I believe letting my personality shine through the way I teach “humanizes” the online learning experience. One of the ways I have tried to do this is through my office hour sessions. I have developed some ways to inject a little more of my personality and enthusiasm for vertebrate life through additional activities the students can engage with at their discretion, including: Supplementary lectures exploring certain topics in the course in more detail, such as phylogenetic reconstruction methods Software tutorials such as Mendeley citation manager and using Google Scholar to locate and browse  primary sources Livestreaming my research activities, such as preparing vertebrate natural history specimens, and talking  with students about how they could perform similar activities at home with their dissection specimens Perhaps most importantly, guided pre-exam study sessions and post-exam review sessions.      None of these activities are required of course – my ...

Participating in research as an undergraduate is known to be a highly influential experience that can increase student motivation and persistence in science. In a typical undergraduate research experience, a student joins a faculty member’s research lab, and is mentored by a senior member of the lab as the student contributes to research projects. Research experience provides students an opportunity to learn if scientific research is a career they would like to pursue, and ultimately has been linked to increased graduation rates and career success.  However, not all research experiences are positive, and occasionally students end up leaving their research experiences before they graduate. Understanding why students leave can help institutions better support their student researchers, address equity and inclusion issues, and ultimately maximize student benefits from these experiences. Why does institution type matter?      While students from universities worldwide ar...

School of Life Sciences is a wonderful community focused on improving teaching, sharing new ideas, and working together to find solutions for our students. Join us for a minute to reflect back and lift up the many voices in this community. Here are some of the key ideas and popular posts shared last year from our SOLS Community: Faculty Contributions: Our blogs covered a number of different ideas generated by the strong relationship between instructional designers and faculty. Often new ideas are tested and written about from courses. Some of the highlights this year were seen here: In How Active Learning is Implemented , Sara Brownell, shared various questions about how instructors help or hinder students when implementing active learning strategies. Gillian Clark shared her experiences with using specifications learning and shared the benefits and challenges in Adventures in Specifications Gradin g Reimagining classroom collaboration activities and teams became a topic for both bl...

As 2021 has come to a close and we look to a new semester of teaching it is normal to reflect back on what we’ve learned, what worked well, and what we need to let go. Here is a look back at some of the key points from our TIC blog posts from last year that are worth taking into the new semester: Inclusion Today there are endless resources available covering the subject of inclusion in classrooms and though they are filled with useful information, it is a journey that each educator must make as an individual. Professional Learning Communities, or PCLs, serve as a way to collaborate and discuss the themes of teaching inclusively and to continue to build awareness and new teaching norms. PCLs usually meet on a regular basis and help build a further understanding. The Teaching Innovation Center has a number of opportunities to connect with your peers on teaching. More information on the subject can be found here. Accessibility Critically thinking about the accessibility needs of everyon...

On November 4, 2021, The Teaching Innovation Center hosted a workshop titled “Scale Up: Successful High Enrollment Courses”. The “Scale UP” series focuses on expanding access in undergraduate programs (UP= undergraduate programs). The workshop featured explorations of online and immersion coursework “to scale”, the direction of the growth in the School of Life Sciences, and insights from an EdPlus instructional design team specializing in high enrollment courses. Speakers included: Kate MacCord , PhD, Instructor, SOLS Zachary Shaffer , PhD, Lecturer, SOLS Jill Roter , Principle Instructional Designer, EdPlus Dee Mullins , Instructional Designer, EdPlus Scot Schoenborn , Director of Academic Services SOLS Lenora Ott , Instructional Designer, Teaching Innovation Center What is “scale”? and what is High Enrollment? You may hear the term high enrollment often at ASU and it can mean different things to different people. It might be some magic number at which an instructor is given TA supp...