Course design and delivery

Block teaching has been around since the mid-noughties, but those short-lived early trials were ahead of the curve. Simon Thomson and Carl Flattery explore why block planning might finally be having its day

Shorter, more immersive units are helping raise attainment and success for students with complex and diverse needs

Conflating ‘interesting’ with ‘entertaining’ and getting caught in a never-ending loop of shinier and shinier edutainment should be shunned in favour of cultivating sustained interest

Using gamification in the classroom can work wonders for engagement, but does it come at too great a cost to deep thinking, asks Frederik van Dam

How to promote consistency of processes and expectations among university course designers and external edtech providers, explained by Rae Mancilla and Nadine Hamman in the third part of a series looking at strategies for successful learning design partnerships

Are you struggling to motivate students in your online class? Angeles Carolina Aguirre-Acosta provides strategies to generate greater motivation and participation

Falling class attendance and shorter student attention spans present challenges for university teachers. Sandi Mann offers advice for tackling the boredom conundrum

Breaking up the classroom routine with field trips and visiting experts is an essential teaching tool. Here’s how university educators can use physical and virtual resources to make lessons more engaging

Digital tools that promote interaction and competition in class can have notable benefits to learning, as Yuyang Zhao explains, based on her use of quizzes

Peer mentoring is an effective way to support faculty in the development and delivery of quality online courses. Jonathan Muir explains when and how best to use it