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Arts in a Circle
Awardee wants to design an affordable one-stop art education online platform for Chinese families. They plan to educate the public about the broad definition of art education and design a series of online courses for families with children aged 5-12. -
Usmosis
Usmosis solves weak student engagement for distant learning communities creating connectivity through sincere peer engagement and virtual worlds. -
Grow.Us
Through training in soft and hard skills, awardees prepare students to work on projects in a summer internship. -
STEMFinder
The lack of students moving from an interest in STEM to a STEM career is problematic. Awardees plan to curate the best free STEM learning resources for students (videos, tutorials, MOOCS, documentaries, career profiles) in one place, and connect them in a way that encourages exploration. -
S.A.F.E. – Share. Access. Flourish. Engage
Teachers serving preschoolers in low-income and marginalized communities across the world, are struggling with issues that are affecting their ability to do their work. SAFE will be an online and mobile application platform that will give teachers access to developmentally appropriate resources to provide solutions to problems facing in their classroom, access to professional development opportunities, and the opportunity to form sub-groups of educators or educator communities connected by a similar challenge or a shared interest. -
KidCollab
KidCollab attempts to aid students and teachers in dealing with collaborative projects in the classroom. They envision that this experience will take the form of a “quest,” in which students will work together to solve a problem. -
Understanding culture through material artifacts
Students in Japanese art and architecture courses taught by Yukio Lippit, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, often encounter cultures quite different from their own. Lippit immerses them in those cultures through deep engagement with material artifacts, by examining roof tiles or carpentry, visiting the Japanese house at the Boston Children’s Museum, or participating in a tea ceremony. -
Designing Your Course
Course design resources from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, including 1) Backward Design, 2) Functions of the Syllabus, 3) Formative ("low-stakes") vs. Summative ("high-stakes") Assessments, 4) Assignment Modalities, 5) Framing and Sequencing Assignments, and 6) Grading and Responding to Student Work. -
In the Classroom
Resources on in-class teaching from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, including 1) Building Rapport, 2) Classroom Contracts, 3) Active Learning, 4) Instructional Strategies, and 5) Technology and Student Distraction. -
The Science of Learning
Key concepts in learning sciences from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, including 1) How Memory Works, 2) Comprehending and Communicating Knowledge, 3) Metacognition and Motivation, and 4) Promoting Engagement. -
Moving from passive learning to active exploration of the physical world
Scott Edwards, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Ornithology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), makes extensive use of the museum’s ornithology collections in his courses and brings specimens into his lecture sessions to engage students in close analysis during weekly three-hour labs. Edwards models “ways of making meaning” by looking to specimens as key evidence for testing claims and theories. -
Using ethnographic research to improve students’ qualitative literacy
In distinguishing fact from opinion, quantitative information is often seen as more reliable, but Mario Luis Small, Grafstein Family Professor of Sociology, wants students also to see the value of qualitative data for assessing such claims. In his course Qualitative Network Analysis, he requires students to analyze empirical research (including their own ethnographic cases) with a qualitative lens and thoroughly evaluate “authors who believe they’re making a defensible claim about some aspect of society.” -
Bringing the best parts of a seminar into larger courses
When enrollment for seminar After Luther: Faith, Will, Law, and the Question of Goodness doubled last year, Michelle Sanchez, Assistant Professor of Theology, was concerned that the depth and quality of the connections—with and among students and the texts they read together—would diminish. In response, she modified some logistical elements including assigning different pairs of students to circulate brief response papers before class and then lead discussion each week. -
2018 HILT Conference
The 2018 HILT Conference was held on Friday, September 21 in Wasserstein Hall. The annual event is designed to engage the Harvard community in a university-level dialogue about teaching and learning innovation. -
Christensen Center: Teaching by the Case Method
This section of the Christensen Center website explores the Case Method in Practice along the following dimensions: i) Preparing to Teach; ii) Leading in the Classroom; iii) Providing Assessment; and iv) Feedback Sample Class. Each subsection provides perspectives and guidance through a written overview, supplemented by video commentary from experienced case method instructors. Where relevant, links are included to downloadable documents produced by the Christensen Center or Harvard Business School Publishing. References for further reading are provided as well. -
Transforming your syllabus to reach and engage students
When Katharina Piechocki, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, prepares for a course she has taught before, she significantly changes the syllabus to stay relevant in a rapidly-changing world, respond to students’ (and her own) growing interests, and take advantage of events outside the classroom. -
Learning Spaces Week at Harvard
Learning Spaces Week at Harvard convened June 8 – 11, 2015 with over 200 Harvard affiliates participating in an event similar to an academic scavenger hunt. Participants were given a suggested itinerary to tour various learning spaces around Harvard University in Cambridge, Allston, and the Longwood Medical Campus. Each of the 23 locations provided demonstrations on the use of the space or enabled participants to tour via an open-house style. -
Easy Innovations
A product of the 2016 HILT Annual Conference, Easy Innovation is a collection of small-scale teaching innovations shared by Harvard faculty. -
Simple examples lead to deep engagement
Three years ago, Scot T. Martin decided to “start from scratch” with his approach to teaching thermodynamics. He found that by focusing on every day, concrete examples (e.g., running, the function of the heart) he could help students rediscover and truly understand the fundamental laws. -
Balance of agency and flexibility helps students develop their own artistic process
Nora Schultz, Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, encourages experimentation and a diversity of readings for her courses Shape Shifting Your Reality and Object Matter of Jelly Fish: Sculpture Course.
