‘Course Design’
Structures for flex classrooms: pros, cons, and pedagogical choices
Jun. 23, 2020—By Cynthia Brame, CFT Associate Director As we head into the fall thinking about classes where we may have a combination of students who are physically and digitally present, I’ve been thinking about different ways to structure students’ time “in the classroom”. The first and most straightforward of these is to divide students into groups...
Leading Lines Podcast: Cynthia Brame talks about how the Online Course Design Institute helps Vanderbilt faculty get ready to teach online
Jun. 9, 2020—The Leading Lines podcast has released the latest pisode exploring the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on higher education. This time we are speaking with the CFT’s own Cynthia Brame about the Online Course Design Institute that was launched in May to help Vanderbilt faculty get ready to teach online this summer and possibly this...
Apply Now for the Online Course Design Institute
May. 5, 2020—The Center for Teaching invites Vanderbilt faculty, postdocs, and graduate students to apply to its new Online Course Design Institute, a two-week online experience intended to help participants prepare to teach an online course. The Online Course Design Institute will be offered multiple times this summer and we are now accepting applications for our late May and June...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Leah Marion Roberts and Student-driven Course Goals and Expectations
May. 4, 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. As a student, I find it helpful when a course has clear goals. But while that helps guide student learning, what’s equally, if...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Chad Carpenter and Multi-Step Class Problem Solving
Apr. 6, 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. In teaching quantitative courses, it can be easy to fall into the trap of creating plug-and-chug problems for students. However, Chad Carpenter,...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Heather Fedesco and Consulting Groups
Jan. 27, 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. Most students can give an example from their own life from a group project gone wrong, but working in groups is often integral to...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Anna Guengerich and Multi-group roleplay
Oct. 29, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern Certain classes stay with you, and HART-1330W Sacred Sites in World History is one of the classes for me. I still love to talk about the Stave Churches of Norway, which were the topic of my final paper and project. Another part of the class that I found very...
Student motivation journal club: If it’s bigger than you, the boring is worth it: the power of self-transcending motivation on menial tasks
Oct. 28, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern, and Heather Fedesco, CFT Assistant Director Unfortunately, it’s hard to avoid the boring in learning. Inevitably, even in the most exciting fields, students need to learn and do a boring, menial, or repetitive task. In STEM, this is especially true. You can’t learn to plot the path of a...
Evidence-based teaching: my definition
Jun. 19, 2019—by Cynthia J. Brame, CFT Associate Director I’ve been thinking lately about what we mean when we say “evidence-based teaching.” It’s a term I’ve used a lot (e.g., the Evidence-Based Teaching Guides feature of LSE that I co-edit with Kristy Wilson of Marian University), but I didn’t really think about the definition until earlier this...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Neil Kelley, Jennifer Bradham and Class Simulations
May. 27, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern Neil Kelley teaches EES 1030L: Oceanography Lab, assisted by his TAs, Michaela Peterson and Jennifer Bradham. I was able to speak with Kelley and Bradham about a specific lab that, quite frankly, made me want to take the course just so I could be a part of it. And...