Simon Marshall

1. Simon Marshall
Associate Professor
School of Exercise & Nutritional Sciences

2. ENS 330
Exercise & Wellness Across the Lifespan
 General E ducation Course
 Explorations (IV ); S ocial & B ehavioral S ciences (B )
 M / 1530-1645 (80% F2F/
W 20% online)
 Hepner Hall 130 (“ S mart” but bottom of the class)
 160-180 students (Jnr/ nr only)
S
 52% male, 48% female

3. The challenge
“It’s big and they’re not ours….good luck!”
 S yllabus drift
 Too many cooks…
 Number of course objectives made me dizzy
 S yllabus obsessed with what students were not permitted to do
 “ L earning outcomes” and “ A ssessment” had gone through a
bad divorce
 K nowledge dimensions were almost one-dimensional!
 Cognitive levels needed “ B looming”
 Passive learning environment

4. My First Design Cycle
(Fall 07 and Spring 08)
1. Clarify content priorities
• Identify “Enduring Understandings”
• The course in one sentence and 3 BIG IDEAS…
This course focuses on the importance of physical activity for lifelong physical and
mental health.
The BIG IDEAS in this course are that:
1. Physical activity is important for mental and physical health, enjoyment,
challenge, self-expression, and social interaction.
2. You need psychological and behavioral skills to help you initiate and maintain
a physically active lifestyle.
3. Being an ‘educated consumer’ of exercise and fitness information requires
you to apply principles of scientific thinking.

5. 2. Rewrite learning outcomes to assess
multiple knowledge dimensions and
higher-level cognitive skills
Example of revised learning e.g.,
outcomes… Cognitive Skills
4. Analyze and evaluate the Differentiating,
accuracy of exercise and fitness Organizing, Attributing
information. Checking , Critiquing
6. Design an individualized
physical activity program to
Generating, Planning,
promote health and wellness for Producing
yourself or someone you care
about.

6. 3. Match assessment EXPLICITLY to learning
outcomes
• Established more precise evidence of student learning.
• Helped clarify role and significance of assessment (for me and them!).
• Helped assess student progress by reference to stated objectives.
• Provided a mechanism for course correction (and avoid syllabus drift).
Designed to assess
Assessment Details Points Due Student Learning
Outcome #
1. Weekly ‘Tri-Checkers’ Respond to 3 CLICKER questions each class, 100 Each week 1,2,4,5,7
beginning Wed Feb 6.
Each question is worth 3 points (1.5 pt for
participation, 3 pt for correct answer). 100 pts will
count toward grade
2. Self-monitoring Wear your pedometer and upload your step data to 50 Uploads on: 3
exercise Blackboard for 5 consecutive weeks. Only weeks 2.Mon, 2/18
listed count. Steps can be uploaded each day or at 3.Mon, 2/25
end of week. 10pt for each week that you upload 4.Mon, 3/3
data. 5.Mon, 3/10
6.Mon, 3/17
3. Quick-writes Two 8-minute ‘mini’ papers written during 50 TBA 4,5,7
class (25 pt)
Etc…

7. 4. “Activating” a passive learning environment
• Easy for instructor and student to become lazy in a large lecture hall
• Wanted students to restructure, use, & demonstrate knowledge IN class.
• Wanted to “hear” from ALL students, not just brave/confident ones!
• Introduced two new techniques: CLICKERS and ONLINE CLASSES
For example, with CLICKERS..
Instructional Description
technique
Concept Periodic (every 15 min) in-class check of student understanding; Enabled
checking me to re-teach on the fly where necessary.
Daily quizzes Three graded questions EV ERY class; Points also given for participation;
Encouraged attendance.
A nonymous polling Used “ anonymous” mode to get honest responses about sensitive issues
(e.g., body image, steroid use). Eye opening responses!
S pringboard for peer A sked clicker questions twice, but prompted students to reach consensus
teaching with neighbor about correct answer before asking again. Course credit
given for second response. They L OV E D this!!

8. CONTD.
4. “Activating” a passive learning environment
- the online classes -
• Horizon Wimba too intimidating/daunting a task for first
design cycle!
• 6 archived lectures (20% of instruction) uploaded to
blackboard with audio narration and embedded online
tasks.
• Embedded tasks focused on higher-level cognitive
skills
e.g., using Blinkx.com to build “video walls” of scientifically
valid fitness information.
• …and post-instructional reflection
e.g., exploring own ambivalence toward exercise; challenging
own stereotypes about obesity, etc.
• Usage statistics tracked

9. Clarifying content priorities
Student Experiences, Pt 1 of 5
 “ A s a result of your work in this class, how well do think you now
understand…? ”
“Opened my eyes and I work in a
health club”
(means ± sd) “The class has a very clear cut
A great deal instruction and design that makes
the content material, learnable,
enjoyable, and efficient”
“The three [big ideas] are what I
A lot really took away from this class,
especially the notion that being
active has much to do with cognitive
and psychological thinking – not just
behavior.”
Somewhat
“This class really made me try and
workout more, not only for physical
health but for my mental health too.
A little I loved learning about this stuff”
“I really feel able to judge the quality
and claims of info and equipment
Not at all related to exercising. This is so
important because there is so much
out there and very little real
knowledge given in relation to it.”
Based on this information, I plan to:
2.Consistently revisit and assess students’
“enduring understandings” from the course SALG Survey data; n = 147 responses (95% response rate)

10. Assess multiple knowledge dimensions and higher-level cognitive skills
Student Experiences, Pt 2 of 5
 “ How much has this class added to your skills in “I really enjoyed this course and
each of the following areas? learned a great deal about what it
takes to be physically fit. I was
able to apply what I learned to a
(means ± sd) program that would be affective
A great deal and realistic to help me meet my
own fitness goals”
“I have a much greater
A lot appreciation of the science behind
exercise and fitness and why it’s
important to our overall health”
Somewhat “I’ve learned enough information to
feel that I can help family members
or friends become more active”
A little “I am a single mom and a full time
student…this class helped me
understand that I need to make
time for myself, to manage my
Not at all time better, to form a support
group around me, and create an
environment that stimulates/
encourages me to do more
physical activity! It also helped me
develop alternative plans to cope
with different situations.“
Based on this information, I plan to:
2.Keep expanding scope of assessment pieces to require higher-level cognitive skills.
3.Introduce more learning experiences that require affective & meta-cognitive knowledges
SALG Survey data; n = 147 responses (95% response rate)

11. Match assessment EXPLICITLY to learning outcomes
Student Experiences, Pt 3 of 5
 How much did the information you were given about why you were being
asked to do [assessment indicator] help your learning? ”
(means ± sd) “I thought everything was explained
very well. The clicker questions
A great deal checked if we were getting it but also
referenced the previous lectures, so if
you were in class they weren’t too
difficult.“
A lot
“Because we had to create a physical
activity program of our own, it helped
me understand how to be able to help
others with their exercise needs as
Somewhat well as myself.”
“Clicker questions were a great way to
interact in class and pay attention.
QuickWrites were helpful, more of
A little these should be incorporated.”
“The lectures, readings and
assignments were all related together,
Not at all doing the clicker questions to see if we
understand the concept in the class.“
“I was not too sure why we needed to
Based on this information, I plan to: do our step counts.”
2.Spend more time explaining the purpose of the QuickWrites
3.Spend more time explaining the purpose of the self-monitoring project
SALG Survey data; n = 147 responses (95% response rate)

12. “Activating” a passive learning environment
Student Experiences, Pt 4 of 5
 Class CL ICKER usage… ‘I really liked the Clicker
questions because not only did
(means ± sd) they motivate students to come
to class, but they gave a good
Strongly idea of how I was learning.”
agree
“Using the clickers especially
Somewhat improved my learning in this
class. I benefitted from them
agree dramatically.”
Neither agree “Clicker questions definitely
motivated me to come to class,
nor disagree
and being in class helped me
learn the concepts.”
Somewhat
disagree “The Clickers always helped
make sure we understood what
was going on”
Strongly
disagree “Clicker questions we re a
great way to interact in class.”
And what must be from a sociology
major…
Based on this information, I plan to: “The Clicker questions created a
2.Keep using Clickers EVERY class with low-stakes points uniform comradeship in the class
3.Increase the number of Clicker-based peer teaching opportunities benefiting in a larger social
structure.”
SALG Survey data; n = 147 responses (95% response rate)

13. “Activating” a passive learning environment
Student Experiences, Pt 5 of 5
 How much did the ONLINE classes help your learning…
“I really like the online classes because the lecture was also written
which means you have every word the professor says written
down. This was really helpful.”
A little help (5%)
“The online classes were good but I understand things better when
explained in detail.”
Very much Moderate Online classes helped because I could learn at my own pace and
could stop and start if I didn't understand something
help (39%) help (18%)
“The online video clips weren't as helpful as the online readings”
“I like the online video clips because I’m more of a visual person”
Much help
(37%) “The online classes were different but they did help!”
“I don’t think I got as much out of the online classes because I
didn’t have the motivation to watch them.”
Based on this information, I plan to:
2.Increase the number of online classes and include more multimedia (podcasts, videowalling)
3.Experiment with online classes given in real time (using Horizon Wimba)
SALG Survey data; n = 147 responses (95% response rate)

14. Planning for Future Design Cycles
 Course has been put on hiatus due to budget cuts.
However, I have indicated in the “Student
Experiences” slides what I would like to do, based on
data and experiences from my first design cycle.
 Unexpected outcomes/Lessons learned:
 The number of students who preferred in-class to online!
 The extent of the “buzz” and competitive spirit created by Clickers questions!
 How much of an impact offering daily clicker points had on attendance (mean
attendance was 88% for class of 160!).
 How creating verbatim transcripts for online classes actually speeds up the
process of developing them (you don’t keep having to re-record over your
stumbles; do the transcript first!).
 Realizing that just changing a few things takes more time than you think!
 Students’ have a voracious appetite for technology. The Blinkx.com video wall
was pedagogically solid and a crowd pleaser!
 You can assess writing skills in a large class; use QuickWrites!