Academic Integrity

Instructors can help students engage in academic discourse with honesty and integrity. This collection of resources supports instruction about plagiarism, properly citing sources, test-taking etiquette, and more. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Active Learning

Active learning is a model of instruction that encourages learners to take ownership of their learning. Students engage in higher level cognitive skills such as analysis, application, evaluation, and creation.

The Center for Teaching has a large collection of resources on exploring active learning in the classroom.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources

Assessment

Assessment is the process of documenting in measurable terms knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs. Assessment can provide feedback to students, instructors, administrators, and accrediting agencies about the effectiveness of a range of processes and outcomes, including teaching, learning, and organizational success. It can be formative or summative.

Below are resources and information about effective use of assessment in coursework.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Blended Learning

In blended learning courses, instructors intentionally combine classroom teaching and purposeful online learning activities, so students engage in the course content both online as well as in a physical classroom. Thus, students are able to maintain some control over the time, place, and pace of their learning.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussion can be an excellent instructional tool to encourage peer-to-peer active learning and help students to engage their higher-order cognitive skills.  This collection includes best practices and strategies to help start discussions, to  engage students more deeply in discussion, and to encourage all students to participate.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Classroom Management

This collection includes strategies to establish a respectful, productive classroom culture that help students stay on task, work efficiently, and co-create an inclusive learning environment.

Tech Tools | Documents  | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Concept Maps

A concept map depicts relationships between new and old knowledge. Instructors and students can use this graphical tool to reveal and structure what they know and relationships among those elements of knowledge, generally with some degree of hierarchical organization.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Course Design

This collection includes a variety of resources to help instructors design courses to maximize student learning. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Designing and Facilitating Group Work

Group work can effectively enable students to build communication and collaboration skills and develop their problem-solving skills. This collection provides strategies to engage students in effective group work, maximize collaborative learning, and assess group work.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

First-Generation Students

The First Gen Task Force created the following documents based on research, University of Iowa data, and interviews with University of Iowa students. The first page of this document serves as an introduction to first-generation students at the University of Iowa. The second page of the document was created by the OTLT Center for Teaching, in collaboration with UI faculty member Carolyn Colvin (College of Education), and focuses on recommendations for faculty and TAs in their interactions with first-generation students.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

First-Year Seminars

University of Iowa first-year seminars are small classes (fewer than 20 students) taught by faculty members who, with their first-year students, explore intriguing questions and focused topics. Most FYSs meet once-a-week for 50 minutes, and grades are based on participation and short writing assignments rather than exams.  

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Flipped Courses

In a flipped course, content that traditionally is delivered by in-class lectures is largely shifted (flipped) to out-of-class assignments. In-class time is devoted to building on fundamental knowledge to achieve higher-order cognitive engagement through classroom activities, projects, or discussions while instructors may provide short videos for students to view before the class session.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Game-Based Learning

Game-based learning addresses the need for interactive, collaborative problem solving by applying game design strategies to the design of courses. GBL usually engages students through narrative and competition with other participants or themselves.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Inclusive Teaching and Diversity

Inclusive teaching is a pedagogy or teaching philosophy that employs multiple perspectives, materials, and learning supports to engage students across difference. This approach to teaching values student voices and perspectives and promotes the academic success and social and physical well-being of all students.  Inclusive teaching enables students of all identities and backgrounds to flourish through curricula that incorporate examples from across difference and in classroom interactions that balance membership in groups and leadership opportunities. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Inquiry-Guided Learning

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

IOWA Challenge

The IOWA Challenge is a concise statement of what the University of Iowa expects from its students, and what UI students should expect of each other.  In a sense, it is a mission statement for students that encourage them to Excel, Stretch, Engage, Choose, and Serve—expectations that can transform students during their years at Iowa.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Just-in-time Teaching

Just-in-time teaching is based on a feedback loop between students' demonstrated learning in preparation for class and classroom time that builds on those pre-class assignments.  Students post their assignment answers on an online learning management system, which enables the instructor to review students' work shortly before class. The instructor can then identity level of mastery and then adjust classroom lectures and activities accordingly.  

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Large Lecture Courses

Large lecture courses at Iowa are generally those that include at least 150 students. Below are resources and information to help you advantage of the unique opportunities and challenges that are presented by these courses.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Learning Portfolios

A learning portfolio is a purposeful, evidence-based collection of student work that demonstrates a student's effort and achievement over time. It provides a "dialogue" between students' reflections on their learning and thoughtfully selected documentation that support those reflections. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Learning Spaces

Learning spaces--traditionally classrooms, auditoriums, and laboratories--are the result of design processes that intentionally relate forms of space and the practice of teaching and learning. The term includes the design of rooms, lighting, furniture, and technology, and today is broadly interpreted to include learning commons, library spaces, and even hallways and outdoor areas explicitly designed to enhance learning. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Lecturing

A lecture is an instructional style that conveys information through speech, gesture, movement throughout space, and often visual aids.  Lectures involve a presenter and an audience and can occur in large-lecture auditoriums or smaller classrooms.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Media Messages & Media Literacy

Rapid development of mobile technology has thrived media to most aspects of students’ daily life and digital materials have become a big part in student learning. Students adopt specific learning strategies to effectively learn from digital learning materials.   

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Motivating Student Learning

Student motivation can be both external (e.g., exams, deadlines) and internal (self efficacy, personal goals). Intrinsic motivation is relatively strong, intense, and persistent. When students understand and accept the values of tasks and feel connected to instructors and peers they also tend to be intrinsically motivated.   

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Online Course Development

Online courses require particular alignments of pedagogy and technology to effectively and efficiently meet the teaching and learning needs of instructors and students. As mediated by technology, online courses demand well-organized course materials, significant interactions between students and student-instructor, meaningful learning tasks, and frequent informative feedback. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources

Oral Presentations

This collection provides strategies for designing, delivering, and assessing oral presentations.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Peer Assessment

Peer assessment activities enable students to consider and provide feedback about the efforts of other students. This can be informal or if applying criteria, formal. Peer assessment can promote the learning of both parties to the exercise. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Peer Review of Teaching

Peer review of teaching can be conducted through classroom observation and assessment of professional portfolios. These materials discuss the purposes and composition of teaching portfolios as well as provide ideas for how to begin and sustain development of a teaching philosophy.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning actively engages students in tasks and activities that are authentic to the environment in which they would be used. Students apply their knowledge and experience to identify relevant facts in the case and resolve issues that it presents. PBL helps students engage in self-directed learning. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Reading Instruction

This collection provides strategies for helping enhance students' reading skills, including notetaking as well as reading for understanding and recollection.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Rubrics

Rubrics are assessmentguides that provide clear expectations of performance for assignments, presentations, and exams. They make assessment more efficient and consistent and offer formative feedback to students.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is the systematic study of and reflection on teaching and learning in higher ed, generally undertaken by examining one’s own courses as an exercise in formative assessment. SoTL also entails the dissemination of that assessment to other scholars. In his seminal work Scholarship Reconsidered, Ernest Boyer argued that teaching can be scholarly work by applying to the classroom the same “exacting standards of evaluation used in research.”

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Service-Learning & Community Engagement

Service learning is a way of teaching and learning that incorporates community engagement into academic coursework. Guided reflection links community-based student experience to course learning goals and objectives. Students not only learn to serve but also serve to learn. Service learning is a deliberate, adaptable, interdisciplinary pedagogy based on intellectual rigor, civic involvement, and lifelong learning.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Student Success

According to a report by the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, Student Success is measured in terms of “academic achievement, engagement in educationally purposeful activities, satisfaction, acquisition of desired knowledge, skills and competencies, persistence, attainment of educational objectives, and post college performance.”  

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources

Teaching Goals Inventory

The Teaching Goals Inventory is a self-assessment for teachers that emerged from the work of Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross.  It is intended to help instructors determine their teaching goals so they can properly guide and assess students’ learning.  

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Teaching Portfolios

A teaching portfolio is a flexible, evidence-based tool that engages creators in a process of consensus, reflection, and collaborative analysis of their learning about teaching.  A portfolio can be used as evidence of teaching excellence for tenure, promotion, or teaching grants and awards; as a subject for reflection on teaching by individuals or groups; or as an institutional legacy.  

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources

Teaching Reflection

Teaching reflection is a component of professional development through which instructors assess their teaching practices with an eye toward shaping future practice. 

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Teaching Your Research

Instructors are encouraged to incorporate elements of their research into their course design and delivery. “Teaching your research”—including methods and outcomes—allows instructors to leverage their experience and expertise to enrich students’ learning, and to model for them how practitioners of disciplines address interesting and challenging intellectual questions.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources 

Team-Based Learning

Team-based learning emphasizes collaborative, small-group learning and largely occurs in class. Generally, students prepare before class, and once in class, they share their knowledge and skills to address specific questions or work on projects. To ensure teams are diverse and productive, most instructors organize teams strategically based on an array of criteria and sometimes reorganize the teams during the semester.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources

TILE

Through professional development, classroom design, and assessment, the University of Iowa has encouraged and supported instructors to implement TILE (Transform, Interact, Learning, Engage) pedagogies. The TILE program provides workshops and “refreshers” that present evidence-based teaching strategies for creating inquiry-based, team-based courses. Participation in the two-part TILE Essentials is required for instructors to request access to the technology-enhanced TILE and TILE-Flex classrooms.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources

Writing Instruction

Good writing is an essential skill for communicating any discipline, and writing instruction can be woven into the instruction of any discipline. The Center for Teaching and the UI Writing Center offer strategies for teaching writing and will provide feedback to instructors about their writing and other assignments. The UI Writing Center, departmental writing centers, and the Honors Writing Fellows program provide writing support for students.

Tech Tools | Documents | Research Projects | Teaching Guides | Center for Teaching Services | External Resources