Each week, we send out three bite-sized tidbits with upcoming events: Teaching Tip, Research Review, and Favorite Resource. Find the archived postcards here.
See all Teaching Tips | See all Research Reviews | See all Favorite Resources
Teaching Tips 💡
Teaching the Parts AND the Whole
Most instructors quickly realize that they cannot just explain what they know and students will immediately understand it. Experts have so much context to their understanding that novices are missing…
Learner Progress
Want a quick way to check on how your students are doing in your course? Visit the Learner Progress tool in Brightspace under the Course Resources menu.
Retrieval Practice
Did you know that one of the simplest and most effective ways to remember something is to take time to forget it and then work hard to remember it?
Teacher Confirmation
Teacher Confirmation Theory (Ellis, 2000) explains how instructor behaviors communicate to students that they are valued, respected, and capable of learning. These confirming behaviors reduce psychological distance, increase motivation, and…
Research Review 🔍
Understanding Learning Strategy Use Through the Lens of Habit
This paper argues that students’ frequent use of ineffective learning strategies (like rereading and highlighting) isn’t just due to lack of awareness, time pressure, or goals — it may also…
What Can We Learn from Course Evaluations?
Spoiler alert: you can’t tell how well the students actually learned in your course. While feedback on your course evaluations will be helpful to understand the student experience, a recently…
Learning with concept maps: the effect of activity structure and the type of task
This research examined how 226 undergraduate students learned using concept maps under different conditions, comparing task types (fill-in-the-blanks, shuffled concepts, self-constructed, and summaries) with activity structures (individual only, individual-then-collaborative, and…
Eight Ways to Promote Generative Learning
Fiorella and Mayer argue that learning is generative—students learn best when they actively make sense of new information by selecting, organizing, and integrating it with prior knowledge. They synthesize research…
Favorite Resources 🔖
Introduction to the VALUE Rubrics: An Authentic Approach to Assessment
This free, short, self-paced course was co-created with the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and it includes short videos, activities, and discussion prompts. When completed you will be able…
AI Pedagogy Project
The AI Pedagogy Project is a free, open-access resource developed by metaLAB (at) Harvard that helps educators understand and engage with generative AI — particularly large language models (LLMs) like…
Student AI Bill of Rights
The National Student Legal Defense Network recently released a Student AI Bill of Rights, a document outlining considerations for higher education as generative AI becomes more prolific in learning and…