As the semester progresses, students are often balancing multiple assignments, exams, work commitments, and personal responsibilities. This point in the term can be a good opportunity to make small instructional adjustments that help re-energize your course and support student engagement: 

Check in with students: Use a quick survey, exit ticket, or Start-Stop-Continue activity to gather feedback and identify opportunities for adjustment. The Yale Poorvu Center provides helpful ideas and sample questions for collecting and responding to mid-semester student feedback.

Add a small active-learning activity: Consider a Think-Pair-Share, polling question, case study, or peer discussion. Research-based teaching resources from Cornell's Center for Teaching Innovation suggest that breaking up lectures with short active-learning opportunities can improve engagement and learning.

Encourage reflection: Ask students to reflect on what study strategies are working, what concepts remain challenging, and what they want to improve before the next assessment. Reflection activities can help students become more intentional learners. 

Peer learning can also be an effective way to re-energize your classroom while promoting deeper learning and critical thinking. Interested in learning more? Check out the workshop below and register to join us!

Explore how peer learning can support critical thinking and learning experiences that students cannot outsource to AI. Bring an assignment, activity, or assessment from your course and leave with practical ideas for making it more engaging, collaborative, and AI-resilient.

Hosted by Chen Wang

Thank you, generous colleagues! We know it’s a busy time of year. But have you ever been a little (or a lot) curious to see what it’s like in someone else’s classroom? Well this is your chance! Only a few spots remain to come take a seat in a classroom from the student perspective, and talk about what that experience was like for you. The next two opportunities are below. Find more opportunities and details here.

Wednesday, October 14, 9:30–10:45 a.m.
Pat Ryan
Register for Principles of Marketing (Three Spots Left)

Asynchronous online, week of October 19th
Rodina Bizri-Baryak
Register for Healthcare Administration (Only One Spot Left!)

The Hub and Digital Education invite faculty to participate in the second year of our funded, faculty-led Digital Accessibility Learning Communities. Participants will explore practical strategies, share ideas with colleagues, and improve accessibility in their courses. Learn more about the program.

Interested in serving as a Faculty Convener? Apply using the Faculty Convener form. If you led a community last year, you are welcome to apply again. 

Digital Education also offers weekly live training sessions. See the next two sessions below: 

• Wednesday, October 14 10am-11am: Descriptive Links (add to your calendar)
  
• Wednesday, October 21 10am-11am: Tables (add to your calendar)

Digital Accessibility Day is coming to UM-Dearborn on October 26! Join accessibility experts from UM-Ann Arbor, UM-Flint, Michigan State University, and UM-Dearborn for a day of practical sessions on accessibility, inclusive teaching, UDL, PDF remediation, screen readers, and more. Attend one session or stay all day. No registration required!

We are sending you a recap of the week in all things teaching and learning. These notes will share timely teaching tips, recent pedagogical scholarship, teaching events on and off campus, and Hub blog posts. Use this form to unsubscribe. Missed a week? Check out our archive here.

Questions or comments? Contact Chen Wang at cwanga@umich.edu

Credits: Image by Susanne Jutzeler from Pixabay; all icons by Icons8