Instructional Strategies

Whether you are looking for feedback on your teaching from your students in the midst of the semester or making sense of your course evaluations or looking for a colleague to come into your class to observe, we have curated resources to assist you.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are a collection of activities to gather feedback during instruction.

Mid-semester feedback lets instructors "check the pulse” of their class partway through the semester.

Peer Observation combines the examination of course materials with in-class observations and collegial discussion to enhance teaching and learning within the classroom.

When designing a course, you have to make important decisions about WHAT to teach — the content and skills you want your students to learn, but deciding HOW to teach.

In the most successful courses, students think deeply about the content, practice applying it, and get feedback along the way.

Well-designed online courses consistently provide students with a great deal of flexibility, interaction, collaboration, and engagement.

These assessments yield valuable information about the learning taking place within your course to the benefit of both students and instructor.

Think about how you can take advantage of new kinds of online tools and activities that become the focus of more in-depth explorations during in-class time.

Including discussions in your teaching methodologies, whether whole class or small groups, allows students to think more deeply about the concepts they are learning.

Like the best classes have always done, this approach supports instructors playing their most important role of guiding their students to deeper thinking and higher levels of application.

Lectures are best suited when the main objective of the class is for students to acquire factual information.

Learning results only from what the student does and thinks. The instructor can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn.

Experiential learning is any learning that supports students in applying their knowledge and conceptual understanding to real-world problems or authentic situations.

Teaching strategic reading is one of the most under-used methods for increasing student learning.

Working in groups gives students more responsibility for their own learning and helps them accomplish higher level thinking because they have to articulate their logic and reasoning.

One of the challenges for students is activating their appropriate knowledge to deal with novel situations. Instructors help students learn how to apply their existing knowledge to new problems.

This ability is essential to effective learning and critical thinking because of its role in evaluating the success of current approaches and the extent to which they can be improved.

Students feed off whatever you bring into the classroom, so show up to class the way you want your students to show up -- on time, eager to engage, happy to be there, and prepared for the task at hand.

Your syllabus is an invitation to your students to participate in your course by informing them of its rationale, learning outcomes, and content.

Inclusive teaching and learning is a mindset, a way of thinking that asks you how best to create opportunities for all students to connect with you, the course material, and each other.

What story is your syllabus communicating to your students? A good course guides students on a path of discovery, and a graphic syllabus invites them to join you on that journey in ways that set the tone for the entire semester.

The intersecting contexts of the learning environment work together to create a dynamic ecosystem of physical, virtual, and cultural space. When managed well, all students have the opportunity to thrive.

A large class generally includes 100 students or more, but there is no single definition. In some cases, a large class may refer to a class of 50-70 students or it may a 1000 students in a single cohort.