Good teachers are always prowling about for ways to better communicate their material. Since I try hard to be a good teacher, I constantly revise my course syllabi, assignments, and lesson plans. On occasion, I’ve gotten up in the middle of the night to write down an idea I had about a course. During the semester that I teach a class, I also keep an open...

When I was a student, I never thought about how my course evaluations would affect anyone. I viewed evaluations as the time to “let rip” against whatever I thought was wrong with the course, the professor, the content, or the pedagogy. So naturally, as a professor, receiving that link telling me I can access the results of my own course evals fills...

In the spring, I am teaching a class on the cultural legacy of Sherlock Holmes and plan to have students use digital tools and methods in their work with all things Holmesian. I plan to have students create a bi-monthly podcast to work through and present what they’re learning. The course will focus on the cultural values of the Victorian period and the...