Lessons from the Lilly Conference

The Lilly Conference sponsored by UNCG was held in Greensboro, NC . There was a great variety of sessions and good information. I was particularly interested in sessions that involved student learning by engaging students in different class activities. Here are some highlights from the sessions I attended.


• Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT) is an low cost immediate feedback tool that can be used for quizzes (Low tech clickers). It is a scratch off card that reveals a star for the correct answer. The facilitator gave partial credit for 2nd chance answers. See http://www.epsteineducation.com/ for more information.



• Familiarity Breeds not contempt but learning: The instructor set up a 'treatment' to facilitate student learning. The treatment consisted of : explaining to students why the course was important, that learning takes time, take the knowledge home and work with it, come to office hours and receive a gift, real life examples, learn students names quickly, give extra points for going beyond what is expected, teacher has a homework notebook, review sheets for every test, no pop quizzes, logical format for test (chapter questions are grouped together).



• We try to entertain students in the classroom to keep them interested. Don't try to entertain students let them entertain themselves with assignments that really get them involved.: debates, video productions, presentations, rap, songs, commercials, etc.



• Here are some tips on how to wake up your students: Change student expectations on the first day of class; require out of class assignments that prepare students for active learning in class; prepare instructions or worksheets for the exercises; create challenging exercises (easy work is boring); tell students the purpose for the exercise; require students to specify what they have learned at the end of an exercise; strive for a classroom in which risk-taking is rewarded not penalized.



• Using the Case Study Method for learning: This is a method whereby a case study is unfolded and analyzed during class time. Many different points can be brought out and taught on the spot. This method takes a lot of time but very exciting and interesting for student learning and critical thinking.