Muddiest Points/Feedback on Lesson Material

This activity is designed to provide / allow other students to provide feedback to each other on material that is covered in class. The hope is that students will be able to solidify their own knowledge bases on topics that others may be struggling with while also be able to fill in the gaps of their own knowledge.

Additionally, this assignment is designed to have students read the feedback that is being provided to them to ensure that if they are struggling with a specific concept, it gets resolved.

This activity was designed primarily to be utilized for lectures. Class size for this type of assignment should be about 24 students though it should be feasible for slightly larger class sizes as well. Students will have the entire week to think about their muddiest points from the lectures, this assignment will be due at the end of the week. Students will respond to at least one muddiest point over the weekend. This should not take a large amount of time for the students to complete, estimated time is a half hour.

A muddiest point for a student is an area or areas of a subject that are confusing or unclear for them and require additional explanation.

The activity helps to allow students to ask clarifying questions and receive answers from their peers. This helps to establish students own knowledge bases when answering the questions as well as fill in gaps in their knowledge as well.

This type of assessment should be able to easily be incorporated into other classes.

Outline of Activity:
Once a week the students will be required to fill out a muddiest point assignment, this will be a submitted assignment that the students must post to Canvas. These muddiest points will then be posted onto a discussion board on the classes Canvas page anonymously by the instructor. Students will be required to answer or give feedback on at least one muddiest point that was posted (this will be done over the weekend).

On the first day of the following week the students will have the option to resubmit their muddiest point (as an assignment) from the prior week to state if the responses have helped to clarify their muddiest point or if they need to have additional information clarified. The instructor will then proceed to provide additional clarifying material as needed.

Required Material:
A computer, phone or tablet along with internet access is required for the students to be able to submit their muddiest points and also provide feedback to other students muddiest points.

Instructors should monitor the discussion board to ensure that those that are attempting to give clarification to the muddiest points are in fact answering the questions correctly. If a student thinks that they understand the material but don't actually, or have missed a point, it can lead other students astray. For this reason the conversations on the discussion board should be monitored and the instructor should step in to clarify as necessary.

It also may be a good idea to have a list of established norms for the discussion board as well. This can help to ensure that students are civil with each other and stay on topic.

Outlined below is a sample template that can be posted on the discussion board.

Posted below is a list of the muddiest points that people have had this week.

Please follow the outlined guidelines of this discussion:

• A * represents that this question is related to other questions as well. You may still answer each question individually, some questions are looking for more specific answers than others.
• Keep it professional:
• This means watch your language and treat each other with respect.
• Assume best intentions:
• If someone is adding additional information to your comment or answering your question, assume that they are doing just that and that it is not a personal attack against you. The purpose of this is so that you can all help each other.
• State the question number you are responding to:
• This will help keep things organized and people will be able to see who is responding to specific questions.
• This applies also for when you are adding a comment.
• (EX.) Response for Q1:
• (EX.) Clarification on Response for Q1:

I will continue to periodically monitor the discussion as well.

If the students answer the muddiest points that have been posted this shows that they have an understanding of material and can synthesis it. Additionally, after resubmitting their own muddiest point, this will demonstrate that the students are now understanding certain areas that were not clear to them prior.

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