Ask a Tech Teacher

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

Thousands of teachers every year take education classes to renew their license, move up to the next salary range at their school (I did that–often), or learn teaching skills they didn’t get in their degree program (like remote teaching or in-depth technology). I recently received an email from the folks at Model Teaching.

Teaching 179

Teaching Education Learning Assignments 179

Faculty Focus

JANUARY 9, 2024

Reflecting on our approach to course design—particularly with attention to how we build community and cultivate belonging—couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Intentional course design, it turns out, emphasizes many of the very same things that support student well-being (Slavin, Schindler, & Chibnall, 2014).

Course Design 111

Course Design Feedback Instructors Students 111

eSchool News

MARCH 9, 2023

To build a strong, meaningful grading policy, instructors must choose the approach that best fits the course design and student learning outcomes. A teacher’s fallback practice may be to grade on a curve; however, curved grading is philosophically flawed in most course level applications.

Grades 274

Grades Teachers Instructors Exams 274

eSchool News

JULY 20, 2016

Back-to-school is getting closer and closer, and as it approaches, stakeholders and ed-tech vendors are working to create research and products that identify educational needs and truly improve teaching and learning in the classroom. The course, Effective Conversation in the Classroom, launches in August with three online sessions.

Teaching 185

Teaching Exams Disabilities Learning 185

Faculty Focus

DECEMBER 8, 2024

Teaching is a dynamic endeavor. Instructors are encouraged to take small steps to start building HIPs in their curriculums, and there are some HIPs which are easy to incorporate into an existing course. One of the most accessible practices on this list might be collaborative assignments and projects.

Assignments 107

Assignments Instructors Critical Thinking Activities 107

Edsurge

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

But Chatterjee, an international student from India, did not feel confident about the assignment, and thought it was Western-centric and focused on physical powers associated with attractive males. Based on that feedback, the professor, Julia Parra, says she changed the assignment to make it broader, and more inclusive.

Culture 154

Culture Teaching Syllabus English 154

Faculty Focus

MARCH 18, 2025

While many of our conversations have focused on what generative AI means for student assignments and learning outcomes, there’s another question faculty are askingoften individually and quietly: How can we leverage AI in our own academic and administrative work? Then, share the assignment prompt. And more importantly, should we?

Assignments 80

Assignments Testing Course Design Writing 80

Edsurge

JANUARY 2, 2019

During my early days of teaching in graduate school, educational technology was sold more for its posh than performance. But there has been progress, both with the tools themselves and the teaching practices we employ to incorporate technology into the classroom. How do we do that? Provide opportunities for students to reflect.

Technology 167

Technology Teaching Intellectual Development Instructors 167

Faculty Focus

MAY 11, 2025

In higher education, we see our students use AI in many ways, to provide both authorized and unauthorized aid in their completion of assignments. He said that students could read much of the content off our PowerPoint slides and in the assigned readings without AI. We should embrace this role as we teach in the age of AI.

Instructors 98

Instructors Motivation Critical Thinking Students 98

Edsurge

APRIL 26, 2018

On Tuesday, April 24 the #DLNchat community got together to discuss and debate: How Can Alternative Assignments Effectively Assess Student Learning? Where there’s an alternative there must be a standard, so we started our chat creating a list of what those standard assignment are: exams, quizzes, essays, reports, lab manuals and the like.

Assignments 98

Assignments Exams Instructors Learning 98

Faculty Focus

DECEMBER 8, 2024

Teaching is a dynamic endeavor. Instructors are encouraged to take small steps to start building HIPs in their curriculums, and there are some HIPs which are easy to incorporate into an existing course. One of the most accessible practices on this list might be collaborative assignments and projects.

Assignments 89

Assignments Instructors Critical Thinking Activities 89

Faculty Focus

MARCH 18, 2025

While many of our conversations have focused on what generative AI means for student assignments and learning outcomes, there’s another question faculty are askingoften individually and quietly: How can we leverage AI in our own academic and administrative work? Then, share the assignment prompt. And more importantly, should we?

Assignments 66

Assignments Testing Course Design Writing 66

Faculty Focus

MAY 15, 2025

After years of teaching, I noticed how often students carried academic, emotional, and personal burdens without sharing them. From Curiosity to Campuswide Inquiry The project began in two large general education courses I teach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: FSHN 101: The Science of Food and FSHN 120: Contemporary Nutrition.

Disabilities 54

Disabilities Course Design Lecturing Students 54

Faculty Focus

JANUARY 24, 2023

Here’s an inconvenient truth about inclusive teaching: there are no quick fixes. A new author they can add to their course to make it more diverse and inclusive. A new way to write their course policy on academic integrity or late assignments. It’s inconvenient because faculty are stressed. How do they feel in your class?

Teaching 122

Teaching Syllabus Instructors Disabilities 122

Faculty Focus

JANUARY 18, 2024

When I started as an adjunct faculty member, I had no teaching experience. In preparing that first course, I focused on what I thought were the essentials of teaching: finalizing the syllabus, picking the readings, and writing the assignments. Encourage student participation. Use formative assessment. How might this work?

Teaching 119

Teaching Syllabus Feedback Instructors 119

Faculty Focus

DECEMBER 10, 2023

If you are teaching courses online, have you considered that the planning and preparation to teach online is markedly different than teaching in-person? Although higher education courses have been offered online for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic forced most courses to go online in a rush.

Quizzes 126

Quizzes Teaching Learning Feedback 126

Faculty Focus

JANUARY 18, 2024

When I started as an adjunct faculty member, I had no teaching experience. In preparing that first course, I focused on what I thought were the essentials of teaching: finalizing the syllabus, picking the readings, and writing the assignments. Encourage student participation. Use formative assessment. How might this work?

Teaching 111

Teaching Syllabus Feedback Instructors 111

Edsurge

MARCH 7, 2024

But the experiment points to interesting possibilities — and raises ethical questions — about how the latest AI tech might be used to improve teaching. Bowen asks, suggesting that doing so could bring new insights to people who design learning experiences. Brott says he has experimented with ChatGPT on a few assignments for classes.

Intelligence 212

Intelligence Syllabus Feedback Assignments 212

Faculty Focus

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

This article first appeared in the Teaching Professor on September 9, 2019. One method for teaching students in any discipline how to write prose that flows is to ask them to write stories, and that’s what I’m advocating here. Teaching narrative to teach sequencing. Storytelling gives teachers many ways to teach logic.

Teaching 111

Teaching Writing Assignments Intellectual Development 111

Edsurge

MAY 6, 2020

From our experience both in the online classroom and in training teachers to teach online, this is familiar territory and typically happens about six weeks into a new school session. Being an engaged teacher online means being visible in the class, whether that’s through discussion posts, announcements or assignment feedback.

Motivation 218

Motivation Education Learning Feedback 218

Faculty Focus

JUNE 2, 2024

Most of our grade was supposed to come from a single class project, but no assignment instructions were ever posted. But what about this assignment that was worth so much of our grade? The class was a required course in my field that I would go on to be responsible for teaching as a graduate student and, later, as a professor.

Syllabus 131

Syllabus Course Design Learning Students 131

Faculty Focus

DECEMBER 10, 2023

If you are teaching courses online, have you considered that the planning and preparation to teach online is markedly different than teaching in-person? Although higher education courses have been offered online for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic forced most courses to go online in a rush.

Quizzes 111

Quizzes Teaching Learning Feedback 111

Faculty Focus

NOVEMBER 27, 2022

2011) into all parts of our courses (see Saucier et al., 2022 for a discussion of the empathetic course design perspective). This ranges from our syllabi to our course structures and policies, to our assignments and assessments. This empathetic course design perspective is important to us.

Course Design 142

Course Design Assignments Teaching Philosophy Instructors 142

Faculty Focus

APRIL 6, 2023

Faculty members need a philosophy of teaching statement when applying for jobs and throughout their time in higher education. Yes, ChatGPT could write it and it might look a little like this: My philosophy of teaching is centered on the belief that all students have the potential to learn and succeed. What is working?

Teaching Philosophy 111

Teaching Philosophy Teaching Beliefs Universal Design 111

Scholarly Teacher

NOVEMBER 20, 2024

Cavazos , The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Ryan McBride , The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Key Statement: Student-faculty partnerships can foster asset-based approaches in teaching and learning that challenge implicit linguistic bias and enhance students’ linguistically diverse resources. 2024; Cook-Sather, 2020).

Teaching 98

Teaching Instructors English Languages 98

Ask a Tech Teacher

JULY 12, 2021

One, all assignments were created so that students could have access 24/7. I made sure that there were only two assignments a week with the final assignment being a type of assessment. Integrated in the instructions were screen recorded examples of what I wanted students to achieve in the form of the assignment.

Distance Learning 167

Distance Learning Assignments Feedback Course Design 167

Edsurge

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

Students cheating on assignments is hardly a new or surprising problem. In research and surveys conducted by Dr. Donald McCabe and the International Center for Academic Integrity over the span of 12 years, 68 percent of undergraduates who responded admitted to cheating on tests or written assignments.

Academic Integrity 147

Academic Integrity Exams Assignments Instructors 147

Faculty Focus

JANUARY 24, 2023

Here’s an inconvenient truth about inclusive teaching: there are no quick fixes. A new author they can add to their course to make it more diverse and inclusive. A new way to write their course policy on academic integrity or late assignments. It’s inconvenient because faculty are stressed. How do they feel in your class?

Teaching 98

Teaching Syllabus Instructors Disabilities 98

Faculty Focus

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

This article first appeared in the Teaching Professor on September 9, 2019. One method for teaching students in any discipline how to write prose that flows is to ask them to write stories, and that’s what I’m advocating here. Teaching narrative to teach sequencing. Storytelling gives teachers many ways to teach logic.

Teaching 97

Teaching Writing Assignments Intellectual Development 97

Faculty Focus

APRIL 18, 2023

For example, I have a class of 20 students, and I teach synchronously online. Surprisingly, this simple “posting a session summary” practice has become a best practice for me in every course I teach, and after several of my colleagues saw what I was doing, it has become a best practice for them as well.

Exams 111

Exams Course Design Assignments Learning 111

Faculty Focus

MAY 7, 2024

With a commitment to ensuring educational excellence and student success, in 2020, UF CJC Online developed a comprehensive course design strategy to elevate its online courses, a mission mandated by the State University System of Florida’s 2025 Strategic Plan for Online Education.

Feedback 121

Feedback Course Design Instructors Education 121

Faculty Focus

APRIL 6, 2023

Faculty members need a philosophy of teaching statement when applying for jobs and throughout their time in higher education. Yes, ChatGPT could write it and it might look a little like this: My philosophy of teaching is centered on the belief that all students have the potential to learn and succeed. What is working?

Teaching Philosophy 98

Teaching Philosophy Teaching Beliefs Universal Design 98

Faculty Focus

MARCH 30, 2025

This article explores AI’s historical evolution, critically assesses its benefits and challenges for teaching, and provides evidence-based strategies for faculty to integrate AI effectively. A century later, AI is no longer fiction but a dynamic force in community college education, reshaping how faculty teach, and students learn.

Faculty Development 90

Faculty Development Teaching Instructors Academic Integrity 90

eSchool News

JULY 19, 2016

Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education has launched a short online course designed specifically to help educators create rich and meaningful opportunities for communication within the classroom. The course, Effective Conversation in the Classroom, launches this August with three online sessions.

Critical Thinking 140

Critical Thinking Communication Education Lecturing 140

Faculty Focus

JANUARY 9, 2025

When our students overcome obstacles in their learning due to our support and encouragement, or experience transformations from our well-constructed course design and subsequent instruction, we succeed in cultivating spaces where their success is made possible. Student success is teacher success.

Students 122

Students Motivation Feedback Communication 122

Edsurge

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

These, in turn, have earned him a raft of teaching honors, including the Sherwin-Williams Distinguished Teaching Award. He has also been named a Master Educator by Course Hero , an education technology company that produced a short film about him. Source: Course Hero. Tell me about your Armchair Anthropologist assignment.

Quizzes 167

Quizzes Failure Culture Students 167

Faculty Focus

JUNE 2, 2024

Most of our grade was supposed to come from a single class project, but no assignment instructions were ever posted. But what about this assignment that was worth so much of our grade? The class was a required course in my field that I would go on to be responsible for teaching as a graduate student and, later, as a professor.

Syllabus 109

Syllabus Course Design Learning Students 109