Blog

Blog Archive

  1. Technology in Education 2019: 5 Trends to Watch

    In 2019, education technology will be about social change, better use of resources and improved infrastructure—not the branded gadgets we’ve come to expect

  2. Doug Lederman: OER Adoption Must Be Incentivized

    Co-editor of Inside Higher Ed says that people mainly focus on the 'free' aspect of Open Educational Resources, but often forget about its adaptability and versatility

  3. 5 Innovative Professors On The Future of Higher Ed

    Top Hat’s panel of innovative educators have one piece of advice for rookie educators eager to start afresh in 2019—try something new, but slow down. “This is your domain, and you get to choose how you want to instruct students,” says Leslie Sprunger, associate professor at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Be willing […]

  4. Sir Ken Robinson: From Special Ed To Academic Royalty

    Knighted in 2003 for his service to the arts, Sir Ken Robinson, the bestselling author of The Element and Creative Schools, charted an unlikely course to find international success—he chased whatever truly interested him

  5. Student Evaluations: Problems and Possible Solutions

    End of semester student evaluations are unreliable, biased and usually incomplete. Is there still a place for them?

  6. Course Design For Agile Teaching: 5 Ideas To Try

    Rote learning has become passé. So has passive teaching. These days, top educators are thinking about being agile and engaging, and that comes from first principles: your course design. In the same way software developers create agile software — in which they keep trying new things and improving, and mistakes are part of the journey […]

  7. How Formative Assessment Helps Prepare Students for a Career

    Video: Washington State University’s Leslie Sprunger helps veterinary students behave professionally by using peer assessment

  8. Sociology Textbooks: Which Is The Best?

    How leading sociology textbooks fare in the higher ed marketplace

  9. How to Manage Math Anxiety in the Classroom

    Video: Florida Atlantic University’s Burcu Karabina on helping liberal arts students overcome their fear of math

  10. How and When To Make A Course Correction While Teaching

    A “course made good” in teaching is like steering a ship—work out where you are, where you’re pointing, and how to change direction to get to your destination

  11. Bloom’s Taxonomy Words Point The Way To Clearer Outcomes

    Armed with the Bloom's taxonomy words, you can plan lesson activities and tasks, decide lecture and course outcomes, and accurately measure your students' progress

  12. How an Unlikely Academic Ended up Running a Groundbreaking Harvard Lab

    Todd Rose—bestselling author of The End of Average—dropped out of high school because he couldn’t fit the mold. Then he realized that being different could be his ticket to the Ivy League

  13. Why Active Learning Matters Right Now

    Video: UConn’s John Redden on how to make large classrooms more intimate, for students and professors alike

  14. What To Do If Students Don’t Read The Textbook

    One answer to making sure students actually buy and read their textbooks before class is to write it yourself. And if that's not enough, another is to give your class starring roles

  15. How To Motivate Students: Some Different Approaches

    It’s an age-old problem faced by teachers: how to motivate students. While research has found a correlation between motivation and academic achievement, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to inspiring your students to engage in course material. But, with a bit of effort, you can effectively motivate different types of learners and, ultimately, […]

  16. How to Succeed at Course Transformation in a Big Class

    There is a metaphor that postsecondary educators fall back upon when talking about a well-worn course: it’s like a house. Sometimes it needs a little fresh air, some new furniture in the form of think-pair-shares or other active learning exercises, to recapture students’ attention. Sometimes it needs to be stripped down to the studs and […]

  17. Multiple Choice Test Ideas For College Classrooms

    Learn when it’s appropriate to set a multiple choice test for college students, and how to make sure they achieve your classroom’s learning goals — even higher-order thinking

  18. Top Hat in Action: High Expectations from Engineers

    David Cereceda is Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Villanova University, near Philadelphia, PA. Here, he shares how including interactive questions as part of an active learning strategy helped satisfy a demanding student audience

  19. In the Search for Student Engagement, Fun Goes a Long Way

    “The level of engagement in your students and your classrooms is not fixed. Yes, students will arrive in your classroom with varying levels of curiosity, but there are things you as an instructor can do to make your class better.”

  20. Formative Vs Summative Assessment: How They Work Together

    In this edited extract from a Top Hat e-book, we look at formative vs summative assessment, and how both have roles to play in a well-structured course. We also look at how effective deployment of one can help the other, and why student achievement depends on a good balance between evaluation and teaching and learning