Jaclyn Beck, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior Wait a minute. You want to test how much your students learned! Why would you want to give them a group exam? Perhaps a shift in perspective can answer that: Aside from scoring a student’s performance, exams...
Course design
Promoting Equity and Humanizing Online Courses
Maricela Bañuelos, School of Education Historically, online learning was intended to increase underserved students’ access to educational opportunities. These students include students who are financially disadvantaged, English language learners, or disabled, or who...
Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) 2020 Conference
Matthew Mahavongtrakul, PhD, Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation I attended the AAC&U 2020 conference this January in Washington, DC, which focused on three topics: Inclusive education using equitable, innovative, and cost-effective models. Public trust...
Improving Student Engagement
Jonathan Ware, Department of Sociology In my Social Psychology class, we had just finished an in-class activity where my students were applying theories of power and how group structures play a role in interpersonal power relations. My students were segmented into...
Three Tips for Promoting Student Motivation
Yangyang Liu, School of Education Students play an active role in their own learning. However, as an instructor, you may have noticed that some students are more motivated than others in your classroom. According to educational research, optimal learning happens when...
Learning through Writing Assignments
Jinna Kim, Department of Sociology Instructors often use writing assignments to assess students’ learning. There are many ways that writing assignments can be a form of active learning, especially when considering it as a writing process. Below are suggestions for...
Using Science to Inform Evidence-Based Practices – The Role of Flipped Classrooms
Emily Kan, Department of Psychological Science At universities across the world, student researchers work for hours to uncover new scientific discoveries. After months and years of hard work, they finally see the fruits of their labor – successfully publishing an...
Overcoming Anxieties of Learning Quantitative Methodology and Gaining the Confidence to Teach it
Martín Jacinto, Department of Sociology In a farewell piece as editor of Teaching Sociology, Stephen Sweet writes that teaching sociologically, “requires understanding teaching as a social act that is conducive to study, vigilante empathy to understand the lifeworlds...
The Benefits of Multirole In-Class Critiques for Students
Ivy Guild, MFA, Department of Art Typically used in design or art-oriented courses, a critique is a collaborative feedback technique for providing students with oral formative and summative assessments from their instructor and peers. In most educational settings,...
High Impact Teaching Strategies for Large Undergraduate Classes in Public Health
Sara Goodman, Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention What are high impact course activities? Having ten-week quarters challenges faculty members and teaching assistants to get the most out of their students in a short amount of time. High impact...