Spark a Discussion: What’s Going on in This Picture?
In a day-to-day class, it can be difficult to think of new ways to get students out of their “comfort zone” to look at course topics or a discipline with …
Active-Learning Fellows: Revamping a Graduate-level Dendrology Course
During the summer and fall of 2017, the Center for Instructional Technology led the Active Learning Faculty Fellowship. Thirteen faculty from a variety of disciplines shared experiences and learned about using active learning …
Teach So All of Your Students Learn
How do you teach your increasingly diverse students? This post contains links to many ideas and resources for inclusion at Duke.
PechaKucha: A Different Method for Student Presentation and Writing
Recently, I attended the Lilly Conference on Designing Effective Teaching in Asheville, NC. Dr. Richard Straw, Professor of History at Redford University, demonstrated a PechaKucha and discuss how he uses …
Fine tuning think-pair-share
Think-pair-share is one of my favorite active learning activities. It is easy, quick and can give you a good idea of what your students are thinking. As an instructor, you …
Considerations When Teaching Across Continents
Many Duke courses offered to global learners involve learners and instructors located both on-campus at Duke and around the world. However, simply putting learning materials online and having web/video conferencing …
Take the Pulse of Student Learning
After evaluating two semesters of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in Global Settings with initial and enhanced course re/design, we have learned a great deal from our experience and student feedback. I …
Why Does Writing Good Learning Objectives Matter?
As a former adjunct instructor, later a training coordinator, instructional designer, and now a teaching and learning consultant, I have worked with many faculty on course design and how to …
Connecting Class Activities with the Duke Experience
A common problem with faculty across academia is getting students to see how the work they’re doing in a particular course is connected with the other work they do at …
Ideas for Great Group Work
Many students, particularly if they are new to college, don’t like group assignments and projects. They might say they “work better by themselves” and be wary of irresponsible members of …