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April 2026 Tuesday Tips
7th April 2026
Tuesday Teaching Tip: Course Spring Cleaning
Here we are, it is late Spring and the end of the academic year is in sight. It also may seem far away if you usually end the term with a deluge of grading and events like commencement or awards ceremonies. A best practice for this point in the semester is some Spring Cleaning of your courses. The point of this exercise is to clear some tasks for the last few weeks of the semester, so when you do get that pile of exams or papers, you are able to just focus on that instead of all the stuff that gets in the way. This allows you to finish quicker, be less stressed, get grades in on time, and start your summer. Pick at least one of these strategies that you have not done before and try it for Spring.
- Make a last-call for late work. If you allow late work (I usually do with a deduction), firm up the dates and guidelines now. Make a last call for it now so you can resolve it early, and it does not stretch into May.
- Clear one lingering professional task. This is outside the classroom, but we all have at least one paper review, conference submission, or report we need to write. Do it now so it does not suck up time when you are staring at that pile of papers.
- Clean up the gradebook. Make sure all major assignments are in and assign zeroes where students have missed work. Sometimes these do not calculate in Canvas and give students a mistaken impression about where they are at in the course. Resolving this now gives students time to adjust and helps everyone know where they stand going into finals.
- Figure out the late-drop plan. Especially if you teach larger classes, most of us deal with late drop for good reason late in the semester. Talk with your Department Chair and administrative support about what the current plan is so you are clear. In some cases, at your discretion, it may be helpful to communicate this to select students, especially if this is something they have already discussed with you.
Some combination of these approaches will allow you to finish the semester in a more timely fashion under less stress. It will also free you up to sign up for FDEV programming, which will start in late May. Be on the lookout for full calls and applications on Thursday related to AI, your own writing, and affordable learning solutions.
Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150
If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog(opens in new window).
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.
14th April 2026
Tuesday Teaching Tip: Turning Teaching into Scholarship
Publishing about teaching and learning can be a rewarding way to maintain a scholarly agenda, especially at a teaching-focused institution. Sometimes the work may start as an efficiency but then blossom as an area of real impact as colleagues and readers adopt the effective teaching practices you have developed. For years, I have found ways to partner with colleagues to evaluate classroom practices and related civic activities. However, several times I have wanted to write about a classroom practice or an assessment and run into a snag. As we are winding down the academic year and many of you are thinking about writing over the summer or perhaps a new research agenda, I wanted to share some best practices in developing a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).
- Partner with someone different than you, but with a shared interest. SoTL work is often best explained with a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. You have one approach: find someone with the other to make your work more well-rounded.
- Get Human Subjects approval. Several times, I have developed an interesting teaching practice, collected assessment data, and then realized I could generalize from it, only to face the reality that I had skipped the initial step of approval because I had just thought about it as assessment. Don’t make the same mistake.
- Look at instruction with fresh eyes. You are probably already doing something innovative in the classroom you take for granted. Maybe it is a partnership with Civic Engagement or perhaps an unusual case study. Reviewing RTP notes or talking through best practices with a colleague may unearth a practice you are already engaged in that is worth sharing.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has been everywhere for me lately. It was the topic of a recent episode of Teaching in Higher Ed in a discussion of a new book (full text free to download) on the topic. We are wrapping up some end-of-the-year reports in FDEV, where we supported two rounds of funding thanks to an allocation from the University Board of Governors and the FDEV Advisory Board's recommendation. It is a reminder to me that I am surrounded by excellent colleagues who are finding creative ways to support students and advance their own scholarship.
Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development
Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences
Google Voice/Text: 530-487-4150
If you’d like to comment on this or any other Tuesday Tip, visit the FDEV Blog.
All past Tuesday Tips are curated on the FDEV website.