‘Course Design’
New Teaching Guide: Just-in-Time Teaching
Jun. 27, 2013—Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) is a teaching and learning strategy designed to promote the use of class time for more active learning. Developed by Gregor Novak and colleagues, JiTT relies on a feedback loop between web-based learning materials and the classroom (Novak et al., 1999). Students prepare for class by reading from the textbook or using...
New Teaching Guide for Statistics Instructors
Jun. 19, 2013—Statistical analysis is a critical tool in many fields, and as such, it is taught in courses across many disciplines. This new teaching guide, written by CFT Assistant Director, Cynthia Brame, provides an overview of techniques and strategies that have been shown to improve student learning in statistics courses. It also provides links to resources...
New Teaching Guide: Team-Based Learning
Jun. 10, 2013—Team-based learning is one version of a flipped classroom, which is supported by a 1998 study by Richard Hake. Hake gathered data on 2084 students in 14 introductory physics courses taught by traditional methods (defined by the instructor as relying primarily on passive student lectures and algorithmic problem exams), allowing him to define an average...
Make the Most of Your Course Preparation Time This Summer
Jun. 7, 2013—Summer time is here, and many faculty members have a break from their usual schedules, a chance to slow down a bit and start planning their fall courses. If you’ve got a breather, you may find this an opportune time to review and refresh your teaching plans and practices. The Center for Teaching is open...
Episode 40 – From a Student’s View: AXLE Writing Requirements
Mar. 21, 2013—In this first installment of a two-part podcast, our CFT student reporter, Erin Baldwin, hears thoughts from a Vanderbilt junior about the Achieving Excellence in Liberal Education core curriculum (more commonly referred to as the AXLE requirements) that all students in the College of Arts and Science must fulfill. http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/59/cftpodcast/ep40_axle1.mp3 [MP3, 6 min 30 sec]...
A Conversation about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Mar. 1, 2013—by Derek Bruff, CFT Director Last Thursday, February 21st, the Center for Teaching and the Library hosted “Teaching to Thousands: A Conversation about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs),” an event featuring faculty panelists Douglas Schmidt (Computer Science) and Jamie Pope (Nursing). Doug and Jamie are participating in Vanderbilt’s Coursera pilot, each offering a MOOC on...
Teaching Large Classes
Jan. 31, 2013—By Cynthia J. Brame, CFT Assistant Director Teaching large classes can pose particular challenges. How do you personalize interaction in a class with more than 100—or even more than 200—students? How do you promote student engagement when it’s so easy for a student to hide in the crowd? How do you provide helpful feedback without...
Ask Professor Pedagogy: Designing a Guest Lecture
Nov. 2, 2012—Ask Professor Pedagogy is a twice monthly advice column written by Center for Teaching staff. One aspect of our mission is to cultivate dialogue about teaching and learning, so we welcome questions and concerns that arise in the classroom; particularly those from Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff. If you have a question that you’d like...
Strategies for Grading Workshop: Additional Resources
Sep. 13, 2012—CFT Graduate Teaching Fellow, Beth Koontz, offers additional resources on grading and assessing student work. The CFT recently hosted a teaching workshop on Effective and Efficient Grading focusing on the purposes of grading and how to grade in ways that help students learn more deeply and save time for the instructor. This post provides some...
Summertime and Course Redesign
Jul. 6, 2012—In a recent article in Inside Higher Ed, Benjamin Rifkin, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of New Jersey, outlines why and how the summer months can be the best time to review your teaching practices and verify they still align with your teaching philosophy. Such reflection may take...