This website contains a collection of notes about instruction in what is called Higher Education. It is written for instructors who want to do better, to improve, and are willing to take some risks, invest, and give it a shot. It is for the instructors who might be a bit scared, or feel overwhelmed, but not to the point of complete paralysis (at which point you should be reaching out to your Chair). It is for the instructors who care about student learning and well-being.

The site is akin to an operations manual of sorts, a handbook of the do’s, a guide to ideas which have worked for some, and some common mistakes to avoid. It is about risks and how to manage them. This website offers guidance for instructors who want to, or need to, try something new!

The website authors believe that teaching is as important as research and that we need to be accountable for the quality of teaching that we provide. Hence, we view teaching to be an important part of higher education; that teaching should be strategic and treated as such with the appropriate funding, infrastructure, and culture. Accordingly, the institution should be accountable for providing a quality education, and individual instructors should also be held accountable for providing quality instruction.

Accountable: required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible for one’s actions.

What you will find...

• The notes are usually the equivalent of 2-3 pages and are not intended to replace other, more extensive teaching resources. We are attempting to capture and share what is not normally found or discussed. On each topic, where possible, we will share our thoughts about how to interpret and use the ideas in practice, based on our experiences. At the end of each note, we will provide links and references for additional reading.
• There are some notes in Section 2 which read more like an op-ed piece and are borderline rants; sometimes of a philosophical nature. Some things really bug us and these are found in the op-ed notes. For some of these, we have ideas about how to fix things and to make changes. On other topics, we hope that others can figure it out, make progress, and improve things.

• There are some notes which have a rating on them; not suitable for the young’uns. When you start off on your career, you need to be careful about what you do and when you do it. Some of the suggestions we make in the notes are not suitable for those starting off. In some cases, you just need more experience to understand the subtleties and how to manage the necessary bits. In other cases, it might not be wise to attempt something until you are more senior and have some “good will” banked, have tenure, etc.
• We think highly of the 1956 report that was co-edited by Bloom and the now famous Bloom’s Taxonomy it introduced for assessing learning outcomes. It is a very useful taxonomy of cognitive complexity to know and embrace. We also discuss the later revision which is about cognitive processes. Both are excellent frameworks; different, but both are useful to know and understand. Accordingly, you will find that we will reference Bloom's Taxonomy a lot! Unless otherwise noted, we are referring to the original 1956 description; not the latter revision.
• This is a work in progress. As we finish up the content, we will also be finishing up the indexing for search, references, links, and tips to young'uns. We will also be adding new topics as we move forward.

Our hopes...

• We have tried to take a ‘scientific’ approach to the topic. Instruction best practice should be based on education principles which should be based on learning principles found in Cognitive Science which are in turn based on Neuroscience. Teaching and learning are also full of processes, materials, and methods. They work together as a system to transmit and receive knowledge, a process of skill and expertise development. The process is also one that often includes the changing of beliefs and attitudes on both sides (instructor and student); making it at times very challenging.
• An instructor uses a process to design and deliver a course. A department uses a process to design a curriculum and deliver a program. A student is in a process as they proceed from first year to graduation. A student uses a process to learn knowledge and develop skills. An instructor uses processes to assess the students. LOTS of processes. Thus, we use our background in process design and evaluation (grounded in Management Sciences) to organize our thoughts and to provide a lens through which to view the topic. There is over a century of science and literature on how to organize processes, execute them, monitor them, and evaluate them. Teaching is a process, even if many don’t view it that way. Programs and curriculum are also the backbone of processes for students, instructors, and staff; even if some individuals do not see them as such. Using a process evaluation lens is appropriate and necessary; it is what we have done for developing the content of this site.
• We have tried and used all of the ideas talked about in this collection of notes. None of this is theoretical or written about from arm’s length. Personally, we have taken risks and have been involved in new things (at least, new to us); from using technology in the classroom in the 1970's, to developing classroom and learning technology in the 1990's, and flipping, bending, and using experiential, think-pair-share concepts in the early 1990's. We continued to use the methods that worked, looked for ways to improve them, to the present; while also looking for new methods (e.g., the use of constructive failure, structured narratives). Yep, three decades of walking the talk, but it seems like yesterday when we started this journey. Most recently, we have probed the mysteries of online teaching during the pandemic. We have been successful overall. We have experienced the joy of teaching. We have also made many mistakes. We have learned many lessons. We have the scars.
• Caveat, what we experienced is our experience, our story, and our lessons. Others will have had their own journeys and experiences, their own stories, and their own successes and failures. Keep this in mind. Believe nothing in this set of notes without thinking and reflecting. Think and think with understanding and comprehension. The note may or may not be useful to you when you read it. The information contained in it was useful to us. Thus, there is an existence proof, some face level validity, but it is not prescriptive, nor normative, and certainly not predictive.

Further reading

• Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.