Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Blog Post: Why You Should Have A Peer Observe Your Teaching

Danica Meredith, Department of English We have all been taught by excellent teachers, as well as some who are...less excellent. Do you ever wonder how they get that way? As a teacher you are in a position to facilitate learning.  There are several ways in which to share knowledge in instructor-led classroom settings.  At... More

Monday, February 25, 2013

EDC Blog: March is Assessment month at the EDC

By: Joe Lipsett In recent months, the EDC has been offering “themed” programming months (January was Teaching with Technology, February was Learning Outcomes). March will be themed Assessment and for a number of reasons, we expect that there will be a great deal of interest from faculty and contract instructors in exploring this topic.... More

Thursday, February 14, 2013

EDC Blog: Learning Outcomes, Course Design and Online Teaching

By: Samah Sabra When I started this position in May 2012, I had a conversation with a friend who was about to embark on her first online teaching experience. Over coffee, she told me that she was a little nervous about what a change in medium of course delivery would mean for her. Would... More

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Students through Effective Feedback

By Abby Resiner, Department of Music For most teaching assistants, marking student assignments is an important duty. Through my experience as teaching assistant, I have observed several students do not engage with feedback provided on assignments. An important part of learning is to review feedback on assignments and learn from mistakes for future... More

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Blog Post: Student Feedback – Does Feedback Matter?

by Sandra Lalli  “Action without feedback is completely unproductive for the learner” (Handley, Millar & Price, 2011, p. 879) Discourse on feedback consistently suggests that students are disengaged from course material as a result of weak and insufficient feedback mechanisms. When feedback is provided to students by teaching assistants... More

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Blog Post: Engaging Shy Students In Tutorials

by Madelaine Morrison, Department of History For many students, shyness presents a formidable obstacle to tutorial participation.  Sitting like ducks in a hot, stuffy classroom, they must converse with peers they barely know under the watchful gaze of the beady-eyed tutorial leader who, pen in hand, scratches symbols across an inscrutable... More

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Blog Post: Begin with the end in mind: Backward Design – A Tool for Effective Teaching

by Dahlya Smolash, Department of English Backward Design is an approach to curriculum planning that starts with final learning outcomes, and works backwards to determine activities and assessment tools. A Backward Design approach has the benefit of methodologically ensuring that the objectives and the assignments/activities are in synch. This... More

Monday, January 21, 2013

EDC Blog: My first steps into the digital world

By: Anthony Marini For the past four years, I have been facilitating Carleton University’s teaching certificate program here at the Educational Development Centre.  In each cohort, the topic of integrating technology into the teaching/learning process has been addressed by having the unit’s director come into a session and discuss the... More

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Blog Post: “Engaging” The Next Generation

Written by Ryan Griffin, Department of Electronics Engaging students and promoting learning can be a very difficult task and there are countless theories and methods on how best encourage students to learn and be involved. [1 - 3] In my own experience utilizing varied teaching approaches, being approachable and making students work for the... More

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Blog Post: TAs are human, too…Creating student interest and engagement in 1 simple step

Written by: Deanne van Rooyen, Department of Earth Sciences One of the most frequently asked questions I’ve encountered in many years of being a TA is “What do you do?” It may even beat “what’s on the test?” but this is anecdotal evidence only. Maybe I just remember the first question better because it... More

Monday, December 10, 2012

EDC Blog: Winding Down and Bringing It Together

By: Samah Sabra One of my biggest challenges as an instructor has been learning that the end of the semester never comes with as much “extra” time as I hope it will. While I always want it to be a time to wind down from constant prep and emails – perhaps a bit of... More

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Migrate your content from WebCT to cuLearn

The EDC is here to help faculty and instructors move course content from WebCT to cuLearn. All WebCT courses have been backed up and converted into a format compatible with cuLearn, however, due to the sheer volume of courses taught over the last five years, they are being moved to cuLearn on a by-request... More

Monday, November 26, 2012

EDC Blog: Of Dinosaur and Teaching and Learning

By: Patrick Lyons As some of the EDC blog readers know, on occasion I have the opportunity to teach ERTH 2401, more commonly known at Carleton as the dinosaur course. This second year Earth Sciences course is designed to introduce non-science students to key geological concepts and situate dinosaurs within the dynamic environment of... More

Friday, November 16, 2012

Congratulations to the EDC’s graduates

Congratulations to the 45 faculty members and contract instructors who graduated from the EDC’s Certificate in University Teaching and Certificate in Fundamentals of University Teaching programs on Thursday, Nov. 15. The graduation ceremony was held in conjunction with a reception welcoming Carleton’s new Associate Vice-President (Teaching and... More

Monday, November 12, 2012

EDC Blog: He Said/She Said – Lessons Learned: Reflecting on Teaching

He Said (Joe Lipsett) Recently, I’ve led some Teaching Talks with teaching assistants on the value of reflecting about teaching. It’s a topic that’s close to my heart because it requires me to re-evaluate my approach to teaching, including the way I interact with and engage students, and how my teaching philosophy has changed... More

Monday, October 29, 2012

EDC Blog: What can those black marks on a multiple-choice response sheet tells us about teaching and learning?

By: Anthony Marini One of my roles as Senior Teaching Associate at the EDC is to consult with instructors around issues related to using multiple-choice test items in their assessment activities. As a faculty member with a focus on educational measurement and assessment, I have worked with many instructors in a wide range of... More

Monday, October 15, 2012

EDC Blog: Adoption of Plagiarism Prevention Innovations

By: Andrew Barrett As a relatively new member of the Educational Development Centre who is also trying wrap-up a dissertation in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University, I find myself wearing two hats. When wearing my Manager, Instructional Innovations hat, the shampoo bottle instructions version of what I do could be summarized as... More

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Joy Mighty named Carleton’s new Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)

The staff of CUOL, EDC and IMS are excited to welcome one of Canada’s leading scholars in teaching and learning, Dr. Joy Mighty, as Carleton’s new Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), effective November 1. Dr. Mighty brings a great deal of experience to Carleton, coming from Queen's University, where she is currently the director... More

Monday, October 1, 2012

EDC Blog: He Said / She Said – The Start of Term

He Said/She Said is a new recurring feature on the EDC blog. Throughout the year Joe Lipsett and Samah Sabra will tackle a number of topics from their positions as Teaching Development Associate/Educational Developer, as well as Contract Instructors (in Film Studies and Canadian Studies respectively). He Said (Joe Lipsett) For me, the first... More

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Fear of Failure, Assessment, and Community Support

By Samah Sabra As I close the door to the bathroom stall and hang up my jacket, I am struck by the words someone has scrawled across the wall. I and other users of this stall are reminded, or perhaps admonished since it is written in all-caps, to STOP FEARING FAILURE. Perhaps the person... More

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Learning Through Observation and Reflection: The Case for Lecture Clubs

By Samah Sabra At the beginning of May, I started a new position as an educational developer with the EDC. It’s difficult to convey my excitement about working at the EDC, but suffice it to say that I’m a total geek when it comes to discussing anything to do with learning and teaching. (My... More

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Are Exams Useless?

By Samah Sabra For those who don’t teach Spring/Summer courses, exams may be a distant memory by this time of year. Students wrote them in April and you already graded them, submitted final grades, and are possibly taking a break from thinking about teaching before planning courses for the Fall and Winter terms. Indeed,... More

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Innovation in Teaching and Learning

By Patrick Lyons When I think of innovation, I think of a change, an idea or activities that are new or different. Thinking of innovation in the context of technology is easy. The smartphone is innovative. Hybrid cars are innovative. The Internet is filled with innovative applications that change how we interact with information... More

Friday, May 4, 2012

Re-introducing Bloom’s Taxonomy

By Margaret Cusson Lately, I have been working on curriculum development through the Academic Quality Assurance process, whereby I am advising and working with units on the learning outcomes associated with their programs.  Through this work, I have had to pull out Bloom’s Taxonomy on multiple occasions.  Having worked in a teaching and... More

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Flipped Classrooms: Increased Accountability and Engaged Learning

By Kelly Holmes What is a flipped classroom? A flipped (or inverted) classroom is where students are assigned normal “lecture” materials to review on their own time or as part of the allotted class hours in preparation for the scheduled class. There are various methods of delivery but professors can assign readings, record their... More

Monday, March 12, 2012

Unlocking the Secret

By Patrick Lyons You may be familiar with Rhonda Byrne’s bestselling self-help book and film “The Secret”. In her book, she tries to convey that an individual’s success is built on the idea of thinking positively and optimistically. I don’t really want to discuss Byrne’s book or argue for or against her ideas of... More

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Filming history

Students in Michael Ostroff’s fourth-year seminar are bringing history to the silver screen.  The group of sixteen students enrolled in Making Documentary History has made four short documentaries that explore diverse themes and time periods from Canada’s past. “More and more, we are seeing documentaries being produced exploring historical... More

Monday, January 2, 2012

Undergrads capture local history

By Nicole Findlay The richest and most common source of historical knowledge is frequently the one most overlooked. Each of us is a living, breathing repository of memories and stories that define not only our personal histories, but our sense of place. Shawn Graham, assistant professor of digital humanities in Carleton University’s Department... More

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Across the river and over the pond

Chantal Bruvels pitched a tent and settled in for the summer in a field to participate on an archaeological dig of Thornton Abbey Gatehouse, a tenth century medieval monastic enclosure in England. With sheep for companions, Chantal Bruvels pitched a tent and settled in for the summer in a field close to Hull.  She... More

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Digging Israel

Zack Batist, fourth year Directed Interdisciplinary Studies student spent his summer digging up Israel’s 3000 year old city of Tel Dor - one of the world’s most unique excavation sites. Canaanites, Sea Peoples, Israelites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans are all documented as former inhabitants of Israel’s 3000 year old... More

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Equipment Use In Electronic Classrooms

Effective January 2nd, Classroom Technology Support will be changing the means by which faculty and students access electronic equipment in classrooms on evenings and weekends.  A separate Passcode to login to the touch panels to use the video and audio playback systems will be required each night, between the hours of 11pm and 6am. ... More

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Academic Publishing and Writing Advice from the Thesis Whisperer Blog

I came across a great blog for Teaching Assistants or instructors who are writing Ph.D or Masters theses or for anyone who simply needs inspiration for ongoing academic publishing.  Dr Inger Mewburn‘s The Thesis Whisperer blog provides a ton of tips and great strategies for working in academia.  While there are too many great highlights... More

Thursday, February 24, 2011

A Great IDea: Going Online Using Our Instructional Design Resources

With the recent launch of CUOL, there has been some buzz around campus about what this means for academic course design possibilities. The introduction of online course development provides solutions for instructor, teaching assistant, and room allocation resourcing issues in addition to providing added flexibly and accessibility to the learning... More

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The shy ones

by: Thomas Larder, former Film Studies TA As a teaching assistant involved in leading discussion groups, it is inevitable that you will come across some students who are readily and eager to participate, while others will be shy and avoid any chance to engage in discussion.  It is sometimes easier to allow the more... More

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Dialogue in the margins

By: Laura Weir, MA Public History A large number of teaching assistant-ships on campus are based almost entirely on marking.  While it may seem that you’ve lucked out on a lighter workload, you in fact face a more challenging form of teaching. Relying on assumptions that students will take interest in every grammatical correction... More

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