What are the benefits of collaborative learning? What are best practices for forming teams? How can I promote effective group dynamics? And, how do I hold students accountable in this learning context?

Questions such as these arise regularly in consultations with U-M instructors who are implementing group work in their courses. Drawing on these experiences and the research on best practices, CRLT has created a new webpage, Introduction to Groups and Teams. It is designed to be a valuable starting point for instructors to consider as they add or revise group assignments and activities to their courses. The site includes information and resources on the following topics:

Is CRLT still available to support U-M instructors during the summer? Indeed, we are! Whether you want to discuss need to reimagine your course or modify an already flexible design, CRLT is here to support you with a range of services as you plan for Fall 2021, including the following:

Click HERE to register for the 2021 Inclusive Teaching @ Michigan series.

In light of the disruptions that have characterized the year, including a global pandemic, civil and political unrest, racial reckoning, and widespread shifts to remote teaching and learning, the need to widen our lens from inclusion to a more equity-focused view of teaching and learning has become all the more evident and urgent. At CRLT, we have found ourselves asking a range of questions to help us move toward more equitable practices, including ones aimed at reevaluating our framework for inclusive teaching. While inclusive teaching practices are important, they often don’t foreground larger systems of inequity (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, nativism, etc.).  Without explicit attention to the impact of systemic inequity, inclusion efforts can approach all forms of student difference as equal and often ignore the specific social and political conditions that shape our students’ experiences in the classroom differently. For example, instructors are frequently encouraged to include all students or all voices in the classroom, without also being asked to consider which voices have been persistently excluded or marginalized within and beyond the classroom. 

By: Lyss Shumaker

In this guest post, our partners from the Student Parent Excellence Committee offer key insights into the experiences of student parents and strategies that can be applied in the classroom to support their excellence. To learn more about this cross-campus committee, please visit:  http://www.cew.umich.edu/advocacy-initiatives/student-parents/ 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many instructors have found themselves balancing a disproportionate workload, where the intersection of work and personal boundaries are blending together. The current remote learning landscape has also given instructors a window into students’ lives and the complex commitments they are balancing–especially those with caregiver responsibilities, including parents. Based on financial aid data alone, we know that there are over 700 student parents actively enrolled at U-M.  This blog post will provide context for the challenges student parents face in the classroom and strategies for how you can support the learning of student parents enrolled in your courses.  

As we pass the middle of the term, instructors are asked to think about course evaluations that students complete at the end of the term (November 19-December 9). By November 17, U-M instructors are invited to preview evaluation questions and create a few of their own if they wish. What principles or goals might guide you in that process?

In this blog post, we review the university-wide questions that appear on end-of-semester evaluations, as well as those added for Fall 2020 in particular, and we offer guidance on how to make the most of instructor-created questions. These principles can also be used to create questions for feedback that you collect at other times of the semester. In addition, this previous CRLT blog post provides strategies for increasing student response rates, and this Registrar's site contains details about the course evaluation process.