blog posts

• 101 Things to Do in the First Three Weeks of Class

  Aug 28, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  101 Things to Do in the First Three Weeks of Class. Want a successful start to the semester? How about setting expectations, learning students’ prior knowledge, motivating and engaging your students? Here are several strategies to implement right away. 

• 101 Things to Do in the First Three Weeks of Class

  Aug 28, 2014 8:00 am3 views

  101 Things to Do in the First Three Weeks of Class. Want a successful start to the semester? How about setting expectations, learning students’ prior knowledge, motivating and engaging your students? Here are several strategies to implement right away. 

• 10 Assessment Design Tips for Increasing Online Student Retention, Satisfaction and Learning

  Feb 7, 2016 8:00 am4 views

  10 Assessment Design Tips for Increasing Online Student Retention, Satisfaction and Learning - How much time do we put into the design of the assessment plans in our online courses? Is most of that time focused upon summative graded assignments that factor into the course grade? Or, do they also include opportunity for practice and informal feedback? I confess that I have an increasingly difficult time with online courses that limit assessment plans to a few papers, projects, quizzes, and tests. In an age of educational innovation and online learning, perhaps it is time to further explore enhancements to traditional notions of grading. Click here to read the suggested strategies. 

• 10 Practical Approaches to Teaching.

  Jan 20, 2020 10:30 pm431 views

  10 Practical Approaches to Teaching. Students from different walks of life converge in a classroom for learning. They have different capabilities and personalities, adding to the diversity that comes with learning institutions. As such, if you want to be an effective teacher, you need to formulate and implement creative and innovative strategies that are practical and meet the needs of students. This applies to all teachers despite the duration they have been teaching. However, it can be difficult to know what works best with your students and what won’t work. You cannot apply a ‘one size fits all’ approach. You have to blend a range of different strategies practical enough to your practice. To offer the best classroom experience to students, you need to improve your teaching practice, build collegiality, and delve deeper into content knowledge. As such, here are some practical teaching tips for educators.

• 11 Steps to Planning a Course You’ve Never Taught Before

  Dec 16, 2020 11:30 am61 views

  (from Faculty Focus). 11 Steps to Planning a Course You’ve Never Taught Before. You wait with anticipation. You receive the email: Course assignments are posted. You click on your Course Assignment. And—you’re assigned to teach a course that you have never taught before. Maybe you feel excitement, maybe you feel anxiety, or some mixture of the two. Emotion aside, how do you plan a new course? Planning a new course can seem intimidating, even anxiety-provoking, but it doesn’t have to be. You can start planning with confidence and getting your mental energy away from worry and back to the most important thing: teaching and reaching your students. Here are concrete steps you can take to start planning a brand-new course you have never taught before. 

• 5 Faculty Best Practices Before the First Day of Online Class

  Jan 21, 2021 8:45 am29 views

  (from Wiley Educational Services). 5 Faculty Best Practices Before the First Day of Online Class. For faculty who teach online, the days leading up to the first week of class are critical for both you and your students. By using this time to prepare your students for what is to come, you can help alleviate student fears and anxieties, as well as limit the number of emails you receive. For example, sending students a few introductory announcements,  and welcoming them into the classroom (e.g., through a video) can help establish a stronger student-teacher relationship. Click here for five simple actions you can take before the first day of class to help prepare yourself to teach online and to make your students feel more comfortable about the upcoming course.

• Active Learning for the College Classroom

  Mar 26, 2019 2:15 pm20 views

  Active Learning for the College Classroom. The past decade has seen an explosion of interest among college faculty in the teaching methods variously grouped under the terms 'active learning' and 'cooperative learning'. The majority of all college faculty still teach their classes in the traditional lecture mode. Some of the criticism and hesitation seems to originate in the idea that techniques of active and cooperative learning are genuine alternatives to, rather than enhancements of, professors' lectures. We provide below a survey of a wide variety of active learning techniques which can be used to supplement rather than replace lectures. We are not advocating complete abandonment of lecturing; the lecture is a very efficient way to present information but use of the lecture as the only mode of instruction presents problems for both the instructor and the students. There is a large amount of research attesting to the benefits of active learning.

• Active Learning Strategies in Face-to-Face (and Online) Courses

  Feb 15, 2018 9:15 am17 views

  As numerous research studies suggest, teachers who desire increased student learning should adopt active learning. This article explores the research, defines active learning, discusses its value, offers suggestions for implementing it, and provides six concrete examples of active learning approaches: Thinking-Aloud Pair Problem-Solving; Three-Step Interview; Think-Pair-Share; Visible Quiz; Value Line; and Send/Pass-a-Problem. Here are the descriptions for these strategies and more.

• Active Learning Strategies that Provide Great Feedback

  Feb 8, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Active Learning Strategies that Provide Great Feedback. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS) are generally simple, non-graded, anonymous, in-class activities designed to give you and your students useful feedback on the teaching-learning process as it is happening.  There are many CATS to select depending on what you want to assess and how much time you have. Consider implementing these activities throughout the semester. Click here to learn more about CATS.

• Add Trauma Glasses to Your Teacher Toolkit

  Sep 1, 2022 7:45 am22 views

   (from Faculty Focus) Add Trauma Glasses to Your Teacher Toolkit. Faculty members have a lot of responsibilities in addition to teaching, like planning, prepping, and advising. With enough time, I’m sure that l could add a considerable number of other duties to this list. We love the job because it is rewarding and challenging, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought on new challenges, such as work from home requirements, social isolation, and trying to get through these last few academic years with our physical and mental health still intact. Well, if you thought the slew of challenges was coming to an end, think again. 

  As higher education enrollment numbers decline, Covid relief funds dry up, inflation continues to rise, and labor shortages grow—pressure is building on many campuses. This sounds like an introduction to an essay about self-care or ways to avoid burnout, but it isn’t. Self-care and wellness are essential for faculty, but this is about our students, how we see them, and how to see them through trauma glasses. What are trauma glasses? Trauma glasses are a way to conceptualize how we view and interpret student behavior, and we all need to add them to our teacher toolkit. 

• Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Types of Test Questions

  Nov 14, 2017 9:00 am6879 views

  It’s good to regularly review the advantages and disadvantages of the most commonly used test questions, such as multiple-choice, true-false, short answer, and essay.  Also important is to think about the considerations when using the test banks that now frequently provide these questions. There are also several interesting variations that build on the above options. 

• Advice for how to make grading more equitable (opinion).

  Feb 19, 2020 9:00 am2 views

  Advice for how to make grading more equitable (opinion). Ask any faculty member about how they grade their students, and they will probably explain the precise weights they give quizzes, tests, papers, labs and other factors -- as well as how they average student results over the term to determine a final grade. Even though the scholarship, technology and pedagogy of postsecondary courses have significantly evolved in the last century, the ways students are graded has remained unchanged. This should come as no surprise, considering that most college and university faculty members receive no training in how to grade, either in graduate school or professional development on the job, and so most typically grade as they were graded. Plus, because faculty members rarely receive support to examine and learn about grading, each professor’s grading policies are filtered through their own individual beliefs about how students learn, how to motivate them and how best to describe student achievement. As a result, grades often vary within a department and even within a course taught by different instructors. Here are improved grading practices.

• Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will

  Jan 6, 2021 9:45 am12 views

  (From Faculty Focus). Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will. The first day of class is critical. What happens on the first day, even in the first moments, sets the tone for the entire course. The impression you make will last the entire semester, and today’s students are not shy about sharing their opinions. Most students will make up their minds about the course and the instructor during that first class period. That is why you must use the first day, the first moments of class, to inspire confidence in your abilities and create a classroom atmosphere where the rules are clear; expectations are high; and yet students feel welcome, comfortable, and engaged.

• Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will ...

  Aug 17, 2022 10:45 am4 views

  (From Faculty Focus).  Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will. The first day of class is critical. What happens on the first day, even in the first moments, sets the tone for the entire course. The impression you make will last the entire semester, and today’s students are not shy about sharing their opinions. Most students will make up their minds about the course and the instructor during that first class period. That is why you must use the first day, the first moments of class, to inspire confidence in your abilities and create a classroom atmosphere where the rules are clear; expectations are high; and yet students feel welcome, comfortable, and engaged. 

• Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will.

  Aug 7, 2019 3:00 pm18 views

  Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will. The first day of class is critical. What happens on the first day, even in the first moments, sets the tone for the entire course. The impression you make will last the entire semester, and today’s students are not shy about sharing their opinions. Most students will make up their minds about the course and the instructor during that first class period. That is why you must use the first day, the first moments of class, to inspire confidence in your abilities and create a classroom atmosphere where the rules are clear; expectations are high; and yet students feel welcome, comfortable, and engaged.

• Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will.

  Aug 18, 2021 10:30 am0 views

  Advice for the First Day of Class: Today We Will. The first day of class is critical. What happens on the first day, even in the first moments, sets the tone for the entire course. The impression you make will last the entire semester, and today’s students are not shy about sharing their opinions. Most students will make up their minds about the course and the instructor during that first class period. That is why you must use the first day, the first moments of class, to inspire confidence in your abilities and create a classroom atmosphere where the rules are clear; expectations are high; and yet students feel welcome, comfortable, and engaged.

• A Generation Defined by the Pandemic

  Nov 5, 2020 5:15 pm155 views

  (From Inside Higher Ed). A Generation Defined by the Pandemic. A new survey about student experiences during the fall semester and the coronavirus pandemic found that stress, anxiety and loneliness were their overriding concern. The data are representative of the real-life challenges and uncertainty that students say they face. Uncertainty, instability and self-doubt have been common themes in the lives of college students during 2020 as their education and career plans shift due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

  These were the general feelings expressed by about 450 college students and recent alumni who responded to a small, open-ended survey conducted by a pair of 2020 graduates, and reiterated on a larger scale in a new nationally representative survey of 4,000 undergraduates by the Strada Education Network. The various responses show that heightened stress and anxiety -- whether about achieving academic success, finding future employment or paying for the next meal -- is currently dominating the student psyche. Uncertainty, instability and self-doubt have been common themes in the lives of college students during 2020 as their education and career plans shift due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

• A Learner-Centered Syllabus Helps Set the Tone for Learning

  Aug 12, 2015 8:00 am40 views

  A Learner-Centered Syllabus Helps Set the Tone for Learning. At its most basic level, the syllabus is used to communicate information about the course, the instructor, learning objectives, assignments, grading policies, due dates, the university’s academic integrity statement, and, in some cases, an increasingly long list of strongly worded admonitions on what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in the college classroom. Could portraying the syllabus as a contract set up a less than optimal relationship?  This article suggests some areas to think about when writing your syllabus. 
  

• A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop

  Jun 12, 2014 8:00 am80 views

  A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop. This latest research by Mueller & Oppenheimer, reported in Scientific American, states that students who used longhand to take notes remembered more and had a deeper understanding of the materials.  Reasons for better understanding and learning were because students were engaged in listening, digesting, and summarizing as they took notes.  See the article here.

• Alternatives to the Traditional Final Exam

  Apr 23, 2015 8:00 am144 views

  Alternatives to the Traditional Final Exam. As you prepare your students for the final exam, keep in mind the following: research has shown that students vary the way they study depending on how they think they will be tested. For example, if students think they will be tested on details, they'll spend their time memorizing. If they know the test will ask them to apply theories and concepts to unique problems and situations, they'll practice this skill. This means that preparing for the final exam can be a powerful learning experience if we give students the information they need to study effectively. Providing sample questions is an excellent way to do this. The challenge is to create a final test which reflects what we most want students to learn. If you're interested in some alternatives to the traditional final exam, consider the following alternatives.
  

• Alternatives to Traditional Testing

  Apr 26, 2017 8:00 am41 views

  Alternatives to Traditional Testing.  It is too late now to change, but you should keep this in mind for next semester when you think of diverse ways of assessing student learning. For many courses of varying format and size, across many disciplines, reasonable alternatives to traditional tests (i.e., paper-based T/F or Multiple Choice) exist. In fact, oftentimes the alternatives may even be advantageous to promote student learning and be more authentic means of students demonstrating what they have learned at the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (synthesis, analysis, evaluation).  Here are some suggestions.

• A Model of Learning Objectives

  Oct 6, 2011 8:00 am0 views

  A Model of Learning Objectives. If you're not already familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, you may find it to be a useful guide for asking effective questions, developing learning objectives, and writing test items. Click here to learn more about Bloom's Taxonomy. Note: There will be a CTE workshop on Effective Multiple-Choice Test Design on Oct. 25th.

• A Mountain of Grading

  May 18, 2021 11:15 am10 views

  (from Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching). A Mountain of Grading. Now that the final exams are almost over, do you find yourself facing a large mountain of grading? And, perhaps, you wonder if you are spending more time grading than your students spent completing that assignment?  Consider the notion of “light grading” where you limit your comments or notations to those your students can use for further learning or improvement.  Here are some suggestions on how to do that.

• An Adjusted Humane Syllabus - ‘Nobody Signed Up for This’: One Professor’s Guidelines for an Interrupted Semester.

  Mar 23, 2020 11:30 am14 views

  An Adjusted Humane Syllabus - ‘Nobody Signed Up for This’: One Professor’s Guidelines for an Interrupted Semester. Brandon L. Bayne was trying to plot out a plan for a disrupted semester when he took a big step back. He was planning to revise the assignments for “Religion in America,” a course with 120 students, predominantly juniors and seniors. But he realized that he first wanted to write out some guiding principles. He came up with five, including “the humane option is the best option” and “we cannot just do the same thing online.” Each principle has several subparts. Though he drafted the list for his own use, Bayne decided to share it with his students — and on social media, where it has resonated with instructors of all kinds who are working to connect with students under the same unprecedented circumstances.

• An Effective Syllabus to Reflect Your Course Design

  Dec 16, 2020 11:30 am13 views

  (from Vanderbilt University and University of Illinois teaching centers). An Effective Syllabus to Reflect Your Course Design. A syllabus serves many functions in a class. In The Course Syllabus: A Learning Centered Approach (2008, 2nd Ed.) Judith Grunert O’Brien, Barbara J. Millis and Margaret W. Cohen identify at least sixteen elements of a learner-centered syllabus. First: a good syllabus relies on thoughtful course design. The strongest syllabi are built on a solid foundation of course design. Here are some steps to create an effective syllabus. In addition, please check out our Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning page on syllabus design.

• An End-of-Semester Message to All Students

  Dec 13, 2022 5:00 pm58 views

  (from Stony Brook University Division of Student Affairs). An End-of-Semester Message to All Students. As classes have ended and we are in the midst of finals, think about sending an end-of-semester message to your students as a wonderful send-off. An email letter can wish the students well and provide some advice and helpful resources.  

• An Inclusive Learning Environment

  Oct 17, 2012 8:00 am4 views

  An Inclusive Learning Environment.  Our student population has become more diverse; e.g., we have seen an increased international population, students from different backgrounds and achievement and with special needs.What are some teaching strategies and issues we should consider to provide a learning environment where all of our students can experience success?  Click here to see suggestions and strategies.  Also, CTE has two workshops that may be of interest to you on this topic:  October 22 and October 30.

• An Innovative Learning Strategy for Exams: 2-Stage Exams and 2-Stage Reviews

  Oct 11, 2016 8:00 am2 views

  An Innovative Learning Strategy for Exams: 2-Stage Exams and 2-Stage Reviews. Students take an exam individually. Once they complete the exam they turn it in and get into a group with 3 other students. The students then take the identical test but this time they work together on the questions. There is one answer sheet for the group so they all have to come to agreement on each answer. Listening to their peers and arguing for their case helps them to understand the answer better, even if they had gotten the question correct on their individual test. This also works well for a review when students begin a new class and the instructor wants to review the prerequisite material.  Directions for this strategy for taking and review the exam are here.
  

• A Periodic Table of Visualizatin

  Sep 30, 2010 8:00 am1 views

  A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. You can grab your students' attention and help them to better understand classroom material by presenting information visually.  This "periodic table" describes a wide range of visual ways to display data, information, concepts, strategies, and metaphors. Click here to view it.

   

• A "Radical" Course Revision

  Jun 7, 2011 8:00 am1 views

  A "Radical" Course Revision. Summer is a great time to revisit last year's courses and improve them for the coming year.  This article by Julie Stout of Indiana University describes her experiences revising courses and offers advice on the process.  Click here to learn more.  Note: to learn more, please visit CTE's list of summer workshops.  

• Are Happier Students Better Performers?

  Mar 8, 2017 8:00 am9 views

  Are Happier Students Better Performers? The importance of student happiness cannot be underestimated as a determining factor in academic performance, especially in the context of today’s universities. However, teachers can be empowered in their roles as holistic educators and become positive mentors for their students, providing understanding, empathy and encouragement. Furthermore, they can also train students in developing their emotional resilience. This should be given particular emphasis in this day and age, where students are increasingly vulnerable to the negative effects of boredom, stress and frustration in their university courses. So, teachers have an increasingly important role as contributors to student happiness.  It can be said that a truly happy student is likely to excel in his academic pursuit.

• Are You Telling Stories in the Classroom?

  Oct 25, 2018 6:00 pm2 views

  Are You Telling Stories in the Classroom? I’m not speaking of lying or delivering fake news; I’m talking about an actual story. I like to avoid phrases like “meaning-making,” but that’s what a story can do for students—it allows them to listen, learn, and remember. Consider this: A story communicates something, by definition, and can entertain, amuse, delight, divert, provoke, offend, disturb, disappoint, but in all, a story can instruct.There are five parts to a story: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. This is all fine and good, but a story delivered in the classroom, whether one of these single parts or the sum thereof, can be the spark to help students remember and recall information in a new way, and enable them to grasp the material.  We get to consume, hear a tale unravel. We get to learn something. 

• A Simple Invitation - Please See Me.

  Oct 11, 2016 8:00 am3 views

  A Simple Invitation - Please See Me.  It all began with a simple message that I wrote on the tests or assignments of students who were struggling: “Please see me so we can discuss your performance on the test (or assignment). Let’s see what we can do to improve your grade.” Although initially I was not collecting data on the effectiveness of my “invitation,” I soon realized that most of students—about 80 percent—responded to it. Notably, those who met with me began to do better on future tests; their assignments improved as well.
  

• Assessing Oral Presentations

  Apr 12, 2013 8:00 am2 views

  Assessing Oral Presentations. Toward the end of the semester, many courses require individual and group oral presentations to assess student learning.  Here is a helpful site with suggestions on preparing students to speak effectively and examples of rubrics to evaluate the presentations. Click here to learn more (Carleton College –SERC)

• Assigning Course Grades

  Apr 26, 2021 9:45 am10 views

  (from University of Illinois Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning). Assigning Course Grades. The end-of-course grades assigned by instructors are intended to convey the level of achievement of each student in the class. These grades are used by students, other faculty, university administrators, and prospective employers to make a multitude of different decisions. Unless instructors use generally-accepted policies and practices in assigning grades, these grades are apt to convey misinformation and lead the decision-maker astray. When grading policies are practices that are carefully formulated and reviewed periodically, they can serve well the many purposes for which they are used. What might a faculty member consider to establish sound grading policies and practices? With careful thought and periodic review, most instructors can develop satisfactory, defensible grading policies and procedures.

• Assigning Course Grades

  May 7, 2015 8:00 am2 views

  Assigning Course Grades. We come to that time of the semester when we must do the difficult task of assigning the final course grades. What do we do with “borderline” grades? Should effort be considered? What about bonus points? Here are some strategies to consider when determining the final grade.

• Assigning Course Grades

  Nov 29, 2015 8:00 am0 views

  Assigning Course Grades. Various grading practices are used by college and university faculty. Some examples are absolute standard, relative grading, percent grading, and grading on the curve. The Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning provides an examination of the more widely used methods and discussion of the advantages, disadvantages and fallacies associated with each.

• Assigning Course Grades.

  Nov 30, 2022 10:45 am11 views

  (from UIUC CITL) Assigning Course Grades. The end-of-course grades assigned by instructors are intended to convey the level of achievement of each student in the class. These grades are used by students, other faculty, university administrators, and prospective employers to make a multitude of different decisions. Unless instructors use generally-accepted policies and practices in assigning grades, these grades are apt to convey misinformation and lead the decision-maker astray. When grading policies and practices are carefully formulated and reviewed periodically, they can serve well the many purposes for which they are used.

  What might a faculty member consider to establish sound grading policies and practices? The issues which contribute to making grading a controversial topic are primarily philosophical in nature. There are no research studies that can answer questions like: What should an "A" grade mean? What percent of the students in my class should receive a "C?" Should spelling and grammar be judged in assigning a grade to a paper? What should a course grade represent? These "should" questions require value judgments rather than an interpretation of research data; the answer to each will vary from instructor to instructor. But all instructors must ask similar questions and find acceptable answers to them in establishing their own grading policies. 

• Assigning Final Course Grades

  May 2, 2022 5:30 pm4 views

  (from UIUC Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning – CITL) Assigning Final Course Grades. The end-of-course grades assigned by instructors are intended to convey the level of achievement of each student in the class. These grades are used by students, other faculty, university administrators, and prospective employers to make a multitude of different decisions. Unless instructors use generally-accepted policies and practices in assigning grades, these grades are apt to convey misinformation and lead the decision-maker astray. When grading policies are practices are carefully formulated and reviewed periodically, they can serve well the many purposes for which they are used. 

• Assigning Final Course Grades

  Dec 6, 2012 8:00 am2 views

  Assigning Final Course Grades.  Assigning final course grades is one of the most important responsibilities of an instructor. This grade should accurately represent the level of a student’s achievement.  Click here to learn CTE’s suggestions for sound policies and practices when determining course grades.

   

• A Strategy to Get Student Buy-In for Active Learning

  Aug 30, 2015 8:00 am62 views

  A Strategy to Get Student Buy-In for Active Learning. A professor had asked himself, “Do my students know why I ask them to learn this way?” He had moved away from an almost entirely lecture-and-exam format to a more active class using small groups working on authentic problems. However, he was frustrated because his students didn’t understand the value of preparing before coming to class or the benefits of his teaching this way. Here is the assignment and the first-day questions he used to get student buy-in for active learning.

• A syllabus is more than a contract...

  Aug 14, 2010 8:00 am15 views

  A syllabus is more than a contract... “Whether it is intended or not, the quality of the syllabus is a fairly reliable indicator of the quality of teaching and learning that will take place in a course.” (Woolcock, 2003).  How does your syllabus rate? Read this article to learn more about constructing your course and its syllabus. 

• Awake, Accountable, and Engaged

  Mar 23, 2011 8:00 am0 views

  Awake, Accountable, and Engaged. As the semester winds down, your students may begin to lose focus.  This posting from Tomorrow's Professor offers two easy techniques to keep them engaged in lectures. Click here to learn more.

• Back to Basics: PowerPoint Skills

  Apr 15, 2011 8:00 am1 views

  Back to Basics: PowerPoint Skills. Creating presentations with PowerPoint is easy; creating effective instruction with PowerPoint is not.  This page from the University of Vermont collects both familiar and unique advice for avoiding "death by PowerPoint."

• Back to the Basics: Revisiting the ABCs of Teaching Online Courses

  Aug 25, 2020 3:15 pm31 views

  (From Faculty Focus). Back to the Basics: Revisiting the ABCs of Teaching Online Courses. The global pandemic sent higher education institutions into a whirlwind as many faculty members scrambled to make the rapid transition from traditional to online courses. However, COVID-19 revealed the creativity and resilience of our administrators, faculty, and staff. As efforts are implemented to foster a learning environment that engages all students, the challenges of digital access have been magnified, and the steep learning curve for faculty members who are new to the digital space has revealed the need for ongoing training. To equip faculty with best practices for teaching online, understanding the pedagogy of online education is foundational. The following is a summary of the fundamental things online instructors should remember to create an engaging, inclusive, and equitable learning environment for all students.

• Basic Differences Between First-Generation and Non-First-Generation Students

  Feb 5, 2014 8:00 am3 views

  Basic Differences Between First-Generation and Non-First-Generation Students. Our student population is becoming more diverse. One of the differences that we see is a growing population of first-generation college students.  These students in their first year must grapple with a variety of tough questions about themselves, their reasons for attending college, and the challenges of their new environment. Here is an article that describes some of their experiences. 

• Before You Skip My Class

  Sep 22, 2011 8:00 am0 views

  Before You Skip My Class.  Your syllabus should already contain an attendance policy.  Even if it doesn't, you'll need to deal with students who skip your class.  J. Ben Deaton from the Georgia Institute of Technology discusses the four types of students you may encounter, and makes his own suggestions about how to approach them. Click here to read. 

• Best Grading Practices to Support Student Learning

  Nov 1, 2012 8:00 am2 views

  Best Grading Practices to Support Student Learning.  Grades provide valuable information about our students' achievement and they are also very powerful in influencing what and how our students study. In this helpful article, several types of exams are described, along with guidelines in how to select the appropriate one. To learn more about effective grading practices, register for the Nov. 8th workshop.
  

• Best Practices for Designing and Grading Exams

  Apr 12, 2013 8:00 am59 views

  Best Practices for Designing and Grading Exams. There are many forms of exams: from multiple-choice and true/false to short answers and essays. In choosing which form to use, consider the advantages and disadvantages of each and how to structure the exam.  Here is a valuable overview (U. of Michigan, CRLT) of the science of developing valid and reliable exams. 

• Best Practices for Video Creation

  Mar 15, 2021 10:30 pm3 views

  (From UIUC Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning) Best Practices for Video Creation. Without a set shop, makeup department, or (even) camera operator, many key aesthetics that viewers have grown accustomed to may get overlooked when recording on your own. Following the best practices listed below will improve your students' lecture viewing experience. These tips also double as a checklist of non-technical elements that you can control to ensure minimum distraction away from your intended message/teaching. Additional information are Media Planning Guide (PDF), Illinois Media Space, and video editing tips.