The IDEA Center

Todd Zakrajsek is the Executive Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He was previously the Inaugural Director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching at Central Michigan University and the founding Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Southern Oregon University, where he also taught in the psychology department as a tenured associate professor in the psychology department. Todd also directs the Lilly Conference on Teaching and Learning at Traverse City, Michigan, and the International Conference on Improving University Teaching. Dr. Zakrajsek received his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Ohio University. He has published and presented widely on the topic of student learning, including workshops and conference keynote addresses in over 30 states and 4 countries in the past several years.
  
The following is a  partial list. Additional references can be provided upon request:
 

with Todd Zakrajsek

Abundant research demonstrates that learning takes place when the student's mind actively engages in the material. The major problem is determining how to increase that activity. Within the discipline of human memory, learning, and cognition exists a vast body of literature dealing specifically with this issue. Participants will leave this workshop with an understanding of the basic concepts in human learning, how to present information so that students most effectively encode it into long-term memory, and how to help students know when they know.

with Todd Zakrajsek

Are you trying your best to incorporate classroom technologies into your teaching strategies? Some individuals even have the use of technology as part of teaching evaluations. In all the rush to incorporate technology into the classroom, it is easy to forget about the actual impact on student learning. Technology can be helpful, but it can also actually get in the way of learning. In this workshop I will present data and findings on how technology can be used creatively to enhance student-centered learning, WHY technology can be beneficial, and pitfalls to avoid that can actually decrease learning. This workshop will include demonstrations and activities along with presented material.

with Todd Zakrajsek

As we continue to move from teaching-centered to learning-centered education, we must recognize how little has been done to pave the way for that change. Classrooms are fundamentally changing from isolated individual dispensing information from the front of class to a collection of individuals learning from one another. Cognitive psychology and physiological studies of the brain explain how individuals think; social psychology plays the critical role of informing us how humans interact. Using demonstrations and participant activities, this workshop will draw specific attention to how research and theory in the area of social psychology directly impacts teaching and learning.

with Todd Zakrajsek

What can instructors do to facilitate learning when they encounter students who seem uninterested and even apathetic toward course content and assignments?  Part of the responsibility for learning belongs to students, but as faculty, we can find new ways to motivate, inspire, and maybe even cajole students to learn. This workshop will demonstrate and explain how instructors can make classroom learning, perhaps one of the most artificial learning settings, a more meaningful experience for students.  The presenter uses theories of learning and motivation as a basis for creating strategies to increase student engagement in course content and class sessions. Participants will have an opportunity to try out and experience first-hand some of these techniques. Topics covered in this session include a discussion of active learning, motivation, collaborative learning, metacognition, learning theory, and interpersonal communication.