Commentary Category
Course improvement grant spotlight: “Compare studies of 3D materials to creating quizzes to consider whether learning strategy outshines motivation in memory retention.”
Oct. 28, 2021—Alison Hilbun, senior lecturer in biological sciences, recently talked to CFT associate director Cynthia Brame about her Course Improvement Grant, “Compare studies of 3D materials to creating quizzes to consider whether learning strategy outshines motivation in memory retention.” Can you tell me briefly about your project and what inspired you to do it? Part of...
Educational advancement fund spotlight: “A transformative learning approach for FL2 Spanish students”
Oct. 22, 2021—Carolina Palacios, senior lecturer in Spanish, recently talked to CFT assistant director Julaine Fowlin about her Educational Advancement Fund grant, “A transformative learning approach for FL2 Spanish students.” Can you tell us briefly about your project and what inspired you to do this project? This project fosters life-long learning and involves transformative learning in FL2...
Course improvement grant spotlight: “Cloud-hosted Python notebook for teaching biomedical signals and systems.”
Oct. 14, 2021— Will Grissom, associate professor of biomedical engineering; “Cloud-hosted Python notebook for teaching biomedical signals and systems.” Can you tell me briefly about your course improvement grant project and what inspired you...
Course improvement grant spotlight: “Italian language enhancement for Maymester course in Rome”
Oct. 7, 2021—Chiara Sulprizio, senior lecturer in classical and Mediterranean studies, recently talked with CFT assistant director Julaine Fowlin about her Course Improvement Grant, “Italian language enhancement for Maymester course in Rome.” Chiara teaches a maymester course called, History and Art of Ancient Rome, and she takes students to Rome and Southern Italy for that month. She...
Educational advancement fund spotlight: “Improv for language learning and promoting intellectual risk-taking.”
Sep. 30, 2021—Divya Chaudhry, senior lecturer in Asian Studies recently told us about her grant from the Educational Advancement Fund, which is title, “Improv for language learning and promoting intellectual risk-taking.” Can you tell us about your project and what inspired you to do it? I seek to study the impact of improvisational theater (henceforth improv) on...
Course improvement grant spotlight: “Incorporating student feedback in introductory biology to increase learners’ sense of belonging”
Sep. 16, 2021—Jessica Gilpin, senior lecturer in biological sciences, recently told us about her Course Improvement Grant project, “Incorporating student feedback in introductory biology to increase learners’ sense of belonging.” Can you tell us briefly about your project and what inspired you to do this project? As you know, the title of my project is, “Incorporating...
From the Executive Director
Sep. 14, 2021—by Derek Bruff, executive director, Vanderbilt Center for Teaching Vanderbilt’s return to the classroom this fall isn’t going exactly as we might have predicted or hoped back in June, given the changing conditions of the pandemic. However, between Vanderbilt instructors’ experience with adaptive teaching last year and an impressively high vaccination rate for the Vanderbilt...
Lessons from a Journal Club Blog Series
Sep. 13, 2021—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 I tried this semester — did it work?!”...
Course improvement grant spotlight: “Making Innovative learning videos for elementary Japanese classes”
Sep. 9, 2021—Nozomi Imai, lecturer of Asian studies, recently talked with CFT assistant director Julaine Fowlin about her Course Improvement Grant, “Making Innovative learning videos for elementary Japanese classes.” Last year when we had to shift to remote and hybrid learning, Nozomi created videos to allow her students to learn at their own pace and provide an...
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...