Tools and Resources

Alphabetical List

Browse through the tools by the title of the resource.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

This document describes the use of partners who learn the course material together.

Pedagogical Considerations for Global Virtual Engagement Experiences

Often called “peer observation of teaching ” or “peer evaluation of teaching,” peer review of teaching (PRT) involves seeking feedback from an informed colleague for the purposes of improving one’s practice (formative assessment) and/or evaluating it (summative assessment). Texas A&M University's Faculty Performance Evaluation Task Force recommended having separate review processes for formative and summative assessment using multiple sources of data from students, peers, administrators, and as well as faculty themselves for evaluating teaching. Includes institutional perspectives and supporting videos from the University of Texas.

Peer Observation: What to Expect

Observations can take place in multiple modalities, ranging from face-to-face instruction to fully on-line asynchronous courses. There are several steps to prepare for an observation.

Peer Review of Online Teaching--Resources

Peer Review Resources

Resources excerpted from the University College Peer Review Handbook. Key words: faculty peer observation, faculty peer evaluation.

Penn State Academic & Administrative Units

A list of Penn State Academic and Administrative Units. Document created for people new to Penn State. It is basically a simplified version of a Penn State Org Chart, but it is not an official document.

Penn State Academic Freedom Policy

This policy outlines the conditions associated with academic freedom for faculty members at Penn State.

Penn State academic integrity information on AI for instructors

Penn State approved AI tools & guidelines

Penn State approved Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools & guidelines

Penn State as a Community of Learners

This is a survey report along with supplemental readings about Penn State as a community of learners.

Penn State CIRTL programs Fall 2023

Penn State is part of CIRTL, a 45-university consortium that focuses on preparing the next generation of college teachers. This document lists CIRTL's network-wide programs for Fall 2023.

Penn State Library Resources on using AI tools

Penn State Library Resources on using AI tools for teaching, learning, and research

Penn State Mont Alto 2010 Assessment of Student Outcomes

Three learning outcomes from Penn State Mont Alto along with suggestions on next steps are briefly described in this paper.

Penn State Quality of Instruction: Perceptions of Faculty and Students Concerning the Elements of Teaching Quality

2011 report on survey of student views on the quality of instruction at Penn State.

Penn State Quality of Instruction: Surveys of Students and Teachers at University Park 1997

This report is the first in a series encompassed by the Quality of Instruction project. The research question guiding this report is: How do students and teachers view the instructional process at University Park? Information to address this question was obtained by surveying both students and faculty concerning their attitudes and experiences at University Park during the 1995-1996 academic year. These student and teacher surveys were made possible by support from the Penn State Alumni Association provided Fern (Bunny) Willits as the 1995-96 Alumni Teaching Fellow awardee and the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. Class Attendance data were provided by the Office of Student Affairs Research and Assessment Pulse Survey.
The complete citation for the report is:
Willits, Fern K., Moore, Betty L., & Enerson, Diane M. (1997). Penn State, Quality of Instruction: Surveys of Students and Teachers at University Park. Pennsylvania State University.

Penn State Quality of Instruction: Undergraduate Evaluations of Teaching Quality at University Park

2011 report on survey of student views on the quality of instruction at Penn State

Penn State Undergraduate Education Across the Commonwealth

The third in a series of reports dealing with the views of students and faculty about undergraduate
education at Penn State.

Penn State Undergraduate Speaking Center

Perceived Difficulty Assessment Questionnaire (PDAQ)

An eight question survey for students to assess how they prepared for a class and how they rate the difficulty of the exam.

Philosophy of Faculty Development - Johnson

Intended audience: faculty developers. Teaching and faculty development philosophy of R. Neill Johnson, Although he is no longer at the Schreyer Institute, his statement provides a useful example.

Pitfalls of Writing Additional Questions

Writing effective and useful additional questions can be challenging. Some of the most common mistakes in writing effective items are listed in this document using examples of Likert Scale items from the SRTEs. These pitfalls also apply to yes/no questions and open-ended questions. We recommend testing the questions with students before adding them to the Additional Questions section.

Planning a Class Session: A Guide for New Teachers

A handout that provides information and exercises on how to plan an effective class session.

Planning for Civility in Large Classes

This is a worksheet that includes the reasons why students might be misbehaving in large classes and strategies for addressing the incivility.

Planning for Class Absences (Including Your Own)

Recommendations for contingency planning and building flexibility into courses to lessen the impact of unplanned absences, including your own.

POD Network History

Post-Election Campus Resource and Response Guide

This resource was developed by the Students Learn Students Vote (SLSV) Coalition and the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN), with input from Nancy Thomas, Senior Advisor to the President of AAC&U and Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education (IDHE). In each section are suggestions for addressing the potential areas of concern that may pose a challenge in the post-election period. Updated in 2024; the group Ask Every Student was involved in creating the original document in 2020.

Post-Election Teaching

The Center for Teaching Excellence at Boston College provides this resource to help instructors decide whether and when to talk about the election in the post-election period. It outlines factors you might want to consider as you plan your responses and a few different paths you could take in your response. While students appreciate when instructors respond in some way to upheavals in the wider world, you do have options. When deciding how to talk about the election, it can be helpful to bear in mind your own goals for teaching and learning, the fact that major events can be distracting and make it more difficult to teach and learn, and that students in your class may have differing perceptions of what is at stake in the election in light of their own histories and identities.

PowerPoint Best Practices Workshop Handouts

Overview of best practices for using PowerPoint as an instructional tool. Handout includes numerous tips and illustrative slides focused on: debate about the proper role of PowerPoint in education; using the assertion-evidence model in slide design in order to promote learning; making user-friendly choices about graphic design.

Problem Solving Guidelines

A 5-step problem-solving guideline resource to help students learn to solve problems like experts. Developed in physics education through a study of expert problem solvers who passed through 5 steps without realizing they did so. This document presents the same five-step process in three different levels of detail. Each can be adapted to reflect disciplinary nomenclature for each step. Students love this model because they can use it in other courses, even if the instructor doesn't!

Problem Writing (ALEX)

This document describes the process of writing problems for use in helping students learn course material through problem-based learning.

Program and Course Alignment Worksheet

List the program outcomes that are addressed in a course and identify the specific student work in the course that can be used to document evidence of achievement for each relevant outcome.

Program Assessment Process

This document describes each step in the program assessment or learning outcomes assessment process beginning with developing goals and ending with developing a plan for ongoing assessment. Included are instructions for how to develop learning goals and learning objectives as well as how to check for alignment between courses and learning objectives. Additional steps include choosing evidence to assess learning objectives and interpreting the results of the assessment.

Program Goals and Existing Evidence Worksheet

A one page worksheet that to list program goals and then identify existing evidence for obtaining goals.

Promoting Supportive Academic Environments for Faculty with Mental Illnesses

Promoting Supportive Academic Environments for Faculty with Mental Illnesses: Resource Guide and Suggestions for Practice. This guide focuses on ways to make college and university campuses more accessible for faculty with mental disabilities. It provides concrete suggestions for creating a “culture of access” by offering effective strategies for promoting inclusive language, managing accommodations, and revising policies around recruitment, hiring, and leaves of absence. The guide provides a review research on the experiences of academic faculty with mental illnesses and recommendations for academic administrators and colleagues to promote a more welcoming work environment in higher education.

Psychology Learning Objectives

Example goals (from the discipline of psychology) for program assessment

Public Domain

This document provides guidelines to help determine whether information is "in the public domain," and is not subject to copyright laws.

Puzzled About Teams

This is an electronic handbook on how to successfully use teams in instruction.