Last month, I talked about the benefits of providing voice feedback to students. Screencasting takes these benefits one step further by adding a visual element to the instructor’s voice (Orlando, 2016)
My students participate in an activity called “Building a Learning Community” during the first week of classes. In this activity, completed via a discussion board, I ask them to share about three topics: what their best and “not best” teachers did that helped or hindered
The idea of “flipping” what happens inside and outside of the classroom has gained popularity quickly and is already an approach known to most faculty and used by many. Claims for its effectiveness were touted initially without much research, but studies on the approach are
The imperative “Help Students Get the Dictionary Habit” is one of the headings in the 2001 edition of John C. Bean’s book Engaging Ideas, specifically in a chapter called “Helping Students Read Difficult Texts.” Bean goes on to describe the importance of annotating unfamiliar words.
Does active learning work to promote learning? That’s the question we’ve been asking, and it’s one we can stop asking. It’s been answered—at least that’s the consensus within the research community. The results are consistent and, according to Streveler and Menekse (2017), “allow us to
It’s the beginning of another academic year, and that means lots and lots of last-minute course preparation. Perhaps it’s not the best time to propose course redesign projects, but how many course assignments, problem sets, exam formats, or paper topics haven’t been changed for some
Interest in those teacher characteristics that make instruction effective is long-standing. Since the 1930s, we’ve been asking students, faculty, alums, and administrators to identify the ingredients or components of effective instruction, and the same or similar characteristics are named with some regularity. The assumption has
If it’s a teacher’s advice on how to succeed, consider not giving it. Instead, challenge students to discover what it will take for them to do well.
Cheating continues and is now regularly described by words and phrases like “rampant,” “epidemic proportions,” “out of control,” and “seriously alarming.” Especially troubling are findings that document a steady decline in the number of students who consider cheating unethical
Like many professors, I use group projects in my classes. When my students work together on a project, I’m hoping they’ll be able to accomplish complex instructional tasks and support each other’s learning on the project and in the course. In my experience, I’ve found
Magna Publications © 2024 All rights reserved