Using Breakout Rooms with Less Stress and Better Results
This article is featured in the resource guide, Effective Online Teaching Strategies. “What are we supposed to be doing?” said every student at least once in a breakout room. Small…
One List to Rule Us All: The Benefits of Unified Writing Guidelines
Many years after graduating with our undergraduate degrees, we can still remember the stress of being a student. One lesson that stands out from those years: if a student had…
Seven Things That Worked in My Online Class
Last spring, my college, like so many other schools, made a dramatic mid-semester pivot from face-to-face instruction to online classes. It was trial by fire for instructors and students alike.…
Three Ways to Use Student Feedback to Improve Your Course
You just submitted grades and you’re getting ready to teach again. You remember how your classes went, but each time you start planning, you wonder what your students thought about…
Non-Traditional Readings: A Piece of Pandemic Pedagogy
On Friday, March 13th, I received the email. In response to the rising coronavirus pandemic, we were moving to one week of online instruction. Five days later, one week became…
The Emergency Campaign: Discord, D&D, and Distance Learning
This article is featured in the resource guide, Effective Online Teaching Strategies. Dr_Tom 🎲 Dungeon Master (DM): Not every DM plays the villain. That's not my style. I prefer to…
Helping Students Develop Digital Content Curation Skills
In our 24/7, always-connected world where we are inundated with information from all sides, the ability to identify quality resources to inform our research and actions has become a major…
Using Social Media to Retain and Connect with Students in the Shift to Online Education
COVID-19 has upended normal social connections that develop between students and professors. We are missing the connections that develop through casual interactions in office hours, pre-class discussions, post-class questions, and…
Best Practices for Leading Positive Change in Higher Education
It is becoming increasingly important for universities to meet the needs of today's global learners. As a result, online academic institutions are raising the bar on instructional practices and faculty…
Fair and Equal
“There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.” This quote, attributed to Thomas Jefferson, is often used in gifted education to justify the attention, resources, and…