Google Docs and Forms are terrific tools for teaching! Did you know that each ASU instructor and student get unlimited space on our ASU Google Drive (requires login with your ASURITE@asu.edu account) ? It's a great way to share files and collaborate. Three words specifically describe why you should use Google Drive, Efficiency, Collaboration, and Engagement. Google Docs are documents that can be shared with your students. There are a number of ways to use them to engage your students. You can have specific students be required to take notes for the class, or build a study guide for exams. Student teams can share a document, and you can leave comments, or start a 'chat' while everyone synchronously is working on it.  Google Docs are also easy to publish to the web for quick and fast websites. Google Forms are a survey tool that can be used for getting quick feeback from students. You could set them up for "Bell Ringer" activities, like "Ticket

Which type of video is best for your class? Matthew Robinson, Instructional Designer for UTO, shared best practices for both videos in the studio, and at your desk. Some key themes were: Research studies show students stop watching videos around 6 minutes Showing the professor talking is better than just slides and audio, and having two or three people in the video interacting is even better! "Cut the filler, maximize the THRILLER!"- cut out repeated information and stick to the key information that you can be enthusiastic about. Spontaneous and casual videos are a great way to communicate announcements and give feedback to students. Matthew shared the steps ( see handout ) for creating these using the Blackboard/YouTube tool and how to set up your webcam for the best look. Next semester, we are looking to do an 'advanced' video webinar that can address some issues for making videos more interactive, and adding closed-captioning and transcripts! Resour

Our Guest Blogger for this week is Shelley Haydel, PhD. Dr. Haydel is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences and a Researcher in the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. She is posting about one of the most difficult areas in teaching for both students and faculty. Group work presents unique challenges for both students and instructors. I always tell my students that they will never work in a vacuum. No matter their career choice, they will have to interact, communicate, and work effectively with others. Think about nurses – they must interact, communicate, and work effectively with physicians, other nurses, technicians, administrators, etc; and they must interact and effectively communicate with patients and family/friends of their patient. Think about working in a lab – in an effective research environment, everyone is working together towards a common goal. The same is true for group work. S