Teaching Tips from the L&S TA Training and Support Team
Getting to Know Your Students
A sense of community produces better class enrollment, attendance, satisfaction, participation, academic performance, and graduation rates. Here are simple strategies to learn your students' names, foster community, and increase engagement.
Reading Student Evaluations
Reading your teaching evaluations can be a painful experience, even for veteran professors. Here are some tips for TAs on how to read and make sense of your student teaching evaluations.
Tips for Grading Fairly and Efficiently
If you're up against tight deadlines while grading students, here are ten tips to get that assessment done efficiently and accurately.
Curated Resources from the L&S Instructional Design Collaborative
The IDC partners with TAs, instructors, staff, and departments in L&S in creating modern and effective learning experiences using established course design principles and technical expertise. They offer scheduled consultations and publish online guides.
Mid-Semester Feedback
Getting feedback from students around the midpoint of the semester helps instructors gather information about students’ experience of the course, in addition to anecdotal evidence instructors observe and the work students submit. One way to do this is through a short survey.
Interpreting Student Feedback
Once you have collected feedback from students, what do you do next? Reviewing feedback from students can feel overwhelming, but a few strategies can make this task less stressful.
Writing Learning Goals
Having learning goals, whether they be program outcomes, course outcomes, or learning objectives for a specific activity, helps make learning clearer to everyone involved.
Awarding Extra Credit in Canvas
As the end of the semester approaches, some instructors want to offer students extra credit. One huge advantage of using Canvas is its ability to calculate final grades. However, extra credit can be difficult to integrate into your existing Canvas grading structure and calculations.
Canvas Course Orientation Module
This orientation can be added to your course to help students in in-person, blended, or online classes be ready to start the semester.
Campus Resources
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Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring
The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring (CTLM) supports instructors at all career stages in continuing growth as practitioners of the complex, dynamic and rewarding craft of teaching.
Instructional Resources KnowledgeBase
The Center for Teaching, Learning & Mentoring (CTLM) Instructional Resources KnowledgeBase includes a wide variety of tips, tools, and sample activities and assignments you can use in in-person, online, and hybrid learning environments.
McBurney Disability Resource Center
McBurney Disability Resource Center offers online and in-person training about the history, resources, policies and procedures associated with providing access and accommodations to individuals with disabilities at UW–Madison.
DELTA Program
Build your skills and CV as an effective and inclusive teacher and research mentor with offerings designed for graduate students and post-docs.
The Discussion Project
A professional learning opportunity focused on developing skills in leading high-quality small- and large-group discussion in undergraduate and graduate classrooms.
Learn@UW
DoIT Academic Technology oversees the Learn@UW suite of supported learning technologies, including Canvas, Kaltura MediaSpace, AEFIS, Top Hat and more.
Morgridge Center for Public Service
The Morgridge Center Supports faculty, staff, and students looking to connect their research and teaching with mutually beneficial community engagement initiatives. Offerings include individual consultations, workshops, grants for community-based learning and research, and the Morgridge Fellows learning community, a yearlong professional development opportunity.
Teaching Academy
Educators who care about good teaching. The Teaching Academy offers opportunities for instructors to connect with each other – from drop-in Meet Ups to Fall and Winter Retreats. Most events are open to all.
WISCIENCE
Offers programs, courses and resources for instructors and mentors at all levels to promote equitable and inclusive teaching and mentoring in STEM. Collaborates with departments on initiatives related to enhancing student success and engagement in STEM.
Writing Across the Curriculum
Writing Across the Curriculum helps instructors find creative and effective ways to incorporate writing and speaking assignments into courses at all levels and in all disciplines.