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This interview examines ongoing research on distinguishing between different kinds of learning behaviors in students with an eye to getting them the practice they need to recognize concepts in application.

A course at the University of Pennsylvania includes a one-month vow of online and offline silence, to give students a sense of what the monastic life is like.

A useful description of a class survey and steps which can help more students be comfortable with their cameras on more often. The suggested techniques include a discussion of setting norms and addressing distractions, which could be useful for face-to-face classes as well.

From the abstract: "This paper investigates the most common instructor responses following a tragedy and which of those responses students find most helpful."

This is a question we need to start asking up-front. When a textbook vendor calls, ask about accessible materials. When you see a documentary, ask if it's closed-captioned. When we think about new technologies, ask about screen readers and other accessibility tools. Better still, ask vendors (and colleagues) what accommodations they'd make to get all students an equivalent educational experience.

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.

This tutorial from Indiana University on recognizing (and avoiding) plagiarism is wordy, but the "Examples" and "Practice" sections in particular would be useful to students.

"The study presented here explores the responses and perceptions of a group of first year students at an Irish university after their first contact with anti-plagiarism software in the context of peer-reviewed assignments. The results indicate that the use of anti-plagiarism software led to a decrease in Internet plagiarism and to lower grades being awarded in peer reviews. Additionally, students were found to have a positive attitude towards the anti-plagiarism software in the context of peer reviewed assignments." - from the abstract.

I've heard from multiple people who are not satisfied with the quality of online discussion in their classes. Their concerns sound like the ones in this article - they get more student-to-professor writing than real "class discussion", and what they get is often dominated by the better students. This article poses 2 responses: ask for private journaling instead of public discussion, and then use the writing intentionally during class time.

Recommended during a NITLE webinar on encouraging originality in student writing.

Recommended during a NITLE webinar on encouraging originality in student writing.

Recommended during a NITLE webinar on encouraging originality in student writing.

Doing the assignments you give may help you teach student some of the implicit skills and knowledge in them.

The author uses multiple-choice exams to make sure that students have at least read the material, and as a counterweight to any bias she might have about the content. What is your "theory of exams"?

"Rechtschaffen (2014) notes that "Students are told to pay attention a thousand times in school, but rarely are they taught how" (p.10), and we have observed that before our focusing activities Students generally seemed distracted, stressed, and irritated. After the focusing activity, their posture became more relaxed and they seemed more receptive to learning."

Good list of formal practices for classroom discussion which can get students more organized and more broadly participating in class. I was particularly taken with the URL for this page, which calls them "speaking-listening techniques".

Some interesting ideas for first day of class activities here. I was particularly taken by the "syllabus scavenger hunt" in which students are asked to list their big questions about the course and find the answers in the syllabus (or start a conversation about why they aren't there).

Worth thinking about this as we wrap up the semester and plan for the next one. Did your students find your course to be difficult enough to be motivating, but still achievable?

Patrick Jackson uses a "flipped classroom" model to force himself to not lecture, and instead focus intro-level students on the core skills of historical analysis. From the GLCA Center for Teaching and Learning.

"...how are we supposed to prepare students to be lifelong learners if we don't teach them how to embrace imperfection?" And by "teach them", the authors mean "model for them."