Is Your Teaching a Downpour or Drizzle?

Teaching occurs when learning happens. They are intrinsically connected and the relationship depends on trust, engagement, and respect. A recent Teaching Professor article uses the analogy of rain occurring as a downpour or a drizzle. Dr. Maryellen Weimer notes, "Storms come and go fast. When the downpour reaches the ground, the water runs away quickly—little gets into the ground. Drizzle offers a different image—fine, slow, silent, and yet penetrating. Drizzle soaks into the ground." She then poses the question to us wondering if our teaching is a downpour or a drizzle. Living in Louisiana, where it rains quiet often, we can certainly relate to this metaphor. While a good downpour is needed every now and then to clean off the roads and ground, we know that a good, steady drizzle is best for our plants, flowers, trees, and crops. Dr. Weimer writes, "Getting wet in a drizzle is a holistic experience. You don’t get some drizzle on your face but none on your feet. You’re in it, surrounded by it, unable to escape from it. Is education that kind of holistic experience? Not usually. If the work in multiple courses comes together, forms coherent connections, that doesn’t happen because we teach the curriculum as an integrated whole." So is your teaching more like a downpour or a drizzle?

AN ARMY OF ONE
Karin Fischer says if you want to find a model that works for low-income students, look no further than the armed services in the U.S. Was Daniel M. Piston college material? A decade ago, as a high-school student in Syracuse, N.Y., Mr. Piston didn’t think so. He lacked focus. His grades were so-so. And it wasn’t like he was surrounded by college graduates; of his family, only his mother had earned an associate degree. "The truth is," Mr. Piston says, "I didn’t think I was smart enough for college." After finishing high school, he signed up for an automotive-technology program at nearby Onondaga Community College — a similar course his senior year was the first thing he had been any good at, he says — but, still unmoored, he dropped out after two semesters. He found himself on the doorstep of the local Navy recruiter. The Navy promised excitement, and it offered something else: a life path. Continue reading here.

PLEASE SEE ME
It all began with a simple message that I wrote on the tests or assignments of students who were struggling: “Please see me so we can discuss your performance on the test (or assignment). Let’s see what we can do to improve your grade.” Although initially I was not collecting data on the effectiveness of my “invitation,” I soon realized that most of students—about 80 percent—responded to it. Notably, those who met with me began to do better on future tests; their assignments improved as well. When students did not respond to my invitation, after about a week I reached out to them with a simple email. Some responded, some did not. Over time it became difficult to ignore the benefits of having those meetings with students who were struggling. I think the most important message of these meetings was to convey to them that they were not simply a name in my gradebook but that I really cared about their learning and their success. Continue reading here.

STUDENT SUCCESS IN INNOVATIVE LEARNING
As we continue to broaden the innovative learning opportunities, it is always important to remember that student success is as important as providing scheduling options for our students. Rob Kelly has written an interesting article on this topic. He says, "Offering different kinds of courses is not a simple matter of taking the content and dividing it in ways to fill an unusual time slot. Imagine converting a lecture-based course that normally meets three times a week to a block format that consists of a single four-hour session. The instructor might be a great lecturer, but it’s unlikely that he or she could engage students for hours at a time. “There is a world of difference, or there should be a world of difference, between teaching a class that meets three times a week for fifty minutes, teaching that same class that meets once a week from eight until noon, teaching that class in an accelerated format that meets three or four days a week, or teaching it online,” Glenn says. “As we get better at offering these different formats, hopefully we get better at delivering the instruction in these formats.” Continuing reading here.

ENCOURAGING STUDY GROUPS AND EXAM PREP
Do you spend class time on exam reviews? Dr. Maryellen Weimer provides a concise list of ways you can handle this efficiently during class. She writes, "Here are two frequently asked questions about exam review sessions: (1) Is it worth devoting class time to review, and (2) How do you get students, rather than the teacher, doing the reviewing? Instead of answering those questions directly, I decided a more helpful response might be a set of activities that can make exam review sessions more effective." If you don't have the extra time in your classes, you should suggest that your students form study groups. They can book a study room in the Academic Learning Center or the Library. If they let you know when and where they are meeting, you can even stop by for a 15-minute check-in to see if they have any questions.

DIGITAL DISTRACTIONS ON THE RISE
Have you noticed an increase in the amount of time students spend on their electronic devices, even during class time? A recent study showed that on average, students use their devices 11.43 times in a typical class.  The digital distractions research also tried to determine student's motivation for using their devices during class when it obviously can cause them to miss important material. The study even asks them about what they think the consequences should be for students caught using their devices despite being warned or banned. You can find an overview of the study here.

IS A BLENDED CLASS IN YOUR FUTURE
As our online program continues to grow both in numbers of students and in the courses we are offering, the progression to hybrid or blended classes is a natural progression. We are already offering some hybrid classes but would certainly like to grow the number. The great thing about hybrid class (identified by classes that meet mostly online but have a few face-to-face sessions) is the student success rate is usually higher than either fully online or traditional face-to-face classes. Here is an interesting story about the growth of this type of delivery method. If you are interested in learning more about offering a hybrid class, please contact Susan Nealy.