Faculty often use discussion strategies to engage their students and push them into higher levels of learning. But many instructors we have talked to have noticed that discussions can often feel like busywork or small talk. Providing structure is one way to elevate discussions
Online courses are normally designed from an institutional template of common elements without reference to any particular subject matter. But this lack of context can get repetitive and boring. Faculty can instead design their courses with a theme that unifies the elements and pulls
ChatGPT set the education world ablaze with discussion of its implications. The initial worry about students using it to write their assignments was alleviated with detection software such as GPT-2 Output Detector, and the discussion quickly turned to how instructors
Two of the most important developments in education over the past 10 years are (1) the emergence of digital tools that allow faculty to assign students new and interesting learning activities and (2) the proliferation of open educational resources (OER) to broaden access to
There are three types of assessments. A diagnostic assessment comes before learning, is ungraded, and measures prior knowledge of the upcoming learning material. It can be used to determine what needs to be taught. A summative assessment comes at the end of learning, is
Discussion forums have brought both promise and disappointment to online educators. They promise to allow all students to lend their voice to a discussion without worry of being interrupted or slowing down the class. But they often degenerate into places where students repeat one
Those in higher education have long used assessments to measure learning, whether for a grade, to determine prior knowledge, or to see how well students are following a current lesson. But assessments can also serve as learning devices. One way to put assessment in
The learning management system (LMS) discussion forum comes off as archaic and overly controlling to today’s students, who are used to working in a much richer social media environment. Whereas the LMS forum is designed for lengthy text comments, young people are used to
The learning management system (LMS) transformed class discussion by introducing an asynchronous forum that allows each student to participate without the time limit of a live class. But it has become a bit long in the tooth as apps have made video many students’
As educators, we’ve often found that one of the greatest impediments to creativity in the classroom is, quite literally, the classroom. At a large public university, where class sizes of 80 students are on the smaller side, it can be hard to come to
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