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New Guide on Project-based and Dynamic Collaborative Learning
Oct. 29, 2021—The newest addition to the CFT’s Course Development Resources (CDR) site, entitled Project-Based and Dynamic Collaborative Learning, is all about how instructors can design meaningful, effective group work through research-informed strategies and the intentional use of technology. The guide explores the research on collaborative groups and answers questions such as: How should we form groups?...
A Survey to Assess Student Needs in Your Course
Aug. 20, 2021—As we near the beginning of a new semester, many of us are thinking about how we can make space in our classrooms to learn about our students’ needs. In higher education, the question of how we can support students coming back to campus after mostly online experiences is a hot topic in almost every...
Current Events in the Language Classroom
Jan. 14, 2021—by Stacey M. Johnson, CFT assistant director What is our obligation as teachers, even more specifically as language teachers, to bring current events into our classrooms? Following the horrors of January 6th, I saw many of my language teacher acquaintances brainstorm on social media how they might help students navigate these unsettling events in their...
Join us TODAY for a secure testing Q&A Session all about Proctorio!
Nov. 30, 2020—Do you have questions about using Proctorio, Vanderbilt’s secure testing software? If you plan to give a timed, secure exam using the Brightspace Quiz tool, using Proctorio in Brightspace provides a range of security options. Drop in for a Q&A session at noon on Monday, November 30th or on Tuesday, December 1st. The CFT’s Lead Instructional...
All About Recording Zoom Meetings – New Guides for Faculty!
Oct. 8, 2020—Have you been wondering about recording your live class meetings? We have several new guides available on our On-Demand Resources page that will walk you through some commonly asked questions. Should I record my live class meeting? New! How can I record and share my class meetings with my students? New! How can I record...
What is click tracking? How should instructors use it to improve their courses?
Sep. 3, 2020—Click tracking refers to the ability that both instructors and students have in Brightspace to see where students have clicked within a course. This tool can be very useful for students trying to track their own progress in a course and for instructors evaluating their own course design and learning activities. However, this tool should...
Make your Brightspace course homepage work for you!
Aug. 7, 2018—When you (or your students) first click on a course from the main landing page in Brightspace, the default first page is a homepage that has the announcements tool and the calendar tool pre-loaded. However, the default is not your only option. In fact, you have quite a bit of control over what your students see...
New Guide – Teaching Adult Undergraduate Students
Feb. 15, 2017—The Center for Teaching’s recently released teaching guide Teaching Adult Undergraduate Students is a tool for instructors and administrators considering the needs of adult (or non-traditional) students on Vanderbilt’s campus. Adult learners returning to college after military service, parenthood, or other life experiences may approach college in a very different way than their less experienced classmates....
Link Your Online Textbook Content with Blackboard
Sep. 29, 2016—Does your textbook have online materials for students? Did you know that Blackboard can create a seamless link between many publishers’ content and your course allowing you to download content and import grades? Two new resources from the CFT will help you make the connection between your Blackboard course and textbook-based online platform. ...
SIPX: A Blackboard-Integrated Tool for Copyright Compliance
Sep. 16, 2016—You may have heard about SIPX, a tool recently acquired by the Vanderbilt Library to streamline the copyright compliance process for course readings. With the addition of SIPX to the Blackboard tool set, instructors now have the ability to find course readings themselves from the library holdings (or from other sources) and place the links...