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Using Top Hat to drive student engagement in asynchronous learning

Apr. 29, 2020—by Jesse Blocher, Assistant Professor of Finance When moving a class online, my observation is that most faculty’s first move is to create video. This is logical since much of what we do as faculty is lecture in some form or another. Video is an excellent communication tool and verbal communication is a cornerstone of...

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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...

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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...

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Updates to CFT Programming

Apr. 15, 2020—With the campus move to remote teaching, learning, and work, the Center for Teaching has made some changes to its previously planned programming. Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows – We are still taking applications for the next year’s cohort of fellows! Applications are due Thursday, April 30th. Details on the JFTF website. Teaching Consultations – We are still available...

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Apply to be a Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow!

Apr. 14, 2020—We are now accepting applications for the 2020-21 Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows program. The program is designed to help you: Build understanding of principles of learning to inform your teaching Stock your teaching toolkit with new skills and approaches Develop a framework for course design Build teaching community Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows receive $2000 in research funds to be...

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From the Director

Apr. 13, 2020—Greetings from my home office, where I sit writing at the beautiful roll top desk I inherited from my father.  A lot has changed since our March newsletter, at Vanderbilt, in middle Tennessee, and around the world, but I don’t have to tell you that. We’re all figuring out how to teach and learn and...

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Drop-In Hours for Remote Teaching Consultations

Apr. 10, 2020—During the weeks of April 13th and April 20th, members of the Center for Teaching’s senior staff will be available hold drop-in hours for remote teaching consultations. See below for the schedule. If you’re teaching at Vanderbilt and have a question about online learning activities, alternative assessments, summer online instruction, or any other aspect of...

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Pivoting to remote teaching and learning: Community health clinical hours from a distance through a weekly newsletter

Apr. 10, 2020—Brittany Haskell is a Nursing faculty member who is engaged in the CFT’s Junior Faculty Teaching Fellowship this year. She teaches in the Community Health course series, which requires that students engage in a particular number of clinical hours. During the transition to remote teaching and learning this spring, Brittany and her colleagues worked with...

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Pivoting to remote teaching and learning: Community health clinical hours from a distance through parent education

Apr. 9, 2020—Jennifer Ridgway is a Nursing faculty member who is engaged in the CFT’s Junior Faculty Teaching Fellowship this year. She teaches in the Community Health course series, which requires that students engage in a particular number of clinical hours. During the transition to remote teaching and learning this spring, Jennifer and her colleagues worked with...

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Additional security measure for logging into Brightspace goes into effect Monday, April 13

Apr. 9, 2020—As of April 13th 2020, all faculty, staff, TAs, and postdoctoral researchers will be required to use Two Factor Authentication (2FA) as an additional security measure for logging into Brightspace as well as several additional Vanderbilt accounts. This will change the way you log into Brightspace. First, you will need the Duo Mobile app on...

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