What’s a syllabus’ favorite game? Hide and seek—it hides all the answers, and students never seek. If you chuckled at this joke, you may find the comedy skills of MS Copilot an unexplored new hobby; if you groaned, blame AI. Jokes aside, I often hear from instructors that students do not pay enough attention to the course syllabus. Angela Andrews (Accounting) noticed this disappointing fact when she realized how much time she spent answering basic questions over email:… Read more »
Last semester, when Introduction to Sociology enrolled 143 students, Dr. Kody Steffy ran an experiment. He used an alternative grading system, ungrading, and replaced exams with writing assignments that built toward essays for an e-book. You can see the e-book that resulted from students’ reading, discussions, journal entries, drafting, and revising, on Kody’s website. I… Read more »
Dr. Cydney McGuire teaches health policy for the O’Neill School of Environmental and Public Affairs. I’ve learned a lot from her approach to using writing to advance her students’ learning in an undergraduate course with 60 students; I asked her to share her insights. Why do you assign your students to write and speak, rather… Read more »
One of the things that binds most college instructors together is our love of learning. We love the opportunity to learn new things, to stretch our brains, and look for interesting new connections. If this sounds like you, we have a great opportunity for learning about a new subject while exploring teaching from new perspectives…. Read more »
Week 6 is a good time to gather student feedback and reflect on how your classes are going. Midterm feedback helps you decide what changes to make to enhance student learning. If you are trying new strategies, ask students how those are going. Focus your questions on their learning, including barriers to their learning, and… Read more »
This post contributed by IUB instructors Kirsten Prange and Tehanee Ratwatte, Lecturers in Kelley School of Business What is the attention economy? In a world of constant notifications, multitasking, and digital distractions, attention has become one of the most precious—and elusive—resources in our classrooms. As educators, we often ask students to “pay attention,” while we… Read more »