This episode explores the disconnect between people hating group work and people enjoying group play by proposing 5 Ps (planning, patronage, players, practice, and purpose) that faculty should to consider when transforming group work into meaningful play. The episode explores in-depth the first three Ps--planning, patronage, and players--and offers explicit ways that faculty can keep these elements in mind as they develop and assign group projects.   Sources referenced in and consulted for this episode: "Bartle's Player Types for Gamification." Interaction Design Foundation. The Bart ..read more

In this special (and much delayed...greatest of apologies!) episode, co-hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Director of The Collaborative at Trinity University) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Assistant Professor of Communication at University of Tampa) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the final third of Julie Schumacher's 2018 novel The Shakespeare Requirement.   Wow! What did you think? How do you feel about everything that happened?  ..read more

In this special (and much delayed...sorry!) episode, co-hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Director of The Collaborative at Trinity University) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Assistant Professor of Communication at University of Tampa) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the middle section of Julie Schumacher's 2018 novel The Shakespeare Requirement.   Is the story progressing how you anticipated? Where do you hope things will go next?  ..read more

In this special episode, The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) discuss their impressions and thoughts of the first third of Julie Schumacher's 2018 novel The Shakespeare Requirement.   What did you think of the first third of the novel? What surprised you ..read more

In this episode, Trinity's The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) use the formula of the "home renovation show" to explore the process of (re)designing a course. We walk you through 10 elements that appear in many of these HGTV home improvement-type shows and explore how these can relate directly to renovating your course. From taking the house down the studs to finding asbestos in the walls, we've got you covered. We suggest listening to this episode to prepare you for our in-person workshop ..read more

In this episode, Trinity's The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) talk about how the metaphor of a home renovation works really nicely for thinking about how to turn a course into your dream course. We talk about courses we have "renovated" and why decided to make changes, explain how HGTV home improvement courses offer the perfect blueprint for redesigning/rebuilding your courses, and give some recommendations for the HGTV newbie on where to begin watching. Listen to this episode to get inspired and ready to RENOVATE THA ..read more

In this episode, Trinity's The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) argue that depending on what metaphor you use to understand your syllabus can affect everything from how you treat the document, to what you include (or don't include), to how students engage with the syllabus. We provide several metaphors--such as a contract, a roadmap, game instructions, and a YouTube walkthrough--that you can adopt when thinking about your syllabus; we also offer some more problematic metaphors to avoid (like the Ten Commandments or a ch ..read more

In this episode, Trinity's The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) dive deeper into one form of game-based learning: serious games!   We start by defining what we mean by serious games, which are games wherein the content and skills being used by the players have an explicit and direct educational relationship to the course itself. We explore different types of serious games that you can incorporate into your courses, discuss the importance of agency and choice in creating a gameful experience (as opposed to merely an ..read more

In this episode, podcast co-host Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) interviews Donovan de Hoog (Post-Baccalaureate Fellow and TaP Coordinator) about The Collaborative's student-faculty partnership program: Tigers as Partners (TaP).  We discuss the unique benefits of TaP and the ways that participating in this program allows faculty to systematically incorporate the student perspective into their teaching. Looking at the many ways that a TaP partnership can be tailored to the pedagogical needs of a specific faculty member, Donovan shares some of the ways that TaP student interns wor ..read more

In this episode, Trinity's The Collaborative hosts Dr. Katherine Troyer (Assistant Director) and Dr. Lauren Malone (Academic Technologist) dive deeper into one form of game-based learning: Games for Learning (G4L)!   We start by defining G4L, which are games that you bring into your courses less because of the content of the games and more as a vehicle for teaching (and letting students practice) key skills and concepts. We quickly discuss how G4L can be used across the curriculum and for a variety of course goals before moving into five case studies of how we've used games in our own cla ..read more