Welcome to the blog of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Georgia State University. We hope that on these pages you can start your exploration in teaching in a digital age. We also hope that your next step in that process is to call or come by our space so that we can be a part of your exploration.
Cool Tools: Canva
I have looked at many, many cloud-based tools that allow you to put together a graphic presentation, a poster or some other visual and inevitably I am disappointed by most of them. They rarely prove to be better than taking the long road and learning Photoshop, but...
Online Classroom Spaces
I remember the first online course I took, as well as the first hybrid course I took. I was filled with anticipation as I logged on to those first classes. What was online and hybrid education? How did it work? How would it be different? How would the social component...
Cool Tools: Zaption
This week’s topic is the epitome of a cool tool. I’m talking other side of the pillow and cool kids’ table cool. This week’s tool is Zaption. If you haven’t heard of Zaption that’s okay. It’s still a relatively new tool that we’ve been testing for about a year...
Letting Go: Gamification, Control, and User Perceptions of Design
Recently, I was reading some literature on gamification and came across an interesting idea: Namely, that even if we create a gamified lesson or course we can’t force students to play and enjoy the end product as a game. Students could, instead, view your intricately...
Teaching: Navigating Surveillance and Visibility in the Online Classroom
Dig, if you will, the picture of an online public health professor checking out Zaption analytics. Or, let’s consider a distance learning accounting student who leaves a fantastic instructor review on one of the many online professor rating services. What do these...
Writing as Effective Communication in a Research and Technical Report
“Writing Effective Research and Technical Reports” was my first project with the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Working with Pam and Linda I updated their website and developed an eBook. The purpose of both is to help students produce research reports...
Why My Presentation Sucked: Part 2
A couple of weeks ago I posted part one of this series. You might want to check that out if you’d like to read my conference proposal - or don’t and just jump in here. All you really need to know is that my presentation concerned competing personal philosophies and...
Twitter in the Classroom
If you currently think of Twitter as that social media tool where presidential candidates are doing battle and that place on the web where political operatives for the various candidates are trading digs you would, in fact, definitely be fully aware of popular...
Why My Presentation Sucked: Part 1
So I presented at a conference recently and my session reaaaaallly didn’t go over well. Why? Well, I think that my stumbling can be ascribed to several factors. But before I get into why I failed - and what I learned from this failure - I want to tell you about my...
Critical Media Literacy Conference: Two Awesome Sessions
Zombies. Megachurches. Soap Operas. Not your typical academic conference topics - unless, that is, you’re considering the broad field of cultural studies and critical media literacy. In this post I’d like to present a quick intro to critical media studies and then...
The Accidental Graphic Designer
In the era of digital media, there are a growing number of people not trained in the graphic arts, but who are called on to design infographics, invitations, charts, Power Points, flyers and any number of digital or printed artifacts for use in their daily lives. And...
Creating online student/class portfolios
What happens to an assignment after it is submitted by a student? More often than not the student is given a grade or maybe some feedback for revision. Students then move on to the next thing that will be graded. The previous submission is abandoned and this cycle...