"Inclusion" has become a post-pandemic buzzword in many universities, highlighting historical inequities within a broader crisis in higher education. As universities face record levels of student despair and disconnection, campuses across the country report...
The story we've been told about higher education is changing dramatically. What was once seen as the clearest path to a successful career, the college degree now is being closely examined for its role in deepening inequalities and being out of reach for many...
Educators everywhere remember the pandemic as a period of cataclysmic upheaval, the effects of which are still being felt today. For many longtime educators like me, the events of 2020 meant not just a sudden switch to new modalities but also a reexamination of...
In 2024, as debates intensify over the legitimacy, fairness, and value of higher education, a new academic movement is bringing analysis and balance to a discourse increasingly vulnerable to partisan posturing. “Critical University Studies” (CUS) looks at the...
Following the graduate student worker strike of 2023, many faculty members like me were caught off guard by the sudden need for alternative instructional support. The term "learning assistant" initially brought to mind images of undergraduates serving merely as...
This message is designed for instructors of undergraduate writing at UC Irvine (UCI), not primarily for students, staff, or field experts. It is distilled from conversations and projects happening on campus and beyond. If you...
I still remember one of the first moments of my college orientation at UCLA in the summer before my freshman year. As a first-generation student, this was one of my few times on a college campus—it all seemed so intimidating. I felt nervous as my fellow students...
Steve Mang Associate Professor of Teaching Department of ChemistryIn this faculty spotlight blog, I had an opportunity to interview Steve Mang, an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Chemistry department, who teaches upper-division physical and analytical...
Do you love using Google Docs for creating collaborative worksheets and active learning activities for your students? Great news! Google Docs has recently released a powerful new feature that allows you to create drop-down menus (or what they call drop-down chips)...
Why we should embrace active learning Three good and three bad reasons to embrace active learning, with reflections on a changing world. Many of us have either heard or experienced how active learning is a more effective way to learn compared to passive learning....
Spring Quarter 2022 was the first “return to normal” in-person classroom teaching for many of our faculty. However, between the COVID swings and uncertainty in what a “new normal” entails, we continue to face the challenge of student disengagement, feelings of...
Many faculty ask when they should begin implementing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusivity) in our course development? My answer is "NOW," and I always advise that they consider one more element—Accessibility. In other words, let's use IDEA—Inclusivity,...
Prof. Joel Veenstra is this month's faculty spotlight. He is an Associate Professor of Teaching from the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts’ Department of Drama, where he also serves as the Associate Chair of Production and Co-Head of the Stage Management...
It’s my honor to spotlight Professor Brandon Golob, an assistant professor of teaching of Criminology, Law and Society in the School of Social Ecology. I would like to highlight his relentless work to cultivate his course to be an inclusive learning environment...
“Reflective Practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning.” - Donald Schön In research, it is proven that developing reflective-writing exercises/activities will foster deeper learning and reflective...
This month I would like to spotlight Patrick Hong, Lecturer in the Department of Engineering at UCI’s Samueli School of Engineering. He is passionate about education and teaching and has attended and acted as guest speaker in numerous events and workshops held by...
Going through this unprecedented time for almost two years, academia is still undergoing adapting and facing new challenges to best serve the community and create effective teaching and learning environments. Before the Fall quarter started, I encountered an...
I want to write a post to spotlight Professor Victorya Nam, an instructor for lower division writing courses (20A, 20B, 20C, and 22A) at the School of Humanities. As a lecturer in the Global Languages and Communication department, her work supports a diverse...
As more and more of our learning content is moved into the digital realm, it is increasingly important for us to make sure that all the content that we put online is accessible or usable for all of our learners. According to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the...
For this month's spotlight, I'd like to feature Dr. Susan King from the UCI Department of Chemistry, a teaching professor for organic chemistry (51ABC) and majors in organic chemistry lab M52LABC. Dr. King is a former UCI transfer student with over 25 years of...
I first started teaching online in 2016. I was referred to the job by a colleague from my on-campus teaching position. It seemed like a great side-hustle – I could make a similar rate by teaching from the comfort of my own home! Little did I know this choice would...
Transforming a course to be delivered online is not a simple feat. While the pandemic gave many instructors a jumping board to think about how a course can be delivered remotely, some faculty are taking it a step further and are now thinking about how to redesign...
For over ten years, I've been a teaching consultant and helped faculty, both undergrad and graduate professors, restructure their course content with technology tools. My experience offers me a clear view of how some students focus on grades rather than the purpose...
Cecilia Lynch, a Professor in Political Science at UC Irvine (UCI), is an expert in international relations, religion and ethics, and humanitarianism. She is the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Post-Doctoral Fellowship for her current research on...
The pandemic profoundly impacted the field of education and our teaching environment. Instructors need to think about how to balance the need for student interactions with supporting students’ mental health and anxiety towards returning to in-person instruction....
I would like to spotlight Dr. Charles (Ted) Wright is a Professor of Teaching in the Cognitive Science School of Social Sciences and Associate Dean of campuswide honors. Dr. Wright and I met in the summer of 2020 through the Digital Learning Institute (DLI)....
Recently I read an article about “The Value of Worksheets for Asynchronous Online Course” by Meriah L. Crawford, Faculty Focus, Faculty Focus, Higher Ed Teaching Strategies from Magna Publications. When the pandemic first started, most of us were struggling to set...
While the concept of “grades” was introduced during the Industrial Revolution, the way we think about grades and grading has changed very little since then. Most notably, grades continue to have the unfortunate effect of training student attention to the grades...
When UCI shut down a few days before the finals in Winter 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19, faculty had only days to transition final exams to an online format and a week during spring break to prepare for remote teaching. Many of them, like History professor...
“With each new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” Letting these thoughts develop into big ideas, and putting those big ideas into action is what UCI is known for. That’s why UCI is pleased to launch the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI)....