Instructors in classes of all sizes can benefit from mid-semester feedback. Student feedback can help you identify what is helping or hindering your students’ learning, better understand your students’ experiences in class, understand their perspectives on your course and assignment design, and gather their suggestions for changes that will benefit their learning. You can also… Read more »
Quick Tip: Learning and Using Student Names
Are you struggling to learn student names? Here are ways that our IUB instructors learn and use student names. Use name tents. Ask students to create tents using card stock, index cards, or erasable table tents. When using erasable tents, students write their names on one side and use the other side to respond to… Read more »
How to Introduce Your Syllabus
I hope you enjoyed Dr. Sean Sidky’s previous blog post, Creating a warmer and more inclusive syllabus. Now that you have created your syllabus, how do you introduce it to students? Can you share the decisions you made in constructing the syllabus and designing the class? This transparency along with giving students input on parts… Read more »
Quick Tip: Preview your future classroom without leaving your office
If you already know the room for your next teaching assignment—or if you are searching for a room that meets your needs—you can learn more about the room without having to leave your office. Access the IU Classroom database to view photos of the classroom, find out the seating capacity, technical specs, and other useful information…. Read more »
How can I support and encourage my students to complete course readings?
When my colleague, Madeleine, and I sat down to discuss why students don’t read, we began the conversation with a recap of all the reading we were behind on. Madeleine was happy to share a resource on mind-mapping that she warned me she hadn’t yet finished, whereas I complained about the 10-book stack of dissertation… Read more »
Quick Tip: How to learn more about your students’ reading motivation, practices, and comprehension
If you are concerned about your students’ reading habits, why they complete or don’t complete readings, and whether they comprehend the readings, ask them. Here are a few survey questions you can use. In the CITL’s current Faculty Learning Community, “Designing and Building Equitable Large Classes,” participants are surveying their students about their reading practices…. Read more »