When was the last time you felt a sense of accomplishment so gratifying that you threw your hands above your head and shook your fists with pride and elation? This gesture has been identified by psychologists as a universal expression made by people of all ages all around the world when they feel a sense … Continue reading +1 Intellect: Can Experience Points Improve Student Motivation?
Our students are changing…and so should our teaching I think we are all finding our long-held assumptions about how to create an assessment with safeguards against cheating, “make” students do the weekly readings, and engage students either online or in-person are increasingly proving to disappoint. Our students are changing and evolving. Jenny Darroch’s Inside Higher … Continue reading Small Steps, Big Impact: Micro Experiments in Teaching
In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece, James M. Lang and Kristi Rudenga discuss combining intrinsic motivation strategies with extrinsic motivators that have come under scrutiny, like deadlines, grades, and punitive course policies. These recommendations speak to the moment many educators find themselves in: We’re no longer in the acute phase of the pandemic, … Continue reading Turning Deadlines From Enemies Into Energizers
I have a hard time getting students to come to my office hours. When I do have one-on-one conversations with students outside of class, they almost always feel like a breakthrough of some sort, especially when meeting with my online students that I rarely chat with synchronously. As I start to wrap up this quarter … Continue reading Revamping Office Hours
A quick note before I move into the post–if you find that your feelings run deeper than just your work, or that the challenges you face are pervasive or problematic across other areas of your life, I would encourage you to seek professional counseling or therapy with a licensed mental health professional beyond the recommendations … Continue reading Teaching in Tough Times: How to Counter Languishing and Burnout in Higher Education
Authors Kyle Grice and Margaret Bell Our faculty learning community (FLC) generated some big ideas to make STEM classrooms more equitable. Below are some big ideas to make STEM classrooms more equitable; we give a brief orientation to the concepts, with links to additional resources, and potential next steps. Of course, this is only a … Continue reading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Foundational STEM courses Curated Resources and Action Items
During hands-on activities in the web-design classes I teach, I often ask, “What would Project Runway mentor (and national treasure) Tim Gunn do?” After all, if you’re going to take teaching tips from only one reality-TV star, it should be Tim Gunn. He was a faculty member at Parsons for a quarter century and chair … Continue reading What Reality TV Taught Me About Effective Student Mentoring
Few teaching tasks are as loathsome as re-recording videos for your online course. In fact, I’ve been trying to come up with potential comparisons for about 20 minutes, and the closest I’ve come is the sinking feeling in your stomach when you survey the stack of final papers/projects that loom before you during finals week. … Continue reading Strategies for Revising Recorded Lectures
Studies have shown that student participation in lectures leads to students having greater motivation in the classroom, becoming better critical thinkers, and ultimately, learning more effectively. For students to reap the benefits of class participation, however, they actually have to participate. This can occasionally be challenging. Below are three activities I keep in my back … Continue reading 3 Quick Ways to Increase Student Engagement in Your Lectures
In common to most, if not all, teachers, I always commit myself to designing and carrying out successful teaching. In particular, I subscribe to the notion that teaching success correlates with students learning. Accordingly, part of my job as a teacher is to identify and facilitate ways of learning that best match the kinds of … Continue reading DePaul’s Mission in the Classroom