Volume XXXVIII, No. 18 | September 8, 2016 Outside the Classroom and Beyond the Campus: Community-Based Experiential Education Expanding the Experiential Concept After years of incorporating a combination of field trips, active learning, and flipped classrooms, I decided to design a radically flipped course in which I would leverage technology to craft class [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 15 | May 6, 2016 Economics: The Not-So-Dismal Science Economics has a reputation for being a dismal science. You can make the argument that any subject matter is dismal, and that how it’s taught is what makes all the difference. I think economics is anything but dismal. Economics is the [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 15 | May 3, 2013 Thought for the Week Wednesdays: Making Connections in Minutes Can five minutes of classroom time once a week really make a difference? I set out to answer this question as I sought to improve retention and student success in my pre-curriculum reading classes. I [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 13 | April 22, 2016 How Students Can—and Should—Contribute to the Rubric Creation Process I was in a kindergarten classroom a few weeks ago and was mesmerized by a rubric that was detailed on a large flipchart at the back of the room. It was titled “My Star Paper” [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 12 | April 15, 2016 Too Many Screens? Try Collaborative Note-Taking There are two major problems that face the modern professor. The first is students who are underprepared for note-taking or who, worse still, have no conception of it. The second is students who are distracted by multiple screens. Finding [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 10 | April 1, 2016 If You Can’t Beat It, Integrate It: Using Smartphones and Polling Software to Create an Interactive Learning Environment A common complaint among educators is the number of distracted students in their classes. Many of us bemoan students in our classes engrossed in their smartphones instead [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 8 | March 11, 2016 Using Badges in an Online Class: How Gamification Can Improve Student Learning Several years ago, I learned about gamification and started thinking about how I could apply it to my online courses. I decided that using badges would be a good way to introduce these [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 7 | March 4, 2016 Recognizing the Value of Soft Skills in College We all see those students in our classrooms—the ones with that certain casual attitude towards attendance, participation, and communication in general. They have experienced a lifetime of getting a “pass” for missed deadlines and exhibiting disrespect or [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 5 | February 19, 2016 Strategies to Advance Learning Outcomes in the Non-Science Major Biology Classroom As many college science instructors do, I have encountered additional challenges to successfully teaching assigned concepts to non-science majors. To better prepare for these classes, I glance through my notes from prior semesters and [...]
Volume XXXVII, No. 29 | December 4, 2015 “We the Students”: Employing a Code of Conduct in Student Group Projects The benefits of group work have long been established. Most instructors agree that student learning is improved by sharing their experiences with their colleagues, and that there is truth to the old adage, [...]
