Category: Community Posts

Blog posts, reflections, arguments, and thoughts from the community of teachers and learners at UP.

Best Practices in College Student Mental Health: What The Jed Foundation Might Offer

the quad at UP, students walking across campus

In the midst of growing national attention to mental health several organizations have started providing resources and programming specific to the target demographic most relevant to our work as UP faculty: college students. One particularly prominent organization in this realm is The Jed Foundation, started in 2000 by a philanthropist couple who lost their son…Continue Reading Best Practices in College Student Mental Health: What The Jed Foundation Might Offer

Students as Bridge Builders: Encouraging Connection Across Courses

tillikum suspension bridge in portland

“That is how innovation happens; chance favors the connected mind” -Steven Johnson What’s the most important thing an undergraduate should be doing at college? The answer, I’ve come to believe, is the simple act of drawing connections between classes. Students walk off with a diploma after taking some forty separate courses. A major forms one…Continue Reading Students as Bridge Builders: Encouraging Connection Across Courses

Student Mental Health: What Faculty (Might?) Need to Know

An empty lecture hall.

What do UP faculty, and staff on the academic side of the University, need to know about student mental health? This question has been much on my mind the last few years as discussions about mental health in college has seemed to accelerate both locally and nationally. At UP the issue particularly came to the…Continue Reading Student Mental Health: What Faculty (Might?) Need to Know

Microsoft Teams Getting Started Guide: The Basics

Microsoft Teams has come to the University of Portland campus. Teams is similar to the mega-popular work-based chat app Slack, in that it provides a new way to collaborate and communicate via an interactive chat-based workspace, and that can conveniently integrate with other powerful productivity tools. The idea is to provide 21st-century knowledge workers with…Continue Reading Microsoft Teams Getting Started Guide: The Basics

Engaged Learning with VoiceThread

three bronze statues of women. they are in conversation

If you’ve been keeping your ear to the ground in the world of education technology, you’ve likely heard of VoiceThread. It’s a widely-known tool that’s used in everything from online graduate courses to kindergarten classrooms. At UP we’ve added VoiceThread to our toolbox, so now you, too, can discover what VoiceThread is all about. The…Continue Reading Engaged Learning with VoiceThread