Resource Category
Missed the Workshop? Watch “Tools for Putting Your Teaching Online”
Mar. 13, 2020—As Vanderbilt prepares to move its classes to online and other alternative forms of instruction for the remainder of the semester, the Center for Teaching is offering a number of workshops to support faculty and other instructors as they make this transition. We are partnering with the Office of Faculty Affairs and Vanderbilt University Information...
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...
Remote Teaching and Learning with Zoom and Other Tools
Mar. 10, 2020—The Brightspace support team at the Center for Teaching has put together a short video showing a few of the tools faculty and other instructors might find useful as they move to remote teaching and alternative instruction. Please note that as of this writing (late night on Tuesday, March 10), Zoom is not yet available...
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 with Blogs on Brightspace
Mar. 5, 2020—Brightspace is an excellent platform for students to share ideas and collaborate. If you’re interested in student blogging using Brightspace, try the Discussions tool for setting up blogging spaces. Check out our newest training resources on discussion boards and blogs.
Brightspace Support for Students
Feb. 27, 2020—Do your students need extra help with Brightspace? The CFT has resources available for students as well as instructors! New guides for students are released regularly and can be found at vanderbilt.edu/brightspace, including our brand new guide on submitting large video files using Kaltura.
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...
Faster grading for free response assignments? Yes, please!
Jan. 10, 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. If your students can upload a pdf of their work, you and your team...
Incorporating Games into TA Orientation
Jan. 8, 2020—By Cait Kirby, CFT Teaching Affiliate and Biological Sciences PhD student In my role as a Teaching Affiliate at Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching, I lead an orientation event for a group of Biological Sciences Teaching Assistants (TAs). This orientation serves to educate new TAs about their roles, Vanderbilt policies, pedagogical techniques, and the types of...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Danielle Picard, Mary Anne Caton and Wikipedia Editing
Dec. 15, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern We’ve all been told—or been the one telling people—to not use Wikipedia as a source. There’s a variety of reasons, of course, with the main one being the credibility of the information. Wikipedia is aware of this and has made a series of changes aimed at rectifying this. Their...