MAKING PROMISES TO STUDENTS
Dr. Peter Filene says that there are two halves of the teaching/learning dialogue: aims and outcomes. Aims describe how you want to convey crucial aspects of your subject in lucid, interesting fashion. Outcomes describe how you want to change how your students think and feel, what he describes as the essence of learning. Dr. Filene says that faculty very often confuse outcomes with what they themselves will do rather than what they will ask of their students. He encourages us to think about outcomes as the promises we are making to our students. What will you ask them to understand and do? How will you (together) go about achieving these goals? What kind of assessment will you use to allow them and you to measure progress in learning? You can find more of Dr. Filene's wisdom in his book The Joy of Teaching: A practical guide for new college instructors (LB2331.F493).

NEW JOURNAL PROVIDES NEW OPPORTUNITY
Here is a great new opportunity for our eLearning faculty to publish their research findings. The inaugural issue of the Journal of Emerging Learning Design (ELDJ) was published in April. The ELDJ is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that provides a platform for academics and practitioners to explore emerging learning design theories, concepts, and issues and their implication at national and international levels.  An outgrowth of the annual Emerging Learning Design Conference, which makes its home at Montclair State University, the ELDJ invites scholarly communications in the emerging learning design field and will present best practices in design and implementation by offering articles that present, propose or review engaging and dynamic approaches to pedagogy and how technology can better enhance it.

RECRUITING AND RETAINING BLACK MEN
Marilyn L. Riley is still haunted by a teenager named Dante, who came reluctantly and angrily to her summer program for black men and ended up nearly walking away with five credits from Mesa Community College, in Arizona. The first few days, he slouched in his chair and glared at his instructor, his cap sideways, his pants sagging. "Sweetie, in my world, this isn't going to work," the petite adjunct professor and clinical psychologist, who is also black, told him. "You've got all this leadership potential, but no one's going to relate to you when you're looking like a thug." By the end of the summer session, she said, he was sitting up straight in his chair, was demonstrating critical-thinking skills, and was within striking distance of earning five college credits. But before that could happen, his mother packed up and moved the family to New Mexico, and he had to withdraw. Ms. Riley told that story at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges, in one of several sessions devoted to the challenges of recruiting and retaining black men. In another session, J. Luke Wood, an assistant professor of administration, rehabilitation, and post-secondary education at San Diego State University, described his research on black male students in community colleges. He visits community colleges to administer surveys and advise them on strategies for recruiting and retaining minority men. Mr. Wood said that faculty members tend to pay more attention to students who speak up in class and that many black men, in particular, lack the confidence to do so. In addition, "a lot of men are reluctant to ask for help because it makes them look weak," he said. "You have to be proactive in establishing relationships with these men."

IS A MOOC IN YOUR FUTURE
Community college leaders haven’t exactly jumped on the “disruption” bandwagon. That may be understandable given the popular narrative that digital innovation will replace faculty members and even entire colleges according to an Inside Higher Ed story. But the two-year sector’s wariness seems to be fading, if the annual convention of the American Association of Community Colleges is any indication. The conference featured many sessions on how budget-strapped colleges can use self-paced online courses and free digital content, such as massive open online courses, to boost efficiency and serve more students. The two-year sector is open to that idea, said Walter G. Bumphus, the association’s president and former BRCC Chancellor. Bumphus later told the meeting’s attendees that he and fellow leaders of the association talked with Khan backstage about possible collaborations, and discussed setting up a committee to consider how to use the academy’s material. “It’s going to be good for community colleges and good for AACC,” Bumphus said.