Blogs

What motivates your students?

Do they have a genuine interest in your topics and material, or are they just checking a box on their way to a degree? 

Would your students do optional readings and assignments?

I feel a little bit bad for James Lang, author of Distracted. He finished writing this book in February 2020 . . . a mere 3 weeks before the nature of human distraction fundamentally changed and his whole book became immediately obsolete.

Have you been struggling to find ways to more quality time interacting with your students in class without sacrificing time on task? If you often find yourself wishing that there was a way to give direction and assistance to students while they work through the challenging aspects of the course instead of having to simply “move on for time’s sake”, then a flipped classroom method might be the solution you’ve been looking for. This method of instruction may not look the way you envision and may not be as difficult to implement as you once thought.

I was excited and eager as I read the university's guidance about returning to in-person teaching - no more shaky internet connections and Zoom black boxes, and now PEOPLE. Actual people! In a classroom! But, I got to thinking: What, if I were a student, would I miss about learning remotely? What about as an instructor? The point of this article is not to lament the going away of remote learning, but rather to be prepared to encounter some differences that we might miss from the Zoom days.

Chances are you spend very little time thinking about how a person who is visually impaired interprets images you have in your slides, documents, and Isidore sites. In this accessibility quick tip, we'll explain why you should spend some time thinking about this and how to improve the learning experience for all your students through the usage of alternative text or alt text.

Find your summer reading and listening in this blog post. We provide a curated list of pedagogical articles, books, and podcasts from the FlexTeaching listserv and members of the LTC. Read and listen on your own, or gather a group of colleagues or friends to share your thoughts.

Whose job is it to care about web accessibility? Everyone’s. (That means you, the person reading this.) We must make our online platforms and course content accessible to all. This is the first blog post in our series of Accessibility Tips. Each post will include steps to implement a practical change in your emails, courses, and any other place you work online. These tips will help ALL learners and users, not just those students with disabilities. 

A "heartbeat" article is intended to provide a glimpse behind the scenes of the work our team is doing. We'll tell you what we've been working on and what we're working on next! 

". . . More often, though, hidden curriculums grow so large because the lessons that they teach become background noise in the busyness of university life. Teaching methods, communication styles, networking skills, and even assessment strategies can all become assumed pieces of the academic experience which can easily derail the success of those who aren’t aware of them.

We know that even just the smallest acts of hands and heart can help students push through their challenges. At the end of the Fall 2020 semester, we asked students, "What is the most helpful thing instructors have done to help you learn?" The answer was pretty resounding: instructors showed that they cared. Find a way to check-in with your students this semester - it could make the difference.