“If a picture is worth a thousand words, it should be given that much of your time,” says Edward Tufte. Biology professor Amy Wiles says it was what got her started thinking about the importance of visual representations in her field: “Students needs to be
Making college coursework interesting and relevant is a challenge. Recently, I considered using some sort of gaming strategy to motivate my students, but as I thought about what I really wanted them to gain from my class, it became clear that I needed to do
College textbooks are expensive, and prices continue to rise. The Bureau of Labor reported a 600 percent increase in textbook costs between 1980 and 2012. The average 2015 American college student graduated with over $35,000 of student debt, a portion of which came from textbook
It has never been more evident that we live in a global society. Upon graduation or even sooner, our students will be working with people from other countries and cultures, which means they must learn to become globally competent if they are to enter the
What kind of homework assignments promote learning? We don’t need research to confirm that doing homework benefits most (maybe it’s all) college students. But there are some vexing issues. If the homework is graded and if those grades count, students will do the homework. But
I have found that the starting point for turning routine courses into transformative learning experiences is the formulation of a purpose statement that puts into words the potential long-term benefits of the course content. This purpose statement is the very first thing that students read
Concern about the quality of student writing is ongoing and not without justification. Faculty are addressing the problem with more writing assignments and a concerted faculty effort to improve student writing across the curriculum. Authors Allison Rank and Heather Pool, who during their graduate work
It is time to get beyond asking whether active learning works. We know it does, most of us have seen it firsthand, and those who haven’t would be hard-pressed to argue against the still accumulating mountain of evidence. What we need now are answers to
The ability to be creative is valuable in any profession. But is it something that can be taught? Are we doing anything to cultivate students’ creativity? If so, what?
In Slaughterhouse-Five, the narrator explains why Ilium is a good place to be an optometrist. The General Forge and Foundry is in Ilium, and every employee is required to own a pair of safety glasses. With 68,000 employees, that “calls for a lot of lenses
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