UAF CTL Staff

UAF CTL Staff

An Interview with Gordon Williams

In this interview with Gordon Williams, we found out how he developed Calculus III (MATH F253X) for online students and why video became an important tool.
Q: What was important to have ready before the class started? It would have been nice to have everything ready, but I had to settle with just having two weeks worked out in advance given the time constraints. Q: Explain some of the pedagogical decisions you’ve made while building a course as it’s running. A lot of the techniques I’m using in the course came from the suggestions and practices of my colleagues. For example, using worksheets in combination with (preferably brief) lecture videos using the same template, having students complete those worksheets by following along on the video, and having students submit them weekly is a reasonably handy way of ensuring students view and follow the content of the videos. <a href=""> Read More...

Open Education Abecedarium

“Open Education' is a deceivingly simple name for a concept that covers a broad range of philosophies, pedagogies, activities and products, many of which are critical to the University of Alaska. In advance of a series of Teaching Tips exploring some of these ideas, here’s a necessarily incomplete A-Z of ideas that are part of Open Education.

Emerging trends in online STEM lab design

In the first four parts of our series on online STEM labs, we looked at why online faculty choose to develop an online lab course, the diversity of lab solutions faculty implemented to meet course objectives, how to engage online lab students, and special assessment considerations within the context of online STEM labs. In this fifth and final part of our series, we take a look at some cutting edge efforts to improve teaching and learning in terms of both technical solutions and pedagogical approaches.

Designing your effective library resources assignment

Most faculty would like their students to use reliable, scholarly journal articles and high quality book chapters as sources when writing term papers, but some students don’t know how to find them. Even after successfully passing the required LS101 course, if students don’t regularly practice searching library databases and using quality sources, they forget how and where to search for peer-reviewed articles. By including some fundamental information and specific requirements in your term paper assignment, you can help students improve the quality of their written work. The following 4 suggestions can ensure that students select better quality content for your term paper or other written assignment.
1. Determine which skills you want your student to learn
Stating the purpose of your research paper, including the specific activities you want students to perform, helps students understand why you are requiring certain types of resources. For example, if you don’t allow popular magazines or books as sources, give them a short explanation of why. <a href=""> Read More...

Updates on Google Classroom

Google Classroom helps teacher integrate Google Apps into their classroom. The classroom has space for creating assignments, discussions, grading and feedback. This will be a brief overview of how Classroom might be used in your Classroom. To access Google Classroom,…

Taxonomy of online lab solutions

There are many choices to consider when selecting a particular approach to designing online labs. In this second part of our four-part series on online STEM lab courses, we’re going to take a look at four main categories of online lab experiences and consider their respective strengths and weaknesses. When making design decisions for your online labs, return to and refocus on your intended objectives before tackling the question of how to get there.

Developing online STEM lab courses

Online education has come a long way. The days of online courses that mirrored self-paced correspondence courses of old are thankfully behind us. Quality, instructor-led online courses regularly feature-rich interaction, hands-on active learning, and engaging media content. However, STEM lab courses are still often seen as particularly challenging to develop for online delivery. In this first of a four-part series addressing online STEM lab courses, we’re going to address the question of why one might want to explore online modalities.