What scares you? Really terrifies you? For me, it’s criticism. Recently I shared an online course with someone whose work I greatly respect and admire. I moused over the ‘send’ button on the email, and literally paused. More terrifying than any B-Rated slasher flick, were the ‘What if’s’ that flooded my conscious: What if it’s […]
Reflection exercises are classroom activities that I did not really get to experience until I was a college student. They were a much enjoyable part of my education and helped me integrate the practice in my personal and professional life. However, as an instructor, they have been an avenue of exploration most recently; and FlipGrid […]
While robotic technology is astounding these days, most robots are still programmed and continue to lack their own emotions and spontaneity. I entered into teaching as a robot. I lacked emotions. One of the first courses I ever taught was an online, undergraduate statistics course with over 200 students at the R1 (research intensive) university where I received my PhD. It was […]
My grandpa always used to say: “Education is free for anyone who remains curious enough in life.” That might be true. Yet with today’s soaring textbook costs, higher education is anything but free for the average college student. There are hundreds of articles that detail how textbook prices have risen 3x and 4x the rate […]
It’s that time again—the papers are queuing up. Also, not coincidentally, the time when your closets are miraculously organized, lasagnas appear in the fridge, the barbecue grill is scrubbed—whatever form our grading procrastination takes, it manifests—all to avoid the stacks of paper hovering in cyberspace or piled on desk corners. How can we make grading […]
Welcome to my first installment of a monthly series, Wired for Presence. High-touch humanized and connected course facilitation is essential in supporting positive student outcomes (course completion, grades, and student satisfaction) for historically underserved and socioeconomically disadvantaged students (Kaup, 2012; Jaggars & Xu, 2016). However, balancing strong presence with a manageable instructor workload is of […]
When I first began teaching fully online courses about five years ago, I was lucky that I had some incredible colleagues that let me “borrow” activities, course organization, and other lived-and-learned lessons from their experiences teaching online. I also used our Teaching & Learning Innovations resources — I was part of the Summer 2014 Blended […]
“To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.” – African Proverb quoted in Together is Better by Simon Sinek The Group Work Challenge I have been fortunate in my teaching career to work on classes that have creative, meaningful and interesting group projects. The projects my students work on require most of the […]
CI Learn (Canvas) has a ton of functionality, as we all know, but there are some hidden gems in there that make it even more useful. Below are some of our favorite tips and tricks to help you get the most out of CI Learn during your semester. Hiding and Unhiding Courses from the Dashboard […]
First of all, I just wanted to take a moment to welcome you all to the Fall 2018 semester. It’s great to see the campus abuzz with students, faculty, staff, and guests again as we get this semester underway. I also wanted to remind you that Teaching & Learning Innovations (T&LI) is here to support […]
