by Debie Lohe, Director, Reinert Center New academic years are filled with promise. All choices are open to us. We aim high, sure that the hectic pace of the old year has passed and we can finally achieve our most aspirational goals. It doesn’t take long for the calendar to fill and our best hopes… Continue reading Beginning Anew, Renewing Our Commitments
Month: August 2017
Accommodation and Course Design
by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center A recent article from ChronicleVitae discusses the benefits of focusing on accommodation when writing or revising syllabi for a new semester. David Goobler (2017) argues, “We’re wrong to think of accommodations as exceptions that detract from our normal way of doing things. Accommodating students is our normal way… Continue reading Accommodation and Course Design
Book Review: The Slow Professor
by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center If you are looking for an interesting (and motivating) book to dig into before the semester begins, I recommend picking up a copy of The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy (Berg & Seeber, 2016). The authors challenge the frantic pace of pedagogical and… Continue reading Book Review: The Slow Professor
Reviewing the Characteristics of Effective Teachers
by Gina Merys, Associate Director, Reinert Center The August/September 2017 issue of The Teaching Professor Newsletter reviewed two recent studies that looked at the most important teacher characteristics as identified by students. While the studies do not reveal solid evidence about any characteristic’s direct bearing on student learning, one of the studies (Gerhard, 2016) does… Continue reading Reviewing the Characteristics of Effective Teachers
Facilitating Independent Study Courses
by James Fortney, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center Back in June, I wrote a blog post about designing independent study courses that listed several strategies for working with students to help create a course to support their goals for learning. With the start of fall semester quickly approaching, I wanted to share a few tips and… Continue reading Facilitating Independent Study Courses
The Notebook 