blog posts

• Five Ways to Promote Student Autonomy in Online Discussions

  Mar 23, 2020 11:15 am17 views

  Five Ways to Promote Student Autonomy in Online Discussions. “Write an initial post and then reply to two of your classmates.” These are the standard requirements for students participating in online course discussions. Discussions in an online course play a vital role in creating substantive interactions, aiming to capture the spirit of discourse in face-to-face settings. This, however, can look and feel like busy work, making the purpose of online discussions unclear to students.  The standard blueprint is safe but has been exhausted. “Initial posts” can be counterintuitive—in essence, they require students to complete small writing assignments individually before giving other students feedback on their work (Liberman, 2019). How can we think outside of the box of posting and replying when it comes to these discussions? One way is to use online discussions as an opportunity to promote student autonomy and ask students to be active participants not only in how they respond to class discussions, but how they initiate them. Here are five considerations for promoting student autonomy while also breaking the online discussion mold.

• Five Ways to Improve Exam Review Sessions

  Mar 9, 2016 8:00 am3 views

  Five Ways to Improve Exam Review Sessions. Here are two frequently asked questions about exam review sessions: (1) Is it worth devoting class time to review, and (2) How do you get students, rather than the teacher, doing the reviewing? Instead of answering those questions directly, a more helpful response might be a set of activities that can make exam review sessions more effective.

• Five Ways to Improve Exam Review Sessions

  Apr 13, 2016 8:00 am1 views

  Five Ways to Improve Exam Review Sessions. Here are two frequently asked questions about exam review sessions: (1) Is it worth devoting class time to review, and (2) How do you get students, rather than the teacher, doing the reviewing? Instead of answering those questions directly, a more helpful response might be a set of activities that can make exam review sessions more effective.

• Five Types of Quizzes That Deepen Engagement with Course Content

  Mar 30, 2016 8:00 am0 views

  Five Types of Quizzes That Deepen Engagement with Course Content. Have you thought about ways in which to maximize the benefit of quizzes?  Have you used quizzes that rely on low-level questions where the right answer is a memorized detail or a quizzing strategy where the primary motivation is punitive, such as to force students to keep up with the reading. That kind of quizzing doesn’t motivate reading for the right reasons and it doesn’t promote deep, lasting learning. There are innovative ways faculty are using quizzes, and these practices rest on different premises. This article describes ways for students to learn content deeper.

• Five Strategies for Mastering the Art of Answering Questions When Teaching and Presenting

  Mar 22, 2022 8:45 am38 views

  (from Faculty Focus) Five Strategies for Mastering the Art of Answering Questions When Teaching and Presenting.  In academia, we get asked a lot of questions whether we are teaching, giving research presentations, interviewing, or mentoring. This is exciting but can also be scary. The questions are often the most stressful part of teaching and presenting because we cannot truly predict or control the questions we are asked. It is important to first note that our experiences as teachers and presenters impact the experiences of our audiences, such that when we are more engaged, they are more engaged and learn better from us (Saucier, 2019a; Saucier, Miller, Martens, & Jones, in press).  For example, by bringing PEACE to our classes in the form of our Preparation, Expertise, Authenticity, Caring, and Engagement (Saucier, 2019b; Saucier & Jones, 2020), we can intentionally create class environments that promote learning. In the following, we discuss five simple strategies (such as Smile-Breathe-Think-Talk) to enhance our engagement as teachers and presenters that, in doing so, will make the experience of answering questions better for us and our audience. 

• Five Questions That Will Improve Your Teaching

  Oct 6, 2011 8:00 am0 views

  Five Questions That Will Improve Your Teaching.  Becoming a reflective teacher begins with asking yourself questions about your teaching and ways in which to improve your students' learning. Here's a sample list of questions from Larry Ferlazzo to get you started.

   

• First Impressions: Activities for the First Day of Class

  Aug 8, 2018 4:45 pm14 views

  First Impressions: Activities for the First Day of Class. The old expression that you never have a second chance to make a first impression is certainly true in the classroom. Early in my career, I tried several first-day-of-class strategies, ranging from briefly introducing the course and dismissing students early to spending the entire time reviewing policies and procedures, but I began to feel that I was missing an important opportunity. Students are never more attentive than they are on the first day of class, when they’re eager to determine what kind of professor they’re dealing with, and although it is tempting to delay the real work of teaching and learning until the class list has stabilized, it can be difficult to change even the subtle norms that are established during this initial class. Here are some easy to implement strategies.

• First Impressions: Activities for the First Day of Class

  Aug 9, 2017 9:45 am284 views

  The old expression that you never have a second chance to make a first impression is certainly true in the classroom. Early in my career, I tried several first-day-of-class strategies, ranging from briefly introducing the course and dismissing students early to spending the entire time reviewing policies and procedures, but I began to feel that I was missing an important opportunity. Students are never more attentive than they are on the first day of class, when they’re eager to determine what kind of professor they’re dealing with, and although it is tempting to delay the real work of teaching and learning until the class list has stabilized, it can be difficult to change even the subtle norms that are established during this initial class. Several years ago, I tried a new approach, and I’ve been using it with great success ever since. Here are some strategies to help students begin using the skills they need.

• First-Day Questions for the Learner-Centered Classroom

  Jan 26, 2016 8:00 am15 views

  First-Day Questions for the Learner-Centered Classroom. Why had my evaluation scores gone down while student achievement had gone up? The reason became clear as I read the written comments. The students were displeased with the greater work. They were content to ignore reading assignments, assuming that I would lecture over the content that was important. They were content not to review information and construct knowledge except by cramming the night before exams. What I needed was a way to engage them to see that how I taught the course mattered to them; that learning this way helped them accomplish goals that were important to them. Read here for strategies to help student buy-in for more active learning.

• First Day of Class Activities that Create a Climate for Learning

  Aug 9, 2017 9:45 am286 views

  There’s no discounting the importance of the first day of class. What happens that day sets the tone for the rest of the course. Outlined below are a few novel activities for using that first day of class to emphasize the importance of learning and the responsibility students share for shaping the classroom environment.

• First Assignment Helps Establish Expectations

  Jan 21, 2021 8:45 am18 views

  (From Faculty Focus). First Assignment Helps Establish Expectations. There is a lot to cover on the first day of class. You establish procedures and convey expectations. You review the syllabus and, if you’re teaching a lab, safety protocol. You also spend some time teaching some material. While you might not make an assignment for the first day, you still should use some time on the first day to talk about your expectations for students’ work and how you assign grades. Although you explain grading on the first day, expect to review it again when you return the first assignments, papers, and exams. 

• Final Exams: Fair or Unfair?

  Apr 23, 2015 8:00 am26 views

  Final Exams: Fair or Unfair? A common complaint from students is that final exams do not always test the kinds of knowledge that is asked for in homework or quizzes or presented in lectures. Whether this perception is accurate or not, it's still an excellent starting point for talking about what you are testing when you give a final exam. The worst final exams can seem unfocused, determined to test everything, or random things. The best final exams are learning moments. If you presented a set of learning goals and objectives to your students on your syllabus, you're way ahead of the game, because that means you've thought through what is important to you for a particular class. The very simplest procedure then is to develop an exam that will demonstrate whether students have achieved these objectives.

• Final Exams as Learning Moments

  Dec 3, 2014 8:00 am0 views

  Final Exams as Teaching Moments. A common complaint from students is that final exams do not always test the kinds of knowledge that is asked for in homework or quizzes or presented in lectures. Whether this perception is accurate or not, it’s an excellent starting point for talking about the final exam. The worst final exams can seem unfocused, determined to test everything, or random things. The best final exams are learning moments. Click here for suggestions from Berkeley’s teaching center.

• Final Exams.

  Apr 24, 2018 8:00 am4 views

  A common complaint from students is that final exams do not always test the kinds of knowledge that is asked for in homework or quizzes or presented in lectures. Whether this perception is accurate or not, it's still an excellent starting point for talking about what you are testing when you give a final exam. The worst final exams can seem unfocused, determined to test everything, or random things. The best final exams are learning moments. If you presented a set of learning goals and objectives to your students on your syllabus, you're way ahead of the game, because that means you've thought through what is important to you for a particular class. The very simplest procedure then is to develop an exam that will demonstrate whether students have achieved these objectives.  

• Final Exams

  Nov 17, 2021 5:15 pm1 views

  (from Harvard University, Bok Center).  Final Exams. Final exams remain one of the most common genre of capstone assignments, set at the end of courses in order to give students (and instructors) the opportunity to synthesize and reflect on the full arc of the semester. To some degree, the popularity of exams among instructors and students may owe something to their sheer familiarity. Often, because instructors assume that students are familiar with the form, they also assume that students need relatively little preparation in order to do well on them, thus freeing up class time for more content coverage. This is not always the case, however, and in order for exams to fulfill their potential for assessing certain levels of understanding, instructors must be clear about the purpose of what they will ask students to do, write good questions, and scaffold students into the exam. 

  Before you settle on a particular genre of assessment, we recommend that you visit these pages on capstone assignments, writing effective assignment prompts, and sequencing and scaffolding.

   

• Final Exam Review Ideas

  Nov 29, 2016 8:00 am7 views

  Final Exam Review Ideas. In a study of student perceptions of teacher misbehaviors, Kearny, Plax, Hays and Ivey (1991) report that a common complaint by students involved “unfair testing” practices. Faculty misbehaviors related to tests as reported by students were trick questions, ambiguous questions, tests too difficult, and no exam reviews.  Here are some ways to help students prepare for the final exam and to reduce student anxiety. (Weimer, 1998).

• Faculty Tips for Starting the Semester Remotely

  Jan 14, 2022 10:15 am6 views

  (from Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning). Faculty Tips for Starting the Semester Remotely. The first week of the semester is a critical time for setting the tone of the course, motivating and exciting students for learning, beginning to form a community, and establishing your expectations for students. Here are a few tips for accomplishing these goals when you must start the semester remotely, so that you don’t lose that opportunity, such as prioritize well-being for yourself and your students, set clear communications with your students, and create opportunities for the students to know each other. We have also compiled student tips for starting the semester remotely, which you may want to share with your students.

• Faculty Interventions Can Help Student Success

  Jun 10, 2020 12:00 pm10 views

  (from Inside Higher Ed). Faculty Interventions Can Help Student Success. A new research paper shows that feedback and interventions from professors can have positive impacts on student success. The paper, "My Professor Cares: Experimental Evidence on the Role of Faculty Engagement," was published this month in the National Bureau of Economic Research. The researchers conducted several experiments, starting with a small pilot on an introductory microeconomics course, according to the brief. The premise was then scaled up to more than 43 classes and 4,000 students at a university. In the experiments, faculty sent "strategically timed" emails to students that included information about how to succeed in the class, the student's current standing and a reminder of when the professor was available. The results from the pilot group were successful.

• Facilitating Class Discussions: Understanding Group Development and Dynamics.

  Sep 26, 2017 4:00 pm28 views

  Facilitating discussions requires the ability to engage different perspectives and skills in response to the needs of the group. How well a group works together depends upon the dynamics among participants and the ability of the facilitator to gauge and respond to these dynamics. An effective facilitator works to create an inclusive learning environment while being prepared to set boundaries and rules when necessary. Yet, even experienced facilitators can be confronted with situations or individuals that prevent the group from functioning. This essay describes some reflective practices that can prepare facilitators and participants for productive group discussions.

• Extending the Shelf Life of Your Instructional Videos: Six Common Pitfalls to Avoid

  Mar 15, 2021 10:30 pm14 views

  (from Faculty Focus) Extending the Shelf Life of Your Instructional Videos: Six Common Pitfalls to Avoid. When instructional video is produced thoughtfully and used to promote active engagement, it can improve student motivation, learning, and performance, make content more memorable, and bring highly visual material to life. Video has other benefits as well. It allows students to watch lectures at their own pace, rewinding and re-watching as needed. It lets instructors assign lectures as homework, opening up class time for interaction. And it can reduce the total time faculty need to spend preparing and delivering the same material for different semesters or audiences. Once you’ve recorded a video, you can–theoretically–use it again and again.

  I say “theoretically” because it’s not as easy as it sounds. In fact, there are a number of small mistakes that can shorten the shelf-life of video unnecessarily, limit its reusability, and compel you to re-record sooner than you’d like. Here are six strategies that can help you avoid these pitfalls and make videos that last. 

• Exploring the Advantages of Rubrics

  Oct 12, 2015 8:00 am4 views

  Exploring the Advantages of Rubrics. "I don’t understand what you want on this assignment.” It’s a comment teachers don’t like to hear from students, and rubrics, checklists, or the grading criteria offer constructive ways to respond. They identify those parts of an assignment or performance that matter, that if included and done well garner good grades and learning. If teachers don’t identify them, then students must figure out for themselves what the assignment needs in order to be considered good. Here is an article that describes the value of using a rubric for more effective student achievement.
  

• Exam Wrapper

  Nov 9, 2016 8:00 am3 views

  Exam Wrapper. Here’s a strategy that helps students look at more than the grade when an exam is returned. An exam wrapper (I like the name) is a handout attached to the exam that students complete as part of the exam debrief process. The wrapper directs students “to review and analyze their performance (and the instructor’s feedback) with an eye toward adapting their future learning.” (Ambrose et al, 2010, p. 251). Here is a more detailed description of the exam wrapper strategy.
  

• Examining the Benefits of Cumulative Tests and Finals

  Nov 30, 2022 10:45 am551 views

  (from Faculty Focus). Examining the Benefits of Cumulative Tests and Finals. With the academic year nearly over and final exams upon us, it’s a good time to consider how we assess student knowledge in our courses. Cumulative finals are still used in many courses, but a significant number of faculty have backed away from them because they are so unpopular with students, who strongly voice their preferences for exams that include only questions on content covered in that unit or module. Although teachers should not ignore or discount student preferences across the board, there is the larger issue of which testing procedures best promote deep learning and lasting retention of course content. The evidence on the side of cumulative exams and finals is pretty much overwhelming, and those empirical results should not come as a surprise. An exam with questions on current and previous content encourages continued interaction with course material, and the more students deal with the content, the better the chances they will remember it. Students don’t like cumulative exams for the very reason they ought to be used: preparing for them requires more time and energy devoted to understanding and remembering course content.

  Cumulative finals are better than unit tests, but cumulative exams across the course are the best option if the goal is long-term retention. Good and plentiful research documents that students taking cumulative exams during the course score significantly higher when given content exams after the course is over. 

• “Everybody with Me?” and Other Not-so-useful Questions.

  Apr 10, 2019 4:15 pm43 views

  “Everybody with Me?” and Other Not-so-useful Questions. “Any questions?” “Is everybody with me?” “Does this make sense?” I have asked my students these vague types of questions many times and the most common response was…silence. But how should I interpret the silence? Perhaps the students understand everything completely and therefore have no questions. Maybe they have questions but are afraid to ask them out of fear of looking stupid. Or it could mean that they are so lost they don’t even know what to ask! Only our boldest students would say; “Um, you lost me 10 minutes ago, can you repeat the whole thing again?” Another problem with vague prompts is that people, especially students, often suffer from “overconfidence bias.” The best alternative to the vague “any questions?” prompt is to use a brief Classroom Assessment Technique or CAT (Angelo and Cross, 1993). CATs do not need to be elaborate or require extensive preparation or class time. 

• Establishing Rapport and Why It Matters

  Jan 14, 2015 8:00 am6 views

  Establishing Rapport and Why It Matters.  It cannot be underestimated how important establishing rapport is in effective teaching and learning. Connections with students play a role in student participation, effort, and engagement with the content. Ways to build rapport and respect for your students are providing praise, nodding and smiling, using their names, and identifying prior knowledge. Additional strategies such as helping students answer their own questions are quite effective in creating rapport, while enhancing learning.

• Equitable Exams During COVID-19

  May 6, 2020 2:30 pm40 views

  (from Inside Higher Ed) Equitable Exams During COVID-19. The equitability of online learning was called into question in March when institutions ceased classroom instruction. Educational institutions had to face the disparity of technological access needed to transition students to an online environment. Though recent data from the Pew Research Center show that 73 percent of adults have home broadband internet, the disaggregated data by household income paints a different picture. To mitigate some of the inequity, some institutions moved to pass/fail rather than letter grades, offering more flexibility to students. Now, institutions must consider equitable final exams. Even under normal circumstances, instructors must consider the purpose of an exam. Is it formative or summative? Are we testing for skill acquisition or memorization of knowledge? What is the purpose of the time limit? What is an acceptable deadline? As final exams draw near, instructors must consider how to create, administer and score final exams that are fair and equitable during this pivotal time.

• Enhancing the Effectiveness of TA Office Hours

  Sep 14, 2015 8:00 am0 views

  Enhancing the Effectiveness of TA Office Hours. With any strategy, it is important that TAs send messages of genuine willingness to assist students. Undergraduate students do distinguish between "availability" and "approachability." They have told us that a person's "availability" during tutoring/office hours does not necessarily mean that they see him or her as "approachable." They are far more likely to "approach" someone whom they perceive as willing to assist - empathetic, patient, and interested in their learning.See this article from Tomorrow's Professor to learn more.
  

• Engaging a Village: Effective Strategies to Reach Every Corner of the Lecture Hall

  Jun 10, 2020 12:00 pm14 views

  (from Faculty Focus). Engaging a Village: Effective Strategies to Reach Every Corner of the Lecture Hall. As educators, we often struggle to provide an effective learning environment for the students who are easily distracted and clamoring for more support. Technology in the classroom has the potential to engage students and allow us to be more hands-on with hundreds of students at a time, making students feel supported while engaging them in the classroom community. Some approaches are to flip the classroom, use problem-based learning, use teaching assistants to lead neighbors within the village and more.

• End-of-the-Semester Reflection from the Teachers Point of View

  Nov 30, 2018 2:00 pm1 views

  End-of-the-Semester Reflection from the Teachers Point of View. Make self-reflection a part of the end of the term teaching process. Self-reflection helps you retain the insights you’ve gained along the way as you have been teaching the current course, and it will inspire you to seek out new approaches; you’ll feel more comfortable, confident, and engaged next semester. Some areas to consider are general reflections and what to do with the information you gathered.
  

• End of Semester Evaluations

  May 14, 2019 2:00 pm3 views

  End of Semester Evaluations. Most universities use final course evaluations to solicit feedback from students. The results of these evaluations can be used to inform the next offering of the course, as well as—ideally in conjunction with many other forms of evidence of teaching effectiveness—the career trajectory of the instructor.  How do you interpret summative feedback and use it to improve your teaching? Here are four main challenges that teachers may face when interpreting end-of-course feedback from students

• Ending the Semester

  Apr 18, 2022 11:15 am2 views

  (from Georgetown University CNDLS) Ending the Semester. A semester is a marathon effort, and, by the time you reach the end of it, it’s quite possible that everyone—you and the students both—will be exhausted, and perhaps very ready to leave the course behind. But one last thoughtful push can ensure that the course’s conclusion is meaningful in its own right. Naturally, the final stretch of the course is an important time to reflect on the class experience and the material that’s been covered. Not only is it an opportunity to review material that students might need to revisit as they approach final exams and final papers—or to answer any questions that, for the students, remain unresolved—it’s also an opportunity to underscore the significance of the experience the students have just had, to invite the students to appreciate how far they’ve come in a few months. Here are some ways to maximize the end of the semester through reflection, integration, gathering feedback, and looking forward.

• Ending the Semester

  Apr 26, 2021 9:45 am22 views

  (from Georgetown University The Teaching Commons). Ending the Semester. A semester is a marathon effort, and, by the time you reach the end of it, it’s quite possible that everyone—you and the students both—will be exhausted, and perhaps very ready to leave the course behind. But one last thoughtful push can ensure that the course’s conclusion is meaningful in its own right. Think about a) looking back, b) gathering feedback, and c) looking forward regarding this semester's courses. 

• Encouraging Effective Discussions

  Oct 28, 2010 8:00 am1 views

  Encouraging Effective Discussions. You want to encourage more student participation, so you ask a question.  Instead of a lively discussion, there are blank faces, silence, or incorrect answers. There are a number of strategies that can help encourage participation, improve discussion and rapport. Click here to learn more.  

• Empowering Students through Your Personal Narrative

  Sep 1, 2022 7:30 am5 views

  (from Faculty Focus) Empowering Students through Your Personal Narrative. Any teacher wants their students to feel engaged and enthusiastic in the classroom, connected and thriving through daily activities and course content. Of course, establishing that rapport and environment is a bridge that needs to be built every day, through every interaction, in any course. It’s not one action, or intervention, or step. But one intentional step that many teachers take is to create some introduction material for the course. Whether it’s an announcement or a video, a block of text or an audio snippet, instructors often go out of their way to say hello as students walk through the “doors” of the online classroom.  

  By leveraging your personal narrative—articulating your “why” and demonstrating your dedication—you can take steps to ensure that students feel more engaged and oriented within your new course, and that they feel comfortable and connected with you as their instructor. And while you can definitely spell this all out in words, and embellish with pictures, video has been shown to be a very dynamic way to connect with students.  

• Eleven Tips to End of The Semester Success (From One Student to Another):

  Apr 18, 2022 11:15 am2 views

  (from Utica College Student Voices). Eleven Tips to End of The Semester Success (From One Student to Another). The end of the semester (especially Spring Semester) can bring many challenges and stressors. The weather is starting to get nicer, the days are getting longer, and your attention span is getting shorter. If your class schedule has looked anything like mine, you’ve probably been pounded with essays, projects, and tests since returning from spring break. It can all get very overwhelming quickly, and by the time finals starts approaching you’ve all but virtually checked out. As hard as it may be, it’s important to keep your morale high to get through finals. No one wants to throw away all the hard work they’ve put in throughout the semester over a little stress and fatigue. So, here’s some of my tips on how to stay focused and finish out the semester strong.

• Effective Strategies for Studying

  Dec 6, 2012 8:00 am4 views

  Effective Strategies for Studying.  As students prepare for their final exams, they may not know or remember effective strategies to use. Here is a list of suggested strategies to share with your students in helping them prepare more effectively and efficiently.

   

• Effective Discussion Boards

  Sep 11, 2013 8:00 am1 views

  Effective Discussion Boards. Meaningful online discussions that promote learning and build community usually do not happen spontaneously. They require planning, good use of questioning techniques, and incentives for student participation. Click here for types of questions to ask.

• Educators’ Most Effective Attention-Grabbing Technique - 5 Ways Compelling Teachers Move Beyond Presenting to Storytelling.

  Sep 13, 2022 3:30 pm36 views

  (from Harvard Business Publishing - Education). Educators’ Most Effective Attention-Grabbing Technique - 5 Ways Compelling Teachers Move Beyond Presenting to Storytelling. Storytelling was Lincoln’s most powerful rhetorical tool. “He understood early on that concrete examples and stories provided the best vehicles for teaching,” writes Goodwin in Leadership in Turbulent Times. “He could simultaneously educate, entertain, and move his audiences.” And he, like many inspiring storytellers around the world, was able to do all that without the benefit of PowerPoint—a staple in today’s classroom. The tools of communication have changed since Lincoln regaled crowds with his storytelling techniques, but our minds are not wired to engage with bullet points on a slide. Our minds are wired for story. Many of us think in narrative and enjoy consuming content in story form. While there’s nothing wrong with PowerPoint as a tool for classroom learning, slides should not be designed to replace the educator—the storyteller. Instead, they should complement the story. Understanding the difference between presenting and storytelling is critical to an educator’s ability to engage students and stir their excitement. What follows are five storytelling strategies to help you stand out as an educator in any subject.

• Educating Students about Plagiarism

  Apr 12, 2012 8:00 am2 views

   

  Educating Students about Plagiarism.  Plagiarism is uncredited use of someone else's text or ideas. Some students unwittingly commit plagiarism because they are unaware of the rules regarding citing sources. Here is a self-test of common situations to help students identify examples of plagiarism.This site is a collaborative project originally funded by the Center for Educational Technology, Middlebury College, and developed by Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin Colleges. Also, here is a link to our campus Student Code regarding plagiarism.

   

   

• Do Quizzes Improve Student Learning? A Look at the Evidence

  Feb 23, 2017 8:00 am14 views

  Do Quizzes Improve Student Learning? A Look at the Evidence. There’s a lot of talk these days about evidence-based instructional practices. Recently I’ve been trying to locate the evidence that supports quizzing, wondering if it merits the evidence-based label. Tracking down this evidence in our discipline-based research is challenging because although quizzing has been studied across our disciplines, it’s not easily searchable. What this evidence tells us is that given a particular set of conditions, quizzes produce positive results, in most cases a range of them. And that gives us three things to consider: quizzes are an evidence-based instructional strategy only in a general sense; to determine if quizzes produce the desired results, evidence is needed; and consideration of the instructional design is of profound importance. Additional details are here.

• Don’t Waste the First Day

  Aug 12, 2015 8:00 am2 views

  Don’t waste the first day. Do you go over the syllabus page by page on the first day? Take advantage of the first day by hooking students into course content before distributing the syllabus. Do a background probe activity, get to know them and walk from one student to another, make your teaching style transparent. This article describes additional strategies to maximize that first day as a valuable learning experience.  

• Don't Spam Your Students and Other Practical Communication Tips

  Nov 1, 2021 9:15 am0 views

  (from Faculty Focus) Don't Spam Your Students and Other Practical Communication Tips.  Like us, students get a lot of messages in their inbox, which leads to students’ eyes glazing over, and then our messages get lost in the mix. How can we avoid that? Set up a consistent communication protocol that is shared with students the first week and then stick to it.

  Here’s an example: Once a week, send students a message that includes what is upcoming along with other important information or announcements. Send that update on the same day each week so that students know that on Friday (or whichever day you choose) they will get a class update. We are going for quality rather than quantity. Yes, this takes a little planning ahead, but the resulting clarity of communication will pay off. Here are ways to maximize communication through other means, such as announcements section, course webpage, and student-friendly assignment schedule.

• Don't Be Alone during Office Hours

  Jan 3, 2018 3:30 pm4 views

  As part of a series on creating conditions for student success, there was a student panel addressing a group of faculty about their experiences thus far at Berkeley. The students talked about their favorite classes, what made them so valuable, and what their professors had done to engage them so effectively in learning. When one faculty member brought up the topic of office hours, the students became relatively silent. When asked how many on the panel had gone to office hours, none raised their hand. It was surprising in some ways to hear about so many transformative experiences that all centered around student-faculty interaction, yet an opportunity like office hours was not being capitalized upon. Why not? Heading into a new semester is a good time to give some consideration to how you can increase the use and effectiveness of your office hours - for your students, and for you. 

• Does It Matter How Students Feel about a Course?

  Sep 13, 2017 4:00 pm2 views

  A line of research (done mostly in Australia and Great Britain) has been exploring what prompts students to opt for deep or surface approaches to learning. So far this research has established strong links between the approaches taken to teaching and those taken to learning. If teachers are focused on covering large amounts of content and do so with few attempts to involve and engage students, students tend to learn the material by memorizing it, often without much understanding of it. The 18-item instrument these researchers developed contains three subscales: one with questions associated with positive emotions such as pride, hope, and confidence, and two that measure negative emotions, one associated with frustration, anger, and boredom and the second with anxiety and shame. All three of these analyses “show significant relations between students’ emotional experience, their approaches to learning and their learning outcomes.” (p. 816). The more pragmatic question involves what teachers can do to help student have positive emotional experiences in the course.

• Discussing Grades with Students

  Apr 15, 2011 8:00 am1 views

  Discussing Grades with Students. As the end of the semester approaches, students are likely to become more concerned about their grades.  Knowing how to respond to student complaints about grades can turn a potential argument into a productive discussion.  This page from Washington University in St. Louis offers some advice to follow.

• Design Considerations for Exam Wrappers

  Oct 23, 2014 8:00 am1 views

  Design Considerations for Exam Wrappers. "Exam wrappers are short activities that direct students to review their performance (and the instructor's feedback) on an exam with an eye toward adapting their future learning.  Exam wrappers ask students three kinds of questions: How did they prepare for the exam?  What kinds of errors did they make on the exam?  What could they do differently next time?"  Click here to see examples and strategies to help our students become more reflective about their learning.

• Culturally Responsive Teaching and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

  Jan 20, 2020 10:30 pm614 views

  Culturally Responsive Teaching and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Educational experiences for our students that integrate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT), a philosophy of education that centers students’ cultural backgrounds as essential to their learning (Ladson-Billings,1994), is a powerful tool for preparing them for today’s professional environment, which increasingly acknowledges diversity as integral to success. People from different cultures arrive in our classrooms with culturally-based differences that influence how they interact with our courses. This does not mean that certain students (with certain identities) are capable of doing higher level work while other students (with other identities) are not. In other words, UDL and CRT are not about de facto tracking. Rather, by incorporating a range of learning strategies to address multiple perspectives, values, entry points, and opportunities for acquiring and demonstrating knowledge, educators can amplify the benefits of diversity.

• Critical Connections for Successful Teaching and Learning

  Jan 17, 2013 8:00 am3 views

  Critical Connections for Successful Teaching and Learning. Kreizinger suggests keeping in mind three critical connections when preparing and delivering your lessons.  They are connections between 1) teacher and content, 2) teacher and students (and students and students), and 3) students and content.  Click here to learn more about these critical connections and how to implement them.

• Creating Rapport from the Beginning

  Jan 17, 2013 8:00 am4 views

  Creating Rapport from the Beginning: The first several days of the semester are critical in setting the tone for the class and creating a positive rapport between you and your students.  In addition, creating rapport will help in establishing trust and community-building. Here are several helpful strategies to get you started.

• Creating Engaging Assignments

  Sep 20, 2021 2:15 pm22 views

  (from Stanford University - Tomorrow's Professor's Postings). Creating Engaging Assignments. For many years, teachers have focused on the importance of engaging students deeply in their work since we know that effort and motivation are central to learning. Here are three case studies of course assignments that led to significant engagement by students: student choice, high-stakes assignments (e.g., presenting for an external audience), and using drama as a teaching tool. Similar assignments could be incorporated, with appropriate adaptations, in many other contexts.