If you’ve ever spoken with someone who has taken an online course, you’ve probably heard criticism of online discussion boards. They are often dismissed as busywork or a burden, as students struggle to come up with meaningful replies to their classmates. In a study of online students…
Category: Faculty Newsletter
From Listening to Learning: Rethinking How We Teach
In the fall of 2004, I took an undergraduate biology course taught by Dr. Graham. He was a small man with a soft voice, lecturing to an auditorium of at least 150 students. School had always come easily to me,…
Responding to Students with Disabilities with Empathy and Professionalism
A practical guide for post-secondary faculty:Faculty interactions shape students’ access to learning, sense of belonging, and academic success. Empathetic, professional responses support equity, uphold legal obligations, and foster a respectful learning environment for students with disabilities. Core Principles • Respect…
The Role of Asynchronous Communication in Modern Teaching
Communicating with students has become more complex in the digital era. While synchronous, in-person communication is still incredibly valuable, students have begun to expect asynchronous, digital communications in addition to traditional communication methods. While keeping up this level of communication…
AI Precautions: Protecting Your Privacy
In this day and age, the data that we put online, knowingly or otherwise, is what fuels the digital economy. Social media platforms and websites have been using cookies and usage data to tailor what we see to what they…
Tech Tools to Enhance Your Teaching
When we talk about technology in education, we usually talk about Canvas, AI, or PowerPoints, and it is not surprising why we would focus on those tools. PowerPoint is a classic and reliable tool to easily build presentations for class,…
Building Up Student Success: Scaffolding and Self-Regulation
Large projects, presentations, and papers are all a part of any college-level course. They are a great way to comprehensively assess a student’s knowledge that allow them to show off different skills than a traditional exam. It is important that…
“AI-Proofing” Your Course
Artificial intelligence is an intimidating technology that can make us second guess whether or not a student is completing their work without the aid of AI. Updating assignments and reconsidering how we build our online course can help insure academic integrity while keeping high standards and supporting our students.
Backward Design: A Roadmap to Excellence in Teaching
Author: Christi Jones Seven years ago, as a newly hired faculty member, my thoughts were a mixture of equal parts excitement and anxiousness as course preparation for the fall of 2017 began. Using the skills gleaned in a single pedagogy…
Navigating Copyright in Digital Media
As online components to our courses become more and more prevalent, we are able to access a wealth of information that we may want to share with our students, but how do we ensure that everything that we want to use in our class is okay to use? Copyright law has some vague aspects, but if you stick to these basic rules, you can avoid some headaches and keep everything above board.