As we’re entering the flow of the fall semester, you might find yourself wondering how to keep your students awake, engaged, and – oh yeah – actually learning! Lectures can be helpful for us to convey information, but if you really want to see students reach those learning goals, it’s time to try something besides… Read more »
One of the questions I receive most often as an Instructional Consultant is about office hours. Students are struggling with coursework, but they are not coming to office hours. Instructors are teaching large classes and would love to get to know their students more, but students are not coming to office hours. Students are missing… Read more »
We recently hosted our AI Orientation on August 21st, where an amazing group of graduate student instructors generously shared their insights. To keep the conversation going beyond that day, I wanted to highlight a particularly valuable takeaway (or “quick tip”) from our colleagues, Alex Tran and Samantha Heiman, who led the workshop, “Engaging and Equitable… Read more »
As we get started with the semester, I wanted to encourage us all to begin thinking of ways to engage our students from the get-go with some fun activities! Group Scavenger Hunt If you put your students in groups at the beginning of the semester, have them get to know each other with a group… Read more »
When I was teaching introductory composition, my students often warned me early in the term that they were “bad at writing,” or “just not that good at English.” These statements were frustrating—who wants to begin a semester with unenthusiastic students? However, they also demonstrated a prevalence of what psychologist Carol Dweck dubs as the “fixed… Read more »
The newly-published 3rd edition of Classroom Assessment Techniques: Formative Feedback Tools for College and University Teachers includes over 50 Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) you can use to quickly gauge your students’ learning, help them organize course material, and obtain feedback about their learning. One of the simplest and most useful CATs is the Muddiest Point…. Read more »