How do you stay engaged when teaching? (CELT Teaching Tip)

For new instructors, a teaching challenge can be learning the content, the pacing, and anticipating student questions. For more seasoned instructors, how do you stay engaged and revived when teaching material (for what feels like the 100th time)?

CELT Teaching Tip • October 31, 2019

How do you stay engaged when teaching?

In every subject, there are new findings, new perspectives, and new research that can help enliven your teaching. Staying fresh on these findings can include searching the literature, talking with colleagues who teach the same course at Iowa State and other institutions, and attending conferences in your discipline.

In addition to staying up to date with content, getting to know your students can help you understand their interests and passions as they relate to the topic. You, or through student projects, can provide opportunities to dig deeper into a specific issue or topic. For many Iowa State University instructors, working with Honors students can be tremendously rewarding, particularly as their research findings can help enliven future teachings of the topic.

Also, are their "hot topics" or current events that can make the topic more relatable and of interest to the students? These relevant current events can further add credibility to you as the instructor, and to the importance of studying your field before students enter their chosen career paths.

With a joy for teaching,

Sara Marcketti, Director

Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

CELT Collaborator Spotlight: Tanya Austin

In our teaching tips, we are highlighting the work of successful instructors and staff from across Iowa State University. We have asked them to share their highlights from the classroom, ideas for successful teaching and learning, and share their favorite CELT program.

Tanya Austin, M.S., Professional Development Coordinator/Career Coordinator in the Ivy College of Business Career Services for the last 3 years, shares that she has found it useful to request her next semester course shell early in the current semester. By having her shell for the upcoming semester in place, she can easily make edits from ‘lessons learned’ in the current semester.

Tanya is the lead instructor on BusAd 203, which uses Canvas Blueprint courses to efficiently allow universal course edits to be completed by one person and pushed out to all sections. She keeps students engaged through team-based in-class activities using Top Hat, which are automatically scored and seamlessly synced to Canvas. Tanya presented at the latest ISU-OLC meeting and at the CELT Teaching Technology Conference on how both technologies can be used to save time and resources for instructors and departmental budgets.

Interested in learning how to use Top Hat in your course?

Introduction to Top Hat (9-10:30 a.m.)
Top Hat experts at ISU (11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)
Building an advanced Top Hat course (3-4:30 p.m.)

Tanya Austin (above)

Share “Who makes you feel like a valued member of the ISU community?”

We hope that all Cyclones take time to acknowledge their Iowa State University faculty, graduate teaching assistants, peer mentors, advisers, faculty/staff mentors, colleagues, and more. Before November 30, Cyclones are encouraged to answer, “Who makes you feel like a valued member of the ISU community?” via our 2019 #CyThx at Iowa State University submission form . The #CyThx honorees will be recognized with an email, an acknowledgment on the #CyThx webpage , and campus leadership will receive notification of who received a #CyThx.

CELT Presenter Grant Program due Dec. 15th

Faculty and staff who received a CELT funded scholarship of a teaching and learning (SoTL) grant are eligible for the CELT Presenter Grant. The CELT Presenter Grant provides eligible faculty and staff with the opportunity to present their SoTL research findings at a teaching and learning higher education conference. For travel that will be completed between Jan. 1 and June 30, apply by Dec. 15. Learn more from the CELT Presenter Grant Program webpage.

Learning Online: Canvas and Beyond

Giving students practical and useful feedback

Whether your course meets face-to-face or online, keep your students engaged by giving useful and practical feedback for improved learning and performance:

Probe into misconceptions and challenges via frequent real-time polls and discussions in Top Hat. Visit the CELT website to see how others are using Top Hat or register for upcoming November 7 workshops.
Attach rubrics to the Canvas assignments and discussions to help students understand how well they are meeting expectations and how their learning can be improved.
Use Speech Recognition or the video option to record feedback on assignment submissions.
Create a video in Studio and post as an announcement to summarize aggregated feedback, discuss common mistakes in completed assessments, and recommend remedial material.

Need help?

Stop by our CELT Open Labs. Visit CELT’s Canvas Open Labs webpage for days, times, and location or contact Canvas 24/7 support by clicking on the ?Help icon on the Global Navigation menu (far left of your screen) in Canvas for the 24/7 support options.

CELT's Upcoming November Programs

To view our program descriptions and the most up-to-date schedule, visit CELT’s Event and Registration webpage or click on the workshop title hyperlinks listed below:

Initiative, #CyThx at Iowa State University, (Nov. 1-30)
Seminar, Discuss Published Education Research in Your Discipline, Nov. 4 (4:10-5 p.m.)
Workshop: Improving Your Online Course, Nov 6 (9 a.m.-Noon)
Workshop, Documenting Your Teaching using the DART Matrix, Nov. 12 (2:10-3 p.m.)
Workshop, Exploring ways to create an inclusive learning environment, Nov. 12 (4:10-5 p.m.)
Workshop, Effectively managing disruptive conduct in learning spaces, Nov. 14 (12:10-1 p.m.)
Seminar, ISU Online Learning Community (ISU-OLC), Nov. 15 (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)
Workshop, Discover the top 10 tips for creating accessible course content, Nov. 19 (4:10-5 p.m.)
Seminar, Service-Learning Teaching and Learning Community, Nov. 20 (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.)
Meeting, Team-Based Learning (TBL) Teaching and Learning Community, Nov. 22 (1:10-2:30 p.m.)

How to Register

For in-person events, register via the Learn@ISU website, or email your name, department, name of the event, date of the event to [email protected] .

Prefer a Print version?

To view the Teaching Tip as a printable document with the web addresses, download the CELT Teaching Tip for October 31, 2019 (PDF) ( http://bit.ly/2NsYRzB)

Visit our website