Improving Teaching and Learning
Rigorously Compassionate Cohort Reflections on Fall 2024
Blog post detailing discussions and insights from student-faculty conversations at the close of the first full semester of implementation of the "Rigorously Compassionate Syllabi" project.
Bilingual Training Program in Audiology
The majority of the clinical population served at the UT Speech and Hearing Center is Spanish-speaking, yet there is no audiology-specific training for students providing care. This program provides targeted training for audiology graduate students to best serve their Spanish-speaking patients. The culmination of this experience results in a digital badge provided by the Moody College of Communication, which can be viewed here.
Rigorously Compassionate Syllabi Website
To learn more about the Rigorously Compassionate initiative at UT Austin, which focuses on combining empathy with academic excellence, visit their website:
Rigorously Compassionate Program
Additional Grant Funding (Cockrell School of Engineering)
Alongside Dr. Berkin Dortdivanlioglu, PTF Krishna Kumar received a grant from the Cockrell School of Engineering to use AI for persoanlized tutors in their introduction to programming course. They have since built a personalized tutor for this course, which is available for students privately. They are now in the process of making the tutor public through the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).
Preliminary Study on Teaching an Engineering Course Through Murder Mysteries (ASEE Gulf-Southwest)
PTF Krishna Kumar presented this paper at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Gulf-Southwest Section Annual Conference in March 2023. This paper discusses usage and results of the Murder Mystery-style assignments Kumar has developed as part of his PTF Initiative.
Read the complete paper <here,> or find the abstract below.
Common Ground: Strategies for Student Achievement in the Post-COVID Era
This initiative addresses the challenge of balancing student accomplishment with the necessary accommodations for student success, particularly in the post-COVID era. The project will collect empirical data from students, faculty, and advisors at the Moody College of Communication to explore how to maintain high academic standards while incorporating essential accommodations for students facing challenges such as mental health issues, food insecurity, and housing instability.
Interprofessional Simulation In Pediatric Medicine
Interprofessional education (IPE) is an essential component of all healthcare training and has a growing role in the UT College of Pharmacy curriculum. Additionally, the use of simulations in IPE can provide students with real-world, real-time scenarios that can help build interpersonal skills and pharmacotherapy knowledge in students.
Characterizing Complexity and Frequency of Feedback Given to Students: What Actually Helps Achieve Learning Outcomes?
This project is aimed at improving learning outcomes in programming courses at UT Austin, specifically targeting ECE312 (Software Design and Implementation I) and ECE360C (Algorithms), but that can potentially be expanded to other programming courses and beyond. The project is designed to enhance students' understanding of fundamental concepts by characterizing the complexity and frequency of feedback provided during completion of assignments.
Does Increasing Course Depth While Reducing Breadth Improve Learning in College Students?
Student-centered learning strategies have been effectively used to increase academic performance and learning in students. Educators have hypothesized that course content reduction can also improve student learning. However, support for this idea is lacking. In the present project, I am planning to assess whether a content reduction strategy increases the academic performance of upper-division stem students at the University of Texas-Austin.
Artful Learning: Integrating Art into Teaching Practice
This project aims to transform academic instruction by integrating art into the classroom. We believe that art can make subjects more engaging and help students connect with the material on a deeper level. By integrating diverse forms of art—such as virtual art, music, film, theater, and more—into the curriculum, we aim to create a more interactive and stimulating learning environment while also supporting students' mental health through therapeutic art sessions.