Topics

Rubrics

A Case Where Rubrics Worked!

Teachers are giving students rubrics to help improve the quality of their work, but do they? Does student work, say, writing a paper, improve when students are given the criteria that will be used to assess their work? Kathleen Greenberg notes in her article that

Read More »

Tips from the Pros: Transforming the Online Syllabus

As online instructors, we have finally figured out that the web is a visual medium and have been replacing the long text documents that constituted our original lectures with engaging presentations that make use of images, video, and sound. But despite the shift, most of

Read More »

Teaching Evaluations: A Misinterpretation Issue

“Even measures with perfect validity can be rendered useless if they are interpreted incorrectly, and anecdotal evidence suggests that teaching evaluations are frequently the subject of unwarranted interpretations based on assumed levels of precision that they do not possess.” (p. 641) And now there’s some

Read More »

Interclass Collaboration Online

Faculty are increasingly looking for ways for students to collaborate, not only to improve learning, but to teach collaboration skills. Teachers generally do this with in-class collaborations, but the Internet opens up a wider world of collaboration possibilities between classes. Kristin Novotny, a core division

Read More »

Tests as Teaching Devices

Consider the following two ways to introduce an online lesson:1. In this module we will learn how gender differences are expressed in the traits of birds.2. Here are two photos of a robin, one male and one female. Tell me which you think is male,

Read More »

Student Engagement in Online Courses

“When we teach online, technology is a mediator between us and the students. Because of this intervention, the way in which we understand and experience the phenomenon of student engagement changes.” (p. 211) Claire Howell Major makes that observation in her new book, Teaching Online:

Read More »

Learning Logs

Let’s begin with what learning logs are not: diaries. They are a type of assignment by the Writing Across the Curriculum movement, and are designed to be one of the strategies that can be used to get students writing more—and writing in courses where they

Read More »
college classroom

Expectations, Underestimations, and Realities

Here’s a strategy you can tuck in your folder of good ideas: a survey tool for assessing student expectations for the course. The survey’s designers believe that knowing what students expect is helpful. They also cite research documenting that discrepancies between teacher and student expectations

Read More »
Professor in empty classroom

Student Ratings—Reminders and Suggestions

Recent research verifies that when looking at small differences in student ratings, faculty and administrators (in this case, department chairs) draw unwarranted conclusions. That’s a problem when ratings are used in decision-making processes regarding hiring, reappointment, tenure, promotion, merit increases, and teaching awards. It’s another

Read More »
Archives

Get the Latest Updates

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Magna Digital Library
wpChatIcon