This resource provides guidance for incorporating community building activities into a course to foster belonging, increase engagement, and build collaboration and communication skills. It includes strategies and considerations for using community building activities as well as sample activities categorized by purpose. Keywords: community building, icebreakers, belonging, inclusion, collaboration, group work.
This is the second of a two-part series on academic dialogue and is a collaboration between The Center for Excellence in Teaching; Quade French, USC Dornsife Associate Dean of Academic Culture and Well-being; and Kamy Akhavan, USC Dornsife Executive Director of the Center for the Political Future. This video features Kamy Akhavan discussing what individuals can do to unite conversations.
This is the first in a two-part series on academic dialogue and is a collaboration between The Center for Excellence in Teaching; Quade French, USC Dornsife Associate Dean of Academic Culture and Well-being; and, Kamy Akhavan, USC Dornsife Executive Director of the Center for the Political Future. This video features Quade French discussing how to establish the foundations of academic dialogue.
This resource provides an overview of creating and using community agreements in a course to support respectful and productive student engagement. It includes options for how to create agreements, tips for implementation, and example agreements.
Keywords: community agreements, discussion norms, discussion guidelines, community guidelines, challenging discussions, academic discussions, dialogue, student engagement.
This resource covers strategies for facilitating academic discussions in a variety of teaching settings, including tips for planning discussions, options for whole and small-group discussion types, considerations for assessing student discussions, and relevant research.
Keywords: discussion, small group discussion, discussion forums, active learning, community agreements, discussion norms, strategic questions, participation.
This resource provides strategies on active learning for a variety of teaching settings, including tips for implementation, sample activity descriptions, options for planning active learning, and relevant research.
At the March 2024 “A Closer Look” CET workshop on information literacy in courses, USC librarians Ariana Varela & Bridgid Fennell, and Dornsife Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures Lori Mesrobian discussed the importance of information literacy across disciplines and strategies for faculty to incorporate more support for these skills with students – including a variety of approaches to instructional collaboration with USC librarians.
Bobby Borg of the USC Thornton School of Music discusses how student teams can use fictional artist personas to collaboratively create innovative music marketing strategies during the February 2024 Faculty Showcase.
Tara Mastro of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology discusses utilizing the power of group learning where student groups design a pitch for a public awareness campaign during the February 2024 Faculty Showcase.
Leonardo Morsut of the USC Keck School of Medicine discusses a strategy to structure group assignments for in-class activities using collaborative tools during the February 2024 Faculty Showcase.
Center for Excellence in Teaching