EMPLOYERS WANT STUDENTS WITH REAL WORLD EDUCATION
An article in today's Chronicle of Higher Education reports that students worried about landing a job after graduation might be attracted to a narrow education that focuses on building their knowledge in one area. But that isn't enough to help them pursue successful careers, according to the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The AACU survey shows employers' support for the idea that students should be broadly educated and should apply their learning to the real world during college. More than half of employers indicated that recent college graduates should have "both field-specific knowledge and skills and a broad range of skills and knowledge."

GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP
Ann Zanders will present the second grant writing workshop on Thursday, April 11 at 3:00 PM in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia Building). The faculty development opportunity will focus on BRCC's internal grant process, approval of projects, and proposal writing. It is not required to have attended the previous workshop last Thursday in order to participate this week. You can reserve your spot by sending an email to Ann Zanders at zandersa@mybrcc.edu. The event is sponsored by the Grant Resource Center and the Teaching+Learning Center.

ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM FOCUSES ON STUDENT SUCCESS STRATEGIES
BRCC will host its 5th annual development education symposium on Thursday, April 11 from 8:00 AM until 4:00 PM in the Board Room located in the Louisiana Building. Dr. John N. Gardner, President of the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, is the keynote speaker for the faculty development symposium focused on providing the tools to promote student success, retention, the first year experience, and best practices. The event is sponsored by BRCC STARS Gate Title III and the Teaching+Learning Center. Registration is continuing and open to everyone

UNDERSTANDING YOUR STUDENTS
Understanding what stage of cognitive development your students currently reside at is a key component to determining how you will approach teaching that class. William G. Perry's classic study Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years (LB3609 .P4 1998) gives us the four stages of cognitive development your students will typically experience. These include dualism, relativism, multiplicity, and commitment. Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule modified Perry's categories based on gender in their book Women's Ways of Knowing (HQ1206 .W88 1997). They write about connected knowers versus separate knowers. Teaching at a community college, we know that economic issues also influence many of our students’ abilities to focus on their academic progress. This is often compounded by academic preparation, mental models, and learning styles. The key to providing an environment that promotes deeper learning is by being engaged with your students. Understanding their "story" and how they have come to be enrolled in your class will help you to provide the support they need to succeed.

WE GOT FLIPPED

The Teaching+Learning Center was filled to overflowing today for Dr. Bill Wischusen's Flipping the Classroom seminar. Dr. Wischusen, the tall gentleman at the front of the T+LC in the pictures above, is associate chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at LSU. He has a number of papers about the scholarship of teaching and learning. The main discussion at today's seminar focused on teaching students skills versus content. Most of the faculty attending agreed that skills were the more important of the two and that content is used to develop the necessary skills. Several of the faculty described how they planned to use what they learned at the interactive seminar today in their classes tomorrow. Sandra Guzman, biology, plans to use video power-points in her courses. Idell Adams, liberal arts, plans to use paired argumentative essays. DeWayne Logan, chemistry (who also picked up the door prize for being the first registrant), wants to implement the use of pre-quizzes. Becky Adcock, veterinary technology, plans to allow her students to make mistakes in the class and then challenge them to discover the correct solution. Wes Harris, English, plans to develop creative and engaging activities to teach skills in-class. Dr. Wischusen led the group through several activities designed to help them determine how they could flip their own classes. The discussion was lively as many of the participants shared their own versions of a flipped classroom using content from their own discipline.

GRANT WORKSHOPS PLANNED FOR APRIL

The Grant Resource Center and Teaching+Learning Center are teaming up to bring you two exciting grant proposal writing workshops. The first is set for April 4 at 3:00 PM and will focus on project construction and approval, researching funding sources, and an explanation of the needs assessment process. The second workshop set for April 11 at 3:00 PM will help you gain insight about the BRCC internal grant process, approval of projects, and proposal writing. Both of the interactive sessions will be held in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia). To reserve your spot now, send an email to Ann Zanders at zandersa@mybrcc.edu. Space is limited for both events.

HELPING YOUR STUDENTS LEARN TO LEARN

Dr. Elizabeth Barkley encourages us to help our students to develop learning strategies. She says that we need to help learners become better able to direct and manage their learning by showing them how to use learning strategies. Learning strategies are devices or behaviors that help us retrieve stored information as well as acquire and integrate new information with existing knowledge. They include, for example, previewing, summarizing, paraphrasing, imaging, creating analogies, note taking, and outlining. You can read more about this in Dr. Barkley's outstanding book Student Engagement Techniques: A handbook for college faculty (LB2342.92.B34).

PINERO RECOGNIZED
Congratulations to Amy Pinero, Interim Department Chair of Social Sciences, for being selected as the BRCC Outstanding Faculty Member of the year. Pinero, who teaches criminal justice courses, received her recognition at the LCTCS luncheon today. She is a very active member of the BRCC faculty and currently serves on the eLearning Faculty Learning Community among other things. Well-deserved recognition for a terrific teacher!

READY TO FLIP YOUR CLASS
There are still a few slots open for the Flipping the Classroom seminar to be held on Thursday, March 21 at 3:00 PM in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia). Dr. Bill Wischusen, associate chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at LSU, will deliver this seminar. Although the concept of flipping has been around for some time now, new ideas continue to emerge that allow us to improve the innovative teaching approach. In essence, flipping means that students gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and then use class time to do the harder work of assimilating that knowledge, perhaps through problem-solving, discussion, or debates. You might want to take a look at the Flipped Learning Network website for some additional information. To reserve your seat, send an email to Todd Pourciau at pourciaut@mybrcc.edu.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING REVISITED
Returning to the topic covered by Dr. Barbara Millis, the most recent distinguished speaker in the Teaching+Learning Center's ongoing series, cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. Considerable research demonstrates that cooperative learning produces higher achievement, more positive relationships among students, and healthier psychological adjustment than do competitive or individualistic experiences. The research notes that this can lead to reduced attrition rates and hirer completion for students. Dean McManus who implemented cooperative learning into his classes notes, "For the students, change began on the first day. They learned that they would be expected to discuss the assigned reading and to teach it to other students. Furthermore, they would be writing one-page and two-page summaries of readings often, and five-page reports every couple of weeks. The emphasis would be on their ability to express themselves in terms of the science they were studying." Here are a few other resources for you to supplementthe material that Dr. Millis shared with us during her visit.

BEARS ENTER THE TIGER'S DEN
The Tiger Bridge Program is an innovative new academic opportunity that combines the on-campus living experience unique to LSU, with the smaller class setting of Baton Rouge Community College. This academic collaboration between LSU and BRCC is an invitation-only, year-long program that allows students the chance to make a seamless transition into college life at LSU. After the successful completion of this one-year program, students will transfer fully to LSU for their sophomore year coursework and beyond. Space is limited in the Tiger Bridge Program, and students will enter on a first-come, first-served basis. “I think it will be a great collaborative effort between BRCC and LSU," says Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Monique Cross. “This gives them additional options,” she said. “This is an alternate path students can take to get to LSU and they will also be able to earn an associate degree from BRCC.”

MILLIS EVENT A HUGE SUCCESS
Thank you to all of you who were able to attend the faculty development workshop by Dr. Barbara Millis on February 28. We had close to 100 participants from almost every discipline at BRCC. Dr. Millis left Baton Rouge with a great impression and found our faculty to be "friendly, sharp and committed to the cause." Dr. Amy Atchley, Speech Communications, noted that she plans to "start small" but eventually to move to using "cooperative learning as my method rather than lecture." Mary Miller, Biology, plans to use the jigsaw approach in her classroom. Kathleen Schexnayder, English, said that she plans to use the double-entry journal in her classroom. Russell Nolan, Biology, plans to use problem solving groups in his classroom. I want to remind you that the Library does have three of Dr. Millis' books and she has a number of articles and IDEA papers that could prove useful for you as you use this new tool from your expanded teaching toolkit.


GET READY TO FLIP YOUR THINKING
The next opportunity you have to add a tool in on March 21 at 3:00 PM. Dr. Bill Wischusen, Associate Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at LSU, will visit BRCC to deliver a powerful seminar entitled Flipping the Classroom. This teaching approach has been especially effective for teachers who (among other things) are struggling with having their students complete reading assignments or who are focused on improving their student's critical thinking skills. Flipping demonstrates to your students that they can acquire knowledge in other ways than listening to a lecture. It is a method that stresses student accountability and promotes cooperative and deeper learning. Space is limited and registration has been brisk. If you would like to participate, send an email to Todd Pourciau at pourciaut@mybrcc.edu. This event is part of the Teaching+Learning Center's distinguished speakers series and will be held in 311 Magnolia Building.

CREATE SOME CREATORS
New research continues to emerge about the current generation of college students (sometime called Millennials, Gen Y or boomerangs). For instance, Jean Twenge, the author of the book Generation Me, considers Millennials to be part of a generation called Generation Me. This is based on personality surveys that showed increasing narcissism among Millennials compared to preceding generations when they were teens and in their twenties. Skip Downing, who wrote the ground breaking On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life series, suggests that we need to help the current student population to develop a Creator mindset. It is built on self-responsibility designed to help you build the life you want. Downing writes, "when psychologist Richard Logan studied people who survived ordeals such as being imprisoned in concentration camps of lost in the frozen Arctic, he found they shared a common belief. They all saw themselves as personally responsible for creating the outcomes and experiences of their lives." Downing pits the Creator Mindset (people look at multiple options, choose wisely among them and take effective actions to achieve the life they want) against the Victim Mindset (beliefs and attitudes that prevent good choices and decisions; the blame is always on other people or things). His personal guideline is 10 minutes for griping then on to being a Creator and finding a solution. If you have a class full of victims, I recommend that you read Downing's book for strategies that can turn your students into Creators.

WORKSHOP COUNTDOWN NOW AT 2 DAYS
Where will you be at 3:00 PM on Thursday, February 28? Hopefully you will be joining most of your fellow faculty members for Dr. Barbara Millis' workshop "A Learning-Centered Approach to Teaching that Fosters Retention." Registration is still open and although more than 80 people have registered the Bonne Sante Wellness Center gym provides us with room for the rest of you. Participation in the two hour workshop will provide you with two faculty development service points but more important is the knowledge you will gain. This workshop promises to expand your teaching toolkit and provide you with the confidence to explore new teaching techniques. This event is part of the Teaching+Learning Center's distinguished speaker’s series.

HOW DO YOU LEARN?
Empathy is a good quality to have if you want to be an effective and influential teacher. Our passion for helping others learn may become dimmed by the many challenges we face in our classrooms (whether in buildings or virtually). That is where the learning styles perspective can play a part. While the debate continues over the need for more empirical research, the fact remains that students do tend to learn better when the experience ignites their brain. That ignition is often caused by triggers that help them connect to previous learning and stored knowledge. Lynne Celli Sarasin tells us in Learning Style Perspectives: Impact in the Classroom (LB1060.S27) that "before instructors try to understand and accommodate their students learning styles, they need to understand their own learning style. Because we naturally tend to teach in ways that are consistent with how we learn or may even emulate a favorite teacher, we do have specific techniques that allow us to process information." Sarasin offers a number of short exercises to help you identify your preferences.

TEACHING AS SCHOLARSHIP
Ken Bain, in his book What the Best College Teachers Do (LB2331.B34), says that "teaching must be judged using a learning perspective. Institutions must rate the quality of teaching, both so they can help people improve and ultimately so they can keep the best teachers." He reminds us that "an evaluation is an informed attempt to answer important questions that require difficult decisions and can't be reduced to a formula." He states that the "quality of learning objectives" are important and the teachers "contribution to student learning" is what matters. He urges us to think about teaching "as a serious intellectual act, a kind of scholarship, a creation, complete with evidence" that the teacher is "fostering achievement and learning."

FOOD FOR LEARNING
Edward Nuhfer, Director of Faculty Development at California State University at Channel Islands, tells us that tryptophan is an important brain amino acid that is converted into useful brain chemicals such as melatonin. A deficiency of tryptophan reduces the chemicals that aid with restful sound sleep. As age reduces the body's ability to produce melatonin, tryptophan's role becomes increasingly important. Fowl is a source of tryptophan, so a chicken or turkey sandwich for lunch may cause drowsiness in afternoon classes. Because tryptophan is a nutrient that aids in sound sleep, sources of it are best taken at day's end. Tryptophan taken in before classes or before quiet study can cause problems for many of us and that is useful information you can share with your students. In addition, he notes that many students who are watching their budget tend to gravitate towards less expensive choices like breads or processed cereal. He says, "Such breakfasts, largely devoid of important nutrients tyrosine & choline, won't provide the boost for thinking and learning that good protein sources, such as eggs and meat provide. Creatine found in meats is known to benefit working memory and intelligence."

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP COUNTDOWN: 10 DAYS
Dr. Barbara Millis will facilitate an interactive workshop entitled A Learning Centered Approach to Teaching that Fosters Retention on February 28 from 3:00 until 5:00 PM in the Bonne' Sante Wellness Center's gym. Participants will come to know the theory and philosophy behind cooperative learning, including its belief in the value and educability of all students and the need to provide cooperative environments that balance challenge and support.  As important, however, they will learn how to use cooperative structures to foster academic achievement, student retention, and liking for the subject matter.  Additionally, the presenter will emphasize efficient facilitation of group processes.  The session itself will model a cooperative classroom with combinations of direct instruction, interactive group work tied to the session objectives, and whole-class discussion with questions.  Participants will experience at least three cooperative structures and two report-out methods, applicable to virtually all disciplines, that they can apply in their own classrooms. This seminar is  part of  the  Teaching+Learning Center’s faculty development series. Faculty will receive participation credit for the Faculty Development Program. Registration is now open. She has a number of articles on the concept of cooperative learning including discipline specific for accounting and occupational therapy.

CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS START THE CONVERSATION
One of the most useful methods that instructors have found to update and enhance their teaching to improve student learning is the use of an objective classroom observation. If done properly, the observation is a collaborative assessment that should continue as an ongoing conversation between the observer and the instructor. When the observation is conducted for the purpose of student learning improvement, judgments are formative and the instructor is actively involved in the assessment of teaching quality and needed improvement. The observation method has been validated through extensive use and the research data are fairly consistent on the effectiveness of the exercise. If you are looking to have a classroom observation for the Spring 2013, now is the time to contact me either by email (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu) or telephone (8534). 

E-CONFERENCE REGISTRATION OPEN

Educators are searching for tools that can help them assess and evaluate their students' achievement of defined learning outcomes in fields as diverse as engineering, business, health professions, math, science and technology (to name a few). These assessments and evaluations are part of a national trend toward transparency and accountability regarding the value added in education. The RosEvaluation Conference 2013 will bring together those who are developing assessment and evaluation tools to share information and their expertise. The conference will emphasize concrete, effective, and efficient solutions to assessment and evaluation challenges. Registration is now open for the conference that takes place on April 1-2 and is offered completely online this year so you can participate from your office at BRCC. The 2013 conference topics include: assessing work-based learning-projects with industry, student competitions, design projects; designing and implementing course assessments;developing sustainable processes for program and institutional accreditation; and, using electronic assessment tools.

GET ORGANIZED FASTER
Are you having problems staying organized? Teaching five or more classes in a semester requires a sophisticated level of organization but the use of technology can help you accomplish your goals. Fellow blogger Heather Whitney recommends Todoist to help manage your tasks. She notes, "There are a lot of options available for online task management. Todoist is another option. If it doesn’t sound completely new, it is because it is not. Todoist was originally started in January 2007, but in the summer of 2012 it underwent a relaunch after being rebuilt in HTML5. The result is a very well-built task system that doesn’t suffer from the lag of some others. I have been trying out the website and several associated mobile apps for about three months now. Todoist has all your usual online task management options, such as the ability to apply some kind of categorization label (tags, in this case) to tasks. But there are some additional features that I think make the system worth the time to check into trying it out," she says.

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT ON TAP
Dr. Barbara Millis' visit on February 28 will include a session at 3:00 PM on using cooperative techniques to improve student learning and retention. Dr. Millis has three books in the BRCC Library's collection including Cooperative Learning in High Education: across the disciplines, across the academy, The Course Syllabus: a learning-centered approach, and Using Simulations to Promote Learning in Higher Education: an introduction. In addition, I would encourage you to read two of her IDEA papers, namely Active Learning Strategies in Face-to-Face Classes and Promoting Deep Learning.

ACE PROVIDES BENEFITS FOR PLA AND MORE
As a member of the American Council on Education (ACE), BRCC has a number of resources available that can help us as we navigate the creation of a Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) program of excellence. ACE has been involved in a three year program funded by FIPSE (Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education). Maps to Credentials is designing and piloting credential road maps for student veterans, applying ACE credit recommendations for military occupations and training and incorporating other PLA methods to accelerate veterans' post-secondary attainment. The project is focusing initially on military veterans, a population with college-level skills and knowledge gained through military service, which are essential to the country’s workforce. Cross-sector project advisory groups have been established at the national level and at each partner college and include both employers and veterans in addition to individuals from higher education.

 HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR STUDENTS
An article by Trigwell, Ellis and Han published by the Studies in Higher Education journal indicates that there is a strong relationship with how students feel about a course and their motivation and approaches to learning. The article, Relations between Student's Approaches to Learning, Experienced Emotions and Outcomes of Learning, reports that there are strong links between the approaches taken to teaching and those taken to learning. The authors' research revealed that teachers who use the covering material approach will create an environment that encourages their students to memorize the information with little understanding or retention of the material. A positive classroom environment, which includes student engagement, provides motivation and promotes effort especially as it relates to studying and preparation.

PROBLEM SOLVER ON THE JOB
Chancellor Andrea Miller made a splash in the Sunday edition of The Advocate. The story reports on the challenges that have occurred during Dr. Miller's one-year tenure and describes the resolve she has shown as she continues to work to create a better BRCC.  Tabbed the "Problem Solver" in the article, Chancellor Miller says, “Retention is one of my top priorities. We’ve got to meet students where they are. If we see them on the brink of dropping out, we have to provide that support. We also have to do a good job in assessing our students when they come to us, and identify potential problems as early as possible and provide the assistance they need.”

UNCOVERING THE SIGNS OF SUCCESS
The second week of classes is upon us. How are your students doing? You can actually tell a lot about how well your students will do in your course at this point. Are they engaged in the class? Have they visited with you outside of the class? If you are teaching an eLearning class, have they accessed the material yet? Are they participating in the discussion board conversations? It is not too late to give them some great advice on how to successfully navigate your course. Talk with them about successful strategies you used in college. Bring in someone who excelled in your class last semester to give a talk about the methods they used to succeed. Ask your students to map out a schedule for their college work. It should be integrated with their other responsibilities. This will provide them a realistic look at what it will take to succeed in college. Of course, implicit in all of this is you will become much more engaged with your students and that is a proven retention technique.

NATIONAL EXPERT COMING TO CAMPUS
Dr. Barbara Millis will visit BRCC to deliver a faculty development workshop on Thursday, February 28 at 3:00 PM. Dr. Millis is a nationally recognized faculty development expert and currently serves as the Director of the Teaching and Learning Center at the University of Texas, San Antonio. She will be presenting material and leading discussions on the topic of how collaborative work can be used to improve student learning. Her approach is hands-on and you will leave the workshop with examples, ideas, and the tools to begin to implement new active learning methods immediately. Look for reservation information in an evite arriving soon.

 ABSTRACTS DUE SOON
 If you are looking for a conference that can help you expand your teaching toolkit by learning from your peers, you might be interested in the South Alabama Conference on Teaching and Learning. There is a call for proposals that closes February 15. While this year's conference theme is Teaching and Technology, they are looking for all sorts of work within the scholarship of teaching and learning arena. The conference in Mobile, Alabama will take place May 13 and 14.

DOES USING TECHNOLOGY IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING
Although technology can be a great teaching tool, many professors do not think that it improves student learning. That is the feeling that emerged from a recent report by David R. Johnson who says, "There is little or no indication that innovative pedagogy motivates technological use in the classroom, which sort of flies in the face of how the use of information-based instructional technologies is usually presented." The report suggests, technology is more often used by professors for managerial reasons, such as to help with the demands of growing class sizes. Mr. Johnson said the findings show a gap between how universities market their use of technology—often framing technology as more sophisticated than prior approaches to instruction—and how the faculty actually uses it.

BIG CHANGES FOR ONLINE LEARNING AT BRCC
Those involved in online or eLearning at BRCC know that there is change on the horizon. With a renewed commitment to establishing an eLearning program of excellence, we have recently hired Susan Moak Nealy to manage the eLearning Program at BRCC. Nealy was most recently interim department chair of business at BRCC, holds a MBA from Louisiana Tech University, and has been a faculty member here since 2006. In that time, she has taught a number of classes using the online delivery method and has received certification from the Quality Matters program. BRCC has recently migrated to Blackboard 9.1 and is implementing several new policies designed to enhance our student's learning experience in the online environment. Nealy joins the Office of Teaching and Learning, directed by Dr. Todd Pourciau, and has some exciting innovations planned for all involved in the eLearning program.

THE PLEASURE OF MOTIVATION

Research has shown that students remember things that matter to them. It is why education scientists encourage teachers to use examples and design learning experiences with real world applications. Discovering what interests your students is an important part of the initial engagement process and should begin on the first day of your course each semester or term. In 2009, Min Jeong Kang’s research team published a brain imaging study that confirmed the importance of a well known but often under-utilized condition for enhancing learning: curiosity. In Kang’s study, the participants guessed the answers to a set of trivia questions, were then shown the correct answers, and were tested one to two weeks later to see which answers they remembered best. These answers turned out to be the ones about which they had already known something, but had guessed wrong, so that they had been very curious to learn the right responses.It was precisely at the moment that the participants guessed incorrectly that their brain images showed the most activity in their caudate nucleu, a structure that plays a central role in the motivation to obtain rewards and the pleasure that comes along with them. Kang’s study showed that this structure also seems to be behind the intellectual pleasure we get from adding a new item to our store of knowledge.

BUT I AM A VISUAL LEARNER
While the learning objectives are the same for eLearning and traditional classes, we know that the delivery method can cause some students to encounter new problems. As the delivery method naturally favors students who self-identify as visual learners, there are a number of things that faculty should do to make the experience effective for all types of learners. A research article entitled Knowledge Construction in Online Learning by Shalni Gulati notes that learners should be reminded that they should explore various learning pathways. Faculty need to construct their learning experiences so that they are flexible and accessible, taking into account the learners personal learning interests and goals, the time they have for learning, their different learning preferences, and the learners’ personal and professional responsibilities outside the course. Gulati adds that faculty need to recognize the importance of personal control, emotions and emotional connection for participation in online discussions. Any online discussion strategies need to ensure the discussion tasks are relevant to learners with different professional needs. A pre-course induction may be necessary where learners can develop technical skills and practice online communication to openly discuss and challenge each other.

USING THE STUFF FROM LAST SEMESTER
James M. Lang has written a fascinating piece about his frustration with students who seem to use and dispose of the knowledge he is helping them to learn. He noticed this when he participated in a program that allows him to have the same set of students for two classes that follow each other in the academic sequence. He says, "For two years I taught in a special program in which the same cohort of students took two consecutive courses with me: freshman composition in the fall and introduction to literature in the spring. In the composition courses, I worked hard to help students move beyond the standard strategies they had learned in high school for writing introductory paragraphs: Start with a broad statement about life and narrow down to a specific topic." In their book, How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, Susan Ambrose and her co-authors label the cognitive activity of applying learned material from one course to another and beyond as "far transfer." They note that it might be the most fundamental expectation faculty have for students. "Far transfer is, arguably," they point out, "the central goal of education: We want our students to be able to apply what they learn beyond the classroom."

SHINY AND NEW
The promise of a new semester is always exciting. Our old ideas are new again. We will have a new roster of motivated students. All of our teaching will be met with enthusiasm. All of our carefully thought out learning outcomes will be achieved. Of course reality can be anything but the scenario just described but the possibilities keep us motivated. It is, after all, the reason you became a teacher. Your great desire to share the excitement of discovery and inquiry along with a sense that the world's problems are just one student away from being solved. The person that finds a cure for cancer could be in your class. The person that determines how to pull our economy back from the fiscal cliff might be sitting in the back row this semester. The person that writes the next great novel could be enrolled in your elearning course for the spring. Even more likely, the nurse that helps during your hospital stay or the vet tech that saves your cat or the police officer that provides the first line of defense between you and a criminal is very likely to be here at BRCC ready to start the path to their new career. It is an exciting time for all of us and I hope that I can be a resource for you this semester. As you continue to plan for your upcoming semester, feel free to contact me with any requests for help that you may have. I am ready to assist you so that each and every course you teach will have maximum impact. You are the key to improved student learning at BRCC and I am ready to help.

WHAT IS THIS TEST FOR AGAIN?
A new study by Liu, Bridgeman and Adler reveals that motivation plays a big part in the performance of students on standardized tests used to measure general student learning. Many colleges are using tests of learning outcomes, such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment to prove to their stake holders and accreditors that higher education matters. They note that the CLA, and popular alternatives from ACT and the Educational Testing Service, tests the critical thinking of small groups of entering and graduating students. In theory, comparing the scores of new and graduating students yields evidence either that students are or are not learning. Many call the difference between the entering and graduating students' performance the "value added" by a college degree. The researchers note that when students were told that the test (which typically are not graded and therefore hold little value to the students) were being used by potential employers, the scores improved.

GETTING STUDENT FEEDBACK YOU CAN USE
Gary Cooper has written an excellent blog post about the merits of student ratings. He suggests that you survey your students throughout the semester so that you can circumvent any big problems that may crop up during the term. I have suggested, in faculty development seminars, the use of the Stop-Start-Keep Doing student survey to improve student learning. He gives a number of other suggestions that could be put to use in your course.

THE ALT-AC TRACK
One of the highly attended sessions at the recent Modern Language Association's annual meeting had to do with life as an adjunct professor. Brian Croxall, a steadily employed digital-humanities strategist and lecturer in English at Emory University, extolled the virtues of life as an adjunct. Others on the panel added emphasized the need to be flexible and to acquire potentially useful talents along the way. Learning administrative skills, for instance, comes in handy whether you work in faculty development or as a digital-humanities project manager or any number of other jobs in and around academe.