OSU Center for Teaching and Learning

Author: Cub Kahn

  • Join CTL’s Spring ’25 Global Learning Book Club

    Are you curious to explore how to promote and support Oregon State University’s internationalization goals outlined in the Prosperity Widely Shared strategic plan? We are excited to invite you to participate in CTL’s Spring ’25 Global Learning Book Club. We will discuss engaging topics in the Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad edited volume,…

  • Reading for teaching excellence

    Finding time for professional development focused on teaching and learning is challenging for many OSU instructional faculty. Sometimes teaching-related programs may even be scheduled at the exact same times that you’re teaching. What to do? For professional development on your own schedule, the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) recommends some great…

  • Call for Participation – Spring ’25 Teaching & AI Faculty Learning Community 

    Invitation The goal isn’t to outsmart AI or to pretend it doesn’t exist, but to harness its potential to enhance education while mitigating the downside. The question now is not whether AI will change education, but how we will shape that change to create a more effective, equitable, and engaging learning environment for all.” ––Ethan Mollick,…

  • Building transparent assignments to advance student learning success: Strategies and tips

    By Funmi Amobi, Oregon State University Center for Teaching and Learning Successful completion of course assignments is an important step toward the attainment of learning success. Yet, assignments that seem relevant, straightforward, and clear to an instructor may generate frustrating complaints from students such as: “Why are we doing this?” “This is just busy work.”…

  • Resilient teaching and first-year students

    By June Morris, OSU College of Education Leaving home and coming to college is fraught with anxiety over the many unknowns. Our first term freshmen grapple with being thrust overnight into a world where they don’t yet understand the norms that define college life. They may come to us as high school scholars, but that…

  • Last chance to join the Winter ’25 AI book club

    Update Dec. 27, 2024: Registration for the Winter ’25 AI book club is now closed. The integration of AI in education is not a future possibility—it’s our present reality. This shift demands more than passive acceptance or futile resistance. It requires a fundamental reimagining of how we teach, learn, and assess knowledge. As AI becomes…

  • A case for “slow teaching”

    By Sindya Bhanoo, OSU College of Liberal Arts Intentional Tech by Derek Bruff explores different ways in which instructors can effectively and creatively use technology in their classrooms. The word technology brings apps, devices, and online collaborations to mind but in Chapter 4 of his book, Bruff highlights a piece of technology: the sticky note.…

  • Critical reflection on “Classroom Assessment and Pedagogy”

    By Tosin Alabi, OSU College of Health The article “Classroom Assessment and Pedagogy” by Black and Wiliam (2018) explores how assessment should be deeply integrated into teaching, rather than treated as a separate task. Black and Wiliam argue that both formative assessment (ongoing feedback to help students learn) and summative assessment (evaluation at the end…

  • 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…