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Event Focusing on Teaching Issues of Race and Racism
Nov. 2, 2020—As part of the 2020-21 learning community on Teaching and Race, the Center for Teaching is hosting a meeting on the subject of resolving classroom conflicts about race. Discussions about race can be among the most challenging students can have in the classroom due to the issue’s intellectual complexities, political implications, and emotional dimensions, all...
Instructional Design Consultations through iDesign
Oct. 28, 2020—Vanderbilt University has partnered with the instructional design firm iDesign to make available a number of services to help faculty and other instructors prepare for online and hybrid teaching this fall. iDesign learning specialists are on-hand to assist with your course design and teaching effectiveness questions. If you have a question relating how to best...
New Resource on Leading Synchronous Online Discussions
Oct. 26, 2020—Check out the latest page on Leading Synchronous Online Discussions posted within the Center for Teaching’s Online Course Development Resources website. Heather Fedesco, CFT assistant director, provides suggestions for effective ways to incorporate group discussions into Zoom class sessions. You can learn more about setting expectations for Zoom discussions, establishing community norms to ensure these...
Meeting in Tents with Students
Oct. 21, 2020—If you have been on campus lately, you may have noticed that there are more tents than one usually sees outside of Commencement week. These tents have been set up to provide more outside, socially distanced meeting space for faculty, students, and staff. Faculty and other instructors are welcome to use these tents to meet...
Creating Effective, Equitable Assessments for Online Courses: An On-demand Resource
Oct. 19, 2020—In the transition to online education many educators have been concerned about how to assess student learning in ways that are engaging, creative, fair, and equitable. Not only do students demonstrate widely differing resources and aptitudes for online learning that raise concerns about equity, but online technologies present instructors with many challenges in assessing students...
New vlog series: Teaching programming online
Oct. 12, 2020—Doug Schmidt, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Computer Science, and Jules White, Associate Professor of Computer Science, are creating a video blog (vlog) series on “Teaching Programming Online.” Schmidt says they were inspired by a CFT-sponsored webinar in August that drew about 25 Vanderbilt faculty members, demonstrating substantial local interest that suggests there may be broader...
Register for our Latest Online Course Design Institute!
Oct. 7, 2020—This structured professional development opportunity for Vanderbilt faculty, grad students, and other instructors will explore effective practices in online education and help instructors plan their upcoming online courses. For those who weren’t able to take the intensive version of the OCDI in the summer, there is still time to join this fully online, five week...
Upcoming Conversations on Teaching
Oct. 5, 2020—These sessions provide members of the Vanderbilt teaching community a chance to share their teaching experiences and learn from each other in an informal, discussion-based format. Leading Synchronous Online Discussions This semester, many of you may have tried your hand at leading synchronous online discussions for the first time, most likely via Zoom. You may...
Event Focusing on Teaching Issues of Race and Racism
Oct. 1, 2020—Throughout 2020-21 and as part of its annual Teaching, Difference, & Power series, the Center for Teaching is hosting a learning community that will address a variety of topics related to teaching and race. The first event of this series, “Teaching Issues of Race and Racism,” will take place October 2nd from 12:00-1:30pm in a...
Wanting Mid-semester Feedback?
Sep. 28, 2020—It is always a good idea to check in with our students about how a course is going during the middle of the semester, and that will be more true than ever this fall. We at the Center for Teaching can help with our Small Group Analysis (SGA) process, which we have modified to work...