Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support Blog

Dr. Sarah Learman discusses how taking 60 seconds after class to pause, notice, and identify one adjustment can turn everyday teaching experiences into opportunities for continuous improvement.

Dual coding combines verbal explanations with meaningful visuals to help students understand, organize, and remember complex ideas. Effective visuals add meaning, not just decoration, to learning too.

In this article, Gabrielle Likavec explores how educators can notice “glimmers”—small moments of connection, curiosity, success, and belonging—to balance challenges, strengthen well-being, and reconnect with the meaning of teaching.

Accessibility is more than compliance—it's a mindset of reducing barriers, designing for diverse learners, and creating learning environments where every student can fully participate and belong.

Accessibility is built through small, sustainable habits. Simple practices like headings, meaningful links, alt text, and consistent design improve learning, usability, and inclusion for all students.

In this reflection, Gabrielle Likavec explores how accessibility shifted from an overwhelming checklist to an ongoing commitment. She emphasizes progress, shared responsibility, and designing learning experiences that reduce barriers for everyone.

Most instructors wait ~1 second after asking or answering questions, limiting student thinking. Research shows extending wait time to 3–7 seconds boosts participation, equity, and response quality, improving learning with simple pauses.

Digital accessibility becomes manageable when treated as an ongoing teaching practice, not a one-time fix. Small, weekly improvements—like clear structure, captions, and templates—reduce barriers, support learning, and make courses more inclusive and sustainable.

Low response rates weaken end-of-course surveys. Students skip them due to time, value, or trust issues. Instructors can boost participation by explaining impact, giving class time, encouraging feedback, ensuring anonymity, and fostering a supportive climate.

In this episode of Take 2 for Teaching & Learning, we explore how three strategic types of questions: recall, analysis, and application, can unlock deeper thinking in the college classroom.

PBL engages students in solving real-world problems, building critical thinking, collaboration, and self-directed learning. It shifts classrooms from lectures to inquiry, with instructors guiding research, analysis, and reflection.

Unexpected exam results—like many low scores or a missed question—should prompt item analysis. Review score patterns, question clarity, alignment with instruction, and difficulty before curving or adjusting to ensure fair grading.