Archives: Blog

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Blog: Dealing with sudden, significant events and sensitive topics in class

By Maristela Petrovic-Dzerdz, Instructional Design Coordinator, EDC Research tells us that one of the most important factors influencing motivation for learning and succeeding in an academic environment is relevance. If students cannot see a connection between what they are learning in class and the outside world, their own lives or their future... More

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Blog: Does a narratives approach mean presenting two “equal” sides?

By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science One thing I’ve struggled with over the years while teaching Israeli-Palestinian relations, particularly as the hope of Oslo leading to an actual peace agreement came and went, is the practice of teaching a “narratives” approach. Stories that groups tell about themselves... More

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Blog: The 2017 Horizon Report – Higher Education

By: Elspeth McCulloch, EDC Educational Technology Development Coordinator Discover how experts rank educational technology trends, challenges and developments for the next year…or three years…or more. When it comes to describing trends and discussing common strengths, opportunities and threats, the New Media Consortium (NMC) team of experts... More

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Blog: How do we avoid saying the wrong thing?

By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science I generally find teaching stimulating, invigorating and frequently fun, on one hand, and often emotionally draining, on the other. Part of this is my tendency to obsess and self-doubt, which sit atop my general confidence and assertiveness. Thinking about the skill set required... More

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Blog: The cost of free


By Kevin Cheung, Associate Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics Recently, UC Berkeley started removing roughly 20,000 free videos from public access. One reason given for the action was the prohibitive cost of retroactively making the videos comply with accessibility laws in the U.S. The action by Berkeley ignited a firestorm of... More

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Blog: The 2017 Horizon Report – Higher Education

By: Elspeth McCulloch, EDC Educational Technology Development Coordinator Discover how experts rank educational technology trends, challenges and developments for the next year…or three years…or more. When it comes to describing trends and discussing common strengths, opportunities and threats, the New Media Consortium (NMC) team of experts... More

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Blog: How do we avoid saying the wrong thing?

By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science I generally find teaching stimulating, invigorating and frequently fun, on one hand, and often emotionally draining, on the other. Part of this is my tendency to obsess and self-doubt, which sit atop my general confidence and assertiveness. Thinking about the skill set required... More

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Blog: The cost of free


By Kevin Cheung, Associate Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics Recently, UC Berkeley started removing roughly 20,000 free videos from public access. One reason given for the action was the prohibitive cost of retroactively making the videos comply with accessibility laws in the U.S. The action by Berkeley ignited a firestorm of... More

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Blog: How can we get students to do the readings?

By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science We often like to think that students value the readings we assign out of a sheer love of learning. But, like us, students have many competing demands on their time, and course requirements inevitably get prioritized according to incentives. For any given student, studying for... More

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Blog: What’s an A+?

By Kevin Cheung, Associate Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics About 10 years ago during a lunch conversation that drifted into a discussion on student grades, a colleague asked, "What is an A+?" The question was of course rhetorical. My colleague simply used it to point out the deficiency of the letter-grade system when it... More

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Blog: Dealing with sudden, significant events and sensitive topics in class

By Maristela Petrovic-Dzerdz, Instructional Design Coordinator, EDC Research tells us that one of the most important factors influencing motivation for learning and succeeding in an academic environment is relevance. If students cannot see a connection between what they are learning in class and the outside world, their own lives or their future... More

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Blog: Does a narratives approach mean presenting two “equal” sides?

By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science One thing I’ve struggled with over the years while teaching Israeli-Palestinian relations, particularly as the hope of Oslo leading to an actual peace agreement came and went, is the practice of teaching a “narratives” approach. Stories that groups tell about themselves... More

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