Preparing for Spring 2022 Resource Round-up

As faculty and other instructors prepare for another semester of adaptive teaching, the Center for Teaching continues to create resources to help the Vanderbilt community teach effectively in a variety of contexts. Below is a round-up of those resources, with an emphasis on the various blog posts, teaching guides, and on-demand content available to instructors.

Workshops and Conversations

Center for Teaching staff are organizing teaching workshops and conversations on teaching for August, with most occurring before classes start. Topics include flipping the classroom, teaching for wellbeing, inclusive teaching, and strategies for class participation.

See the CFT events page for the full list of sessions.

Online Course Development Resource Site

The resources in our Online Course Development Resource site walk through the online course development process drawing on research, best practices, and existing resources from around the web and the Center for Teaching. Visit the site for practical advice on planning, implementing, and assessing your online courses.

Tools for Success: The Educational Technology Landscape at Vanderbilt Resource

At the CFT’s new faculty orientation called Teaching at Vanderbilt (TAV), CFT assistant director for educational technology, Stacey Johnson, led a session called: Tools for success: The educational technology landscape at Vanderbilt. The majority of the session was devoted to giving a broad picture of teaching tools here on campus. This useful handout has a breakdown of her talking points and lots of links. You can access that here:  Ed Tech Landscape TAV 2021

Instructional Design Services

The Center for Teaching is now offering instructional design consultations to the Vanderbilt community. Julaine Fowlin, the Center’s new assistant director for instructional design, is available to consult with instructors on the design of online courses, moving an existing course online, or the development of online programs. To schedule a consultation with Julaine, see this form.

Brightspace Support at the CFT

Many instructors have learned new ways to support student engagement and learning through Brightspace, Vanderbilt’s course management system. The Center’s team of Brightspace support specialists is available to answer questions both technical and pedagogical. Support is available via email (brightspace@vanderbilt.edu) and phone (615-322-0200) on Sundays 5pm to 11pm, Mondays through Thursdays 7am to 11pm, and Fridays 7am to 5pm. On-demand resources are always available on the Brightspace support website.

Educational Technologies

Brightspace isn’t the only educational technology that the CFT supports. The following tools all integrate with Brightspace in various ways.

• Top Hat is Vanderbilt’s classroom response system, offering tools for live polling that can enhance a Zoom or hybrid class sessions, as well as tools for asynchronous student interaction, including quizzes and discussions that are embedded in course content.
• GoReact is an online video feedback tool. Students can upload videos of presentations or performance demonstrations and instructors (and peers) can leave time-coded text, audio, and video feedback.
• Gradescope helps instructors administer and grade assignments and assessments, whether online or in-class. It can improve efficiency, equity, and security when grading, particularly when teams of graders are involved.
• Perusall is a social annotation tool, allowing students to collaboratively highlight and annotate course readings and materials. Social annotation can students engage more deeply with readings and learn from their peers.

One Button Studio

The CFT’s One Button Studio is an automated, simplified video studio that can be used without any previous video production experience to make high-quality educational videos for online and hybrid courses. The studio has great lighting and great sound and is incredibly easy to use. See the One Button Studio site for more information or to book an appointment.

Blog Posts, Teaching Guides, and More

With all the resources that CFT staff have been creating, it can hard to keep track of what is where. What follows is a list of some of the blog posts, teaching guides, podcast episodes, and YouTube videos most useful for spring 2021 course planning.

Hybrid Teaching

• “Teaching in a Hybrid Classroom: What’s Working, What’s Not,” Derek Bruff (blog post)
• “Structures for Flex Classrooms: Pros, Cons, and Pedagogical Choices,” Cynthia Brame (blog post)
• “Active Learning in Hybrid and Physically Distanced Classrooms,” Derek Bruff (blog post)

Online Teaching

• “Suggestions for Online Teaching at Vanderbilt,” Adriane Seiffert and Ashleigh Maxcey (blog post)
• “Turning a Syllabus into an Online Course on Brightspace,” Stacey Johnson (blog post)
• “Cultivating Joy and Connection in Online Classrooms: Icebreakers and Beyond,” Divya Chaudhry (teaching guide)
• “Episode 89: Heeryoon Shin,” Leading Lines (podcast)
• “Episode 81: Susan Kevra,” Leading Lines (podcast)
• “Episode 79: Rodolfo Rego,” Leading Lines (podcast)
• “Episode 78: Cynthia Brame,” Leading Lines (podcast)

Student-Centered Teaching

• “Learning in Two Time Zones: International Students’ Experiences During COVID-19,” José Luis de Ramón Ruiz and Nazirah Mohd Khairi (blog post)
• “Advice for Faculty Teaching First-Year Undergraduates This Fall,” Melissa Gresalfi (blog post)
• “Trauma-Informed Teaching During COVID-19,” Leah Marion Roberts (blog post)
• “Inclusive and Equitable Teaching Online,” Joe Bandy (blog post)
• “Keeping Stress from Evolving into Distress: A Guide on Managing Student Stress through Course Design,” Brielle Harbin (teaching guide)
• “Teaching in Times of Crisis,” Nancy Chick (teaching guide)
• “Episode 102: Tazin Daniels,” Leading Lines (podcast)
• “Episode 90: Betsy Barre and Karen Costa,” Leading Lines (podcast)
• “Episode 77: Robin DeRosa and Martha Burtis,” Leading Lines (podcast)
• “Assessing Student Needs in Your Course,” Heather Fedesco, Amanda Brockman, & Emilie Hall (teaching guide)

Assessment

• “Creating Effective, Equitable Assessments for Online Courses,” featuring Joe Bandy (Chronicle virtual form)
• “Giving Exams Online: Strategies and Tools,” Cynthia Brame (teaching guide)
• “Developing Online Assessments of Student Learning in a Hurry,” Stacey Johnson (blog post)
• “Testing Strategies,” Conversation on Teaching (video)
• “Assessing Student Learning (Online),” Joe Bandy (video series)
• “Experiences with Standards- and Specification-Based Grading,” Richard Haglund (blog post)

Brightspace Tools

• “What Is Click Tracking? How Should Instructors Use It to Improve Their Courses?”, Stacey Johnson (blog post)
• “Low-Bandwidth Teaching Tools on Brightspace,” Stacey Johnson (blog post)
• “Asynchronous Teaching Tools on Brightspace,” Stacey Johnson (blog post)

Other Tool and Technologies

• “All About Recording Zoom Meetings: New Guides for Faculty,” Stacey Johnson (blog post)
• “Teaching with Perusall and Social Annotation: Highlights from a Conversation,” Derek Bruff (blog post)
• “Tips for Creating Quality Videos at Home,” Carly Byer (technology guide)
• “Using Top Hat to Drive Student Engagement in Asynchronous Learning,” Jesse Blocher (blog post)
• “Flipgrid: Empowering Voices with Asynchronous Online Video Discussions,” Patrick Murphy (blog post)
• “Using OneNote to Teach Online,” Elliott McCarter (blog post)
• “Effective Educational Videos,” Cynthia Brame (teaching guide)
• “Teaching with Blogs,” Kendra Oliver and Richard Coble (teaching guide)
• “Finding Images for Your Online Course,” Rhett McDaniel (video)
• “Creating Graphics Using Word,” Rhett McDaniel (video)

Other Resources

• “Teaching in a Mask,” Derek Bruff (blog post)
• “Dealing with the Unexpected: Teaching When You or Your Students Can’t Make It to Class,” Stacey Johnson (teaching guide)
• “Project-Based and Dynamic Collaborative Learning,” Julaine Fowlin (teaching guide)
• “Making the Most of In-Class Reading Days,” Derek Bruff (blog post)
• “Teaching Assistants’ Roles and Responsibilities During COVID-19,” Leah Marion Roberts and Heather Fedesco (blog post)
• “Teaching Labs Remotely,” Cynthia Brame (blog post)
• “Flipping the Classroom,” Cynthia Brame (teaching guide)
• “Teaching with Games and Simulations in a Pandemic,” Conversation on Teaching (video)
• “Teaching Programming Online,” Conversation on Teaching (video)

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