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Blog Archive

  1. How I Taught This: Keeping Nighttime Students Engaged and On Task

    How a digital marketing professor uses active learning tools to breathe new life into a three-hour night class

  2. The Secrets of the Cognitive Domain in Bloom’s Taxonomy

    Bloom’s taxonomy, introduced in 1956 and revised in 2001, is one of the most well-known frameworks for classifying educational goals, objectives and standards, and it is practically synonymous with the cognitive domain. Bloom’s taxonomy is traditionally structured as a pyramid. Basic skills lie at the bottom, and more advanced ones reside at the top. As […]

  3. How I Taught This: Flipping the Chemistry Classroom

    It didn’t take Greg Domski long to find his calling. Within two weeks of starting his undergraduate education, he veered off the pre-med track to focus on chemistry. The switch, says Domski, can be traced back to a talented professor who had a knack for helping students understand chemistry’s significance in the wider world. Domski […]

  4. 9 Teaching Podcasts to Boost Your Edtech Knowledge

    There are tons of resources for educators on everything from new technology to digital pedagogy, teaching strategies and thought leadership — and they’re often run by educators, too. If you need to keep up-to-date with the latest news, or if you’re seeking a source of inspiration, teaching podcasts are an easy way to keep learning. […]

  5. 9 Ways Professors Can Reduce Textbook Costs For Students

    Andrew Petto, PhD, is Distinguished Lecturer Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. A former anatomy and physiology lecturer, he is a long-standing user of Top Hat in class. Here he explains, from his own experience, the many ways lecturers can help reduce textbook costs for their students—from tips on getting discounts to avoiding expensive bundles. […]

  6. 11 Teaching Quotes to Inspire Educators in 2018

    From Comenius to Montessori, here are some teaching quotes for the modern educator—all about letting your students challenge their perceptions and themselves

  7. Susan Cain’s 6 Things to Know About Introverts in the Classroom

    According to Susan Cain, author of the best-sellers Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts, and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, higher education often penalizes introverts through group work and participation points—and some students even have to pretend to be extroverts in order to fit into the system. […]

  8. How The 5 Main Textbook Companies are Being Disrupted

    The past 40 years will be seen as a time when college textbook companies ignited, expanded beyond expectation, and then began to die. And it’s all down to how people read. Prices of college textbooks have been increasing since the late 1970s when textbook companies found color printing and illustrations were far more popular with […]

  9. Should Cellphones Be Allowed in School? Only With a Plan

    Should cellphones be allowed in school? College students are going to bring their cellphones to class no matter what you do. As a teacher, you might think you have to try to ban them. Or, perhaps you could ignore the problem and hope it goes away. But cellphones are part of every modern student’s life. […]

  10. Teaching Introverts and Extroverts in the Higher Ed Classroom

    Introverts and extroverts, and the ‘extrovert ideal’ You’ll find a mixture of introverts and extroverts in any classroom. In fact, one of the most important aspects of personality is where someone falls on the introvert-extrovert spectrum.  But what exactly does this mean and how should this inform how the modern higher ed class is taught? […]

  11. Gamification in Education: 4 Ways To Bring Games To Your Classroom

    What is gamification? Gamification is the use of game design and mechanics to enhance non-game contexts by increasing participation, engagement, loyalty and competition. These methods can include points, direct competitions and stickers or badges, and can be found in industries as varied as personal healthcare, retail—and, of course, education. We’ve seen gamification already in a […]

  12. Active Learning: Why It Matters in a Digital World

    In an exclusive excerpt from our latest e-book, Active Learning: The Perfect Pedagogy for the Digital Classroom, education journalist Philip Preville demonstrates how digital technology can be adapted to the classroom to help facilitate active learning tactics. Over the last 25 years, as lecturing’s reputation as a sound teaching method has waned, the concept of […]

  13. How Technology in Education is Pioneered By Business Schools

    No business would try to ban laptops and pretend technology didn’t exist: and it’s the same in the business classroom. In fact, management and business educators are often the first to adapt technology in education and digital learning methods, from video content to digital business case studies, so that their students can be better equipped. […]

  14. Digital Textbooks Erase Barriers For Teachers and Students Alike

    Authors of digital textbooks are short-circuiting the gatekeepers and saving their students money. In this extract from our e-book, Textbook Heroes: How Digital Textbooks Make Learning More Impactful, Philip Preville considers how the textbook market is changing in favor of the way modern classrooms operate. Every professor has a textbook in them. It’s the sum of […]

  15. Instructional Design at Top Hat: Q&A with Mike Di Gregorio

    ‘Instructional design’ is much more than a campus buzzword, and Top Hat’s Manager of Customer Success Enablement, Mike Di Gregorio, has practical knowledge of how powerful it can be. A former academic and instructor, Di Gregorio started at Top Hat right when instructional design was picking up steam in the academic field and has seen, […]

  16. 3 Advantages of Custom Textbooks Versus Traditional Textbooks

    From cars to shoes to Goldfish crackers, everything is being customized nowadays. Companies are realizing that allowing consumers to customize their products helps to set them apart and lead to individuals choosing their products over others. It is only natural that custom textbooks are becoming more popular, because they are designed to provide learning material […]

  17. How To Assign Students Randomly Generated Questions With Top Hat

    Enforcing academic integrity can be a challenge when it comes to setting assignment or test questions. One way Top Hat can help is through randomly generated questions, where you can assign a numerical range or a set of phrases to choose from—and have them automatically graded. There are two question types, which can be accessed […]

  18. Student-Centered Learning: 3 Ways Students Can Take Over

    Student-centered learning focuses on the meaningful needs and development of students in class, rather than the pedagogical course material as an endpoint. And it’s worth investing time in getting right, particularly if you’re currently using traditional, structured “chalk and talk” teaching methods within your course design and learning environment. But some innovative educators are evolving […]

  19. 4 Creative Teaching Ideas to Use During Your College Course

    Need a boost to your teaching as you enter into the new semester? Here are four creative teaching ideas for each stage of your course, from conspiracy theories to group projects—and links to read more about them. Week 1: Bust out the flash cards According to author Dan Chambliss, one of the most important things […]

  20. Class Activities Inspired By Bloom’s Taxonomy: Your Step-by-Step Guide

    An important step in developing your course content is determining how it will be delivered to students. How do you select a diverse range of classroom activities that will keep students interested throughout your lecture? With Bloom’s Taxonomy, class activities are easy to structure. Try using this step by step guide—cribbed from our new planning […]