Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment - Western Washington University's Teaching and Learning Center

1. Managing the Context
Running time: 2 minutes, 45 seconds

Dr. Jason Kanov of Western Washington University’s Department of Management uses the concept of "managing the context" to describe his course, as well as the business environment his students will be creating once they graduate. By controlling, or managing the context of the instructional environment, Dr. Kanov hopes to promote his students’ engagement with the course material.
Play video

2. Motivating Students
Running time: 3 minutes, 13 seconds

Dr. Jason Kanov tries to promote a sense of personal responsibility in his management students. He not only teaches it, but models it in his own teaching. He uses team-based assignments to help promote students’ awareness of their roles in team projects. Students can then examine how group dynamics can influence their own and others’ effectiveness as team members.
Play video

3. Logistics of Large Courses
Running time: 4 minutes, 42 seconds

Grading and evaluation can be difficult and time-consuming for instructors of large courses. Dr. Jason Kanov of Western Washington University’s Department of Management describes his own time challenges. He has chosen to construct his tests so that they contain essay questions, instead of more easily graded multiple choice items. Dr. Kanov believes he can evaluate both his students’ work, and his own instruction better by constructing his tests in this manner.
Play video

4. Teaching as Performance
Running time: 4 minutes, 34 seconds

Because large classes are often taught in auditoriums and instructors often teach from a stage, students in large classes may be expecting a "performance" from their instructor in such classes. Dr Jason Kanov from Western Washington University’s Department of Management, takes the role of the emcee, instead of the "star" of the class, with movie clips, lecture slides, and other students as cast members in the performance. This makes the environment more familiar to students, and brings other voices into the course.
Play video

5. Achieving Teaching Goals
Running time: 4 minutes, 0 seconds

Dr. Jason Kanov creates opportunities in his classes for students to engage off-line, such as discussion boards on the course website. He also encourages students to participate during the class as well. These opportunities allow him to check on his students’ knowledge and to see if they have achieved the goals he has for them.
Play video

---

Technology Note: Because the Innovative Teaching Showcase is an annual web publication, each year's set of Showcase Videos pages was designed to provide the best playback experience for the user, given available streaming video technologies at WWU in the year it was developed. Through the years, the showcase movies have become larger and sharper due to the improvement of bandwidth. Most of the movies are now hosted on YouTube and embedded into our web pages. In order to watch the movies, make sure you have access to YouTube's system requirements:

1. Macromedia Flash Player 7.0+ plug-in
2. Windows 2000 or higher with latest updates installed
3. Mac OS X 10.3 or higher
4. Firefox 1.1+, Internet Explorer 5.0+, or Safari 1.0+
5. Broadband connection with 500+ Kbps

More information is available on the How to Use This Showcase page or the YouTube Help Center.