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Using Social Annotation Tools to Unlock Collective Wisdom


image of Gavin PorterGavin Porter, Lecturer in Immunology (HMS), helps students develop critical skills for research paper analysis. Prior to 2019, his students would individually read papers and submit their analysis through a traditional templated question approach. Due to the repetitive nature of the assessment product and after realizing that all students could benefit from each other’s questions and ideas, Dr. Porter transitioned this assignment to a collaborative one using a social annotation platform created at Harvard called Perusall. The platform embeds the research paper PDF that students read asynchronously and mark with comments or questions throughout. Students see each other’s annotations and can build upon each other in collaborative threads and answer each other’s questions. Comments are situated directly within the margins of the course documents, instead of a disembodied discussion forum. Paper figures can be annotated, and so can video content.

The Importance of Gathering and Incorporating Mid-Semester Student Feedback


image of Allison PingreeAllison Pingree, Associate Director of Instructional Support and Development for the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Teaching and Learning Lab, partners with faculty to enhance teaching and learning across contexts. With over 25 years of experience as a faculty and educational developer, she works with individual instructors and teaching teams to build effective and inclusive learning communities, consults on course design, and leads professional learning programs on a multitude of topics and themes. Pingree is guided by her commitment to “deep listening, skilled facilitation, and reflective practice” as she coaches faculty and develops new programming to foster pedagogical innovation and best practices. At this stage in the semester, she urges faculty to consider gathering student feedback on their courses and implementing changes to respond to student concerns. 

Rethinking student participation in the college classroom: Can commitment and self-affirmation enhance oral participation?

This article highlights the importance of self-affirmation and commitment as a route to academic success when it comes to student participation. This article explores the evidence-based practice of student goal setting. An extended multidisciplinary literature review looks at student...

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Structuring and grading participation


image of Luke MiratrixLuke Miratrix, Associate Professor and Co-Faculty Director of the PhD in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, teaches graduate level statistics and data science courses, including Introduction to Statistical Computing and Data Science in Education and Multilevel and Longitudinal Models. In these courses, Miratrix tasks students with creating individualized participation plans. Early in the semester, each student submits a short essay about their goals for how they intend to engage with the course. Halfway through the term, students write a brief reflection evaluating progress on their goals and making adjustments as desired. At the end of the semester, students complete a one- or two-paragraph self-assessment and assign themselves a participation grade. This grade is reviewed by the teaching team, potentially adjusted, and constitutes the bulk of the full participation grade for the course.  

The importance of incorporating mentorship into your teaching practice


Dr. Anita VankaDr. Anita Vanka, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Associate Advisor & Director of Hinton Society at Harvard Medical School, co-directs Practice of Medicine with Dr. Katherine Johnston, Assistant Professor of Medicine. The eleven-month course involves several hundred faculty members at different teaching hospitals and is designed to teach first-year medical and dental students how to effectively interview and communicate with patients, perform a thorough physical exam, reason through diagnostic possibilities, and translate findings effectively in both oral and written form. Given the size and breadth of the course, Drs. Vanka and Johnston developed a mentoring system which allows for each student to meet with an assigned faculty advisor at their hospital site several times a year. These meetings encourage faculty to develop personal relationships with the students, oversee their clinical progress, provide feedback, and guide students into setting goals for their learning and progress.

Social Learning and Social Entrepreneurship Education

This program study using social theories of learning to develop best practices for entrepreneurship education found that respecting learners’ identities and making them feel safe in the community of practices is critical to program success.

Encouraging learning by creating alongside diverse feedback


Paul BottinoPaul B. Bottino, Co-Founder, Executive Director, and Lecturer at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, offers Start-up R&D to undergraduate students across disciplines who are interested in the field and have a particular project idea in mind. Within the workshop course structure, “each student project is the educational centerpiece.” Student groups work on a variety of innovative startup projects seeking solutions to problems they care about. The course uses multiple approaches to help students build upon their ideas and receive constructive feedback: “challenge sessions” where students outline their biggest obstacles to a small group of peers; individual meetings with Bottino and teaching fellows; and connections with alumni. “It’s like a Greek forum of peers, near-peers, and mentors” with students learning that “entrepreneurship is a creative and iterative research practice of idea formulation, experimentation, and feedback.” At the end of term, students present and receive feedback on projects at a public event “Demo Day.”

Teach, embody, and model deep listening and reflection


Cheryl GilesCheryl Giles, Francis Greenwood Peabody Senior Lecturer in Pastoral Care and Counseling, shares her own experiences, missteps, and successes to demonstrate self-awareness for students in her course Counseling for Wellness and Resilience: Fostering Relational Wisdom. She encourages students to listen deeply to themselves and others without judgment by practicing mindfulness throughout the course.

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