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Tag: communication

Discord App Adds Options for Remote Learning & Teamwork

by Nathan Loewen, Faculty Technology Liaison & Department of Religious Studies Someone responded to the survey for Last Week’s Teaching in 2020 with a comment about the Discord app. It turns out plenty of people use Discord for teaching and learning (Several teachers in France and Quebec are adopting Discord). Here are the experiences of four people at UA. (Please continue to share your ideas and experiences here, and your entry could spark another cross-campus search for teaching innovation!) Creating […]

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Power-Using and Hacking Blackboard

Teaching Hub

by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Do you use Blackboard in your course? I do. Here’s why: I think it’s easier for me, as well as the students, to have a simple, one-stop place to find and do everything related to a course outside of class. Now beginning my second year of teaching at UA, I find my commitment to grasping the basic features of Blackboard has made my teaching much more manageable. Furthermore, as faculty technology liaison for the College of Arts and Sciences, […]

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This Professor Likes CATs (classroom assessment techniques)

Spock does mind meld on Nixon

by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies I am going to write about measuring teaching effectiveness. There is a lot of buzz about metrics in higher education media, but not until the mind-meld app is released for iOS will teachers know what their students are thinking. One of the challenges of teaching a large-enrollment course is to regularly determine the level of students’ learning. In a recent article on crafting introductory courses, Russell McCutcheon names this “the double-edged sword of engagement and assessment.“ Teachers […]

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Mistakes Were Made. What Next?

Wizard of Oz pulling back the green curtain

by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies I felt a little bit like John Lindsay this morning. I put a quiz on Blackboard, and, as he said in one of his 1969 campaign ads, “some mistakes were made.” When the student emails started trickling in, I started to have a Lindsay moment. In reality, this is my first term teaching at UA, and I needed to re-familiarize myself with the process of creating quizzes and tests inside Blackboard Learn. I used […]

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Providing Feedback in Large Courses

Students in large lecture

In a large course with limited TA assistance, it may seem impossible to offer students meaningful feedback on their progress. In this post, faculty members describe how they use office hours, technology, and TAs to provide appropriate feedback in their large courses. Office Hours Kim Caldwell: Some students come to my office truly wanting to learn how to learn, and we have great conversations about their current learning styles and look at what types of questions they are missing (basic knowledge vs. application). We also talk about study […]

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Managing Communication in Online Courses

by Alecia Chatham, Department of Modern Languages and Classics I communicate with all students via e-mail and Blackboard announcements. I upload all information, handouts, and useful links to Blackboard for all of my courses. Another great way to use online resources for any type of course is by creating a place for students to check an up-to-date weekly agenda that outlines exactly what is happening in class with detailed assignments. A weekly agenda can be created by making a tab […]

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