In our recurring series “Academic Admissions” we ask interesting people to tell us about the transformative role education has played in their lives. In this instalment, Renee Watson talks about her early encounters with science in rural Australia and how getting stranded in London with barely enough money to buy a day’s groceries turned into […]
In our recurring series “Academic Admissions” we ask interesting people to tell us about the transformative role education has played in their lives. In this instalment, Howard Burton explains what happened after an inspirational physics professor gave him an appreciation for the beauty and utility of math, when his first choice—in sports—became improbable. Howard Burton […]
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
Video: UConn’s John Redden on how to make large classrooms more intimate, for students and professors alike
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
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
Students aimlessly filing out of class two-thirds of the way through? There’s an established way you can let them go out of the door with purpose and accomplishment: exit tickets
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
In this extract from our exclusive e-book, award-winning higher education journalist Philip Preville looks at the history and origin of Bloom's taxonomy and ponders its future place in classrooms that are increasingly dominated by technology
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The students have spoken and one thing is clear: They view their mobile devices as an essential part of in-class learning. In early November, Top Hat’s inaugural Student Pulse Survey was sent out to over 500 students, asking them for their opinions on textbooks, technology, cellphones in school and the ways that higher education might […]
In-class discussion forums sound good in theory, but in practice, they’re too often abandoned within your LMS as soon as the first thread is posted. With discussions in Top Hat Classroom, you can say goodbye to zero participation, and realize the potential of class discussion as an active, mobile in-class participation tool. Discussions have all […]
In 2006, when Pluto lost its status as a planet, textbooks didn’t help alleviate confusion over the galactic changeup. Many still counted it as part of the solar system. As several new terms were being debated (is it a “dwarf planet”? a “plutoid?”), textbooks struggled to keep up with debate, and it appears many stopped […]
Professors are increasingly leaving traditional lectures behind and making their teaching more effective by getting students to interact with course content.
Imagine what a difference we could make if we all took five minutes — even just a few times during the semester — to offer students the opportunity to reflect on their learning habits.
With an investment of just a few minutes every class period, or even just one class period a week, you can help students see the stars of your course content in an entirely new light.
The opening five minutes offer us a rich opportunity to capture the attention of students and prepare them for learning.