Resources and Guides

Accessibility in Teaching and Learning

This resource provides instructors with an overview of accessibility in teaching and learning and general “getting started” strategies for making learning resources, tools, experiences, and opportunities accessible to all learners.

Applying Inclusive Teaching Principles to Clinical Education

Educators working in the clinical environment face unique challenges when implementing inclusive teaching practices. This resource is intended to support clinical educators in applying the five research-based principles of inclusive teaching, described in the CTL’s Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia, to the clinical setting.

Creating a High Trust, Low Stress Class Environment

For students to do their best learning, and to support a classroom environment that is inclusive for all learners, it’s important for instructors to create a high trust, low stress environment (Hammond, 2019). The following resource offers several strategies that instructors can leverage throughout the semester to help foster a high trust, low stress environment with students.

Designing an Inclusive Syllabus

This resource is intended to provide a starting point for instructors designing inclusive syllabi. Explore general strategies for inclusive syllabus design, dive deeper into specific syllabus elements, and reflect your current syllabus and re-imagine it with a focus on inclusivity.

Four Ways to Make Your CourseWorks Site More Accessible

Accessibility is a core element of inclusive teaching. It requires being responsive to the needs of our students and intentionally designing our courses to remove barriers to learning. This resource is designed to introduce ways to make your CourseWorks site more accessible. It includes course design tips to help you get started on increasing accessibility in your CourseWorks site and highlights a tool called Ally, an accessibility checker integrated into CourseWorks.

Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia

The Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia offers five inclusive teaching principles derived from research and evidence-based practices. In addition, the guide contains practical, accessible, and usable strategies that instructors can use immediately.

Inclusive Teaching and Learning Online

With the rapid shift to online learning, instructors can draw on principles of inclusive teaching to help students feel a sense of belonging, ensure they can access course materials, and support them in achieving learning goals. The current context calls for empathy and resilience on the part of both students and instructors.

Pronouns in Our Community: A Guide From the Office of University Life

The Office of University Life has designed this resource to help students, faculty, and staff familiarize themselves with pronoun use by transgender and nonbinary students, faculty and staff at Columbia. Note: Students are able to register their pronouns on You@Columbia in CourseWorks. You can find step by step instructions from CUIT on using You@Columbia in CourseWorks.

Teaching in Times of Stress and Challenge

Emotions play a vital role in teaching and learning and it is especially important to be responsive to the vast range of emotions that may surface in the classroom during challenging times. This resource offers strategies for teaching during times of stress and highlights campus supports available to help you and your students navigate challenges.

Inclusive Teaching: Supporting All Students in the College Classroom MOOC

In June 2019, the Columbia CTL launched the first ever MOOC (massive open online course) dedicated entirely to the topic of inclusive teaching in higher education. The MOOC, titled Inclusive Teaching: Supporting All Students in the College Classroom, provides practical, accessible, and usable strategies that instructors can implement in their classrooms to create and maintain a supportive learning environment for all students. The self-paced course is open to all.

Alternative Grading Approaches: Grading for Learning

This resource presents alternative grading approaches with a focus on student learning. Implementing an alternative approach involves rethinking in assessment design and communication with students, such as sharing clearly defined assessment standards, providing timely feedback, indicating ongoing progress for students, and allowing opportunities for reassessment. The intent is to maximize student learning, reduce the stress induced by grades (both for students and for the instructors doing the grading), and ensure that all learners are assessed equitably.

Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Action: First Steps

Classrooms serve as microcosms of the larger society, and the resources offered here, while focused on pedagogical practices, support broader commitments to anti-racist actions in higher education. This resource centers on citing the experts in this field, synthesizing their work to encourage further research and, most importantly, amplifying the voices of those who have been doing this work for decades.

Assessing Equitably with All Learners in Mind

The assessment of student learning is an important aspect of any course. The diversity of learners and course contexts necessitates that we question whether our current assessment practices are serving us: do they meet the needs of all of our students? Do they align with our course learning objectives and promote learning for all students? Through a process of reflection on our assessment approaches, we can recognize and remove barriers to student success and work toward more equitable learning experiences for all students.​

Blended Learning

What is blended learning? What are the benefits to a blended learning approach? What are some strategies for getting started? This resource helps instructors answer these questions by describing the elements of an effective, learner-centered “blend” derived from research and evidence-based practices. In addition, it offers questions that instructors can reflect on before designing their course and additional references and resources. This resource is particularly useful to faculty applying for the Provost’s Hybrid Learning Course Redesign and Delivery grant program and similar requests for proposals.

Case Method

Case Method is an active learning approach to teaching and learning in which students apply course content and grapple with real or imagined scenarios. Case Method teaching can help students develop more complex skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This resource provides an overview of the what, why and how of teaching with cases. Instructors new to case method teaching are introduced to different approaches to teaching with cases, where to find cases, and can explore examples of successful Case Method Teaching at Columbia University.

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs): Low-Stakes Strategies to Assess Active Learning

The CTL resource Getting Started with Active Learning offers a framework for active learning in which instructors have students encounter new information, engage with course content, and reflect on what they learned and their learning process. As with any learning activity implemented in a class session, checking what and how students learned from an active learning method is a critical next step to ensure that students have met the learning objectives you set for them. This resource introduces classroom assessment techniques (CATs) as a way to assess what students have learned from active learning methods.

Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom

Given the rapid pace of technological innovation and development, higher education, like nearly all industries, is continuously called upon to consider creative approaches to teaching and learning. The following resource offers instructors a brief introduction to AI Tools, specifically ChatGPT, along with several strategies they might consider for navigating or engaging with these tools in their courses.

Contemplative Pedagogy

Contemplative Pedagogy is an approach to teaching and learning with the goal of encouraging deep learning through focused attention, reflection, and heightened awareness. Learners are encouraged to engage deeply with course material through contemplation and introspection. This resource provides strategies for helping instructors build in opportunities for students to develop deeper understandings of course material.

Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning

Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning is a podcast hosted by CTL executive director, Catherine Ross. In each episode, instructors, students, and leaders in higher education are invited to share their discoveries of “dead ideas” in teaching and learning—ideas that are not true but that are often widely believed and embedded in the pedagogical choices we make.

Designing Assignments for Learning

The rapid shift to remote teaching and learning meant that many instructors reimagined their assessment practices.  This resource distills the elements of assignment design that are important to carry forward as we continue to seek better ways of assessing learning and build on our innovative assignment designs.

Designing for Inquiry-Based Learning In Undergraduate Science And Engineering Lab Courses

Looking to move away from having students work through cookbook-style labs to inquiry-based learning opportunities? This resource highlights inquiry-based lab designs from featured Columbia and Barnard faculty, and provides considerations for designing opportunities for student inquiry in undergraduate science and engineering lab courses.

Developing Poll Questions to Engage and Assess Student Thinking in Science and Engineering Courses

Are you looking to develop questions that go beyond recall for your Science and Engineering class sessions? Do you want to assess in real-time how well all your students are answering questions to inform your next instructional decision? In this guide, we share how you can develop and incorporate poll questions into your classroom that engage students in higher-order cognitive processes, such as applying concepts or evaluating hypotheses, to assess your students’ understanding.

Digital Literacy Competency Calculator

Find connections between digital literacy competencies and the teaching and learning practices that produce them.

Early and Mid-Semester Student Feedback

The CTL recommends capturing student feedback at various points within the semester, including mid-term. The goal is a dialogue about students’ learning, not an evaluation of the instructor’s teaching. This resource outlines two approaches for collecting feedback from your students.

Effective Feedback in Clinical Education

Feedback on clinical performance is necessary to guide a trainees’ actions in the clinical setting as they work towards achieving required competencies. This resource presents research-based strategies to help instructors provide effective feedback to trainees in clinical settings.

FAQ for Teaching Assistants

Browse our list of frequently asked questions, scenarios, and resources for graduate student instructors regarding classroom course management, accommodations, academic integrity, personal issues, logistics, teaching inspiration, and more.

Feedback for Learning

This resource offers strategies to make giving feedback easier and more effective. While there are specific technologies (discussed here) that can help facilitate feedback in an online or hybrid/HyFlex learning environment, the strategies presented here are applicable to any kind of course (e.g.: large lecture, seminar) and across any modality (e.g.: synchronous, asynchronous, fully online, hybrid, or in-person).

Five Tips for Engaged Lecturing

Designing a class session is about planning experiences that maximize student learning. The following five tips emphasize the importance of keeping the focus on the students’ experience and what they should be doing during a lecture.

Getting Started with Active Learning

Active learning strategies involve students not just in doing things, but also thinking about what they are doing. Intentionally incorporating active learning strategies can benefit student learning, and when done inclusively, can also narrow achievement gaps for traditionally underrepresented students. This resource introduces you to a holistic active learning framework as well as Columbia-supported instructional technologies that you can use to design both synchronous and asynchronous activities to engage your students in active learning.

Getting Started with Creative Assignments

Creative teaching and learning can be cultivated in any course context to increase student engagement and motivation, and promote thinking skills that are critical to problem solving and innovation. This resource features examples of Columbia faculty who teach creatively and have reimagined their course assessments to allow students to demonstrate their learning in creative ways. Drawing on these examples, this resource provides suggestions for creating a classroom environment that supports student engagement in creative activities and assignments. 

Incorporating Generative AI in Teaching and Learning: Faculty Examples Across Disciplines

Incorporating Rubrics Into Your Feedback and Grading Practices

This resource provides an overview of the benefits of rubrics, includes strategies to help integrate them into teaching practice, and introduces a few Columbia tools to support rubric design and use.

Learning Through Discussion

Discussions can be meaningful and engaging learning experiences: dynamic, eye-opening, and generative. However, like any class activity, they require planning and preparation. Without that, discussion challenges can arise in the form of unequal participation, unclear learning outcomes, or low engagement. This resource presents key considerations in class discussions and offers strategies for how instructors can prepare and engage in effective classroom discussions.

Learning Through Writing in the Age of AI

Introducing students to disciplinary writing in its various forms is essential, yet it can be challenging to balance how much instruction and guidance is needed, and at what scale. At the same time, the introduction of Generative AI has necessitated new approaches to writing assignments. The following resource looks at why writing activities are beneficial for instructors and students alike, and offers some considerations and strategies for writing activities in the age of AI.

Leveraging Annotation Activities and Tools to Promote Collaborative Learning

Collaborative annotation activities support learning by encouraging students to learn with and from their peers. Research has shown that a collaborative learning environment can help strengthen student confidence, as well as foster their critical thinking skills and active engagement in learning. The following resource offers an overview of some of the benefits of collaborative annotation, as well as specific tools and sample activities to help facilitate this collaboration.

Metacognition Resource

Metacognitive thinking skills are important for instructors and students alike. This resource provides instructors with an overview of the what and why of metacognition and general “getting started” strategies for teaching for and with metacognition.

Navigating Heated, Offensive, and Tense (HOT) Moments in the Classroom

​Regardless of course topic or content, challenging conversations, moments of rupture or disruption, and heated encounters may occur in the classroom. Though they are complicated and can be difficult to respond to, there are steps instructors can take to anticipate and navigate HOT—heated, offensive, or tense—moments before, during, and after they occur. This resource provides strategies that can be implemented in any course context. 

Peer Review: Intentional Design for Any Course Context

This resource offers a number of considerations for instructors developing peer review activities in their classes. While there are specific platforms that can help facilitate peer review in online or hybrid classes, considerations remain the same across different class formats (e.g.: in-person, hybrid (HyFlex), online).

Getting Started with Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning (PBL) actively involves students in their learning and prepares them for the world beyond the classroom. This resource offers an introductory overview of PBL, including the key features and questions for reflection as instructors develop their project-based teaching practices.

Promoting Academic Integrity

While it is each student’s responsibility to understand and abide by university standards towards individual work and academic integrity, instructors can help students understand their responsibilities through frank classroom conversations that go beyond policy language to shared values. By creating a learning environment that stimulates engagement and designing assessments that are authentic, instructors can minimize the incidence of academic dishonesty.

Resources for Assessing Student Learning

How well are students learning what you want them to learn in your course? How do you provide effective feedback to further their learning and growth? This page outlines relevant CTL resources and programming (text-based resources, podcast, videos, workshops, self-paced online courses, etc.) for designing and implementing assessment in your course. 

Teaching and Learning in the Age of AI

This site features reflections on teaching and learning with AI from Columbia faculty from across disciplines, campuses, and affiliate institutions. Discover their stories, their innovations, and how they are leveraging AI in their courses. Experiment with AI tools while being the human-in-the-loop. Explore how generative AI can transform your classroom, enhancing both teaching strategies and student engagement. Find resources to support your pedagogical innovations.

Teaching During and After the 2024 U.S. Elections: Resources for Faculty and Students

U.S. elections can be stressful for both instructors and students, thereby impacting the learning environment in courses. Regardless of the outcome of the elections, instructors can take steps to ensure that both they and their students are supported during this time. This resource shares four tips to consider as you teach through an election season.

Teaching Large Courses Effectively and Efficiently

How do you maximize student learning, uphold academic integrity, and manage grading loads in a large course? The four strategies in this resource address these questions and highlight the importance of purposeful course design in which instructors can effectively support student learning. Instructors can also capitalize on the affordances of instructional technologies and partner with TAs to efficiently manage the course. The strategies below can be adapted to any course modality.

Teaching Talks Video Playlist

The TeachingTalks playlist is a series of brief videos that introduce teaching and learning strategies that can be incorporated into any course. Each video focuses on a specific pedagogical need, presenting a strategy to help meet that need and a brief overview about how instructors can get started with implementation in their own courses.

Teaching Transformations: Faculty Reflections and Insights on Pandemic Practices

Teaching with DIY Video

Learn best practices for producing videos that can help you create more active and engaging classroom experiences.

Voices of Hybrid & Online Teaching and Learning

Faculty, postdocs, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students were invited to submit their reflections—through video, audio, or text—on hybrid/HyFlex or fully online teaching, curricular innovations, or learning experiences at Columbia during the pandemic. Here you will find the amazing work that both instructors and students did during the 2020-2021 academic year to adapt and succeed in the pandemic teaching and learning environment.

Assessment and Grading in CourseWorks (Canvas)

An advanced take on the Introduction to CourseWorks (Canvas) online course, this self-paced training provides instructors with an in-depth understanding of the assessment and grading features in CourseWorks (Canvas). Participants learn about setting up assignments within CourseWorks using various tools, and navigate the different grading features available within CourseWorks to grade assignments, quizzes, and discussions. The course itself models the ways in which Canvas can be used for different course activities.

Blended / Hybrid Learning Essentials

This self-paced course provides an overview of blended learning and guides instructors through the design process for a lesson or unit of study. The course features videos of Columbia University faculty and former recipients of the Provost’s Hybrid Learning Course Redesign and Delivery grants, who share their blended teaching and learning experiences. Instructors are encouraged to use the course packet which includes worksheets and checklists to draft and document their blended learning design and implementation plans.

Introduction to CourseWorks (Canvas)

This self-paced online course helps faculty, graduate students, staff, and other members of the Columbia teaching community learn about the various features offered by CourseWorks (Canvas). The course guides instructors through the steps of setting up their course site and highlights various features that enrich the learning experience for students. A flexible alternative to CTL’s in-person workshop sessions, the course provides tips and examples that highlight the use of CourseWorks tools as applicable to various teaching and learning contexts.

Office of the Provost Faculty Orientation

The Center for Teaching and Learning and Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement are pleased to invite Columbia faculty to enroll in the online Office of the Provost Faculty Orientation to welcome and acclimate you to the new academic year.