A&S Teaching & Learning Community of Practice 2025-26: Student-Centred Strategies for Skill Development and Equitable Assessment

Presented by the Faculty of Arts & Science, Teaching and Learning

This session features the following two presentations:

Developing Students’ Problem-Solving and Critical Thinking Skills Using Homework Question Banks and Video Solutions
Presenter: Kylie Luska, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Chemistry

Subject-specific knowledge is not always the primary motivation for a student to be taking our classes, as such a focus on the skills acquired in our courses allows for all students to make pedagogical gains. I will detail the generation of homework question banks, with accompanying videos solutions, to improve the analytical capabilities of our students for both large and small enrolment classes. I will also briefly outline the Department of Chemistry’s Teaching Fellowship Program that has allowed for graduate students to aid in the preparation of these resources.

Alternative Grading at Scale: Insights from Implementing Weekly Checkpoint Quizzes in a Large Introductory Computer Science Course
Presenters:
Sadia Sharmin, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer Science
Paul He, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer Science
Mario Badr, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Computer Science

In Fall-Winter 2024-2025, within our large (500-student) introductory programming and proofs courses, we implemented bi-weekly low-stakes checkpoint quizzes, inspired by alternative grading paradigms such as mastery learning. The quizzes offered students frequent feedback and each quiz could be attempted multiple times without penalty. Student response was overwhelmingly positive; the majority of students reported improved self-assessment, reduced stress, and greater engagement. To further improve scalability and consistency in feedback, in Fall 2025 we converted the quizzes to be computer-based. Our presentation contributes to the growing conversation around flexible and equitable assessments and scalable alternative grading practices.

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