by Debie Lohe, Director, Reinert Center This week, with move-in underway, most of the campus is focused on the arrival of new undergraduates. It's easy to do that: they're fresh and new and starting a journey that will take them to unexpected places. For us here in the Reinert Center, though, we're thinking more about… Continue reading From Intuition to Intention
Student Motivation in Online and Flipped Courses
by Sandy Gambill, Instructional Designer Many of the ideas we’ve posted this summer for motivating students in a traditional face-to-face class can be applied in online or flipped courses, but you may need to build in some additional structure to foster engagement and help students accept the shift in the balance of power that occurs… Continue reading Student Motivation in Online and Flipped Courses
Review: The Teaching Professor Newsletter and Successful Group Projects
by Gina Merys, Assistant Director, Reinert Center I often hear the laments of faculty about not having enough time to keep up with the current research in their disciplines, much less time to read about teaching and learning. While one of the best parts of the summer months is that it can be a time… Continue reading Review: The Teaching Professor Newsletter and Successful Group Projects
Actively Engaging Students in Reading & Discussion: Article Review
by Michaella Thornton, Assistant Director for Instructional Design Encouraging students to actively engage in (and complete) a course's readings can sometimes feel like a Sisyphean task, especially if class discussions are dependent on students' comprehension and ability to analyze, critique, and synthesize the readings throughout the semester. So, how do we, as teachers and instructional… Continue reading Actively Engaging Students in Reading & Discussion: Article Review
Formative and Summative Feedback and Its Impact on Learner Motivation
Submitted to the Teaching Issues Writing Consortium by Julie Frese, Ph.D., University of the Rockies Julie.Frese@faculty.rockies.edu http://rockies.edu According to Dempsey & Sales (1993), the motivational approach to feedback is based on the belief that “…letting people know how well they are performing a task acts as an incentive for greater effort in the future” (p. 4).… Continue reading Formative and Summative Feedback and Its Impact on Learner Motivation
Strategies for Student Motivation
by Sandy Gambill, Instructional Designer, CTTL It’s high summer and I’m thinking about the course I’ll be teaching this fall. Maybe it’s just the time of the year where my own attention wanders, but I’m spending more time than usual thinking about student motivation. What is the secret to getting students engaged with the course… Continue reading Strategies for Student Motivation
The Reinert Center Welcomes Our 2013-2014 Graduate Assistants
The Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning enthusiastically announces the three Graduate Assistants on our staff for the 2013-2014 academic year. Graduate Assistants in the Center assist in the administration of the Certificate in University Teaching Skills (CUTS) program, conduct research on teaching and learning topics, consult with graduate students about teaching, and assist… Continue reading The Reinert Center Welcomes Our 2013-2014 Graduate Assistants
What's On Our Minds Lately: The Instructional Design Team
by Michaella Thornton, Assistant Director for Instructional Design Penn State University's "Faculty Self-Assessment: Preparing for Online Teaching" and "Web Learning @ Penn State" developed by the Faculty Engagement subcommittee of Penn State's Online Coordinating Council Links: https://weblearning.psu.edu/FacultySelfAssessment/ AND http://weblearning.psu.edu/resources The summertime is a great time to reflect on the course design process, especially if you… Continue reading What's On Our Minds Lately: The Instructional Design Team
What is Transformational Teaching, and How Do I Do It?
by Debie Lohe, Director, CTTL Here in the Reinert Center, we talk a lot about teaching that transforms – that is, teaching that changes people, altering fundamentally the way learners understand themselves and others, the way they engage in and contribute to their larger world. But transformation is a tall order (especially for those of… Continue reading What is Transformational Teaching, and How Do I Do It?
Tapping into the Collective Wisdom of the Best Blended Course Design Practices
By Michaella Thornton, Assistant Director for Instructional Design For four years I have taught blended, accelerated, and linked first-year composition courses at another learning institution. Despite having several years experience teaching face-to-face college-level writing and online educational technology courses before teaching a blended course, I had to teach myself a lot about the educational nuances… Continue reading Tapping into the Collective Wisdom of the Best Blended Course Design Practices
The Notebook 