Commentary Category
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...
Junior Faculty Spotlight: Daniela D’Eugenio
Jul. 20, 2020—Each year, the CFT Newsletter highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. This month, Daniela D’Eugenio, French & Italian, talks about some of the most useful lessons she has learned from the Fellowship. As a Senior Lecturer of Italian in the Department of French and Italian and affiliated faculty for the Certificate in Second Language Studies, I...
Suggestions for online teaching at Vanderbilt
Jul. 16, 2020—By Dr. Adriane Seiffert and Dr. Ashleigh Maxcey, Vanderbilt University Department of Psychology The following are thoughts, reflections, and suggestions on teaching online based on our experiences teaching courses over Maymester and Summer 2020. We hope they help you plan your online course as we can all strive to deliver top-notch courses this fall. Discuss...
Celebration of Learning Spotlight: Progress of Sustainable Fashion in Our Daily Lives
Jul. 15, 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. Madeline Repath, Angelica Park, Mathilde Caindec’s project was two parts: a sustainability guide and a reflection. Each team made a guide that encourages students...
Celebration of Learning Spotlight: Martin C.K. Shade: An Interactive Twine Narrative
Jun. 10, 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. Martin C.K. Shade is an interactive narrative (IF) Dylan Kistler built in the free program known as Twine. It seeks to blend narratorial and procedural...
Junior Faculty Spotlight: Jennifer Ridgway
May. 18, 2020—Each month, the CFT highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. This month, Jennifer Ridgway, Nursing, talks about her teaching philosophy and interests. Engaging in the Center for Teaching’s (CFT) Junior Faculty Teaching Fellowship (JFTF) has become one of the greatest growth opportunities in my professional development as faculty. One of my primary goals in participating in this...
Latest Episode of the Leading Lines Podcast
May. 13, 2020—During this season of Leading Lines, we’re exploring the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on higher education. A big part of that impact lands on our students. Robin DeRosa is the director of the Open Learning & Teaching Collaborative, or Open CoLab, at Plymouth State University, a public liberal arts institution that’s part of the University. She...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Faith Rovenolt and high impact learning experiences
May. 11, 2020—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern Faith Rovenolt initiated the Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt blog series in spring 2019. She has shared posts based on interviews with Vanderbilt instructors every two weeks during the academic year since then. As she graduates and moves on to graduate school, she closes out the Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt...
Flipgrid: Empowering Voices with Asynchronous Online Video Discussions
Apr. 21, 2020—by Patrick Murphy, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese Flipgrid is a free online video tool from Microsoft that allows students to record video for up to 10 minutes. It has a lot of fun visual effects as well as intuitive assessment and feedback options that can be included in rubric evaluation...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Chelsea Yarborough, Cross-Disciplinary Examples, and Online Covenant Building
Apr. 20, 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. Something I’ve noticed in my time as a student is the false dichotomy sometimes constructed between disciplines. The most obvious example of this is...