Remind me - what is it that I love about teaching?

One thing too few teachers do is take time to reflect on their teaching.

I am absolutely guilty of this. The current semester seems as though it's been busier and more stressful than the previous three semesters combined. I find myself so caught up in prepping, and grading, and meeting with students, and answering emails - not to mention research, and meetings, and mentoring, etc. - that I find it difficult to get anything done, much less enjoy doing it! Lately when I've asked myself "Why do I teach?" it's been muttered under my breath in a rather cynical tone.

I think it's normal for everyone to feel this way sometimes. Obviously I love to teach, or I wouldn't have chosen teaching, and instructor development, as a career. However, I think that every now and again it's a good idea to take a few moments to reflect on what I love about teaching, and what my goals are as an instructor.

Among the many things I love about teaching is the excitement students display when they "get it". Lately we've been having discussions in one of my classes in which students are spontaneously making connections between the course material and what they're observing in their service learning placements, working for the most part with underprivileged preschoolers. The enthusiasm with which they talk about how they could actually use what they learned in class to understand a young child and ultimately help him to read a book, wait his turn, or make a new friend is amazingly rewarding. And it's inspiring - it reminds me that one of my goals as an educator is to provide these kinds of learning opportunities for students, and motivates me to dream up new ways of reaching them. This little moment of clarity is worth all of the hectic rushing around I do the rest of the day.

Taking the time to reflect is important not only to hold on to one's sanity, but also to help us continue to grow.

In the picture above, I am standing in the front (in pink), surrounded by last year's cohort of talented TA Scholars.

Teaching Online

For many reasons, more and more courses are going online. Are you prepared to teach online?

If not, there are many resources available to you at the University of Utah. At CTLE we teach 2 courses aimed specifically at preparing instructors to teach online. UGS 6510: Cyberpedagogy introduces you to the similarities and differences between teaching face-to-face and in an online learning environment. You'll learn about best practices in online education and have the opportunity to begin developing tools for an online course of your own. UGS 6520: Advanced Cyberpedagogy is an opportunity to continue building an online course, or improve an existing one, with the guidance of experts in pedagogy and technology from CTLE and TACC. The best part about these courses? They are conducted fully online, so you can experience the course from the perspective of a student and as an instructor in an online course.

TACC (the Technology Assisted Curriculum Center) is currently accepting proposals for grants to support the development of online courses. On their website you can find recommended practices for online courses, developed in cooperation with CTLE.

Not sure if online is right for you or your course? We will also be offering a workshop on online teaching this coming Friday - there is still time to register, so take advantage of this opportunity to get free guidance regarding the advantages and disadvantages of teaching online! This workshop will be held face-to-face, as well as in a synchronous Wimba format.

Finally, our current issue of lessons is now online. The current issue is chock full of insights and commentary from students, as well as interviews with professors, relevant to teaching and learning online.

Did you know?
CTLE offers evaluations of courses, including online courses, and consultations with instructors. These services are available for free to anyone involved in instruction at the U. Request an evaluation or consultation today!

Ensuring Academic Integrity

Today I attended one of the workshops in our Teaching Workshops Series. This particular workshop was on how to deter academic misconduct, and how to deal with it if it occurs. We shared a lot of great tips and ideas.

For example, breaking written assignments down into several parts (e.g., topic selection, annotated bibliography, outline, draft, final) means that students must work through the steps towards a final written assignment, making plagiarism less likely - and meaning you end up grading more polished work! This doesn't necessarily increase grading time - you can grade the early stages as credit/no credit, or even make them subject to peer review.

For exams, some of the ideas included writing essay (or at least partially written answers) instead of completely multiple choice exams, as this makes it harder for students to memorize answers if they get them ahead of time, or to copy from a classmate. Also, make sure you're modifying your exams each semester so the same set of questions and answers isn't going out semester after semester. If you do use multiple choice, try creating different forms by, for example, shuffling the order of the questions.

For all of the great tips and resources from this workshop, check out CTLE Videos. The video of the workshop itself may take a week or so to post, but in the mean time you can view videos of past workshops or sign up for future workshops. The next is on October 30: Workshop 3: Is an Online Format Right for You and Your Course? (classroom and WIMBA settings).