students working together

Active Teaching

Excellence in teaching and learning begins with student-centered pedagogy focused on authentic community, assessment, engagement, and collaboration. For additional information about or help with any of the teaching topics below, please schedule a CATE consultation. 

Active Discussion

Active teaching allows for student ownership in the learning process as a contributor instead of a passive recipient. To fill your active teaching toolbox, CATE presents the Active Discussion series focusing on ideas for engaging students in high-level critical and creative thinking to facilitate meaningful interrogation of complex discipline topics. More active discussions are consistently being added, so return to this page periodically for new ideas! 

4 students looking at a multicolor image and writing observations on a classroom whiteboard

NEW!: 4 "A"s Discussion

The 4 "A"s Discussion asks students to (1) clarify assumptions, (2) confirm agreements, (3) support arguments, and (4) imagine aspirations as they encounter new information.

Students during a thinking hats activity recording stakeholder views

Thinking Hats

The thinking hats discussion asks participants to focus their thinking systematically on multiple perspectives.

Student adding a "cent" during a 2 cents activity

2 Cents

The idiom, “my 2 cents,” forms the foundation of this activity as students choose when and how to “spend” their academic “capital.”

Five students sit in a row at their desk and completing an assignment on their computers

Exit Tickets

Exit tickets are quick, low-stakes formative assessments for judging the level of confidence students feel about their learning.

Students thinking about the 5 whys

5 Whys

Through repeated iterations of asking “why” questions, students deepen their analysis of the problem and can more clearly articulate a variety of perspectives.

Panel Discussion

Panel Discussions

Panel discussions involve a small group of experts leading a planned discussion with audience interaction to create a robust investigation of course concepts.

Tableau Activity

Tableau Activity

As a specific type of role-playing activity, tableaus offer an active, collaborative learning experience that places students physically in medias res (“in the middle of things”).

Image depicts students creating an anchor chart on the board

Anchor Charts

Anchor charts engage students in co-creating visual representations of the key concepts, processes, and strategies of a learning experience for class discussion.

Image depicts students grouped in corners of the classroom discussing a topic.

4 Corners

The 4 corners discussion gets students moving, talking, and generating new ideas. Click here to see the activity in Dr. Natalie Czimskey's Fall 2024 course.

Jigsaw Activity

Jigsaw Activity

The jigsaw activity supports the introduction of multiple topics in the same class period to effectively build broader and deeper understandings of various concepts.

Expand Your Active Teaching Practice

Community

Creating a positive and welcoming classroom climate, as well as using clear and regular communication, are among the most important things any instructor can do to set the tone and manage the class. One of the best ways to ensure a successful semester for you and your students is to take the time to cultivate a welcoming and supportive climate. In doing so, students are more likely to achieve the learning outcomes of the course, develop higher-order thinking skills, be motivated to learn, and be satisfied with the course (Cornelius-White, 2007; Granitz, Koernig, & Harich, 2009). Here are a few ways instructors can build a positive classroom community:

  • Build rapport by incorporating icebreakers early and often. For more information, see the Center for Teaching and Learning's Guide to Icebreakers with a Purpose. 

  • Consider using a survey to learn about your students interests, goals, needs, etc. 

  • Learn and use students’ names. Using the class photo roster in UT CLIPs is helpful! 

  • Arrive to class a few minutes early and stay a few minutes late to make space for informal time.

  • Incorporate innovative teaching practices.

  • Tell students that your class welcomes different viewpoints and that you will not tolerate insensitive remarks, then hold them accountable as necessary. For more information, learn about Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. 

  • Share your enthusiasm for the subject and for their learning - excitement and positivity are contagious! 

  • Solicit student input and feedback throughout the semester. 

  • Set community standards and class norms.

  • Demonstrate and encourage social presence.

  • Include multiple avenues for interaction and engagement.

  • Model participation and behavioral expectations.

  • Adopt a casual, conversational tone in announcements and messages.

  • Allow time before, during, or after class for social conversation.

Additional Resources

“Facilitating discourse during the course is critical to maintaining interest, motivation and engagement of students in active learning” (Anderson, et al, 2001). Communication is critical to establishing trust and fostering student engagement. Here are some important tips for communicating with students:

  • Plan to communicate often throughout the course. In long semesters, plan to communicate with students at least once a week, and more frequently early in the semester. 

  • At the start of the course, tell students explicitly what to expect regarding communication, including:

    • your preferred method of communication (email, online discussion tool such as Teams, phone/text); 

    • when can they expect a response from the teaching team; 

    • when office hours are held; 

    • if and when they will get reminders about assignments or exams, etc. 

  • Be creative and use different modalities in your communication. For example, use the video feature in Canvas to create a video instead of a typical text announcement. 

  • Encourage students to come to office hours and not only when they have a question about the subject matter. 

  • Reach out individually, as possible, to students just to check in and see how they are doing. Don’t wait for them to have a problem and come to you- as we know, some never will. 

  • When teaching, share parts of yourself. Use anecdotes and examples from your life to activate emotions. Not only do students remember good stories, they will be more likely to feel connected to you and appreciate your willingness to share. 

  • Model active listening strategies and do your best to facilitate this in your students. Communication is much clearer when we listen to understand each other! 

Additional Resources

Student motivation is both intrinsic and extrinsic and can be inspired by a variety of goals including good grades, high paying jobs, social belonging, personal growth and development, and more. Not all students will be motivated by the same things or in the same ways, so it’s important to use many different motivational strategies to reach as many students as possible. Nilson (2016) provides a list of 55 Strategies for Motivating Students broken down into variety of methods including your persona, the subject matter, your teaching, and assignments and tests. Strategies include:

  • Getting to know your students and vice versa.

  • Delivering presentations with enthusiasm and energy.

  • Fostering good communication.

  • Maintaining classroom civility. 

  • Allowing students to contribute to course content and design.

  • Explaining to students why you have chosen certain materials or methods.

  • Teaching by inquiry.

  • Ensuring the accessibility of materials.

  • Setting high expectations but realistic performance goals. 

  • Providing prompt, regular, and positive feedback!

  • Giving second chances.

  • Allowing different options for students to demonstrate learning.

  • Creating community agreements and using icebreakers regularly.

  • Regularly soliciting feedback and input to shape and improve class.

  • Encouraging attendance at office hours.

  • Offering multiple ways to participate (hand raising, chat, discussion boards, etc.)

  • Using multiple means of representation, action, and expression.

It is critical to solicit feedback from students on your course both during (formative) and at the end (summative) of the semester. At CATE, we suggest starting to collect feedback early in the semester as students will more often take time to give thoughtful, useful feedback if they know it will be incorporated into the rest of the class and impact them positively. Some ways you can solicit helpful feedback are to conduct a survey at the start of the semester to get to know students’ preferred names, pronouns, interests, learning preferences, and constraints. Run polls throughout the semester to get input on student well-being, attitudes, preferences, and needs. Reinforce, at different times and through different channels (e.g., in the syllabus, in class, announcements, etc.), that you value student input and will try to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate student needs. After collecting feedback, explicitly tell students how you used their input to make adjustments to the course. Send multiple reminders about the Course Instructor Survey (CIS) - before it opens, when it opens, and just before it closes. Give a point-based incentive for completing it to increase responses.

Mid-Semester Feedback

Getting feedback during the semester helps you understand students’ experience and needs and make adjustment that can impact their learning and engagement. CATE has created a mid-semester feedback survey that you can import into your Canvas course, if you wish, to make the collection process easier. Feel free to edit, add or remove questions to make the survey most helpful for you. Details on how to do this, as well as an importable file, are available for you to download.

End of Semester Course Evaluations

UT launched a new Course Evaluation System (CES) in Fall 2022 integrated with Canvas, which now includes a a “Course Evaluation” button in the left navigation panel of each course page. Under this tab, instructors will be able to track students’ response rate live while the survey is active by checking the “Subject Management” task available there. Canvas will automatically send a message to students with a link when the survey is open.

The main platform improvements include a better mobile phone user interface and downloading features to analyze survey results. It also enables Faculty to personalize questions, adding up to three additional enquiries. The new CES also generates a unique QR code and URL that takes the students directly to your survey rather than forcing them to navigate through their dashboard. To generate a QR code or URL, click the three dots at the lower right of the box on Canvas.

Improving CES Return Rate

The utility of your Course Evaluation System (CES) results depends on a robust return rate. Below are some recommendations to help boost your CES return rates

The following practices are grounded in research and focus on actions instructors can take without changes to administrative systems, procedures or policies.

  • Share this short video about giving meaningful feedback with students.

  • Explicitly and repeatedly tell students you value their input. 

    • Add a statement in your syllabus.

    • Discuss it in your course introduction.

    • Remind students as the end of the course approaches.

  • Demonstrate that you value student input throughout your course.

    • Poll students to get input on their preferences and needs.

    • Conduct a mid-semester evaluation.

    • Use student feedback to make adjustments in the course.

  • Tell students that their feedback on the CES is important because it is used to evaluate your teaching and you use student input to improve your teaching. Provide examples of changes you have made based on student feedback.

You can get more tips in the Response Rate Guide. Click here to download.

For face-to-face Courses and Synchronous Online Courses

  • Let students know in advance when you plan to administer the CES and remind them to bring a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
  • Allow class time for students to complete the mobile-adaptive CES. The instructor should not be present when the CES is being administered. In Zoom, you can make someone else the host and exit the meeting.

For Asynchronous Online Courses

  • Let students know the time window when the CES will be open before it opens.
  • Send a reminder when the CES window opens.
  • Send a “last chance” notice just before the CIS window closes.
  • Include a link to the CES in your Canvas course and in your reminder messages.

Incentives

Research shows that extra credit is one of the most successful strategies for boosting course evaluation response rates. A point-based micro-incentive worth ≤ 0.5% of the overall course grade can be effective in boosting course evaluation return rates.

  • You can require students to submit a screenshot of the CES completion confirmation screen as evidence that they completed the survey. This does not reveal any of their responses.
  • A class-wide incentive giving extra points to the whole class if a high threshold response rate (e.g., 70%) is achieved can be as effective as individual incentives and is simpler to administer.
  • If you offer point-based incentives, it should be only one of multiple ways to earn extra credit. Students should be able to earn all available extra credit through other means. For example, you could add a bonus question available to everyone to a final assignment or test if the course evaluation return rate meets a given threshold.

Additional Resources

Teaching teams in Moody College can consist of teaching assistants, assistant instructors, Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULAs), and/or undergraduate graders. Incorporating innovative practices into your work with the teaching team not only benefits current learners in your classroom, but also helps set up the next generation of  teachers for success. Whether you teach a large lecture course or a smaller lab-based class, here are some best practices for working with TAs and AIs:

Set Expectations

  • Meeting as a group before the semester starts -and holding regular meetings throughout the semester- helps clarify the roles that each teaching team member will play and provides space to support graduate students. This is particularly important for TAs who may be assisting in a new class for the first time.
  • Be aware of the individual factors that may impact how graduate students can succeed as TAs and AIs.
    • Studies show that native speakers of English can have negative attitudes towards teaching assistants who are non-native English speakers, and that international students may not be accustomed to American classroom practices (Kang, Rubin & Lindemann, 2015). As an instructor, you can take steps to mitigate potential harm and help graduate students learn about a new setting. For example, many international graduate students come from teacher-centric and lecture-heavy learning communities, in which it is rare for students to interrupt a lecture with questions or to challenge a grade (Meadows et al, 2015). Acknowledging during your early meetings that such practices are more common in American university settings is helpful. Create an expectation of cultural difference (Dimitrov et al, 2014) by acknowledging that, for instance, students may participate in class in different ways (and be sure to build opportunities for all to participate).
    • TAs are often recent graduates themselves and not much older than the undergraduate students in class. As such, they may not feel comfortable in positions of authority over others so similar in age. Establishing clear, class-wide policies can help model excellent teaching and set boundaries for your graduate student teaching team members. For example, setting business hour availability where emails are answered within 24 hours according to a typical 9-5 weekday business schedule can help undergraduates communicate in a time-appropriate manner and help graduate teaching team members feel comfortable turning down requests for help on the weekend.
  • During group meetings, set up the teaching team so everyone is in alignment with the course goals. Aim to eliminate guesswork at all stages. What do you expect for grading policies, for leading discussion sections, or for supervising labs? Provide clear expectations and guidelines for each member or for common situations. For example, in large classes with many teaching team members, you can establish one person as a “lead” for question-answering.
  • Communicate clearly about when each member's working hours are. Some individuals are early risers, while others are night owls - Knowing when people work best helps to set up team co-working and scheduling.

Grading

Implementing class-wide policies instills confidence in undergraduates that they are receiving the same treatment regardless of who is grading them.

  • Be sure that all TAs know which students they will be grading or if they have specific sections of the class to work with.
  • Have TAs/AIs score practice exams or assignments first, then provide your feedback on the scoring.
  • Set your grade posting policy on Canvas to "manual" and decide who will post grades after all teaching team members have completed their portion of the grading. This ensures students fairly receive their grades at the same time, after all work is scored.
  • Use rubrics for all assignments and the blind grading feature on Canvas. This helps everyone if there are grading disputes.
  • Have a clear grading dispute policy in your syllabus that lets students know how long they have to report a dispute and what the report should include (written explanation, etc.). For example, grade dispute procedures may include a "cool down" period where students should not submit them within the first 24-hours of grade-posting nor exceed a week after the grade was posted.
  • Making assignments from previous semesters available for TAs/AIs to refer to as examples is also a good practice. Consider creating a UT Box folder or Microsoft Teams channel for your class where the teaching team can share slides, rubrics, notes, exemplary student work, etc. with future TAs/AIs. 

Model Empathy

  • Model trauma-informed grading practices. Trauma-informed pedagogy refers to understanding “how violence, victimization, and other traumatic experiences may have figured in the lives of the individuals involved and [applying] that understanding to the provision of services and the design of systems so that they accommodate the needs and vulnerabilities of trauma survivors” (Carello & Butler, 2014). Trauma-informed grading, for example, centers transparency about all aspects of the grading process so as to build trust.
  • Help graduate students learn to spot students who may be in distress and/or need additional campus resources. The difference between poor academic performance and a distressed student is not always immediately clear.
  • Demonstrate clear communicative practices in the classrooms. For example, clearly break down jargon or technical terms for newcomers or students from other disciplines. Invite questions from both students and teaching team members.

Additional Resources

Engagement

Teaching methods include all learning experiences you provide in the form of assignments and activities whether in class or outside of class. The methods you choose to teach should be based the desired result of learning as defined by your learning outcomes. Your teaching methods should also be aligned with the way you intend to assess student learning to support their successful performance.  A wide variety of teaching methods are available, such as:

  • Interactive lectures

  • Recitation

  • Discussion

  • Writing exercises

  • Classroom assessment techniques

  • Group work

  • Peer feedback

  • Case methods

  • Problem-based learning

  • Project-based learning

  • Service learning

  • Role plays

  • Games

  • Simulations

  • Debates

  • Fieldwork and clinicals

  • And more! 

Some teaching methods can be used to support learning outcomes at most levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. For example, writing exercises, problem-based learning, project-based learning, and case methods can be used effectively to address most cognitive levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Other methods are more limited. For example, lectures and recitation support learning outcomes only at the lowest levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy. An excellent summary of teaching methods aligned to different levels of learning outcomes is available in Teaching at Its Best by Linda Nilson (2016) on page 178!

CATE recommends using multiple teaching strategies to best serve the wide variety of learners in your classes. While students may have learning preferences, using multiple teaching modes will ensure you reach all students and that all students are challenged to learn and grow in new ways. Modes can include reading, listening, speaking, writing, visual, experiential, and more. More abstract material should be paired with more concrete material. Research shows that the more modes that are activated in a learner, the more learning takes place. Using active learning strategies, such as brainstorms, group work, case studies, projects, games, or simulations, is a great way to use multiple modes and keep students engaged. By teaching in multiple modes, you are also practicing innovative teaching as you are offering students a variety of ways to access and process information. It also provides multiple ways for students to demonstrate knowledge and participate in the class, which benefits everyone.

Additional Resources

At the simplest level, experiential learning allows students to construct knowledge through direct experience. Experiential learning is often thought of as experiences outside the classroom, such as internships, field work, or study abroad. But experiential learning can take place in an academic setting or a real-life setting. Benefits of experiential learning include developing deep understanding of subject matter, promoting critical thinking, applying knowledge in complex circumstances, providing deeply engaging experiences, and fostering key professional skills, such as leadership, teamwork, communication, and problem solving.

CATE’s views on experiential learning are closely aligned with UT’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). Experiential learning includes several key components: “Experiential learning opportunities offer students assignments and activities based on real-life situations or primary research that engages them in reflection and problem-solving with multiple avenues of inquiry.” Assignments parallel the activities and thinking of professionals. Students works with raw data, text, or artifacts that have not be pre-processed to understand their significance. Students use evidence they can collect to analyze and synthesize conclusions. Students have agency to make decisions about their process and product. CTL has compiled an excellent Deeper Dive Instructional Guide on experiential learning - Members of the UT community can self-enroll to the Canvas course.

Lecturing is one of the most prevalent teaching methods in higher education. Although there is ample evidence that learner-centered active methods are more effective for promoting higher order thinking and deep understanding, lectures are effective for conveying factual knowledge. CATE recommends the following to get the best out of lectures without over-relying on them:

  • The most common problems with lectures are trying to include too much material and delivering the material too fast. Pace yourself as you are speaking. Let your enthusiasm for the material show.

  • Avoid lecturing on material that is available elsewhere or duplicates other course material. 

  • Define the learning outcomes for each lecture, and inform students of the outcomes you expect. 

  • Make the organization clear by providing an outline.

  • Limit the scope to a few main concepts. Include a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. 

    • The introduction should provide context and review of material covered in the previous class session. 

    • The body of the lecture should be divided into 10- to 15-minute chunks. Students’ attention begins to wane after 10-15 minutes, so plan 2- to 5-minute breaks between these segments. You can use these breaks for active learning tasks that reach higher cognitive levels than just conveying factual knowledge. Common activities include think-pair-share, pair and compare notes, free-recall of main points, reflection or reaction paragraph, multiple-choice poll question followed by paired discussion, students write a multiple-choice test question, pair or group graphic (e.g., concept map, graphic organizer, flowchart), or a small group discussion of open-ended questions.

    • The conclusion should provide students with the opportunity for retrieval practice to promote retention. This can take the form of oral summaries by a few students, a free-recall writing exercise, one-minute paper, or a quiz.

  • Lecture slides should contain minimal text focusing on high level main points. Incorporate graphics or short videos to increase engagement and illustrate concepts.

  • Use concrete examples to elucidate concepts and connect with real-world experience. 

There are a multitude of reasons why students may not adequately prepare for class, many of which are out of the hands of the instructor. That said, there are steps you can take to incentivize preparedness, such as:

  • Begin the semester by clearly conveying your expectations about preparation in the syllabus.
  • When assigning homework, include study questions or another small assignment to complete while they engage with course materials.
  • Use class time to answer questions and clarify content from the homework, not to lecture the same material.
  • Use innovative teaching practices to increase engagement. For example, allow students to choose some readings, podcasts, or films or ask them for input on an assignment. If students helped to curate the materials or create the assignment, they’re more likely to complete it.
  • Assess students regularly using low-stakes quizzes, group assignments, or discussion posts that require them to have completed the readings or other homework.
  • Explicitly tie activities and assessments to the course learning outcomes. This helps ensure that students understand "the point” of all the work they do. 

Additional Resources

Assessment

Assessment is about more than just assigning a grade after learning has occurred. Assessment can also be a vital part of the learning process. Keep in mind that there are different types of assessment. The two most important in teaching are 

  1. Formative Assessment: monitoring student progress toward the learning goal and providing feedback to help students iteratively improve. Formative assessments are often no-stakes or low-stakes (ungraded, or low grade value) such as a short quiz or reflection assignment.
  2. Summative Assessment: evaluating whether students achieved the learning goals, i.e., assigning a grade. Summative assessments are often high stakes (and high stress) such as a final exam or final project.

As you plan how you will assess student learning, consider how you can incorporate low- or no-stakes formative assessment to help you monitor student learning, and to help students monitor their own learning. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are an easy way to integrate formative assessment into class time. With regard to summative assessment, having a small number of high-stakes assessments can increase student anxiety and their motivation to collude or cheat. Having more frequent, lower stakes assignments can reduce stress and the temptation to violate academic integrity. Additionally, more frequent deadlines prevent students from falling too far behind.

Additional Resources

Your choice of assessment techniques should be driven by your learning outcomes. Learning outcomes are measurable statements of what learners will be able to do as a result of learning. Well-designed learning outcomes clearly indicate the cognitive level in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Numerous assessment techniques are available to evaluate student learning. Many instructors rely on objective quizzes and exams that typically involve multiple-choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, or matching questions. An advantage with these assessments is that they can be automatically graded (e.g., by Scantron or within a Canvas quiz). A limitation, however, is that these types of questions can assess learning outcomes only at the lowest cognitive levels. They cannot be used to assess ability to organize, communicate, or create.

Another commonly used assessment technique is called constructed response. This includes essay questions and writing assignments. While constructed response assignments can be used to assess learning outcomes at the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, they may require significant effort to grade. Using a rubric can make grading writing assignments more efficient.

Assessing learning outcomes at the highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy is often best achieved by performance tasks and projects that are open-ended, complex, and authentic. Authentic tasks parallel the processes and products of working professionals. Some examples include working with a real client to design an advertising campaign, conducting original research and submitting it for publication, writing a screenplay and pitching it to a production company, or creating a software training video that can be used by next semester’s students, etc. As you plan how to assess your students, consider how to make their assessment products renewable rather than disposable. 

Additional Resources

Test preparation is important and there are a lot of things instructors can do to help students feel well prepared for any exam. Exams are not just for evaluation but can also be great opportunities for learning, which means that teaching students to properly prepare for an exam is also enhancing their learning in your class. 

  • Start with teaching students proper reading and note-taking techniques right from the beginning of the semester. Students will then have a good base of information when it is time to review course content in preparation for an exam.
  • Organize formal study groups as a way to encourage group-facilitated learning and have students hold each other accountable for their studying.
  • Encourage distributed practice (spacing out study activities over time) rather than massed practice (cramming at the last minute).
  • Create study guides and include guidance on how best to use them.
  • Provide sample tests, if possible, or provide a list of questions to review that connect to the class learning outcomes and represent the different formats they will find on the exam.
  • Suskie (2009) suggests using a test blueprint, in which you write out the learning outcomes you want to assess and then create your test questions for each outcome. Students can use the blueprint (which should include content areas, their relative importance, and a list of what you want students to be able to demonstrate for each area) to prepare for their test.
  • Host review sessions only after students have had ample opportunity to use other preparation methods. Students should use other methods to review readings and course content overall, leaving the review session to cover specific questions.
  • When possible, have the students answer each other’s questions (retrieval practice) and work in groups or as a class to answer challenging review questions.
  • Have students come up with questions that they feel would be appropriate for the exam, then use the best ones.
  • Reduce anxiety and build confidence in your students by using encouraging words, positive reassurance, and reducing interruptions during the exam. 

Additional Resources

We are all affected by different types of bias. 

  • Confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that supports one’s prior beliefs and values and dismiss evidence that does not support those pre existing beliefs/values.
  • Implicit bias is unconscious attitudes and stereotypes associated with categories of people. Implicit bias can affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious or unintentional manner that may be inconsistent with our conscious values. 

Consider a situation where Student A pays attention in class, actively contributes in discussions, and turns in assignments on time. Student B is distracted in class, seldom contributes to discussions, and turns in assignments late. Do you think bias could influence how you grade these students?

Here are three proven strategies for minimizing bias in grading:

  • In blind grading, student identifiers are removed before review. It improves student belief in accuracy of assessment when they are aware of the practice. In Canvas, anonymous grading hides students’ names form the grader when viewed in SpeedGrader.
  • Rubrics define the criteria and performance levels for grading a particular assignments. There are numerous benefits for using rubrics, including defining evaluation criteria for both learners and graders, providing a framework for giving feedback, promoting consistency if there are multiple graders, and supporting consistent grading across semesters. Creating a rubric in Canvas take a bit of time, but it saves time when grading in Speed Grader.
  • Calibration is a technique for minimizing variation between grades. Graders first review and discuss the rubric. They select a sample of student submissions and all graders independently score each submission. Then they compare their results and decide what adjustments are needed. Finally, they divide the remaining submissions and complete final scoring. If a submission is difficult to score, the grader should check with the group or the grading leader.

Additional Resources

The purpose of feedback is to

  1. reinforce the learning outcome;
  2. confirm progress toward the outcome;
  3. correct mistakes; and
  4. guide future actions. 

Feedback often means pushing students out of their comfort zone into a place of ambiguity and uncertainty where real learning strides can happen. 

The following are best practices to keep in mind when giving feedback to students:

  • State your tangible observations, not your interpretations.
  • Be specific, sometimes more explicit than you think is needed.
  • Especially when pointing out mistakes or shortcomings, address the product, not the person. For example, rather than “you didn’t use APA format” saying “the citations do not conform to APA format” feels less pointed.
  • Frame comments in terms of “I” rather than “you”.  For example, “I don’t see any evidence for this claim” instead of “You didn’t provide any evidence for this claim.”
  • Use questions to identify errors (e.g., “What evidence is available to support this claim?”).
  • Suggest how the student can do better next time (e.g., “In revising this report, I suggest providing at least three reasons to justify the method used.”).
  • Tell students what they have done successfully and express appreciation of their ideas, connections, creativity, or conclusions!

Collaboration

Learning is the responsibility of the learner. However, many students do not know how to learn. Instructors can take a number of steps to teach students how to take responsibility and guide themselves through the learning process. 

  • When possible, encourage self-regulated learning- the process of conscious planning, monitoring, and evaluating one’s learning.
  • Including lots of active learning activities followed by reflection keeps students engaged in the learning experience while facilitating the processing necessary for self-regulated learning.
  • Students often use ineffective learning techniques out of habit, so it’s important to teach them effective learning techniques and help them become better learners.
  • Incorporate opportunities to set goals for learning in your class and encourage connecting student's goals to the learning outcomes.
  • Knowledge surveys at the beginning and the end of a course can help students see where they started and how much they grew over the semester.
  • Using techniques such as minute free-writes, pair and share discussions, reflective writing assignments, and self-correcting exams gives you and your students opportunities to check in on their learning and make adjustments as needed.
  • Students learn in different ways and at different paces, it’s important to give students agency and support throughout the process.
  • It’s important to show compassion. Think of a time when you were learning something new and what challenges/rewards helped you through it - Use this experience to help you think of ways you can show compassion to your students. 

Additional Resources

The benefits of group learning are numerous, including improving student productivity, critical thinking, self-esteem, intercultural relations, and interpersonal relationships. However, students often dread group work because they have been in a group that was not well-organized or had members that did not carry their weight. To avoid the potential pitfalls of group learning, it’s important to carefully structure group assignments and support group formation/organization. Group learning requires students to become active problems solvers, take risks and personal responsibility, become interdependent with their team, and see their peers and themselves as sources of knowledge. The instructor’s role also changes from being an expert provider of knowledge to being a facilitator and coach. In successful groups, members are individually accountable but interdependent. That is, each member does their fair share of the work and feels personal responsibility for the success of teammates. Below are some suggestions for group assignments to encourage interdependence and accountability.

  • Give groups a structured task that requires a specific product at the end. For long-term group projects, set interim deadlines for the components (e.g., pitch, outline, data collection, first draft, etc.).

  • Avoid assignments and projects where it’s easy to simply “divide and conquer,” otherwise, students will not reap the benefits of group learning. While you should assign (or have the group assign) each member a role or specific part of the overall task (to ensure engagement from all members), group assignments should pose a legitimate challenge that requires higher order thinking by more than one student to solve the problem. There should be multiple acceptable solutions and multiple means of reaching a solution. 

  • Avoid letting students form their own long-term groups. Assign them to groups based on their interests or some other criteria. Take care to form groups that are heterogeneous in terms of ability, race, gender, and other characteristics. This contributes to developing social skills, helps students understand and get along with people of different backgrounds, and learn the material better.

  • Set expectations for respectful, professional collaboration. Explicitly discuss the qualities that make good teammates (e.g., active listening, being prepared, sharing resources, giving constructive feedback, etc.) and include those among the learning outcomes for any group assignment. 

  • Require teams to develop and sign a team contract. 

  • Allow time early in the semester for teams to agree on how they will carry out the work and respond to non-contributing members. 

  • Do not require all group collaboration to occur outside of class; allow time in class for team meetings throughout the semester. 

  • Provide information or resources to individual members so they have to share with the team. 

  • Randomly call on different members to speak for the group. 

  • Require all members to edit or sign off on the final product. 

  • Give a group grade and individual grades for each member. 

  • Provide criteria for team members to evaluate themselves and their peers, then count that evaluation in their final grade.

Additional Resources

Discussions, when effectively facilitated, help students meet learning outcomes and develop skills such as active listening, critical thinking, oral communication, and application of the information they’re learning. Consider the timing and placement of discussions in your course and prepare students to engage appropriately by setting expectations and ground rules for participation and civility. While you can use policies such as grading to encourage participation, participation will often come down to setting a positive class climate (see the "Establishing and Maintaining Class Climate" drop-down in the "Community" section at the bottom of CATE's Active Teaching tab for more information). When managing discussion, be proactive about reducing barriers to participation. Strategies include:

  • Beginning with a low-stakes warm up topic to get students talking. 

  • Developing good, deeply probing questions and prompts that are open-ended, encourage problem-solving, and stimulate dialogue. Consider using Socratic questioning or questions at each cognitive level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

  • Including thoughtful pauses for students to make notes before opening up for further comments. 

  • Making space for silence. When it happens, be patient and avoid filling the silence with your own speaking. 

  • Utilizing small groups and share outs.

  • Continuing in-class discussions with Canvas discussion threads, blogs, wikis, etc. When utilizing online discussion threads, stagger deadlines for initial posts and peer responses. 

By modeling and facilitating productive discussions, you can train students to lead discussions themselves, ask good questions, and engage one another!

Sample Discussion Prompts

  • CMS 347S Communicating With Stuff (Barry Brummett)
    • Example 1: Here’s a brief history of sagging. Discuss what sagging communicates. Talk about whether you sag and what it communicates, and talk about how you understand the meaning of when others sag. Discuss any cultural differences or implications of this kind of stuff as communication.
    • Example 2: Lectures discuss the problem of having stuff with no “currency” in a context you might find yourself. Use this idea to think about how stuff works as currency. Have you ever found that your stuff had no currency with a context in which you found yourself? Why did that happen, and what did you do about it?
  • CMS 313M Organizational Communication (Joshua Barbour) - Finding your power CASE
    • Step 1: Read 6-3d Case Study Talking Turkey from your text and address the following prompt questions in your SLACK group discussion. As you put together your post, remember to use evidence in your response. This can include course concepts (briefly define them), outside articles that support your position, or examples provided by popular press.
      • How would you evaluate the argument between Brandon and Gabriella?
      • Are either or both of them being exploited? If so, how?
      • How does this case illustrate the concepts of power, ideology, and hegemony?
      • How would a critical theorist work to achieve emancipation for Brandon and Gabriella?
      • Would either of them want to be emancipated?
      • How could either Brandon or Gabriella exercise resistance in their work?
      • Your post does not have to address all these questions, but it should make clear what you think about who is being exploited here if anyone and why as well as what is to be done about it if anything and why.
    • Step 2: Read over your groupmate's responses and respond to at least two posts. Think about these questions as you do so (without feeling you must answer them all or in this order):
      • Do you agree/disagree with your groupmate’s post that Brandon and/or Gabriella are being exploited (or not)? Why?
      • Do you agree/disagree with your groupmate’s view on Brandon and/or Gabriella’s desire for emancipation? Why?
      • What lessons can you draw from this discussion for the upcoming organizational assessment assignment? Be sure to share at least two lessons.
  • RTF 305 Intro to Media Studies (Joe Straubhaar)
    • This week's topic focuses on music genres, but still opens to a variety of possible aspects, such as the development of a particular music genre, the transformation of music and genre in general, the impact of technology on music genre, music evolution and the recording industry, and social impacts of different music genres, among others.
    • First, find a newspaper or magazine article, TV or radio story, video, etc. that reflects on the topic and post it at the beginning of the post.
    • Second, structure your response as such:
      • 1st paragraph - Following the link/s, please summarize the example you gave. If you need to quote, credit the author. Do not over-quote the original article/video/radio scripts.
      • 2nd paragraph - Tell us why you think the example is relevant to the topic of the week.
      • 3rd paragraph - Apply a theory/concept that we learned this week to analyze your example. Be specific and give a definition of the theory/concept, then explain why it is applicable to the example you gave.
    • After you post your response, please give comments to at least two other posts. Remember to write substantial and meaningful sentences that are more than "I agree" and "Good" - Tell your peers what you agree with, what is good, how, and why.
    • This discussion is worth a total of five points. The initial reply is worth three points and should be posted by midnight on Tuesday. The two peer responses are one point each and should be posted by midnight on Friday.

Additional Resources

When it comes to difficult situations in class, anticipation and prevention are key. However, some controversial topics and challenging conversations cannot always be avoided. In fact, sometimes they should not be avoided and intentionally engaged with. Below are some tips for managing difficult classroom situations.

  • Establish your classroom presence with a balance of authority and approachability to set a tone of respect for you and the class. 

  • Set class expectations and rules/norms for civil engagement early in the semester and refer back to them regularly. Consider setting these expectations collectively as a class so that students will buy in and hold each other accountable.

  • Ask everyone to use “I” statements and not to speak for someone else. For example, instead of saying "You aren't making any sense," say: "I'm not sure what you mean by that. Can you clarify?"

  • When something happens, in the moment, you can ask students to pause and reflect before engaging. This also gives you a moment to gather your composure. 

  • It can be critical, in the moment, to acknowledge an incident and the damage it may have caused. It can be equally critical to not let it derail the class or take up unwarranted space. This will likely be a judgement call for you. 

  • Depending on the situation, you may need to address it directly with the class or individually with the relevant students during a break or after class. Either way, be sure to follow up after class and check in with individual students as needed. You may also wish to make space during the next class period or later in the semester to address the issue in more depth as a group. 

Remember that you are not alone in dealing with difficult situations and can draw on support from colleagues or CATE staff!

Additional Resources

Academic Help

Student Well-being