Sending students a welcoming e-mail prior to the start of class may improve motivation, attitudes toward the instructor, and course retention rates according to a recent article published in Teaching of Psychology, 36: 205-211, 2009. This could be a quick and easy way for instructors to communicate respect and concern for their students before they even enter the classroom.
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Enhance Cognitive Capacity to Maximize Learning
Four Key Strategies Cognitive load refers to the amount of mental effort expended in your brain’s working memory. Learners only have so much working memory available. With attention to cognitive capacity and cognitive load, we support learners in managing the Too Much Information monster. When learning new material, what may be a simple concept for […]
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Incorporating Canvas Tools: Helping Students Keep Up
As the University of Minnesota transitions from Moodle to Canvas, CEI will be highlighting some of the ways that instructors can leverage Canvas to meet learning and teaching goals. This is the first of four planned posts for this academic year. As instructors, we want students to come to class prepared, complete assignments on time […]
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Online Learning Spaces – (Re)Imagining Discussions
3 Research Resources: (Re)Imagining Discussion in Online Learning Spaces How might we evaluate, measure and grade, online discussion forums? Teachers commonly opt for participation measures such as a counting the number of times and ways people participate, or the weighting of the quality of response content, or build a rubric to guide their review as […]
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Developing a Learning Culture and Learning-Centered Climate
3 Resources Cultures of Learning 1. What is a culture of learning? The short answer, posted by an Edutopia blogger, is this: a culture of learning is a collection of thinking habits, beliefs about self, and collaborative workflows that result in sustained critical learning. 2. Rethinking our default definitions of learning is a crucial first step for thinking […]
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The Write Situation: Assignment Clarity and Timing
With this post, we’re continuing our (re)introduction of the Teaching with Writing project’s monthly writing tips. See the Teaching with Writing pages on the Center for Writing website for teaching resources, including sample assignments and syllabi. Establish the Situation for Your Assignment “At the heart of every assignment is the rhetorical situation — someone […]
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