Welcome to #MYFest25! This is Equity Unbound’s fourth annual “Mid-Year Festival” (MYFest). Equity Unbound continues to co-create brave spaces and nurture a caring community for life-long-learners everywhere.

The end of July is always takes me by surprise. Even more so since making the transition from faculty to educational developer, where August is one of the busiest months of our calendar year (orienting new faculty, running summer teaching institutes). But wait! What happened to summer? Further disorienting is

The discussion about how to use instructional humor in class to promote teaching and learning efficiency has always been a concern of researchers in recent decades. The present project summarizes extant studies on instructional humor and provides a ...

In the current climate of curriculum reform, the traditional lecture has come under fire for its perceived lack of effectiveness. Indeed, several institutions have reduced their lectures to 15 min in length based upon the “common knowledge” and “consensus” that there is a decline in students’ attention 10–15 min into lectures. A review of the literature on this topic reveals many discussions referring to prior studies but scant few primary investigations. Alarmingly, the most often cited source for a rapid decline in student attention during a lecture barely discusses student attention at all. Of the studies that do attempt to measure attention, many suffer from methodological flaws and subjectivity in data collection. Thus, the available primary data do not support the concept of a 10- to 15-min attention limit. Interestingly, the most consistent finding from a literature review is that the greatest variability in student attention arises from differences between teachers and not from the teaching format itself. Certainly, even the most interesting material can be presented in a dull and dry fashion, and it is the job of the instructor to enhance their teaching skills to provide not only rich content but also a satisfying lecture experience for the students.

MYFest info at https://myfest.equityunbound.org/Nancy White and K...

How backpacking can help us think about alternative grading

I genuinely did not expect this. People building their first buttons live. And seeing people's faces when things clicked. Like literally. What we covered Text buttons - one press, your LinkedIn link, your Miro board, your instructions... in the chat...

Six books on teaching, learning, and classroom challenges worth adding to your TBR pile

Or, should you share your slides before a presentation?

On Canvas, you can create personalized scales. This way, you can go beyond traditional percentages or Completes/Incompletes. For my Film course, for example, I created a Complete/Try Again scale. To do this, I … 1. Made the assignment worth 1 point. 2. Under the assignment settings, I clicked the button for how the grade shows up. 3. I clicked the GPA Scale button. 4. I clicked the button for a custom scale. 5. I set the point values. This takes some gaming. Anything in between a 0.5 and a 1 gets a Complete. Anything between a 0 and a 0.5 gets a Try Again. This way, when I put a 0/1 into the gradebook, it shows up as Try Again to the students.

I’ve been out here in the retiree pasture for a few years now (it’s a lovely place upstate, with many frolicking dogs) and as some teachers are staring down the last few weeks of their teaching careers, let me offer them some advice.

How do you write a teaching statement that doesn’t sound exactly like everybody else’s?

Evidence-based strategies for addressing bias in student evaluations of teaching.

Biochemistry Instructor Cass Terrell describes how incorporating visual models and visual literacy helps students grasp complex concepts, master high-level p...

Blame the jobs that compete for their time. Blame the messages our institutions are sending about what’s worth their time—and what the purpose of their degree is.

In higher education, grading has largely been standardized, with letter grades standing in for student learning. However, the academy has begun to wonder, does traditional grading measure what students actually ...

Thinking about how recent interest in lower-tech teaching and learning can engage with accessibility

James and Justin Bieber put their dance abilities and fitness to the test when they sign up for an incredibly intense dance class taught by toddlers.More Lat...

The Postplagiarism framework has gained considerable attention, reshaping the landscape of academic integrity and ethical decision-making in education and research. This paradigm shift encourages educators to embrace the potential of artificial intelligence integration in transforming the competencies students need for their careers and communities. In this presentation I focus on two of the postplagiarism tenets: \\u00A0enhanced human creativity and the disappearance of language barriers. I will showcase preliminary findings of my doctoral research on academic integrity. As we recognize students\\u2019 diversity, these two postplagiarism-tenets provide a framework for fostering creative communication and accessible educational environments while disappearing potential obstacles within a transformative model for learning academic integrity.\\n\\nSpeaker: Bibek Dahal, MPhil, University of Calgary\\n\\nBio: Bibek Dahal, MPhil is a PhD Candidate in higher education leadership, policy, and governance.

New York University is going to be a leader in helping students improve digital habits and engage more with each other, their professors, and NYC. President Linda G. Mills and I are working together to push back the phone-based life with her new initiative, NYU-IRL, premiering today. Check out the amusing video. #NYUIRL #phonefreeschools NYU Stern School of Business

Full details at the blog post: https://myfest.equityunbound.org/events/designing-with-not-around-disabled-learners-a-screen-reader-demo-experience/This sessi...

Dozens of institutions are piloting new ways to evaluate college teaching beyond student surveys. Here are the six steps they’re taking to fix a broken system.

If your eLearning slides feel slightly off — and you can’t quite put your finger on why — visuals are often the culprit. A stock photo on slide three. A cartoon character on slide seven. A fl…

Here’s a 90-second behind-the-scenes look at how I prep for my class.Before students join, I map the flow. These are the tools supporting my live classes:- S...

Dozens of institutions are piloting new ways to evaluate college teaching beyond student surveys. Here are the six steps they’re taking to fix a broken system.