Can technology help student teams improve their group process—and ultimately their learning? CRLT's recent Occasional Paper on "Teaching in the Cloud" explains some ways it can. In particular, the paper highlights how Online Collaboration Tools (OCTs) can enhance students' ability to collaborate effectively. OCTs can facilitate group members' access to one another and the team's efficiency by reducing spatial and temporal barriers. OCTs can also provide novel, efficient, and effective means for instructors to monitor and provide feedback on group projects.  

The paper features two U-M faculty members who successfully utilize OCTs to improve student teamwork as well as instructor management of group projects. 

• Robin Fowler of Technical Communication and Engineering: Fowler has improved student teamwork in Introduction to Engineering by shifting from face-to-face team meetings to synchronous, text-based online discussions. Her students share and assess design plans using Google Docs, a system that has increased student engagement and participation in group decision-making.  To learn more, watch a short video of Fowler discussing this teaching strategy and some of its outcomes.
   
• Melissa Gross of Kinesiology: Gross's studio course uses 3D animation and motion capture technologies to study the biomechanics of human movement. Students' group presentations include such animations to illustrate their research findings, and these require sharing and collaborating on many large video files. Gross uses Box.net, a cloud-based storage and sharing service, to solve storage and capacity challenges and facilitate student management and coordination of their teamwork.  To learn more, watch a short video of Gross discussing this teaching strategy.

For additional resources about using student teams effectively in a range of course settings, see this section of our website and this recent CRLT Occasional Paper. 

CRLT congratulates Shelly Schreier on winning the 2013 Golden Apple Award! Shreier, of LSA's Department of Psychology, was nominated by students for this annual prize honoring "teachers who consistently teach each lecture as if it were their last." Co-sponsored by over 30 U-M departments and programs, the Golden Apple is the campus's only teaching prize awarded by students. See this University Record story for more information about Shreier, the award, and her upcoming public lecture as the newest Golden Apple recipient.

CRLT congratulates the six U-M faculty members recently honored by the Regents with Arthur F. Thurnau professorships. The awards recognize the following outstanding teachers for their remarkable contributions to undergraduate education here at Michigan:

• Samuel D. Epstein, Linguistics
• Martha S. Jones, History and Afroamerican and African Studies
• Fritz Kaenzig, Music
• Janie Paul, Art
• Volker Sick, Mechanical Engineering
• L. Monique Ward, Psychology

More information about each new Thurnau Professor can be found in this University Record article. We look forward to spotlighting their innovative teaching here on our blog in the coming months. More information about the Thurnau Professorships can be found at this link. 

CRLT recently published an Occasional Paper by Assistant Director Chad Hershock and U-M Associate Professor of Political Science Mika LaVaque-Manty detailing a range of innovative ways U-M faculty are teaching with Online Collaboration Tools (OCTs). In the coming weeks, we will highlight sections of this paper on our blog, starting this week with ideas from two Thurnau Professors about ways to promote student engagement and participation in large courses. Follow this link to the full paper, including recommendations for implementing OCTs effectively and efficiently in teaching.

Although students can easily become passive learners in a traditional lecture setting, with the right approach lectures can be a very effective way to disseminate content efficiently to large numbers of students, to present cutting-edge material not available elsewhere, and to model expert thinking. Here are two examples of U-M instructors who have used OCTs in large courses to increase student interactions and engagement. 

CRLT is accepting applications through February 25 for the May PFF Seminar, which you can learn more about here. In this guest post, English and Women’s Studies joint Ph.D. student Cat Cassel reflects upon her experiences in the seminar last spring.

Every May, Rackham and CRLT co-sponsor the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) seminar, providing graduate students from across campus important information about preparing for a faculty career trajectory. I participated in the seminar last year and came away with several valuable insights:

• a deeper understanding of the role of faculty in the context of higher education
• an arsenal of knowledge, tools, and tips for effective teaching, and
• a broader sense of the different kinds of faculty career paths available.

Below I highlight two facets of the seminar that were especially useful in helping me feel equipped to face the rigors of future faculty life.

CAMPUS VISIT:  Seminar participants have the option of visiting Albion College, Eastern Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, and University of Toledo. I chose to visit Kalamazoo since both my undergraduate and graduate educations have been at large R1 institutions and I wanted to see what campus life at a small liberal arts college looked like.