COLLEGE SUCCESS SKILLS THAT WORK
With no classes scheduled for the next two weeks, things should be slowing down at BRCC, right? Not so, because this is traditionally a time for graduating high school seniors to start their college orientation process. We have held a number of sessions already with more to come. I was asked to participate and give the orientation crowds a ten minute version of how to succeed in college. Impossible you say? Not really, I say and here is part of what I tell them. College and high school are different. The clearest way to send this message is to talk about the 80/20 and 20/80 rule. In high school 80 percent of the information students learned came from the teacher. That means that 80 percent of what a student may need to pass a test is being provided in carefully crafted learning experiences that do not require any active learning to occur. In college, that role is (or should be) reversed. Students must realize that their professor will provide about 20 percent of what they need to be successful in the course. The rest of the information needs to come from other reliable sources like textbooks, journal articles, personal research, and most importantly, application of the basic knowledge. This process, usually described as critical thinking, is what sets the college experience apart from high school. So how do we get our student to shift from the 80/20 to the active learning model? First by having them understand the difference by talking about it and having them think about it. Next, talk about the college experience, your expectations, and the effort that is required to be successful (or strongly encourage them to take the College Success Skills class that we offer). Finally, talk about how the college experience and the approach they learn to apply here will benefit them for the the rest of their lives. The "real world" requires them to think critically, write well, and work with others. These are all of the skills they learn in college. At the end of my presentation at orientation, I challenge the incoming students to begin to write their own story. I ask them, "Who do they want to be and how will they get there?" I close by reminding them that making the decision to come to college infinitely increases the chance that their future will be bright.

EXPECTATIONS VERSUS ABILITIES
In a classic survey of campus faculty, Browne and Osborne noted a large discrepancy between faculty expectations for incoming students and incoming students’ perceptions of their own abilities. In particular, faculty expect college students to: critically think, manage their time, monitor their own stress levels, solve problems, clearly articulate what they do and do not know, and prioritize tasks so more important tasks are afforded more time. In this same poll, however, first year students cited the following areas of weakness in their own preparation for college: poor time management skills, ineffective methods for coping with stress, frustration with communication abilities, and poorly developed critical thinking skills. It may not surprise you that this survey was released in 1998. So here we are sixteen years later and not much has changed. The good news, according to Browne and Orborne's research, is that the process of critical thinking can be taught and modeled well enough in one semester to initiate some long-term change. Even with a model for critical thinking in hand, however, student success is not guaranteed. Students need ongoing and frequent practice with applying the critical thinking model, and they need practice with applying the model in diverse ways. Discipline-specific applications on the process of critical thinking may be less effective in the long run than requiring students to implement critical thinking in ways that are relevant to their daily lives. As you begin to plan your learning experiences for next semester, remember to look for ways to help students develop their critical thinking skills. Take another look at the survey list above at the beginning of your next semester. If your class is filled with first-time students, who were most recently in high school, they may not have all the skills your expect. That means you have to change your approach but in the end it will create less frustration for you. Remember to keep calm and be engaged.

GO BACK IN TIME
Before you leave for the summer (if you have decided not to teach during the summer term), you might want to request a copy of the updated Active Learning Manual. It is filled with active learning strategies that can be used in any type of class. There are even some suggestions specific for those teaching in the online environment. You might also want to take another look at this post on active learning. Can you spot a good learner? Revisit this post and match the list with the students in your class who had success. Is the article validated by what you observed? If you are looking at a course redesign project over the summer, take a look at this information to help you stay focused.

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL STUDENT NEED TO KNOW
While we continue to offer a college success skills course, many of the students who would benefit most are not enrolling in the class. If you are advising a student who has struggled with time management, test anxiety, metacognition issues, critical thinking or any other issues that prevent their academic progress, it may be time to suggest they enroll in a CSSK 102 class. In the absence of taking that class, you should strongly encourage them to take advantage of the various workshops offered by the Academic Learning Center. Karp and Bork, of the Community College Research Center, have written a working paper on the topic. They note "While low college success rates are typically linked to students’ lack of academic preparation for college and their subsequent need for developmental or remedial instruction, research suggests that even many students who are deemed “college-ready” by virtue of their placement test scores or completion of developmental coursework still do not earn a credential." Their paper builds on previous work arguing that community college success is dependent not only upon academic preparation but also upon a host of important skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are often left unspoken. The paper  clarifies the role of the community college student and the components of that role that must be enacted for students to be successful. They provide a concrete, actionable description of the community college student role and present a framework that practitioners can use to help students learn how to be successful community college students.

USING STUDENT RATING FEEDBACK EFFECTIVELY
As our students begin to complete their ratings of their experiences in our classes, it is a good time to take a look at how we as faculty can use the data and what the current research says about the process.  Safavi and Bakar, et al. suggest that faculty may want to add some additional questions to the ratings in order to gather information more specific to their subject matter and teaching approach. In research performed by Slocombe, Miller, and Hite, they note that students tended to give higher evaluations to professors who used humor and to professors they liked but the difficulty of the class did not impact students' ratings of faculty. Ronald A. Berk's research revealed that students' expectations about how the results will be used are also critical to future response rates. Chen and Hoshower found that students’ motivation to participate in  the  rating  system  hinged  on  the following semi-observable outcomes (in order  of decreasing importance): (1) improvements in teaching, (2) improvements in course content and format, and (3) faculty personnel decisions (promotion, tenure, salary increase).

BECOMING A LEARNER-CENTERED EDUCATOR
Dr. James Lang has written a column for The Chronicle of Higher Education about some of the small decisions he has made that had a big impact on his classes. He writes, "When I first started teaching, the open space of a 50- or 75-minute class period seemed an eternity. Like many a new faculty member, I worried about having enough material. I wanted to ensure that, if discussion faltered or if I rushed through the lecture too quickly, I would have options to fill the remaining time. My greatest fear was using up everything I had and finding 30 minutes still left on the clock. Twenty years later I seem to have the opposite problem: not enough time in the class period to accomplish everything I have planned. It seems so difficult to me now to do much of substance in 50 minutes. I don’t know whether to blame that shift in perspective on the fact that I have more teaching experience or that I’m just older. I suppose those two possibilities don’t untangle very easily." Continue reading here.

THE COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS

Building community among our faculty is very important for us to function as a disconnected group of disciplines that must come together cohesively to address systemic problems such as student retention and success. Part of our jobs as faculty has always been to focus on the needs of our students. Whether it is showing your students how to annotate, suggesting better study skills, or advising them about time management, when we take the time to teach students how to navigate college, we are also helping our colleagues. If a student learns a valuable college success skill in one class, we all benefit. So as the landscape continues to shift and the opportunity to attend college is an option for more students, we know that the number of underprepared student will continue to grow. Here are a few suggestions that you can use to create a stronger foundation for students who are faced with multiple impediments. Suggest during your advising sessions that taking the College Success Skills course provides a solid orientation for surviving and prospering in college. When you notice students are struggling, whether by formative or summative assessment or simply through observation in your classes, suggest that they make a trip to the Academic Learning Center. Make sure you send them with a referral sheet. Once they have made their visit, have them return the referral sheet to you so that you can see what intervention was offered and what the ALC professional staff suggests as the next step. The entire process can be viewed on the ALC website. The most important thing in this situation is to talk with your students who are struggling. A high level of engagement, often marked by the student-faculty relationship, is key to improving student success.

THE VALUE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES

LCTCS President Joe May recently had a guest editorial published by The Advocate. In trumpeting the merits of the community college experience, Dr. May uses one of our own BRCC student’s story to make his point. He says, “Students who often choose to enroll in community colleges value their low cost, easy access, small class size, and high quality instruction that aligns with the needs of the local economy. Many of these students, such as Laketa Smith at Baton Rouge Community College, acknowledge that many of their previous education and career choices were not in their long-term best interest. Laketa, like a great number of students, needed developmental education in reading to help her prepare for college-level courses. As the result of her developmental education courses, she is successfully enrolled in honors courses at BRCC. At the same time, she not only saved herself money she saved the state of Louisiana as well.”

END OF SEMESTER SUGGESTIONS

As you begin to create your final exams, I would encourage you to use the comprehensive approach. What we know about the brain and learning is that it requires prompts and redundancy in order to create deeper learning. Repeating questions from your past quizzes and tests is a good idea, especially if a high number of students did not demonstrate mastery on the previous assessment. You should also be looking to see if the students are using the feedback you have provided them by assessing their ability to integrate changes and new knowledge. Test anxiety is a very real impediment for many of your students. Positive messaging and confidence building are two key components to allowing your students to give you their best effort. Encourage them to build study guides individually and then allow them some class time to share their efforts with other students in the class. The sum is always greater than the parts when it comes to knowledge. Finally, you may want to have each of your students bring in a self-addressed stamped envelope. That way you can send them feedback on their final exam. You could also email this information or create a general feedback document that you could post to your Blackboard site. This allows us to continue to scaffold the knowledge they learned this semester and connect it to new knowledge in the semesters to come.

THE HONOR CIRCLE EXPANDS

Join us in congratulating Dr. Sandra Guzman as the most recent recipient of the Keep Calm and Be Engaged shirt of honor. Watching Dr. Guzman in her classroom is an inspiring experience. Her love of both teaching and her discipline is readily obvious. She is a big proponent of active learning and making sure that her assessment instruments are aligned with her teaching. Dr. Guzman is also a disciple of Bloom’s Taxonomy and champions its worth to her colleagues. As a biologist, she is concerned about the environment and shares her passion with her students in this area as well. Her students tell us she is tough but caring. They also say that she is able to take a difficult topic and relate it to their lives in ways that help them learn and make connections to previous knowledge. So we welcome Dr. Guzman to the Keep Calm and Be Engaged honor circle where she joins previous recipients Paul Guidry, Wes Harris, Dr. Mary Miller, and Amy Pinero.

Is Linking Learning and Work a Must Do for Faculty?

The latest white paper from the American Council on Education (ACE) is creating a healthy discussion about what is and isn't part of a faculty's responsibilities when it comes to their students. The ACE paper suggests that having students career-ready should be something that faculty should be doing. The paper's authors acknowledge that both community college and university faculty influenced the work. Working at a community college and teaching a course called College Success Skills (CSSK) may be influencing my opinion on this matter but in talking with employers, local chamber members, and students themselves, many see it the same way. Our CSSK course provides knowledge about the obvious college success issues (test anxiety, taking notes, engaging with faculty, study habits) but we also spend time on what some would call soft skills (communication, netiquette, time management, critical thinking). Having worked previously at a flagship research-intensive university as well as a regional doctoral university, I will be the first to tell you that each mission was different. But at the end of the day students are attending college/university to get a job. This white paper comes at a really important time as the financial support from government continues to shrink and the public seems to have lost their faith in a college degree. Having a constructive conversation to reset our priorities is a useful thing to do and I welcome your feedback on this issue as well.

Understanding what your students expect from you and the course they are taking may be as simple as asking them. However, research has shown that many students enter college with misconceptions about what they will be expected to do. This can happen more in first-generation students but some of the tendencies are exhibited by all students. In the College Success Skills course we offer at BRCC, one of the first classroom discussions we have is about the similarities and differences between high school and college. It is very often an eye opening discussion. If you are looking to share some of the differences, Dr. Sarah Forbes has written a nice post about this subject. She writes, "At our institution, we have noticed that many students have been given false expectations from their high school teachers and counselors regarding the level of effort they will need to expend. Students are often told that college will be easy, giving the impression that effort will not be necessary. Further, our students often have insufficient prior experience from which to guide their behaviors. College courses are more rigorous and conducted at a faster pace with a higher workload than they are used to in high school. Give students the benefit of the doubt because they initially have no idea they are not prepared for college. For example, if students fail to turn in an assignment, don’t assume they are apathetic about their education. If students fail to respond to your emails, don’t assume they are ignoring your information. Use these situations as teachable moments for the whole class, sharing both the rationale behind the assignment/email/etc., as well as your expectations for them." Read the entire article here.

BACK TO CHANGING LIVES

Welcome back to all of you. The Spring 2014 semester officially began yesterday and the Mid City Campus was certainly buzzing with activity.  The parking lots were full and the Library began to fill once again with patrons. I hope that all of your classes got off to a great start. I wanted to mention that I am teaching a College Success Skills class this semester and met with them for the first time last night at 5:30 PM. I am trying to implement as many of the teaching methods from the Active Learning Manual as I can. I have used many of them in the past but this class is unique for me as it is the first time I have taught a room full of all first time students. I promise to share the good, bad and everything in-between as we journey through the semester. I must say how pleased I was with last night's session. My students are attentive, respectful and ready to learn. Since the class focuses on learning how to learn, it is a great place to expand their conceptions about what it takes to be successful in college. Keep Calm and Be Engaged!

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT DAY RECAP

The recent visit by Dr. Mary Clement of Berry College was a resounding success. Not only were the comments and evaluations overwhelmingly positive, but the feedback has continued. As I run into many of you at the start of Spring 2014, I am hearing about changes that many of you have made based on what you heard at the faculty development workshops on Friday. Dr. Clement sent the nicest thank you note and complimented BRCC on many levels. She found the faculty to be warm, welcoming, and energetic. I agree wholeheartedly. We have placed two (autographed) copies of her book First Time in the College Classroom: A guide for teaching assistants, instructors, and new professors at all colleges and universities in the Library's collections. By the way, I had mentioned that the Teaching+Learning Center now has a Twitter account (@brcctlc) and we were able to tweet all day Friday during the workshops. You might want to check out the comments as many of them could be easily integrated into your classroom routines.

CAN YOU SPOT A GOOD LEARNER

The Faculty Focus newsletter had a great article by Dr. Maryellen Weimer about the characteristics that good learners possess. She notes that, "this could be a list for our students or anybody who aspires to learn well." Here is the short list.

1.     Good learners are curious

2.     Good learners pursue understanding diligently

3.     Good learners recognize that a lot of learning isn't fun

4.     Failure frightens good learners, but they know it's beneficial

5.     Good learners make knowledge their own

6.     Good learners never run out of questions

7.     Good learners share what they've learned

You can see the expand version here. Let me know what you think of the list and if there should be another item or two.

A recent conversation with a colleague about problem-based learning (PBL) prompted me to take a look at the latest research on the topic. What I found is there is a lot of material and the research studies are very often giving what looks like conflicting results. A closer look however led me to understand that very often the context has a lot to do with whether PBL is beneficial to learners or not. If you are just jumping into PBL, John R. Savery has a nice overview with definitions that are helpful. One of the areas I am always interested in looking at is how to help learners develop their critical thinking abilities. It is one of the many topics we teach in the College Success Skills course and I often share with students that people who can solve problems will always find a job. Agnes Tiwari, Patrick Lai, Mike So, and Kwan Yuen tackle this issue in their study and found that PBL did aid in the development of critical thinking skills versus students who only received traditional lectures. Serkan Sendağa and H. Ferhan Odabas also found that using PBL in an online environment increases learners critical thinking skills. Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver found that using PBL methods can also improve learners collaboration skills and intrinsic motivation. Now you should be really intrigued and want to learn more about how you can implement PBL into your courses. Look for a follow-up post soon that will share some tips on how you can do just that. By the way, if you are already using PBL, be sure and post your comments so that we can all learn from your experiences.

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW
Join us for what promises to be an energetic and informative faculty development session, Teaching as Performance: Learning to Get the Most Out of Your Voice, on October 15 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM. Dr. Tony Medlin, assistant professor of Theatre Arts, will facilitate this session. The workshop will cover simple and easy techniques to improve projection, articulation, and preserve your chops, based on Lessac speech production. The workshop will be held in 311 Magnolia and is sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center. You can register now. You can also view all of the Teaching+Learning Center's upcoming events here.

HOW TO SUCCEED AT COLLEGE
If you are noticing that a student is struggling in your course, reaching out to them is always a good thing. Perhaps sending an email or catching them at the end of class and asking how things are going may be enough to get the student to open up. After talking with them about their study habits, you discover that is the area that is probably causing them the most trouble. So then what? I can suggest three things that you can offer. The first is suggesting that they enroll in the College Success Skills class offered each semester. The knowledge shared in this class is great not only for their academic progress but very valuable to their life post-college. The second is to suggest they take advantage of the workshops offered by the Academic Learning Center. The third is using your personal experience to illustrate how you were a successful student and Dr. Lisa Lawmaster Hess offers some great ideas in this Faculty Focus article that can be used to supplement your own suggestions. What has become more apparent to me over the last few years is under-prepared students don't want to stay that way. Talking with them honestly about what is required in order to be successful in college can really turn the tide for many of them. Finally, I would remind you to follow up with them in about a week to see if they have implemented the study strategies you suggested. If you have any suggestions on this topic, feel free to share them here or send them to me so that I can share them.


THE IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL LITERACY
In our most recent faculty development session on The Millennial Learner: Greatest Generation or Generation Me, we discussed how imperative it is for students to learn digital literacy. While many of us do not have time to teach on this topic for an entire class period, dropping bits of knowledge throughout your classes may be an option. To help you do that, Dr. Lauren Arend has posted an informative piece on the topic.  Here is a small sample of her article. "While students enter our programs with limited background on what they know about content in their respective fields, they come to us with some preconceptions about what it feels like and looks like to be a professional in that field.  Students come to us with a history of interactions with news media, film, television, music, literature, and advertisements that have shaped their understanding of who teachers are, what a doctor is like, or what it means to work in criminal justice. Without framing, it is highly unlikely that students were examining those decades worth of images through a critical lens.  This is where critical media literacy pedagogy becomes crucial."

SEND AN EMAIL, CHANGE A LIFE
The numerous students we are seeing at the orientation sessions this summer tells me we are going to have a very busy fall semester. We have been stressing to all of the incoming students that the key to success is preparation. While you have some time, why not sift through your class lists from the spring semester and identify some students who could benefit from the College Success Skills class we offer. An email from you could be just the inspiration they need to take better control of their academic career. As we continue to focus on student success strategies that work, I encourage you to try some intrusive advising.

MULTIFACETED MISSION IS HARD TO MEASURE
Dr. Peter Riley Bahr has developed a new way to classify community colleges based on their use by students. As it is important for us to understand patterns like this to fully understand and prepare to meet the Grad Act benchmarks, I encourage you to read the full article that appeared in the Research in Higher Education journal (June 2013).  Bahr writes, "The implementation of performance accountability systems for community colleges is complicated by the multifaceted mission of these institutions. This mission often is divided into the three categories of workforce development, upward transfer to four-year institutions, and community education. In addition, it is not uncommon for a fourth category to be mentioned, though the specifics vary. Some argue that the fourth category is remediation, while others suggest that it is general education.”

ACTIVE LEARNING IMPROVES STUDENT SUCCESS
Active learning is most commonly defined as several models of instruction that focus the responsibility of learning on learners. To enhance learning, teaching must encourage students to do more than just listen: they must read, write, discuss, and be engaged in solving problems. We are currently working on updating the Active Learning Manual but the current version is still available and we will forward a copy to you if you send us an email request (pourciaut@mybrcc.edu). A recent article in Faculty Focus extolled the virtues of the one-minute paper, an active learning standard. Problem-based learning is another good active learning technique that can be used by any discipline. The aforementioned article notes, "Case studies are a form of problem-based learning that encourage the student to think critically and apply “book knowledge” to everyday practice and problems that will occur in the workplace. A literature review reveals very little research on using case studies in fields other than health, law, and business. However, case studies could certainly be written for any field of study." You can also use video in your courses to promote active learning. Whether you are just getting started in the active learning realm or have moved far to the right of the continuum mid-point, there is always room for improvement. I have found that as I use some of the suggested active learning methods, new ideas begin to emerge. Sometimes the students themselves suggest new ideas.

Managing Stress Key to Student Success

What do you know about anxiety related to testing and assessment? Did you experience anxiety when you were in college? Did you find a way to overcome it and succeed? Have you thought to share that with your students? The faculty who teach our College Success Skills course (CSSK 1023) include material about test taking and how to deal with anxiety and other issues that may arise when a student feels stress. Of course we cannot go through our lives without experiencing stress but learning how to manage it allows us to be successful. One of the ways you can help your students to be fully prepared for assessment is to have them think about the process itself. What is being assessed and why? Have them think about the types of test questions you are likely to use. Have them actually come up with questions that they think might be on the test. In this way, they can be more productive when it comes to preparing for assessments. Another method you might want to introduce is using music to set a calm and distraction free environment in your classroom. Using music can help students to focus on the task at hand and block out whatever else is going on in their lives at least for the hour or more that they are testing. I suggest using music like Japanese ambient selections. You can use songs like Still Space by Satoshi Ashikawa or Glass Chattering by Yoshio Ojima. Playing this for 3-5 minutes as your student enter the class on the day of testing will help them to be more mindful of what they have learned and allow them to share this with you. Let me know if you try it or if you have other suggestions of music that will help students perform their best.

HELP IS ON THE WAY

The Title III Program and Teaching+Learning Center are co-sponsoring a faculty development webinar on Thursday, November 14. Promoting the Development, Achievement and Persistence of Students from Diverse Backgrounds webinar will occur from noon until 1:30 PM in the T+LC (311 Magnolia Bldg.).  This intensive workshop will share effective theory-based programmatic and individual interventions that have resulted in campus environments of support that increase persistence for students of color. In addition to being provided with a wide range of information regarding demographic, educational attainments and other issues related to multicultural/students of color, participants will be provided with strategies that will allow them to improve student success. Upon completion, participants will be able to assist students employing the 0-100% Teaching and Advising Method as a means for promoting greater student responsibility for learning. Registration is now open.

RESEARCH WE CAN USE NOW
A new report on first-generation students could provide us with some valuable information as we continue to implement interventions to improve student retention at BRCC. The report notes that about a quarter of high-school graduates who took the ACT in 2013 met all four of its college-readiness benchmarks, in English, reading, mathematics, and science. But students whose parents did not go to college fared quite a bit worse: Only 9 percent of them met all four benchmarks. We know that many of our students are the first in their family to attempt to earn a college degree. One of the highlights from the report says, “Recent research demonstrates that academically prepared students, as measured by the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, have greater chances for success in their future educational endeavors. However, academic readiness is just one of several factors that contribute to educational success. The academic behaviors of students and the interest levels in their specific major or career are other key factors. Together, these elements define a clear picture of student readiness for post-secondary education. To encourage progress, the educational system needs to monitor and sustain all key factors of success.”

TESTING IS A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY
Dr. Maryellen Weimer offers us an interesting reminder about testing in a post on The Teaching Professor blog. Her thoughts are consistent with what we discussed in our testing workshop on October 17 but bear repeating. She writes, “We give exams to assess mastery of material—are students learning the course content? With so much emphasis on scores and grades, it’s easy to forget that the process of preparing for, taking, and getting feedback about an exam can also be a learning experience. The learning that results from these processes can be tacit, or teachers can design activities associated with exam events that can result in better content learning and heightened student awareness of the learning skills associated with demonstrating knowledge.” Read more…

WHAT SHOULD ACADEMIC ADVISING LOOK LIKE AT BRCC
Jeffrey Selingo's article on academic advising lists many of the same issues we are currently experiencing. In his article, he notes that academic advising "has always been one of those intractable problems on college campuses. Students rarely think about it until that frantic moment when they need someone to sign the registration form for next semester's classes. Only 4 of 10 students consider counselors their primary source of advice regarding academic plans, according to the National Survey of Student Engagement, an annual poll of freshmen and seniors. A third of freshmen turn to friends or family. One in 10 students never even meet with an academic counselor." Please remember to join us tomorrow at 1:00 pm in the Teaching+Learning Center as we continue with our discussion on creating an academic advising program of excellence.

CAN YOU HOLD THAT IDEA FOR A MINUTE
Dr. Maryellen Weimer's latest blog post offers some solid assistance for those who like to use classroom discussion. She writes, "The classroom discussion is going pretty well. Students are offering some good comments and more than one hand is in the air. Then a student makes a really excellent observation that opens up a whole avenue of relevant possibilities. You follow-up by calling on a student whose hand has been in the air for some time. Her comment is fine, but it’s totally unrelated to the previous comment. How do you get students to respond to each other’s comments? How do you get student comments to build on a key topic so that it becomes more like a real discussion?"

DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION IS AN OPPORTUNITY
Dr. Hunter Boylan's editorial on community colleges and remedial education strikes a few familiar chords. He writes, "Members of the professional community in developmental education agree with many studies suggesting that simply placing students in remedial courses is an inadequate response to the problems of underpreparedness among entering college students. They would further tend to agree that the current process of identifying and placing underprepared students is flawed and that the entire process of assessing, advising and teaching them needs reform. But if there is a 'solution' to the remediation education 'problem,' it is vastly more complex than many reform advocates and most policy makers acknowledge. It will require that community colleges change the way they do remediation. It will also require that they address non-academic issues that may prevent students from succeeding, improve the quality of instruction at all levels, revise financial aid policies, provide better advising to students at risk, integrate instruction and support services, teach college success skills, invest in professional development and do all of these things in a systematic manner integrated into the mainstream of the institution."

ACADEMIC ADVISING FRONT AND CENTER
Academic advising discussions are probably still occurring after the past two days of professional development opportunities. Tuesday we heard from the professional development workshop panel that included Dr. Mary Boudreaux, Wendy Devall, Vinetta Frie, Brandy Gros, Lisa Hibner, and Jeanne Stacy. Each panelist brought a different aspect of expertise to the academic advising discussion held in the Teaching+Learning Center. The participants included academic advising staff, senior and new faculty who were more than willing to engage in serious discussions about the need for better advising as a deterrent for low retention rates. One of the main takeaways was agreement that a cohesive, consistent approach to academic advising would improve our persistence and graduation rates. The conversation continued on Wednesday at the Mid-Day Musings in the faculty and staff dining room of the Bienvenue Building. A different group gathered to discuss the merits of engaging students in conversation about their future. Many of the participants found the pre-session short video interview with Dr. Daniel Chambliss, who wrote How Colleges Work, to be very useful. The main takeaway from Wednesday's session was the importance of being engaged and making connections with our students regardless of your position. Research indicates that often a connection with anyone at the college, not just instructors or counselors, leads to student success and greater persistence rates. The advising handbook is close to being completed and will be distributed shortly. We also plan to post a list of some of the questions and answers from Tuesday's session on the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Faculty Development Community discussion board.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING IMPROVES CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY
Dr. James A. Griesemer has written an interesting article about the use of active, cooperative learning and how it can enhance student success. He writes, "Incorporating active, cooperative quality learning exercises in a course requires instructors to modify their teaching strategy in a number of important ways but the most critical is their roles as educator, mentor, and facilitator. Research confirms the effectiveness of active, cooperative learning. Compared to students taught with conventional methods, cooperatively taught students tend to exhibit better grades as well as better analytical, creative, and critical thinking skills among other traits. Both instructors and students reported numerous benefits of incorporating active, cooperative learning quality exercises into an undergraduate operations/supply chain management course." Read more.

IMPACTING THE PERSISTENCE RATE
As the nation becomes increasingly focused on improving college completion rates, policy makers, practitioners, and scholars are calling for renewed efforts to help students succeed (e.g., Lumina Foundation, 2009). Central to these plans is the promotion of postsecondary access and opportunity, as well as the improvement of persistence and completion rates. College student persistence, in particular, is a necessary condition for social mobility, bridging access and attainment. We are well aware of a renewed focus on persistence and completion at BRCC and we have implemented interventions intended to improve our rates in both categories. Drs. Gregory C. Wolniak, Matthew J. Mayhew, and Mark E. Engberg have written a paper based on their research in this area and published in the Journal of Higher Education. They note, "Several key areas inform our understanding of students’ likelihood of persisting after the first year of college. These areas consist of student demographics and socioeconomic status, precollege academics, college choice and financial aid, institutional characteristics, the role of academic and social integration, and college grades. Persisting students reported higher levels of academic and social integration during their first year of college in areas related to exposure to quality teaching, frequency of faculty contact, peer interactions, and cocurricular involvement, while also demonstrating greater average scores on three of the five measures of assessed student learning (leadership, need for cognition, and content mastery). Alternatively, compared to nonpersisting students, a smaller share of persisters obtained financial aid in the form of federal grants."

The future of teaching at BRCC.

NEW FACULTY ORIENTATION
The Division of Innovative Learning and Academic Support was thrilled to host the new faculty orientation on Wednesday. The program provided information on a diversity of topics including the scholarship of teaching and learning, how to help our student succeed, using library resources effectively, strategies for testing and assessment, using Blackboard effectively, and integrating college success skills into every course. Expert presenters included Dean Joanie Chavis, Testing Specialist Tressa Landry, Manager Susan Nealy, Dean Todd Pourciau, Director Jeanne Stacy, Dean Sandra Williams, and Executive Dean Elaine Vallette. The new faculty participants including: Catherine Doyle, Vinetta Frie, Belvin Givens, Emily Graves, Cyndy Giachetti, Jessie Herubrock, Loretta Jarrell, Jennifer Knapp, Albertha Lawson, Kristen Pasquier, Asoka Sekharan, and Bridget Sonnier-Hillis. Active learning and student engagement dominated the conversation. The future looks bright for teaching and learning at BRCC.

WHAT IS UP WITH THOSE GREEN SHIRTS
The Division of Innovative Learning and Academic Support team donned peaceful green shirts on Wednesday to kick off this year's theme of Keep Calm and Be Engaged. As we mentioned previously, BRCC is stepping up its efforts on student engagement. The shirts are a humorous reminder that we are all part of our students success. By the end of the day, some members of the team were receiving some outrageous financial offers for their shirts but no one wanted to part with them. Look for the shirts to reappear as we celebrate learning throughout the coming academic year. Who knows, maybe you too will be lucky enough to be recognized for engagement excellence and receive a coveted green shirt.

Anderson, Linder, and Harris join BRCC

BRCC WELCOMES NEW EMPLOYEES FROM CATC
We are very excited to announce the addition of some new team members in the Division of Innovative Learning and Academic Support. Barbara Linder has joined us as an Academic Support Specialist. Wanda Anderson and Karen Harris have joined us as Testing Center Specialists. The addition of new staff means that we can respond more effectively to the many requests we are receiving from faculty and students in the areas of testing, assessment, and pedagogy. There is a bit of sad news from the Testing Center as we are losing Tressa Landry, who is following her husband to Lake Charles. The good news is that in addition to our newest team members, Debbie Johnson remains with the Testing Center. Look for expanded hours coming soon to better meet your testing needs.

Group Work Helps Students Solve Real World Problems

We often talk about the differences between high school and college, We even have a section about the differences in our (Open Educational Resource) textbook for College Success Skills, but that argument may be obscuring the fact that teaching and learning is just that. Stating that premise, a recent article about high school mathematics teacher Sandra Cover really got me excited. She is using a very unique method in her classroom that acknowledges the real world. The first reality is that many of today's problems are solved by teams. The second reality is that it is rare that the first suggestion for a solution is adopted without back and forth from members of that team. Covers allows students in her trigonometry class to work in groups and allows them to revise their work (even assessments) when it is incorrect. Cover, who teaches at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, Michigan, developed this new approach after realizing her students were learning the “what” of math, but not the “how” or “why.” One of the reasons I am so excited about her pedagogical approach is that I feel we can use it in any course we are teaching. Take a look at the entire article here and let me know what you think.

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?

This is the time of year when we can smell the fear in the air. It is the end of the semester and that means that finals are just around the corner. Our students anxiety levels are raised and some of them begin to panic. But it doesn't have to be this way. Maryellen Weimer posted a letter to students about finals back in December 2016. It is still a great piece and the relevance echoes throughout higher education. I also found it very useful in teaching College Success Skills (CSSK 1023) as we spend a good amount of time on helping students figure out how they learn best. Weimer begins where we also begin in CSSK--start with a plan. Very often students jump into finals prep with no game plan and that is surely a recipe for disaster. One of my favorite parts of the post is this gem: "Believe in yourself. Your brain is plenty big enough to handle any question I might toss at you. You’ve just got to get the information stored in a place where you can retrieve it. Build connections between the new material and what you already know. Short-term memory is like a sponge—once it gets full, it drips. If you truly understand something, it’s much less likely to leak out." I strongly encourage you to share this letter with your students. We have sent it to the student who are participating in study groups and have received some positive feedback from them as well (letting your students know it is peer-endorsed may get them to read it). You might also remind them that the Academic Learning Center provides assistance for all students and the Long Night Against Procrastination is occurring on May 2 from 4:00 until 10:00 pm in the Magnolia Building on the Mid City Campus.