Center for Educational Innovation Blog

COVID-19 forced many if not all classes to transition to an online format. As an educator, were you prepared? Did you have what you needed to be successful in online teaching?

Today’s traditional students do not remember when video production and distribution was reserved for skilled professionals. Those days are gone, and over the past two decades we have seen a proliferation of consumer video technologies that allow anyone with a cell phone or webcam to create and stream (broadcast) endless amounts of video content.

The good, bad and best practices... Student engagement has been at the forefront of many conversations as of late, but is not a new topic in higher education. With the onset of lockdowns across the board, remote teaching and some uncertainty of what academia will look like in the future, finding the right balance in student engagement is imperative. 

As a student, I often felt that the only purpose of studying for my classes was to succeed on a test.  Those types of classes always left me feeling a bit empty in terms of the learning aspect. 

Education is evolving fast. Every day, we hear about some new technology that will change the world and the way we learn in it. Here at the University at Buffalo we have a very powerful tool available right at our fingertips called UB Learns.

This has been by far the most challenging year as a husband, father, and educator. I began my current position as a learning designer during the start of the pandemic. My plan was to retire from my stay at home dad status and return to full-time work. A difficult decision. Well, now I find myself doing both. And what an experience this has been!

In an effort to approach difficult and persistent questions and issues in teaching and learning from a different perspective, CEI staff are excited to share tips and tricks they've learned along the way, as well as stories from our faculty.