Most of us have been using Zoom for about a year now, but some of the terms around the different ways to access Zoom can be confusing. The Zoom “client” is the application that is installed on your computer. The Zoom “web portal” is the website denison.zoom.us where, among other things, you can access and schedule your meetings, view your recordings saved to the Zoom cloud, setup polling, and import breakout rooms.
CfLT Newsletter
The posts below are from the CfLT newsletter which includes curated, research-based digital resources to support ongoing faculty development and pedagogical engagement. As of August 2025, CfLT Director Karen Spierling oversees the content. Posts from July 2020-May 2025 were compiled by previous Director Lew Ludwig.
Teaching – What You Know That Just Ain’t So
Which is the most important factor in successful learning:
- The intention and desire to learn
- Paying close attention to the material as you study
- Learning in a way that matches your own learning style
- The time you spend studying
- What you think about while studying
The answer, according to cognitive psychologist Stephen Chew, may surprise you. Lendol
Tidbit – Toward Healing & Recovery
In August, Dr. Mays Imad hosted a webinar for Denison where she shared her work on trauma informed pedagogy. As we look forward and what a fall return will look like, Mays will host the webinar:
Leveraging the Neuroscience of Now: Toward Healing & Recovery
Friday, March 26, 2021
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM PDT (3:00 PM EDT)
Register: https://pima.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcsce-orzMpGt2DsqhxvQnJPvErr3kz1Yvo
Tech – Four Causes for ‘Zoom Fatigue’ and Their Simple Fixes
In this recent Tomorrow’s Professor post, Stanford researchers have identified four key causes for zoom fatigue:
- Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.
- Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.
- Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.
- The cognitive load is much higher in video chats.
And provide some simple fixes.
Tech – Using Two Computers Simultaneously to Teach in Zoom
This semester ETS has been helping several faculty members get setup to use Zoom on multiple devices during their hybrid classes. This approach allows you to have one device/camera set to show you, the professor, while the other device/camera can show the classroom or the whiteboard. It does not need to be a complicated setup with multiple headsets, iPads, and phones.
Teaching – Midterm Course Adjustments
In this week’s deeper dive, Dr. May Mei, Mathematics, shares ideas from the two-page article Critical Learning Communities: Top Five Principles to Guide Your First Month by Kristen Luschen and Becky Wai-Ling Packard. May gives practical suggestions on how to make midterm course adjustments to ensure a smoother and more productive finish to our semester.
Tidbit – Catch our Breath
With our scheduled no-class days this week, it is not only an opportunity for our students to catch their breaths, but for us as well. This Chronicle piece by James Lang gives us three resources with strategies to consider to help us refresh and refocus:
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- In Praise of Walking
- How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.
Tech – Google 2.0
Many of us have really leveraged tools offered by Google to help organize our classes, communicate with students, and conduct small groups. This article from Faculty Focus covers some other applications of Google Docs and Slides for things such as collaborative note-taking or the jigsaw teaching strategy that some of us use with in-person classes. The article also introduces Google Drawings, similar to Jamboards, but with a much larger range of drawing and graphical abilities.
Teaching – What to do with Midterm Feedback
Last week, we shared several midterm course feedback forms. Now, what to do with all that feedback?
- Make a brief list of comments to respond to during the next class.
- Focus on major themes.
- Discuss things you are willing to adjust, but also explain why you will maintain certain practices. Your students value transparency.
Tidbit – Teaching about Race and Racism
This week the New York Times published a collection of resources for teaching about race and racism with The New York Times. The post offers a list of more than 75 writing prompts, lesson plans, graphs, short films and more, to help teachers explore these important topics with students. It also includes suggestions and strategies by four educators on how to facilitate these critical, yet sometimes challenging, conversations.