Author: Kaeppel, Kristi

Assessing Learner Needs, Maintaining Instructor Presence, & Building Community in Asynchronous Courses

By Samadrita Kuiti As an extraordinary fall semester winds down, I feel the necessity of reflecting on what I have learned from my own experiences as a primary instructor of both English literature and intro-level composition courses throughout 2020. Like many college-level instructors across the disciplinary spectrum, I had to come up with contingency plans […]

Making Your Lessons Meme-orable

By Megan Lyons In March 2020, when academic institutions across the country shifted to online instruction, instructors faced a quandary. They could either be passive, simply transferring their in-person teaching methods to an online environment, or they could be active, innovating their lessons and striving to connect with students across this new modality of teaching. […]

Embracing Change to Reconsider Teaching Practices

By Emma Björngard-Basayne and Kristi Kaeppel with thanks to Hanna Gunn and Mandy Long for their contributions. When the announcement was made that classes were moving online for the semester, I (Emma) felt nervous, wondering if I would be able to make my abruptly-online classes as good of a learning experience as my in-person classes. […]

Introducing Contemplative Practices in Engineering Courses

By Phoebe Szarek In engineering and related disciplines (e.g. STEM), there is a certain level of objectivity that is expected and even required. We are taught to make the best decision based on current technology, objectives, constraints, and foundational math and science. There is very little space for “I feel” in most of these situations. […]

Fall 2020 Electives for the GCCI

The following table shows GCCI-eligible electives that are offered in fall 2020. You can see also view the spreadsheet here. Course Title Time Offered Description EDCI 5875 Multicultural Education (3 credits) 2 sections, one online; one Wed, 4:40-7:40pm Interrelationships between education and various sociocultural aspects of cultural diversity and cultural pluralism, including language acquisition and […]

The Quiet Minority That’s Thriving Online

By Kristi Kaeppel with special thanks to Asanka Amarasinghe for sharing his experiences In a recent online teaching seminar I attended, the presenter posed the following provocative statement for participants to discuss: in-person classes are obsolete. If this were in-person and mics were not muted, I imagine I would have seen heads rise suddenly from […]

Pass it on: Advice for Students New to Remote Coursework

By Emily Ng Edited by Kristi Kaeppel As instructors and students in higher education, we find ourselves—suddenly, uneasily—thrust into a new landscape. Some of us may have experience teaching or learning online to varying degrees, while for others, this is unfamiliar terrain that demands of us a quick adaptation. In order to ease anxieties and […]

Fall 2020 Application Extended until April 10th, 2020!

In light of the pandemic, the Graduate Certificate in College Instruction has extended the application deadline for fall 2020 entrance until April 10th, 2020. (original date was April 1, 2020). The Graduate Certificate in College Instruction aims to provide students with opportunities to develop knowledge and skills useful in their current and future careers as teaching professionals […]

Storytelling: Bringing Color Back to the Classroom

By Monika Arbačiauskaitė “In a world where time cannot be measured, there are no clocks, no calendars, no definite appointments. Events are triggered by other events, not by time.”- Alan Lightman, Einstein’s Dreams In Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman offers a fictional retelling of Albert Einstein’s grappling with the theory of time. Through visiting Einstein’s dreams, Lightman […]