CTE’s Teaching Tip Sheets

Over many years, CTE  has developed almost a hundred evidence-based “tip sheets.”  Most of these tip sheets explore different ways of enhancing one’s teaching (such as “Activities for Large Classes”); a handful of others aim to provide guidance on career-related issues (such as, “The Academic Job Interview”); and a few others offer advice to students about strategies for effective learning (such as “Building Your Note-Taking and Study Skills”). I’ve pasted an alphabetical list of our tip sheets at the end of this blog entry, but you might find it more useful to look at the list on our website, where we present them in thematic categories. Our ongoing challenge is to identify gaps in our roster of tip sheets; in other words, what topics or issues have we not yet addressed? With this in mind, feel free to scan the list below (or on our website), and if you don’t see a tip sheet about an important topic, please suggest it, either by emailing me or by adding it as a comment on this blog entry. Incidentally, more than 30 post-secondary institutions in eight different countries link to our tip sheets (one university, in Portugal, has even translated some of them!).

1. Active Learning Activities
2. Activities for Large Classes
3. Asking Questions: Six Types
4. Assignment Design: Checklist
5. Assignment Design: Sequencing Assignments
6. Being an International TA in a Canadian Classroom
7. Building Your Note-Taking and Study Skills: A Guide for Students
8. Building Your Reading Skills: A Guide for Students
9. Classroom Management: Creating an Inclusive Environment
10. Collaborative Online Learning: Fostering Effective Discussions
11. Conflict Management for Instructors
12. Controlling Nervousness
13. Copyright in the Classroom
14. Course Content Selection and Organization
15. Course Design Heuristic
16. Course Design: Planning a Class
17. Course Design: Questions to Consider
18. Creating a Teaching Dossier
19. Creating Course Outlines
20. Designing Multiple Choice Questions
21. Designing Visual Aids
22. Effective Communication: Barriers and Strategies
23. Effectively Communicating Assignment Tasks
24. Effectively Communicating Assignment Tasks: Telling Students What You Really Want
25. Encouraging Academic Integrity
26. Encouraging Academic Integrity in Your Courses
27. Encouraging Academic Integrity Online
28. Exam Preparation
29. Exam Questions
30. Exam Review Exercise
31. Facilitating Effective Discussions
32. Faculty of Science Course Outline Template
33. Fast and Equitable Grading
34. From Presenting to Lecturing: Adapting Material for Classroom Delivery
35. Group Decision Making
36. Group Roles: Maximizing Group Performance
37. Group Work in the Classroom: Small-Group Tasks
38. Group Work in the Classroom: Types of Small Groups
39. Holding Office Hours
40. How to Get the Most Out of Your Teaching Experiences At UW
41. Implementing Group Work in the Classroom
42. Imposter Phenomenon and Graduate Students
43. Improving Your Curriculum Vitae At Waterloo
44. Incorporating Service-Learning into University Courses
45. Integrating Online Assignments into Your Course
46. Key Strategies for Effective Tutorials
47. Laptops in the Classroom: A Virtue or Vice?
48. Large Classes: Limiting the Chaos
49. Learner-Centered Assessment
50. Lecturing Effectively in the University Classroom
51. Low-Stakes Writing Assignments
52. Making Group Contracts
53. Matching Assignments to the Level of Study
54. Meeting Strategies to Help Prepare Students for Group Work
55. Methods for Assessing Group Work
56. Motivating Students: Creating an Inspiring Environment
57. Netiquette and Effective Electronic Communication
58. Online Discussions: Tips for Students
59. Polishing Your Delivery Skills
60. Preparing Your Presentation
61. Promoting and Assessing Critical Thinking
62. Promoting Effective Classroom Participation
63. Question Strategies
64. Questions Asked By Hiring Committees
65. Receiving and Giving Effective Feedback
66. Responding to Writing Assignments: Managing the Paper Load
67. Rubrics: Useful Assessment Tools
68. Self-Directed Learning Resources
69. Self-Directed Learning: A Four Step Process
70. Self-Directed Learning: Learning Contracts
71. Self-Directed Learning: Readiness to Learn
72. Self-Directed Learning: Unit Planning Decision Guide
73. Strategies for Course Internationalization
74. Supervisory Relationships
75. Surviving Your First Day of Class
76. Teaching Assistant Checklist: Questions to Ask
77. Teaching Philosophy Sample Exercises
78. Teaching Problem Solving Skills
79. Teaching Students Research Skills Using Library-Based Assignments
80. Teamwork Skills: Being an Effective Group Member
81. Ten Tips for Effective Research Writing
82. The Academic Job Interview
83. Timesavers for Electronic Communication
84. Tools for Reflecting On Your Teaching
85. Types of Assignments and Tests
86. Understanding Your Learning Style
87. Using Mid-Term Student Feedback
88. Using Turnitin in Your Courses
89. Using Visual Aids
90. Using Writing as a Learning Tool
91. Varying Your Teaching Activities: Nine Alternatives to Lecturing
92. When Things Go Wrong: Handling Problems During In-Class Group Work
93. Writing Learning Outcomes