Many research studies have underscored the importance of teaching presence in asynchronous online courses, with the benefits including higher student satisfaction, reduced isolation, and enhanced emotional engagement (Oyarzun et al., 2018).
It is the first day of the semester in a junior-level preservice teacher course, and 40 students sleepily shuffle in and choose spots at a table with their safety blanket—their friends. As I announce to not get too settled, I am met with muffled groans.
We often think of learning in individualistic terms. The student cognizes in their brain and performs some solitary task to demonstrate learning. For this work, they receive an individual assessment. These assumptions and practices are common regardless of how student-centered the teacher is (Barr &
“Are those handouts for us?” my student asked, gesturing toward the copies of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 that I’d carried into class. “Nope,” I replied. “They’re for the Brit lit class that I teach after yours.” “Oh, OK.” he said, disappointedly.
Gamification has been shown to improve student learning (Brull, 2016), and one of the best apps for facilitating gamification in the classroom is Mural, an online collaborative whiteboard with hundreds of engaging, colorful activity templates. It is one of my favorite teaching and learning tools
I must confess, I’ve always been skeptical about group work. Raised in East Asia, my K–16 education relied heavily, if not exclusively, on lectures. Even during my graduate studies in mathematics at a flagship public university in the US, my classmates and I rarely engaged
Computers have made it easier for instructors to use simulations in their teaching. These are usually self-paced and fully automated, allowing the instructor to step back and watch students work. But this automation tends to illuminate the randomness and sudden changes that happen in a
Faculty lament that students often use Google searches rather than academic sources for research. But now there are AI tools that both restrict their searches to academic publications and manage the results to greatly speed up the writing process. Perhaps the most powerful of these
This essay covers student learning, misconceptions, search engines, and AI, but first a story to set the context. Most every academic discipline has an organization dedicated to teaching, and I’m active in mine, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP). STP hosts a Facebook
AI systems provide a great way to produce study aids for your students. They can generate questions on a topic and even interact with students to tutor them through a topic. But general AI systems like ChatGPT draw from a huge range of information, well
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