• Unearthing the unknown-unknowns: Using a backchannel for resilient teaching

    By Demian Hommel, OSU College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences We’ve all been there: facilitating a carefully planned class session, only to realize that students seem lost or hesitant to ask questions. Often, it’s the “unknown-unknowns”—the gaps in understanding that we, ourselves, aren’t aware of—that trip us up. To surface these, I’ve adopted an…


  • Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community: Emphasis on community

    By Krista Burke, OSU College of Business “Searching for a supportive community of faculty?” There’s a chance I stopped reading there and decided to apply. At some point I read the complete description of the Resilient Teaching Faculty Learning Community call for participation, but I can’t say it was prior to my decision to apply.…


  • Using a fishbowl to teach

    By Brooke O’Brien, Center for Teaching and Learning What is the Fishbowl Teaching Strategy? In its simplest form, as described in the Center for Teaching and Learning’s Instructional Strategy Cards, the fishbowl teaching strategy gets its name from the way it organizes students. A “closed conversation” includes a smaller “inner circle” made up of “conversationalists,”…