Tea for Teaching

Have you ever been told that to keep students engaged you should chunk lectures into ten minute segments? Neil Bradbury, a Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral studies at the Rosalind Franklin University of Science and Medicine, investigated the origins of this recommendation. In this episode, Neil joins us to discuss his review of the research on stude...

Real-world learning experiences come in a variety of flavors. In this episode, Allison Rank, a political scientist at SUNY-Oswego, joins us to discuss how she has built a course in which students organize and run a non-partisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaign. This project combines many of the best features of service learning and simulation. A transcript of this episode and show...

In this episode, we discuss the growing role of microcredentials in higher education with Jill Pippin (Dean of Extended Learning at SUNY-Oswego), Nan Travers (Director of the Center for Leadership in Credentialling Learning at Empire State College), and Ken Lindblom (Dean of the School of Professional Development at the  State University of New York at Stony Brook). Jill, Nan, and Ken are members...

In this episode, Rebecca Mushtare discusses how she has used community-based learning and simulation projects to provide authentic learning experiences in her design courses. A transcript of this episode and show notes may be found at  http://teaforteaching.com .  

In this episode, we discuss Cornell's Active Learning Initiative with Doug McKee, an economist at Cornell and a co-host of the Teach Better podcast.  This initiative, designed to increase the use of active learning in instruction at Cornell, provides funding to departments to hire postdocs to redesign courses relying on evidence-based active learning techniques.  Doug provides an overview of the p...

Smartphones, laptops and tablets can be useful learning tools in the classroom; they can also be a source of distraction. In this episode, we discuss alternative policies that faculty and students might adopt to facilitate learning. Recent research on the relative effectiveness of handwritten vs. digital notetaking is also examined. A transcript of this episode and show notes may be found at: http...

Tired of boring online text discussions? Looking for a way for students to annotate, critique, or analyze images, videos, presentations and documents? In this episode, we’ll examine how VoiceThread can augment class activities and assignments. Our guest is Jeffrey Riman. Jeffrey is a coordinator of the Center for Excellence in Teaching at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He's also a consultant...

We want to design courses that allow all of our students to be successful. Students, though, often face barriers that interfere with their learning. In this episode, we examine how we can use universal design principles to help remove some of these barriers and help facilitate learning by all of our students. Our guest is Kristen Flint, an instructional designer at the State University of New York...

Over the last few decades, textbook prices have been increasing 3-4 times faster than the overall price level. Responding to this, many students choose to either not buy textbooks or delay purchasing them until the semester is well underway. In response, a growing number of faculty, departments, colleges, and universities have begun to create and use open educational resources that are freely avai...

Writing can be a struggle for students, especially when they do not see the value or relevance of the writing assignments. This perception is a barrier faculty often face in writing-intensive courses, including first-year English composition. In this episode we will explore how project-based writing can motivate students to want to write and revise in a writing-intensive course. Stephanie Pritchar...

Effective teaching requires good classroom management skills, engaging public speaking skills, and the use of evidence-based teaching strategies. All of this can be particularly daunting while teaching large-enrollment classes. In this episode, Bill Goffe, describes how his instructional approaches in large economic classes have evolved over time, in response to findings from cognitive science and...

How can we address controversial issues such as gun control in our classes in the aftermath of a mass shooting? What can we do to help keep ourselves and our students safe? In this episode, we discuss these and related issues with Jaclyn Schildkraut, a public justice professor who specializes in research on mass shootings. A transcript and show notes are available at teaforteaching.com

Casey Raymond, the 2017 winner of the President's Award for Teaching Excellence at the State University of New York at Oswego, joins us again in this episode to discuss how he uses Excel spreadsheets to generate algorithmic questions in Blackboard Learn.  A transcript and show notes are available at teaforteaching.com

In this episode, we examine the role that student success specialists may play in helping students develop more effective learning habits. Our guests are Allison Peer and Alicia King, who are both Student Success Specialists at the State University of New York at Oswego. A transcript and show notes are available at teaforteaching.com

In this episode we discuss the metacognitive cafe online discussion forums developed by Judith Littlejohn, an instructional designer and historian from Genesee Community College in Batavia, New York. These discussion forums are designed to help students improve their metacognition and learning skills while also fostering an increased sense of community in the course. Judith is a 2014 recipient of...

In this episode, we talk with Casey Raymond, the 2017 winner of the President's Award for Teaching Excellence at the State University of New York at Oswego, about his use of an iPad to create, display, and disseminate live digital notes in his chemistry classes. A transcript and show notes are available at teaforteaching.com

An introduction to the Tea for Teaching podcast series, hosted by Rebecca Mushtare and John Kane from the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the State University of New York at Oswego.