading the assigned material prior to class so that more in-class time could be spent on recent research reports, class discussions, and content beyond the basics.
“Before using Connect, I had never used a learning management platform, eBook, or online quizzes. I was nervous about incorporating education technology into my classroom because I was concerned about how much time it would take to manage. The reality is that it’s super easy to set up and students were incredibly engaged.”
Professor Mondloch allocates a total of 35% of final student grades to Connect content. Students are assigned readings in SmartBook to be completed the night before lecture. Because of these pre-class assigned readings she can go to class assured that all students have read and learned something from the readings, making lectures and class discussions more interesting and engaging.
She also allocates marks to online quizzes available in Connect. Most questions for the quizzes are drawn from the question bank and she also creates her own questions based on specific material covered in lecture. The use of online quizzes has drastically reduced the amount of time spent on tests in class. Now she gives short tests, which include about 3 – 4 short questions, so class time can be focused on teaching and discussion.
Quest is another tool available in Connect that Professor Mondloch utilizes in her course to boost student comprehension. Quest is an experiential learning game that provides students with the opportunity to apply content from their human development curriculum to real-life scenarios.
“Most important, all of this allows me to eliminate the final exam, resulting in reducing student stress and avoiding unnecessary information cramming, only to forget it later.”
After implementing Connect, Professor Mondloch has more confidence that students are arriving prepared for class and is able to hold students accountable when they choose not to be prepared. Her workload is reduced, as test grading is done easily and automatically. With this additional time in class, she is able to lecture outside of the basic content, delving deeply into interesting studies and questions – making lecture attendance worthwhile too.
After using Connect in Professor Mondloch’s class, students provided feedback to her indicating that they were more prepared for class and ensured that they actually read and thought about the text, rather than mindlessly highlighting. Students found that learning and studying small bits at a time, rather than for a final exam, allowed them to retain information better, especially given the immense amount of information covered in a Life-span Development course.
“Students need to know that their work ‘counts’. So, rewarding them for reading and thinking about the content makes them more likely and happier to do so. I no longer receive any complaints about the content not being a worthwhile purchase.”
Cathy Mondloch is a Professor of Psychology at Brock University. Her research interests include perceptual development, expert face processing, sensitivity to emotional expressions, and the role of early visual experience. She is the recipient of the Brock University Award for Distinguished Research and is an Associate Investigator on the Australia Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders.
With funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Professor Mondloch is currently investigating the development of sensitivity to emotional expression, the influence of context on adults’ and children’s perception of facial displays of emotion, and how children use facial expression to understand what is happening during live social interactions. Additionally, her research has received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Her work has made strides for special populations, including individuals with autism and people to eyewitness testimony, which is seen in her involvement in the TV show, To Catch a Killer.
Students like to be able to read in small chunks and Connect helps them do this. McGraw has a team of sales representatives dedicated to supporting digital implementation of their tools and they are an amazing resource to use if you have questions so I recommend fellow instructors to meet with their representative and seek their help as they need it – they are wizards! Have your rep come to class – it’s great for students to be able to put a face to the content they’re learning. Don’t overestimate the challenge of setting this up, it’s not hard to do and a huge time-saver in the end!