The Drake Institute offers a wide selection of learning opportunities that support all who teach at Ohio State to foster effective and engaging learning experiences for their students. Browse this page to find offerings that pique your interest, fit your schedule, and help you take the next steps in your professional learning journey.
To learn and connect in real time with colleagues and facilitators, see Upcoming Workshops. To learn at your own pace, visit On-Demand Learning for Educators. Explore all Drake Institute learning opportunities by topic—whether in-person, synchronous virtual, or on-demand—using the dropdown below.
Browse all Drake Institute learning opportunities by topic.
Introduction to Drake Institute Programs and Services:
The Drake Institute offers a variety of programs and services designed to support all who teach and foster instruction at Ohio State. Individual instructor consultations, student feedback collection services, pedagogy-focused workshops, learning communities and other structured engagements are offered throughout the year to facilitate learning and to enhance adoption and implementation of effective, evidence-based approaches to instruction.
Throughout the year, the institute offers events, programs and services that introduce the Ohio State community to these offerings and help participants identify opportunities that align with their own professional learning goals and needs.
Active Learning:
Active learning involves engaging students in meaningful exercises and activities designed to aid their learning process. Active learning opportunities can range from brief, silent, independent thinking exercises to long, complex and/or group-based learning activities. The "active" component of active learning is not intended to suggest a required connection to physical movement, but instead is related to the idea that as active, engaged participants in the learning process, students can more effectively construct new knowledge and connect that knowledge to their experiences.
The Drake Institute strives to support the infusion of active learning strategies across all instructional contexts. Events, programs and services are offered in support of the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of active learning practices.
Assessing Student Learning:
Assessment is the process used by educators to understand, document and respond to changes occurring in learners. This process should be considered continuous; steps are taken to collect information on the degree to which knowledge has been transferred or skills have been developed through a combination of efforts. Gauging prior knowledge/ability, monitoring student progress toward desired outcomes, encouraging student reflection on their progress, providing timely and actionable feedback to students, and offering sufficiently numerous and diverse opportunities for students to demonstrate achievement of desired outcomes after the learning has occurred are all critical steps in the assessment process.
The Drake Institute is committed to advancing the design and implementation of effective, evidence-based assessment of student learning practices and provides support for both classroom and program-based assessment needs.
CIRTL (Program-specific tag)
The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) originally funded center and current network of over 40 research universities across the United States and Canada. CIRTL supports teaching excellence in higher education with the primary goal to, “...develop future faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices to enrich undergraduate education that is accessible to all learners." The Ohio State University became an official institutional member of the CIRLT Network in 2021. CIRTL provides teaching professional development support, particularly to graduate students and postdocs interested in a career in higher education.
Curriculum & Course Development:
Curriculum and Course Development leverages a “backward design” process, resulting in the constructive alignment of learning goals with assessment and instructional methods. In Drake Institute events, programs and services, participants learn how to combine evidence-based instructional practices such as determining instructional needs, developing goals and outcomes, designing formative and summative assessment, creating opportunities for active learning, and evaluating the course or program to build effective, student-centered curricula and courses.
Educational Technology:
Educational technology is the integration of web-based, classroom and mobile technology into the teaching and learning process to enhance educational outcomes, improve access to learning resources, and facilitate communication and collaboration among students and instructors.
The Drake Institute centers pedagogy in its events, programs and services focused on educational technology. We encourage the constructive alignment of technologies with learning goals and outcomes as well as assessment and teaching methods.
Effective Learning Environments:
Creating an effective learning environment requires thoughtful integration of strategies that promote student engagement, motivation, and success. We offer programs and services that equip instructors with practical tools and evidence-informed approaches designed to enhance their teaching practices. The Drake Institute’s Effective Learning Environments core competency area features Teaching Endorsement opportunities to all instructors on topics such as advanced use of educational technology, classroom conflict and ethics, and approaches that foster a strong sense of belonging and growth culture among students. With a focus on building supportive, responsive, and engaging learning environments, the programs and services offered within this core competency area empower educators to cultivate spaces where engaged and meaningful learning can thrive.
Professional Development Support:
Continuous reflection on teaching practices and teaching philosophy is a highly effective way in which an instructor can improve their teaching. Documenting these reflections can also be useful for the academic job market, annual reviews, teaching awards, and for promotions and tenure. The Drake Institute offers events, programs and services on composing effective reflections on professional development, such as teaching statements and teaching portfolios.
SoTL/DBER Research:
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is an evidence-based exploration of the teaching and learning process. The goal of SoTL is to improve teaching and learning, and it can include using evidence-based strategies, scholarly teaching, and adding to the evidence of scholarship of teaching and learning. In STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields DBER (discipline-based education research) includes developing generalizable theories and models.
The Drake Institute strives to support the use of evidence-based teaching practices and adding to the evidence by introducing educators to SoTL/DBER practices, supporting the development and completion of projects, and elevating the dissemination of SoTL/DBER projects and educational innovations developed at Ohio State.
Using Feedback to Improve Teaching:
Gathering mid-semester feedback or throughout a course creates opportunities for instructors to have conversations about teaching and learning with their students and add transparency to instructional methods and course design. It also presents an opportunity to implement small changes to the course before the end of the semester. To support instructors in understanding and using student feedback, the Drake Institute offers events, programs and services designed to help instructors gather, interpret and make use of student feedback through the duration of the course and beyond.
Workshops and Events
Whether in-person or virtual, Drake Institute workshops provide time to learn, practice skills and connect with fellow educators in real time. Programming addresses a range of topics in active learning, assessment, curriculum and course development, educational technology and more.
On-Demand Learning for Educators
The Drake Institute maintains a catalog of self-paced offerings so you can learn on your time. Register for one of our asynchronous online courses or browse our collection of shorter on-demand videos.
Conferences
Attending a conference is a great way to broaden your knowledge, explore new strategies and ideas and stay engaged with the teaching and learning community. Check out this list of annual teaching conferences, held here at Ohio State and beyond.