Students engaged in active learning tend to be gloriously noisy. They share ideas and insights with each other. They write on whiteboards. They debate contentious topics. They work problems. They negotiate group projects.
In Genelle Belmas’s Gamification class, though, active learning took the form of silence – at least for a day.
By Doug Ward
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Here’s a harsh question to ask about the classrooms on our campuses: What are they good for?
Yes, there’s more than a tinge of sarcasm in that question – answering “not much” comes immediately to mind – but it gets to the heart of a problem in learning and, more broadly, in the success of our students.
By Doug Ward
Here’s a secret about creating a top-notch assessment plan:
Make sure that it involves cooperation among faculty members, that it integrates assignments into a broader framework of learning, and that it creates avenues for evaluating results and using them to make changes to courses and curricula.
By Doug Ward
Matthew Ohland talks confidently about the best ways to form student teams.
In a gregarious baritone punctuated by frequent, genuine laughs, he freely shares the wisdom he has gained from leading development of a team creation tool called CATME and from studying the dynamics of teams for more than two decades.
By Doug Ward
Rajiv Jhangiani makes a case for free and open course materials in very personal terms.
By Doug Ward
At a meeting to provide highlights of KU’s latest climate survey, Emil Cunningham of Rankin & Associates asked audience members a question:
What is the point of higher education?
“Students,” someone in the audience said.
“That’s right,” he said. “Our purpose for being here is students.”
By Doug Ward
The future of colleges and universities is neither clear nor certain.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The humanities have gone through much soul-searching over the past few years. So asking instructors in the humanities to take on hard questions about the way they teach seems like a natural step.
For instance, what do they value in their teaching? Is that truly reflected in their teaching and assignments? Why do they teach the humanities? What is humanities teaching and learning good for?
By Doug Ward
Let’s call it pride.
That’s probably the best way to describe the look of Sandra Gautt as she wandered among the 45 posters and the dozens of people at The Commons in Spooner Hall.
By Doug Ward
A recent study about reading on mobile phones surprised even the researchers.
The study, by the digital consulting firm Nielsen Norman Group, found that reading comprehension on mobile phones matched that of reading on larger computer screens. The results were the same with shorter, easier articles (400 words at an eighth-grade level) and longer, more difficult articles (990 words at a 12-grade level).