Tag: student engagement
Beth Wilson’s use of an active learning discussion board in an online class
I am an online professor teaching a graduate class in systems engineering. This week the students are engaging in active learning through a discussion board assignment that launched today to apply the lecture concepts presented this week to real world case studies. Using the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 as an example, the recorded […]
Peer learning: not just for engagement
In discussions about teaching and learning at WPI in recent years, one of the concerns and frustrations I’ve heard most frequently is that students seem to forget what they were taught–and what we were convinced they actually learned– just a few months ago in a previous course. I recently came across this article,”Why Students Forget […]
Active learning on the first day of Constance Clark’s course on History of Evolutionary Thought
On the first day of class I arrive early with a cart full of skeletons, skulls, fossils, shells, plants, an ostrich egg, some rocks, shark teeth, and a peculiar upside-down drawing of a sloth. Before the students arrive (at least with any luck before they arrive—if there are people who got there early I ask […]
A Lesson about Asking Questions from Zoe Reidinger in Biomedical Engineering
In Biomedical Engineering Design (BME 3300) our students work in small teams to solve a real world problem in a medical/healthcare field over the course of the term. The project for this term is to design, build, and test a portable incubator that is capable of culturing bacterial samples, without access to electricity, in the […]
Increasing student response rate and participation while working on your throwing arm
Have you ever asked a question in class and then stood by while you got that glazed look from a room full of students? Depending on your level of comfort and experience you can of course just wait them out and eventually someone will respond. This does take patience on occasion and waiting for what […]
