‘Course Design’
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...
Teaching Workshops
May. 21, 2019—These workshops focus on practical, concrete strategies for common teaching tasks, challenges, and opportunities. These sessions draw on research-based best practices from the literature on teaching and learning and help participants consider ways to apply those best practices in their teaching. Teaching Workshops are typically a mix of presentation, large group discussion, small group activities,...
“Students as Producers” Course Design Institutes for Faculty and Graduate Students
Mar. 18, 2019—The CFT invites Vanderbilt faculty and graduate students to apply to its 2019 Course Design Institutes on the theme of “Students as Producers.” During the three institutes in May, participants will design (or redesign) courses that engage students not only as consumers of information, but producers of knowledge. Short videos created to explain computer algorithms....
Junior Faculty Spotlight: Elizabeth Self
Mar. 7, 2019—Each month, the CFT highlights the work of our Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows. This month, Elizabeth Self, Teaching and Learning, talks about her teaching philosophy and interests. I have been a lecturer at Peabody College in the Department of Teaching and Learning for the last two years but have been at Vanderbilt University for much...
Teaching Innovations at Vanderbilt: Allison Leich Hilbun and Student Mini-Lectures
Mar. 4, 2019—By Faith Rovenolt, CFT undergraduate intern Dr. Allison Leich Hilbun, Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences, teaches BSCI 3270: Statistical Methods in Biology, also called biostatistics. Dr. Leich Hilbun loves teaching biostatistics, as I witnessed firsthand when I took her class last semester. She pairs her genuine excitement for sharing the material with various activities and assignments...