Blog

Blog Archive

  1. OER Gets Serious: It’s Time To Take a Second Look

    As an instructor, you may have decided against using OER in the past because of concerns about the quality of the course material, or the ease of implementation. It’s time to reconsider

  2. Why the First Five Minutes of Class Matter So Much

    There is no need to transform, overhaul or tear down and rebuild the way you teach, according to education expert James Lang. You simply need to take a more mindful approach to class time and make an effort to use it better

  3. Top Hat Scholarship Offers $100K For Growth-Minded Students

    The financial barrier to higher education is insurmountable for many. But now, professors who have used the Top Hat platform in the past 24 months can nominate outstanding students for one of five Top Hat Scholarships, with a total prize value equivalent to $100,000/year

  4. How to Use Formative Assessment to Improve Subject Mastery

    According to Michael deBraga, Top Scholar and Associate Professor at the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre in the University of Toronto, students are often more focused on marks than mastery. In this blog post, he describes a couple of ways to you can nudge them in the direction of understanding rather than repetition—by making some simple changes to the way you assess them

  5. How To Get The Title Professor: Career Steps to Take

    To the outsider, being a college or university professor seems like a great career. You get to work everyday in a field or subject you’re passionate about, conducting research and educating the minds of tomorrow. Here’s a guide on entering the profession, and how to get the title Professor

  6. A 19-Point Teaching Checklist For The First-Time Lecturer

    Top Hat Scholar and Distinguished Lecturer Emeritus of biology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Andrew Petto, offers a series of tips to those new to teaching, from preparing and practicing lectures to reviewing after the final exam

  7. What Makes a Good Teacher in 2018: 3 Traits to Develop

    What makes a good teacher in higher education is not your level of knowledge, or even your ability to grade students quickly. It’s down to the relationships you build in class and how you activate those through the techniques you use to teach

  8. Textbooks Too Expensive, Say 90% of Profs in Survey

    Soaring price tags aren’t just hurting students—they’re hurting professors, too. The results from our 2018 Professor Pulse Survey show that 90 percent of professors think the cost of textbooks is too high

  9. Why Academic Careers Shine Outside of the Meeting Room

    Professors most readily learn from each other and by attending off-site conferences, while deeply distrusting departmental meetings, according to a new survey of nearly 2,000 professors across the US and Canada

  10. Teaching Creative Writing as a Springboard For Students

    Many students have to complete required courses in creative writing. Here's how Linda Rodriguez, Professor of Caribbean Literature, Film, and Creative Writing at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, uses the language of fairytales to introduce new writers to the process

  11. How Do Clickers Work? 4 Ideas for Classroom First-Timers

    How do clickers work? In this blog post, we cover the kinds of clicker devices available, and offer some use cases to aid student learning

  12. 3 Question Types To Maximize Active Learning in STEM

    Here are some STEM assignment creation tools that can foster active engagement at home, while being uniquely targeted to help students learn the particular subject you’re teaching

  13. The Hidden Powers of Classroom Multiple Choice Questions

    Many might consider multiple choice questions a trivial waste of time in the classroom, and prone to wild guesses. But Top Hat Scholar and Distinguished Lecturer Emeritus of biology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Andrew Petto, explains how, when you add a little more sophistication to them, you can start getting a good understanding of your students’ progress towards mastery

  14. Self-Regulated Learning: 5 Ways to Add it to Your Class

    With so much uncertainty in the job market, self-regulated learning has become an essential skillset for lifelong learning and the ability to adapt to changing job requirements

  15. Sir Ken Robinson Announced As Keynote Speaker At Engage 2018

    Internationally acclaimed expert on creativity and innovation in education, and author of the books Finding Your Element, The Element and Out of Our Minds, was speaker at Top Hat conference

  16. 3 Reasons to Use Technology in Your Classroom

    The use of technology in the classroom is now widespread. Trying to eliminate student technology use is a losing battle. Here are three reasons why it’s critical to use technology in your classroom

  17. 3 Ways to Enrich Digital Literacy in the Classroom

    Digital literacy is the product of our modern age of instant messages, after-hours emails (if there were still an “after-hours”), and on-demand programming. The digital age of connectivity and mass communication has led to the development of new and dynamic forms of literacy, constantly changing in the on-going search for increased computing power. In short, […]

  18. Why Are College Textbooks So Expensive?

    The inflation of post-secondary textbook pricing has surpassed that of the housing market, the cost of health care, and even college and university tuition.

  19. Instructor vs. Professor: What’s In An Academic Name?

    What should your students call you? Instructor? Professor? Doctor? Or do they just go with your first name? This guide will serve as an answer to the question of “instructor vs professor” in how to style yourself and what to expect of your students

  20. Choosing a Classroom Response System For Your Institution

    Looking for a checklist of things you need to ask a vendor when shopping for a classroom response system? This extract from our latest guide aimed at university administrators will take you through six important criteria to consider