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Teaching labs remotely
Apr. 3, 2020—by Cynthia Brame, CFT associate director As we start to prepare for teaching summer courses online, some instructors are making the shift toward teaching labs online. As many lab courses are designed to be about learning from hands-on, messy, real-world exploration, this shift can be a challenge. Use your goals as your guide One of...
Using OneNote to teach online
Mar. 30, 2020—by Elliott McCarter, Senior Lecturer in Hindi-Urdu, Asian Studies Program and 2019-2020 Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow at Vanderbilt University Upon being called to teach my courses online, I cringed at the thought of being chained to a computer for hours on end as I slowly typed everything in Hindi, Urdu, and Sanskrit. My strong desire...
Gradescope grading tool for handwritten exams, lab reports, and more is free through June 30
Mar. 26, 2020—Gradescope is an online, FERPA compliant grading tool that professors can use to grade handwritten exams, typed homework assignments, lab reports and more. Gradescope works well for many types of questions: paragraphs, proofs, diagrams, fill-in-the-blank and true/false to name a few. Six Vanderbilt professors have been using it for over four years and are enthusiastic...
GoReact enables faculty and peers to give feedback on presentations
Mar. 25, 2020—Through June 30th, Vanderbilt faculty and students can use GoReact for free by signing up with a valid Vanderbilt email address. GoReact is a video feedback tool where students can upload videos and receive time-stamped feedback from both instructors and peers. This tool is useful for when you need to give feedback on student presentations,...
New CFT resource on giving online exams focuses on reducing the probability of cheating
Mar. 24, 2020—As courses have moved online this spring, many of us need to consider how to have our students take exams online. In many cases, this involves learning how to use tools that help ensure students take the exam with only the resources you want them to have. As you think about giving exams online, it...
Communicating with your students about the move to online classes
Mar. 12, 2020—by CFT assistant director, Joe Bandy I just wrote my students an email (see below) that you can use as model of things you might say to your students in preparation for next week, if you haven’t considered something like this already. Included in it is a link to a Google Forms survey I constructed...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Derek Bruff and Cryptography Escape Rooms
Mar. 9, 2020—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern During Spring 2020, the Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt blog series will highlight teaching innovations that CFT staff have implemented and evaluated in their own courses. I heard about Dr. Derek Bruff’s teaching innovation before I started working at the CFT from my freshman RA. She had been in Bruff’s...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Joe Bandy and Accessibility and Inclusivity in an Environmental Course
Feb. 24, 2020—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern During Spring 2020, the Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt blog series will highlight teaching innovations that CFT staff have implemented and evaluated in their own courses. Taught by Dr. Joe Bandy, SOC 3314: Environmental Inequality and Justice covers the history, ethics, and policies of environmental activism and how the...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Stacey Johnson and Reflective Final Exams
Feb. 10, 2020—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern During Spring 2020, the Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt blog series will highlight teaching innovations that CFT staff have implemented and evaluated in their own courses. Dr. Stacey Johnson is passionate about teaching languages, and if there is one teaching technique she is passionate about, it’s reflective exams. For...
The Traveling Stanzas: Poets for Science
Jan. 31, 2020—The Traveling Stanzas is an interactive exhibit that will be on display in the lobby of Buttrick Hall from Monday, Feb 3rd at 12 pm until Wednesday, Feb 5th at 4PM. The Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University has driven innovation and generated national distinction for over three decades through its award-winning Traveling Stanzas project,...