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Vassar has invigorated its common reading program for first-year students by integrating video mini-lectures and Moodle discussion forums. A more active program seems to be helping the first-year cohort form and introduce the campus culture before students move in.

The examples of student-teacher interaction are particularly good in this white paper. I also liked the discussion about the classroom atmosphere that's encouraged (and discouraged) by handling questions well.

This professor commits to listening to students' conversation by appointing himself note-taker, which frees him from the role of "conversation guide".

Great thoughts from Derek Bruff about approaches to discussion and groupwork when half the students are coming by videoconference.

Terrific podcast discussion reviewing the body of literature on course evaluations. Did you know it's one of the deepest areas of research in the scholarship of teaching and learning?

The new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy gives a higher priority to understanding how knowledge is produced and shared. This article discusses ways that could play out in the design of library services. How could it affect your course and curriculum design?

The author details a number of critiques of Turnitin's recently released study purporting to show that Turnitin use results in a major decrease in plagiarism at institutions where it is used. The core of the critique is that Turnitin tends to start in classrooms where plagiarism has been a problem so the baseline is high and that it is often used in conjunction with a campus discussion about academic honesty and how to teach in ways that inhibit the drive to plagiarize.

Interview with James Lang, the author of "Cheating Lessons." The soundbyte from the interview might be this: "The fascinating discovery I made in my own research was that the features of a course that do tend to induce cheating were also ones that tend to reduce learning."

A review of the book "Minds On Fire", which discusses "subversive play" as an engaging pedagogy. Part 3 in a series on the "Reacting to the Past" series of "role-immersion" games; the other 2 entries are linked from this one.

Good discussion on this podcast of the issues of passion, meaning, and work-life balance for faculty. Also, I think, an interesting model for talking to students about our work, and our work histories.

A report on studies which show the positive impact of exercise and being in nature on subjects' creativity and mood. Next time your class begs "can we have class outside", why not suggest a discussion during a walk to the other end of campus?

This article includes an interesting discussion guide which can help faculty members articulate their philosophies of teaching and consider the impact of philosophy on practice.

We've got a faculty colleague working on this idea this semester. Presentations will become podcasts, and class time which used to be spent on presentations will now become a longer Q&A discussion of the topics. We're hoping this will mitigate some student issues with stage fright, and allow for better discussions since the students will have more time to prepare meaningful questions.

Did you know that grades weren't widespread in American education until midway through the 20th Century? This article features a literature review of the history of grading, discusses some of the ways in which grading doesn't work as well for learning as we'd like, and suggests alternative approaches to assignments and assessment.

A brief discussion of the "double-loop" theory of learning, with references and the suggestion that this theory addresses cultural change as much as individualized learning.

A description of the ACT-R model of memory, with references and a brief discussion of possible applications of the model for teaching.

Rubrics covering a variety of learning outcomes, including a number of skills we have discussed in relation to the Essentials project. These were created as part of the Association of American Colleges and Universities' project "Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education."

The author discusses a report on the value of having students evaluate their peer's presentations in the political science classroom. Being required to evaluate their peer's presentations using the same criteria as the instructor uses, students report a greater understanding of the expectations for the presentations and gain more knowledge from the content of those presentations than they would have otherwise.

A new iOS app designed by faculty at Bryn Mawr and Notre Dame integrates the text of The Tempest with critical commentary, different actors' interpretations of critical scenes, and class discussions. The "book app" seems to be diverging in important ways from the "e-book."

I've spoken with faculty who are using Problem-Based Learning effectively in their classrooms but were not aware the practice had a name, nor that it had a substantial body of research literature. Here's a sample that outlines the reasons it is an effective practice, best practices, and practical examples plus a brief discussion of the constructivist principles at work. It comes to us at Kenyon through JSTOR.