The ability of students to think abstractly and formally is one of the major challenges instructors have faced over time. This is true across all disciplines but more so in the sciences. Concepts such as molecular bonding, biochemical pathways and cellular communication bring the biggest challenges to students as they require one to think outside of one’s normal schema. Arizona State University Emeritus Professor Anton Lawson , states, Concrete thinking is just regarding the facts. On the other hand, abstract thinking goes down below the facts. While some mental process is involved in abstract thinking, no such effort is evolved in concrete thinking. A person with concrete thinking does not think beyond the facts. They do not have the ability to think beyond a certain limit. Concrete thinkers only have a generalized concept for all things. On the other hand, abstract thinkers have a very specific concept of things. Is there a secret to teaching abstract thinking to learners? One of the...

Have you discovered a cool feature that Canvas does well? Or have you found a neat work-around to "hack" your Canvas course page? Photo by  Taskin Ashiq  on  Unsplash We've recently done two Teach Talk webinars titled "Hacking Canvas" where we shared some interesting tips and tricks. Naturally we are progressing in our learning about Canvas, so our "hacks" are unveiling more hidden features each time. We define "hacks" as: making Canvas do something unintended unveiling hidden features workarounds for Canvas limitations In May 2019, we hosted a popular webinar about hacking Canvas (Part I). Being relatively new to Canvas at the time, we wanted to share what we had uncovered after the first semester of using the online learning environment fully.  We covered the following "hacks" during that session: formatting hacks autotext function autoscored attendance the elusive median collaborative pages custom dashbo...

Writing strong objectives for your course can help you : plan better assignments assess students easier communicate clearly to students Strong objectives can help students : understand what they are learning why they are learning it how to meet the requirements of the course Finally, objectives help align institution, program and courses to meet the learning needs of the community. During our webinar, we discussed the steps to writing objectives , including choosing verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy . We demonstrated a couple of  technologies to help you write them like ASU's Objective Builder. We also took time to practice evaluating and writing our own objectives. Below are some of the resources that were shared. Resources: PowerPoint Slides Video recording of Webinar Technologies   ASU's Objective Builder Easy Generator The Padagogy Wheel Other Resources: Writing Measurable Learning Objectives Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes  ABCD M...

Categories of Teaching Resources  In our latest TeachT@lk Webinar (Sept. 1), we highlighted several useful teaching and learning resources available to instructors at ASU. Heidi Blair, Ph.D. , College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Rene Tanner, ASU Libraries, showcased services and technologies that are available for free. Furthermore, we showed exemplary resources to stay informed about pedagogy and developments across the university. Please take a moment to review the webinar recording and PowerPoint to see a full demonstration. Teaching with CLAS Hub (email CLAS-IDT@asu.edu for further information) ASU Libraries Streaming Video Lib Guides UTO Training for Blackboard ASU Help Desk Live Chat in Blackboard (how to add it to your courses) TeachOnline Quality Matters at ASU Twitter: ASU Outages TeachOnline If you have a favorite resources that you would like to share, please add them by commenting on this post. Resources: Recording of Webinar...

Developing online courses can be an overwhelming experience, but Kathleen Pigg and Brenton Scott wrote a blog post that gives you some insight into their transition from traditional to online courses. Our adventures in the transition to digital format.  - Kathleen B. Pigg and Brenton D. Scott, SoLS Plants & Civilization (PLB 302) is a course that explores the wide range of how we grow, eat, build with, discover, exploit, modify and imitate synthetically the plants and plant products that are essential to our world and our survival. The course has always lent itself to a lot of in-class activities, e.g., "activity days" when we bring in real things (tropical fruit juices to test, herbs and spices to identify, chocolate of varying % cocoa, knitting needles, crochet hooks and yarn, drop spindles), group projects (e.g., "create a farm", "create a menu") and guest lectures (e.g., on herbal medicinal tea, xeriscaping, coffee roasting, etc.) As the...