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first day of class

Bird of Paradise flower, illustrating intrigue

On the First Day of Class, Begin with Intrigue

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but when I was just beginning my teaching career, I had one clear goal on the first day of class: scare the living crap out of my students.

I’m exaggerating, but only a little. And while I’m tempted to say,

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Getting to Know You Bingo

Online community is an important part of an effective online classroom, but it can often be difficult to establish. This is true regardless of the modality. One of the most commonly used frameworks for building an effective online community is the Community of Inquiry framework

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A cutout of a rocket taking off against a pink backdrop, illustrating the notion of "course launch"

Suggestions for Successfully Launching a Course

The new academic year is fast approaching, and course preparations are either underway or on everyone’s mind. We begin every semester, every year, wanting all our courses to go well. Even more importantly, we want our students engaged and learning. And they begin each new

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Students in college classroom

A Memo to Students as the New Semester Begins

To: My Students
From: Your Teacher
Re: A Better Learning Experience

This is just a brief note to let you know how committed I am to making this a good course. But I can’t do my best teaching without your help. So, I

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Four puzzle pieces

Four Things to Do on the First Day of Class

First impressions are important and you can make favorable ones on the first day of class by doing things just a bit out of the ordinary. Here are some ideas.

  1. If it’s a course where students don’t think they know anything about the
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students in lecture hall

The Last Class Session: How to Make It Count

“First and last class sessions are the bookends that hold a course together.” I heard or read that somewhere—apologies to the source I can’t acknowledge. It’s a nice way to think about first and last class sessions. In general, teachers probably do better

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