Tools and Resources

This is one part of a TA Orientation guide from the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary. It includes professional practices of teaching assistants, a list of questions you can ask yourself to prepare for your TA role, and additional resources.

Helping Practitioners and Researchers Identify and Use Education Research Literature. By K. J. Wilson and C. J. Brame. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 17(1). 22 Mar 2018
This article discusses a study that reveals the impact that active learning has on students' ability to learn fundamental concepts and skills varies with instructor knowledge of teaching and learning. The goal of the study was to discover knowledge that is important to effective active learning in large undergraduate STEM courses. The authors note that experts more commonly consider how students are held accountable, notice topic-specific student difficulties, elicited and responded to student thinking, and provided for students to generate their own ideas and work.

This FAQ about effective teaching and learning in large courses (large classes) from the Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation. The questions focus on reducing anonymity, managing and engaging students, active learning, checking for learning, incorporating writing and group work without overwhelming yourself.

Enrich the educational experience of students through information technology.

A customizable observation tool used observations of teaching. The tool is a protocol that produces robust and nuanced depictions of classroom dynamics between teachers, students, and technologies. Based on research-based learning theories, the TDOP has been extensively field-tested and is being used by over 300 researchers, program evaluators, and professional developers to create detailed descriptions of what happens inside classrooms.

This is a recorded webinar presented by James M. Lang at University Park on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Research from the learning sciences and from a variety of educational settings suggests that a small number of key principles can improve learning in almost any type of college or university course, from traditional lectures to flipped classrooms. This workshop will introduce some of those principles, offer practical suggestions for how they might foster positive change in higher education teaching and learning, and guide faculty participants to consider how these principles might manifest themselves in their current and upcoming courses.

This webinar was recorded by Penn State Libraries staff using Mediasite Live, and it is stored in the libraries' Mediasite catalog. The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence bears no responsibility for the quality of the recording, its maintenance, its availability, nor its functionality. For help with the recording, call (814) 865-5400 or send an email message to MediaTechSupport@psu.edu.

University of Virginia's Teaching Hub Teaching Hub crowdsources and curate s pedagogical resources from across higher education. With its partners, UVA's Center for Teaching Excellence, finds important, innovative, and interesting content on a wide range of topics related to enhance teaching and learning.

Teaching Large Classes by Adam Wilsman, Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University
Teaching a large class poses many challenges, both in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, large enrollments can promote student disengagement and feelings of alienation, which can erode students’ sense of responsibility and lead to behaviors that both reflect and promote lack of engagement. Logistics can also be a challenge when teaching a large class. How does one best manage the daily administration of what can often feel like a small city? This resource presents strategies to help instructors deal with some of the challenges associated with teaching large classes.

This book is a collection of 24 articles, written from the two-year college perspective, featuring the most useful and relevant insights and advice from NSTA’s Journal of College Science Teaching. The collection is divided into four sections: unique issues associated with teaching science in two-year colleges, curricular issues, teaching strategies, and using technology in the classroom.

Teaching Squares offer faculty an opportunity to observe colleagues in action and reflect on their own teaching practices. A teaching square is a group of four instructors who agree to observe each other a few times during a semester, using an agreed upon set of observation norms. It is designed to be a non-evaluative, supportive and growth-based process.

Teaching Squares give faculty an opportunity to gain new insight into their teaching through a non-evaluative process of reciprocal classroom observation and self-reflection. A square is made up of four faculty, typically from different disciplines. The four faculty in each “teaching square” agree to visit each other’s classes over the course of a semester and then meet to discuss what they’ve learned from their observations.

This website includes resources, lesson plans, and curriculum guides to help fill the gap in educating about the experiences and history of Muslims all over the world. Please share and use these resources widely to help collectively address this gap and combat islamophobia in our classrooms.

Team Science Toolkit is an interactive website to help support, conduct, and study team-based research. Interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, or cross-disciplinary research is becoming more and more important to scientific breakthroughs and progress. But doing this kind of work can be challenging because of different disciplinary values, cultures, and communications and researchers are typically trained within a single discipline. This is a great resource for researchers or faculty planning research projects that include multiple disciplines, facing challenges, or needing ideas. Despite being housed in the National Cancer Institute, it is relevant for researchers from a wide variety of disciplines.

Tips for Teaching Large Classes Online, Faculty Focus, Rob Kelly (3-17-2009) writes about strategies used by Jonathan Mathews, Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State. Prof. Mathews still regularly teaches large enrollment online courses.

To Teach is to Learn is a series of podcasts focused on what it means to be surrounded by teaching and learning everyday. The series was created by Dr. Nichola Gutgold, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, after she received the 2018 Alumni Teaching Fellow Award. Dr. Gutgold interviews colleagues about teaching and learning. This episode features Dr. Charlotte Eubanks, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Japanese, and Asian Studies & Director of Graduate Studies, Comparative Literature.

To Teach is to Learn is a series of podcasts focused on what it means to be surrounded by teaching and learning everyday. The series was created by Dr. Nichola Gutgold, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, after she received the 2018 Alumni Teaching Fellow Award. Dr. Gutgold interviews colleagues about teaching and learning. This episode features Dr. Denise Ogden, Professor of Marketing and Penn State's 2017 George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

To Teach is to Learn is a series of podcasts focused on what it means to be surrounded by teaching and learning everyday. The series was created by Dr. Nichola Gutgold, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, after she received the 2018 Alumni Teaching Fellow Award. Dr. Gutgold interviews colleagues about teaching and learning. This episode features Dr. Doug Hochstetler, Professor of Philosophy and Interim Director of Academic Affairs at Penn State Lehigh Valley.

To Teach is to Learn is a series of podcasts focused on what it means to be surrounded by teaching and learning everyday. The series was created by Dr. Nichola Gutgold, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, after she received the 2018 Alumni Teaching Fellow Award. Dr. Gutgold interviews colleagues about teaching and learning. This episode features Dr. Karen Kackley-Dutt, Associate Teaching Professor, Biology & recipient of Penn State's George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2014.

To Teach is to Learn is a series of podcasts focused on what it means to be surrounded by teaching and learning everyday. The series was created by Dr. Nichola Gutgold, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, after she received the 2018 Alumni Teaching Fellow Award. Dr. Gutgold interviews colleagues about teaching and learning. This episode features Dr. Laurie Grobman, Professor of English and Women's Studies and recipient of the award for Outstanding Professor of the Year-Baccalaureate Colleges in 2014 from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

To Teach is to Learn is a series of podcasts focused on what it means to be surrounded by teaching and learning everyday. The series was created by Dr. Nichola Gutgold, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State, after she received the 2018 Alumni Teaching Fellow Award. Dr. Gutgold interviews colleagues about teaching and learning. This episode features Mike Krasja, Assistant Teaching Professor of Business, recipient of Penn State's 2015 George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, & Faculty Liaison for the Lehigh Valley LaunchBox.

Web-based plagiarism detection and prevention system to which Penn State has a subscription.