June 18, 2025

Lights, Camera, Learn! Best Practices For Sharing Videos During Class  

Reading Time: 6 minutesLet’s be honest—lecturing for 60 or 90 minutes straight is tough on students and faculty alike. Research shows that student attention begins to drop after about 20 minutes of passive listening (Bradbury, 2016). That’s why integrating active learning strategies is so important—and one of the most effective tools in your teaching toolkit is video.  Whether it’s a short documentary clip,...

Categories Accessible Teaching/Effective Teaching/Lesson & Course Planning/Student Engagement & Communication Comments: 0

December 3, 2024

Critical Thinking with AI: 3 Approaches 

Reading Time: 8 minutesThree “worked example” strategies to help students practice critical thinking using AI in the classroom.

Categories Inclusion & AI/Learning with GenAI/Teaching & AI Comments: 2

October 21, 2024

Designing the Core Activities in Your Lesson Aligning with the Outcomes and Assessments

Reading Time: 3 minutesBy Dr. Nasreen Sultana, Teaching and Learning Before you start reading, ask yourself the following questions: Ideally, when a professor receives a course, in most cases, the course outline, learning materials, and assessments are already designed. You will probably receive a course shell with all the materials. Please note that Conestoga’s course design follows a backward design, that is, the end goals...

Categories Effective Teaching/Lesson & Course Planning/Teaching for Learning Comments: 0

June 12, 2024

Practicing Student-Centered Assessments in Contemporary Classrooms 

Reading Time: 4 minutesContemporary classroom assessment emphasizes ongoing feedback, student involvement, and diverse assessment methods to enhance learning outcomes. It reflects a shift from traditional testing and grading to more holistic, student-centered approaches catering to diverse student demographics.  Research suggests a connection between faculty’s past assessment experiences and how they implement assessments and evaluate students in contemporary classrooms (Brown et al., 2019). For...

Categories Assessment Design & Development/Assessment Implementation/Inclusive Assessment/Quality Assessment Comments: 0

March 27, 2024

Controlled, Semi-Controlled, and Free Practice

Reading Time: 3 minutesThis post describes how controlled, semi-controlled, and free practice activities can support and develop student knowledge, skills, and confidence throughout your classroom lesson.

Categories Assessment Implementation/Effective Teaching/Lesson & Course Planning/Quality Assessment/Teaching for Learning Comments: 0

March 15, 2024

Active Learning with AI

Reading Time: 10 minutesActive learning ideas and tips for use using generative AI chatbots like Copilot

Categories Effective Teaching/Learning with GenAI/Teaching & AI/Teaching for Learning Comments: 0

January 25, 2024

Active Learning Ideas 

Reading Time: 13 minutesThe ideas here are in alphabetical order. This is not an exhaustive list of active learning ideas and many of these ideas may be adapted to different modes of delivery. For help in adapting any of these ideas, reach out to Teaching and Learning. Activity Profile Ask different people about their daily activities/work experiences related to the topic. Where, when...

Categories EdTech for Active Learning/Effective Teaching/Teaching for Learning/Tech-Enhanced Teaching

July 6, 2023

Active Learning on Zoom: Annotate

Reading Time: 3 minutesOpportunities to share reactions, expressions, and ideas are vital to the creation of a rich learning environment and classroom community. Even when classes are conducted virtually, the online classroom environment should be one where students feel safe to share their ideas and opinions and otherwise contribute to discussions. The annotate feature on Zoom can help students develop social skills, collaborate,...

Categories EdTech for Active Learning/Online Synchronous/Teaching with Teams/Tech-Enhanced Teaching Comments: 0

March 28, 2023

Strengthen Your Teaching Through Instructional Skills Workshops (ISWs)

Reading Time: 2 minutesConestoga faculty can register for an Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) to enhance their lesson planning techniques and teaching practices. As of January 2023, the ISW is offered as a free, credited, course, one of two courses in the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) & Critically-Reflective Teaching micro-credential. Please see below for more details on the ISW, including what to expect, the...

Categories Effective Teaching/Events/Reflective Practice

January 21, 2022

Jigsaw

Reading Time: 4 minutesA versatile group learning activity in which students become the “experts” and teach each other.

Categories Effective Teaching/Teaching for Learning

August 31, 2021

Trauma-Informed Teaching

Reading Time: 6 minutesAs we begin our teaching each semester, we welcome strangers into our class whose past experiences are unknown to us.  Over time, it sometimes becomes clear that a student is struggling with the impact of life experiences on the student’s ability to learn. This teaching tip will provide a research perspective and practical suggestions to help make your class a welcoming environment for students with trauma in their past (or present).

Categories Accessible Teaching/Effective Teaching/Inclusive Teaching

May 12, 2020

The First Two Weeks: Icebreakers in Online Learning Environments

Reading Time: 5 minutesA teaching tip with examples of synchronous and asynchronous ice breakers for remote classes.

Categories Effective Teaching/Online Asynchronous/Online Synchronous/Teaching for Learning/Teaching with EdTech/Tech-Enhanced Teaching