Short session on Just-in-Time Teaching at the CoADE conference, held at CCD on the Auraria Campus. October 18, 2013.

1. JUST IN TIME TEACHING
A 21ST CENTURY TEACHING TECHNIQUE
Name OADE CONFERENCE
@C
School
Department
DR. JEFF LOATS
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

2. 2
THE EVIDENCE STANDARD
Teachers can feel bombarded…
I strive to be a scholarly teacher …
Common (evidence-based) themes:
• Focus and attention
• Using emotions appropriately
• Repetition and practice
• Feedback

3. 3
In what (rough) area do you teach?
A) Humanities
B) Natural sciences & mathematics
C) Professions & applied sciences
D) Social sciences
E) Teacher education
…no surer way to offend…

4. 4
In your teaching do you have a method for
holding students accountable for preparing for
class?
24% A) I don’t, but I ask/threaten really well.
49% B) I use a paper method (quiz, journal, others?)
11% C) I use a digital method (clickers, others?)
4% D) I use Just in Time Teaching.
13% E) I have some other method.
(others)

5. 5
OVERVIEW
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Motivation for change
Basics of Just in Time Teaching
Quick example
Evidence for effectiveness
Summaries

6. 6
PHYSICS EDUCATION REVOLUTION
Eric Mazur, Physicist at Harvard:

7. 7
“ALL SIMILARLY (IN)EFFECTIVE…”

8. 8
University of Washington
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
University of Colorado

9. 9
FEEDBACK THAT WORKS
“Improvement of performance is actually a
function of two perceptual processes. The
individual’s perception of the standards of
performance, and her/his perception of his/her
own performance.”
The Feedback Fallacy – Steve Falkenberg (via Linda Nilson)

10. 10
TECHNIQUE & TECHNOLOGY
Technique:
Just in Time Teaching
Learner
Technology:
Online question & response tools
Teacher

11. 11
JUST IN TIME TEACHING
Online pre-class assignments (“WarmUps”)
First half - Students
• Conceptual questions, answered in sentences
• Graded on thoughtful effort
Second half - Instructor
• Responses are read “just in time”
• Instructor modifies that day’s plan accordingly.
• Aggregate and individual (anonymous) responses
are displayed in class.

12. 12
WHAT JITT IS NOT…
JiTT is not about
… online courses or distance learning.
… computer-graded homework.
… delivering content via the web.
Goals of JiTT:
• Student preparation
• Obvious communication loop
• Student ownership and buy-in
• Create a community effort towards learning

13. 13
Consider a typical day in your class. What fraction
of students did their preparatory work before
coming to class?
25%
43%
29%
11%
7%
(others)
A) 0% - 20%
B) 20% - 40%
C) 40% - 60%
D) 60% - 80%
E) 80% - 100%

14. 14
Students have developed a robot dog
and a robot cat, both of which can
run at 8 mph and walk at 4 mph.
A the end of the term, there is a race!
The robot cat must run for half of its
racing time, then walk.
The robot dog must run for half the
race distance, then walk.
A) The cat wins
B) The dog wins
C) They tie

15. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
Predict which one will win the race, and explain
why you think so.
~38%
~19%
~19%
~12%
→
→
→
→
Robocat!
Robodog!
They tie!
Can’t tell!
~12%
~4%
~27%
~35%
~19%
→
→
→
→
→
Good math
Bad math
Good reasoning
Bad reasoning
Invalid arguments

16. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
“Cats rule - dogs drool!”
“Robot dog. Because dogs naturally walk more
thaan cats. ”
“The cat--it won the flip of the coin.”
“The cat.... To be honest, I used the resources I
have and asked my colleague who is a physics
major.”

17. WARM-UP: ROBODOG VS. ROBOCAT
“The robot cat will win. My reasoning for this is:
-the dog will run for half the distance, but then
walk the rest, which means he will be walking
the same amount of distance but that also
means that will take him longer to do the last
half of the race.
-the cat will run, no matter what, half the time,
so her walking time is definitely less than the
dogs walking time”

18. 18
WARMUP QUESTIONS
• Every-day language
• Occasional simple comprehension question
• Mostly higher level questions (a la Bloom)
• Perhaps any question is better than none
Connections to evidence:
– Pre-class work reduces working memory load
during class.
– Multimodal practice (not learning styles):
JiTT brings reading, writing and discussion as
modes of practice.

19. 19
METACOGNITION
Two questions end every WarmUp:
“What aspect of the material did you find the
most difficult or interesting.”
“How much time did you spend on the pre-class
work for tomorrow?”
Connections to evidence:
– Forced practice at metacognition:
Students regularly evaluate their own
interaction with the material.

20. 20
THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Student responses:
• Graded on thoughtful effort
• Sampled and categorized for display
• Quoted anonymously
Closing the loop:
• Respond to some students digitally
• Class time shifts to active engagement.

21. 21
EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
Faulkenberg’s criteria for feedback:
• Feedback doesn’t work if students don’t
correctly perceive the performance standards.
• Feedback doesn’t work if students cannot
correctly evaluate their own performance.
JiTT feedback loop:
Clarify standards in low-stakes situations.
Allows students to judge whether they have
correctly evaluated their own performance.

22. 22
JUST IN TIME TEACHING
A different student role:
Learner
Teacher
• Actively prepare for class
(not just reading/watching)
• Actively engage in class
• Compare your progress & plan accordingly
A different instructor role:
• Actively prepare for class with you
(not just going over last year’s notes )
• Modify class accordingly
• Create interactive engagement opportunities

23. 23
MAZUR AFTER 1 YEAR

24. 24
ELSEWHERE?

25. 25
STUDIED EFFECTIVENESS
Used at hundreds of institutions
Dozens of studies/articles, in many disciplines:
Bio, Art Hist., Econ., Math, Psych., Chem., etc.
– Increase in content knowledge
– Improved student preparation for class
– Improved use of out-of-class time
– Increased attendance & engagement in class
– Improvement in affective measures

26. STUDENT FEEDBACK ON JITT
315 students in 7 classes over 4 terms (roughly ±6%)
The WarmUps have…
Agreed or
Strongly Agreed
…helped me to be more prepared
for class than I would otherwise be.
70%
…helped me to be more engaged in
class than I would otherwise be.
80%
…helped me to learn the material
better than I otherwise would
64%
…been worth the time they
required to complete
57%

27. 27
WHAT TOOLS TO USE?
• CMS/LMS (Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, etc.)
Ready to use, tools range from ok to awful
• Free service from JiTTDL.org.
Designed just for JiTT, but extra login, and
the site has not been improved in ~5 years
• Students email responses
Easy! Usually overwhelming and awful
• Blogging tools (WordPress)?
• New tools (TopHat, Learning Catalytics)?

28. 28
WHAT MIGHT STOP YOU?
In terms of the technique:
Time, coverage, not doing your part, pushback…
In terms of the technology:
Learning curve, tech. failures, perfectionism…
In any reform of your teaching:
Reinventing, no support, too much at once…

29. 29
MY SUMMARY
JiTT may be among the easiest research-based
instructional strategies that you can
consistently integrate into your teaching.
From an evidence-based perspective, JiTT
addresses often-neglected areas.
Be prepared to find that students know less than
we might hope. (Perhaps freeing?)

30. 30
YOUR SUMMARY
For yourself… or to share?
What part of JiTT concept/process is the fuzziest
for you after this talk?
What is the biggest reason you might not give
JiTT a try in one course next term?
Contact Jeff: Jeff.Loats@gmail.com
Slides: www.slideshare.net/JeffLoats
I love talking and working with faculty,
don’t hesitate to get in touch.

31. 31
JITT REFERENCES & RESOURCES
Simkins, Scott and Maier, Mark (Eds.) (2010) Just in Time Teaching: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy, Stylus Publishing.
Gregor M. Novak, Andrew Gavrini, Wolfgang Christian, Evelyn Patterson (1999) Just-in-Time Teaching: Blending Active Learning with
Web Technology. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River NJ.
K. A. Marrs, and G. Novak. (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Biology: Creating an Active Learner Classroom Using the Internet. Cell
Biology Education, v. 3, p. 49-61.
Jay R. Howard (2004). Just-in-Time Teaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students to Actually Read the Assignment. Teaching
Sociology, Vol. 32 (No. 4 ). pp. 385-390. Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3649666
S. Linneman, T. Plake (2006). Searching for the Difference: A Controlled Test of Just-in-Time Teaching for Large-Enrollment
Introductory Geology Courses. Journal of Geoscience Education, Vol. 54 (No. 1)
Stable URL:http://www.nagt.org/nagt/jge/abstracts/jan06.html#v54p18