by Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez, South and Southeast Asian Studies Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2018 The annotated bibliography is an important component of a research-based undergraduate course. But in most of my experience as a student and as a teacher, I found the exercise to complete it empty. Even after providing Continue Reading >>
by Alexander Roehrkasse, Sociology Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 Challenge: The volume and difficulty course readings can sometimes intimidate and discourage students. Such was the case in a course on the history of sociological theory. Facing dense and sprawling texts, students were discomfited by their unexpectedly low levels of comprehension. Continue Reading >>
by Frank Ong, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Teaching Effectiveness Award Essay, 2017 The undergraduate digital signal processing class, EE123, was a class that introduced mathematical theory about data processing together with a series of hands-on programming assignments. These programming assignments were based on real-life applications and demonstrated the principles Continue Reading >>
by Jesse Cordes Selbin, English Recipient of the Teagle Foundation Award for Excellence in Enhancing Student Learning, 2014 Related Teaching Effectiveness Award essay: Empowered Learning: History, Collaboratively When I designed a collaborative project for my Reading and Composition course last year, my primary goal was to increase participation. Having observed Continue Reading >>
The question of how we evaluate students relates back to the learning objectives for a particular course and/or assignment. What will students learn from the course or assignment? How does each assignment build towards the learning objectives of the course? Accordingly, how do we evaluate students in their process of Continue Reading >>
Many instructors struggle with crafting writing assignments that are accessible yet challenging for students. We suggest you consider the scale of the assignment — in terms of time, length, and scope — and the learning objectives of the assignment: what do you want your students to learn or show that Continue Reading >>
Ways to help your students think through labs ahead of time. Pre-lab assignments can improve their work and increase their learning during the labs.
Consider the length and complexity of the assignments you give, and sequence them so that students can build from lower-stakes to higher-stakes papers.
by Tammy Stark, Linguistics
As a solution to the related problems of limited time and a lack of incentive to carry out scholarly research on final papers, I decided to make the final project a Wikipedia assignment, in which students worked in groups to significantly improve Wikipedia pages related to sociolinguistic topics relevant to their independent research interests…
by Auyon Siddiq, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
While the content in a typical operations research course is usually technical, the field itself is actually quite practical… I viewed it as part of my job to help convey the idea that the seemingly abstract methods taught in class could in fact have a significant positive impact on how decisions are made in a wide variety of domains.