Three general university classrooms have been created for student engagement and active learning in WWU's Interdisciplinary Science Building. Each room has multiple screens available for both instructor and student use during group work sessions. Participants are able...
Building Accountability During Breakout Rooms
by Rebecca Borowski, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, WWU Have you ever popped into a breakout room to check on your students, only to find cameras off, everyone muted, apparently using the time for their own purposes, rather than engaging with each...
How Can I Increase Student Buy-in in My GUR?
by Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, Assistant Professor, English, WWU Common challenges in teaching larger courses (GUR) In teaching my recent GUR (around 60 students), I felt I struggled to gain the student trust, commitment, attendance, and involvement that I was used to in my...
Rethinking Workshop Models: The “Ikebana” Workshop Method
by Brenda Miller, Professor, English Department, WWU Why "Ikebana"? This model stems from what I experienced as a student in an Ikebana class here in Bellingham. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging; the compositions follow formal guidelines, but they also...
Teaching Handbook: Active Learning Toolkit
Active learning is an instructional approach that "involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing," (Bonwell & Eison, 1991, p.2). Use the Active Learning Toolkit as a resource to develop active learning techniques in the...
Top Tips for Online Student Engagement
by Meg Weber, Director of Community Engagement and Executive Education, Head Instructor, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, WWU As faculty members, so often we can feel like our connection with students is less than it was in the past. We recall bustling days of...
Using Microlearning to Improve Teaching
Definition Microlearning is learning bursts of new information in small parts at a time. Some key features tend to include1: Sessions under 10 minutes Targeted simple and/or narrow topics Tasks be completed in-person or virtually Information paired...
Using The Great British Bake Off to increase respectful communication and collaboration
by Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi, Assistant Professor, English and Creative Writing, WWU If this title caught your eye it may be because, like me, you are an obsessive fan of The Great British Bake Off (GBBO), a show where amateur bakers attempt to wow judges and...
WesternOnline: Student Engagement
WesternOnline is a resource created by WWU's Outreach and Continuing Education to help build online courses effectively. Learn more about strategies and methods that can help you increase student engagement in online courses--and with any course modality using online...
What and Why of Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is the process of student-centered learning by doing. Instructors engage students through hands-on experiences and reflection. This process enables students to better connect knowledge from the classroom to real-world situations.1 Kolb's...
Whiteboard Options for Collaboration
Last Updated: September 16, 2024 Using digital whiteboards collaboratively with and among students can help them to generate ideas for a discussion, organize thoughts for a project, build a collection of resources, or generate a flow chart. This post includes free,...
Zoom: Using Socrative for Student Engagement
Using the Socrative polling tool, or any polling tool for that matter, can add an element of engagement to a Zoom meeting. Typically, professors use polling quizzes to check for knowledge, prepare students for exams, check for the "muddiest point" at the end of class,...