Trivia games provide a way to gamifiy course content, and can be a fun, low-stakes way for students to learn together while reviewing key skills or knowledge. In this activity, I created a Jeopardy!-style game about Middlebury, by modifying a free Google Slides template. You can use the template to create a Jeopardy!-style game using more… »
Content & Activities Teaching Ideas
Student podcast panel discussion along with Canvas forum for class reactions
Created by Daniel Chatham • 539 views • responses
Idea 3-4 students are panelists for a weekly podcast episode about a topic related to class and those that are not on the panel listen to the episode and post discussion comments on Canvas. Panelist participation Students must participate twice during the course as panelists. Panelists find an interesting news item from that week, present more… »
Model for Generating Peer Feedback
Created by Luke Phelan • 357 views • responses
Peer feedback can be a powerful tool for revision, but to be effective it needs to be descriptive, positive, and forward looking. Students need instruction and practice to generate responses their peers will be able to usefully incorporate in the next draft. This is a straightforward generative writing method for creating this kind of feedback: more… »
Creating a Course Textbook Using SCALAR
Created by Héctor J Vila • 400 views • responses
Course: Social Class & the Environment (WRPR/ENVS0210), a Human Ecology cognate in ENVS and a college writing course (CW) Idea: The creation of a textbook for the course; this is the core of the course. What’s needed: Scalar: knowledge of the tool to be able to instruct students on how to use different options when more… »
Engagement Activities
Created by Jason Mittell • 423 views • responses
To promote student engagement in course materials in a mostly-asynchronous course, I developed a framework of “Weekly Engagement Activities” that provide multiple flexible opportunities for students to demonstrate their engagement. This is the language used to describe the framework: Each week, students have multiple ways to demonstrate their engagement with the course. Most of these more… »
Problem Set Scavenger Hunt
Created by Bert Johnson • 261 views • responses
For teaching a class using the Stata statistical package, I typically assign problem sets in which students have to answer multiple questions by working with a particular dataset. To lower student stress, make deadlines flexible, and offer ongoing feedback, I decided to change a problem set into a “scavenger hunt.” I distributed the first question more… »
In-class Debates on Case Studies
Created by Sarah Stroup • 327 views • responses
Sometimes, students come into the classroom and there isn’t much difference in their views; either they don’t know the situation well or they adhere to the “conventional wisdom.” In my class on humanitarian relief, I do case studies of response (Somalia, Kosovo, Rwanda), each lasting 2 weeks. Each case study ends with an in-class debates. more… »
Mixing up Group Projects with Individual Components
Created by Michaela Kubacki • 470 views • responses
Group Projects are an exciting and engaging way to both drive and assess student-learning while building community in our classrooms. However, assigning a group grade for one or more major assessments in a course can elicit anxieties on behalf of both the instructor and the students. Did every student meet the learning objectives? Did students more… »
Providing Multimodal Options for Course Content via Panopto
Created by sarahlw (@sarahlw) • 382 views • responses
Why? One strategy for creating an inclusive learning environment is to provide students with a choice in how to engage with the course materials. This approach is grounded in Universal Design for Learning, a framework and curriculum design approach that seeks to identify and ameliorate barriers to student participation in the learning environment at the more… »
Zoom Ice Breakers for the Virtual Language Class
Created by DLINQ staff • 390 views • 1 response
Zoom Icebreakers At the start of your very first class, when students are just getting to know each other, you might consider several different techniques to organize Zoom-based icebreakers which can serve the dual purpose of helping learners to get to know one another while also familiarizing students with some key Zoom features. You can more… »