Week 29: Dr. Karen Vignare, Executive Director of the Personalized Learning Consortium at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, gave an open talk on adaptive learning practices and software. In that spirit, these tips present “3 E’s” as basic questions for assessing whether a technological solution is a good fit for your course (leaving aside the question of cost, for now).

• Enabling. Does the technology enable new opportunities for enhancing student learning that would otherwise be impossible or very difficult? If you could not do it without the technology, and it is important for student learning, then technology might be a no-brainer.
• Effective. Does the technology help address specific learning outcomes more effectively? Whether it saves time or provides new paths to better learning outcomes, technology should always be clearly linked to improvements in student learning outcomes.
• Enduring. Does the technology help develop skills for life in a digital world? Not every technology solution should be the next “Proficient with Excel” on a student’s resume, but consider whether your course engagement with technology can have a lasting impact on a student’s life in an increasingly virtually-connected world.

Week 28: As we move into April and the feeling settles in that everyone would rather be somewhere else, we share a mnemonic for improving the likelihood of getting students to prepare for class.

The mnemonic is RAISE:

Reason. – Have a good reason for them to prepare, which means class time cannot just review the prepared material. If students think that you will give them what they need in class, then they will not prepare.

Accountability. – One way to emphasize the “reason” is to hold them accountable for their preparation, whether ungraded or graded. Accountability could mean ungraded pre-testing to get a sense of how well students are understanding the material, in-class quizzing for a grade, or more specific in-class activities that make use of prepared material.

Interaction. – Many of the best in-class activities take student preparation and encourage students to engage with the material together during class time. One good example would be to have students prepare to work through case studies during your class sessions.

Student-facing. – It can be helpful to remind ourselves occasionally that our favorite material is often targeted at experts. As much as possible, we should try to choose readings and other preparatory material that limits jargon (or spend some time to clarify the jargon in advance).

Efficient. – Given competing demands on time, students are more likely to prepare if they feel like their efforts will be efficient. Sometimes inefficiencies are unavoidable or desirable, but then you need to focus more on emphasizing the Reason or the Interaction to increase preparation.

Students are more likely to come prepared if you attend to these five conditions. It is not a panacea, but RAISE can be a good heuristic for putting ourselves in the position of the learners in order to reflect on their motivation to prepare for class.

Week 27: The end of the semester is rapidly approaching, so this week we will look at strategies for dealing with the horror that is grading. These tips look at both saving time and communicating effectively in grading.

• Rubrics in Canvas. Rubrics are a great way to communicate your expectations in advance as part of your assessment. Rubric categories highlight for students what you will attend to as you grade. If you haven’t tried them already, rubrics work nicely with Canvas’ SpeedGrader function. Here is a link to the recent webinar from UNCG Libraries and the UTLC on creating rubrics. You can also check out the On Demand Teaching Support on our website or schedule a consultation with us for examples of best practices in using rubrics for grading.
• Copy/Paste Macros as Digital Shortcuts. If you find yourself giving the same feedback over and over – and if you grade digital copies of assignments – then you might consider using “macros” for repeating those common comments. In its most basic form, you can simply create a “common feedback” document from which you can copy/paste those regular comments into Canvas.If you are looking for an advanced version of this, Google Docs has a tool called “Automatic Substitution,” which allows for you to replace shorthand expressions with full phrases. For example, you might set a macro to replace “ref1” with “You need to cite your source for such a claim,” or one that replaces “type2” with “Be careful of the implications of a type II error here.” You can find this tool under Tools > Preferences…You can save yourself grading time with these new ways to repeat yourself!
• Audio Feedback. If you can articulate your comments faster than you can write or type, then consider attaching audio feedback for your grading. This strategy may not work for all types of assignments, but in cases for which it is appropriate, it can both save time and add a personal touch to feedback. Canvas allows you to upload files as part of your comments in SpeedGrader.

You can read more in depth ideas from this article at The Chronicle of Higher Education, or consider scheduling a consultation with us.

Week 26: Whether it is the aftermath of Spring Break or the snowfall in March, we may all find ourselves in need of some refocusing and thawing out of our brains. In today’s tips, we look at some tips for approaches to making use of reviewing material in class.

• Metacognitive Reflection on Review Strategies. We know what study strategies worked best for us – and it is helpful to teach those strategies to your students explicitly – but it can also be helpful to encourage students to reflect on their own practices when it comes to studying and reviewing material. The week after a break can be a good time to ask students to engage in metacognitive practices related to their study habits.
• Model Review Strategies as a Regular Practice. It may sound trite, but even your best students will benefit from some time to review previous material. Of course, this is something they should be doing on their own, but you can model good habits through small, regular in-class review activities.
• Crowdsourcing Review Lists. If you are looking for a specific strategy, try asking students to make a list from one to ten (or choose any number) on a sheet of paper. Then, have them write something that they recall from an earlier class session next to “1.” After a reasonable amount of time, ask students to pass their lists in one direction and write something different from “1.” under “2.” Keep going until the list is filled. Students will now have a list of review points (of varying quality) to take with them, and it is a good way to start class by looking back to important material.

You can read more about strategic studying through metacognition in this story about a study out of Stanford. There are a few more specific strategies in this article from Faculty Focus, or consider scheduling a consultation with someone at the UTLC for a more personalized approach to your goals!

Week 25: As we move into Spring Break, we make a timely return to a familiar practice. Just as it is better to avoid focusing the assessment of your students on a high-stakes final assignment, it can also be helpful to solicit feedback from them before the end of the semester. To that end, let’s look at the practice of gathering mid-term student feedback.

• Targeted Assessment. Have a goal in mind when you decide to collect feedback. Are you trying a new classroom engagement strategy and want to know whether students find it helpful? Did you reorganize your course material and want to see if students are able to follow the flow of the course? Although mid-term student feedback could helpfully mirror the course evaluation process, if that is appropriate for your context, student feedback need not be copies of course evaluations.
• Responsibility of the Learner. Mid-term student feedback is an excellent place to encourage some reflective self-assessment for your students. You communicate that you care about their learning, but also emphasize that learning takes work on the part of the student. If you ask What parts of the lectures do you find most helpful for your learning? then you might pair that with What is the most effective strategy that you use to be prepared to actively engage in lecture?
• Signs of Attention. If you are going to ask, then you should also be prepared to reflect on student feedback and communicate insights from the feedback. As you review feedback, think about clearly visible ways that you can demonstrate attention to feedback in your upcoming classes. The more that you can show students that you are considering their thoughts, the more good will you generate for the rest of the semester.

There are a variety of strategies for collecting mid-term student feedback, depending on what your goals are. If you want specific strategies, you might try some of the ideas on this page from Northeastern University, or consider scheduling a consultation with someone at the UTLC for a more personalized approach to your goals!

Week 24: In case you missed it, the world is in the middle of celebrating 20 years of Harry Potter. This week, Teaching Tips reflects on the endearing know-it-all, Hermione Granger, by looking at strategies for when one student seems to have every answer in a classroom.

• Passing permission. Whether it’s a foam ball, a goofy hat, or the good ol’ fashion conch shell, you may find it useful to use a physical “permission” pass that students must have in their possession to speak. You may find this infantilizing, depending on the context of your course and how you present the restriction, but it can be a light-hearted way to emphasize the importance of giving others the space to speak in a learning environment. It also empowers students to take control of the discussion as they pass the object to their peers.
• Active listening activities. You can promote active listening in the structure of some of your in-class activities. For example, if you use Think-Pair-Share activities, you can establish a rule that students can only share something insightful that their colleagues shared with them, instead of reporting back their own thoughts. This article from BYU’s Center for Teaching and Learning describes rules for small group discussions that encourage this type of listening.
• Outside channels. Sometimes the direct conversation can be the best remedy, so you may need to speak with the enthusiastic student after class or in office hours.  However, you should endeavor to begin any such conversation with an appreciation of a student’s preparation and engagement before explaining the importance of giving other students the space to formulate their own responses.

You may not have the issue of an overenthusiastic student at all, so the Teaching Tips will look other types of classroom issues in the future. In the meantime, you can learn strategies for a different type of classroom management issue this Friday at the UNCG Cares Training on students in distress. (See below for more info.)

Week 23: We are using the occasion of Valentine’s Day to take a break from thinking about pedagogy and, instead, to offer a pause and a reflection on some tips aimed at helping your teaching as well as the rest of your well-being. Today’s tips focus on the topic of self-care in academia:

1. Identify what you need, then how to meet that need. There is no “one-size-fits-all” self-care plan, but there is a common thread to all self-care plans: making a commitment to attend to all the domains of your life, including your physical and psychological health, emotional and spiritual needs, and relationships. It is important to identify practices that contribute to your well-being. It is equally important to identify obstacles that can prevent you from engage in those practices regularly, and to plan strategies for addressing and overcoming those obstacles.
2. Rely on your core productivity habits. Morning meditation? Afternoon exercise? Evening e-mail embargo? Daily writing session? Weekly social engagement? Habits can be important healing practices, catalysts for productivity, and sources of strength for helping others. As we attend to the demands from teaching, research, service (and the pressures not marked on an academic CV), it is important to fortify the plans for accountability and support systems that care for the things that best care for us.
3. Chocolate demonstrates significant antioxidant activity. I mean, who can argue with an article that’s been cited over 160 times, right? We could all use the help of some delicious antioxidants this week!

If you are interested in resources for self-care, the University of Buffalo has a comprehensive site on strategies for assessing, planning for, and tending to self-care needs. You might also enjoy this article from Inside Higher Ed about the need for self-care in today’s political climate, which provided some of the ideas for today’s tips.

Week 22: Today we take a look at important components for getting the most out of student learning outcomes (SLOs). As we get more precise with our student learning outcomes, we may find that they become many times more useful to our students as guides for their learning experience.

1. Get Back to the Action Verbs. It can sometimes be easy to fall into the trap of saying that the student “will demonstrate” every learning outcome in a course – I’ve certainly used that phrasing multiple times. Instead, try to be more precise while using action verbs to give the students a clearer sense of what they will be expected to do to demonstrate their learning. The tried-and-true resource here is Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, if you are looking for ideas.
2. Measures. It is important to make explicit the link between the methods of assessment and the observed evidence of learning on the part of the students. Ideally, the SLOs will specify a measurable behavior that results from the action verb. SLOs framed in this way can help students follow the connection between the learning outcomes and the assignments that you use to assess their learning.
3. Better Yet, Multiple Measures! Try to identify more than one method for assessment for an SLO whenever possible. An SLO that allows for multiple methods of assessment can help to value the many ways that students learn and provide the opportunity to demonstrate learning in different ways.

Week 21: Asking the right questions for an active discussion

Not saying this happened to me recently, but sometimes you just cannot seem to get students engaged with a discussion in the way that you thought they would. We know that some form of discussion can have a significant impact on helping learners process new information, so how can we better facilitate that in our classes? Sometimes it can be an issue of how well students read and prepare for class, but sometimes it is about asking the right questions for an active discussion.

1. Exploration, not Recollection. Discussions work best when you are trying to help students recognize the complexity of a topic. Asking questions centered around fact-based, right-or-wrong answers can induce anxiety in the class that leads to paralysis. Other strategies, such as anonymous polling classroom response systems (“clickers”), are better methods for tracking comprehension. Try approaching discussion material by asking students to apply their understanding to a particular context, or to compare across topics or contexts.
2. Break it down. Sometimes the questions that we ask to prompt discussions can seem much more daunting to students than we intend, which again can lead to paralysis. It can be a good practice to break discussion questions down into smaller sub-questions. These will be discipline-specific, but you can always start with broadly applicable questions like “what is the problem here?” or “what tools do we have for understanding this problem?”
3. Silence. It has been said many times before – but it bears repeating – that silence is not a bad thing in discussions. It may be an indication of undesirable anxiety, but it may also be students taking time to think about a problem. You may even want to indicate to your students how valuable silence is by saying “I’m going to give you a little more time to think about it” after the first, most enthusiastic hands are raised.

Week 20: Although UNCG serves a broad range of ages in our student population, many of us are worried – or frustrated, or any number of other troubled emotions – about how to teach in a context that seems to be defined by the term “millennial.” Today, we add a few thoughts to the conversation about “teaching millennials.”

1. Millennials are not monolithic. Many strategies for teaching in today’s environment emphasize the need to communicate with millennials on their terms. While it is absolutely important to adopt the perspective of the learner when designing and leading your course, it is an error to assume that a particular group of students will all respond to a course in the same way. It is as important as it has ever been to vary the opportunities for learning and demonstrating learning in the classroom.
2. iAmDistracted. Many of the issues under the umbrella of “teaching millennials” relate to the devices that open the digital social world to students while they are in class. Banning technology altogether may be ineffective or detrimental to students who need assistive technology for learning. Instead, consider finding ways to bring students around to adopting positive approaches to learning with technology.
3. Tech-onstitution. Effective strategies for encouraging positive approaches to learning with technology will depend somewhat on class size, but one popular strategy is to enlist students as soon as possible in writing some guidelines for what class engagement looks like – a “class constitution.” You need not limit this to technology-related behavior, but it is a good place to start a class conversation about what a positive approach to learning looks like in that course. Of course, you may need to guide the conversation more if the importance of Netflix and ESPN become topics of conversation!

If you are interested in reading more, especially about the literature on the neuroscience around these issues, make sure to check out this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Week 19: This week, we look at the benefits of low-stakes writing.

1. Writing Stretches. You stretch before you exercise – or, at least you used to… maybe you stretch in the middle now? I’m not sure, but this isn’t the HealthyUNCG Newsletter. Low-stakes writing can be like stretching. It should not be the main activity, but it helps your students perform better when it comes to the heavy lifting. Try giving your students a low-stakes writing prompt to get things started in an upcoming class.
2. Following the STEM. Low-stakes writing may seem like a humanities-centric practice, but try asking your STEM students to write out the steps (or, better yet, craft a narrative story) of the journey that their brains took to work through a problem in your course. This type of activity offers a change of pace to keep students engaged, but it also promotes meta-cognitive reflection on learning.
3. Grade it? Read it? Just Do It! Use of low-stakes writing is not meant to be a burden on students or faculty. We need not assess the writing for it to be beneficial, since many of the benefits are based on keeping students engaged and thinking about their learning. You can look at a few examples for each activity, or you could have students share with each other in-class.

For more tips like this, you might check out McKeachie’s Teaching Tips in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning library in our new office space at 1100 W Market St, Suite 100F! There is plenty of “A” Lot parking, space for meeting or quiet working, and all the snacks and coffee you could want!

Week 18: Last week’s Teaching Tips emphasized the benefits of promoting a growth mindset from the outset of a course, and this week the Newsletter highlights an opportunity for STEM faculty to participate in a Faculty Incubator focused on a framework for doing precisely that. Check out the Call for Participation at the end of today’s Newsletter!

This week we tackle the daunting task of learning students’ names. We know that it can have a significant impact on classroom climate and student success, as it reinforces the critically important faculty-student interactions, but it also can be difficult to achieve alongside the other demands at the start of the semester. Here are a few strategies that might help:

1. Name Tents Make Sense. Sometimes the simplest solutions just work, and, if your class is small enough, having them make name tents out of notecards folded in half for the first couple of weeks is all it takes for the instructor to get the names down. It has the added bonus of helping the students address one another as human beings, instead of as anonymous fellow prisoners!
2. Take Small Bites. “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” Sometimes all you can do is make a good faith effort, especially in large classes, so focus on nailing down a few names just before each class. It will give you a foundation upon which to build while showing the class that you care about them as individuals.
3. Get to Know the Canvas ID Photo Roster. Many strategies include the use of photos, including the now-ancient-seeming use of a Polaroid camera to make photo flash cards with names on the back, but Canvas (with the help of Banner) provides a helpful ID Photo Roster that makes a significant difference when trying to learn names by brute force!

Consider more strategies out of these resources from Carnegie Mellon, University of Nebraska, and University of Virginia in order to find something that works best for your classroom.

Week 17: We start off the semester with a couple tips aimed at things an instructor can do starting from the first day of class to maximize the opportunity for success for all students in the classroom. Our initial communication with students can do a lot to foster inclusion from day one.

1. Promote a Growth Mindset. Too often our students learn to approach their coursework with the mindset that all mistakes are bad and reflect poorly on them as individuals. It can make a big difference to start the semester by acknowledging that learning is a process through which we all progress, and not a determination of innate abilities. It is even better if you can design opportunities to demonstrate lessons learned from mistakes into your assessment for the course.
2. Beware the Hidden Curriculum and Assumptions about “Studenting” Skills. As instructors, it can be easy to overlook the things about being a student that seemingly came so naturally to us – the skills of being a student – but many students arrive without experience in contexts that developed core skills for success in higher education. As much as possible, try to note norms and best practices in your syllabi and early classroom conversations. If it makes sense for your course, try to acknowledge and reward the demonstration of successful strategies as early as possible.

There is no shortage of resources online about how we can foster an inclusive classroom, such as this article from Wash U or this blog post from Saint Louis University. But not all good advice for inclusive classrooms comes out of St. Louis, so let us know if you have any favorite resources that you want to share with your colleagues, or if you have concrete strategies that you employ in your classrooms. The UTLC is overhauling its website, including space to recognize some of the exceptional teaching that our faculty are doing right now!

Week 16: All good things must come to an end. It has been a good semester for us at the UTLC, and we hope the same is true for you. Nevertheless, this time of year is a good opportunity to take stock of what went well, and what we want to improve on, with respect to our teaching, research, service, and the other aspects of our academic lives. Here are a few tips for making the most out of reflecting on your semester, especially if you are wrapping up a course that you anticipate teaching again in the near future:

1. If at first you don’t succeed… Nothing goes exactly as you planned – whether this was the first iteration of a course or the hundred-and-twenty-fifth – and now is the time to make notes of things to remember for future versions of the course. Was there an assignment that did not quite align with your learning outcomes? Maybe there was a discussion topic that did not resonate in the same way that it has with students in the past. Course design is an iterative process, and that process will be more fruitful if you have timely notes about what you might want to change. When you finally get a moment away from all of the other demands on your time to return to thinking about design, you will have an easier time with identifying how to make the next version of the course even better.
2. Thinking about your portfolio. It is always worth thinking about how a teaching portfolio might help you as you move through your career. Did anything that you did this semester produce exceptional artifacts of your teaching practices? How might you document the effort that you put into your teaching and the effect that effort has on student learning? Whether you are a graduate student thinking about the job market for the first time, a lecturer looking to document teaching experience, or someone thinking about promotion and tenure, you may benefit from taking this time to choose some clear examples of your teaching from this semester and jot down a sentence or two about why each example is important to you.

There are many great resources online for developing a teaching portfolio, like this one from the University of Texas. If you have questions about iterative course design or teaching portfolios, as always, you can make an appointment with the UTLC in order to discuss what options might work best for you and your situation.

Week 15: Is it that time already?! As the semester draws to a close, we take a moment to reflect on the time at the end of every class session. Even on our best days, we are unlikely to be so engaging that students forget about their next commitments, and our students have many demands on their time. However, that does not mean resigning ourselves to giving up the end of class as time for early packing up. Here are some tips for maintaining focus at the end of a class period:

1. Express a clear policy of respecting one another’s time. You, as the instructor, will not keep them past the end of the class period. They, as students, will not “check out” early. If you have an attendance policy in your syllabus, you can directly link this respect for time into the conditions for being present in class, but it is important to have clear expectations no matter how you communicate them.
2. Be explicit about sticking to that policy. This will likely mean being flexible enough to give up on some material that you hoped to cover, but emphasize your commitment to make the most of your time in class while being respectful of everyone’s time. Your transparent buy-in will help to support their buy-in.
3. Give them something to do. The urge to move on mentally to the next thing on the schedule can occur more readily if the student is receiving a summary of the day’s topics passively, so try to build interactivity and engagement even into those last minutes of class. This activity may take the form of overall reflection on learning, or metacognition, or it might be targeted at a particular learning outcome. The more regularly your students are engaged in the last minutes of class, the less likely they are to succumb to the desire to pack up early.

Articles like this one from The Chronicle of Higher Education have sample activities for promoting reflective activity at the end of class. As always, you can make an appointment with the UTLC in order to discuss what options might work best for you and your classrooms.

Week 14: Here are some thoughts about how online discussion boards can fit into your course design in today’s tips.

1. Always Be Opening. Alec Baldwin would not approve of this one, but it is a better way to craft your participation in the discussion board for your course. It is great to be a regular presence in your discussion boards, but you want your posts to prompt more discussion, not shut it down. Try to avoid answering questions outright. Instead, frame your responses in a way that invites the students to contribute.
2. Will this be on the test? It can be beneficial to indicate to students that you will pull test questions from thoughtful discussion board posts. Although this method is unlikely to inspire an intrinsic motivation for discussing the course material, it is a surefire way to increase the attention given to your discussion boards. Of course, you will need to follow through on this claim when it comes time for assessment!

Please consider the course opportunity below, Online Learning Level One, if you are considering teaching online for the first time, or if you are looking to rework an existing online course. For more ideas, you might consider this resource from Elon.

Week 13: After the Halloween sugar rush comes the crash, and since we cannot make a policy of handing out energy drinks to our students, here are some ideas for injecting a bit more active learning in your classroom to fight the late-semester crash and improve learning outcomes. Active learning activities can be a great way to explore new content or review from previous sessions.

1. Trick or Tweet. In this activity – a variation of the “speed dating” active learning activity – students compose “tweet”-length summaries of topics, concepts, paper/project ideas, etc. about which you want them to think. Then, they rotate through short (~3 min) conversations with several of their peers about their tweets. The goal of the activity is to get feedback on understanding of the material or assignment ideas from many different sources, while also encouraging students to constantly get up and move. Make sure you have a plan in place for how this would physically work in your classroom setting!
2. Think-Pair-SCARE! The most common way of getting students engaged in a class session is likely the “think-pair-share” model in which students reflect on a topic, talk with a partner, and then report back on their discussion to the class. It remains a great way to allow students to thoughtfully engage with their peers, while also ensuring that the instructor can clarify or synthesize student understanding when groups report back in the “share” phase. However, why not use Halloween as an excuse to spice up the basic activity? Perhaps you want to incentivize the “share” phase with some leftover Halloween candy for thoughtful responses, or maybe you want to use the activity to have students reflect on what course material has scared them the most thus far.

Here is a guided list of similar activities from DePaul. For more on the relationship between our brains, engagement, and learning, consider joining us for today’s workshop with visiting facilitator, Todd Zakrajsek. For recent research on the positive effects of active learning in STEM courses, we recommend this meta-analysis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Week 12: At our previous High-Impact Practices Brown Bag Lunch, there was a lively exchange of ideas with members of the General Education Task Force and High-Impact Practices Committee focused on how to continue to improve general education at UNCG as the faculty Task Force reviews the General Education Program. Here are a couple reminders aimed at helping to alleviate potential frustration that students may have with required coursework by focusing on transparent communication.

1. Why do I have to take this class? Teaching a General Education Core course can be rewarding and challenging for a number of reasons. Often, a GEC course is a great opportunity to introduce students who are outside of your majors to your discipline. However, this is often the challenge – students like to ask why they have to take this course? It is always helpful to start each semester explaining to your students how *this* course fits into the GEC curriculum, why GEC courses are important, and what the Student Learning Outcomes really mean. Students do not always see how the pieces fit together – so telling them explicitly why GEC is important to your course, and why it is important to UNCG, is key.
2. Content *and* Skills. Another way to help students feel like their GEC courses are relevant to them is to focus part of your course activities and assessment explicitly on the development of skills that transcend disciplines – critical thinking, effective communication, engaging different perspectives, etc. It may be easier to get students on board if you specifically reward evidence of the cultivation of skills in your course. Helping students to see how learning the course content goes hand-in-hand with skill development can have a significant effect on students, and it re-emphasizes the enduring importance of these courses as students continue on as life-long learners.

Please consider joining us as at this morning’s Coffeehouse if you want to talk about the General Education Review or general education more broadly. Also, consider signing up for a session or three on Reading Day with Stephen Brookfield as a way of thinking about how to make small additions to your courses to meet the above goals and more!

Week 11: Sometimes instructors can be afraid of moments in the classroom, but these boogeymen are all in our heads. So, in preparation for Halloween, here are a couple tips for dealing with ghouls and ghosts that sometimes feel like they haunt the classroom.

1. “It’s quiet… too quiet.” Sometimes we can be too quick to fill the silence in our own classrooms. Silence does not necessarily mean a lack of comprehension, and can be important for students as they wrestle with complicated ideas and concepts. If you find yourself wanting to fill the silence, try counting to ten in your head before proceeding.
2. “What’s your favorite scary movie?” This one applies especially to new faculty and graduate student instructors. Expertise does not mean omniscience, and challenging questions can be a good way of teaching students about researching answers on their own. Try to feel comfortable saying: “That’s a great question. Would you mind seeing if you can find a good resource on that on Google Scholar or a scholarly database?” or “Did anyone else have a similar question with the reading? Did you find an answer?” This approach will not always fit, but similar approaches can turn challenging questions for which you do not have an answer on hand into opportunities for encouraging inquiry.

If there are other classroom creepies that go bump in the night for you, the UTLC is happy to help you find the silver bullet or clove of garlic to help keep those monsters away. Let us know what we can do to help!

Week 10:Today we look at Classroom Assessment Techniques as a strategy for gauging learning on the fly.

1. Assessment as Learning Happens. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are simple, low-stakes (usually non-graded and anonymous), in-class activities that are designed to give you and your students immediate feedback on the learning process. They can help an instructor be flexible in the classroom by indicating when students are struggling and in need of more time on a topic and when students are ready to forge ahead.
2. Herding CATs. A couple common CATs are: 1) Muddiest Point, in which students have a couple minutes to briefly articulate a point of confusion in the lecture/reading/homework, and 2) Directed Paraphrasing, in which students attempt to summarize an important concept or argument in their own words such that someone who is not in the course might understand the point.

There are many resources for CATs online, like this one from Carnegie Mellon, and this one from George Washington, which have many more strategies and detailed descriptions. You can also schedule a consultation with the UTLC to get focused feedback on ideas you have for your particular courses.

Week 9: As we return from the break, we want to reflect on how to boost – or, if you have been doing exceptionally well already, maintain – attendance and motivation for the rest of the semester.

1. First Five, Last Five. If you find the first five minutes of your class means “wander in” and the last five means “aggressively pack up your things,” then think about how to build engaging material into that part of your class time. Carrot and/or stick approaches might be useful to you here. If it works for you, try to begin and end your classes with interesting anecdotes and/or engaging activities, but you may also find that pop quizzes that sometimes appear at the beginning and sometimes appear at the end of class are a helpful tool.
2. Avoid Slide-ing Motivation. We do not want to deny our students resources that may help them succeed in our courses, but posting slides after class can be a precarious practice. If providing slides on Canvas is pedagogically important to you, then design your slides in a way that encourages attendance. If your slides deliver the same content as your class session, then students are strongly discouraged from making the effort to be present. Incomplete, or mysterious, slides that promote student input, reflection, and annotation can be a good way to make your slides useful in class and after class.

For more on small changes that can have a big effect on attendance, motivation, and engagement, check out the “Small Changes in Teaching” series from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Week 8: As we roll into Fall Break, here are some reflections on the practice of mid-term student feedback for taking the pulse of your course. Midterm student feedback can help both students and instructors make sense of how the course is going with relatively little effort.

1. Keep your survey short. Gathering feedback should not be a burden on either you or your students. You are looking for general trends, not detailed responses. One strategy for focused feedback is the “Keep Doing, Quit Doing, Start Doing” survey, which encourages students to identify only those things that stand out the most.
2. What can I do? What can you do? Try to introduce some form of reflective self-assessment into your mid-term student feedback. These surveys can be a nice way of saying “I care about your success in this class, but you also should be reflecting on your own approach to this course.” Self-assessment is a good way to gently remind students of their own role in their success.
3. Reward feedback while maintaining anonymity. Feedback works best when it is anonymous, so that students feel free to say what is on their mind, but it is best if you can incentivize feedback as well. One strategy is to give the whole class some small extra credit when a certain percentage – say 80% of the class – has completed their feedback.
4. “I’m listening…” After you have had a look at the feedback, try to implement some small, but clearly visible, changes as soon as possible. Even the smallest effort can let students know that you are listening to their thoughts and concerns. It can make a big difference for how your students approach the second half of the semester.

If you want to learn more about mid-term student feedback, Michigan State University has compiled an extensive list of resources for implementation. Of course, if you are interested in more in-depth strategies for implementation, we also encourage you to reach out to the UTLC if you are interested in exploring these or similar strategies.

Week 7: Several upcoming and recent UTLC events focus on team-based and cooperative learning. Today’s teaching tips explore group quizzes as a strategy for reinforcing the collaborative nature of learning through your assessment.

1. Two-Stage Quizzes. Group quizzing is somewhat of a misnomer, since the strategy often relies on first quizzing students individually first, then having students convene in groups to answer the same questions collaboratively. Students in each group must justify and convince the entire group to agree on a group response to the question that they just answered on their own. Instructors can vary the structure and incentives, such as the weighting of each version of the quiz, in order to meet desired goals, but this strategy transforms a standard form of assessment into a tool that emphasizes collaborative learning.
2. Using Group Quizzes to Supplement Other Group Work. This assessment strategy works best when it builds on effective group learning strategies established in the rest of your course. Students will get the most out of their groups when your course emphasizes group work skills throughout. Group quizzes, in turn, help to reinforce other group work by giving students concrete evidence of the individual and group improvement that occurs by working together over time.
3. The Pedagogical Value of Justification and Consensus-seeking. In addition to the emphasis on the collaborative nature of learning, group quizzes also can increase retention of course material by requiring students to justify the logic of their responses to other learners. In this way, students practice reflecting on their learning and effectively communicating their understanding with their peers as a part of their regular assessment.

If you want to learn more about group quizzes, check out this resource site from University of Iowa and studies such as this one in Advances in Physiology Education. If you are interested in more in-depth strategies for implementation, we also encourage you to reach out to the UTLC if you are interested in exploring these or similar strategies, or join us at an upcoming workshop.

Week 6: Today’s entry (re)introduces you to the strategy of “interleaving,” an evidence-based technique to increase concept retrieval and student mastery of course material.

1. Interleaving Rather Than Blocking. Whereas blocking involves practicing one skill at a time before the next (for example, “skill A” before “skill B” and so on, forming the pattern “AAABBBCCC”), in interleaving one mixes, or interleaves, practice on several related skills together (forming for example the pattern “ABCABCABC”). One prominent explanation for the benefits of interleaving is that it improves the brain’s ability to discriminate between concepts. With blocking, once you know what solution to use, the hard part is over. With interleaving, each practice attempt is different from the last, so rote responses don’t work. Instead, your brain must continuously focus on searching for different solutions. That process can improve your ability to learn critical features of skills and concepts, which then better enables you to select and execute the correct response.
2. Mix in Old Material with New Material. Although interleaving is largely a strategy for reviewing material, we can build some interleaving into our class sessions as well. The more that we can build the review of previously-discussed material into later lectures or discussions, the more our students will benefit from the effects of interleaving on mastery. Try adding a brief quiz question on old material to help demonstrate to students the value of reviewing material in this way.

If you want to learn more about interleaving, see this site from University of Arizona and this article from Scientific American.

Week 5: Here are a couple of reminders about how to maximize the impact of group work in our classes:

1. Allow sufficient time for group work. Recognize that you will not be able to cover as much material as you could if you lectured for the whole class period. Cut back on the content you wish to present in order to give groups time to work. Estimate the amount of time that subgroups need to complete the activity. Also plan for a plenary session in which groups’ results can be presented or general issues and questions can be discussed.
2. Monitor the groups but do not hover. As students do their work, circulate among the groups and answer any questions raised. Also listen for trends that are emerging from the discussions, so that you can refer to them during the subsequent plenary discussion. However, be unobtrusive and avoid interfering with group functioning; allow time for students to solve their own problems before getting involved.

We have shared this resource from the University of Waterloo in the Newsletter before, but there is so much great stuff there for thinking about how to use group work more effectively!

Week 4: Here are a couple tips for presenting content online, whether you are leading an online course or experimenting with content delivery for a flipped classroom:

1. Write a script for each concept. Speaking off-the-cuff may work in a classroom, but it doesn’t online. Scripting forces you to organize the presentation of your material—to make sure you don’t leave anything out or throw in anything extra. It also gives you time to think about the most effective approach to convey material in the highly visual online environment.
2. Rework your PowerPoint slides to act as a storyboard for your script. Your PowerPoint slides should contain mostly visuals; you’ll need to reduce text to a few words per screen at most. Animations (like your recorded PowerPoints) are good at conveying visual information; they aren’t good at conveying text information. Any text that appears on the screen should be the “take-aways” or critical notes you would expect students to take, not explanations or nice-to-have details.

You can read more tips in this article from Faculty Focus.

Week 3: As we get into the rhythm of the semester, it can be jarring to get a question about something that you thought had been clear for weeks. Here are a few helpful ways of reminding ourselves about the clarity of our explanations to our students:

1. Pace at the speed of the learner. Explanations suffer when we get caught in the too-much- content, too-little-time bind. Not all students learn at the same pace. Some get it the first time they hear it; others need to hear it, hear it in a different form, think about it, and then hear it again. This calls for purposeful decision making regarding the importance of what’s being explained. If it is a foundational concept or an idea that integrates a whole content chunk, then it should be presented at a pace that enables understanding by as many students as possible.
2. Reconstitute or repeat without hints of frustration or doubts about the learner. Hearing an explanation and not understanding it is frustrating. Having to ask to hear it again and still not getting it is embarrassing. At that point, most students (and a lot of the rest of us) just fake it. We nod, smile, and say thank you as our minds race, still trying to figure it out. An explanation is justifiably called “clear” only when it results in understanding.

You can read more tips in this blog post from the Teaching Professor at Faculty Focus.

Week 2: Here are two strategies for getting the most out of the start of a class session:

1. Open with a question. Try to have a significant question for the day on the board or an opening slide. It gives students something to consider – other than their phones – while you wait to start class, and it can help orient them for the day. You might even let students give preliminary answers for a few moments, and then again in the closing minutes, to help them recognize how their understanding has deepened over the class period.
2. Reactivate prior knowledge. Ask what your students might know about the day’s material from previous courses or experiences. Asking students to tell you what they already know (or think they know) has two important benefits. First, it lights up the parts of their brains that connect to your course material, so when they encounter new material, they will process it in a richer knowledge context. Second, it lets you know what preconceptions students have about your course material. That way, your lecture, discussion, or whatever you plan for class that day can specifically deal with and improve upon the knowledge actually in the room, rather than the knowledge you imagine to be in the room.

You can read more in this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Week 1: Here are two strategies for writing quality multiple-choice questions:

1. Reflecting, Reflecting… This semester ends and a new semester begins. Sometimes it can be hard to squeeze in a moment to think about the last semester and what went well and not so well. In fact, we often get caught in a cycle of constant completion with little room for change. Make time to not only reflect, but recharge after the semester. Sometimes a quick weekend away from the computer and e-mail is what you need to come back ready to look through your notes, think about your assignments, and try new strategies.
2. Think through the design. Course design is rarely something we are taught – some lucky few have had courses or mentors to help them think through designing a course from the ground up. Course design is essential to quality teaching – a great teacher with a poorly designed course can be immobilized in their work. There are a number of approaches to designing your course, however, redesigning a course can sometimes be harder. What to keep? What to change? all loom in the distance. The best strategies start with your learning outcomes. Looking at the learning outcomes for the course and thinking through how you will measure those outcomes can help you develop a road map for the activities in your course.

For more strategies, check out Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching and their list of teaching strategies (click here). And join us for a day with Dr. Todd Zakrajsek as he presents forward and accessible approaches to course design and assessment (May 3, see description below).

Week 22: Here are two strategies for revamping your course for fall:

1. Think about when you should use multiple-choice. In reality, sometimes multiple-choice is the best testing method, sometimes it is not. There are many reasons to use multiple-choice questions – from class size to mastery level. Take time to think through why you are using multiple-choice questions, it will help you write the questions to meet your end goal.
2. Write the stem first. The two hardest parts of writing a multiple-choice question are the question and the answer. Creating a good question with appropriate answer choices can be daunting. Start by thinking of who your students are and adjust to meet their learning. Course make-up can vary from semester to semester, so taking a moment to think through the current cohort of students can help you develop test questions that allow them to demonstrate their learning. Next create a stem – this will allow you to focus the question on a single definite problem. Writing out the question with all the necessary supporting information can help you structure the question and the answer. Then write out the correct answer to the stem. Once those are complete, it will be easier to write the incorrect response choices.

For more strategies, check out IDEA Paper #16 from IDEA (Click Here)

Week 21: Here are two strategies for closing out the semester:

1. Prioritizing when everything is a priority… During the last few weeks of the semester – everything seems to be knocking on our door (literally and figuratively). How do you prioritize when everything is a priority – you start with a plan each day. Taking a few minutes every morning to assess and plan what really needs to get done today, tomorrow, and this week, can help you feel less overwhelmed and help you focus on today’s priority. That includes this tip from Inside HigherED (2010) – Ruthlessly assess what grading ACTUALLY needs to get done”.
2. Back-up, Back-up, Back-up. As the semester comes to an end, many of us are focused on getting through the day-to-day. It is crunch time. So, it is important to remind ourselves to back up our teaching materials – I mean literally. Creating copies of your Canvas materials, cull through old lecture and class materials, and make sure you have all you need for locking the course up for the semester.

For more strategies, check out this blog from the Chronicle of Higher Education (Click Here) or Inside HigherEd’s article on Crunch Time! (Click Here)

Week 20: Here are two strategies for creating instructional videos:

1. Lights, Camera, Action. Creating instructional videos can be a great way for your students to see you in online courses, hybrid courses, and even face-to-face courses. They provide quick, easily accessible introductions to course content. When developing an instructional video – think about how you can “chunk” content into small manageable bites for your students. Good instructional videos tend to be on the short side and highlight the most pertinent information.
2. Look at the camera. The first few times you record a video of yourself teaching, it can be hard to not look everywhere but at the camera. Think about what your students will see and stay focused on where the camera is located. Two tips offered by last week’s Faculty Focus: position the camera a little above your eye line so that you are looking up toward the camera (then no one has to stare up your nose) and consider putting something above the camera (a photo, an object) that you can focus on.

For more strategies, check out Faculty Focus. (Click Here)

Week 19: Here are two strategies for using rubrics in class:

1. They save time! Time, it seems we never have enough of it – and grading… Rubrics are useful for helping you grade and evaluate student work. By creating a rubric you have more clarity on what you expect from the assignment. That speeds things up in two ways – one, you can better explain your expectations to students and get the work product you really want; two, you can easily identify your expectations when grading the assignments.
2. It helps students evaluate their own learning. How many of us have been asked – is this on the test? Why do I have to do this assignment?… By creating a rubric and sharing it with your students you are helping to provide clarity through the learning process. If students can see in concrete ways how concepts apply to a broader assignment, then they are more likely to understand their own learning process and progress.

For more strategies, check out Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Excellence. (Click Here)

Week 18: Here are two strategies for using peer feedback in class:

1. Tell them what to look for. In reality, many students just do not know how to give feedback, or receive feedback. However, the peer review and feedback process can be one of the strongest learning experiences for our students. So, we have to show them how to provide quality peer reviews. First, we need to give students guidelines, examples, and rubrics. Walk them through how you provide feedback. Carleton College – Science Education Resource Center provides students with a quick guide to giving and receiving feedback.
2. Help them see the value. Many students see peer feedback as something arbitrary. Their peers are not the experts, so how can their feedback be any “good”? In reality, we have to walk the students through. Talk about the value of the peer review process in your own scholarship. Remind them that peers can see and explain things in ways you cannot. More importantly, remind them that the learning process is much more than a graded assignment. The more value they see in peer review and feedback, the better their own feedback will be for their peers.

For more strategies, check out Carleton College’s site on Student Feedback.(Click Here)

Week 17: Here are two strategies to get back into it after spring break:

1. How do I keep them engaged. Those weeks after spring break can seem like a balancing act between entertainment and teaching. Regaining momentum so close to summer (and with our current weather) can be challenging for us and our students. The key is to get the students back into the swing of things and remind them that we still have half a semester to go. First, think about the last major topic you introduced before spring break. Is there a way to review that topic? A video, a game, or even a guest speaker? Any of these can break up the hum-drum approach, but also puts the class back on track.
2. Take a moment for you. I know it can seem cliché, but spring break is just as much about you as it is about your students. Faculty need a break too – so take some time over spring break to recharge and regroup. The energy you bring to the classroom is essential to student success, and can allow you to re-engage with the material in new ways. So, take a moment to read that book that has been siting on your coffee table and come back ready for the last half of the semester.

For more strategies, check out Duquesne University’s Center for Teaching Excellence. (Click Here)

Week 16: Here are two strategies to support effective discussion in your classroom, particularly on tough topics:

1. You set the ground rules. Many of us that use discussion-based learning do so from instinct. However, many of our students, who may even excel at discussion-based learning, have not cultivated the skills of discussion at this scholarly level. Keep in mind that setting ground rules is necessary – not only for classroom management, but also to be inclusive of all the learners. The rules become more necessary as your class size goes up. Think about your expectations of students’ responses… how would you define a good critical, scholarly response? Share this with the students, role model the level of engagement, and be clear on the question you are asking.
2. Am I a referee? In short – no. However, a good academic discussion will likely bring a number of responses to the floor. You do need to be prepared for dealing with conflicting views – their’s and your own. You also need to help the students understand how different views are valued in the academy. For students – at all levels, you may have to explain how to take a critical self-look at personal biases that may be impacting the conversation.

For more strategies, check out The IDEA Center’s – IDEA Paper #49 (Click Here).

Week 15: Here are two strategies to incorporate self-regulated learning into your classroom:

1. Don’t they already know this? One of the first questions we all have – did they not learn how to do this before showing up to my class? The reality is most students have not had the opportunity to learn how take ownership of their own learning. In fact, many students come to the classroom with little to no understanding, ability, or experience in the learning process. So, there is some benefit to the faculty member taking a moment to talk about strategies that help students be successful – from how to read a college textbook to “when should I really take notes” – all could be helpful.
2. What are the steps of self-regulated learning? Right around now many students start to realize that their way of preparing for class is not working. Helping students think about their learning in three steps can be useful: setting goals, developing strategies, and reflecting on the outcome. We can help students set goals and develop strategies – often if they just came of office hours. However, incorporating this into your course benefits a much wider set of students (who may not know they need the help yet). The other piece is helping students reflect on the outcomes – many of them (and us) forget to that reflection is a key part of the learning process.

For more strategies, check out Carleton College’s SAGE 2YC Program (Click Here)

Week 14: Here are two strategies to get students reading what is assigned:

1. Get to the root of the problem. Is it a matter of compliance or capacity? When you have been reading as long as we have, it can be a challenge to remember that many students are new to reading scholarship for learning. Chat with your class about the difficulty of the readings, share some tips on how to read a college text or textbook, and remind students that reading scholarly work can be challenging the first time through. Encourage your students to seek resources, such as the Student Success Center, right here on campus.
2. Make sure you are using it. We can all remember a class or two when we bought the textbook and never opened it… don’t be that class. Consider how the reading will be used in class, on assignments, and with assessments. Try to assign the reading as close as possible to the time it is being used in the class. And spend sometime connecting the dots for students in the first few weeks – the more they can see connections between the reading and the course content, the more likely they are to get the readings done.

For more strategies, check out IDEA’s Idea Paper #40 – Getting Students to Read: Fourteen Tips (Click Here)

Week 13: Here are two strategies to use when teaching large courses:

1. Create opportunities for individuality. A large class makes it easy for some students to disappear into the crowd – creating opportunities for the students to showcase their individuality can go a long way. Such as gathering index cards with information from who they are to where they want to go, greeting students as they come in, or spending a few minutes before class to talk with different groups of students. These are opportunities for students to connect with you in smaller groups and can improve course participation and attendance.
2. Set the tone. We know this is true of any class, but it is especially important in large classes. You can set a tone of conversation and curiosity by the questions you ask or your delivery. Letting students know up front how you expect each class meeting to go, how much participation you need from them, and why you are setting the class up this way can help the students get comfortable with you and the course despite its size.

For more strategies, check out UNC-C’s Survival Handbook for Teaching Large Classes (Click Here)

Week 12: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom as you finish this semester and prepare for the next:

1. When will I ever use that? Sometimes students can be frustrated with difficult concepts that they do not see quick connections with the “real world” beyond the University. Never mind that they are already in the real world, but sometimes they struggle to see how a concept applies beyond the classroom. Helping students apply concepts to the world around them provides needed context, as well as lasting investment by the student. A quick example of application to Academic Service Learning can help students make connections between challenging concepts.
2. Have you graded that yet… Students turn in a paper, project, test – and expect immediate feedback. However, this is not reality when giving quality feedback – or with other looming demands. Letting students know upfront an expected timeline for grading can save you questions of “When are we getting a grade for that?” and help your students in a number of ways. From helping them learn that waiting is part of life to calming their fears, providing a timeline can save you both. Consider putting a timeline in the syllabus, and if you are delayed in grading (which sometimes we are) share that with the students.

For more teaching tips, visit the Walker Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Tennessee- Chattanooga (click here).

Week 11: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom for incorporating the common read:

1. Make the students do some research. Having students identify topics and ideas from the reading that they can relate back to the course is a great way to help students understand that courses and disciplines do not occur in a vacuum. Ask the students to then develop a presentation, lead a discussion, or reflect on these applications in class. The key is getting students making connections between the events of the book with the topics they are studying.
2. I can counter that… Discussion can get repetitive quickly if students have been discussing the book and topics in other courses. A great way to get a new conversation going is to assign the students into groups and ask them to argue a topic from the book from a variety of angles. More specifically, assign those points and counterpoints to the groups (don’t leave it up to the students). This often forces them to think about the topic in various ways.

Find more information on how to incorporate a common read into your course by visiting the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s site (click here).

Week 10: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom when teaching as part of General Education:

1. Why do I have to take this class??. Teaching a General Education course can be rewarding and challenging for a number of reasons. Often times, a GEC course is a great opportunity to introduce students outside your majors to your discipline. However, this is often the challenge – students like to ask why they have to take this course? It is always helpful to start each semester explaining to your students how *this* course fits into the GEC curriculum, why GEC courses are important, and what the SLOs really mean. Students do not always see how the pieces fit together – so telling them explicitly why GEC is important, and why it is important to UNCG, is key.
2. What employers are saying. Every few years AAC&U (Association of American Colleges and Universities) conducts an employer survey with Hart Research Associates. They survey employers across the nation about what they are seeing or seeking in college graduates. The message has been consistent – employers want students who can communicate, work as a team, take initiative, make ethical decisions, and solve problems. Reminding students, and ourselves, that a college education is more than a sum of completed courses is important and key to their success.

Find more information on why general education is important at the AAC&U LEAP (Liberal Education & America’s Promise) Project site. Find literature, employer surveys, and high-impact practice information by clicking here.

Week 9: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom for more inclusive teaching:

1. It’s always key to start at design… Many times great teachers struggle because of how a course is designed more than how a course is delivered. The design of a course is essential to students and instructors being successful by setting a foundation that is specific, deliberate, and reflective. This is also true of inclusive teaching. Spend some time reflecting on how your course, materials, and content are constructed. Did you choose a reading because that is typically what is read in the field? Could you offer an alternative perspective? Do you have students work in groups? Have you started asking them to share with each other their own experiences? Are there spaces where you could change assignments, adjust readings, or shift the conversation to one that is more inclusive? Small changes can add up to big changes.
2. Shifting the conversation. Several weeks ago we took a look at Tara Yosso‘s work on cultural wealth. Are there other ways to bring in multiple perspectives into your classroom? Often presenting your students with diverse philosophies, multiple truths, or even shifting your own language to more neutral descriptions of gender, race, ethnicity, etc. helps students begin thinking about the world in different ways.

Find more tips on inclusive teaching from the University of Western Washington’s Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment. Download their Inclusive Teaching Toolkit (click here).

Week 8: Here are two strategies to use after the exam:

1. Why are we reviewing the test? It is important to help students think about why we review an exam. Often times, reviewing the exam is an opportunity for the student to think about how they prepared (or did not) for the exam – and make changes in time for the final.
2. Thinking about what you don’t know, you know… There are several strategies for reviewing an exam. One strategy is to help the students think about the questions they found challenging or missed – then think about what they have in common. Is there content that the student needs to think about differently? Is there a style of question they need to practice? Helping students think about their learning is key.

Find more tips on “after the exam” in this week’s Faculty Focus Blog from the Teaching Professor (click here).

Week 7: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom when facilitating discussion:

1. This isn’t just free time? One of the most forgotten strategies for using discussion is telling the students why you are using discussion as a teaching method for this course. A lot of students think “class discussion” means they are not learning – since you are not lecturing. However, sharing with them the value of discussing concepts with their peers, gaining new perspectives, and developing a deeper understanding all come back to helping them succeed in your course.
2. Don’t jump the gun. Sometimes as instructors we are so comfortable with a topic that it is hard to remember that students need a moment to formulate their answer. Even when students look back at you puzzled or with apathy – do not give in and answer your own question. A common strategy is to have students think about the question on their own, writing down their response or jotting a few notes. Others reframe the question when students seem to be struggling to come up with a response. You cannot be afraid of a little awkward silence.

Find more tips on effective group work at the Washington University in St. Louis’ The Teaching Center (click here).

Week 6: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom when utilizing groups:

1. Why do we use groups? Many students (and faculty) have reservations about using group work in the classroom – sometimes one person does the heavy-lifting. It is important to share with your students why group work matters, why you are using it as a strategy in this course, and your expectations for division of labor.
2. Five is a magic number. Deciding how big or how small a group needs to be can be part of the challenge. Try to avoid even numbers, as it allows students to pair off. Triads can often find someone on the outside looking in. Groups of five tend to be the magic number for in class group work. For online group work, larger groups are best – seven to nine.

Find more tips on effective group work at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Teaching Excellence (click here).

Week 5: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom when developing active learning:

1. Solve a problem. Independent, critical and creative thinking are developed when students are asked to analyze and apply material. Case-studies, role plays, and opportunities for students to “apply” the course content to larger problems is an excellent way for students to be actively engaged with the material.
2. Talk to your peer. Asking students to talk about topics and course content with each other is a key step in learning and student success (Tinto, 2012). Finding ways to put students in dialogue with the material and each other is key to active learning. Small group, peer-to-peer, etc are great ways to get students thinking.

Find more tips on active learning at Standford University’s Teaching Commons (click here).

Week 4: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom when thinking about student motivation:

1. Teach by discovery. Developing activities for students to engage in the process of discovering knowledge is a key way to make your class a can’t miss opportunity. Activities that require students to discover, develop, and apply concepts is a great way to get students engaged, but also provide them with content they cannot get anywhere else. Think about team-based activities, case studies, role plays, problem-based activities as possible ways to move your classroom to discovery-mode.
2. Making Choices. We all stay more engaged in activities that we feel we had some choice in doing. The classroom experience is no different. It might not always be possible, but as opportunities arise for flexibility – offer students control over how they demonstrate their understanding of the course material. This could be in allowing the students to choose project topics within the context of the course, or allowing students to decide how a project or assessment of learning is delivered (e.g. paper, presentation, or video). The more control students have in demonstrating their learning, the more engaged they will be.

For more tips on motivation – check out Vanderbilt University, Center for Teaching’s Guide on Motivating Students (click here).

Week 3: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom when using active learning:

1. Share the heavy lifting. Students often look to us as the fountain of all things knowledge, but in reality we want them to engage with the learning process. By sharing the heavy lifting of learning from you as the faculty member to the students in the classroom – you are shifting from “teaching to learning” (Barr & Tagg). This can be done through a number of approaches – but the key is to have students be active in the learning process. (for more – check out the work of Robert Barr & John Tagg)
2. Engaging students. There are a lot of ways to engage students in the classroom – both positive and negative. However, it may be easiest to start with clear expectations with how to define engagement. Providing students with clear expectations on participating in the learning process is a quick way to help them actually engage. Moreover, think about diversifying how students engage – add opportunities for students to shine in a way that makes sense to their learning style (verbally, in writing, in small group, etc). (for more – check out Maryellen Weimer’s blog for Faculty Focus).

Week 2: Here are two strategies to use in any classroom when thinking about culturally responsive teaching:

1. Establishing Inclusion. Helping your students set up groups and collaborative projects is often a quick way to get students engaged in class. Start by helping the groups set up ground rules for positive shared learning experience. This is also great for courses that use a lot of discussion. (for more – check out the work of Wldowoski & Ginsberg)
2. Using the Cultural Wealth. Our students are coming to class with a variety of personal experiences and talents – many of which do not easily fit on a test. Moving to a mindset that includes what students bring to the classroom can change the classroom experience. Keep in mind all the potential capital students bring – family, aspirations, social, and resiliency. (for more – check out the work of Tara Yosso).

Week 1: Here are three quick tips to use in any classroom:

1. Use the silence: A good journalism trick – if you wait long enough, someone will eventually fill the silence and usually with something they find pretty useful.
2. Get feedback from your students mid-semester: Asking students what’s working, what’s not, and what other techniques might help them learn better is a quick way for you to get instant feedback on your teaching. It’s also a great way to help your students become reflective on the learning process.
3. Model learning: Moving from the all-knowing sage on the stage can be hard, but it is a good reminder to our students that learning is lifelong process. Let the students in on your thoughts as you decide how to convey material. An important part of the learning process is sharing with students the struggles of balancing what they need to know with all you know.

Looking for more? The Walker Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Tennessee: Chattanooga has 25 more teaching tips. Click here to read.