Resources

In this interview, an assistant professor reflects on her choices and successes in teaching a large Intro to Anthropology lecture class: encouraging a "need to know" in her students, establishing an active learning environment, and getting students to prepare for class.

Short insightful responses to a series of questions, including how do I: deal with apathetic students? deal with groups who are not functioning well together? get my students to prepare for class? create assignments that are challenging but not overwhelming? And: Should class be fun?

Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education draws on current research and best practice to show how to integrate technology into teaching in higher education. This book provides a comprehensive theoretical and pedagogical foundation for helping instructors make critical decisions about the use of technology within the college curriculum. The book is essential reading for both new and experienced instructors contemplating using technology for teaching in higher education. (From the Publisher)

Media attention focused on the instructional quality in colleges and universities reflects a higher education system that must do a better job of preparing instructors. First Steps is written just for that purpose — to help new instructors and teaching assistants set and meet standards of excellence. Glenn Ross Johnson provides the basics of instruction, from preparation through evaluation, step-by-step. He focuses on what new instructors need most, covering the essentials such as: • Determining your course objectives 
• Selecting textbooks
• Involving your students more actively
• What can be learned about your teaching through the Cognitive Interaction Analysis System (CIAS)
• Evaluating your students (From the Publisher)

From experienced distance educators comes this comprehensive collection of strategies for teaching effectively online. Beginning with pre-instruction preparation and progressing through actual online teaching, 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups will help you feel more comfortable and competent heading into an online course, whether you're a new instructor or an experienced professor. The authors dispel popular myths in online education and anticipate the potential problems you might face teaching in the online medium. They also advise you on how to set up and implement your online course, and make the course discussions as interactive as those you have in the traditional face-to-face classroom setting. If you're involved in web-based education — or if you're about to be — 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups will become one of your most trusted resources. (From the Publisher)

This volume provides information about theories and practices associated with Problem-based learning (PBL). Partially because of changes in the Information Age that are transforming the nature of knowledge and the types of problems that people face, professors are adopting PBL in order to facilitate a broader and more up-to-date role of what it means "to learn." Professors will encounter, however, their own set of problems when designing and implementing a problem-based curriculum. Not unlike PBL assignments to their students, the issues and obstacles professors will encounter require practical solutions. The authors of this volume have practical experience in the design and implementation of PBL. Based on their experiences, they offer insightful commentaries and useful guidelines about various aspects of PBL. These guidelines include ideas for designing useful problems that can serve as the basis of PBL activities, creating environments conducive to problem solving, facilitating students' problem solving activities, and assessing students' efforts in problem solving. (From the Publisher)

Many universities are concerned about improving the pedagogy used by their graduate students in the classroom. Yet few universities provide adequate training or support. As a result, most new graduate student teachers feel overwhelmed by the demands of being both a teacher and a student. Written from the perspective of both professors who have been in the classroom for many years and inexperienced teachers of the "I wish someone had told me" variety, First Day to Final Grade should be every graduate student's first step in teaching. The guiding principle of this book is that, while theoretical wisdom about teaching is important, graduate students need specific, practical answers to questions that arise during the semester. The text is written to function as a quick reference tool, but is equally effective when read from start to finish in preparation for teaching. It focuses on the "how tos" of teaching, such as setting up a lesson plan, running a discussion, and grading, as well as issues specific to the teaching assistant's unique role as both student and teacher, such as working effectively with the course professor and balancing teaching with graduate studies. While some of the text addresses only first-time teachers, experienced teaching assistants can learn new teaching strategies from the material and use the specific lesson plans provided to vary their pedagogical approach. In addition, sections addressing the needs of international teaching assistants, questions of authority, diversity in the classroom, and various learning styles will also prove helpful to many. (From the Publisher)

Journal Issue.

The explanations and examples in the handbook and website are intended to help each institution to develop goals and to select the best methods. They do not increase or modify accreditation standards. The handbook addresses the needs of everyone interested in, or practicing, higher education assessment. Each chapter focuses on a separate aspect of the assessment process, so the chapters can be used individually and at any stage of the process as a guide and stimulus. Useful appendices include: Assessment Standards in Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education; An Assessment Practices Quiz; Key to “Assessment Practices Quiz”; A Department/Program Student Outcomes Survey; Learning Goals and Assessment Techniques; From Effect to Cause: A Brainstorming Exercise; and Student Learning Styles: Frequently Asked Questions. (From the Publisher)