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By Terri J. Matiella, Ph.D.
UTSA 2020-21 Next-Gen Faculty Fellow
Co-Director, Core Curriculum and Assessment for Environmental Science
Senior Lecturer, Department of Environmental Science and Ecology

Have students explore and reflect their own learning by having them create a concept map to see how concepts from across the course are linked, or have them create exam or quiz questions based on the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

When students can connect concepts across material in a course, it promotes deep learning. They can see how the material is related and reinforces connections to previous material in the course. Creating exam or quiz questions gives students a chance to reflect on what they have learned. Making the questions using the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy lets them work out how to apply the concepts rather than memorizing definitions. It can let us as instructors see if students are focusing on the correct concepts. As a bonus, if you get some good questions, you could use them in a quiz or exam!

Concept maps can be created using free online tools like Creately or MindMup and uploaded or linked to Blackboard. Exam and quiz questions can be created using a Padlet so students can see each other’s questions and leave comments or “like” questions. A discussion board, journal, or assignment could also be used for creating questions. It could even be used as a team activity! After reviewing questions, you could choose a set and have students use Kahoot for a fun review!

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