CREATING HIGH-QUALITY ONLINE COURSES
As many of you know, the eLearning program at BRCC was relaunched about two years ago. The new program guidelines called for quality and consistency based on a number of national benchmarks. Since the fastest growing part of most colleges is their online course offerings, we wanted to make sure that BRCC stood out by offering our students the best academic experience delivered in an electronic format. By moving to a approval system that certifies our courses and our instructors, we have been able to quickly build an eLearning presence approaching 80 classes. Many of you have participated in the eLearning institutes (the next opportunity will be offered in spring 2015) and have been certified to teach. We have undergirded that process with numerous professional development workshops offered through the Teaching+Learning Center. So we read with a lot of interest the recent column written by Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti who offers us four factors in high-quality online classes as noted by Joseph McClary. He writes, "Distance learning is here to stay. Educational institutions should have a vision for what type of distance learning programs they will implement and the standards they will hold to. Institutions will master distance learning, or in some cases, distance learning trends and demands will master the school.” We are happy to say that you will find that all of the elements mentioned in this article are present in our eLearning program but we are not standing still and will continue to improve our processes.


IMPROVING RETENTION IN ONLINE COURSES
Drs. Claire Wladis, Katherine Wladis, and Alyse C. Hachey have written a great research paper that allows us to understand why many of our students are doing so poorly in online classes versus their counterparts in the face-to-face offerings. While the authors acknowledge that there is much research about the disparity, their new focus allows us to determine some of the possible causes. Looking at student's reasons for enrolling in online classes produced some surprising results. They found that the student's reason for taking the course, either as an elective or required, had a lot to do with their performance and effort. They write, "This research suggests that online course retention rates can be improved by providing extra support targeted specifically to lower level courses which are typically taken as electives or to satisfy distributional requirements. Such support could include self-assessment and orientation tools which could be used to help students assess their perceptions and preparedness for the course. At the course level, E-advisors could provide an early mechanism for academic counseling, additional technical support staff could assist students with technical difficulties specific to the online environment, and peer tutors could assist students with the course content." You can read more by logging onto the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Faculty Development Community where you will find the paper (Advising for Online Course Retention) in the Online Resource Library in the Advising folder.

UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATION CAN PRODUCE STUDENT SUCCESS
Motivation is a powerful learning tool. If we as teachers, seek to meet the needs of our students, then discovering their motivation is paramount. Cengage Learning recently conducted a survey looking for the motivation that drives non-traditional or adult students back to college. They were able to gather 2,600 responses from students who are 25 years or older. While there are many of the responses you would expect like retraining for a new job or finishing what they started in their teen years, some of the responses are surprising. Take a look at the top ten reasons and see if these resonate with your adult students the next time you are meeting with them about their schedule or another academic matter.

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP ON THURSDAY
Have you ever used the active method of collaborative learning in your classes? Did you know that research tells us that collaborative learning is a proven method to help deepen learning for your students? It can also help to make the new knowledge stick. If you are interested in discovering the benefits of collaborative learning, please plan to attend the professional development workshop on Thursday, November 20 at 1:00 pm. in 311 Magnolia Building. The presentation will provide an introduction to the active learning method along with the benefits and some real-life examples of how you can implement into your courses immediately. You can register here but if you find yourself free at 1:00 pm tomorrow, please join us in the Teaching+Learning Center.

MYTH: RIGOR MEANS DOING MORE
A number of you have asked about the broad category of academic rigor and how to insure that your learning experiences have it. Terri Heick has written a short blog post that I think can help. She notes, "Rigor matters because it imposes cognitive load on students, forcing them to confront misconceptions, reconsider positions, separate the implicit from the explicit, and other critical thinking practices that distinguish shaky familiarity from true understanding." Heick also provides a quick rigor checklist and debunks five myths about the subject.

LIBRARY, GOOGLE OR BOTH
Earlier this week, I shared the Tech Tuesday Tip of the week. The topic concerned how to determine the difference between an inquiry and a search. Of course we all know how relevant this becomes when our students are relying on online resources more and more. In this article, Terri Heick notes, "The contrast between inquiry and search then, is a matter of pace, volume, and scale. Digital search is always-on and simple and frighteningly fast. The speed at which “results” are issued–and their sheer quantity–obscure the macro perspective real inquiry requires. Pouring over irrelevant book after irrelevant book isn’t perfect either. It can be a huge waste of time, and encourage students to latch on to the first bit of data that seems evenly remotely pertinent." I received a very interesting response from one of your colleagues about the article who was looking to find a few more practical tips. So I am throwing it out to you. Anyone want to share how they incorporate this distinction in their teaching?

NOON REFLECTION BRINGS IDEAS
The Mid Day Musings held earlier today delivered some powerful messages about student persistence and our efforts at retention. Bettinger's article about student supports spurred discussions about community college's missions, the Louisiana Grad Act, proactive advising, and financial aid. Amy Cable, Director of Financial Aid, made a surprise visit to dispel some myths and provide us with some great information that we can use to help our students make the best decision about their academic progress. Moon's article about high-impact educational practices provided the background for a conversation about the benefits of supplemental instruction (SI) programs. Dr. Jo Dale Ales, Dean of the STEM Division, shared her experience with SI by using examples of the current program they are using for gateway courses (calculus, physics, and engineering). Drake's article on academic advising encouraged a discussion about first-class experiences, namely spending most of the time talking about study skills, test preparation, and what is required to complete the class (other than just coming to class). Several ideas were generated that could be turned into pilots at BRCC that may increase our retention rates.

LEARNING WITH GAMES
One of the latest teaching methods trending now is the use of games in class. According to an article by Katie Lepi, gamification of just about anything has been tried by teachers around the globe. She also provides a list of ten colleges who are leading the way in this trend. For instance, the University of Texas at Brownsville has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for the efforts of one of its professors to use video games to teach physics. Associate professor Soumya Mohanty created and taught the school’s inaugural “Elementary Physics Through Video Games” course in the 2010-2011 school year. He said the increased level of reality in modern games has made them valuable teaching tools for physical principles. He used three Playstation 3 consoles and two plasma screens for the course.

OFFICE HOURS AND GREAT TEACHERS
But what deeply moved me, largely because I had foolishly believed that it couldn’t possibly be true, was this important truth: Professor Northcut wants to be at Richland and she is there on purpose. She is convinced that community colleges serve a vital purpose in aiding the best and brightest students who lack the resources to attend four-year schools right out of high school, or perhaps got sidetracked along the way. By her description, Richland exists explicitly to help those students find their way to universities and brighter futures. She is not at Richland because she never found a better job, or to collect a few extra paychecks before retirement. And she certainly does not see her students as the caricatures they often become in our higher-education debates -- representatives of broken systems; too unprepared to make it at a “real college.” Are you intrigued enough to read more? If you do, I promise this op-ed piece will make you feel good about what you do at BRCC. 

AVOID STUDENT EXCUSES WITH POLICY
Dr. John Orlando offers some great advice on how to handle student excuses in a recent article he wrote for Faculty Focus. He writes, as new teachers very quickly learn, students will come up with all kinds of excuses for missing assignments and other work. Students will never say, “I missed the exam because I was out late last night—it was one dollar taps at the Silver Horse, you know how it goes.” As a result, teachers must have a policy for handling these situations, which invariably involves a decision on trust. The problem is that grandparents do die—it happens—but they don’t die as often as we are told and their deaths don’t always coincide with major deadlines in the syllabus. So how do we know when a grandparent really dies, or a roommate actually does get deathly ill in the middle of the night, and when we are being handed a line? Read more here.

STUDENT PERSISTENCE HELPED BY COHORTS
As we continue our campus-wide discussion about improving our student persistence and completion rates, the idea of learning communities keep coming to the front. Looking at the research in that area can be very instructional and can point us to some interventions that have worked elsewhere. Learning communities may be established in many areas of study to effectively address the learning needs for a wide variety of students while providing both faculty and students with an academic structure that promotes collaboration. Learning communities also help to develop a strong sense of student identity as they traditionally have smaller enrollment numbers. Grouping students into cohorts should not only be done for students who initially declare majors, but also for students transferring in from other colleges. It may be useful for BRCC to look at the Tiger Bridge student's data moving forward as somewhat of a pilot of this concept. If you want to read more about this approach, go here.

FACULTY LEARNING COMMUNITY STUDIES BEST TEACHERS
The Best Teachers Faculty Learning Community has settled into their group study using Ken Bain's book What the Best College Teachers Do. Faculty learning communities, as defined by Dr. Milton Cox who runs a summer institute to train facilitators, is a group of trans-disciplinary faculty of 8-12 members engaging in an active, collaborative, semester-long program with a curriculum about enhancing teaching and learning and with frequent meetings and activities that provide learning, development, transdisciplinarity, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and community building. The Teaching+Learning Center has sponsored three previous FLC including a Best Teachers group during the fall 2013 semester. The current Best Teachers FLC members include Dr. Jo Dale Ales (STEM), Dr. Gabriel Aluko (Science), Dr. Amy Atchley (Speech), Mollye DeLoach (Speech), Gery Frie (Construction Management), Vinetta Frie (Liberal Arts), Lucas Gassen (English), Steven Keeton (English), and Dr. Todd Pourciau (DILAS). Look for information on new Faculty Learning Communities planned for the spring 2015 semster in the near future or contact Academic Support Specialist Barbara Linder (linderb@mybrcc.edu or 216.8228) for more information.