Tools and Resources

This sample score report is generated by our paper exam scanning system. The score report is an important tool that will help you evaluate the effectiveness of a test and of the individual questions that comprise it. The evaluation process, called item analysis, can improve future test and item construction. The analysis provides valuable information that helps instructors determine which are the “best” test questions to secure and continue to use on future course assessments; which items need review and potential revision before a next administration, and which are the poorest items which should be eliminated from scoring on the current administration.

This sample rubric for a writing assignment can provide instructors with an adaptable rubric model that can be used to grade writing assignments more quickly and accurately.

General syllabus for the Course in College Teaching. The syllabus varies slightly from semester to semester depending upon who is leading the course, but this document gives an overview. For detailed information about the current semester's syllabus, contact site@psu.edu.

This is a checklist for instructors to use when dropping off their scanning materials at Scanning Operations in 105 Pollock Building.

This file is used by scanning operations to match questions on different test forms.

Form for weighting items for exams with items that have different weights. Used for scanning multiple choice tests that use bubble sheets.

Form used for scanning exams that use bubble sheets when the instructor wants responses to have different weights.

This file is an example of a rubric that can be used to grade a science experiment. The use of a rubric can help instructors to grade more accurately and more quickly.

Teaching Professor 2013 Presentation. This presentation describes the characteristics of a positive peer review that encourages community.

This coversheet provides an overview of why the SEEQ is different from the preceding SRTEs. It may be added to an application packet if an explanation of the change is necessary.

Presentation to the Faculty Senate in 2010 on the Faculty Communities Hub.

This document describes methods for developing surveys for collecting learning outcomes assessment (program assessment) evidence from graduating seniors, alumni and employers.

This document briefly describes what service-learning is and the ways in which it can promote student learning.

A simulation provides a way for students to experience the content in action and spark discussion.

Learn how the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence supports Penn State faculty. offerings, services, and events and how to contact us. Our interactions are voluntary, confidential, and free. We offer a variety of services and programs. Choose what suits you best.

Learn how the faculty at the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence supports faculty new to Penn State. Your interactions with us are voluntary, confidential, and free anyone who teaches Penn State students at any location. We offer a variety of services and programs in different modes.

This resource includes summaries of all texts prepared for and discussed by SITE's DEI Journal Club, starting Summer 2022 to present. This resource is both for those interested in joining our journal club, so that you can get an idea about the topics and texts we discuss, and for those already members of our group, so that you can return to the texts with which we have engaged.

Heavily abridged version of Weinstein, Y., Madan, C. R., & Smith, M. A. (in press). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, prepared for and presented at "Reframing Testing as a Learning Experience: Three Strategies for Use in the Classroom and at Home" on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017.

Six key learning strategies from research in cognitive psychology can be applied to education: spaced practice, interleaving, elaborative interrogation, concrete examples, dual coding, and retrieval practice. However, a recent report (Pomerance, Greenberg, & Walsh, 2016) found that few teacher-training textbooks cover these principles; current study-skills courses also lack coverage of these important learning strategies. Students are therefore missing out on mastering techniques they could use on their own to learn effectively. This handout contains the six key learning strategies to address those concerns.

This strategy involves students working together in groups to research the solution to a problem.

These PowerPoint slides accompanied a presentation by James M. Lang delivered at University Park on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Research from the learning sciences and from a variety of educational settings suggests that a small number of key principles can improve learning in almost any type of college or university course, from traditional lectures to flipped classrooms. This workshop will introduce some of those principles, offer practical suggestions for how they might foster positive change in higher education teaching and learning, and guide faculty participants to consider how these principles might manifest themselves in their current and upcoming courses.

This is a peer-reviewed article published in the journal of Studies in Educational Evaluation. Its focus is the accurate interpretation of student ratings data (including Penn State's SRTE) and appropriate use of the data to evaluate faculty. It includes recommendations for use and interpretation based on more than 80 years of student ratings research. Most colleges and universities use student ratings data to guide personnel decisions so it is critical that administrators and faculty evaluators have access to the cumulative knowledge about student ratings based on multiple studies, rather than single studies that have not been replicated, studies based on non-representative populations, or that are from a single discipline.

The article provides an overview of common views and misconceptions about student ratings, followed by clarification of what student ratings are and are not. It also includes two sets of guidelines for administrators and faculty serving on review committees.

One-page handout of information about the Schreyer Institute and Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness (SRTE)

One page handout summarizing research literature on the correlation between student ratings and grades.

Statement of Practices for the Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness for Promotion and Tenure
This document was created by the University Faculty Senate as an Advisory and Consultative report on April 30, 1985. The Statement of Practices was revised by the faculty senate on February 21, 1989, and again on September 16, 2003. This statement was extracted from Appendix A of the 2021-2022 Administrative Guidelines for Policy AC23 (formerly HR23): Promotion and Tenure Procedures and Regulations 2021-2022.

Concept inventories are designed to assess student's knowledge of particular scientific concepts. This is an article that describes a concept inventory that assesses statistics knowledge. This link does not take you to the concept inventory itself, but provides information about how to access the inventory.

The purpose of this article is to provide a process for centers for teaching and learning to demonstrate their success and their value to constituents. Faculty developers have long requested an approach that would guide relevant and meaningful data collection. Nearly every CTL must develop a strategic plan, but too often they sit on a shelf gathering dust. The purpose of a strategic plan is to guide decision-making about how the unit spends its resources in service of its purpose (mission).
Linse, A. R. & Hood, L. N. (in press). Building a strategic plan that guides assessment: A case study from a teaching and learning center. Journal on Centers for Teaching and Learning.

This document describes strategies students use to cheat and strategies faculty can use to minimize cheating.

Strategies for adapting face-to-face teaching to a synchronous, remote course environment, arranged by some of the common course formats and course types. This document was offered as page two of a web resource for faculty who transformed their courses from face-to-face to remote learning environments due to campus closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. It is available here for archival purposes.

Large classes are among the most important because many students enrolled are new to the college experience. The big challenges of teaching large classes include finding ways to engage students, providing timely feedback, and managing logistics. When faced with these challenges, many instructors revert to lectures and multiple-choice tests. There are alternatives. This special report describes some alternative teaching and course management techniques to get students actively involved without an inordinate amount of work on the instructor’s part. From the Teaching Professor, Magna.

This handout highlights some of the current research based strategies for teaching millennial students.

Brief (2-page) handout about strategies to promote effective student discussion.

Handout from Cindy Raynak's 2012 Teaching Professor presentation in Washington, DC. Describes the concept of "student-centered discussion," it's advantages for student learning, and how the process works.

PowerPoint presentation, authored by Cindy Raynak, that describes "student centered discussion."

Student collaborative writing (peer writing) is a strategy in which students work together on all aspects of a writing project. It can reduce the need for the faculty member to spend time reading and commenting on drafts.

Many instructors feel that the student ratings process is something 'done to' them. Annotation offers a way for instructors to interpret their own ratings rather than rely on accurate interpretation by others not involved in the course. The annotation serves as a cover page for the summary report available to faculty from the Student Course Feedback (e.g., SRTEs) the student ratings system (rateteaching.psu.edu). This document identifies key elements of an effective annotation as well as an example of a one-page annotation for a fictional course.

The questionnaire includes seven items, which are the same for every instructor. Responses to items 1-4 are available to the instructor and their academic unit head. Items 5-7 are provided only to the instructor. Fall semester 2023 is the first to use this questionnaire. It replaces the SRTE.

This document provides a brief description of course goals and course objectives or course outcomes for student learning. Learning outcomes (or learning objectives) are useful to develop during course design, as well as when creating an assignment or activity.

This document describes strategies for encouraging and enabling students in large classes to participate in class.

This document describes the use of student peers to provide feedback on written assignments by fellow students.

The Student Success-Oriented Action Plan is a six-page guide to methods and techniques to increase inclusion and equity through course design and delivery.

This document describes how to facilitate discussions that are led by students in small groups.

The Syllabus Checklist document provides a syllabus template that includes elements required on all syllabi by Penn State, plus additional recommended best practices in syllabus design.

Research suggests that the tone of the syllabus communicates an instructor’s teaching philosophy and how the instructor communicates with students (Boysen et al, 2015). Additionally, the tone of the syllabus evokes perceptions of the instructor being warm, approachable, and motivating for learners (Harnish & Bridges, 2011; Wheeler, 2019).

This worksheet can be used to help instructors develop classroom activities that align learning objectives with assessments and course activities.