Robert Talbert, Ph.D.

Academia

Clients, not customers

Students are not customers but rather clients, involved with us in a creative process which involves the students in a fundamental way.

Academia

What can higher education learn from the business world?

A recap of a talk to Student Affairs professionals about what makes a good working culture.

GTD

How GTD has helped me during the pandemic

Getting Things Done (GTD) has played a big role in helping me not just survive but sort of thrive during the last year.

Academia

How do you get students to buy in to self-teaching?

How do you get students to accept and work within a framework that stresses self-teaching?

Academia

In defense of teaching yourself the material

It's time for colleges and universities to stop apologizing for having students teach themselves things.

Academia

Committing to communication

There's a simple potential solution to the problem of student "workload" that isn't about reducing the number of assignments we give.

Academia

Flipped learning and post-pandemic higher education

Flipped learning is the right model for where higher education currently is, and is headed once the pandemic is over.

Mathematics

Four things I used to think about calculus, and what I’ve replaced them with

Throwback to a 2009 article on changing conceptions of Calculus teaching -- with updates for 2021.

Academia

Three more things that the workload dilemma might really be about

Here's three more things that we might actually be talking about, when we talk about "workload".

Academia

Three things that the workload dilemma might really be about

What do we mean when we talk about students' workload these days? It may not be about actual workload.

Active learning

My home teaching software and workflows

A rundown of the software and workflows I use for online teaching.

Active learning

My home teaching studio setup (and why it's so cheap)

You don't need to spend $21,000 to have an excellent home teaching studio if you shift the focus to active learning.

Academia

Blue pants on Tuesday

How can we in higher education push greater adoption of active learning without steamrolling academic freedom?

Active learning

Active learning as an ethical issue

Is active learning a pedagogical choice or an ethical imperative? (From 2015.)

Active learning

How not to do active learning

A short list of 25 ways to teach using active learning but without the empathy.

Academia

Empathy in teaching

Empathy is possibly the most important facet of good teaching and the weakest link in current college teaching practice.

Academia

Building Modern Algebra: The grading system

In this post in a series on building my Modern Algebra course, I get into the grading system and the role of mastery grading.

Academia

When courage isn't enough

Sometimes good teaching takes more than just courage.

Academia

Learning takes courage

Learning takes courage. And what our students need from us right now, more than anything, is our courage.

Academia

Building Modern Algebra: Assessments

More on the upcoming Modern Algebra class: The big ideas of the course and how I'm assessing those.

Course design

Building Modern Algebra: Learning objectives

The first post in a series on building a Modern Algebra course starts where the course build process starts: with learning objectives.

Course design

Building Modern Algebra

First in a series where I describe the course build process for a new course, Modern Algebra.

Higher Education

Being a learner versus being a scholar

As I was picking up the pieces of 2020 recently, I decided that I'm going to trade in the term scholar for the term learner.

Teaching

What I learned in Fall 2020: A 3x3x3 reflection

Three things I learned, three things that surprised me, and three questions I have about the semester that was.

Learning spaces

Lessons about socially-distanced active learning from a classroom redesign

A study on the use of bolt-down swivel chairs in active learning holds some lessons about teaching during Covid-19.