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Podcasting Essentials: What you need to know to launch your own podcast

Mar. 4, 2022—by Rhett McDaniel Have you ever listened to a podcast and been inspired to make one of your own? You can! Producing academic podcasts around your course topics is a great way to help your students learn. In addition, your podcast would be accessible to the nearly 118 million podcast listeners all over the world....

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CSET Mini-Conference Improving Science Communication: The Promise of Science and Humanities Collaborations – March 18

Mar. 3, 2022—The Communication of Science and Technology program announces a mini-conference to foster science/humanities collaborations around teaching. See the mini-conference schedule and description of talks by Radiolab founder Jad Abumrad and Communication Professor Leah Ceccarelli, who originated the idea of the “scientist citizen.” CSET Mini-Conference Improving Science Communication: The Promise of Science and Humanities Collaborations Student...

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Junior Faculty Spotlight: Adeana McNicholl

Jan. 10, 2022—The CFT highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. In this post, Adeana McNicholl, Religious Studies, talks about some of the lessons she has gained from the Fellowship. I am an Assistant Professor of Buddhist Traditions in the Religious Studies department. My research focuses on Buddhism in ancient South Asia and Buddhism in...

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Course improvement grant spotlight: “Restoration and rehabilitation of Vanderbilt fossil teaching collection”

Sep. 2, 2021—Neil Kelley, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, recently talked to CFT associate director Cynthia Brame about his Course Improvement Grant, “Restoration and rehabilitation of Vanderbilt fossil teaching collection.” Can you tell us briefly about your project and what inspired you to do this project? The project is a very long overdue project in...

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Lessons from a Journal Club: Investigating Student Learning – Post 3: Reasons for doing systematic inquiry and final reflections

Sep. 1, 2021—by Leah Marion Roberts, Senior Graduate Teaching Fellow   Welcome to the final post in this series on systematic inquiry in teaching and learning contexts. This spring, Cynthia Brame and I facilitated a journal club looking at different ways to investigate student learning. In this blog series, I’m sharing some highlights of our collective learning,...

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One of these things was not like the others: Experiences with standards- and specifications-based grading

Aug. 30, 2021—This guest blog post comes from Richard F. Haglund, Stevenson Professor of Physics.   The following comments are reflections after a year of fruitful dialogue with colleagues in an on-line learning community sponsored by the Center for Teaching, organized and led by Cynthia Brame. What I experienced about grading in 2020-2021 is a significant difference...

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Lessons from a Journal Club: Investigating Student Learning – Post 2: Affective/Cognitive Inquiry and Qualitative/quantitative approaches

Aug. 25, 2021—by Leah Marion Roberts, Senior Graduate Teaching Fellow   Assessment of student learning is an essential practice in teaching. As mentioned in the first post in this blog series, asking questions and collecting data about our classes systematically can deepen our knowledge of student experience in our classrooms, and hopefully lead to improved teaching practices. ...

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Lessons from a Journal Club: Investigating Student Learning – Post 1: What is vs. what works?

Aug. 18, 2021—by Leah Marion Roberts, Senior Graduate Teaching Fellow   Assessment of student learning is a familiar and essential component of teaching.  As college instructors, we constantly ask ourselves questions like: “Are my students learning?” “What do they still not understand?” “Do students feel they can approach me with questions or concerns?”or, “That cool new thing...

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CFT Proudly Welcomes the 
New Cohort of Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows

Jul. 22, 2021—L to R: Michael Byrne (Medicine), Maria Sayil Camacho (Leadership, Policy and Organizations), Elizabeth Cizmar (Theatre), Thomas Clements (Biological Sciences), Romina Del Bosque (Biomedical Engineering), Janelle Delle (Nursing), Seok Bae Jang (Asian Studies), Melinda Johnson (Nursing), Antonia Kaczkurkin (Psychology), Hannah Kestner (Nursing),Colleen Moss (Nursing), Piran Kidambi (Biomolecular Engineering), Autumn Kujawa (Psychology and Human Development), Michelle...

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The CFT Thanks Our Graduate Teaching Fellows!

Jun. 23, 2021—L to R:  Abena Boakyewa-Ansah (History), Amanda Brockman (Sociology), Leah Roberts (Human & Organizational Development), and Mohammad Meerzaei (Religion) We want to thank our 2020-2021 Graduate Teaching Fellows for their leadership, commitment to teaching values, and completing their 12 months fellowship. As we faced an unprecedented year with new teaching challenges, our incredible Fellows created various resources and...

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