From Science Daily: Study shows for first time that a free, online course can change students' mindsets towards their mathematical abilities, leading to increased academic achievement. A free 'massive, open, online course' (MOOC) designed to change students' attitudes towards mathematics makes them more engaged in class -- leading to significantly higher test scores. Published in open-access journal Frontiers in Education, these findings go against the discouraging results of previous studies. It is the first of its kind to show the impact of an online course in changing students' mindsets and beliefs about mathematics and their achievement, with the potential for more widespread dissemination. Continue reading here.

From Faculty Focus: So much of what determines the overall success or failure of a course takes place well in advance of the first day of class. It’s the thoughtful contemplation of your vision for the course — from what you want your students to learn, to selecting the instructional activities, assignments, and materials that will fuel that learning, to determining how you will measure learning outcomes

From Univ. of Washington's The Daily: With all the recent advancement in science, from virtual reality to genetic editing to artificial intelligence, one issue that still plagues society is how best to teach students how these things work. Dr. Carl Wieman, one of the world’s leading thinkers on science education, spoke to a sizeable crowd at Kane Hall on Thursday, April 26 to outline techniques for finding more effective teaching tactics. Wieman holds a joint appointment as professor of physics and of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. He won the Nobel Prize in 2001 for his research in atomic and optical physics. Wieman, 67, argued for a shift away from lecture-style teaching toward what he calls an “active learning” process where students spend more time working with their peers than being talked to by professors. In his physics classes, Wieman isn’t just teaching material, he is teaching his students to become physicists through classroom activities, tests, and critical reasoning.

From Education Week: Contrary to popular stereotypes, many young people are acutely concerned about online privacy, spending significant time managing how they present themselves on social media and worrying about what happens to the digital trails they leave behind. That's the takeaway, at least, from new research presented here Sunday at the annual conference of the American Association of Educational Research by Claire Fontaine. As part of a small study, Fontaine and colleagues interviewed 28 teens and young adults, ranging from 16 to 26 years old. All were low-income New Yorkers, all owned a smartphone or similar mobile device, and all regularly used at least one social media platform. 

ADD THE TRIPLE FLIP TO YOUR TOOLKIT
Many of us are attempting to add more writing assignments in our non-composition courses. With that comes some anxiety about the time it may take for us to properly assess the work. Zeina Hojeij and Zoe Hurley suggest you use the triple flip approach. Their paper discusses "how mobile learning and the use of a range of apps can foster peer and self-editing, aid noticing, and enhance ownership of the writing process. It is argued that flipping corrective feedback helps students to notice their errors and spend more time developing their writing."

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE STUDENT LEARNING
If you have ever thought about including a project in your courses that would be best served using an eportfolio, you might want to take a look at this article. The faculty give a very detailed account of what they did and how they used various social media (like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs) to help their students complete the project. The closing remarks in the article note, "We are sharing our success story, so others might be inspired and structure similar interdisciplinary, immersive, inquire-based learning environments that bridge the classroom with life outside of it and in the process transform not only their student learning, but also the students."

INFLATED CONFIDENCE LEADS TO POOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Rich Lewine and Alison A. Sommers have an interesting article aimed at having students reflect on their learning more. They note, "Although the ability to evaluate one’s own knowledge and performance is critical to learning, the correlation between students’ self-evaluation and actual performance measures is modest at best. In this study we examine the effect of offering extra credit for students’ accurate prediction (self-accuracy) of their performance on four exams in two semester-long classes on Personality. Inaccurately inflated confidence was related to poorer academic performance. A small minority of students improved in accuracy and exam performance over the each of the courses, offering a potentially useful source of comparison for addressing unrealistic optimism. We discuss the findings as reflecting the powerful influence of protecting self-esteem and suggest the need for realistic self-appraisal as a factor in academic success."

LEARNING REFRAMED
Dr. Donna M. Qualters uncovers some interesting information in her research study Do Students Want to be Active? Four important themes emerged from the analysis: the students had an overall positive attitude toward active learning; active learning was perceived to enhance their ability and efficiency in studying; active learning was perceived to improve the learning environment; and, active learning promoted their thinking about their learning and thus helped them to better understand their individual learning style. She also uncovered a few negatives that could easily be converted using the right interventions. She concludes by writing, "The most important need to be addressed is the inability of some students to deal with change. Many of these students come to higher education with expectations of very passive classroom experiences and those expectations must be uncovered, probed and altered. For some students it may go as far as the necessity to reframe what learning is: learning is not about covering material or gathering facts, learning is about integrating and using information in a meaningful way."

USING FACEBOOK IN CLASS

Research shows that there is a correlation between social presence and student success. When students feel connected to a community of inquiry they are more enthusiastic, motivated, and they perform better. If that engagement, communication, and awareness happens continuously and in real-time, as it does in a face-to-face classroom — all the better. Sidneyeve Matrix wrote a recent blog entry about bringing students together who are enrolled in a class that is being taught face-to-face and online concurrently so that the e-students would feel connected and not isolated online? Feeling out of the proverbial loop is one of the most oft-cited challenges for distance learners. Traditionally, a face-to-face classroom, “requires a disciplined commitment from the students to actually participate in the learning activities and reach out to others in the class,” observes Cory Stokes, director of the University of Utah's Technology Assisted Curriculum Center, in charge of testing for online courses. Matrix concludes, "In an online course, the onus is on the student to be self-disciplined enough to engage in self-study, often without the benefit of a class community to drive engagement and interest."

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION

Joshua Kim has written an interesting post about Pearson's OpenClass. He discusses how it fits in the LMS ecosystem and how it compares to Blackboard and Moodle among others. Now that BRCC has decided to move forward with Blackboard 9.1, it is beneficial to take a look at the other add-ons out there. Stay tuned for more information about our eLearning and course delivery efforts.

FILLING IN THE GAPS

Here is an active learning method, pulled from the BRCC Active Learning Manual, that has proven to help students learn from each other and test themselves. Offer note completion time in your class. Towards the end of a class that you have provided a heavy dose of information, ask students to exchange notes and fill in any gaps they identify. This technique helps them generate complete notes as they review the course material. It also helps them to identify what they know and what they need to study. In addition, it allows less-skilled note takers to learn from those who are adept at taking notes. You could also have them share their note-taking tips with the class.