2012
Coursera as Innovation Accelerator?
Oct. 17, 2012—by Derek Bruff, CFT Director If you watch the talk given by Stanford professor and Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller here at Vanderbilt a couple of weeks ago, it’s easy to miss what might be the most transformative aspect of Coursera’s foray into massive open online courses (MOOCs). Before I point out that aspect, a little...
Junior Faculty: Visit Jeffrey Tlumak’s research methods class at next week’s teaching visit
Oct. 15, 2012—A Teaching Visit involves a small group of faculty who observe a colleague’s class (on a selected day), followed by an hour of conversation about what was observed, particularly shared teaching challenges. The Center for Teaching has hosted Teaching Visits for many years and they have been among the most productive and helpful events we...
Upcoming Event: Using Clickers: A hands-on workshop
Oct. 15, 2012—Join us for this upcoming Teaching Workshop! Using Clickers: A hands-on workshop Date & Time: Monday, October 22 4:10-5:30pm Clickers, also known as classroom response systems, allow students to provide instructors with instant feedback and quick responses to questions. Clickers support instructional goals through a variety of uses including real-time assessment of understanding, paired or group...
From the Stacks…
Oct. 11, 2012—The Feminist Classroom by Frances A. Maher and Mary Kay Thompson Tetreault From the publisher… This book provides an intimate view of how feminist teachers are revolutionizing higher education. Drawing on in-depth interviews and on-site observations, and using the actual words of students and teachers, the authors take the reader into the classrooms of seventeen...
THATCamp Vanderbilt University to Take Place November 2-3
Oct. 10, 2012—THATCamp Vanderbilt University will take place November 2-3 The Center for Second Language Studies, Center for Teaching, Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy, and Warren Center’s Digital Humanities Seminar will co-host THATCamp Vanderbilt University. THATCamp stands for “The Humanities and Technology Camp.” It is an unconference: an open, inexpensive meeting where humanists and technologists...
Upcoming Event: Teaching with Blogs – It’s Not About Sharing What You Had for Breakfast
Oct. 9, 2012—Join us for this upcoming Conversation on Teaching! Teaching with Blogs – It’s Not About Sharing What You Had for Breakfast Date & Time: Tuesday, October 16 4:10-5:30pm Increasingly, Vanderbilt instructors are incorporating blogs into their course design. While blogs help students reflect on, comment about, and introduce new ideas to course material, they also require...
Teaching and Learning in Open, Online Courses
Oct. 8, 2012—On September 19th, Vanderbilt announced a new partnership with the digital learning consortium Coursera. Coursera is an online platform for open-access, non-credit classes, available at no cost to participants. Such courses have been dubbed “MOOCs,” or massive open online courses, and Vanderbilt faculty will offer five such courses via Coursera this spring, in the fields...
Ask Professor Pedagogy: Using Course Blogs
Oct. 5, 2012—Ask Professor Pedagogy is a twice monthly advice column written by Center for Teaching staff. One aspect of our mission is to cultivate dialogue about teaching and learning, so we welcome questions and concerns that arise in the classroom; particularly those from Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff. If you have a question that you’d like...
Getting to Know Coursera: Video Lectures
Oct. 4, 2012—By Katie McEwen, Graduate Assistant Next semester Vanderbilt will begin offering its first round of massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a part of the Coursera consortium. Now 33 universities strong, Coursera lists 198 courses over fifteen different disciplines: from medicine to computer science; physical and earth sciences to humanities and social sciences, Coursera seems...
Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow Spotlight:Jonathan Rattner
Oct. 4, 2012—Each month, the CFT Newsletter highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. This month, Jonathan Rattner, Assistant Professor in both the Film Studies Program and Art Department, talks about his teaching philosophy and interests: As an artist, I investigate and question accepted truths about place, time, and identity. I am concerned with the stories,...