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A worthwhile interview about the University of Mary Washington program to offer every student and professor their own domain name and a significant amount of control over which web publishing platforms they use. I find the discussions about privacy vs. publicy in a networked society to be the intellectual meat of the piece - the technology issues, while complex, are also just logistics to be solved or worked around.

A good discussion of how on professor uses multiple choice quizzing to measure comprehension of the major concepts in the course, instead of just testing for the ability to recall facts.

Classroom participation is difficult to track and assess equitably. Why not have the students contribute regular self-assessment to the process?

Fascinating examples of ways that a shared spreadsheet, thrown up on a projector, can be used to manage group work, record ideas from class conversation, and develop arguments and the use of evidence.

On this podcast, Saundra McGuire discusses the ways she's seen student achievement improve by working lessons in study skills into her classes. Are there basic (or basic-seeming) learning skills you'll be encouraging your students to use this semester?

Some interesting examples here of times when annoying classroom behaviors can be symptoms of issues with a student's wellbeing, and a few ideas of ways we can help students cope without just abandoning rigor. "Too often when faculty discuss students with mental-health conditions, the conversation ends in the same place: Either we establish rigorous standards or we coddle students. But that is a false binary."

Some interesting thoughts here about the differences between "shyness" and "introversion", and the way your classroom participation practices can help or hinder students. Also an interesting reflection on participation in the scholarship of teaching and learning, as the author deals with resistance to her original article.

This is described as "a work in progress" and "current status: brain dump" (6/24 3PM), and as such there are a couple head-scratchers on this reading list. At the same time, it's a fascinating example of digital collaboration as teachers work toward classroom discussions of current events.

This article promotes two teaching strategies that cognitive psychology research has shown to be effective: spaced practice, which brings students back to the same topics periodically throughout a course, and retrieval practice, which uses quizzes and class discussions to reinforce study.

This infographic presents a brief selection of questions to stimulate critical thinking in students. It can provide a starting point for discussions of applying the skills of academic inquiry to real world situations or a reference for explaining the value of higher education to non-academics.

A Faculty Learning Community is a cros-disciplinary group of faculty who meet to investigate a common topic of interest in teaching and learning (or the conduct of scholarship more broadly). This article discusses the involvement of a librarian as facilitator to an FLC on scholarly writing.

Flipping the classroom is about more than students watching videos outside of class. It is about taking advantage newly available classroom time to lead students in active and engaging activities for improved learning outcomes. Developing new and effective activities can be a challenge and differs by discipline. This useful article discusses a range of practices at various universities and the offers thoughtful quotes from faculty about the pros and cons of those activities.

"The authors of the article suggest one fairly simple but meaningful strategy. Stop talking about "finding sources." Frame the work as learning about something."

An interesting approach to the way an institution's design affects the kind of education it delivers. Considering Kenyon's ongoing consideration of general education requirements, I'll exerpt here the last paragraph as a prompt for discussion: "General education is often thought of as a means to expose students to a broad range of "essential" knowledge and to provide a historical context for the culture in which they live. These are valid, but insufficient, goals. The purpose of general education should be to produce graduates who are skilled in communication, imbued with quantitative reasoning skills, instinctively collaborative, inherently transdisciplinary in their approach to problems, and engaged in their local and global communities-broadly educated individuals with an informed perspective on the problems of the 21st century and the integrative abilities to solve them."

A free ebook from the Teagle Foundation addressing the humanities' approach to learning assessment. "What happens when the disciplines make themselves heard in the discussions of learning outcomes assessment that are ubiquitous in higher education today? What do disciplinary perspectives and methodologies have to bring to the table? This volume engages these questions from the perspective of literary study, with essays by education leaders, faculty from English and foreign language departments, and assessment experts that offer a wide range of perspectives."

The author discusses recent research indicating that students spend most of their study time using the least effective study techniques and speculates on what teachers can do to promote the most effective techniques.

Interesting review of a new book on writing pedagogy. The central message of the book appears to be one which I've heard many Kenyon faculty members discuss - deliver only a few critical messages to a student per writing exercise, based on their current stage of writing development. There's a much better chance that the student will take those one or two lessons to heart than if they're hidden in feedback which bleeds red ink.

At our ODEI/CIP book discussions, there was a lot of concern about stereotype threat. "Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group." This stress has been linked to reduced performance in a number of academic and social areas. Put another way, recognizing and removing sources of stereotype threat can be a good way to create inclusive environments where everyone can succeed.

You say "any questions", 5 seconds of total silence follow... what then?