Tools and Resources

This webpage includes suggestions that will help faculty to create a safe classroom environments in which all students, regardless of identity, will feel welcomed. The page includes suggestions for how to create inclusive classrooms from diverse classrooms.

This page lists resources that can help faculty create inclusive classrooms. Resources are related to diversity and inclusivity.

This is a link to an online article that describes rubrics generally and also differentiates between holistic and analytic rubrics. Templates of each type are provided.

Information about the Technology Classrooms and Student Computing Labs on the University Park Campus and related services.

Shows number of seats, type of seating, technology category, and photographs for most classrooms at University Park.

This book summarizes what is known about teaching and learning from fields such as education and cognitive psychology and provides applications for use in post-secondary science classrooms.

This book is a collection of 24 articles, written from the two-year college perspective, featuring the most useful and relevant insights and advice from NSTA’s Journal of College Science Teaching. The collection is divided into four sections: unique issues associated with teaching science in two-year colleges, curricular issues, teaching strategies, and using technology in the classroom.

This book defines assessment, and explains how both teachers and students do it to assess student learning and teaching effectiveness. The book describes assessment practices and best practices for assessment in the college classroom.

This PowerPoint presents a research project by Peter M. Eberle and Anthony J. Hoos in that includes data collected by asking students about their perceptions of using digital textbooks, such as iPads and e-readers, for their course reading.

This document guides faculty interested in course- or classroom-based research on student learning in the design process. Following the guidelines will help ensure that the research projects will be sound and robust and resulting insights can inform and extend our understanding of the processes of learning and of supporting that learning with effective, evidence-based instruction. While created to meet requirements for Canadian standards, the resource is also useful for researchers in the U.S.
The guide takes researchers through the essentials of the Canadian standards for ethical practice in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) which are unique because of participants (human subjects) are also typically the researcher’s students. This Guide translates the Canadian TCPS2 (2014) for the researcher conducting SoTL research.

This resource is written by Lisa Fedoruk at the University of Calgary, with contributions by 18 scholars across Canada. It is grounded in the Canadian document governing research ethics, but the specific strategies listed throughout will be useful and helpful for researchers in other countries. Provided by Nancy Chick, Academic Director of the Taylor Institute for Teaching & Learning, University Chair in Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary.

The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus, has released five short videos that we have created to help build capacity for peer reviewers and for instructors being peer reviewed on their teaching. This is video 4 of 5.

For most teachers, leading classroom discussion on difficult topics is a perennial challenge. Part of the challenge lies in the fact that we never fully know which issues will be “hot buttons” for our students. Conversations can become heated very quickly, and before long, it can feel like the class is careening out of control. This guide seeks to help teachers feel more confident leading difficult dialogues by encouraging reflection on how such discussions connect with larger learning goals, and by providing specific strategies and resources that teachers can use to create more productive conversations in their classrooms.

Promoting Supportive Academic Environments for Faculty with Mental Illnesses: Resource Guide and Suggestions for Practice. This guide focuses on ways to make college and university campuses more accessible for faculty with mental disabilities. It provides concrete suggestions for creating a “culture of access” by offering effective strategies for promoting inclusive language, managing accommodations, and revising policies around recruitment, hiring, and leaves of absence. The guide provides a review research on the experiences of academic faculty with mental illnesses and recommendations for academic administrators and colleagues to promote a more welcoming work environment in higher education.

A customizable observation tool used observations of teaching. The tool is a protocol that produces robust and nuanced depictions of classroom dynamics between teachers, students, and technologies. Based on research-based learning theories, the TDOP has been extensively field-tested and is being used by over 300 researchers, program evaluators, and professional developers to create detailed descriptions of what happens inside classrooms.

Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) Guides
Discovering the Art of Mathematics includes a library of 11 inquiry-based books freely available for classroom use. These texts can be used as semester-long content for courses or individual chapters can be used as modules to experiment with inquiry-based learning and to help supplement typical topics with classroom tested, inquiry based approaches (e.g. rules for exponents, large numbers, proof). The topic index provides an overview of all our book chapters by topic.

Teaching Large Classes by Adam Wilsman, Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University
Teaching a large class poses many challenges, both in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, large enrollments can promote student disengagement and feelings of alienation, which can erode students’ sense of responsibility and lead to behaviors that both reflect and promote lack of engagement. Logistics can also be a challenge when teaching a large class. How does one best manage the daily administration of what can often feel like a small city? This resource presents strategies to help instructors deal with some of the challenges associated with teaching large classes.

The peer review of teaching—like the peer review of research—is a widely accepted mechanism for promoting and assuring quality academic work and is required for the purpose of promotion and tenure at Penn State. The peer review process in resident instruction typically involves a faculty reviewer observing a peer’s classroom. The reviewer then summarizes her observations in a document that is to be included in the reviewee’s dossier.

To address the need for online course peer review in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Ann Taylor, a member of the Dutton Institute, has designed, implemented, and assessed a peer review process for online teaching. The Peer Review Guide for Online Teaching at Penn State is based on the “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” a summary of 50 years of higher education research that addresses good teaching and learning practices.

The peer review of teaching—like the peer review of research—is a widely accepted mechanism for promoting and assuring quality academic work and is required for the purpose of promotion and tenure at Penn State. The peer review process in resident instruction typically involves a faculty reviewer observing a peer’s classroom. The reviewer then summarizes her observations in a document that is to be included in the reviewee’s dossier.

To address the need for faculty peer reviews of teaching at Penn State, members of the Penn State Online Coordinating Council's Sub-committee on Faculty Engagement have designed, implemented, and assessed a peer review process for face-to-face and hybrid course use.

This website includes resources, lesson plans, and curriculum guides to help fill the gap in educating about the experiences and history of Muslims all over the world. Please share and use these resources widely to help collectively address this gap and combat islamophobia in our classrooms.

This is a short article written by Chris Gamrat, Penn State faculty member in IST, about Inclusive Teaching and Course Design. It appeared in Educause Review on February 6, 2020. Faculty and instructional designers can employ a number of strategies to create courses and learning environments where students feel welcome and connected. Determining how best to incorporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into course design and teaching can feel overwhelming. Gamrat created a list of considerations for instructional designers and faculty to help create courses for a spectrum of students who are, or become, minoritized or marginalized at our instituions and in our online courses. I hope that these recommendations and examples offer faculty and instructional designers a new perspective on student needs and strategies for creating a caring learning environment.

This is a recorded webinar presented by James M. Lang at University Park on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Research from the learning sciences and from a variety of educational settings suggests that a small number of key principles can improve learning in almost any type of college or university course, from traditional lectures to flipped classrooms. This workshop will introduce some of those principles, offer practical suggestions for how they might foster positive change in higher education teaching and learning, and guide faculty participants to consider how these principles might manifest themselves in their current and upcoming courses.

This webinar was recorded by Penn State Libraries staff using Mediasite Live, and it is stored in the libraries' Mediasite catalog. The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence bears no responsibility for the quality of the recording, its maintenance, its availability, nor its functionality. For help with the recording, call (814) 865-5400 or send an email message to MediaTechSupport@psu.edu.

A SharePoint site for Penn State employees and students that contains curated research and other resources on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) topics, including antiracism, intersectionality, implicit bias and microagressions; equity-minded teaching and assessment; and rights, responsibilities, and responses related to bias and free expression in our classrooms and work spaces.

Teaching Squares give faculty an opportunity to gain new insight into their teaching through a non-evaluative process of reciprocal classroom observation and self-reflection. A square is made up of four faculty, typically from different disciplines. The four faculty in each “teaching square” agree to visit each other’s classes over the course of a semester and then meet to discuss what they’ve learned from their observations.

Developed by Anne Wessely of St. Louis Community College, the Teaching Squares program is designed to improve teaching skills and build community through a structured, non-threatening process of classroom observation and shared reflection. The process involves the best aspect of peer evaluation – observation and discussion – while excluding judgment and evaluation. Participants in a Teaching Square learn about the best practices of other faculty in order to improve their own teaching.

A course redesign tool developed by the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management in partnership with the UC Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning. This tool supports instructors to develop anti-racist approaches to course design and teaching practices through an accessible and user-friendly model to consider how their instructional choices impact student outcomes. The tool is meant for self-assessment, not to assess score courses or instructors.

Presents baseline knowledge about disabilities and the experience of students with disabilities in higher education, including barriers and resource needs, and effective practices for working with students with disabilities in proactive ways. Facilitated by Allison Fleming, Associate Professor of Rehabilitation and Human Services and Counselor Education, and K. Lynn Pierce, Disability Specialist Intern. Recording of webinar from March 23, 2022.

10 In the Moment Responses for Addressing Micro and Macroaggressions in the Classroom
This resource, by Chavella Pittman, Dominican University, provides sample responses to troubling classroom moments, in order to encourage faculty to think about what they plan to say in the moment.