First Annual Showcase of Teaching

Drexel is hosting it's First Annual Showcase of Teaching in Behrakis Grand Hall on June 5^th. Proposals are due by Friday, May 3rd and I encourage you to apply. For more information, see the First Annual Showcase of Teaching website linked here. We will be hosting a mini faculty showcase of best practices in teaching both in the classroom and online in the Culture and Communication Department so look for more information on that event in the near future. Events like these are wonderful ways to come up with new ideas and to hear about creative ways to invigorate student learning. I hope to see you there!

Screen Casts

Screen casts or online lectures have been used profusely in online classes but they are also catching on in face-to-face classes as well as a tool to give information that students can review at any time. Face-to-face classes are starting to embrace the idea of the "flipped classroom", that is providing one-way course content like readings and online lectures to students to complete outside of the classroom and using more class time for active learning. For a more indepth look at this view Salman Khan's TED talk embedded here:




And here is a link the Khan Academy website that hosts all of the mini-lessons that the Salman Khan has created.

At this point the question may arise as to whether or not this is really helping students and recent research shows that YES! it is! Here is a link to an article in the The Chronicle of Higher Education that talks about some of this research: Data on whether and how students watch screen casts.

So whether you are teaching an online course, a hybrid course or a face-to-face course, consider embracing some of these methods and create long-lasting course resources and tutorials for the students to access at any time. If you need help getting started, just give me a call!