Weekly Teaching Tips

What Did I Miss? + Upcoming Events

Recovering After Absences At this point in the semester, you may be noticing an increase in absences or missing assignments. There are plenty of reasons: Students may be feeling overextended, and they often have trouble managing competing priorities. They may stop showing up because they’re stressed. Viruses are still making the rounds as well. After […]

Formative Feedback + Summer Course Design Institute

Gathering Midsemester Feedback When teaching, it’s natural to wonder how the course is going for students. We might wonder what’s working for them and what’s not or whether they are really learning what we hope they will. Sometimes a few vocal students can make it seem like everyone’s “getting it” (or not getting it), so […]

Black History Month: Featuring Claude Steele

Learning from Claude Steele To celebrate Black History Month this year, we’re featuring renowned scholar and educator Claude Steele, whose social psychology research and higher education leadership has inspired generations of university faculty. Steele holds a B.A. in Psychology from Hiram College, an M.A. in Social Psychology from The Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. […]

Making Class Time Count

Planning Active Class Sessions One of the most common inquiries we get from colleagues is how to spend class time effectively. There are many ways to get students engaged in learning during class, and deciding how to make the most of their time and attention involves reflecting on your priorities for their learning as the […]

Metacognitive Wrappers + Upcoming Teaching Showcase

Exam & Assignment Wrappers By this point in the semester, your students have probably completed graded work and gotten some feedback, so they have a sense of their progress toward the learning goals of the course. After students take an exam or turn in a project, they usually focus on the score they got and […]

Alignment for Learning + Upcoming Teaching Showcase

What Makes a Course Design Effective? Much of the work of teaching happens before we enter the classroom. Course design is the process through which we plan what students should learn, what they should do in order to learn it, and what methods we’ll use to collect evidence of their progress. Whether a whole course […]

Addressing Anxieties + CAT Reading Groups

The first week of the spring term didn’t launch in quite the smooth fashion we were expecting. We hope that despite the disruptions you enjoyed meeting your students, and that they’re excited about the learning they’ll do in your courses. Although many students begin the semester experiencing positive emotions about their classes, some may feel […]

Creating Classroom Norms + Faculty Reading Groups

Students Can Help Set the Norms Welcome back! We hope you had a restful break. No matter how long you’ve been teaching, each semester brings new energy and opportunities, and we all look forward to meeting our new students on the first day of class. The first day is also our best opportunity to establish […]

Thank You For All You Do

Reflecting on the Fall Semester Congratulations! Fall 2023 is a wrap. We can all be proud of what we helped our students accomplish during our time together this semester. Now that we’re done (or almost done, if you’re still grading) we get the pleasure of reflecting on what we’ve learned, too. Because the term ends […]

Getting Ready for Grading

Grade What You Mean to be Grading On the last day of classes, with only finals remaining, you may be bracing yourself to work through stacks of papers, projects, or exams that need to be graded. Although the workload is certainly a factor, it’s often the human dimension of grading that can be the hardest […]