BECOMING A POWERFUL TEACHER
Rob Jenkins, who writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education, wrote a provocative article recently focusing on what he feels are the four properties powerful teachers need to have or develop. He begins the article noting that we are in a teaching renaissance period where a "renewed interest and commitment to the subject [has occurred] across academe. He writes, "As a faculty member for almost 30 years, I have been inspired and motivated by all of the online chatter. Those experiences have led me to conclude that, when we boil down all the metrics, we’re left with four qualities that all powerful teachers possess. I’m not just talking about adequate, effective, or even good teachers. I’m talking about the ones who most move us, who have made the most difference in our lives, and whom we most wish to emulate. Perhaps we can’t all be that kind of teacher, but I suspect many of us at least aspire to be. So what makes those teachers so great?" Read more here.

THE VIDEO EXPLOSION
Casey Fabris posted a blog article focused on the prevalence of the use of videos in our classrooms. Fabris quotes a new study that found that 68 percent of students watch videos in class, and 79 percent watch them on their own time, outside of class, to assist in their learning. Perhaps not surprisingly, the study found that students do not like videos with speakers who are monotonous, appear nervous, or do not make eye contact with the camera. Videos with animations, real-world examples, and new material were well received. The ideal length of a video ranged from five to 20 minutes. Most students, according to the study, go to YouTube to look for educational videos. They also use Google and frequent course websites. Very few students rely on the library for such materials, with only 32 percent of respondents saying they had searched for videos on their library’s website.

PROJECT CANVAS STARTS
As you know, we will begin using the Canvas LMS during the summer term at the College. Several of you are participating in the eLearning faculty certification spring institute which is being delivered using Canvas. We will be offering several informational sessions about Canvas at our campuses and sites in the coming weeks. Those will be followed by more hands-on sessions designed to help you build your courses. You can start acclimating yourself with the new LMS in a few ways. The first is by using Canvas to build your course content. The second is to join Canvas Community 2.0 which is being offered as a sneak peek now. The Canvas Community is home to all the resources that Instructure provides to help Canvas users succeed (the Canvas Guides, Video Tutorials, Sample Courses, etc.) Users can find answers to questions about Canvas through these resources and from one another in the community forums.The Canvas Community 2.0 will also be a place where Canvas users can connect and interact with Instructure and with each other to discuss and share best practices, ideas for new Canvas features, and even coalesce into community groups of practice and interest including institutions, geographies, roles (e.g. teachers, instructional designers) and other common interests (e.g. all business schools, schools with unique needs).

PROJECT CANVAS NEXT STEPS
The excitement is building for the College's transition to new LMS Canvas. Two members of the BRCC Implementation Team, eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy and LMS Administrator Lenora White, are attending a two day train-the-trainer session now. In addition, we have developed our training plans to accommodate  you as we move for full integration beginning in the summer semester. You can register for various sessions now. The face-to-face sessions will be held on various dates and times (including evening sessions) in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia Bldg.) on the Mid City Campus. We will also have sessions at the Acadian Campus (location TBD). Project Canvas: A Transition Primer is session 1 and will provide an overview of the tool and discussion of a course blueprint in a one hour format. Registrants are asked to bring a copy of their course syllabus. Project Canvas: The Basics is session 2 and will cover the various Canvas functions in a hands-on two hour format. Project Canvas: Superusers is session 3 (a three hour format) and will be targeted at the eLearning faculty (online and hybrid) and anyone else who wants to fully integrate this technology tool into their course. A self-paced option is also being offered by Canvas. Please check your email for an invitation to enroll in this course on Monday, March 30 (checking your junk folder is encouraged as the email may end up there). This optional training consists of six modules including a quiz at the conclusion of each module. Credit can be earned for completing this course with at least a 70% score on all six modules. Send questions or comments to any of the BRCC Implementation Team including Susan, Lenora, Chief Information Officer Ron Solomon, or Dean of Innovative Learning and Academic Support Todd Pourciau.

TASK SWITCHING HURTS DEEP LEARNING
Are you finding it harder than ever to attract and keep your student's attention during class? Have you noticed that your students are more easily distracted than in the past? Attention Deficit Trait (ADT) may be the culprit. First introduced by Dr. Edward Hallowell as a very real but under-recognized neurological phenomenon, the core symptoms are distractability, inner frenzy, and impatience. ADT sufferers have trouble staying organized, setting priorities, managing time, and staying focused. We have continued to research the effects of ADT and have uncovered interventions that have produced positive results in the classroom. This topic was previously discussed in an Academic Minute podcast by McGill University's Julio Martinez-Trujillo post that highlighted the idea of switching in the brain (what many have described as multi-tasking). The research begins with the assumption that you cannot change something if you are unaware of its existence. In this case, many students are unaware that forcing their brain to switch very quickly between many tasks is actually "training" this behavior. Obviously this type of habit is not conducive to deep learning that is required for complex tasks in a college setting. Dr. Joe Kraus contends that we are creating and encouraging a culture of distraction mostly linked to the plethora of technology available to everyone. This phenomena illustrates that teaching is a complex process that requires its practitioners to continuously learn and practice and the Teaching+Learning Center is here to help on that front.

BRAIN REACTS TO NEGATIVITY
Dr. Naomi Eisenberger argues that the brain reacts to social pain much as we react to physical pain. She lists five social rewards and threats that are deeply important to the brain: autonomy, certainty, fairness, relatedness, and status. It explains why people receive feedback in a negative way because it is an attack on a person's status. This aligns with research by Dr. Barbara Gross Davis that grades are a sigh of approval or disapproval and can be taken very personally. She says, "If you devise clear guidelines from which to assess performance, you will find the grading process more efficient, and the essential function of grades–communicating the student's level of knowledge–will be easier. Further, if you grade carefully and consistently, you can reduce the number of students who complain and ask you to defend a grade."

NEW LEADERSHIP AT BRCC
The upcoming fall semester is shaping up to be something special now that we have new leadership in place. Dr. Dennis Michaelis joined us in late July and will serve as acting chancellor until the end of August when he becomes interim chancellor. Dr. Joann Linville will be interim vice chancellor for academic affairs beginning August 17. Both bring a wealth of experience, much of it at the community college level. Moving forward with the plans for Our Louisiana 2020 remains a priority for BRCC as we continue to realize the benefits of our recent merger. Things are looking up!

CONVOCATION WEEK OPPORTUNITIES
Speaking of the new semester, we will be offering a few opportunities to jump into faculty development before classes gets started. Please plan to join us on Wednesday, August 19 at 8:30 am in the Louisiana Building's boardroom. You will hear about the professional development opportunities for the semester provided by the Teaching+Learning Center as well as a session on your Canvas requirements provided by the eLearning Program. We will close with a session on an overview of the academic support available through the Academic Learning Center. The session will be a quick two hours with an opportunity for questions and answers. If you are a new faculty member and have not received an invitation to the New Faculty Orientation to be held on Monday, August 17 from 1:00-5:00 pm, please contact me now (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu). We will host a session on faculty development for all of our wonderful adjunct faculty on Monday, August 17 at 5:30 pm in the Louisiana Building's boardroom. This will be followed by a Canvas for Adjunct Faculty session at 6:30 pm in the same space. All eLearning faculty are required for a meeting on Wednesday, August 19 at 3:30 pm in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia Bldg.). All of these events will be held on the Mid City Campus. Finally, if you are a veteran faculty who is looking to mentor the next generation of great instructors, please consider signing up to serve as a mentor for the 2015-16 academic year. You can do this by sending an email to me (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu) now. You will receive credit that can be used for college service. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or Academic Support Specialist Barbara Linder, eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy, or Academic Learning Center Director Jeanne Stacy.

CANVAS CONTINUES TO IMPRESS
Over the summer session, we have implemented Canvas, our new learning management system (LMS). The smaller numbers proved beneficial as we were able to work out many of the kinks that could have caused serious disruption in what is typically our largest semester, namely fall. If you are looking to more fully understand how Canvas works with other software programs, you will want to attend eLearning Partner Integration Day on Wednesday, August 12. The day begins with check-in at 8:30 am while the programming begins at 9:00 am. Upon checking in, you will have a number of options as sessions will be running concurrently most of the day. The sessions set so far include ProctorU, Respondus lock down browser, TurnItIn, and Smartthinking. We will also have representatives from textbooks publishers Cengage, McGraw Hill, and Pearson. Each session will last between 30 and 45 minutes. Lunch is provided for the first 50 registrants. All sessions will be held in the Cypress Building on the Mid City Campus and the day concludes at 3:00 pm. You can register here. eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy can answer your questions at nealys@mybrcc.edu. 

CANVAS CHOSEN AS NEW LMS FOR SYSTEM
As you know LCTCS has asked for bids for a LMS to be used for all of the system's colleges. Canvas was the LMS selected and the contract was supposed to be signed yesterday. It appears that we will be moving to the new LMS for the Fall 2015 semester. If you visit the Canvas website, they describe themselves as an educational revolution with an industry-pushing platform and millions of satisfied users. I know that our eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy has begun to share some resources with you including a free version of Canvas that will allow you to begin to build your course. I would encourage you to begin to become familiar with the product over the next several months. Take a look at this page which contains free webinars about the Canvas product and look for some professional development opportunities down the road as we move closer to implementation.

INSTITUTIONAL ENGAGEMENT CRUCIAL TO STUDENT SUCCESS
Last week a number of you attended a professional development workshop on the topic of engagement. We discussed four types of engagement including faculty-student, student-student, interpersonal, and institutional. Using the research literature from Chickering and Gamson, Bransford and colleagues, and Ambrose and colleagues (who's book How Learning Works was used in a Faculty Learning Community last semester at BRCC), we were able to discern what areas of engagement would best help us to improve our student success rates. Some of your colleagues wondered about the role of motivation and we were able to watch a TEDx talk from Dr. Scott Geller of Virginia Tech called the psychology of self-motivation. The brief fifteen minute YouTube video delivers a powerful punch that you can begin to use in your classrooms immediately. We also came to the conclusion that there should be a consistent institutional approach to engagement which will take a commitment on the part of all educators and academic support staff to achieve. If we as a community are committed to being flexible, attentive, and empathetic to our student's needs, we believe that our students will begin to succeed in greater numbers.

USING STUDENT RATINGS FOR TEACHING IMPROVEMENT
As you begin to plan for your Mardi Gras break, take some time to plan for the next faculty development opportunity to be held on Thursday, February 26 at 1:00 pm. Interpreting Your Student Ratings and Using Them for Professional Development is the title of the workshop that has been developed in response to your requests. Come and learn how to address student comments about how to address concepts more clearly, how to interpret what is most, more or less important, setting out clear objectives, pacing the class properly, and more. You can register now. For more information, please contact me at pourciaut@mybrcc.edu or 216.8534. This workshop is sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center.

NEW CANVAS CAPABILITY
Canvas, our open online learning management system, recently announced the immediate availability of a new annotation feature in its mobile application. This new functionality allows students to open, annotate, and submit an assignment directly within Canvas. Historically this has been accomplished through a third-party app, which can create an additional expense for our students. Providing one platform where all of these capabilities reside eliminates the need for students to buy additional software and reduces the need for paper, both cost saving actions. The mobile annotation feature allows instructors to spend less time demonstrating procedures for moving and transitioning digital assignments and more time teaching. Digitizing assignments inside Canvas also allows instructors to grade assignments using the Canvas SpeedGrader. Read more here.

ENGAGEMENT IN THE ELEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Learning is about personal relationships. Deep learning doesn’t happen through reading or rote memorization online any more than in the physical world. It is the experiences and meaningful conversations (or maybe human interactions) within a course that enable students to critically reflect, and deepen their learning. All too often, online students feel isolated, which can decrease motivation and increase attrition. When learning occurs entirely through computer-mediated instruction, professors often overlook simple steps like asking participants to introduce themselves. Details like asking your students to create a video introduction to a class can have a powerful impact. Video-based introductions can help develop a community of learners more quickly than simply posting text on a discussion board. Students who are in courses with introductory videos have been shown to actively participate in online discussions very early in the course. And research shows that learners who are more engaged and have higher levels of interaction, have higher success rates. Read more here.

THE FEEDBACK IS FOR YOU
The classroom is a non-stop hub of feedback: test grades, assignment scores, paper comments, peer review, individual conferences, nonverbal cues, and more. Feedback is essential for student learning. Still, students’ ability to process and use feedback varies widely. We have some students who eagerly accept feedback or carefully apply rough draft comments, while many others dread or dismiss their professors’ notes or reject exam grades as “unfair.” Although feedback is integral to our classrooms and work spaces, we often forget to teach students how to manage it. Two Harvard law professors, Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, argue that identifying different kinds of feedback is a good place to start. Continue reading here.

YOUR CANVAS IS READY
The migration to our new LMS Canvas continues as members of the implementation team from BRCC (Susan Nealy, Todd Pourciau, Ron Solomon, and Lenora White) participate in the LCTCS System process. BRCC will be using Canvas for all eLearning, hybrid and face-to-face classes beginning in the Summer 2015 semester. Most of the faculty have completed the Project Canvas training, either with the Teaching+Learning Center or utilizing the online certification process. If you have questions or need additional help, please contact eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy of LMS Administrator Lenora White.

BRAINS LOVE ACTIVE LEARNING
Brain scan research reveals that kinestethic learning (learning by doing) has been shown to be very effective for students in science classes. The research results were published online April 24 in Psychological Science. The study included experiments in the laboratory involving student behavior and brain imaging and one randomized trial in a college physics classroom. The hands-on studies used a system of two bicycle wheels that spun independently on a single axle, which allowed students to understand the concept of angular momentum—at work when a moving bicycle appears more stable than a stationary one. To experience angular momentum, students held the wheels by the axle and were instructed to tilt the axle from horizontal to vertical, while attempting to keep a laser pointer on a target line on the wall. When the axle tilted, the students experienced torque—the resistive force that causes objects to rotate. Read more here.

SUGGESTIONS AS THE SEMESTER ENDS
Looking towards the completion of another semester at BRCC, it is a good time to share some end-of-semester suggestions. There are a number of suggestions from posts in the past. As Maier and Panitz note, ending a course with only a final exam often leaves students with a feeling of dread or inadequacy, rather than with a sense of accomplishment. A better goal for teachers is to help our students leave the course with a solid idea of what they have learned and how they can carry that new knowledge and skill base into future experiences. Here are a few ideas of how you can end your semester in a meaningful way.

Moving Your Onsite Classes to Canvas

The spread of the COVID-19 (commonly referred to as the coronavirus) is causing may colleges to cancel classes and many are moving to the online delivery method to continue classes. BRCC faculty are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the Canvas LMS which can provide an online learning environment in the event that the situation worsens and potentially spreads to Louisiana. There will be a professional development webinar provided the OLC today at 1:00 pm. You can register to participate here. In addition, the OLC has a Continuity Planning and Emergency Preparedness resource page with tips to help you turn your face-to-face class into a hybrid. The BRCC Chancellor's Office has released the following guidelines to be used by all staff, students, and faculty.

·         -Stay home if you are exhibiting any of the following symptoms:

o   Fever

o   Cough

o   Shortness of breath

·         -Seek medical attention.

·        - If you are experiencing any symptoms, contact your instructors and the Dean of Students at dos@mybrcc.edu or submit a report in BRCC Cares (Request for Assistance Link).

·        - Any student that is absent and has exhibited the symptoms above must provide medical clearance to the Dean of Students to return to campus.

·       -  Accommodations (e.g., extended due dates, electronic submission of assignments, videos of instructor lectures posted to Canvas, ect.), when possible, will be made for individuals who may be temporarily unable to attend class due to restrictions placed on them related to possible exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19.

·       -  Please communicate electronically with your instructors regarding all course related matters.  

NEW SEMESTER BRINGS NEW HOPE
Another semester is about to begin and the bears are coming out of hibernation. I could add to your stress level by asking "are you ready?" I would rather help you make a smooth transition by giving you some resources that can help. There are a number of what to do during the first class/week suggestions here. I have also posted the latest version of our Active Learning Manual on the Canvas BRCC Teaching and Learning Faculty Development page. I sent an invitation for you to join that group on yesterday. If you have not accepted yet, you might want to take a minute to do that. Here is another tip sheet with some specific strategies you can use. This link includes videos that may be helpful to you.

COMMITTMENT TO OUR CRAFT
We had a nice turnout for the Faculty Development Kickoff on Wednesday morning. Thanks again to all of you that took the time to hear about the latest brain and learning research. Critical self-reflection, journaling, and participating in professional development workshop are three of the best things you can do to continue to grow as an instructor. The Teaching+Learning Center provided over 80 hours of professional development opportunities last academic year. Our job as instructors is hard but if we expect out students to put in the effort and succeed, it is vitally important that we continue to learn as well. The PowerPoint from the session on Wednesday is on the Canvas BRCC Teaching and Learning Faculty Development page as well. I will be sending out an invitation soon to invite you to continue the discussion about the "team-teaching" initiative proposed by the Faculty Learning Committees that met over the spring and summer semesters.

ADOPT A BEAR
For those who did not attend, I want to repeat the challenge I made at the Kickoff session. Please reach out to at least one student this semester  and make them your priority. As instructors we are always concerned about all of our students but I am encouraging you to do something extra. Really commit to being an intrusive force for good in at least one student's life. Take the time to develop a deeper relationship with them. Be their advocate, coach, mentor, and source of irritation (if that is what is needed). If we all "adopt" one bear this semester, we will see a lot of those students return to us in the spring with a renewed sense of having been successful. Self-efficacy is a powerful motivator. Imagine what you can do!

UNPACKING RELATIONSHIPS: INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT OUTCOMES
What is the relationship between instruction and student outcomes? We know that for students to persist, complete, and achieve success in college, the learning environment matters. Students need to feel integrated into academic and social culture, but integration is not enough. They must be engaged. The more engaged students are in learning environments, the more likely they are to complete, learn, and be satisfied. Further, student beliefs about their academic ability influence their success in education, and faculty interactions sit at the intersection of reinforcing or debunking student beliefs. Yet, the evidence-based practices that we know impact student outcomes and instruction, while widely documented as effective, are not widely used in practice. Read the full report here.

ANALYTICS JUST ONE OF THE TOP TECH TRENDS
Courses that educators can adapt any time based on student learning data. Hackers empowered by artificial intelligence. Augmented reality used in conjunction with campus maps. All of these technologies are on the horizon in 2017. This past year, higher education saw a boost in the use of technologies like predictive analytics, cloud, and augmented and virtual reality — and research indicates that these trends will only continue to rise. About 41 percent of higher ed IT leaders said their organizations will increase spending on tech in 2017, reports University Business in their trends and predictions report, “Outlook 2017.” You can view some of the analytics that can be used in your courses by attending the professional development session Using Analytics to Respond to Student Needs on Thursday, February 16 at 3:00 pm in the Center for Teaching+Learning Enhancement. Register now.

RUBRICS FOR CANVAS
Many of us are using rubrics in our courses to not only help us offer transparency in our assessment but to really guide a student to success. Now you can create rubrics outside of Canvas and import them into your courses. Here is a brief video explaining how to do it.

STUDY GROUPS AIMED AT BUILDING STUDENT SUCCESS
Happy New Year to all of the BRCC family. This morning we unveiled the Student Success Initiative for the spring 2017 semester. The idea was developed by a Faculty Learning Community that included Dr. Amy Atchley, Alexandra Cavazos, Pearce Cinman, Dr. Sandra Guzman, Steven Keeton, Richard Long, Mollye Russell, and Kathleen Schexnayder. Faculty attending this morning's session also heard from current BRCC students Jennifer Burgess (who also serves as the SGA President and on the LCTCS Board of Supervisors), Taylor Cranford, and Matthew Joslyn. Both faculty and students pointed out numerous reasons that study groups improve student success. As I mentioned at the session, the support material to be shared with your students is now posted on the Teaching and Learning Faculty Development Canvas site under the Study Group Module (including the syllabus blurb). Should you have any questions, please contact me or one of the FLC members.

FIRST DAY OF CLASS ACTIVITY
Looking for an opening day activity to start the semester off in a positive direction? Here is something I have used in the past that not only allowed my students to think more deeply about how they learn but also gave me a real-time snapshot of who they are as learners. Ask students to divide a sheet of paper in half. Then tell them to list the best class they had on the left side and the worst class they had on the right. Suggest that they describe why each class was good and bad. Ask them to list the things the instructor did in each class (while reminding them that names of courses and instructors are not important for this exercise). If they slow down while answering, feel free to add some of your own thoughts to the lists. You should have a pretty clear portrait of both classes in about 10 minutes. At that point, tell your students that you want this class to be the best class they have ever had. Point to the items they shared from the best side and let them know that you will be using some of the same approaches. Finish by telling them that the best class experience requires that they be totally engaged as well. You can also use the information you gather to enhance your class throughout the semester.

STARTING OFF RIGHT
Have you ever used a syllabus quiz to begin your semester? If not, I would strongly encourage you to do so. It is very easy to develop a quiz using Canvas. In that way, once the student completes the quiz, they receive their score immediately. In addition I would encourage you to allow the students to take the quiz until they receive all of the available points. This is a great indicator of what kind of persistence each of your students is bringing to the class. Students who don't earn all of the points are already indicating that they may have some persistence issues and that should be a red flag for you. It is easy to take the next step and talk with those students reminding them of the academic support provided in the Academic Learning Center. The syllabus quiz is also a great indicator for students that this document is very important and should be consulted throughout the semester and not just during the first class.

Remember to Update Your Syllabus for Online Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly caused a major disruption for colleges around the globe. As BRCC works to move all of our onsite (face-to-face) courses to be offered using Canvas, it is important to remember to look at your syllabus. Some of the information students may now need may not be part of your current version. Dr. Danielle Geary wrote a straightforward article complete with a list of important items back in 2018. It is very relevant to us now as we transition and I encourage you to take a look at it as you redesign your course including your syllabus. We will continue to post relevant information and updates to the Teaching and Learning Faculty Development Canvas class as well so remember to check that resource at least daily. Finally, if you are looking for some assistance, send an email to elearning@bears.mybrcc.edu along with a brief description of your needs.

THAT FEEDBACK REALLY HURT
It took fewer than three semesters for Michael Howell to realize that he might need to change how he provided written feedback to his students. Dr. Howell, an associate professor at Appalachian State University, used sarcasm and wit in feedback to students during his early years as an instructor. Students complained that the feedback was negative and unhelpful. In one case, his feedback provoked a tearful response from one “grief-stricken” student. “Worst of all, most students were not performing any better on later assignments, despite being provided with copious, and what I considered helpful, feedback,” Howell writes. “Most of my feedback was simply being disregarded.”Howell shares his personal reflection in the introduction of a scholarly article published in the latest issue of the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. Howell reviewed the literature and identified five essential principles of written feedback for college instructors to follow. Check out “The Feedback 5”.

QUICK ACTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Integrating active learning experiences into your class can be simple and allow you to gauge the learning that has occurred. Here is one example called "Student Response to a Demonstration (or Other Teacher-Centered Activity)." After a classroom or laboratory demonstration, the instructor asks students to write a paragraph that begins with the phrase “I was surprised that . . . , ” “I learned that . . . ,” or “I wonder about. . . .” This lead allows students to reflect on what they actually got out of the teacher’s presentation. It also helps students realize that the day’s activity was designed for more than just entertainment. To find more quick and easy ways to implement active learning opportunities in your class, take a look at the Active Learning Manual on the Teaching and Learning Faculty Development page under Modules on Canvas.

WRITING AS A GROUP
Are you interested in how to promote collaborative learning among university students via instructor-guided writing groups? Faustin Mutwarasibo has an interesting article based on her research. She writes, "In their responses, students acknowledged having improved their interpersonal and collaborative skills through writing groups. Students also indicated that, while discussing and interacting with their group members and with the support from their instructor, they improved their English, gained new ideas and perspectives, and learned better about text coherence." Some strategies are proposed on how an instructor can help make group work a relevant and effective learning tool in the full article.

Attending a conference is always a good thing for numerous reasons but one of the best for me is learning about new resources or getting reacquainted with old favorites. While attending the Louisiana Board of Regents annual eLearning conference last week, Dr. Curtis Bonk of Indiana University shared a number of new resources. I spent some time each day this week and last week taking a look at the many ideas he shared with us. I found Flipgrid (which can be embedded in Canvas) to be something I could easily use to encourage more participation in pre-class discussions. Using Vocaroo to give audio feedback to students was also very useful and you can even encourage them to use it for peer critiques. Finally, Polleverywhere came in handy  with the various questions I usually ask during a class session but you are limited to forty free responses. As for getting reacquainted, I spent some time on the Merlot site after being reminded by Dr. Gerry Hanley of all the wonderful (and free) resources there. If you use the Stop-Start-Keep Doing student feedback survey during the semester, you might want to look at FAST (Free Assessment Summary Tool) instead. You know that students like to do things online and the app does a lot of the work for you. Want to teach your students about information literacy? Try the University of Idaho's Merlot contribution. You can spend hours on the Merlot site alone so be careful and set some time limits for yourself. Better yet, share resources you have created that worked best for you.

WHY ARE YOU SITTING ON THAT SIDE
Looking for a good active learning method to kick off the second part of your semester? Forced debate is a great way to focus on critical thinking, allow your students to practice their communication skills, and gauge where the class is in terms of learning. To get started, identify an issue about which there are two clearly defined and opposed positions, and let students know one class in advance that they will be required to select a side and defend it. On the discussion day, divide the room physically into two sides and ask the students to sit on one side or the other. You should leave space in the middle for undecided students who, however, have to move to one side or the other before the class has ended. In fact, any student who changes their mind can move during the class: from one side to the other, from one side to the center, and back again. You can, of course, begin forced debates with a writing exercise, asking students to write a one‐paragraph explanation of why they are sitting on a certain side. Opening a forced debate is the easiest question you’ll ask all year: “Why are you sitting on that side?” Ask a handful of students on one side to respond to that question; by the time they are finished, the students on the other side are frantic to refute the points they are hearing. The physical division of the classroom facilitates the discussion as well, since whenever someone moves, you can pause and ask them why; it also helps the students see that others are changing their minds as a result of the discussion, as they learn from their peers. It is recommended that you use this learning experience at least once a semester in every class you teach. You can find more learning experiences like this one in the Active Learning Manual which is available on the Canvas site under Teaching and Learning Faculty Development under the Modules file.

KEEPING THEM ENGAGED IN AN ONLINE COURSE
Dr. Paula Bigatel, an instructional designer and instructor at Penn State University’s World Campus, has some good information for those of us teaching in the online environment. She writes, "During the past year and a half, our faculty development unit has been gathering data from students about how engaged they felt in their online courses. We wanted to use this data to develop a variety of strategies for faculty to use to better engage their students. Research provides evidence for the connection between higher student engagement and persistence and retention in online programs. We gained valuable insights from students when we asked: Define what it means to you to be engaged in a course." Read the full article here.

I WASN'T IN CLASS BECAUSE I GOT EVICTED
When a low-income parent gets evicted, what happens? Matthew Desmond’s new book, Evicted, looks closely at what happens to a series of low-income people, mostly parents, in Milwaukee. It should be required reading for anyone who works at a community college or a public school in a low-income area. Desmond insinuated himself into the lives of dozens of people in the Milwaukee area at the onset of the Great Recession, and followed their lives closely for years. The book is written mostly as a series of character-driven vignettes, rather than as academic sociology, though he connects the dots in passing and at the end. Continue reading Matt Reed's post here.

Sarah Jones, a doctoral student at Michigan State, reminds us in her insightful post that giving more low-stakes assessments has a multitude of benefits for our students. She writes that providing your student with low-stakes testing will "produce large improvements in student final exam scores, help narrow the grade gap between poorly prepped and highly prepped first year college student, and might even result in more positive course reviews." She cites research by Scott Freeman, David Haak, and Mary Pat Wenderoth (Published in the Life Sciences Education edition of The American Society of Cell Biology) who wrote "We found no evidence that points from active-learning exercises inflate grades or reduce the impact of exams on final grades. When we controlled for variation in student ability, failure rates were lower in a moderately structured course design and were dramatically lower in a highly structured course design. This result supports the hypothesis that active-learning exercises can make students more skilled learners and help bridge the gap between poorly prepared students and their better-prepared peers." Some may be worried that their already heavy workload will be further burdened by more assessment. But the use of Canvas can actually reduce the amount of grading you have to do if you set up the quiz or analysis using the LMS. You can also use peer review, a great active learning tool that enhances learning for all students.

START SMALL AND SEE BIG CHANGES
In our transition from an instructor-oriented approach to becoming a learner-centered college, we have discussed the use of active learning methods quiet a bit in the past. One of the best ways to begin to add teaching methods that promote active learning is by making small changes. Asking a "big" question to begin your class is a great start. Not only does it allow you to connect that day's class with the past but you can also build for the future and link the knowledge to a student's everyday life. James Lang offers some other suggestions in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education and I encourage you to take a look as you wade into the spring 2016 semester.

CAN WE TALK
Another key to encouraging active learning is to use teaching methods early in the semester to set a pattern that allows your students to become comfortable with this approach. Using class discussion fosters active learning but there are times when it is difficult to get our students to participate. Scott Ellman has compiled some useful suggestions on how we can create a classroom culture that encourages participation. One of the first suggestions is to start with a sentence completion exercise. You can read about that and more in his post.

READY TO START
If you are looking for an easy check-list on what your first day of class might look like in order to foster active learning, Dr. Maryellen Weimer has come up with a concise top five things to do. She suggests that we be personable and adds, "Yes, you are the professor, but you are also a person. Students know that you’re the one in charge and that you’re the one who enforces the rules.Teachers shouldn't come across as the big “heavy” who lightens up only if students understand and accept who has the authority. Students want to be taught by a professor but one who acts like a person." You can find the rest of the list on the BRCC Teaching and Learning Faculty Development group on Canvas posted in the Modules under Active Learning and Teaching.

Yes, I Agree and...

We all know the drill. We have decided to use the discussion board feature on Canvas to engage with our students and have them increase their peer-to-peer interaction. We determine the topic and issue an assignment with directions asking students to begin the topics. Once that is done, they are also asked to comment on the topics started by their fellow students. We sit back and wait and nothing happens. Well, to be fair, some students post and then other students give one to five word responses that do not move the conversation forward at all. So what went wrong? Dr. Beth René Roepnack has written a concise article on how we can improve online discussion by simply changing a couple of things. Her article appears on Faculty Focus and she offers the following suggestions. " I adjusted the structure of my online discussions from students starting threads (you know the drill, post-and-reply-to-two) to the instructor starting them, which creates a more organic discussion structure similar to classroom conversations. This simple modification, along with asking open-ended questions from the deep end of Bloom’s Taxonomy, creates discussions that support student learning and engagement with the material and each other." You can read the entire article here. If you use her suggestions, let me know if you experienced the same results that she did.

BEST PRACTICES FOR ONLINE RESPONSE RATES
Now that you have finished posting your grades, it is time to take a look at your student rating report. This can be accessed using your Canvas account. As I have said in the past, taking a look today and then putting it away for a week will help give you some perspective. The next time you take a look, really open yourself up to "hear" your student's perspective. The IDEA Center also has some sage advice ON THIS TOPIC in this paper.

ACTIVE LEARNING WEBINAR MAY HELP YOU GET STARTED
Implementing active learning is a fantastic way to liven up discussions and encourage higher-level thinking. But what does active learning look like in practice? Shawn Orr, Manager of Faculty Training & Engagement at Cengage Learning, recently led a webinar on this very topic, in which she shared strategies she uses to get her students enthusiastically participating.  You can access the webinar here.

TAKE A RISK TO INVIGORATE YOURSELF
Do you consider yourself a risk taker? Some of us would like to try new things but assume that it may be overwhelming or not worth the effort. Karine Veldhoen has a blog post that encourages us to take the risk. She writes, "Pedagogy is the method or practice of teaching an academic subject or theoretical concept. We are pedagogues, yet we can always try new methods or practices and take risks. It will be out of our comfort zone and might even be scary. We won't feel like an expert, but it might be exhilarating, and who knows what our potential is? What new pedagogy can you risk? Project-based learning? A new technology? A different assessment method? Student-led conferences?" Read the entire post here.

Stephanie Kumi is a second year graduate student studying Information Security Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University. She asks a very relevant question, "Who is responsible for teaching students about cyber-security?", in a recent blog post. I think that it is one of a number of topics that we as faculty assume our students know but to be honest, as computer systems become more and more sophisticated, I think even those of us who consider ourselves tech-savvy may not be prepared to help our students. At BRCC, we have adopted an eSkills Orientation that is required of all students before they can register for an eLearning course. The pre-requisite was developed in response to faculty feedback about many of their students enrolling in eLearning courses without understanding just what was required of them. Recently the eSkills Orientation was revised and a much more concise version is now required of students wanting to register for eLearning courses. The new instrument was developed using feedback from faculty teaching eLearning courses (both online and hybrid). In addition, this semester the faculty who teach College Success Skills 1023 adopted the eSkills Orientation as a technology literacy learning experience. The expected outcomes were twofold: first any student taking a CSSK class would then be eligible to register for an eLearning class and second, it was hoped that the experience would improve their technology literacy skills. Preliminary feedback from CSSK faculty has been very positive and our students are expressing that the learning experience really helped them to learn about Canvas and how to use all of the available tools more effectively. So back to the question at hand, who is responsible for teaching our students about cyber-security?