In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, James Lane (author of Small Teaching) explains: “The opening five minutes offer us a rich opportunity to capture the attention of students and prepare them for learning. They walk into our classes trailing all of the distractions of their complex lives — the many wonders of their smartphones, the… Read more »
Student Engagement
Strategies for Course Communications with Teaching Tools
Creating dialogue between your students can be a challenging yet fundamental part of teaching. Effective communication can help to build and foster a safe learning environment where students can thrive, prosper and learn. In addition to the rhetorical moves you may use to structure your speaking style and structure your communication, you can also develop… Read more »
Ideas for the first day of class
The following are a few ideas collected from a variety of sources on activities first the first day of class. From (Weimer, 2017) If it’s a course where students don’t think they know anything about the content, start by dissecting the course title. For each keyword, ask students to submit the first word or phrase that… Read more »
Top Hat / Student response systems (SRS) and Upcoming Workshops and Conferences
Top Hat is an online student response system with many features that can boost both face-to-face and virtual interactions between students and the instructor. Student response systems (SRS) can promote active learning, allowing the physical classroom to become a collaborative space. Instructors ask questions via the Top Hat software platform and students respond using their personal… Read more »
Engaging Syllabus and Upcoming Teaching Conferences CFPs
You may have heard of creative techniques that faculty have used to get students to read the syllabus. Some professors bury an Easter egg in their syllabi —examples include asking students to email the professor a photo of Alf (an alien from a 1980s sitcom), a cartoon of a dinosaur, or a unique keyword such as … Read more »
In Class Small Group Activities
The following resources were compiled by Maryellen Weimer to address questions related to the essential components of effective small-group activities and experiences. A list of common group activities can be found in this conversation around active learning: https://blogs.iu.edu/luddyteach/2022/02/22/helping-students-engage-in-active-learning-during-class/ Group formation Should teachers form the groups or let students form their own? If teachers form the… Read more »
Helping students engage in better discussions
Preparing students to engage in meaningful small groups discussions can be challenging regardless the modality (face-to-face or online). For example, some students might comment when they are unprepared, and mostly agreeing with what everyone else says, to earn participation points. While others may make claims without evidence supported by the readings and examples provided by the instructor…. Read more »
Communicating with your Students
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… Read more »
Strategies for Preventing Student Resistance
The following tip comes from Faculty Focus and the Cell Biology Education—Life Sciences Education website). Strategies for Preventing Student Resistance. When teachers try something different in the classroom and students resist, the teacher may back down. Often, this is due to fear of what will happen to their student evaluations and contract renewals. There is little… Read more »
Using the Student Engagement Rosters (SER) to its fullest
As you may already know, the Student Engagement Roster (SER) is an early feedback tool that allows faculty members to communicate with students about how they are doing in a class and make recommendations to improve or deepen their learning. While the SER is often associated with grades (i.e is the student passing or failing… Read more »