I came home from my second day of teaching my “HyFlex” class (some students in the classroom and others on Zoom) utterly discouraged. Despite my efforts at planning activities…
In Effective Teaching Strategies
Part Two of Practical Mid-Career Teaching Reflections: Classroom Activities Throughout the Semester
November 23, 2020 Justin Robertson, PhD
One-minute papers have deservedly become one of the more common classroom activities deployed by teachers. This is consistent with Lang’s (2016a) perspective that “frequent low-stakes writing assignments constitute one…
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In Effective Classroom Management
An Anti-Racist Form of Assessment: The C.A.P Model: Creative. Academic. Practical.
November 20, 2020 Kerry-Ann Escayg, PhD
Some profess that teaching is both an art and a science (Berliner, 1986, as cited in Marzano, 2007; Weisman, 2012). Well-honed pedagogies developed through deliberate practice, as well as…
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As an online instructor with many students, it is challenging to remember details about every learner who has passed through my virtual classroom. But there are some whom I…
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In Effective Teaching Strategies
Part One of Practical Mid-Career Teaching Reflections: Early Week Classroom Activities
November 16, 2020 Justin Robertson, PhD
With PhD in hand, I joined the academy without any real teaching training. As I sought to establish my teaching routine and define my teaching philosophy, I found an…
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Now More Than Ever: Why Collaborative Grading Works, Even Online
November 13, 2020 Christian Aguiar, Andrew M. Howard, and Ahmad Wright
Over the previous decade, researchers have made the case that engaging students in metacognition improves learning outcomes for students across fields (Zhao et al, 2014; Yeager & Dweck, 2012;…
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Embracing Change Without Breaking Stride: Seven Strategies to be an Adaptive Instructor
November 11, 2020 Jessica Evans
The pandemic took us all by surprise, and it completely turned our education world upside down. Without many options, instructors had to make extreme adaptations to their instruction to…
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Keeping Students Engaged: How to Rethink Your Assessments Amidst the Shift to Online Learning
November 9, 2020 Amanda E Major, EdD, CPLP, PMP, and Roslyn Miller, PhD
Keeping students engaged in course content is a challenge for all faculty, whether a legacy online teaching pro or a newbie to this space. Perhaps you’re a faculty member…
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Put Yourself in Their Shoes: How to Check in with Students in an Online Learning Environment
November 6, 2020 Randa G. Keeley, PhD, and Maria B. Peterson-Ahmad, PhD
Exhaustion, fear, panic, the unknown…these are common words that educators have repeatedly expressed since COVID-19 appeared in early spring. Many K-12 and university courses have had to move completely…
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In Effective Teaching Strategies
Encouraging Student Engagement During Synchronous Meetings: Preventing Midterm Drop-Off
November 4, 2020 Samantha Clifford, EdD
Some students become busy, overwhelmed, or unmotivated by the middle of the semester. This phenomenon has become even more apparent with COVID-19 protocols. Which is why building a community…
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George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s 1980 book Metaphors We Live By famously catalogued the way metaphors influence the way we think, speak, and act. Some metaphors are so pervasive…
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In Effective Classroom Management
Preventing Students from Ghosting Your Class
October 30, 2020 Alicia Pennington
The first few weeks of class are over, the newness has worn off and now the reality of a new semester, or the first semester, is setting in for…
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Creating Magic in Your (Online) Classroom
October 28, 2020 Kenya Jenkins Fletcher
We all know that the best teachers are most often those who ignite passion and curiosity within their students. What we may not all know (yet) is that we…
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In Blended and Flipped Learning
Eleven Alternative Assessments for a Blended Synchronous Learning Environment
October 26, 2020 Samantha Clifford, EdD
Our mid-sized state university decided to institute a blended synchronous delivery model this year. A facilitated online workshop was offered over the summer to assist faculty in designing classes…
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Unlike faculty who for the most part work with students and scholars within their subject matter area, chairs are responsible for representing the department in an environment chock-full of…
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From Helpless to Satisfied: Rise Up in Your Teaching with Lessons from Hamilton
October 21, 2020 Donald A. Saucier, PhD, and Tucker L. Jones, MS
As we begin teaching this fall semester, we continue to face unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Many of us have been forced to prepare to teach…
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In Effective Teaching Strategies
Raising Student Motivation During the Pandemic
October 19, 2020 Shruti Nagpal, PhD
In spring 2020, faculty across the country stood up to the challenging task of not only transitioning and adapting to online modes of instruction but also multi-tasking through learning…
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There is no shortage of professorial eye rolling when it comes to the subject of students and syllabi. Students might read the syllabus, but they typically don’t absorb the information…
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“Keep teaching and learning.” This was and is still the motto of the pandemic. Unlike spring 2020 when we shifted to remote teaching after students and faculty had the…
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In Effective Classroom Management
Synergizing America’s Intergenerational Moment
October 12, 2020 David Healey
As a teacher of adult learners in online classes, I see a lot of interaction between generations. Mostly, the students are in their 30s and 40s, but it’s not…
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Learning about the True Power of Leadership by Comparing Servant Leadership to Toxic Leadership
October 9, 2020 Stephanie Hinshaw, EdD, MBA
Are you like many leaders, or aspiring leaders, and ask yourself, What kind of leader am I? Or do you wonder about the type of leader you want to…
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Managing the Chat in Online Teaching: What We Can Learn From Live Streamers
October 7, 2020 Eric B. Gonzales, PhD and Amber J. Heck, PhD
Due to the pandemic, educators have had to make adjustments to their classroom delivery, including utilizing online venues such as Zoom, Google Talk, or CANVAS. While the use of…
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Faculty Learning Communities: Five Skills Every Facilitator Should Capture
October 5, 2020 Mounia Mnouer, PhD
Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) are spaces that allow for improving one’s pedagogy, seeking intellectual stimulation, meeting other colleagues who are interested in similar topics, or simply fulfilling service duties…
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How to Make Your Virtual Discussions Engaging, Effective, and Equitable in Eight Steps
October 2, 2020 Jill Abney and Trey Conatser
The perfect class discussion can feel like something of an alchemy. From the instructor’s preparation to the students’ personalities, many ingredients can enable or challenge the social construction of…
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Grading Exams: How Gradescope Revealed Deeper Insights into Our Teaching
September 30, 2020 Katy Dumelle
Having clear insight into students’ thinking and where there might be gaps in their understanding of a topic is incredibly valuable. It allows a skilled instructor to adjust their…
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Cinderella Deadlines: Reconsidering Timelines for Student Work
September 28, 2020 Susan Spangler PhD
In preparation for the coming semester, a faculty member recently asked me how to change deadlines on the LMS to midnight on a given day. After helping the professor,…
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Syncing with Students: Valuable Qualities of Synchronous Online Teaching
September 25, 2020 Margot M. Craven, MFA, EdM
“One good conversation can shift the direction of change forever” – Linda Lambert Despite alterations to our teaching during spring of 2020, the one aspect that remained intact was…
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Encountering Nature: Outdoor Walks to Reduce Stress and Increase Focus in Students
September 23, 2020 Mike Massey
It’s what is considered dead week—the week before final exams. Most of my students are exhibiting familiar signs of stress, looking tired and overwhelmed, and retreating to their phones…
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Don’t Turn into a Bot Online: Three Easy Strategies to Let Your Personality Shine in Your Online Course
September 21, 2020 Jessica Evans
One of the perks of teaching online is that there are so many great tools that make facilitating an online course easier. For example, not having to manually grade…
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Emotions in Online Teaching: A Powerful Tool for Helping Online Students Engage, Persist, and Succeed
September 18, 2020 Flower Darby
Online classes, by their very nature as distance learning experiences, present barriers to student engagement and learning. These barriers are a primary reason that we see low student engagement…
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In Effective Teaching Strategies, Online Education
Implementing Instructional Design Approaches to Inform Your Online Teaching Strategies
September 16, 2020 Darina M. Slattery, PhD
The primary focus of any instruction should be to focus on the learning outcomes or capabilities you are trying to achieve. Bloom (1956, 1964) identified three types of learning…
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In Effective Classroom Management
Initiating Classroom Dialogue about Race: A Narrative Framework
September 14, 2020 T. Scott Bledsoe, PsyD, and Kimberly A. Setterlund, MSW, LCSW
When I think about diversity here in college, I can hear myself saying “What if? What if I could go back and talk to my undergrad professors and my…
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In Effective Classroom Management
From Inclusion to Equity: Pedagogies that Close Achievement Gaps
September 11, 2020 Amy B. Mulnix, PhD
You’re committed to equity and inclusion. You’ve been educating yourself about how higher ed systemically and systematically privileges some and disadvantages others, while working to create a just and…
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Instructors often experience problems between the directions given for an assignment and the work submitted by a student. Students miss important parts of questions; they may fail to understand…
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In Effective Classroom Management
The Research Paper that Thwarts Plagiarism
September 7, 2020 Carmen Noel Eichman-Dorr
I teach research-based Composition II courses every semester. My students learn information literacy, look up academic, peer-reviewed journals, create and correctly structure works cited pages, annotate bibliographies, learn rhetorical…
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Engagement: The Secret to Teaching Online This Fall
September 4, 2020 Neria Sebastien, EdD
When hundreds of spring and summer undergraduate courses were abruptly moved from onsite to online delivery in the wake of COVID-19, several faculty and students nationwide reacted with panic…
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Tips for Fostering Students’ Self-Regulated Learning in Asynchronous Online Learning Environments
September 2, 2020 Rachel J. Ebner, PhD
Due to the pandemic, both instructors and students have had to adapt quickly to different forms of online learning models. Asynchronous learning has emerged as a predominant model because…
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In Effective Classroom Management
Five Essential Strategies to Embrace Culturally Responsive Teaching
August 31, 2020 Meena Singhal and Sudeepa Gulati
Being culturally responsive is a critical and necessary feature of our interactions with one another. It is also vitally important in the context of education. Culturally responsive teaching is…
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Overcoming the Perfect Storm in Higher Education: Curriculum Design and Multiple Mode Deliveries for Today’s Learners
August 28, 2020 Irina Chernikova
Declining numbers of traditional-age high school graduates, changing student demographics, pandemic unpredictability, and struggles with student retention are creating what can be termed a “perfect storm” in higher education.…
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In Effective Teaching Strategies
Stop Giving Them Answers: Make Them Think!
August 26, 2020 David Adams, PhD, and Enoch Hale, PhD
Higher education has recently changed in faster and more dynamic ways than anticipated. COVID-19 is an immediate factor, but the access to information is more prevalent now than 15…