Student Perceptions of Great Teaching

What behaviors do students consider as representative of exemplary teaching? Do those representations vary by context? This study evaluates 176 student nominations for a teaching award that asked nominators to articulate specific acts by individual instructors that exemplify “great teaching.” Through an iterative process, our content analysis identified 10 themes, which generally represent socioemotional connection, behaviors relevant to student learning, and instructor characteristics. We also identified two themes—the instructor as a model and as someone whose efforts exceed expectations—that do not appear frequently in existing literature. The quantitative analysis revealed that frequency of themes differed for instructors from traditional liberal arts and sciences disciplines and those from professional programs in the health sciences.

Educational course "Creation of virtual geological outcrops of the outskirts of Lviv"

<p>We present a new educational course "Creation of virtual geological outcrops of the outskirts of Lviv" for students of geological specialties. Discipline "Creation of virtual geological outcrops of the outskirts of Lviv" is a selective discipline for students of 2-3 courses of various specialties, which is lectured in the amount of 3 credits (according to ECTS). The course is 32 hours of classroom classes, 16 hours of these of lectures, the rest 16 hours of practical classes and 58 hours of self-study.</p><p>The course is in three parts. First is preparatory ones. Students get acquainted with the geological structure of Lviv, prepare equipment for field work.</p><p>The field stage (the second part of the course) includes the survey of 3-4 geological objects around Lviv. These can be natural outcrops, quarries. A particularly valuable object for learning is the Honey Cave, located within the city limits. Depending on the object, we choose the type of survey— digital photogrammetry or terrestrial laser scanning. Each group of 4 students explores 2 objects.</p><p>The third cameral period includes field data processing. Students create 3D geological models and perform various measurements on them. Students compare different types of models to choose the best one. At this stage, students use a variety of software available in institutions. The final stage of the course is the preparation of a report and passing the exam.</p><p>The project war partly financed by EGU HE Teaching Award.</p>