{"id":11140,"date":"2012-08-03t14:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-08-03t20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=11140"},"modified":"2012-08-15t12:22:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15t18:22:36","slug":"from-the-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2012\/08\/from-the-director\/","title":{"rendered":"from the director"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>it\u2019s been fascinating in recent weeks to read story after story about open, online education.\u00a0 last spring, online courses at a handful of universities attracted hundreds of thousands of students.\u00a0 this summer brought news of more institutions experimenting in this arena, partnering with online education companies to do so.\u00a0 all this buzz has led to important conversations about the nature of learning and the kinds of teaching methods that promote it.\u00a0 the focus on learning, particularly the learning of those students already enrolled in a university, is sometimes lost in the noise about online education, but student learning is front and center in the work of the cft.<\/p>\n i sometimes joke that we don\u2019t care about learning here\u2014we\u2019re called the center for teaching<\/em>, not the center for learning<\/em>, after all.\u00a0 but we know that the objective of teaching is student learning.\u00a0 the cft works with faculty, students, and staff all across campus to support the teaching-learning mission of the university.\u00a0 how can we help students engage in deep learning within a discipline?\u00a0 how can we help them synthesize ideas and perspectives across courses and disciplines?\u00a0 and how can we motivate and equip students to become active participants in their own learning? these are the questions we tackle in a variety of ways here at vanderbilt.<\/p>\n this fall, for instance, we\u2019re exploring with the vanderbilt teaching community ways that\u2026<\/p>\n we\u2019re also working to make student learning more visible on campus, so that we can learn from our students about practices and structures that encourage deep, integrative learning.<\/p>\n more immediately, we\u2019ll be welcoming to campus new faculty and teaching assistants and helping them to facilitate student learning in the vanderbilt context.\u00a0 teaching at vanderbilt<\/a>, our new faculty orientation, will be held wednesday, august 15th, with teaching assistant orientation<\/a> scheduled the next day, august 16th.\u00a0 and our online guide, getting started teaching at vanderbilt<\/a>, is packed with practical information and is available to instructors both new and returning.<\/p>\n\n