Center for Teaching Excellence
Teaching Tips
When the Center for Teaching Excellence runs a workshop or when there is a specific request for more information from instructors on campus, we sometimes research a topic thoroughly enough to share in this collection of Teaching Tips.
Writing Learning Outcomes: The ABCD model of writing learning outcomes, and description of some of the terminology that might be used.
Flipping Your Course: Student-centered instruction and what it means to "flip" your course. Includes information on using online elements for your face-to-face (f2f) course. Also includes information on what one might call blended learning, hybrid learning and/or augmented learning.
The First Day of Class: Ideas for getting ready for a new class, what to do on the first day, and how to keep the energy going for the next class.
Signs You Are In The Right Class: Signs of a great class to be found in the first day of class, in the syllabus, and as the class progresses. This was originally written in response to an article entitled 10 Warning Signs of a Bad Professor in the U.S. News & World Report (Jan. 23, 2010). I reframed this as a positive list entitled, “Ten Signs You are in the Right Class” and it was originally hosted at Hawaii Pacific University. It can also be found at my blog, Docendo Discimus.
Students Requesting Accommodation: How to help students who have requested accommodation.
Digital Media and Accessibility: A collection of links to help add accessibility to specific tools, explain screen readers, and to evaluate accessibility.
Effective Use of PowerPoint: Creating exciting, meaningful PowerPoint presentations. Also, how to give better presentations using the principles of PowerPoint Zen.
Laptops in the Classroom: Ways to shape student use of laptops and mobile devices in the classroom, to the students' benefit.
Effective Practices for Large Classes: Most of our classes here at Endicott are small ones, but here are some ideas if you find yourself teaching a large class.
Feedback and Backchannels with Clickers & Cell Phones: Gathering feedback in your class. Several methods are offered and the advantages to their use in specific cases is addressed. Includes show of hands, clickers, online polling (with cell phones, etc.), and Twitter backchannels.
Discussion Forums: Instructor roles, online discussion protocols, sample rubrics for forum entries and responses, and alternatives to discussion forums.
Creating a WordPress Blog: Creating an online journal that you can share with your students. A private blog shared by you and your students is recommended.
Last Day of Class: How to make the last class of the semester a memorable one by either creating a culminating experience or a transition to future learning.
Easier Registration in COAST: How to use the Search Criteria and Swap functions in COAST to ease registration.
If you would like to suggest a topic for a future Teaching Tip, please contact:
Dakin Burdick, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Teaching Excellence
978-232-2294
teaching@endicott.edu