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Brightspace and Teaching Focused Workshops for the Fall
Sep. 2, 2020—We have several Brightspace and online teaching focused workshops lined up for September. Offerings include: Grades and Feedback in Brightspace Participants in this workshop will learn how to organize their gradebook and about the range of tools available in Brightspace to make grading and feedback more efficient and effective. September 2, 12:00-1:30pm. REGISTER Assignments in...
Celebration of Learning Spotlight: The Smiler: A Case Study in Roller Coaster Safety
Aug. 26, 2020—On February 13, 2020, the Center for Teaching held a Celebration of Learning, an exhibition of students as producers. The event featured students from all over campus sharing what they learned, created, designed, and discovered. Each year millions of riders brave the courses of the world’s 5,000 roller coasters, but should passengers feel unsafe riding these behemoths of twisted...
Leading Lines Ed Tech Podcast with Susan Kevra
Aug. 24, 2020—In this episode, we’re talking with one of the participants in the Vanderbilt Online Course Design Institute, Susan Kevra, a principal senior lecturer in French who also teaches in our American studies program. In our conversation, we talk about experiential learning activities, building community and fostering social presence, balancing asynchronous and synchronous modes of instruction, and...
Teaching Assistants’ Roles and Responsibilities During COVID-19
Aug. 20, 2020—By Leah Marion Roberts, Senior Graduate Teaching Fellow, 2020-2021 and Heather N. Fedesco, Assistant Director, Center for Teaching As new Teaching Assistant Orientation comes to an end this week, it is helpful to think through the roles and responsibilities graduate teaching assistants (TAs) may now face in their entirely online or hybrid with physical distancing...
Liberating Zoom: Strategies for Better Online Discussions
Aug. 19, 2020—Friday, August 21, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Join the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities this Friday for a highly interactive, hands-on exploration of strategies that help build more inclusive and engaged teaching and research communities, online and in person. Liberating Structures, led by Anna Jackson and Fisher Qua, is a methodology grounded in the idea that the strategies commonly...
CFT Launches New Site to Help Instructors Develop Online Courses
Aug. 17, 2020—The Center for Teaching is excited to announce the Online Course Development Resources website. The site is designed to help faculty and other instructors design, teach, and revise their online courses, drawing on research, best practices, and existing resources from the Center for Teaching and around the web. There are two ways to engage with the resources on the...
Tips for Creating Quality Videos at Home
Aug. 13, 2020—Are you hoping to create more professional-looking videos for your courses? Checkout Tips for Creating Quality Videos at Home where CFT Digital Media Specialist, Carly Byer, lists tips, recommends budget-friendly equipment, and links out to helpful tutorials. The equipment recommendations include audio, lighting, cameras, and even backdrops. Interested in also editing your videos? You may be...
Center for Second Language Studies- Fall 2020 Orientation
Aug. 12, 2020—The CSLS Community is invited to attend the virtual CSLS orientation with guest speaker Shannon Riggs on “Engaging Students From a Distance.” The orientation will be held over Zoom on August 20th from 10am-10:45am. Zoom Link: https://vanderbilt.zoom.us/j/91745405522
CFT Blog Posts Designed to Help You Prepare for Fall
Aug. 10, 2020—CFT director, Derek Bruff, outlines some student-centered strategies you can use to engage students in meaningful learning, including discussion leading, live polling, backchannels, collaborative notetaking, group work, hybrid pair work, and more. Read Active Learning in Hybrid and Physically Distanced Classrooms Cynthia Brame, CFT associate director, has been thinking about different ways to structure students’ time “in the...
Teaching Assistant Orientation
Aug. 5, 2020—Many graduate students are awarded teaching assistantships, and while teaching assistant (TA) duties vary across departments, they all demand considerable skill and knowledge. These duties can include grading, consulting with students during office hours, leading discussion or problem sessions, teaching labs, or giving lectures. To assist new TAs as they prepare for their duties, the Vanderbilt...