From August 28th to August 30th, eighty-two graduate students participated in the second Foundations of Research Computing (FORC) Camp. Through the collaboration of the Graduate School of Arts & Science Master’s College, NYU Data Services (NYU Libraries and IT), and the Office of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, the free training program focused on the development […]
5 Reasons to Use the Brightspace Grades Tool
Most (if not all) students reflect and focus on their grades in each of their courses. There are a number of ways that instructors can keep students informed about the progress they’re making in a class. Here are 5 reasons to use the Brightspace Grades tool to keep students informed about their grades. Transparency First […]
Summer 2024 Teaching to Engage Shoutouts
In partnership with the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS), the Office of Teaching Excellence & Innovation offers a 3-week asynchronous course to graduate students who hope to learn about pedagogy and educational technology. This course is called Teaching to Engage. To date, we’ve had 77 graduates from this offering! We had 13 new […]
Exploring Pedagogy: Authentic Assessment
What is authentic assessment? All assessments inherently do just that: assess. Authentic assessments, however, require students to apply what they’ve learned to a new situation. This is in comparison to a traditional exam that might ask students a multiple choice question. Identifying the correct answer can indicate learning, but doing so does not require students […]
Empowering Students to Succeed – Release Conditions in Brightspace
To facilitate student learning, instructors must consider many factors during their course design process. In addition to discipline specific pedagogy, the modality of the learning environment, the makeup of the student cohort, and their institutional context, instructors must design their learning materials with the student experience in mind. Whether teaching online or in-person, the quality […]
Exploring Pedagogy: Ungrading
What role do grades play in learning? Susan D. Blum’s text Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) encourages instructors to consider the above question. This scholar, in addition to countless others, is a part of a recent movement that seeks to de-emphasize grades attributed to student work in an effort […]
Spring 2024 Teaching to Engage Cohort Shoutouts
A total of 64 current and aspiring instructors have completed the Teaching to Engage Seminar, one of the Office of Teaching Excellence and Innovation’s faculty development offerings, since its first cohort of graduate students participated in the fall of 2022.This three-week intensive course provides a fully asynchronous experience, allowing instructors to discuss research-based pedagogy, experiment […]
Check out Tim Schaffer’s post on SoTL on the NYU Faculty Forum Blog
Timothy Schaffer’s recent recent post on the NYU Faculty Forum blog highlights the practice of “documenting your teaching” and argues it is an entry point to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) that is accessible for most faculty members. Whether or not they are doing SoTL, getting into the practice of documenting and telling […]
Welcome to the Office of Teaching Excellence & Innovation: Starting Our Second Decade with a New Name
Ten years ago the NYU Arts & Science Office of Educational Technology was launched with the goal of advancing innovations in teaching and learning by offering instructional design services and educational technology enhancements to all faculty. Over the ensuing decade, the Office has fostered the growth of major innovative teaching initiatives across Arts & Science, […]
Brightspace Course Management – How to Use Template Sites
Thoughtful course design in the Learning Management System, in our case Brightspace, can ensure a smooth student experience and empower student learning. While we may be tempted to think that this is key to student success only for online courses, as per the guidance in the OLC’s Online Scorecard Quality Checklist, the design and management […]