Center for Teaching Excellence

Grantees Integrate Virtual Reality Technology into Exemplary Courses

The Center for Teaching Excellence awarded grants to three faculty for the revision or development of exemplary courses to integrate virtual environments technology (virtual reality, augmented reality, and/or 360^o video). The goal of these grants is to invest in the continuous quality improvement of courses taught by faculty who provide students with exemplary, highly engaging courses, offered either in an online, blended, or traditional format—utilizing virtual technology.

Grantees Integrate Virtual Reality Technology into Exemplary Courses

Faculty Win Grants for Development of Winter Session Online Courses

The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), in collaboration with the Office of On Your Time Initiatives (OYT), awarded four faculty members grants for the development or revision of exemplary undergraduate online courses for Winter Session 2023. The grant award winners will develop or revise fully online asynchronous courses.

Faculty Win Grants for Development of Winter Session Online Courses

Five Innovative Faculty Honored with 2022 Garnet Apple Teaching Award

The Garnet Apple Award for Teaching Innovation honors UofSC's exceptional faculty who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to best teaching practices and an ongoing record of developing innovative strategies to enhance student learning in their courses. Five recipients received this year’s award and are to be commended for their accomplishments.

Five Innovative Faculty Honored with 2022 Garnet Apple Teaching Award

New UofSC Membership Reflects Commitment to Quality Online Teaching and Learning

UofSC is now a member of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). The OLC is a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators dedicated to improving best practices for quality online learning and programs. The organization focuses on advancing quality online teaching and learning experiences designed to reach and engage the modern learner – anyone, anywhere, anytime.

New UofSC Membership Reflects Commitment to Quality Online Teaching and Learning

The Power of Adaptation: Finding Light in Dark Times

With face-to-face interaction strongly discouraged, how would one go about spreading the joy of music? This is a challenge J. Daniel Jenkins had to address swiftly. While teaching online can cause different problems to arise, Jenkins advises educators to have patience and flexibility. Both student and teacher are dealing with a difficult situation and must be willing to adjust to ever changing needs.

The Power of Adaptation: Finding Light in Dark Times

Syllabus Development Made Easy

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” British writer Andrew Grant said. That same mantra should be followed when revamping or developing your syllabus as this is the first document that your students interact with. The Center for Teaching Excellence has numerous resources available to ensure our instructors have everything they need to create a strong syllabus.

Syllabus Development Made Easy

Maintaining a High Quality of Learning when Transitioning to Online Teaching

Abhijit Guha is an associate professor of Marketing in the Darla Moore School of Business. He teaches a large MKTG 351 course (300-400 students). Abhijit took the challenge of teaching virtually during the pandemic head-on and thrived.

Maintaining a High Quality of Learning when Transitioning to Online Teaching

Engaging and Connecting with Students in a Virtual Environment

Tina Marie Devlin is an adjunct faculty member in the Arnold School of Public Health. Tina implemented many strategies during the pandemic to engage students. Her learning modules included Blackboard Collaborate Ultra lectures, short videos, journal articles, discussion board assignments, a midterm exam and a virtual group project.

Engaging and Connecting with Students in a Virtual Environment

RTPforME: Enhancing Professional Development and Teaching Opportunities for Medical Educators

CTE is constantly implementing programs to improve teaching and to provide support for faculty professional development. In response to an increasing need for faculty in the medical schools to network and engage in reflective teaching practices, CTE, working closely with the medical schools, developed the Reflective Teaching Practices for Medical Educators (RTPforME) program.

RTPforME: Enhancing Professional Development and Teaching Opportunities for Medical Educators

COLT Program Prepares Faculty to Teach Exemplary Online, Blended or Hybrid Courses

The Carolina Online Learning & Teaching (COLT) Certificate of Completion program provides faculty with the foundations for teaching either in online, blended or hybrid formats. 16 faculty members participated in the COLT spring 2021 cohort, learning to apply learning theories, develop instructional materials and content, incorporate active learning strategies and apply best practices.

COLT Program Prepares Faculty to Teach Exemplary Online, Blended or Hybrid Courses

Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Curriculum Grants Winners

Ten full-time faculty members were selected to receive Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Curriculum (DIEC) grants of up to $2,500 to develop courses that centered on the voices, experiences, and contributions of members of marginalized populations, contextualize inequality within broader contexts, and reflect inclusive pedagogical approaches.

Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Curriculum Grants Winners

Intentionally Designing, Developing, and Delivering Online Courses

All told, the rapid change of courses to different teaching and learning formats during COVID-19 created challenges across the education landscape. As you prepare to teach online courses during the upcoming summer and fall, explore these three pedagogical principles and frameworks for the design, development, and delivery of online courses.

Intentionally Designing, Developing, and Delivering Online Courses

Prioritizing Student Success in a New Territory

Lisa Rosof made tremendous progress in designing engaging online courses. Today, Rosof has the knowledge and skills to start from scratch and design her own online courses. Her tenacity and determination, combined with her dedication to her students, made all the difference in the world.

Prioritizing Student Success in a New Territory

The Unmatched Resilience of First-Generation Students

The University of South Carolina rallies behind its First-Generation students and supports various initiatives to ensure they excel not only in their academics, but in their personal and professional lives as well. Despite the many obstacles that present themselves, First Generation Students remain resilient in the face of the storm.

The Unmatched Resilience of First-Generation Students

Forming a Clear Path to Success

For Summer 2020, Anne Gulick planned a fully asynchronous online version of her cross-listed course Women Writers. This summer course is a great example of innovation and creativity in translating the learning experience that her students usually had in person to an online, asynchronous, accelerated learning environment.

Forming a Clear Path to Success

Fostering Connections in Online Teaching

In Fall 2018, Jacob Rivers taught in a 100% asynchronous instructional method for the first time. Using the resources at the Center for Teaching Excellence and support from CTE Instructional Designer Gloria Washington, he designed, developed, and taught ENGL 101. With the design and development of ENGL 101, Rivers made sure that his course was as engaging and rigorous as his face-to-face version of the same course.

Fostering Connections in Online Teaching

The Master Class Series

The Master Class Series is designed to bring faculty and instructors together who are interested in exploring ways to advance their teaching or learning new methods in a specific area. The Master Class is led by a “Master Instructor” who has been identified as an expert on the topic.

The Master Class Series

The Hyflex Model- An Effective Approach to Teaching with Numerous Modalities

In the Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex) model for course delivery, faculty teach a class in multiple modalities simultaneously: face-to-face, online synchronous, and online asynchronous. The HyFlex Course Delivery: A Practical Guide resource is designed to provide faculty with recommendations on how to navigate this model in a simple and efficient manner while creating an equitable learning environment for everyone.

The Hyflex Model- An Effective Approach to Teaching with Numerous Modalities

Adapting Large Undergraduate Courses

There are multiple ways to adapt large enrollment classes to provide safety and social distancing. All large course delivery models will differ in effectiveness, feasibility, and implementation options depending on the type of course and pedagogy style being used. Learn how to start and what steps to take on our Adapting Large Undergraduate Courses website.

Adapting Large Undergraduate Courses

Virtual Reality in a Changing World

In these unprecedented times, many have been forced to adapt or expand their ways of teaching. This period of change can be used to explore areas of teaching that one has never ventured into. The world of virtual reality has become increasingly popular and could serve as an engaging and informative tool to utilize in online courses and remote settings.

Virtual Reality in a Changing World

Creating a Home Video Studio

The transition to remote teaching has forced many of us to host classes and meetings, and to record classes at home. Here are some simple tips that can improve the quality of your presentation so that your students and colleagues will be more focused on what you say than on where you are.

Creating a Home Video Studio

The Center for Teaching Excellence is pleased to announce that the 13th Annual Oktoberbest: A Symposium on Teaching will be Friday, October 21, 2022. Share your passion for teaching and innovative approaches that improve the quality of student learning experiences by Submitting a Proposal to Present at Oktoberbest 2022. We are looking for engaging and informative presentations that highlight research, practical advice, or exploratory perspectives on effective teaching practices.

Are you a graduate student who is new to online learning or interested in teaching an online course? Would you like to boost your teaching credentials and learn new instructional skills? Teaching Online for Graduate Students, a four-week, fully online asynchronous course, will introduce you to online teaching and develop your knowledge and ability to implement and teach online courses at the University of South Carolina and throughout your career as an educator.

For instructors teaching in the online environment, using technology is a given. Even so, utilizing the full potential of technology is an important component of well-designed courses. The focus of Technology for Online Teaching and Learning, a 6-week online course, is on integrating technology for online course delivery to transform learning environments. As students in this asynchronous online Blackboard course, instructors are introduced to the how’s, when’s and why’s of technology use in the online learning environment.

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.