In this episode, podcast co-host Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) interviews Donovan de Hoog (Post-Baccalaureate Fellow and TaP Coordinator) about The Collaborative's student-faculty partnership program: Tigers as Partners (TaP).  We discuss the unique benefits of TaP and the ways that participating in this program allows faculty to systematically incorporate the student perspective into their teaching. Looking at the many ways that a TaP partnership can be tailored to the pedagogical needs of a specific faculty member, Donovan shares some of the ways that TaP student interns work with faculty to provide insight into class dynamics, bridge the gap between students and faculty, conduct mid-semester feedback, and even do somme light research into evidence-based pedagogical practices. We end our conversation by encouraging all faculty interested in continuing to refine their craft of teaching to reach out to The Collaborative (collaborative@trinity.edu) to learn more about the program and to sign up for next semester!  

The tucollaborative's Podcast

Tigers as Partners (TaP) Program

In this episode, Trinity's The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) dive deeper into one form of game-based learning: Games for Learning (G4L)!   We start by defining G4L, which are games that you bring into your courses less because of the content of the games and more as a vehicle for teaching (and letting students practice) key skills and concepts. We quickly discuss how G4L can be used across the curriculum and for a variety of course goals before moving into five case studies of how we've used games in our own classes to facilitate conversations on everything from implicit bias to the importance of strong transitions in essays. With each case study, we discuss the types of games we used, the issues we were working to address through game play as well as the three scaffolding steps needed to build meaningful play (setting up for the concepts being explored and the game being played, playing the game, and then creating opportunities for reflection and application).   This episode is perfect for anyone looking for new, fun, and meaningful ways to help students understand complex and important concepts and practice challenging and valuable skills!

Games for Learning

In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss three different concepts--games for learning, serious games, and gamification--that all fit under the bigger umbrella term of game-based learning (GBL). This episode is perfect for those who want to learn more about GBL as well as for those who are looking for ways to incorporate more elements of GBL into their new or existing courses. We talk about path/pace, structure, narrative, leveling, roles, incentives, and technology and the easy (and more complex) ways these can be incorporated into a gamified course or even just a gamified unit of a course.

Game-based Learning and Gamification

In this special episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the final third (pp. 132-end of book) of Julie Schumacher's 2014 novel Dear Committee Members.   What did you think of the novel's conclusion? What are your feelings about how things wrap up with Jay? Now that you've read the entire novel, what are your thoughts? 

Summer 2021 Readalong, Part 3

In this special episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the first third (pp. 66-131) of Julie Schumacher's 2014 novel Dear Committee Members.   What did you think of the middle part of this novel? What surprised you? What are you looking forward to seeing (or not seeing) in the final portion of the book?

Summer 2021 Readalong, Part2

In this special episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the first third (pp. 1-65) of Julie Schumacher's 2014 novel Dear Committee Members.   What did you think of the first third of the novel? What surprised you? What   talk explore how mental health practices can be themselves intellectually invigorating and how incorporating these practices into your courses can drastically impact your and your students' learning. 

Summer 2021 Readalong, Part 1

In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) explore how mental health practices can be themselves intellectually invigorating and how incorporating these practices into your courses can drastically impact your and your students' learning.  Starting with discussing our own needs as teachers, we explore explicit ways that you can draw attention to and support mental health through your syllabi, in-class interactions, and out-of-class activities. 

Incorporating Mental Health Into Your Classes

In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) go a bit meta...as we talk about why podcasting is a perfect medium for helping students both engage with course content and create meaningful, dynamic coursework. Sharing ten ideas for bringing podcasts into your course, we discuss everything from how you can bring in smaller activities like flash podcasting during class time to how you can incorporate podcasting in big projects like the traditional term paper. We also talk through some of the concerns and questions people often have regarding assigning podcasting in their classes. 

Bringing Podcasting into Your Course

In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) explore how our lectures can become something that students don't just tolerate but are actually excited to experience in our courses.  Suggesting that the key is to build in student buy-in, we talk about switching around the order of our class periods (think of lectures as dessert!), harnessing the power of storytelling, and incorporating active learning into our lectures. 

Lecture Awesomeness

In this episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss some next-level ideas for online and TigerFlex teaching. Looking for ways to boost student participation, reduce Zoom/screen time, and bring some variety into your classes? Then this the episode for you! Exploring the benefits for both you and your students as well as the tools needed to implement, we talk about five next-level ideas: podcasting lectures, using the Discord app, building in interactives, exploring academic making and project-based learning, and engaging in experiential and process-based learning.

Next-Level Ideas for Online and TigerFlex Teaching

In this episode, Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director of The Collaborative) and new host Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss the unique challenges and opportunities facing us as we move fully remote post-Thanksgiving. Although we've pivoted before, this will be a new experience for our first-years (many of whom are moving out of the dorms and back home); it is also the holiday season, ensuring there will be many new experiences looming on the horizon. In this special episode, we answer questions we've been hearing from faculty about how we can not just survive, but thrive, as we transition through the fall pivot and wrap up this semester.

Thinking about the Post-Thanksgiving Pivot (Fall 2020)

It's easy to dread the end-of-semester course evaluation because, by that point, we are essentially conducting a postmortem. But what if we sought out the pulse of our class while it was still alive? In this episode we look at the benefits of soliciting midsemester feedback from our students as part of the process of play--the act of adopting, adapting, and revising through a meaningful conversation. From transparent conversations to the starfish model of asking for feedback (more of, less of, keep doing, start doing, stop doing), in this episode we discuss how midsemester feedback can help make just-in-time adjustments and opportunities for explanations that will help ensure the best learning and teaching possible.  Sources referenced in and consulted for this episode: Brookfield, Stephen D. and Stephen Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2005. Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy and Sophia Abbot, eds. The Power of Partnership: Students, Staff, and Faculty Revolutionizing Higher Education. Elon University Center for Engaged Learning, 2020.  

Soliciting Midsemester Feedback

Imagine being invited over to play and then just going over instructions. Disappointing, right? But isn’t that what happens all the time on the first day of a new class? The start of the semester should not force students to wait for the “good stuff.” Instead, they should feel invited to immediately begin thinking about the content and practicing the skills they will master over the next several weeks. This episode shares several activities that could be used in those early class sessions as well as pitfalls to avoid as we encourage our students to play…right from the start.   Sources referenced in and consulted for this episode: Gannon, Kevin. “The Absolute Worst Way to Start the Semester.” ChronicleVitae. August 3, 2016.   Gonzalez, Jennifer. “Is Your Lesson a Grecian Urn?” Cult of Pedagogy. October 30, 2016.   Lang, James M. “How to Teach a Good First Day of Class.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.   “Make the Most of the First Day of Class.” Eberly Center, Carnegie Mellon University.   Mayhall, Marguerite. “The Vital Importance of First-Day Activities.” Inside Higher Ed. August, 14, 2018.   Nunn, Lisa M. 33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students. Rutgers UP, 2019.   Stevens, John and Matt Vaudrey. The Classroom Chef: Sharpen Your Lessons, Season Your Classes, Make Math Meaningful. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., 2016.

Starting Right, Right from the Start

Discussion can be a powerful tool not just for sharing and hearing ideas but also for building understandings and systems of information. From using preparatory notes to having students plan the shape of a class conversation, this episode explores several ways that faculty can use discussion as a method for allowing our students to be co-creators of knowledge.  Sources referenced in and consulted for this episode: Abate, Tom. “How to Use ‘Active Learning’ to Teaching Critical Thinking in the Lab.” Stanford Engineering. Feb. 4, 2019. Brookfield, Stephen D. and Stephen Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2005. Cheung, Floyd. “Preparatory Notes as a Way to Individualize Teaching and Learning.” The National Teaching and Learning Forum. March 15, 2019. Flaherty, Colleen. “The Dangers of Fluent Lectures.” Inside Higher Ed. September 9, 2019. Howard, Jay R. Discussion in the College Classroom: Getting Your Students Engaged and Participating in Person and Online. Jossey-Bass, 2015. Lang, James M. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Jossey-Bass, 2016. Sawyer, R. Keith. Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation. 2nd ed. Oxford UP, 2012.

Discussion as Creation of Knowledge

Too often class discussions follow a call-and-response format rather than producing true dialogue. From chalk talks (where students respond to the ideas they wrote on the board) to designated facilitators (where students practice the art of crafting a conversation), this episode offers eight practical ways to help turn discussions into conversations where students not only talk but also reflect, listen, and respond. (19 minutes)   Sources referenced in and consulted for this episode: Brookfield, Stephen D. Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions. Jossey-Bass, 2012. Brookfield, Stephen D. and Stephen Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. 2nd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2005. Howard, Jay R. Discussion in the College Classroom: Getting Your Students Engaged and Participating in Person and Online. Jossey-Bass, 2015. Palmer, Parker J. To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey. HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Turning Discussion into Conversation

What defines a great professor? "Playing in the Sandbox: Conversations in Pedagogy" is a podcast series that answers this question with one word: play. Most will agree that the best professors and instructors of higher education are those who promote (and exemplify) passion, curiosity, exploration, experimentation, and the willingness to fail and try again. In other words, as this podcast argues, the best professors are those who meaningfully and thoughtfully play.

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The tucollaborative's Podcast

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