Author: Jackie Wickham Smith

Providing Flexibility with Course Deadlines

by Jan 28, 2022

I recently attended Loyola University Chicago’s January 2022 Focus on Teaching and Learning Conference. The conference, held via Zoom, focused on the theme “Expanding Our Toolkits: Innovation, Creativity, Equity, and Student Learning.” In the opening panel, Meghan Dougherty, Program Director and Assistant Professor in the School of Communication, shared a perspective that could be especially useful for School of Professional Studies faculty.   Dougherty has experimented with flexibility in her courses, with the goal of implementing flexibility in a fair and just way, avoiding a “shadow syllabus” where only students who ask for flexibility receive it. She recognizes that students are

Nine Week Assessment Alternatives

by , , , , , Nov 18, 2020

At Northwestern, our 10 week terms are already fast-paced. So what happens when the term is shortened by a week, and you have only nine weeks to accomplish your goals as an instructor? How do you decide which content to combine, alter, or even remove? This short guide will outline a few strategies you can consider to modify your course activities, assessment, and content to meet students’ needs within a constrained timeframe. Download a copy of the Nine Week Assessment Alternatives tip sheet. Pre-Work, Examples, and Best Practices What is pre-work? Pre-work is exactly what you think it is. It

Creating Community in the Online Classroom

by Apr 02, 2018

On Thursday, March 15th, I attended Dr. Lisa Cravens-Brown’s TeachXperts presentation, “Creating Community in the Classroom.” Although Dr. Cravens-Brown’s presentation focused on physical spaces, I was curious if some of her ideas could also apply to online learning; and was delighted to discover that they did. Dr. Cravens-Brown began her presentation by sharing two main concepts from research on community building in education. First, a sense of belonging to a community positively impacts several variables in education: task persistence, motivation, course success, and perception of the instructor. Second, environments influence perception – the structure of the classroom sends students a

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All You Need is an Oven and a Knife

by Feb 12, 2018

A few holiday seasons ago, I received a great gift – the Pizzazz Rotating Pizza Oven! I came back to work after the holiday singing its praises and immediately began convincing all of my coworkers to purchase one.  My spirits were quickly dampened when one of my coworkers asked, “Does it do the same thing as my oven?” I stared blankly at him as he continued, “all of these different kitchen gadgets…they all do the same thing as an oven or a knife. All you need is an oven and a knife. Everything else just takes up too much room

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Canvas Updates for Fall 2017

by Aug 14, 2017

It can be difficult to stay up to date on both new and existing Canvas features! Here’s a quick rundown of some things SPS Online faculty might want to know about prior to Fall quarter. Contact Cards Canvas has recently introduced Contact Cards, which make it much easier to stay in touch with your students! From the People tab in Canvas, clicking on any student’s name now reveals a pop-up window on the right hand side of the screen with information about the student’s participation level, recently graded assignments, and a link to their course analytics. Most convenient, there is