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Category: Preparing to Teach

Student Belonging in the Classroom (a workshop update)

A quilted sign saying "you belong here."

by Nathan Loewen Since fall 2022, Lisa Dorr and I have hosted lunch-time faculty discussions focused on the topic of promoting “student belonging.” What’s that? I admit the term itself is vague. What might “student belonging” mean in useful practical or analytic terms? I think the category points to something that is indeed vague at the University of Alabama (not to mention on other college campuses). Our discussions are about whether and how students in our classrooms come to self-identify […]

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Open Discussion & Classroom Participation: Fostering Academic Belonging

Young adults participating in a discussion.

By Matthew LaFevor, Geography. One of the ways I like to begin my classes is by asking students a very broad question: What’s going on in the world today?      Such a broad question has strong potential to fail, especially if students are too concerned with answering ‘correctly’. Students often come to class having skimmed the readings. They may only tenuously hold information in their heads. Beginning with such a broad question forces students to zoom out for a […]

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How might students develop academic identities? Undergraduate Research in 100-Level Courses

Black and white image of "100."

By Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies. The challenge Decisions to attend the University of Alabama are based numerous reasons. A perusal of the University’s homepage suggests some of those reasons. At the time of writing this post, the byline for the homepage is that UA is a place “where legends are made.” The decision to come to UA might include an interest to participate in legendary moments that involve large-scale, highly-publicized events. This makes sense, since most individuals are […]

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Faculty Prep Days at the Center for Instructional Technology

Two pairs of hands preparing food on a table filled with fresh ingredients.

Join The Center for Instructional Technology to get your Fall courses polished and ready to go. CIT is hosting two days of workshops and one-on-one technical and pedagogical assistance to get you ready for the Fall semester. Register for a session(s) you would like to attend or drop by and receive one-on-one help setting up your courses. Refreshments will be served all day. Registration is appreciated, but it is not required to attend. Questions? Contact us at 205-348-3532 or cit@ua.edu. […]

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Carry on Teaching with UA’s Artificial Intelligence Teaching Enhancement Initiative

A mug with the saying "Keep calm and carry on teaching."

How might your teaching be amplified by generative artificial intelligence? Katherine Chiou (Anthropology) and Lawrence Cappello (History) lead the Artificial Intelligence Teaching Enhancement Initiative, which answers this question. The initiative provides ready-to-use AI resources to be used to augment your teaching and assignments. Professors Capello and Chiou are curating an array of resources on the ethical, responsible, and inclusive use of AI in the classroom, too. Their aim is to harness AI to stimulate student engagement, and to better prepare […]

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Guidelines for Faculty in Dealing with the Use of Generative AI Tools

A manual typewriter with the words "artificial intelligence" typed in large-sized font on an otherwise blank white page.

Discussions about the uses and misuses of generative artificial intelligence entered the broader public discourse of the United States in November 2022. The University of Alabama offers a considered response to these discussions and the issues they present to the campus community. To learn more about guidelines from the Office of Academic Affairs, please see the Guidelines for Faculty in Dealing with the Use of Generative AI Tools on this site hosted by our Office for Academic Affairs.

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Teaching Students How to Do College: making the syllabus available

A lighthouse shining in twilight as a metaphor for how a syllabus may guide students.

The syllabus is a useful tool for teaching and learning. If you search for ‘syllabus’ on the Teaching Hub (see the ‘magnifying glass’ in the upper-right corner?), you can find useful insights.  Several faculty have already written on topics related to creating and using a syllabus. The University of Alabama now uses a syllabus database tool called “Simple Syllabus.” The Center for Instructional Technology has created a must-see page with instructor resources to make good use of the Simple Syllabus […]

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The Rise of ChatGPT Can Make Student Writing Better 

The 5-speed gearshift pattern, which may indicate the metaphor for "shifting gears."

by Amy Dayton and Amber Buck, English On campuses across the US, faculty, administrators, and students alike are talking about ChatGPT. If you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that mimics human conversation and writing using predictive text. It can expound on almost any topic, from climate change to literary criticism. It can write emails, sonnets, stories, and brochures. It can suggest revisions to specific sentences and phrases (such as resume bullet points). And it can write academic […]

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Teaching how to do college: do grades help students learn? Part 2 of 2.

A masculine-presenting person of color showing a big smile while sitting on a green lawn holding papers in both hands and a laptop on their lap.The person’s expression of glee is what I hope students in my courses feel about learning!

by Lisa Beck, Psychology Another option, especially after having the above “let’s get curious” conversation with students part 1 of my post, may be to creatively remove the grading fixation altogether. This leads us to the spectrum of possibilities commonly referred to as “ungrading,” which has become quite the buzz word and hot topic in higher education over the past few years. According to Amy Kenyon, the Assistant Director for Teaching Innovation at Duke University’s Center for Instructional Technology: Ungrading […]

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Teaching how to do college: do grades help students learn? Part 1 of 2.

sculpture of a hand holding up a massive tree branch.

by Lisa Beck, Psychology. Do grades help students learn? As a professor, I find myself frequently asking my students some variation of “what is your intention with their work… … this sentence, your research methodology, this intervention, fill-in-the-blank with other activities of the academy?” In mentoring conversations, this may be “what is your goal, and how is what you are doing now helping you to get there?” I also find myself asking similar questions of my own pedagogy: “why am […]

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