Category: Information Literacies

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Clinic Journals

Clinic Journals

Annie Chitlall

School of Professional Studies department of Dental Hygiene/New York City College of Technology

Princinples of Dental Hygiene Care II

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students will write 3 clinic journals in Dental 1200. Each journal will be written on a completed patient. The students will enter the journal on the Den 1200 open lab site. There will be an open discussion between each student and his/her clinic advisor to ensure that the journal has met all the required information listed on the handout/rubric.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

Students will post a clinical journal within 48 hours of patient completion. Clinical journals are to be written after each step of patient care is completed. This activity will not occur in the classroom. Students will need about 2-3 hours out-of-class time to complete these journals if they the recommended timeline is followed.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

The students need to be able to demonstrate writing mechanics, understanding, and completeness of the assignment. Writing must be clear, concise, and correct. No spelling or grammatical errors. Extremely well organized. The student must demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the concepts in the assignment and must address all elements in the assignment in an appropriate length. This activity is low-stakes.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

There will be a grading rubric for this assignment.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Currently and from previous experience, the students do not follow the recommended timeline and rush to submit the required 3 journal entries on the deadline. The last-minute submissions or journals have not yielded positive results since most entries are missing pertinent information and students do not have an opportunity for open discussion with assigned faculty members. I would repeat this activity but will modify the requirements for submission. Students will develop a better appreciation of this assignment if after each patient care visit there is a required entry for that visit and an evaluation of their goals for a specific aspect of the patient care process was met. Over the semesters the biggest challenge is receiving these journal entries in a timely manner. Most students wait for the deadline date and post their entries at midnight, this does not allow for a discussion and often results in a low grade. Most students seem to enjoy the self-reflection portion of the assignment most.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Journal __________ Principles of Dental Hygiene Care II- 1200-Spring 2018

Criteria
4
3
2
1
Score
Completeness
Addresses all elements in the assignment and is of appropriate length
Addresses most of elements in the assignment and is of appropriate length
Missing some minor elements in the assignments
Incomplete in most respects; does not address the assignment properly

Understanding
Demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the concepts in the assignment
Demonstrates an accomplished understanding of the concepts in the assignment
Demonstrates an acceptable understanding of the concepts in the assignments
Demonstrates an inadequate understanding of concepts in the assignment

Writing Mechanics
Writing is clear, concise, and correct. No spelling or grammatical errors. Extremely well organized.
Writing is clear and concise but may have one or two spelling or grammatical errors. Well organized.
Writing lacks clarity or conciseness and contains numerous spelling and/or grammatical errors.
Writing is unfocused, rambling, or contains serious errors in spelling and/or grammar. Poorly organized

Total:

Grade = 12/12 = 100%
Instructor Comments:

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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What Is True/What Is Fake? Journalism Today

What Is True/What Is Fake? Journalism Today

Aaron Barlow

English/Arts & Sciences

Introduction to Journalism

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Relation of a story by the professor about an encounter with an elephant (though it can be any story relevant to the instructor’s life that can be verified to some degree, at least, through research). The students are then asked to determine what truth there is in the story, if any, and to justify their conclusions. After the first class, the students are asked to search diligently across the internet for proof/dismissal of the professor’s claims. At the end of the discussion, students vote on the truth (or lack of it) of the story. If they ask the professor to tell them if the vote is correct or not, the response should be a shrug and the comment, “The question is, can you trust me?” This generally leaves the students baffled for a moment but, as the course moves on to other considerations, they generally start to understand.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Students are expected to come away with an understanding of the limits of classroom authority and of research itself.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This exercise is best done early in the semester. It generally takes a full class period plus a couple of homework hours and then about half an hour of the next class.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

The professor needs to prepare relation of the story carefully, including within it enough clues for the students to be able to research the claims made. Students need to be taking notes while the professor talks and need to understand the use that will be made of those notes in the homework assignment. Before beginning to tell the tale, the instructor needs to carefully prepare the students.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Because of the nature of this activity, which lies outside of assessment structures and can be harmed by them, this is not assessed.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

I have been using and developing this exercise for a decade and in a number of different classes and will continue to do so. It helps students understand the differing reactions, in terms of truth value, to different speakers in different positions. Plus, it introduces them to research tasks of a sort they generally have not encountered in other classes.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

As part of a book I edited, I include the story I use for this exercise: https://www.academia.edu/888435/Elephant_Morning. When I relate it, I tell it differently, making sure to include dates, places and verifiable events as a basis for student research. The structure of the essay itself comes out, in part, from earlier uses of this exercise–but it also contains its own inaccuracies, liberties taken for the sake of the story. Every instructor has a tale or her or his own that can be used similarly.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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Editorial Illustration Part 1 – Project Research

Editorial Illustration Part 1 – Project Research

Sara Woolley Gómez

Communication Design

Illustration 1

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This activity is the introductory assignment of a scaffolded project, in which students create an Editorial Illustration for use to accompany an article in a magazine, printed or online. The project is broken into stages with peer critique and feedback given at each stage, spanning 4 weeks in total.

Part 1 Editorial Illustration Research:

1- Open with a Collaborative Learning Activity:

Rapid Fire Discussion: What do we care about?

There is a sterotype that young people are unaware or unconcerned with social issues and current events.
• Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
• Are there issues or events which you are particularly passionate about?

5 minute Brain Dump:
• In teams, grab a piece of chalk and fill the black board with a brainstorm of every issue you care about.
• If another student’s answer sparks an idea, draw a line to link the ideas.
• There are no wrong answers, but be sure to read before you write! No doubles allowed!

End with a 5 minute Reflection

2- IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT : Editorial Illustration Research

Research: Find an article from a legitimate news source, online or printed, about a topic which you are passionate about or find particularly interesting, as source material for your editorial illustration. Carefully read and analyze those articles.

Brainstorm: Using the Word Stack method taught in an earlier assignment, students will write down all of the key words they can think of relating to the article. They then build out from those key word forming stacks, and make bridges between any concepts that they find related. For example, by theme, color, shape, etc. This part is entirely personal and represents part of their unique artistic lens.

Write: Students author a blog post on open lab in response to the article. Key stakeholders are identified. Who does this issue matter to and why? Students share the article as well as their brainstorm with their peers.

Discuss: Students prepare a brief presentation of their chosen article and brainstorm.

Presentation: Students present their findings to their peers, showing all related materials through the open lab. 3 minutes per student with an additional 2 minute Q&A.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOME
Students discuss / analyze core beliefs and the origins of the core belief.
Analyze content and evaluate evidence
Apply critical thinking skills to make creative inferences
Evaluate different ethical perspectives and concepts
Respect and Use Creativity

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This activity is the introductory assignment of a 4 part scaffolded project, Editorial Illustration. We begin this month long project midway through the semester. It builds upon knowledge gained from two preceding projects, such as illustration professional practices, the revision process, technical skills, and concept development techniques. It also uses a place based learning experience at the New York Society of Illustrators annual show, as a springboard for the assignment.

This activity, project research is an in class activity and purposely designed so to allow opportunity for collaborative learning. It will take the full class session (3 hours) to complete. Students are expected to continue the assignment outside of class during the next three parts of the assignment leading to the final illustration and work process presentation.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

This activity does not require a great deal of preparation. As previously noted, the art form of Editorial Illustration is previously introduced through a place based learning experience at the New York Society of Illustrators. Students are not asked to come in with any concept of what they would like to work on. Instead they are to identify issues the care passionately about through collaborative learning with their peers. This also allows them to recognize and discuss multiple perspectives. Then they are to inform their opinions through thorough research. Then finally to present the issue to the class, expressing their views on it, and showing their research and an accompanying brainstorm.

This is a low stakes activity. It in an of itself is not graded, however it contributes to the process development of a high stakes project.

Students are given the following evaluation criteria:

Overall quality of your presentation to the class.
Clarity while explaining the topic you’ve chosen and it's significance.
Quality and depth of the Brainstorm created based on the topic.

• Identify the key stakeholders in the issue.
• Describe your perspective on the issue.
• Describe how different ethical perspectives might be applied.
• Explain your brainstorm, and share any creative insights or inferences it may have sparked.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

This activity uses a VALUE rubric to access the following learning outcomes:

Self Reflect and Identify personal values and ethics
Analyze content and evaluate evidence
Apply critical thinking skills to make creative inferences
Discern multiple perspectives

In addition I access the following outcomes using the same 4 tiered rating system:

Respect and Use of Creativity.
Overall quality and professionalism of presentation.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This activity description represents a revision of a current assignment in order to improve upon it. Currently students are coming into class after having researched and chosen a topic on their own.

This new structured in class version allows students to learn collaboratively, and to discern multiple perspectives through evaluating the work of their peers.

Students in the current version of the assignment seem to greatly enjoy presenting the issue and their views on it as well as creative work to their peers.

One challenge I encountered was identifying the difference between a legitimate or false news source. At first I dealt with this on an individual basis, but once it had come up for discussion a second time I stopped the class to discuss the difference as a group, leading them to come up with a set of parameters.

In the future I'd structure in the same discussion and provide some better examples.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Assignment Instructions:

Editorial Illustration (4 part project)

Overall Project Description:

Create an Editorial Illustration for use to accompany an article in a magazine, printed or online. This project is broken into stages with peer critique and critical feedback given at each stage, spanning 4 weeks in total.

The final illustration must be created using a limited palate of black, white, and one other color and should be made using a combination of traditional drawing / inking skills and digital coloring. Final art should be made to fit the real magazine’s specs. (Approx 9” x12”)

Final work will be judged on the clarity and cleverness of the overall concept, thoughtful utilization of composition, the use of value, and of course the skillfulness of overall technique.
_______________________________________________________

Part 1 of 4

Rapid Fire Discussion: What do we care about?

There is a sterotype that young people are unaware or unconcerned with social issues and current events.
• Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
• Are there issues or events which you are particularly passionate about?

5 minute Brain Dump:
• In teams, grab a piece of chalk and fill the black board with a brainstorm of every issue you care about.
• If another student’s answer sparks an idea, draw a line to link the ideas.
• There are no wrong answers, but be sure to read before you write! No doubles allowed!

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT : Editorial Illustration Research

Research: Find an article from a legitimate news source, online or printed, about a topic which you are passionate about or find particularly interesting, as source material for your editorial illustration. Carefully read and analyze those articles.

Brainstorm: Using the Word Stack method we’ve used for earlier assignments, write down all of the key words you can think of related to the article. Be sure to include the actions – what is happening, not just who, what, or where.

Write: A blog post on open lab in response to the article. Identify the key stakeholders. Who does this matter to and why? Highlight particular areas of interest to you. Share the article as well as your brainstorm and any images you may consider using in the future as reference material.

Discuss: Prepare a brief presentation of your chosen article and brainstorm.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOME
Students discuss / analyze core beliefs and the origins of the core belief.
Analyze content and evaluate evidence
Apply critical thinking skills to make creative inferences
Evaluate different ethical perspectives and concepts
Respect and Use Creativity

PURPOSE
Identify personal values and understand how passion to fuels your work.
Listen to the values and consider the perspectives of others.
Understand ethical perspectives.

EVALUATION CRITERIA
Overall quality of your presentation to the class.
Clarity while explaining the topic you’ve chosen and it's significance.
Quality and depth of the Brainstorm created based on the topic.

• Identify the key stakeholders in the issue.
• Describe your perspective on the issue.
• Describe how different ethical perspectives might be applied.
• Explain your brainstorm, and share any creative insights or inferences it may have sparked.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/woolley-comd2313sp17/2017/05/03/editorial-illustration-process-book-examples/

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The ethical issue of biomedical engineering

The ethical issue of biomedical engineering

Chen Xu

Computer Engineering Technology

BMET1101

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

In BMET1101, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Technology, different subareas of biomedical engineering are introduced. Discuss the new development of prosthetic arm, watch the video of mind controlled robotic arm. Ask students to research about different aspects, such as biomechanics, neural engineering, and biomedical instrumentation, medical imaging. Then move to cyborg (short for "cybernetic organism") in the novel and movies, which is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts, such as iron man, spider man, and Darth Vader. Discuss the ethical issues, such as will the artificial devices may affect personal identity and dignity, can human still be held morally responsible for their behavior when their brain has been engineered by others to function in certain way?

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Inspire students to explore the development of technology and critically think about the limit of technology.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

At the end of semester. Maybe discuss some topics in one lecture, then let students do more research, revisit the topics again after two or three weeks.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Show some videos, and introduce the background. It’s an open-ended question, write or present as a project.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Breadth of knowledge, lifelong learning, inquiry and analysis, integrate learning, ethics and value.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Still in course design stage.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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Teamwork assignment

Teamwork assignment

Anna Matthews

Dental Hygiene/SPS

DEN2315

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

This assignment focused on fostering students’ ability to work in teams, in class and online. Students in my Summer session’s class were randomly assigned to one of four groups (each had 5 members) and they were asked to create a PowerPoint presentation of 15-20 slides on a randomly assigned topic (one of four possible topics), which included a group of drugs that were not covered in class (anti-fungal medications, AIDS/HIV and drugs used in management, topical and systemic corticosteroids, and anti-allergy medications). Groups worked in class to create their own OpenLab project sites and I was a member of each group together with the five students. After the sites were created, students exchanged information and resources online and communicated among each other and with me. They had 2 weeks to work on their presentations and I evaluated their progress continuously. The final presentations were uploaded by one of the students from each group to our course OpenLab site. All students reviewed the presentations from each group.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

I have done similar activity before and the main goal of it is to provide opportunity for students to work in teams and foster collaboration. While the final products by teams were always successful in the previous sessions of DEN2315, some students complained that it was not a true team effort and some students did not participate equally and did not contribute to the team’s outcome. By observing individual students’ participation online and evaluating their contributions to the process and the final group product, I was able to grade their efforts in a much more fair way and there was no more concerns from students about the unequal share of group’s work if some had done more or less than others.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

Summer session 2-S is a 5-week course, we meet twice weekly in class. This assignment was due after the 4th week of the session and a progress evaluation was done at the end of week 3. We spent about 30 min in class to discuss the activity, organize students in groups and create their OpenLab project sites. The rest of work was done entirely online.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Students needed to learn how to create and manage their OpenLab sites and how to post/comment/add media and links there.
The activity is one of the 3 online assignments and it is 10% of their final course grade.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I assessed students’ work by the following:
1. their participation in class in creating the site
2. the number of posts/comments they contributed during the group’s work online
3. quality of the resources they found and shared
4. clarity and organization of their own powerpoint slides in the group’s presentation
5. appropriateness of references/citations
I did use the VALUE rubric for the assessment of Teamwork as my guide to evaluate students’ interactions. My session was part of college-wide Spring 2016 assessment (although it was conducted in the Summer 2016 session) but the rubrics were used for guidance and assessment only, not for grading individual student work.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

The activity worked very well. It was a marked improvement compared to the previous times I used this assignment and allowed students to select their own groups and topics as well as divide their work by themselves. Previously, for some groups it resulted in unequal work distribution and by overseeing each group of students I was able to evaluate each student’s work individually. I especially liked that this time all students worked together very well, even though they were randomly assigned to groups. Students’ comments about their experience were positive as well.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

For students’ privacy, their OpenLab project sites were for members only. Assignment description is here: group-study-assignment-2016-teamwork
Teamwork VALUE rubric is on the CityTech AIR website.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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Evaluating a Research Article

Evaluating a Research Article

Susan Phillip

Hospitality Management

Research Seminar HMGT 3502

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Research Seminar Assignment HMGT3502

Perceptions of the Importance and Preparedness of Interpersonal Communication
Skills of the Entry-Level Hospitality Leader: Implications for Hospitality Educators
By Jeff Lolli http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5a7c103b-b208-4719-a5af-4cb9f853a0ae%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4201

1. Read the article provided in the link above by logging into City Tech’s library’s website
2. Why do you think it is necessary to log in to the library to get this article?
3. Read the article and write a 100-150-word summary of the article that accurately conveys its purpose.
4. When was the work published?
5. Who is the audience and how do you know?
6. In what kind of research can this source be useful?
7. Does the work meet the standards to be considered an academic/scholarly source? How do you know?
8. Are the qualifications of the author appropriate for an academic article? Briefly describe the authors’ qualifications.
9. Restate the purpose of the paper in your own words. Do you think it is clearly stated? Why?
10. How can the bibliography of the article be used in research?

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The goal of the assignment is for students to critically assess the quality of a source and the value of the source to their research.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

Information sources are discussed very early in the semester and the assignment follows the discussion. It is an out of class assignment.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Students will have library instruction before this assignment.l

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

It works very well and I will repeat it.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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App Review

App Review

Tanya Goetz

Communication Design

COMD 4900 Internship

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Students are assigned the task of reviewing 2 iPad or iPhone apps for the Creative Professional as one of their internship journal entries in this class. As preparation for this assignment, during our class meeting, I present several apps currently in use in the industry such as Paper, Evernote, Flipboard, MyPrice, Pocket, and Neenah Cabinet. I also provide them with time during class on the department’s iPads to work with these apps after we discuss them. I also given them a verbal review of the app Flipboard, an app I use regularly. During class, I also have them read this short review for the Paper app from MacWorld at http://www.macworld.com/article/2107944/paper-review-fiftythrees-sketching-app-gets-ios-7-update-dots-and-brush-sizes.html
In order to help them find pertinent apps to review, I provide them with the following article from the Guardian ” The top 50 apps for Creative Minds” http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/22/the-top-50-apps-for-creative-minds. I also allow them to review one of the apps we’ve discussed in class. I give them three weeks to complete this journal entry on their internship blog. I also provide them with samples of a past student’s review of an app such as this one: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/rbayron-eportfolio/academics/internships/week-5-6-apps/

I also the students to present their app reviews orally to the class once the reviews are completed.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Lifelong Learning
Writing for Professional Purposes
Thinking Critically
Oral Communication

I want students to realize through this assignment that the tools are ever changing in our field and that, as part of their professional lives, they will be required to use new skills, update their skill sets and find new methods to become more efficient at doing their work. Reading professional journals and technology sections of general interest magazines and newspapers that cover our field are key resources for identifying tools they should be exploring. Along with identifying these new tools, they will often be required to communicate how they are using these tools to supervisors and to colleagues. Writing a review of an apps key features helps students develop their abilities in this area as it necessitates thinking critically about an app’s features and then requires them to articulate their thoughts first in writing and then orally to the class. I want the students to share their experience with their classmates, perhaps inspiring a peer to use an app they hadn’t yet tried out.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

I assign this lesson sometime between week 5 and week 7 in the semester because at that point most of the students are at this point established in their internship. I devote 45 minutes of one class to covering different apps currently in use and then allow the students 45 minutes to explore working on the department iPads experimenting with the apps I’ve just shown.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

For this lesson, one needs to have available a projector/screen and at least one’s own iPad or iPhone (or Android) and have previously worked with the apps you are demonstrating so that you model for the students how to go about evaluating different features, providing a rationale to them for why this app is useful, etc. In the COMD department, we have iPads to use in the classroom and so in advance of the class, I ensure that all the iPads have the apps I will be discussing during lecture and I also make sure I have reserved the iPads/cart for that particular class with the CLTs in advance of class.

This activity is not graded on its own. Instead, the written journal assignment becomes part of their whole internship blog, which is 30% of their grade for the course. So, in that sense it is part of a high-stakes assignment but just a small piece of an overall package. The oral presentation they do on the app review in not graded at all and so is low-stakes but I hope that this time in front of the class helps prepare them for the oral presentation of their complete blog, which is 10% of their grade for the class.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

There is a rubric for the overall internship journal. I use a rubric that is based on the original ePortfolio rubric that was part of that Title V grant at the college and I have tweaked it for this class.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

This activity has worked extremely well in the classroom. The students really enjoy evaluating and experimenting with apps on their iPhone or iPad and many of them write detailed reviews and are enthusiastic in sharing these apps with their classmates.

The only challenge one faces in the classroom is when the iPads for the department need updating or one has an app that only runs on IOS and not on Android, etc.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Samples of student App reviews:

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/rbayron-eportfolio/academics/internships/week-5
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sharad/internship-2/app-review/trello-app-review/
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/sharad/internship-2/app-review/vscocam-app-review/
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/a-blog/from-the-field-2/app-reviews/

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

http://www.macworld.com/article/2107944/paper-review-fiftythrees-sketching-app-gets-ios-7-update-dots-and-brush-sizes.html

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Brooklyn Business Analysis

Brooklyn Business Analysis

Rachel Raskin

Business/ School of Professional Studies

ACC 1201 – Principles of Accounting II

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

The class will be divided into groups of 4-5 students. Each group will choose a Brooklyn based company from the list provided and develop a research paper about the company. Groups will also present their findings in a 15 minute presentation at the end of the semester. The research paper must address the following issues:

– Discuss the business, the industry and the history of the company’s formation. What type of business entity was it formed as (corporation, partnership, LLC, etc.)? What are the benefits of having chosen that specific entity? What business challenges did the founders face when launching the company? What accounting challenges did the founders face when the business was first established? How did they or how might have they dealt with these challenges?
– How has the location in Brooklyn aided or inspired the formation of the business? If the business is still in Brooklyn (such as Maker Bot, Etsy, Gotham Greens, Vice Media, or Brooklyn Brewery) visit its headquarters. Try to arrange a meeting with its employees and ask relevant questions to help you in your research. If you choose Pfizer or Domino Foods, the Brooklyn Historical Society has a wealth of primary sources on these companies.
– Find a similar company in the same industry and if the chosen Brooklyn based company is not public, make sure the second one is a public company that has filed a 10-K with the SEC. Provide a description and history of this business. Compare it to the similar business discussed that was formed in Brooklyn. What similarities do the two companies have and what are the differences?
– Analyze the financial statements of the chosen public company. Perform vertical, horizontal and ratio analysis and discuss how the business stands in comparison to its competitors and the industry. Access the financial statements through the SEC’s EDGAR filing system. All other articles and data should be accessed through Morningstar.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

I would like students to be able to analyze a company’s position based on its financial statements. They should gain an understanding of how to research a company using reliable sources such as the Morningstar Market Research platform and SEC filing system. Ultimately, my goal is for the students to be able to connect their research about the company with the financial statement assessment they perform and put forth a comprehensive and original analysis. I would like them to step out of their comfort zone to work in a group, visit the business site directly to ask employee’s questions, and be able to convey all their findings in a professional presentation.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

This is a term project. I dedicate twenty minutes a week for the groups to discuss their progress in class. Most of the work is done outside of class.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Prior to starting the activity I will cover the main concepts students will need to complete the project. Mainly, how to perform financial statement analysis and the characteristics of various forms of business entities. I will also introduce the students to the databases they will need in order to conduct the research.
Students will be instructed to post two drafts of the project to our class’ Open Lab site for my review prior to the final submission. They will be encouraged to use our Open Lab site as a place for group discussions regarding the assignment.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

I use a points rubric based on the AACU’s Critical Thinking Value Rubric.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Overall, this project was a great learning experience for the students. The challenges the students had were making connections between the financial analysis and the context/current state of the company. To address this issue in advance, next semester I will have the students scaffold their work over a few drafts of the paper, leading to the final product.
I think the students liked working in excel to perform a complete financial analysis. They enjoyed the opportunity to apply many concepts learned in class. They also were surprised at how many companies were created right around City Tech and were pleased to know of all the potential career opportunities at these businesses. All students dressed in business attire to present their research to the class. I believe this gave them a sense of pride in their work.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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A Peek on the Inside: Place Based Learning at Body World Exhibit

A Peek on the Inside: Place Based Learning at Body World Exhibit

Linda Bradley

Nursing/School of Professional Studies

Phyiscal Assessment NUR 3010

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

The Bodies exhibit provides a fun and engaging way to provide the students with the ability to take abstract concepts and make them into a tangible reality. This will impact their practice and thus the thousands of people they will come in to contact for their lifetime as a nurse. There is no grade for this I would consider this low stakes.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Physical Assessment course includes review of anatomy and physiology, description of alterations in a system and assessment techniques which the student practice. As with most courses it does so in sections, thus providing the students with this learning experience it will:
1. analyze the connections between the organ locations and physical assessment techniques
2. understand the body’s normal and abnormal function
3. appreciate stress and lifestyle impact on the body

General Education SLOs:
Which of City Tech’s General Education Student Learning Outcomes does this activity address? Please be as precise as possible.

Information Literacy is the Learning outcome that this activity addresses: The ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

1. On first day of class during introduction of the course, devote time to introduce the students to the planned experience

2. Schedule the experience toward the end of 2/3rd of the course

3. Offer the course during one of the online course days or if your department allows students to participate in learning as part of their course offsite on their own then schedule it based on your departments abilities

4. State length of experience expectations which is approximately 2 hours at the exhibit

5. Provide pre and post experience assignment documents for student’s completion

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

1. Discuss and gain consensus for this experience with fellow course faculty and Chair of your department. Decide how you will fund this experience, if this would enhance a portion of your course or would replace an assignment, low stakes or high stakes, grade or not, the class schedule and best possible time that would allow this experience to occur. This then would require that you consider this experience well in advance of the beginning of the semester to receive the maximum amount of participation.
2. Contact the Body World Exhibit group number and discuss date, time, number of students and faculty and other pertinent instructions. Ask for a Group sales account representative 866.987.9692 info@tsxnyc.com 226 W. 44th Street New York, NY 10036
3. Once you have completed your initial discussions and have gained consensus in all areas required for the success of this endeavor next steps would be to provide the students with an overview of the experience, expectations, pre-experience assignment, in class discussion and post experience assignment. Generate a list of students and faculty who will attend. Provide everyone with the required Travel Waiver. (If your students are under 18 there is specific instructions on the document)
4. Obtain final list of all attendees and all must complete Travel Waiver and submit to Evening office more than two weeks before the trip.
5. Complete and send travel waivers to of which your Chair and your Dean/Provost would sign for approval of the off campus trip
6. Faculty must have complete a current Title IX training and signed document which must be included in the forms send to the Evening office along with all of the travel waivers.
7. Meet the students at the site at the specified time (If your students are under 18 there is specific instructions on the document)
8. Enjoy the experience! But be sure to seek opportunities to turn the students attention to areas related to course content, SLOs and any other area you deem valuable
9. Provide the students with an expected due date for their assignment

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Assessment of this place-based learning experience would be through:
1. I would provide the students with a question prompt within the course Open Lab site. Prior to this I would utilize the computer lab at the beginning of the course to provide Blackboard and Open Lab orientation
2. Students would then add their own question for consideration prior to the experience. I
3. Students would choose those most appropriate and post them.
4. We would then meet at the exhibit and then they would return to those questions and complete them. I would also provide them with an opportunity to provide a reflection of their experience.
5. I would use the Information Literacy Value rubric
6. This course would be a part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative.
.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?
I most definitely would repeat this experience. The challenge will be funding, scheduling and timing so that the majority of the students would be able to attend, obtaining signed travel forms in advance of the experience. The change I would make is to include more student input as noted in the assessment process indicated above.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Why is this change different?
*It will incorporate student’s decisions as to what will be the area of focus related to the planned experience
*Students will be provided with an opportunity to determine the scope of the questions and key concepts before the experience and use them post experience
*Systematically analyze their own and others assumptions and evaluate the relevance of contexts when they present their positions.

What inspired the change?
* Incorporation of importance of classroom climate—adding humor and fun into the classroom
*Teaching to the needs and learning styles of the students and not that of the faculty
* Need to make abstract scientific and clinical information into tangible transferable information

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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