Develop course content

Class participation has long been a hallmark of higher education, often used to assess student engagement and learning. However, traditional participation grading—primarily measuring how often students speak in class and assigning a point value to it—fails to capture the full spectrum of meaningful contributions made by learners.

Free Ways to Turn Your Classroom Into an Escape Room with FREE tools and resources from VirtualEscapeRooms.org.

Tolu Noah shares about her new book, Designing and Facilitating Workshops with Intentionality, on episode 573 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

The Educationalist. By Alexandra Mihai

Todd Zakrajsek, UNC-Chapel Hill; ITLC-Lilly Conferences on Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning Artificial intelligence (AI) has become synonymous with efficiency and outcomes in higher education. I have read much about how AI can be used for scheduling, drafting email responses, resource management, and checking references. AI is also often used to create lecture outlines, simulations, problem-solving activities, formative assessment analyses, and content mapping. Without question, there is muc

Last month, CETL facilitated a workshop on transparent assignment design, a framework built on research from the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) project.

This week, we explore the concept of “teaching in beta”—a mindset that embraces imperfection and experimentation in the classroom. Learn how veteran teachers are innovating with new strategies, taking creative risks, and continually iterating on their lessons to foster resilience and growth in both students...

Accessibility is more than a checklist—it’s a commitment to inclusion, equity, and better learning experiences for everyone. But how do you ensure accessibility becomes a core part of your design practice rather than something you address “if there’s time”? Here are seven actionable steps to help yo

A new report shows that asynchronous instruction has advantages and may improve scores for remote students.

​ Hello! Welcome to the third pillar in the series Pillars of Active Learning. If you missed the previous weeks, you can catch up here: ​Re-imagining the lecture as the final fr...

Episode 149:  Designing Lectures to Encourage Students to Move from Passive Consumers to Active Participants with Dr. Michael Strawser

Episode 146: Audio Ideas! 10 Creative Ways to Use Audio in Your Courses with Dr. Barbi Honeycutt

A collection of evidence-backed tips to help students cross the bridge from confusion to clarity.

Jenae Cohn speaks about design for learning on episode 486 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast Category/tags: Instructional design

The U.S. Department of Education requires that all online courses for which students may use Title IV funds (federal financial aid) "ensure that there is regular and substantive interaction between students and instructors." All NIU online courses are expected to meet this requirement and include regular and substantive interaction. Regular and substantive interaction (RSI) is more than a federal requirement, however. It is also a hallmark of effective teaching. Decades of research have established that teacher-student interactions are an essential component of learning.

Two factors have given lectures a bad name: overuse and poor execution. Let's deal with both.

Need help choosing an active learning activity? Check out this amazing free tool by Michael McCreary, PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins. It lets you sort by prep/class time, difficulty, class size, modality--and you can build an entire lesson plan.

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