Last semester I came across the idea of a visual syllabus that a small handful of faculty had developed for their courses and were posting about it on Twitter. It has not escaped me that Twitter is a controversial platform these days. However, it offers a great way for me to interact with professionals in academia in my own field and beyond. My network on Twitter allows me to find out in...

It’s always a great time to consider your course with the principles of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and technology integration. However, even though CRT has been a popular buzzword, you might have doubts and lack practical ideas about how to include CRT practices with technology integration. Reliance on instructional technology and the rise of online learning have tested the dedication...

If you find yourself teaching a course that has grown stagnant and students are becoming disengaged, it might be time to try something new. Students crave hands-on application where they see the fruits of their labor in concrete, meaningful ways. Using Community Based Learning (CBL) can help revitalize a course that has grown sluggish and encourage students to re-engage with the material....

Do you remember that even in the classroom you are still a full, dynamic, interesting, entire human being? Along the way, instructors sometimes pick up the message that they must maintain strict walls between students and themselves. Yet our imaginary walls may prevent us from making essential connections that support learning. We can share our humanity while maintaining professionalism if we...

Dialogic engagement – the process of facilitating learning by asking a series of focused questions in the classroom – can be an emotional experience for both students and faculty. Students accustomed to learning through lectures might experience dialogic engagement as unsettling, and instructors who typically deliver prepared lectures might worry that this method will result in less control of...

Have you ever realized halfway through a semester that something about your course just isn’t working the way you planned? Or have you inherited a syllabus from another professor but have no idea what comes next in terms of actually teaching the course? Today’s post is here to help! At STLI, we use a process called course mapping to develop new courses or refresh existing ones. Here’s the...