Is your coursework centered around learning, or earning points?
I help college faculty create courses that give students meaningful opportunities to practice, receive feedback, revise, and improve. My workshops and resources draw on research about learning and motivation, with attention to what is realistic in an actual classroom.
WORKSHOPS
Translating research into practical coursework changes.
My workshops draw on both sides of my work: my research and training in educational psychology and more than a decade of teaching. I focus on how we can design courses that help students practice, receive feedback, revise, and master material, rather than simply accumulate points. From there, we turn the research into practical, manageable changes faculty can make in their own courses.
Sessions are available in person or virtually and can be adjusted for a department, faculty group, or campus.
01
Building Courses Around Mastery
Examine how grading, revision, feedback, and course structure can keep attention on learning. Participants identify changes that fit their courses without creating an unmanageable amount of additional work.
02
Learning Myths and What the Evidence Shows
Take a closer look at common claims about how students learn, why those claims persist, and what research suggests doing instead.
03
Motivation and Course Design
Consider how goals, feedback, autonomy, and course expectations influence student motivation. Participants leave with practical ideas that can be adapted across disciplines.
ABOUT ALLISON
I study education, and I really love to teach.
I am an educational psychologist and professor. I earned my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Evaluation, and I now serve as an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Director of Undergraduate Psychology, and Presidential Fellow for AI at Spalding University.
That combination of research and classroom experience shapes everything I do through A Joy to Teach. My recommendations come from the scholarship of teaching and learning, but they also come from years of designing courses, trying new approaches, listening to students, and revising when something doesn’t work.
My work has been presented at the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and at the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching. My faculty presentations have received first- and second-place awards, and students have repeatedly recognized my teaching through student-nominated Faculty Favorite awards.
RESOURCES
Practical guides for course design
My downloadable resources focus on specific parts of teaching and course design. Each one brings together research on learning, examples from my own courses, and questions that can help you think through what will work in yours.
Syllabus 101
Your syllabus tells students a great deal about who you are, and what learning will look like in your course. This guide walks through six areas where your language, policies, assignments, and course structure can better reflect your own philosophy, and what you want students to learn.
$9
Mastery Teaching Starter Kit
This free guide offers four places to begin shifting the focus of a course toward practice, feedback, revision, and mastery.
Join the A Joy to Teach email list to receive the guide, along with occasional teaching ideas, resources, and updates.
Working through a course-design question?
I offer individual consultation for faculty who want focused help with a course, assignment, assessment, syllabus, or shift toward mastery-based teaching or alternative grading.
Planning professional development for your faculty?
Tell me about your institution, the questions your faculty are working through, and what you hope the session will accomplish. We can identify a topic and format that fit your needs.