Our March installment in the collection of materials on assignments included an assignment template we proposed could be used as part of the assignment design process. We used the template to describe an assignment in which students read the syllabus and responded to it in
Do you teach one of those courses that promotes lots of student anxiety? Nowadays that seems to apply to all sorts of courses. Student are convinced they can’t learn what we’re teaching, worry they won’t do well on the tests, and become filled with anxiety
Educational research has established that learning is more effective when it combines visual and audio, known as the Modality Effect (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012). This combination reduces cognitive load, which allows the learner to retain information more effectively. We decided to create educational videos for
I just read a review of the literature on class discussion. It’s from 2013 so there’s more that could be included in the review, but there’s one feature of the literature that I don’t think has changed. Like so many other common teaching and learning
This research was motivated by the persistent belief that use of active learning approaches engenders student resistance. Despite the well-documented benefits of active learning, students don’t always endorse these approaches with enthusiasm and that makes faculty reluctant to use these approaches. Up to this point
There is an unfortunate tendency among higher education publications to measure the quality of online education by surveying faculty on whether they think online education is as good as face-to-face learning. But do these surveys ask whether the faculty answering have actually taught an online
Students often put in a great deal of time and energy into learning course material, yet their efforts are often less than fruitful. Week after week, we witness students arriving to lecture—seemingly prepared—armed with planners, Post-its, highlighters, and tablets. With such obvious effort poured into
I recently reread an old post I wrote way back in 2011. The issue is still salient—how students intend to study for exams and how they actually do. Most students have good intentions regarding exam preparation. If asked, they will tell you they plan to
Many of the things that make online learning so attractive to students, such as the flexibility of anytime, anywhere access, can also make it more challenging. Without the benefit of the structure and familiarity of a face-to-face course, less organized students can quickly lose their
Nothing has informed my teaching practice as much as serving as a writing tutor for high school and college students. It has been sobering to see, through their eyes, how unclear our assignments can sometimes be. Believe me, I’m guilty too. In fact, it’s the
Magna Publications © 2023 All rights reserved
