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Six Essentials for Online Group Assignments

Six Essentials for Online Group Assignments

Many in education have seen the various equality vs. equity graphics circulated throughout professional development sessions. One has various animals that are all expected to climb a tree despite their differences in mobility. In another, children of different heights are trying to watch a baseball game behind a fence but the crates they stand on to gain a viewing advantage are all the same height. …

Active Listening to Enhance Class Discussion

Active Listening to Enhance Class Discussion

Many in education have seen the various equality vs. equity graphics circulated throughout professional development sessions. One has various animals that are all expected to climb a tree despite their differences in mobility. In another, children of different heights are trying to watch a baseball game behind a fence but the crates they stand on to gain a viewing advantage are all the same height. …

Small Steps Towards Student Self-Efficacy

Small Steps Towards Student Self-Efficacy

Many in education have seen the various equality vs. equity graphics circulated throughout professional development sessions. One has various animals that are all expected to climb a tree despite their differences in mobility. In another, children of different heights are trying to watch a baseball game behind a fence but the crates they stand on to gain a viewing advantage are all the same height. …

A Guide to Transparent Assignment Design

A Guide to Transparent Assignment Design

Students might find themselves grappling with the mysteries of an assignment, wondering what an instructor’s directions mean, the assignment’s purpose, and its role in the larger context of a course.

Instructors should design assignments to ensure students actively engage with course content and develop essential skills. Transparent assignment design is a framework for structuring assignments to promote and encourage student learning. Many of these strategies might seem straightforward, and probably include practices you do often, but transparent assignment design is about intentionality and considering what you are asking your students to do and how it can lead to their success….

Quick Bite: What’s New in Gradescope?

Quick Bite: What’s New in Gradescope?

Quick Bite: Gradescope September 20, 2023 • Vivian Hoang In this Quick Bite, Technology & Innovation Program Manager Pablo Yañez breaks down how to use Gradescope, a free, cross-disciplinary tool for students and faculty that enhances and quickens the grading...

STLI Quick Bites: Microsoft Flip

STLI Quick Bites: Microsoft Flip

Instructional Design Specialist Brier Anderson recently hosted a Quick Bites Workshop on Flip, a website that she says is useful for creating “classroom community and an inclusive classroom.” Flip is a video discussion platform, meaning users can pose and answer questions in a short video format on the site….

Symposium Keynote:  The Lectures is Not Dead Using Storytelling to Enhance Lectures, Dr. Kristin Phillips

Symposium Keynote: The Lectures is Not Dead Using Storytelling to Enhance Lectures, Dr. Kristin Phillips

The rapid transformation of our digital ecosystem is having an increasing impact on how we assess learning. Are you striving to assess students in meaningful and constructive ways? Do you worry that recent developments in artificial intelligence (aka ChatGPT) will negatively impact the authenticity of student work and decrease their depth of understanding? During this TLT, we focused on how we can adjust our assessment strategies to adapt to a new digital landscape and leverage digital tools to work for us, rather than against us…

STLI Symposium May 4th, 2023

Mark your calendars! The 2023 Teaching & Learning Symposium will be held on May 4th, 2023! We will celebrate the accomplishments of educators, connect with colleagues and communities of practice, and collaborate to advance teaching and...

Spring 2023 TLT: Rethinking Assessment in a New Digital Age

Spring 2023 TLT: Rethinking Assessment in a New Digital Age

The rapid transformation of our digital ecosystem is having an increasing impact on how we assess learning. Are you striving to assess students in meaningful and constructive ways? Do you worry that recent developments in artificial intelligence (aka ChatGPT) will negatively impact the authenticity of student work and decrease their depth of understanding? During this TLT, we focused on how we can adjust our assessment strategies to adapt to a new digital landscape and leverage digital tools to work for us, rather than against us…

What is Connection Through Reflection?

What is Connection Through Reflection?

Instructors can help students connect their own interests to their courses using this simple tool developed by STLI Faculty Fellow Joan Gavaler and STLI Assistant Director Mike Blum. They presented their workshop on Connection through Reflection at the Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy (CHEP) at Virginia Tech on Thursday, February 16th, 2023. There’s a helpful worksheet and a short course for anyone who’d like to learn more about the exercise….

A Student Perspective on ChatGPT

A Student Perspective on ChatGPT

As the Fall 2022 Semester was coming to a close, rumors were starting to surface about a miraculous new AI technology with great potential for good if you were a student, and the potential for concern if you were faculty. As a student, I was excited to see what ChatGPT could do and was amazed at how this tool could be used to accomplish various tasks. For example, it has the capability to summarize articles, generate original writing if given a prompt, and even develop assignments….

Spring 2023 Community Conversation: Generative A.I. and Writing for Learning

Spring 2023 Community Conversation: Generative A.I. and Writing for Learning

Do you want to learn more about recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will impact your teaching? On Thursday Feb. 2 colleagues from across the university joined STLI for a STLI Community Conversation: Generative A.I. and Writing for Learning. Panelists Stephanie Blackmon, Dave Gilbert, Matthew Haug, and Elizabeth Losh lead the conversation. …

The Human Professor: Opening up to Promote Engagement

The Human Professor: Opening up to Promote Engagement

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 interrogate the assumptions behind what it means to be “professional.” …

Managing the Emotional Aspects of Dialogic Engagement: Five Tips for Faculty

Managing the Emotional Aspects of Dialogic Engagement: Five Tips for Faculty

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 the classroom….

Course Mapping

Course Mapping

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….

Help Us Help You

Help Us Help You

Teaching is inherently collaborative. It involves the instructor, the learner, and the context of an institution. So, if we want to improve our teaching, we should do so together. As Drive-Thru Pedagogy (DTP) gears up for a third year in the blogosphere, we want your help equipping fellow educators with new ideas, practical tips, and research-based methods….

SafeAssign as a Tool for Learning

SafeAssign as a Tool for Learning

Teaching the ethical use of sources in academic writing is a challenge. Some faculty address this issue by using SafeAssign, the “plagiarism prevention tool” integrated into Blackboard. When used with care, SafeAssign can (in its own words), “create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources.” In that sense, it can facilitate learning. However, when used strictly to monitor citation habits, SafeAssign can impede learning by raising student anxiety. …

Accessibility Tips Handout by Professor & STLI Fellow Leslie Cochrane

Accessibility Tips Handout by Professor & STLI Fellow Leslie Cochrane

A documented accommodation for one student removes that barrier for them, but how might everyone benefit from that same opportunity? Here are some ideas for moving from accommodations for individual students to providing access to everyone. Removing barriers to learning means more rigorous engagement from students! There will always be exceptions and individual needs to address, but fewer barriers means a fairer classroom for students and fewer adjustments for instructors….

Keeping up with Social Changes in Second Language Acquisition

Keeping up with Social Changes in Second Language Acquisition

Despite the existence of excellent study abroad programs, traveling to another country is a privilege, at times, unaffordable. Consequently, the classroom becomes the only space for students to be exposed to socio-cultural issues. Nevertheless, traditional learning materials and pedagogical approaches in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) often struggle to reflect the latest changes of the target culture in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)….

STLI launches new professional learning platform

STLI launches new professional learning platform

The Studio for Teaching and Learning Innovation (STLI) at William & Mary recently launched STLI Academy, a professional learning platform, offering on-demand courses with opportunities to earn micro-credentials for faculty, staff and university partners….

Embrace Doubt, Enhance Teaching

Embrace Doubt, Enhance Teaching

The start of a new semester is a great time to examine your teaching practices. However, the temptation to fall back on what worked in the past represents both the need for efficiency and the power of habit. What if we approached our teaching with a healthy sense of doubt? What if we embraced our own cycles of learning as a pathway to refreshed teaching approaches?…

Students as Partners in Teaching & Learning

Students as Partners in Teaching & Learning

Many in education have seen the various equality vs. equity graphics circulated throughout professional development sessions. One has various animals that are all expected to climb a tree despite their differences in mobility. In another, children of different heights are trying to watch a baseball game behind a fence but the crates they stand on to gain a viewing advantage are all the same height. …

Improve Student Writing with Peer Feedback

Improve Student Writing with Peer Feedback

Peer feedback makes assignments more social and collaborative, creating opportunities for students to learn from one another. In conversations about shared assignments, students can make connections to lectures, readings, and other course elements. They can also use time in feedback groups to clarify the goals of the assignment and discover varied methods for fulfilling those goals. Collaborative learning helps mitigate the isolation some students feel when working independently. …

The Power of a Good Story

The Power of a Good Story

Many of us rightly emphasize “critical reading” in our courses, helping students hone the tools they need to unpack and evaluate the storylines they encounter, whether in historical or contemporary texts, written or visual sources, scientists’ data or politicians’ campaigns. It’s also important, though, to get students thinking about what’s involved in producing the best possible stories, and this is something I’ve begun devoting more attention to in the COLL 100 course I regularly teach, “Things: Objects and Their (Hi)Stories.” The better a storyline, the greater an author’s chances of getting what s/he’s after, but it’s important to be clear about what we are—or should be—aiming for when we attempt to produce a good story….

Teaching Statistics with House Shopping

Teaching Statistics with House Shopping

Statistics is an extremely practical tool used in many business applications ranging from quality control in manufacturing, Netflix recommendations to Google ads. However, it is also an abstract topic that intimidates and frustrates many students. To help students learn and apply statistics more effectively, I asked them to go house shopping. Well, they just needed to pretend to buy a house. …

Rethinking Student Assignments | Part 3: Multimodal Assignments – Structure vs. Choice

Rethinking Student Assignments | Part 3: Multimodal Assignments – Structure vs. Choice

Websites, podcasts, videos, even the dreaded Powerpoint presentation, I’ve helped instructors develop assignments around all of these modes and more. When I first started, I admit that I didn’t quite know what I was doing. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the theoretical principles involved in getting a particular multimodal assignment to work . It was that I’d never tried to implement specific methods in an actual class before. But, thanks to a few early adopter faculty members, I learned very quickly what worked, what didn’t work, and what had potential….

Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment

Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment

Many in education have seen the various equality vs. equity graphics circulated throughout professional development sessions. One has various animals that are all expected to climb a tree despite their differences in mobility. In another, children of different heights are trying to watch a baseball game behind a fence but the crates they stand on to gain a viewing advantage are all the same height. …

W&M Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation to host New Faculty Course Design Institute

W&M Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation to host New Faculty Course Design Institute

The Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) will host the New Faculty Course Design Institute (CDI) in August as part of the newly developed New Faculty Program. The CDI is a teaching & learning series that incorporates online asynchronous course design tutorials and resources combined with in-person deep dive opportunities focused on key instructional topics. The deep-dive sessions will be hosted in-person at the studio space on the ground floor in Swem Library on August 16, 19, and 23. Sessions will be led by experienced William & Mary instructors and co-educators from across the university. Participants are also invited to join President Katherine Rowe and Provost Peggy Agouris for a mixer at the Wren Building….

W&M Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation announces ‘21 – 22 Excellence in Teaching Fellows

W&M Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation announces ‘21 – 22 Excellence in Teaching Fellows

The Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) recently selected Joan Gavaler and Leslie Cochrane as the Teaching Excellence Fellows for the upcoming 2021 – 2022 academic year.

Gavaler and Cochrane will serve as the second cohort of STLI Fellows since the program’s inception. By focusing on strategic priorities for the university related to teaching and learning, the fellows will develop learning opportunities and programming for instructors across the university in collaboration with the STLI team….

Apply to be a New Faculty Mentor

Apply to be a New Faculty Mentor

Do you wish you knew then what you know now? Are you interested in helping new colleagues navigate the intricacies of teaching at William & Mary? The Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation is looking for experienced teachers who would like to share their perspectives and serve as a resource. Faculty mentors will receive an award to participate in the program during the 2021-22 academic year….

Rethinking Student Assignments | Part 2: How to think about Technical Skills

Rethinking Student Assignments | Part 2: How to think about Technical Skills

What skills do you want your students to develop when they create a multimodal project? If you’re assigning an essay, you’re probably hoping students will improve their writing. That same expectation should apply to a multimodal project. At some level, you want the students to be better producers (and consumers) of whatever medium they’re creating. There are many skill sets at play in any multimodal assignment. …

Opt-In for ’21 Summer Online Teaching Assistant Support

Opt-In for ’21 Summer Online Teaching Assistant Support

The Studio for Teaching & Learning will launch the Online Teaching Assistant (OTA) Program beginning June 1 to August 6, 2021 to provide technical assistance for Arts & Sciences instructors teaching remotely this coming summer.

Online Teaching Assistants (OTAs) will aid instructors with various tools and technologies used in remote teaching such as Blackboard, Panopto, Zoom, and much more. Instructors experiencing technical issues or concerns will be able to reach OTAs via email from 8 a….

Developing Confident and Responsible Writers in the Digital World

Developing Confident and Responsible Writers in the Digital World

Teaching and learning in the digital world brings the dual possibilities of promise and peril. Digital tools and expanded connectivity afford instructors a wide array of instructional possibilities. Learners benefit from access to information and the ability to more easily collaborate with peers. These affordances are balanced by several constraints as well. One particular challenge is ensuring academic integrity in digital spaces….

W&M Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation to host virtual panel on One Tribe One Day

W&M Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation to host virtual panel on One Tribe One Day

The Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) will be hosting “Inspiring Teaching & Learning (Even in a Pandemic!)” as part of the eighth annual One Tribe One Day (OTOD) virtual events line-up on April 13 at 9 am. During the hour-long session, STLI Director Mark Hofer will be joined by instructors, including a STLI Faculty Teaching Innovation Fellow, undergraduate student partners, and STLI team members to share inspirational stories around innovation in teaching and learning and how the pandemic has impacted the classroom now and beyond….

Rethinking Student Assignments | Part 1: A Study in Communication

Rethinking Student Assignments | Part 1: A Study in Communication

One of the hardest things for many instructors to do is to create a non-paper-based or multi-modal assignment for their students. We get so much of our information from videos, podcasts, websites, and other multimodal sources, so it’s only natural that instructors would want to help students understand these communication modes critically. There are appealing assignment options out there like student-created websites, podcasts, or student-produced videos….

One Word Entry Into Class Discussion

One Word Entry Into Class Discussion

Many of us have been there. You’re trying to facilitate a discussion over Zoom, you pose a question, you wait the appropriately awkward amount of time and …crickets. Perhaps students aren’t sure what they want to say — it may be that they are tired — or they could just be shy. Whatever the issue, discussion falls flat when students don’t engage. In the education courses I teach, I need students to read and respond to various pedagogical case studies. My goal is that students read the text and dig deeply into how the ideas espoused in the texts can transfer to their classroom practice….

Unbook Club: The Spark of Learning

Unbook Club: The Spark of Learning

Katalin Wargo, Candice Benjes-Small, and Alexandra Macdonald host another round of the UnBook Club, a reading group for those who don’t have time to read! We’ll summarize the chapters and then jump into participant discussion of effective strategies to use in your classes.

Building Your Course Around Design Principles

Building Your Course Around Design Principles

When you’re designing a new course or doing a major syllabus revision, where do you typically start? If you’re like me (and probably most instructors), you begin with the content. What are the key concepts, ideas, and understandings that I want students to take away from my course? Then, lay them out on the calendar and identify readings, activities, and assessments. …

Bolster Student Resilience without Changing Your Course

Bolster Student Resilience without Changing Your Course

Have you ever wanted to know how to help a student in distress? Do you want to make your class “less stressful,” but need ideas on how to do so? Join Meghan Sinton Miller, professor and STLI Fellow as she discusses ways to make classes flexible and supportive without having to change course content. Meghan also reviews ways to connect students to different support systems on-campus….

Respectful Discussions in the Classroom: 2020 Election & Beyond*

In 2016, many of our students came to class the day after the election with questions and/or concerns about how the outcome of the election might affect them personally, or their families and friends. Regardless of what you teach, acknowledging the outcome of the election (or the likely lack of a known outcome in the days after Nov. 3) and your students’ different perspectives and concerns is likely to be important to them….

Student Engagement Tips and Tricks for New Faculty

Student Engagement Tips and Tricks for New Faculty

When we came together last semester for our STLI Workshop: Small Teaching for New Faculty Katalin Wargo and Candice Benjes-Small discussed the book Small Teaching and shared problems of practice. During this workshop, it was discovered that many of the faculty experiences related specifically to student engagement online. As William & Mary continues the academic year in a blended learning environment, Katalin and Candice invite new faculty to join the conversation and share tips and tricks to engage students online….

Vlogging for Online Courses with Higham & Co.

Vlogging for Online Courses with Higham & Co.

This special STLI workshop focused on the multimedia phenomenon known as vlogging and how you can use it in your online courses. Facilitated by Jeremy Higham of Higham & Company, the workshop will be broken up into two sections. In the first hour, Jeremy will discuss vlogging and how you can use it in your online courses. The second hour of the workshop will be dedicated to a hands-on demonstration. With extensive documentary experience, Higham has taught blogging both in the UK and India.

Small Steps to Student Engagement & Connection

Small Steps to Student Engagement & Connection

Engaging and connecting with students in remote, blended, and even socially distanced classrooms is a challenge. In this participatory workshop hosted by STLI Director Mark Hofer, you will draw on student engagement research to design small steps and an iterative process to effect meaningful changes in your teaching.

Digital storytelling tools for class projects

Digital storytelling tools for class projects

In this 90 minute workshop, Mike Blum and Shannon White explored some of STLI’s favorite tools for creating digital storytelling projects. Google Sites, Microsoft Sway, and ArcGIS Story Maps are all easy to use, powerful storytelling tools that students can jump right into for short assignments, presentations, or larger projects. Learn how to make the most of these tools supported by W&M.

Poll Everywhere Fall 2020 Kickoff Session

Poll Everywhere Fall 2020 Kickoff Session

Are you considering using Poll Everywhere (PollEV), or maybe an early adopter or anything in-between? If so, watch as STLI and a Poll Everywhere representative discuss new features in PollEV, share tips for Fall 2020, and answer questions. 

Student Accessibility Services Q&A

Student Accessibility Services Q&A

Instructors and co-educators joined Associate Dean of Students & Director of Student Accessibility Services Lesley Henderson and Coordinator of Student Accessibility Services Anna Whiston as they answered questions about implementing SAS accommodations.

Cultivating Joy in Your Teaching

Cultivating Joy in Your Teaching

Interested in modular course design but don’t know where to start? Have an existing Blackboard course that you’d like to revise to make it more user-friendly? In this hands-on workshop, Computer Science Professor and STLI Fellow Dana Willner we will work with participants to implement or revise modular design for your course. Part of module creation will involve using features of Blackboard to improve navigation for students and maintaining consistency….

Introspection, Investigation, and Iteration: Re-Imagining your Course

Interested in modular course design but don’t know where to start? Have an existing Blackboard course that you’d like to revise to make it more user-friendly? In this hands-on workshop, Computer Science Professor and STLI Fellow Dana Willner we will work with participants to implement or revise modular design for your course. Part of module creation will involve using features of Blackboard to improve navigation for students and maintaining consistency….

Introspection, Investigation, and Iteration: The Evolving Course

Introspection, Investigation, and Iteration: The Evolving Course

Interested in modular course design but don’t know where to start? Have an existing Blackboard course that you’d like to revise to make it more user-friendly? In this hands-on workshop, Computer Science Professor and STLI Fellow Dana Willner we will work with participants to implement or revise modular design for your course. Part of module creation will involve using features of Blackboard to improve navigation for students and maintaining consistency….

Introspection, Investigation, and Iteration: Small Steps to Big Changes

Introspection, Investigation, and Iteration: Small Steps to Big Changes

Interested in modular course design but don’t know where to start? Have an existing Blackboard course that you’d like to revise to make it more user-friendly? In this hands-on workshop, Computer Science Professor and STLI Fellow Dana Willner we will work with participants to implement or revise modular design for your course. Part of module creation will involve using features of Blackboard to improve navigation for students and maintaining consistency….