REGISTER FOR FRIDAY'S FACULTY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
The last day to register to attend the Shifting the Teaching Paradigm workshop set for Friday, March 7 is Thursday at noon. Lunch will be provided by Cengage, who is sponsoring the faculty development opportunity along with the Teaching+Learning Center, and there will also be snacks. Dr. Jim Johnson is very excited to be visiting the Capital City and is anxious to interact with the wonderful faculty at BRCC. Hopefully you have recovered from your Mardi Gras break and are ready to learn about effective methods that you can use to improve completion and retention rates. Looking forward to seeing you at 12:25 pm on Friday (check-in begins at noon outside of the Dumas Room in the Magnolia Building-Mid City Campus).
IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING USING DISCUSSION
Our friends at BYU have released a good article that can provide help for online discussions that can occur in face-to-face or eLearning classes. They write, "We often focus on presentation skills as oral communication skills, but
students more frequently need to either lead or contribute to productive
group discussions. Small group discussions can easily go off the rails
when students indulge in off-topic talking, inadequate listening, and
disrespectful behavior. The dynamic quality of class discussion presents
challenges to faculty who would like to hold students accountable for
the quality of their participation in these discussions." The full article is here.
SHARPEN YOUR BLACKBOARD SKILLS
Save the March 27 date for a faculty professional development workshop focused on Blackboard. Co-presenters Susan Nealy (eLearning Program Manager) and Lenora White (BRCC Blackboard Administer) will be offering up some of the latest options available to you via Blackboard. Whether you are new to Blackboard or an experienced user, you will find this workshop useful. More details will be coming but the session will run from 1:00 until 2:15 pm. In the meantime, you might want to read the latest article from Dr. John Orlando concerning his top ten rules for developing your first online course. If you are interested in teaching using the online environment, please contact your department chair for requirements and training options.
