Tag: instructional design

Talking is Teaching

By Abbie Thompson, Department of Psychology In this article Abbie Thompson (Psychology) describes how students in her service-learning courses support new mothers in Porter County to teach our youngest learners: babies and young children. The name says it all. Talking...
Read More about Talking is Teaching

Inside-Out Prison Exchange – A Class Like No Other

By Dawn Jeglum Bartusch, Department of Sociology and Criminology In 1995, Professor Lori Pompa from Temple University took 15 students to a prison in Pennsylvania for a tour and conversation with incarcerated men. My colleague, Danielle Lavin-Loucks, and I have...
Read More about Inside-Out Prison Exchange – A Class Like No Other

Why Quality Matters Matters

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development We all know that enrollment in traditional in-person university classes has declined across the country. But did you know that there has been a corresponding increase in enrollment in online and hybrid courses? ...
Read More about Why Quality Matters Matters

Valpo Faculty Perspectives on Simple Syllabus

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development, CITAL This fall Simple Syllabus debuted university-wide. For our students this means consistent syllabus navigation across all their courses and the ability to easily access their syllabi via Blackboard or SS directly using...
Read More about Valpo Faculty Perspectives on Simple Syllabus

Valpo Faculty Respond to Generative AI

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development, CITAL At the faculty workshop this August, our keynote speaker Derek Bruff spoke about four possible faculty responses to AI: Red Light: I’ll prohibit the use of AI.Yellow Light: I’ll permit the use...
Read More about Valpo Faculty Respond to Generative AI

Two Perspectives on ChatGPT

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development, CITAL This past winter there was a veritable explosion of news stories about ChatGPT, a technology that lets users put in prompts to generate text that reads like it was written by a...
Read More about Two Perspectives on ChatGPT

What Faculty Learning Communities Can Do for You

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development, CITAL Some of your faculty colleagues have been meeting regularly this year to explore a teaching topic that interests them and then making positive changes in their classrooms. That is what our Faculty...
Read More about What Faculty Learning Communities Can Do for You

Saving Your Students Money By Using OERs

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development, CITAL Jon Bull decided to make using open educational resources (OERs) a priority for his work at VU in order to help with student retention. That is why Jon instituted the OER Development...
Read More about Saving Your Students Money By Using OERs

What to Do for the Last Week of Class

By Cynthia Rutz, Director of Faculty Development, CITAL Does your last week of class look like every other week of the semester?  If so, you may be missing a chance for a memorable finale that will fix the semester’s learning...
Read More about What to Do for the Last Week of Class

VU Faculty Test-drive Simple Syllabus

By Cynthia Rutz, Director, Valparaiso Institute for Teaching and Learning (CITAL) This summer several VU faculty piloted Simple Syllabus, a new tool that ensures students can, with a single click, get to the most important parts of your syllabus. In...
Read More about VU Faculty Test-drive Simple Syllabus