Long before the written word, humans relied on stories to entertain, instruct, and preserve cultural traditions. Storytelling is a fundamental way that humans communicate, and yet it is often left out of the college classroom. Rather than telling students stories about how something works or
Faculty tend to lament that student evaluations are just opportunities for students with bad grades to hammer their instructor. But I always believed that student surveys where actually designed to inflate approval ratings. They always start by asking simple class format questions, such as “Did
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Whether you teach online or face-to-face, video is a great way to welcome students to your course, set the tone for the week ahead, and summarize major points at the end of the week in the form of a wrap-up. While regular weekly video presence
When online instructors and instructional designers work together to develop a course, communication is often one of the biggest challenges as thoughts and intentions on both sides get lost in translation. As a faculty member who’s also spent time as an instructional designer, I’ve had
One of the goals of professional programs is to develop students’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, however it’s not always easy to create authentic exercises that enable students to practice the kinds of critical thinking skills required by their profession and then demonstrate competency. This
Students traditionally receive only the course description and textbook list prior to starting a class. Everything else about the course is learned from the syllabus they get on the first day. But some of the information contained in the syllabus might be valuable to students
It is no secret that the cost of textbooks has skyrocketed over the past years, with students spending on average around a thousand dollars a year on textbooks (Meyer, 2016). It should thus come as no surprise that the majority of students have opted out
Faculty across disciplines have been increasingly embracing online learning, with the goal of enhancing student learning. The intention is good, but it doesn’t always produce the desired outcomes. Much of the traditional online content lacks interactivity and fails to engage students.
I have taught undergraduate students for nearly 35 years. In the past decade, I have seen an increasing number of students who don’t buy the textbook or, if they do, rarely read it. Many of my non-native English students struggle to understand discipline-specific terminology and
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