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Great Teaching Still Matters
December 13, 2023
Recent news reports reflect a dismal view of higher education, specifically the preparation of students for the workforce after graduation. Essential to this process is the role of faculty in teaching students and creating an effective learning environment.
Creating a Liquid Syllabus (Can different formats of information engage students?)
October 20, 2023
It tells your students everything from when the class will meet to when the last assignment will be due. It’s the key to how a student should navigate a course, and a place for instructors to give special instructions and expectations for the course.
Unleashing Creativity: Exploring the Use of Generative AI Tools for Teaching and Learning
September 11, 2023
Generative Artificial Intelligence is one of the hottest topics in higher education for many reasons. On August 23, 2023, I had the opportunity to participate on a panel for a Back to School Adobe Cafe' Webinar series again this Fall where our panel will discussed views on the impact generative AI tools will have in teaching and learning.
Interactions: A Key to Quality Classrooms
September 11, 2023
Interaction is central to the learning process. It is difficult to imagine an educational experience that does not involve some sort of interaction. Several theorists have identified different modes of interaction in educational contexts such as that between and among students, teachers, and the content that is to be learned (Anderson, 2003).
The Benefit of a Faculty Learning Community
April 10, 2023
Workshops and Institutes are a staple of Teaching and Learning workshops at colleges and universities. However, sometimes faculty need an environment where they can grow and nurture ideas in a receptive community or explore and develop methods over an extended period.
What is the Intellectual Vibe in Your Course?
March 13, 2023
According to the New Oxford American Dictionary (n.d.), a vibe is “a person’s emotional state, or the atmosphere of a place as communicated to and felt by others.” The space between cognition and emotion is where we can positively or negatively impact the student’s experience.
Doing Digital: Taking Digital Literacy to New Heights at WSSU
February 27, 2023
If the last two years have taught higher education any lesson, it has been that the momentum of digital literacy is accelerating at a high rate. Colleges and universities everywhere faced the issue of addressing ways to close digital gaps in populations of learners on their campuses.
Active Learning for the College Classroom
January 23, 2023
Within the past 10 years, we have seen an explosion of interest among college faculty in teaching methods about active learning and cooperative learning. However, even with this interest, there remains much misunderstanding of and mistrust of the pedagogical "movement" behind the words.
Who's got time to grade papers?
December 09, 2022
Staying on top of grading is a challenging task. Providing comprehensive feedback to students that is both supportive and constructive can be a time-consuming process. As soon as I finish grading one assignment, it is time to start on another.
What Do You See?
November 28, 2022
The preparedness of students for higher education is concerning. Although there are school districts that graduate students without providing the necessary academic support to promote learning, we should not vilify the K-12 educational system.
Igniting Student Engagement at the Beginning of Each Class
October 24, 2022
We live in a TikTok, Facebook Reels, and a Snapchat world where students must digest information in bite-size segments. The use of short, high-definition videos can immediately capture the attention of the viewer.
Where are you Digital?
September 23, 2022
Congratulations! The beginning of a new semester is a milestone. By now, you have developed a rhythm for presenting new content and evaluating the effectiveness of course assessments.
The Great Balancing Act of an Academic Year: Getting It All Done
August 22, 2022
The EduCause Horizon Report on Teaching and Learning (2022) stated that even after two years into the COVID-19 Pandemic, much still feels the same. However, in some important ways, our thinking and behaviors may be shifting in anticipation of longer-term changes in the ways we structure our lives and shared spaces.
Fostering a Community of Belonging
April 07, 2022
Research about student belonging in postsecondary education is plentiful (Hoffman et al., 2002; Meehan and Howells, 2019; Strayhorn, 2019). A sense of belonging determines if a student feels connected or disconnected from the campus community.
Using Reflection During Course Design
April 05, 2022
As educators, we are always looking for ways to improve our courses, whether to improve student success rates, involve new technologies, or better align course objectives and assessments.
Factors To Consider When Developing Netiquette Guidelines for Online Learning Experiences
March 28, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in several modifications of course instruction as many faculty found themselves in an unfamiliar educational space of online and hybrid instruction. During this time, many faculty have learned how to leverage the virtual space to support the achievement of student learning outcomes.
Collecting Mid-Term Feedback to Measure Teaching Effectiveness
February 11, 2022
With the spring semester in progress, we are approaching a point of assessing and adjusting our course outlines as needed. As the weeks continue and mid-terms approach, it is a good time for everyone (students and professors) to assess their performance in class.
Using Online Student Peer Reviews to Help Students Learn From Their Peers
January 21, 2022
What better way to kick off the new year than to incorporate more ways to engage your students in peer-to-peer learning. An easy strategy to implement is to involve students in the assessment process.
Seven Tips to Overcome Grading Fatigue
December 06, 2021
The end of a semester evokes various emotions. The excitement of winter break. The frustration of assignment submissions that do not align with the rubric.
Providing Feedback to Online Learners Using the Audiovisual Tools in Canvas
November 10, 2021
Education has taken a 180-degree turn as a result of technological advancements. With the increasing emphasis on student-centered learning, the teacher-centered method is rapidly losing relevance (Ice et al., 2007).
Overworking a Course Can Do as Much to Set it Back as Make it Effective
October 11, 2021
You took the subject matter that you love dearly and brought it to the classroom. You planned. You reviewed. You researched. You listened. You implemented. You evaluated the results. You corrected. And you still weren’t satisfied?
Finding the Right Balance in Online and Hybrid Teaching: A Few Tips
September 14, 2021
What a whirlwind of a year we had as WSSU joined almost every university in going 100% online for instruction! Who would have dreamed that all of higher education would go virtual?
OneUp Learning: Gamifying Academic Courses for Motivating and Engaging Students
April 28, 2021
Games have remarkable motivational power. They utilize a number of mechanisms to encourage people to engage with them, often without any reward, just for the joy of playing and possibility to win. This is the reason why many instructors are willing to use educational games in their classes.
RefWorks: Managing Your References and Writing Your Papers with a Style!
April 28, 2021
Are you using a reference management program to store and organize references? Have you found yourself writing a manuscript for a journal that uses a publication style different from what your discipline uses? In this post, I’d like to share with you a useful tool, RefWorks, and how I use it for reference management and in manuscript/ grant writing.
Quizzes and LockDown Browser in Canvas
April 27, 2021
I recently attended a CITI session developed and delivered by my peer CITI Faculty Fellows, Chinyu Wu and Cecile Yancu. The focus of this session was to explore the quiz feature in Canvas. In the majority of cases, quizzes in Canvas offer a formidable alternative to paper and pencil examinations, and Canvas guides offer great step-by-step explanations on how to setup and administer a quiz. View the quiz guide.
Academic Writer: An Online Resource to Help Your Students Learn to Write in the APA Style
April 19, 2021
Do you teach courses that require students to turn in papers in the APA style? Do your students have trouble preparing their APA style papers with good format accuracy? In this blog article, I am going to share with you an online resource, Academic Writer, which may help improve format accuracy of papers turned in by your students, and how I use it in a course I am teaching.
Digital Literacy using Adobe Spark!
April 18, 2021
In many courses that I have instructed, a culminating presentation near the end of the course tends to be the go-to as an evaluation piece. Often times, students are given instructions to pick a topic from the course, create a PowerPoint or poster presentation, and present based upon guidelines from the instructor.
Kahoot! - Learning Really Can Be Fun
February 23, 2021
I really love playing games in my class with my students, whether it is a treasure hunt, a role-playing game, or what historical musical figure am I? I find that gaming is a wonderful way to engage students and promotes critical thinking and active learning. In looking for additional ways to engage my students in learning, I discovered Kahoot! through my colleague, Dr. Myron Brown a couple of years ago.
Digital Literacy
July 12, 2019
There were reading and writing literacies. Then came Cultural Literacy, Media Literacy and Information Literacy. And then somewhere in the midst of these came Digital Literacy.
Rubric Assessment: Try It; You May Like It!
July 12, 2019
The hot word on many college campuses lately has been “rubric assessment”, and you may be wondering the following:
Using Service Learning in the College Classroom Setting
July 12, 2019
Service learning as defined by Rowls & Swick (2000) is an opportunity for students to explore, study, acquire, and apply skills as well as examine problems and issues in a reflective way. It is a pedagogical approach in which students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs.
Team Teaching: Lessons from the classroom
July 12, 2019
Being a part of a team-taught course is something akin to handling a beehive. If you do it well, the reward can be professionally nourishing and provide students with an enriched experience. However, if you fail to approach it respectfully and carefully, the end result can sting quite a bit.
Study Away as a High Impact Practice
July 12, 2019
Study abroad for students is a well-known and well-utilized high impact practice (HIPs). It allows numerous opportunities for students, by immersing them in new cultural, linguistic or informational settings, to achieve a transformative learning experience. However, often funding and resources can become impediments to the consistent delivery of these programs or for broad student access.
Five Ways that Social Media Can Affect Academic Writing
July 12, 2019
Everyone loves the Grinch? Right? Well, maybe not, but this week’s blog may have readers thinking this is the Grinch who wants to “steal” social media. Social Media is an excellent networking tool for personal, social, and professional purposes. However, social media can also have direct effects to academic writing in students.
Engaging a World Through Speculative Fiction
July 12, 2019
In the introduction to Octavia’s Brood, an anthology of speculative fiction short stories inspired by legendary SF writer Octavia Butler, artist and activist Walidah Imarisha writes, “Whenever we try to envision a world without war, without violence, without prisons, without capitalism, we are engaging in speculative fiction.”
Collaborative Assessment: Transforming Assessment into a Learning Opportunity
July 12, 2019
I suspect that many of us think of grading as a one-way transaction in formative assessment. Ideally, grading has the potential to be a source of motivation for students to gauge the degree to which more effort is needed.
Creating Infographics for Classroom Use
January 16, 2019
Graphics can be useful in demonstrating complicated numbers and relationships and they are often used as pieces of longer presentations. Everyone has had experience with graphs and flow charts as an appendix or piece of that Powerpoint presentation.
