LibGuides: Fletcher Center Teaching and Learning Resources: Teaching and Learning

General teaching resources

Teaching in the Community College is a non-credit faculty development course designed for new and continuing instructors who want to build their skills in effective course design and teaching practice for traditional, online or hybrid formats.

The online workshop uses hands-on activities to help instructors develop practical strategies for teaching effectively. The workshop includes four modules in a self-paced framework.

The free workshop is available for all HCC instructors. Contact the Fletcher Faculty Development Center coordinator for information.

MERLOT Pedagogy Portal
Online learning and support materials and content creation tools shared by educators and researchers worldwide
Virtual Bookshelf for Teaching and Learning
Collection of e-books on teaching and learning, available with unlimited access for HCC faculty and staff. Contact Kendra Perry, coordinator of library and learning support services, to recommend a book.
Faculty Focus
Higher education teaching strategies from Magna Publications

The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer
Reclaim your own vision and purpose against the threat of burn-out Understand why good teaching cannot be reduced to technique alone Explore and practice the relational traits that good teachers have in common. (Print edition available from Fletcher Center Library)
Small Teaching by James M. Lang
Employ cognitive theory in the classroom every day. James Lang presents a strategy for improving student learning with a series of modest but powerful changes that make a big difference--many of which can be put into practice in a single class period.
Taking College Teaching Seriously - Pedagogy Matters! by Gail O. Mellow
This book celebrates the incredible work faculty members do each day and challenges them to expand their capacity to present their content expertise effectively. The core of the work involves individual reflection and the design provides for an accessible way to "see" into the classrooms of discipline peers. (Print edition available from Fletcher Center Library)
Teaching What You Don't Know by Therese Huston
Everyone in academia knows it and no one likes to admit it: faculty often have to teach courses in areas they don't know very well. The challenges are even greater when students don't share your cultural background, lifestyle, or assumptions about how to behave in a classroom. Original, useful, and hopeful, this book will help you learn and thrive. (Print edition available from Fletcher Center Library)
Redesigning America's Community Colleges by Thomas R. Bailey
In the United States, 1,200 community colleges enroll over ten million students each year--nearly half of the nation's undergraduates. Yet fewer than 40 percent of entrants complete an undergraduate degree within six years. This book is a concise, evidence-based guide to increasing student success by reorganizing programs of study into "guided pathways," and rethinking ways of providing support services and instruction. (Print edition available from Fletcher Center Library)

Podcasts

Teaching in Higher Ed
Explores the art and science of being more effective at facilitating learning
ThinkUDL
Discusses Universal Design for Learning in post-secondary settings
Leading LInes
A podcast on educational technology
TOPcast
Focuses on design, teaching, and student issues in online and blended learning
Tea for Teaching
Informal discussions of innovative and effective practices in teaching and learning

Research summaries from the Fletcher Center

Assessments

Test and Assignment Design To Support Academic Integrity
Test and assignment design that minimizes cheating and plagiarism, using remote proctoring and similarity tools, and advice for responding to academic integrity violations
Best Practices for Multiple Choice Tests
Create multiple-choice tests for learning and assessment using design strategies that increase validity and decrease cheating.
Alternative Assessments
Overview of alternatives to traditional assessments, including self-assessments, authentic assessments, work-integrated learning, and multimedia projects
Authentic Assessment in the Online Classroom
Authentic assessment uses real-world experiences rather than tests to measure students' skills. This article discusses benefits, limitations, and how to do it.
A unique approach to designing robust, calculation-based online assessments
Designing open-book, online assessments for subjects relying on calculation poses a challenge. This model minimizes student collusion.

Developing and Validating Multiple-Choice Test Items by Thomas M. Haladyna
This is the most comprehensive and authoritative book for designing and validating multiple-choice test items that measure understanding and the application of knowledge and skills to critical thinking and problem solving. (Print edition available from Fletcher Center Library)

Active learning

Stop Lecturing Me
At the college level, the evidence is clear: science students learn less when they are expected to listen passively.
Building Engagement
Presentation by Mary Beth Chaney, assistant professor of early childhood education, and Jeannine Stonestreet, assistant professor of psychology (1/2016)
10 Key Points About Active Learning
Cathy Davidson describes what she wishes she had known when she started teaching active learning courses.
Flipping the Classroom
Introduction to the flipped-classroom model for learning. Helpful for designing hybrid courses.

Group work and team-based learning

Discussions

What Research Tells Us About Online Discussion
Meta-analysis of studies of online discussion over the past 15 years. Includes strategies for maximizing the benefits of discussion