Weekly Teaching Tips

As the last week of classes approaches, we would ordinarily suggest wrap-up activities to help consolidate your students’ memories of the most important learning they did in your courses. But in future years, when students look back at this semester, it seems likely that they will remember the disruptions and the emotions most of all. We […]

Since this semester already seems to have lasted several years, it may be difficult to remember what we originally expected our students would learn by the end of the term. Before we were derailed by a pandemic, we had high aspirations for how our courses would help our students to develop intellectually, professionally, and personally. […]

Although we’re physically separated during this global pandemic, we and our students share a common experience: trying to cope with the new reality and somehow get our work done, too. Checking in on how our students are doing helps to re-establish connections that support their learning, and it demonstrates our care for their well-being. David Kirby, poet […]

If you’re having trouble focusing, you’re not alone. Most of us have been thrown for a loop by the changes unfolding in our lives. We’ve lost familiar routines, we’re isolated; many of us are frightened, and perhaps grieving; colleagues and students are worried about their careers, as well as their health and their families. Even […]

Governor DeSantis recommended on Tuesday that all Florida colleges and universities complete the spring 2020 semester remotely. We may have been expecting this, but most of us are experiencing confusion and even grief as we try to sort out the rest of the term.  Our students will also feel a sense of loss, and the […]

As most of you are aware, all schools in Florida are currently closed, so faculty and students who are parents have lost the structure that supported their academic lives. Teaching and learning with restless children at home will be exceptionally challenging. For many of us, continuing to teach synchronously at a distance may be impossible. […]

Moving Our Teaching to a New Modality On Wednesday, President Thrasher announced that we will shift from in-person to remote classes for at least the two-week period of March 23rd – April 6th. For those of us with limited or no experience teaching online, this may sound daunting. It’s also likely to be unnerving for […]

Just In Case: Adjusting Courses and Communicating with Students Living and working in a hurricane-prone state like Florida, we’re no strangers to campus closures. Over the last three years, we‘ve learned the value of developing contingency plans for our courses, just in case. Right now, COVID-19 is all over the news. Governor DeSantis has said […]

Recovering After Absences You may have noticed sparse attendance in the past couple of weeks. There are plenty of reasons: Students are already feeling overextended, and they often have trouble managing competing priorities. They may stop showing up because they’re stressed. Plus the flu hit hard and early, and other viruses are making the rounds […]

Getting Feedback in Time to Use It Getting useful feedback on teaching can be difficult. In “Everyone Hates Course Evaluations,” Supiano and Berrett summarize three important objections to the system most universities currently use: Research suggests that student evaluations of teaching are prone to bias, especially against faculty of color; students are unlikely to have the […]

Do Our Students See Themselves in Our Courses? Black History Month is a great opportunity to showcase the work of Black scholars and luminaries in each of our disciplines, from entrepreneurship to engineering, from literature to law. Some colleagues choose Black chemists, poets, doctors, sociologists, etc. whose scholarship they admire and highlight their work, names, […]

Formative Feedback In a recent tip, we talked about the importance of practice, but practice alone won’t move students toward mastery; they also need feedback. Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect—practice makes permanent. Without feedback, students risk inscribing inefficient habits and ineffective approaches. (For example, many of them have practiced mistaken study habits for so long […]