IF Blog

Facilitating Like You’re Skipping Stones

Facilitating Like You’re Skipping Stones

“How many of you have skipped stones?” so began Sonja Jefferson as she introduced the class session on facilitation. Almost every hand went up. “Good, you have already learned the...

Collaborative Bonds

Collaborative Bonds

On the first day of class Professor Alan Nelson was going over the syllabus. “One of the unique things about this class is the discussion groups you will be in...

Jim Burke Shares his Experience Volunteering with IF

Jim Burke Shares his Experience Volunteering with IF

Jim Burke volunteered as a facilitator with the Interactivity Foundation during January-February 2021. I talked with Jim afterwards about what inspired him to volunteer, what it was like to facilitate...

Syllabus Ideas for Student-Centered Discussions

Syllabus Ideas for Student-Centered Discussions

Dr. Janice Horton was mentoring a graduate student, Erin Roberts, as she was putting together her syllabus for a freshman history class. Roberts wanted to make discussions a strong element...

Avoiding Distractions

Avoiding Distractions

Dr. Reginald Whitcomb was a former Nasa engineer at NASA who was asked to teach a class on design thinking to a cross section of students on campus. His course...

The Art of Facilitation and Collaboration

The Art of Facilitation and Collaboration

Diane Vest was asked to teach a student-centered class where students would learn how to facilitate discussions as well as become effective collaborators in their small-group discussions. To prepare for...

Types and Sequencing of Discussion Questions

Types and Sequencing of Discussion Questions

Professor Jens Sigmund had used class discussions in is courses for years. He noticed that the way he framed questions had a major impact on the success of the discussions....

Cascaded Note-Taking

February 3, 2021

Cascaded Note-Taking

Dr. Jimenez was frustrated as he read the discussion summaries from his students. One student from each discussion team served as a facilitator. The facilitators took notes on a flip...

When the Dream Team Isn’t

January 27, 2021

When the Dream Team Isn’t

They called themselves "the dream team." Every team member had a high GPA and a dominant personality. They were used to excelling in everything they did. But the dream team wasn’t,...

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