Teaching - Robert Talbert, Ph.D.

Grand questions about grand challenges

Answering questions from a talk on Grand Challenges for STEM Teaching.

Giving marks that indicate progress

Marks are how students interface with feedback loops. How can we make them work for us? (Repost from Grading for Growth)

Teaching

Three things I learned about teaching by taking a short course

Reflections from flipping the script on being a learner. Originally posted in 2012.

Learning spaces

What it's like to teach in an active learning classroom

After years of doing research and training on active learning classrooms, I've finally been able to teach in one. Here's what I've learned.

Flipped learning

Flipped learning: Extinct or endemic?

Has flipped learning gone away, or is it everywhere in the background? I explore that question in this keynote address from the IFLIP symposium from February.

Alternative grading

Grading in my Discrete Mathematics class: a 3x3x3 reflection

A postmortem of my Fall semester discrete math course and the specifications grading system it used.

Alternative grading

How specifications grading changed my view of academic dishonesty

What happens to your views about academic dishonesty when you move from a scarcity model to an abundance model. (Reposted from Grading For Growth)

Active learning

A new framework for active learning

A new paper proposes an updated definition of active learning and an "ecosystem" framework to go along with it.

Active learning

Why we should embrace active learning

Three good and three bad reasons to embrace active learning, with reflections on a changing world.

Teaching

A real world approach to deadlines

A "real world" approach to deadlines on college work means something different than you might think.

Grading

Three steps for getting started with alternative grading

You've decided to switch grading systems, awesome! Now what? (Repost from Grading for Growth)

Higher Education

Maintaining humanity in higher education in a high-tech world

Education has to take place in the context of human relationships, and through technology not in spite of it.

Mastery Grading

A word about words

Why David Clark and I are dropping the term "mastery grading" in our upcoming book on that subject.

Academia

The power of communities of practice

As a Presidential Fellow, the biggest thing I've learned is the centrality of communities.

Mastery Grading

Checking in with the system at mid-semester

My students did a Mid-Semester Interview on Teaching recently and taught me some things about our mastery grading system.

Online learning

Can hyflex be made to work?

Hyflex is a toxic brand for many college faculty, but it is still a good idea on paper. What needs to be in place to make it work?

Grading

Moving on from rigor

If "rigor" is a meaningless term then what should we be using? What are we really talking about?

Teaching

What we really mean by "buy-in"

We talk about "buy-in" when we discuss teaching innovation, but that's not what we really mean.

Higher Education

Is traditional higher education in trouble from online course providers?

I just completed the much-hyped Project Management certification from Google and Coursera. How much trouble is traditional higher education in?

Grading

Finding common ground with grading systems

We've seen the differences. Now what are the similarities? (Repost from Grading for Growth)

Mathematics

Doubt, proof, and what it means to do mathematics

Throwback post from 2013 on a way of thinking of mathematics as the interplay between belief and doubt.

Mastery Grading

Specifications grading and "help"

Can students in a specs grading setting do work without help? Do we care?

Academia

Doing what you can, with what you've got

A plea and some suggestions for breaking the loop of fear and hopelessness heading into Fall 2021.

Grading

Words, numbers, or nothing?

A classic study finds some eye-opening effects of different feedback on learning.

Teaching

Building Fall 2021: Discrete Structures

A work-in-progress report on my Fall 2021 classes, one month before launch.