Writing Thesis Statements as Enthymemes

By Jennifer Fletcher In my new book Writing Rhetorically, I share one of my favorite quotations from rhetoricians Edward P.J. Corbett and Rosa A. Eberly: “Reasoning, by itself, will not get the potatoes peeled” (1). It takes humans in communication with other humans to accomplish real work in the world. When we reason rhetorically, we …

Supporting Educational Equity

What role could course materials play in supporting more equitable learning environments? We sat down with Ann Shin, Norton’s editorial director for educational publishing, to discuss an ongoing initiative to create inclusive and equity-minded course materials. Ann ShinImage Credit: Justine Knight Photography First off, could you tell us a bit about your role at Norton?…Supporting …

H5P – new tools to support student learning

By Aidan Johnston, Digital Learning Systems Developer As we navigate our way through the current COVID pandemic, Universities are making use of every tool at their disposal to support staff in offering the best student learning experience possible. When we think of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), in our case here at GCU, GCULearn (Blackboard …

Improving writing by students annotating their own work

Annotated by the Author: Why Having Students Annotate Their Own Writing Is My New Favorite Writing Instruction ToolImproving writing by students annotating their own work

Higher Ed Experts Predictions for 2021

2020 sure was challenging, difficult, unique, interesting (?), and [insert other adjectives here]. Now that we are in a new year, (but are, sadly, still facing similar issues as we were just a few months ago) WCET is curious what higher education practitioners predict for digital learning and higher education in 2021. We are even …

What We’ve Learned: Getting Comfortable with the Silence

In today's "What We've Learned" video, Matthew Parfitt, one of the authors of , reflects on the pace of student discussion in online classes.  What We've Learned: Getting Comfortable with the Silence

Shadow Courses and Their Impact on Academic Integrity

I explore what shadow courses (also known as ‘parallel courses’) are, how they operate, who offers them, and who takes them.Shadow Courses and Their Impact on Academic Integrity

Is Everyone Thinking? What are they all thinking about? This is THE Key. — teacherhead

“Memory is the residue of thought”. As part of my work with Oldham College, this week we were revisiting the key ideas that underpin our Teaching for Distinction programme. Right at the top is Dan Willingham’s work on memory including this important and famous statement: memory is the residue of thought. It deserves repeated revisiting. […]Is …

Uncertainty as a vital component of learning: making room for the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’

By Dr Vic Boyd, Academic Development Tutor, Institute for University to Business Education (U2B) Managing uncertainty is an area of expertise for every single member of staff at GCU. Particularly at this time of year as we embark on a new academic session, there are many friendly, familiar unknowns that we have become adept at …

Scaffolding the Class: Mid-Course Corrections

In a recent meeting with instructors teaching gateway/corequisite pairs (both math and English) in a range of hybrid formats (with as little as 10% to as much as 75% online), I heard my colleagues talk about the difficulties students were having in navigating their courses—not just our corequisite or “learning support” courses, but their psychology,…Scaffolding …