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  • Custom Course Bots & Learning Analytics

    Join The Learning Data & Analytics Affinity Group for their next online event: Custom Course Bots & Learning Analytics Tuesday, April 30, 12:00pm – 1:00pm Online Zoom event: Register here! Many courses are beginning to offer custom genAI bots in the course site. We’ll convene for an open discussion guided by these questions: (a) When […]

  • Learning Spaces – Tour of One Brattle Square, DCE’s premier executive facility

    Join the Learning Spaces Affinity Group for a tour of One Brattle Square, DCE’s premier executive facility, on Thursday, March 21, 2024, from 9:30-11:00 am. During the tour, we will visit the new state-of-the-art Brattle Square Studio and a case study classroom. Representatives from the Emerging Technology Solutions and Media Support teams will explain how […]

  • Learning Spaces – Tour of the Bok Center Learning Lab Studio

    Tour of the Bok Center Learning Lab Studio   Please join the Learning Spaces Affinity group for a tour of the Bok Center Learning Lab Studio, a space that thrives on innovation and adaptability. This unique setting offers faculty and students the opportunity to experiment and design interactive, engaging multimodal projects that bolster student-centered learning. […]

  • Generative AI Faculty Show & Tell

    Discover how FAS faculty are using the latest generative artificial intelligence technology in the classroom. Join us for dynamic live demos and discussions to exchange ideas and uncover practical ways to integrate Al into your work. Introduction by: Latanya Sweeney, Harvard Kennedy School & Government. Presentations by: David Malan, Computer Science; Eric Beerbohm, Government; Nicole […]

  • Effective Learning Strategies: What Students Understand Versus What They Do

    A Journal Club led by the Research-Informed Teaching & Learning TLC Affinity Group Location: Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, 125 Mt Auburn Street, 3rd Floor Date: Thursday, December 7 Time: 3:30 – 4:30 pm ET Click here to register In recent decades, research has demonstrated that certain learning strategies—such as spacing, interleaving, pre-testing, and […]

  • The nuances of calculating “time on task”

    Learning Data & Analytics December Event The nuances of calculating “time on task” Facilitator Patrice Torcivia Prusko, Director of Learning Design (HGSE) Date: Tuesday, December 5th, 2023 Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm ET Click here to register After the launch of How People Learn (HPL) we found that students were spending a disproportionate amount of […]

  • 2023 HILT Conference

    The 2023 HILT Conference comes at a pivotal time when artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly discussed and experimented with in higher education. AI holds immense potential to enhance personalized learning experiences, automate administrative tasks, and provide data-driven insights to improve educational outcomes. However, its deployment also raises important questions and challenges. It is crucial to address concerns related to privacy, bias, transparency, disinformation, and the impact on human agency and social dynamics within educational settings. Together, we will explore how AI can be designed, implemented, and governed in a way that prioritizes human relationships and connection in education. By considering the ethical and social implications, as well as the affordances, we aim to shape a future where generative AI tools are used to empower learners, support educators, foster inclusivity, and promote a holistic approach to education.

  • Social: Learning Data & Analytics Affinity Group

    The HILT Learning Analytics Affinity Group invites you to join an in-person event Wednesday Jun 21 12-1pm at HGSE. This RSVP event is for Harvard teaching and learning professionals with an interest in learning analytics -- a chance to mix and mingle, ask questions, and share analytics knowledge -- and eat light snacks.

  • Teaching in the Age of Misinformation

    What do you do as an educator when someone brings up misinformation in your class? Moderated by Meira Levinson, join Neil McGaraghan (HLS), Eric Torres (HGSE), and Shifali Singh (FAS/HMS) as they discuss teaching in the age of misinformation and how we engage in thinking about and understanding misinformation. This is a follow up to HILT's 2022 Conference. 

  • Tour of Teaching & Learning Spaces at the Harvard Art Museums

    Please join us for an in-person event with the Learning Spaces Affinity Group. The Harvard Art Museums will provide a tour of the facilities at the museum, specifically the spaces that are used for teaching and learning. Some portions of this tour will include spaces with capacity limits, so we will be gathering RSVPs. Please let us know if you plan to attend using the RSVP link.

  • Exploring Teamwork and Collaboration in Learning – A Social Event

    Building off of the HILT conference's theme of teamwork and collaboration, the Learning Design Affinity Group invites you to attend a social event which will feature hands-on examples of both! Together, we will explore how synchronous and asynchronous groupwork can work and how to design one for the classroom. Please join to connect with colleagues from across the university as we engage in various forms of (fun) cooperative activities!

  • 2022 HILT Conference

    The 2022 annual HILT Conference will explore various approaches to collaborative learning and the successes and challenges in facilitating group dynamics. Our plenary session will demonstrate the importance of psychological safety as a foundation for successful teamwork. Breakout sessions will showcase current practices from Harvard faculty across the University on topics related to the effective design and implementation of group projects and collaborative learning. All will highlight students’ first-hand experiences engaging with the learning and teaching environment.

  • Ungrading: Reimagining Traditional Assessments

    This event, jointly hosted by the Research-Informed Teaching & Learning (RITL) and Learning Design HILT Affinity Groups, will summarize the scholarly research informing the “ungrading” movement and explore the implications of ungrading for teaching and learning in higher education. Participants will have the opportunity to collaboratively analyze interdisciplinary case studies of ungrading practices. Additionally, we will share resources and approaches that you can implement in your own professional practice as instructors or education developers.

  • Teaching Climate Change Across Disciplines

    In a follow-on to HILT's 2021 Conference, Harvard faculty from STEM and non-STEM disciplines will share how their students learn about climate change through various lenses. James H. Stock, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability and the Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, will provide an overview of climate education at Harvard and serve as moderator of this discussion.

  • Learning Analytics at Harvard Business School Online

    A primary goal of HBS Online was to build a platform to bring active, social, and case-based learning experiences to asynchronous online learners. It was also a goal to instrument this platform to facilitate learning analytics and measurement to allow for the study and improvement of the learning experience. Brent Benson will talk about what makes the HBS Online platform and pedagogy different, how metrics and analytics are captured and stored, and give specifics around social engagement and procrastination metrics and how they are being used to improve learning experience and outcomes, especially among under-represented and diverse participant subgroups.

  • Using podcasts to build foundational relationships between students

    Matthew Potts, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, teaches Introduction to Ministry Studies, a cohort introductory course designed for graduate students who intend to go into the interreligious ministry broadly. His course offers an introduction that spans a variety of religions and simultaneously cultivates a sense of community amongst students. While the course was traditionally conducted in a lecture format with some section discussions, Potts had to rethink the course’s structure completely when it shifted online amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wanted to get people off screen,” he explains. Rather than sitting through a live lecture, students listened to podcasts of Potts and the teaching team conversing about the readings prior to each class. To ensure students would also engage with him directly, Potts also organized Oxford-style tutorials, with students meeting in groups of two or three and with a different member of the teaching team to discuss the course material. Students would write a one-page memo reflecting on the readings and present it to get the conversation going. “I wanted a place for students to come and continue the conversation and feel invested in what they had read or what they had listened to, but not in any burdensome way.”

  • Shifting STEM culture

    Robin Gottlieb, Professor of the Practice of Teaching Mathematics, aims to make mathematics accessible and exciting to all students in each of her courses. “When students come to Harvard, they have very different but set ideas of what happens in the classroom,” Gottlieb explains. “In many high school math classrooms, the dominant cultural norm is an ‘I do, you do, we do’ model. The teacher is expected to tell you what to do. One of my main objectives is to shift the culture of the classroom so that students become mathematical thinkers.” Gottlieb works alongside colleagues on the preceptor team to construct classrooms in which students actively participate in the development of ideas. Inspired by colleagues’ such as Eric Mazur’s active learning and John Asher Johnson’s Tao of TALC, Gottlieb has students spend more time working on problems together in groups at the blackboard, reflect actively on questions and lessons from daily problem sets, and co-build community norms around supportive teamwork. Through group work, Gottlieb has developed mathematics classrooms that are more welcoming, active, and empowering places of learning.

  • Piloting an experimental and experiential course

    Senior Lecturers Archie Jones, Henry McGee, and Jeffrey Bussgang teamed up to design a new Harvard Business School (HBS) course, Scaling Minority Businesses, in which students learn about the unique challenges of Black-owned businesses. Students are grouped into teams and paired with one of ten Black entrepreneurs in the Boston area, support their business’s strategic initiatives, and assist in their continued growth. The instructors designed the class around three modules: (1) systemic racism’s impact on wealth creation more broadly, which established for students, as Professor Jones put it, “where we are and how we got there;” (2) access to capital, including what organizations can do and how the market needs to engage differently with Black-owned businesses; and (3) access to customers, for instance supplier diversity programs and how to get the first big contract. Given the lack of traditional cases about minority businesses and their challenges, the instructors designed “live cases,” with the Black business leaders visiting the class and students working with them in real-time. The professors invited a range of class speakers, including experts from the Brookings Institution and Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.

  • Empowering students to make key decisions

    Dr. Phuong Pham, Assistant Professor and Director of Humanitarian Studies, teaches the required course for HSPH Humanitarian Studies Concentrators, Field Methods in Humanitarian Crises, and oversees a set of ongoing online modules titled, “Build a Better Response.” Dr. Pham stresses the need to ground studies within reality through experiential learning. She and others have created a library of case studies for students to practice analyzing complex scenarios. In addition, they collaborate with an expansive network of people each year to pull off a remarkable feat: a weekend-long humanitarian response simulation at Harold Parker State Forest where the students navigate an assigned role within a real-life humanitarian crisis simulation. “We try to provide students the opportunity to engage with a scripted real-life scenario. It gives them a tangible way to interact with simulated situations other than reading a text and listening to secondhand stories.”

  • Teaching students how to build better teams

    Scott Westfahl, Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School, intentionally develops students’ team-based collaboration skills in his law school courses on leadership fundamentals and innovation. Throughout the semester, student groups learn, reflect, and act on what makes a great team in real-time. Westfahl begins with a focus on the academic frameworks for successful teams. Then a series of scaffolded activities and assignments allow students to collaboratively reflect on what they want as a team, consider over time what is working and what isn’t, and work on projects throughout the semester. At the end of his innovation course, Westfahl surprises his students with a “graduation,” where he reads aloud paraphrased reflections from students on each of their group members' contributions.
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