Teaching Large Classes with the TLSS

The Teaching and Learning Support Service (TLSS) at the University of Ottawa is hosting two sessions on teaching large classes as part of their Integrated Training and Lecture Program. The details of the sessions appear below: Are you teaching large classes and looking for innovative teaching strategies? Would you like to talk with colleagues about the challenges…

Election 2015: Parliamentarians from uOttawa

On October 19th, Canada went to the polls and elected a new government. On that day, 15 uOttawa alumni, 1 faculty member and 1 recipient of an honorary doctorate were elected to represent their constituents as MPs (source).   Notable alumni taking up their seats in the house include the the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, who…

Racial Disparities in Higher Education: An Overview

This article was written by Becky Supiano and originally published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  Racism on American campuses is a matter of national concern again this week following protests at the University of Missouri at Columbia that led on Monday to the resignations of both the campus’s chancellor and the system’s president. Protesters unhappy with the…

Next Community of Practice Meeting: December 14th

I am writing today to invite you to our next Excellence in Large Class Teaching Community of Practice meeting. We had a productive meeting in October on the topic of evaluations in large classes, and would like to continue that momentum with another meeting in December. At this meeting, we will be screening a video about…

Why I’m Going Back to High School

This blog was written by Jerie Shaw and originally published on her personal blog, The Level Up. I graduated high school in 2007 with an A+ average. I have since graduated summa cum laude (a fancy Latin way of saying “I did pretty well”) from both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts…

Community of Practice – October Meeting Recap, December Meeting Introduction

In October, we had the pleasure of meeting with the Excellence in Large Class Teaching Community of Practice to discuss evaluation in the large class. It was so wonderful to hear from each of you what evaluations you use in your classes, and the challenges and successes you have had. The lessons we learned from…

Four Key Questions About Large Classes

This post was written by Maryellen Weimer and originally published by Magna Publications. Here’s a set of questions about large classes that I’m thinking we ought to be discussing more than we are. 1. How many students make it a large class? Teachers who do and don’t teach large classes have their opinions, but it’s not…

From F2F to Online: Getting It Right

This article was written by Rob Kelly and originally published in Faculty Focus. Successfully transferring a face-to-face course to the online learning environment requires careful preparations that take into account differences between these two modalities. “If you simply take your face-to-face class and put it online and teach it electronically, you will fail miserably,” says…

Using Grading Policies to Promote Learning

This article was written by Dr. Maryellen Weimer and originally published in Faculty Focus.  I just finished putting together some materials on grading policies for a series of Magna 20-Minute Mentor programs, and I am left with several important take-aways on the powerful role of grading policies. I’m not talking here about the grades themselves, but…

Flipped Classroom Survey Highlights Benefits and Challenges

This article was written by Mary Bart and was originally published in Faculty Focus Perhaps no other word has been as popular in higher education during the past few years as the term “flipped.” As a result, there is no shortage of ideas and opinions about flipped learning environments. Some faculty consider it another way…

What Works and What Doesn’t When Teaching Large Classes?

The web is full of free resources to assist with teaching large classes. We’ve provided links to those resources here on our web page, and highlighted them in blog posts. But if you’re looking for something a little extra, that’s available as well! Magna has recently released a 20 minute crash course in teaching large classes….

New LectureTools Platform at uOttawa

If you’ve used LectureTools in the past at uOttawa, there are some changes this year! Echo360 lecture recording and LectureTools (the in-class presentation / student response tool) are uniting under the “Echo360” name. With a new name comes a new look – the in-class presentation / student response system is streamlined, visually-appealing, and user-friendly. We got…