Moving Forward: Teaching in Uncertain Times | Community Blog on online, hybrid, and F2F teaching during the pandemic

Using iCollege Tools to Collect Evidence of Teaching Success for Your Annual Review

Annual Review time is almost upon us! It’s the hectic season that comes at the beginning of every year, when (after spending a year of ignoring the sage advice of our mentors) we realize that we neglected to keep track of any of our achievements. Maybe that’s just me. Whether you’re great at keeping track…

Giving Timely (and effective!) Feedback

If you have felt frustrated this semester about your ability to give helpful feedback to your students in a timely manner this semester, you are not alone. When teaching online and blended classes, sometimes the sheer number of assignments being turned in — both low-stakes and high-stakes –can be overwhelming, and when we want to give…

Universal Design for Learning Resources

As you prepare for spring semester (yikes!), you might consider updating some of your materials to embrace universal design for learning. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching strategy based on the recognition that each student has individual learning needs. UDL encourages the development of equitable teaching strategies focused on transparency and opportunity. UDL…

Encouraging the use of iCollege notification tools

One frustration we have been hearing over and over from faculty is that their students aren’t using email and aren’t logging into iCollege frequently enough to see assignments and updates. Encourage your students to use the notification tools connected to iCollege. Using the notifications tool will help your student stay up-to-date with their iCollege courses…

Writing to Learn

Most of us are struggling with how to keep students engaged with course material now that we don’t have regular in-class meetings. The majority of our classes are asynchronous. Those of us with synchronous online sessions face difficulties building a community because of technical glitches and students not turning on their videos. It’s easy to…

small changes. BIG IMPACT.

Do you feel like there’s something missing from your class but you can’t quite put your finger on it? Or do you know you need to make a change, but you just don’t want to make a big time or labor investment? Guess what? I have some tips for small changes that are easy…

Self care for faculty success

This post may seem out of place… Except that it’s not! In speaking with several faculty members, especially new faculty, they are really stressed out! From trying to convert course materials to online formats, to the challenge of engaging students whom you may not see, ever… Trying to keep them engaged online; is a real…

Pros & Cons of Assigning Students to “Choose Their Own Adventure”

In my fully online graduate seminar on contemporary rhetoric this semester, I decided to experiment with one component of the students’ grades by letting them “Choose Their Own Adventure.” I developed a series of short assignment options they could choose from that, when combined, would result in 30% of their course grade. Some of the…

Helping your students navigate election season stress

The 2020 election season has been more stressful than any election season in recent years (and we all thought 2016 was the pits!). Your students likely want to engage and discuss the current state of affairs and we do a disservice if we ignore the situation and act like everything is normal. Sometimes, as instructors,…

Finding inspiration from your colleagues–shout-out to Jess Jones in Art & Design!

The College of the Arts hosted their first sessions called Innovation Online Teaching in the Arts (IOTA) on Friday, Oct. 23rd. All of the IOTA information is excellent, but I’d like to highlight the presentation by Jess Jones in Art & Design. Jess developed a wonderful online textiles class–a class that nobody thought could be…