More methods.
Less madness.
Celebrating the life of
K. Patricia Cross
It is with heavy hearts we honor the recent passing of Dr. K. Patricia Cross. Simply ‘Pat’ to those she loved, she has gifted higher education an incredible legacy that has both inspired and enabled thousands of educators to improve both the theory and craft behind their teaching, impacting an entire generation of students in the process.
Teaching Techniques for
Higher Education
Whether you find yourself teaching online, on-site, or a hybrid of both, our free teaching techniques are focused on helping your students learn and retain new knowledge and skills.

Engaged Teaching
A Handbook for College Faculty
Available now, Engaged Teaching: A Handbook for College Faculty provides college faculty with a dynamic model of what it means to be an engaged teacher and offers practical strategies and techniques for putting the model into practice.
Order your copy today and save off regular pricing, in celebration of the first anniversary of this new release!
What We Do
The demanding realm of higher education can be surprisingly low on practical resources. You want your students to succeed, and the K. Patricia Cross Academy is here to help you help students do just that. As a nonprofit, our content is complimentary, concise, and packed with proven ways to earn measurable results. Launched in 2019, we already have had over 309,258 visitors, and best of all, it's anonymous and always free.
CrossCurrents
Our blog offers an in-depth look at relevant teaching techniques and learning theory aimed at keeping your students active and engaged in your classrooms.
LATEST POST
Wait for It! Improving Student Responses by Increasing Wait Time
Research demonstrates that in a typical college classroom, most teachers pose a question and then wait less than one second for students to respond. As you might imagine, there are significant challenges with this practice. Allowing students such a short processing time almost guarantees you will not receive carefully thought out responses. It also promotes a classroom dynamic in which
Popular Articles for
Online Teaching
5 Tips for Using Final Projects in Your Class
Months of lectures, activities, group projects, quizzes, readings, and more typically culminate in an end-of-term evaluation. It may be tempting to slip into the default “review for final exam” mode as a term comes to a close as tests can be worthwhile for student learning and retention (see 8 Benefits of Frequent Quizzing and Testing.) However, final projects can prove
8 Time Management Tips for Online Teaching
In higher education, we work within semesters, quarters, or terms that last a set number of weeks. Within a given term, we teach in chunks of time, with classes lasting 50 minutes, 3 hrs, 8 hrs, or other increments. But when we teach online, no longer does teaching have to occur synchronously at a fixed time and location. The online teaching environment requires reconsidering traditional notions of time
Making Good Use of Online Discussion Boards
Many times, instructors feel like they “should” assign discussion board posts. They do so for a variety of reasons, including to simply receive the “regular and substantive interaction” between students and teachers required in virtual classrooms. Lively discussions are a hallmark of face-to-face courses. Likewise, for decades, discussion boards have been a staple of online courses. But doing discussions online and through a text-based medium offers its own set of challenges.
Creating an Engaging Teaching Persona Online
When we teach online, we have to be more intentional about sharing information about ourselves and about which information we will share. We decide, for example, whether to display a picture of ourselves or an avatar and if so, which. We have to make decisions about what personal information to put out there for students. We have to choose whether or not we want them to see and hear us. How can we make deliberate choices when creating our personas?

FEATURED COLLECTION
Fostering Diversity & Inclusion
Whether you're teaching in a classroom or online, fostering community and inclusion in your class is key to student engagement and collaborative learning. In this collection of articles, we explore ways to practice inclusive teaching, to encourage meaningful connection and communication, and to help students care about learning during an age of significant distraction.
Our Instructors

Elizabeth F. Barkley
- Executive Director of the K. Patricia Cross Academy
- Co-Founder of Faculty2Faculty: The Alliance for Research-Based Teaching
- College Professor & Author
An innovative educator who has dedicated over four decades to serving students and teachers, Elizabeth is both the Executive Director of the K. Patricia Cross Academy, and an instructor.

Claire H. Major
- Executive Information Officer of the K. Patricia Cross Academy
- Co-Founder of Faculty2Faculty: The Alliance for Research-Based Teaching
- University Professor & Author
A thought leader devoted to elevating higher education, Claire serves as the Executive Information Officer of the K. Patricia Cross Academy, and as an engaging instructor.