Stories follow a standard format to make searching and browsing more effective. The total word count for most stories should not exceed 1,200 words and includes the following pieces of information:
- Information about you (name, campus affiliation, and discipline)
- Information about your course and students (course titles, levels, and modalities in which the activity has been used)
- Title of the story
- Short description of the activity: In a single-sentence of about 20-30 words, please write a slightly longer preview of the activity.
- Context of the story: Describe the learning outcome(s) this activity is meant to achieve and the situation(s) in which it could be used. You may use your own personal anecdotes and classroom experiences, or you can keep the tone more general. (~200-word max)
- Required materials: Include any necessary digital (e.g., TopHat or Canvas Quizzes) or analog (e.g., whiteboards) tools.
- Step-by-step implementation: One-to-two sentence introduction followed by numbered instructions. Each step should be focused on pedagogy rather than technical details. Steps should open with a sentence, ideally a simple phrase or clause and be no longer than 75 words—if more, consider breaking down into other steps. (~800-word max)
- Effectiveness: Describe your students' response to this activity. For example, consider how it affected students’ experiences, demonstrates their learning, and/or helped you in your teaching? This description should be concrete enough that it provides evidence of effectiveness. (~200-word max)
- Resources and references: List any useful links, such as Knowledge Base documents or other web resources, as well as any references to the literature on this or similar activities, and other materials from other authors. (optional; 3-7 is ideal)
- Inclusivity: How does this activity incorporate principles of equity, accessibility, and/or Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to ensure it meets the needs of all learners? (optional; ~200-word max)
- Adaptability: How could this activity be adapted or extended for a different modality or different discipline? (optional; ~200-word max)
Permission
At the end of the online submission form, you will be asked to grant permission for Indiana University to review, edit, and adapt your story to meet the purposes of Teaching.IU, including usage in other IU teaching development resources. You will retain ownership of the content, and appropriate credit will be given and will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
Anyone from an IU campus who is engaged in teaching or teaching support, (including staff and graduate students) regardless of rank or full-time/part-time status, may submit a Teahing Story.
Note that when you access the submission form, you will need to authenticate through the IU login system if you haven't already.
There is no limit on the number of stories you can submit. We welcome your participation!
Each submission will undergo a blind review by members of a university-wide committee of fellow faculty and teaching professionals. Stories should be reviewed within a month of submission.
