In a small program like Social Psychology, associate professor Sarah Clancy explains, “you get to know your students well, and you listen to them.”
So when her students requested more hands-on learning opportunities, she enlisted student partners to co-develop an undergraduate conference. Presenters got the chance to refine their skills, while student co-organizers gained valuable professional and academic experience.
Clancy, who approaches student partnerships as an opportunity to respond to student needs and extend experiential learning, is one of nearly 150 teaching-stream faculty members at McMaster.
In a recent survey distributed by the Office of the Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning), 12 of those teaching-stream faculty members described the pedagogical projects that extend their teaching and learning work beyond the classroom.
Respondents highlighted a range of initiatives, including crafting open online textbooks, championing student partnerships and collaborating on pedagogical research.
That rich patchwork of accomplishments — and the philosophies behind them — offer valuable insights into McMaster’s diverse and evolving teaching and learning culture.
Strong partnerships start with listening
The Social Psychology conference proved such a success, Clancy and a team of student partners are expanding to include students in Health, Aging and Society, where she is cross-appointed.
“As a teaching professor, you have your ear to the ground a little bit,” Clancy reflects. “I was hearing some of my Health Age students say, ‘Oh, that conference you do in Social Psych sounds really cool. Can we participate?’ ”
The capstone thesis resource guide, developed by Sarah Clancy and two student partners included insights and tips from former students – such as a “How to Nail Your Thesis” infographic by Cassidy Colalillo. Click the image to see a larger version.
Another project focused on supporting students enrolled in Social Psychology’s capstone thesis course, which Clancy regularly teaches.
After years of inviting past students to share their experiences with current ones, Clancy and two student partners collected testimonies from capstone alumni into a comprehensive guidebook “created for students and by students.”
The project felt purposeful and empowering, say Megan Lokting Lee and Paula Sheron, the two students who co-edited the resource with Clancy.
“I know firsthand how difficult and overwhelming the [capstone thesis] process can feel,” says Lee, who appreciated the chance to ease the process for future students.
“It felt amazing to be able to step into what felt like a larger?role as a student,” Sheron says.
Clancy says partnerships like these keep her teaching flexible.“[It’s about] connecting with students, hearing what’s important to them, and finding ways to integrate that.”
Responsive tools can facilitate learning
All learners benefit from knowing where they might improve.
Sharonna Greenberg, an associate professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, wants to equip students for that metacognitive work. Greenberg is part of the research team behind ChemFAST — the Formative Assessment Study Tool, which uses computer-adaptive testing to facilitate student learning.
Like the quiz feature on Avenue to Learn, ChemFAST uses a bank of instructor-supplied questions.
Unlike Avenue, the question order isn’t static or randomized.
Instead, questions are delivered based on students’ current level of understanding. A correct response will be followed by a more challenging question, and vice versa.
This kind of adaptive questioning helps learners spot and address gaps in their understanding, Greenberg explains.
“Targeted, tailored adjustments can have really big gains.”
The same principle of continuous improvement informs another of Greenberg’s projects, undertaken with colleagues from the Department of Mathematics & Statistics.
The Automated, Scalable Student Evaluation of Teaching framework — or ASSET — uses machine learning to summarize and visualize student feedback. In large-enrollment courses, it helps instructors navigate student commentary to better understand what’s working well and what isn’t.
It’s similar, Greenberg says, to the review summaries on platforms like Amazon. But ASSET is designed to support mid-term reflection and on-the-go adjustments.
That’s really the drive behind both projects, she says: to facilitate introspection and make something useful for students and faculty.
No shortcuts
When sizing up the impact of artificial intelligence on university education, Sam Scott takes a measured approach.
“The fundamentals of teaching and learning haven’t changed,” says the associate professor of Computing & Software.
Scott is part of McMaster’s AI Expert Panel on Teaching and Learning — where he helped draft McMaster’s guidelines for AI use — and a repeat guest on the MacPherson Institute podcast AI Dialogues.
Across his teaching and learning work, he aims to temper the hype around this technology and refocus on the learning process.
“Just because ChatGPT or Gemini can do a decent job of solving first-year computer programming problems doesn’t mean it’s going to help [students] to the same extent when they’re in the workforce,” Scott notes.
Using AI to generate study materials might seem innocuous, but “you’re not going to get to the same place by using the shortcut as you would by engaging with the material.”
It’s how Scott approaches his teaching, too. Frustrated by the lack of beginner-friendly textbooks for web development, he created his own.
The free online textbook is highly tailored to students’ needs. Scott suspects AI couldn’t replicate the “laser focus and fit” his textbook offers — and even if it could, the process of crafting such a resource has its own merits.
“As an instructor, you’d miss the chance of thinking that stuff through, designing the arc of the course yourself, figuring out how the concepts fit together.”
It’s a lot of work, Scott concedes. But as AI reconfigures the teaching and learning landscape, “figuring it out” remains a valuable process.
“That’s the job,” he reflects. “That’s what I’m here for.”