JOINT OWNERSHIP OF LEARNING
Robert Carroll has written an interesting opinion piece about the teacher-student relationship. At its essence, it is about engagement but he frames it in terms of an athletic performance. He asks "So why do we, as teachers, still exist? The formal education process is no longer about information, and successful teachers have come to realize this. The ability of learners to access information has increased to the point of absurdity. The role of the teacher now is to help learners effectively identify and evaluate information sources, but this alone does not justify our continued presence in the educational process." He continues, "While learning is self-directed, it is the teacher that is accountable for the learning:  accountable to the students, to the program, and to themselves. Courses flourish when the student-teacher relationship is reciprocal and includes “joint ownership” of the course. And the responsibility flows both ways–a student performing poorly is a failure on my part, and I work with them to get them to perform to the best of their ability."

GROUP DISCUSSION WITH A TWIST
We have encouraged you to use class discussion as an active learning method in your classes and we have provided teaching and learning faculty development workshops in the past to provide you with the information and tools to implement this learning experience. B. J. Brooks and M. D. Koretsky provide a twist on this active learning method in their article "The Influence of Group Discussion on Students' Responses and Confidence During Peer Instruction" published in the Journal of Chemical Education. They advocate that you allow your student to respond to a discussion question individually in writing and then have them share that answer with two or three colleagues. After the discussion, the students can change their answers, write another explanation for the answer and once again indicate their degree of confidence in their answer. The research shows that the learning experience provided a richer understanding of the answer and improved their confidence level in having the correct answer. The depth of their explanation was enhanced as well. Students spent an average of seven minutes in discussion making this an active learning method that can be used each time you meet as a class. The research also confirmed that when faced with conceptual problems, students need the opportunity to practice problem solving and the discussion improves their ability to explain why the answer is correct.

CLOSING OUT A SEMESTER POSITIVELY
A fellow faculty development colleague reminds us that the end of the semester is the time to do some assessment that will provide you with valuable feedback as you plan for the next semester. There are a number of things you can do to help your students transition to the next phase of their academic careers or workforce lives. He suggests, "Just as you discussed the syllabus on the first day of class, do so again, this time to reaffirm that learning outcomes have been met and to remind students of the material that has been covered. Of course, it is a good idea to review that syllabus a few weeks out from the end of the semester to make sure that the outcomes have been met. The review can be done as a large group discussion, or you might assign groups within the class to assess how well the course had fulfilled its outcomes, material coverage, and other goals."

MUSIC DELIVERS IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
When designing and teaching a course through the online delivery method, research shows that you should build in authentic and relevant opportunities for your students to interact, connect, and present themselves as real people. Students see these opportunities to socially interact and connect with others as foundational attributes of your courses. Further, research suggests that opportunities like these influence students’ perception of the overall learning experience. Joanna Dunlap and Patrick Lowenthal conducted research in this area and suggest that using music as one of a number of ways to help students interact and connect with each other can produce positive student learning results. Music offers a way to involve students in student-to-content interaction through generative learning activities—by having students compile playlists, write lyrics, compose songs, perform songs, create music videos, and so on. Music-driven, student-to-content interaction also involves students in multisensory learning, further supporting knowledge acquisition and construction. They provide a number of discipline specific active learning methods that you can integrate into your online class.

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."

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.

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.

MISCOMMUNICATION, PERSONAL ATTACKS AND TROLLING
Adding a discussion component to your face-to-face or eLearning class is a great way to measure learning. The depth of a question can tell you plenty about where your students are along the learning spectrum. Having peer-to-peer discussions is also a great way to illustrate that students are part of the learning process and should not expect all of the answers to come directly from you. If you are thinking of adding discussions to your class, there are a few areas of concern that you should be prepared for and Anastasia Salter has written an article to help you out. She writes, "I’ve been teaching a large online class for the first time this semester, and as the course involves looking at a number of challenge interactive works and games I put a lot of emphasis on discussion forums and critical debate. However, discussion forums of this kind present a lot of potential problems in an online class. We only have to read the comments anywhere on the web (pro tip: don’t actually read the comments) to see that the online medium offers huge potential for miscommunication, personal attacks, trolling, and harassment–even when in the space of a virtual classroom." To see her tips click here. 

THE PAIN OF AWKWARD SILENCE
Dr. Kenneth L. Parker, Steber Professor in Theological Studies at St. Louis University, has an interesting post today about asking students questions. He writes, "At the beginning of each academic year, I have to relearn the same lesson: enduring the awkward silence after a question has been asked. At the start of my career this “skill” seemed unendurable. It felt far easier to fill the empty void of fifty or seventy-five minutes—or God forbid, two and a half hours—with the sound of my own voice and well chosen words recorded on paper. After all, students are conditioned to expect that of my guild. Yet as I began to take more seriously the need to create learner-centered classroom experiences, one of the first steps to achieve that goal proved to be silencing my own voice, and waiting for students to find theirs. Continue reading

IS PESSIMISM HURTING STUDENT SUCCESS
Some of your students may be falling behind because they suffer from a negative disposition. Dr. Travis Bradberry provides us with interventions that can help create student success through positivity. He writes, "When faced with setbacks and challenges, we’ve all received the well-meaning advice to “stay positive.” The greater the challenge, the more this glass-half-full wisdom can come across as Pollyannaish and unrealistic. It’s hard to find the motivation to focus on the positive when positivity seems like nothing more than wishful thinking. The real obstacle to positivity is that our brains are hard-wired to look for and focus on threats. This survival mechanism served humankind well back when we were hunters and gatherers, living each day with the very real threat of being killed by someone or something in our immediate surroundings." Continue reading

FINDING GOLD IN JERSEY
I am very excited to be one of the select few that will be heading to New Jersey to participate in Ken Bain's last Best Teachers Summer Institute later this week. Judging by the pre-conference homework (Dr. Bain's version of flipping), this promises to be an exceptional learning event. I wanted to share just a small sliver of what we are working on before coming together as a group. Dr. Bain has asked us to do some critical self-reflection (one of my favorite topics) and to specifically look at how we construct our syllabi. He asks, "how can a colleague develop a sense of you as a scholar by examining the various features of your course?" I hope that you do what I did when I saw that question and that is, quickly pull up one of your syllabi and begin to deconstruct it to determine the answer to this brilliant question. If our syllabi are truly the guiding documents for our partnerships with our students, shouldn't they reflect our teaching philosophy, our passion for the subject matter, and what we think is most important for student learning? In the same way, the assessment instruments we indicate on our syllabi are also telling an interesting story. I hope to bring back much more of this type of faculty development from the conference and am sure that our programming for the 2014-15 academic year will be shaped by what happens this week.

CRITICAL THINKING IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
Drs. S. Michael Putman, Karen Ford, and Susan Tancock have written an interesting article about enhancing critical thinking abilities using discussion boards in online classes. They write, "The asynchronous online discussion (AOD) is a communicative tool that has been observed to promote “a level of reflective interaction often lacking in a face-to-face, teacher-centered classroom.” Inherent within successful AODs is the use of meaningful discourse to facilitate critical engagement with the content that is the focus of the experience. Numerous studies have shown that effective AODS produce an increased level of cognitive thinking and knowledge construction within participants. Potential for these outcomes were maximized when learning objectives were linked to real-life experiences within moderately complex tasks. Participants in the AODs were more effectively able to understand the applicability of the content within the greater context of learning. Knowledge development increased as participants shared information regarding their beliefs and experiences. Critically engaging with and reflecting on content prior to sharing was theorized to account for differences." They encourage the use of "facilitative Prompts" to fully realize the effects of online discussion.

BOREDOM BLOCKERS
Boredom is one of the most common complaints among university students, with studies suggesting its link to poor grades, drop out, and behavioral problems according to an article by Drs. Steven J. Kass, Stephen J. Vodanovich, and Jasmine Y. Khosrav. They note that "Boredom proneness was found to be significantly and negatively related to course grade and measures of satisfaction." They conclude that "students need and desire the opportunity to use the variety of skills learned in class. Putting these skills into practice allows students to see the connection between what they learned and the context within which it is applied , thus increasing satisfaction and internal motivation which they may demonstrate through greater class attendance and engagement. Students may also benefit by allowing them to make their own decisions and develop individualized approaches (i.e., autonomy) to completing coursework. Consistent with many different theories on training and learning, students must be provided with in formative feedback to help direct efforts toward accomplishing their goals." Certainly another reason to look at experiential learning and the use of problem-based situations in our courses.

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

THE PLEASURE OF MOTIVATION

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

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

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

BLACKBOARD COMMUNITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION
One of the great features of Blackboard is the ability to create a community that allows us to discuss, share and communicate virtually. I am currently working on creating the Teaching and Learning Faculty Development Blackboard site. It will include a discussion board and online resource library among other things. As soon as it is ready to go live, all of the faculty will be added so that you can access the resources and interact with your colleagues. Hopefully it will be useful to you and become the place for online discussion about the scholarship of teaching and learning at BRCC.

NEW FACULTY ORIENTATION
The Office of Teaching and Learning will be coordinating an orientation session for all new faculty. It will be held from 9:00 AM until 12 noon on Wednesday, August 21 in room 311 Magnolia Building. The focus will be on providing our newest faculty colleagues with a good foundation as they begin their teaching career at BRCC. The topics will include faculty development, using Blackboard effectively, closing the loop with the Academic Learning Center, utilizing the Testing Center, exploring the Library, explaining what our CSSK course is all about and the eLearning certification process. While the event will be open to our new hires, we are also extending an invitation to our colleagues from the former Capital Area Technical College.

TEACHING AND LEARNING FROM BOTH SIDES
The recent announcement by Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs that the Academic Learning Center had joined the Teaching and Learning team means that the loop is now closed. The combined forces will allow us to provide unique solutions for some of our more pressing problems related to retention and student learning. The combined expertise of Jeanne Stacy, Yvette Ferguson, and Donna Newman brings the student experience into play. The Teaching and Learning team, which also includes the eLearning Program, Evening+Weekend, and the Testing Center, is here to work with all academic units and faculty to design and implement strategies and interventions based on the latest empirical research. We are excited about the possibilities created by this new collaborative and look forward to meeting the needs of our various constituencies.

ENGAGEMENT PROVIDES VALUABLE INFORMATION
Instead of doing one of the standard ice-breaker activities, why not give a pre-test? This type of learner-based assessment allows you to find out as much as possible about your students. Not only is it a great engagement tool but it will help you to modify your class to meet the needs of each of your students. You want to ask them questions about their ambitions, their approaches to and conceptions of learning, the way they reason, their temperaments, habits, and the things that attract their attention on a daily basis. Ken Bain, in his book What The Best College Teachers Do, notes that this type of activity is endorsed by the best teachers. Once you have the information, you should use it to build a class profile and compare it to the learning experiences, projects, and assessment instruments you plan to use in the course. You can then use this information throughout the semester to generate conversations and to make specific points to motivate your students. The pre-test also allows you to understand the complexities of your students.

WHY DO UNICORNS ALWAYS LAND ON ALL FOUR LEGS
Are you ready to discuss your ideas and solutions with your colleagues about how to improve student success at BRCC? As academics, we are at the teaching front-line. The success of our institution is squarely on our shoulders. Having seen the passion you have for the success of your students, I know that the community of scholars at BRCC is ready to start the movement. On Thursday, April 24 beginning at 1:00 pm, we will gather in the Teaching+Learning Center to discuss the happiness effect, strategies for rewiring our brains, random acts of kindness, and how to create a flourishing campus. Engagement specialists Dr. Sandra Guzman and Mr. Paul Guidry will facilitate the session along with me. We need for you to come and have a frank, honest discussion with your colleagues. Will you answer the call? You can register now. Then watch this TEDx video (it is only 13 minutes long) to help prepare yourself for the gathering.

ACADEMIC ADVISING PROGRAM NEEDS YOUR INPUT
Student success depends on many things and one of the most important components is academic advising, as indicated by the coverage it it receiving in the press. That is why many of your faculty and professional staff members came together on April 2 to hear what the current academic advising landscape looks like. The webinar presented several different models for success and we need to adopt our own version to create an advising program of excellence. The next opportunity for you to have input into that process is April 29. We will gather in the Teaching+Learning Center at 1:00 pm to discuss how we plan to move forward. During the last session, we asked that academic advising be defined and we have received a number of suggestions. As we pare the suggestions to one, it is important to receive input for each of you. That is one of the topics up for discussion at the session on the 29th. We will also discuss the creation of an academic advising handbook and how we can build a sustainable model that maximizes student success.

FREE RESOURCES ON FLIPPING THE CLASSROOM
Inside Higher Ed is today releasing a free compilation of articles and essays -- in print-on-demand format -- about the flipped classroom. The articles and essays reflect key discussions about pedagogy, technology and the role of faculty members. Download the booklet here. This booklet is part of a series of such compilations that Inside Higher Ed is publishing on a range of topics. On Thursday May 8, at 1 p.m. Inside Higher Ed editors Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman will conduct a free webinar to talk about the issues raised in the booklet's articles. To register for the webinar, please click here.

New year's resolutions are a great way to refocus on your teaching. Nothing like the class schedule and preparing for a new semester to get us started in a new direction. It is also a good time to incorporate the idea of resolutions into your classes by having your students make resolutions for the semester. One of the areas I will be focusing on this semester is listening more and speaking less. Having my students dive deep into a stimulating classroom discussion is always such a joy. You can actually see the creativity and discovery happening right in front of you (or virtually if you are teaching an eLearning class). But beginning a new "habit" and having it stick requires effort and planning. So I plan to begin on the first day; perfect for more listening as I am trying to learn the names of my students, their aspirations and motivations. Of course we all dread the point where the students stop sharing and there is silence. We feel compelled to fill every second with "sound" but should we? Dr. Kevin Gannon shares his tips for encouraging engagement in the classroom in the latest post on the Faculty Focus blog. He writes, "I’d like to suggest that a flagging discussion, or one that fails to launch entirely, is most often the fault of something other than our students. Sure, there are some students who haven’t done the reading or who refuse to participate come hell or high water. But most of our students are receptive to at least the idea of engaged, active learning. The key is to turn that general willingness into specific practices. Here are some strategies and methods that have proven effective for me across survey and upper-level courses, small and large classes, in rooms that may or may not allow any deviation from the regimented rows-and-columns arrangement." Take a look at his specific tips here. Welcome to the beginning of what I hope will be a successful semester for you and your students.

WE GOT FLIPPED

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

GRANT WORKSHOPS PLANNED FOR APRIL

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

HELPING YOUR STUDENTS LEARN TO LEARN

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

TEACH THE STUDENTS YOU HAVE
Yesterday's seminar Engaging Millennial Learners was well attended and the participation during the session was terrific. The seminar focused on the active learning experience of class discussion and how to best implement that very effective method. Here are just a few of the many responses we got on the evaluation sheets from the seminar participants. Becky Adcock, Veterinary Technician program, said that she intends to use the Muddiest Point learning experience along with more discussion and less lecturing in her classes. Mary Miller, Science Department, plans to utilize more videos in her classes. Kathryn Arrington, CSSK instructor, plans to give her students a test covering the topics on her syllabus and will work to build a more conducive climate in her classes. Marty Lensing, Criminal Justice Program, plans to allow his students to think about the questions he poses to them for a few minutes, asking them to write down their thoughts, before he calls on them to respond. What I learned was how terrific and devoted our faculty are at BRCC. We were all united on the fact that our focus is all about improving student learning.

BECOMING THE GREAT MOTIVATOR
Elizabeth Barkley, in her book Student Engagement Techniques (LB 2342.92 .B.34), offers a number of tips for fostering motivation in your students. She notes that "Teacher personality and behavior have a powerful impact on whether students feel motivated in a course." Building on studies by industrial and organizational psychologists, educational researchers have found that even students who are intrinsically motivated by their studies will put forth reasonable effort if they like and admire their teacher, just as they may become apathetic or resistant if they view their teacher negatively (Brophy, 2004). She concludes, "This does not mean that you have to be false to your basic personality but it does suggest that students will be more likely to engage in your class if you cultivate and display attributes of well-liked and respected teachers, such as energy, enthusiasm, passion, approachability, fairness, and optimism."

WHAT IS ACTIVE LEARNING
Drs. Marcella Hackney and Margaret McMichael will present a faculty development seminar on Monday, November 19 at 2:00 PM in the Teaching+Learning Center. Active Learning Methods Revealed will offer insight into a variety of the best teaching methods that can help you to improve student learning while increasing the tools in your teaching toolkit. Hackney and McMichael participated in the Gulf Coast Summer Institute this past summer held on the LSU campus. Look for more information in your email-box soon.

LIGHTING THE FIRE OF INQUIRY
Here is a great learning experience utilizing video clips offered by fellow blogger Julia Phelan. We often start a topic, at least in the sciences, by outlining the background of the topic, creating a simple picture, and building up an understanding of something complex.  But what about starting with the complex, interesting thing, and then gaining the tools to understand that complex idea through a variety of  activities?  You might show students an object, picture, or video of something a little confusing or curious and ask them to generate a series of “I wonder” questions.  In the sciences, this could be achieved with many existing YouTube or other videos of interesting phenomena by simply turning off the sound, leaving students to view the phenomena without hearing the explanation.  These “I wonder” questions can then be used to lead into activities or lecture, tailored to students’ innate curiosity and questions.  They can also be used to generate inquiry questions for a laboratory or other hands-on activity, providing authentic motivation for students to explore a phenomenon.  For example, a video showing a levitating superconducting magnet could lead into questions such as “is the magnet cold?”  “What kind of material is that?”  “Will it still float if you put a piece of paper between the two magnets?”  These questions could be used to generate inquiry activities about magnets and superconducting magnets.

STUDENT RETENTION TAKES A VILLAGE
In the research article Promoting Persistence and Success of Underrepresented Students: Lessons for Teaching and Learning by Kinzie, Gonyea, Shoup, and Kuh, the authors note that new students tend to benefit from early interventions and sustained attention during the first year in terms of their academic performance. They go on to say that it is wise to send clear messages to students through precollege mentoring programs and sustained interactions with faculty and staff through out the first year about the value of engagement and what students who succeed do on this particular campus. All educators need to coach students in the development of expected study habits. Experiences early in the first year set in place patterns of behavior that will endure over students' years in college. Many of you have spoken to me about the problem of not having students come to your office for advice. This article suggests that we build in advising and teaching study skills as part of our class time. Offering general advising tips at the beginning and end of each class can have a profound impact on student persistence and retention. You can find the complete article here or in New Directions for Teaching and Learning (#115) fall 2008 which includes other articles about student retention.

HOW DOES YOUR TEACHING TOOLKIT LOOK
Professional development opportunities for October include today's Blackboard Series and next Thursday's Active Learning and Engagement workshop. Yesterday's Mid-Day Musings gathering was filled with lively discussion on the topic of civility. Using several recent articles about the topic, which is trending nationally, helped to set the tone for our local discussion. Turning our own experiences into teachable opportunities was one of the outcomes that the participants seemed to rally around. Many of the participants discussed how they use the topic of civility in their classes in hopes of helping their students become critical thinkers and active participants in the community. One of the best active learning methods is the use of debate to expose your students to complex issues. There are still a few spots for today's Blackboard session and registration is ongoing for the workshop on October 30. All of these events are sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center.

ADDING PATHWAYS FOR COMPLETION
Have you heard about the Ability to Benefit rule? It allowed students who lacked either a high school diploma or its equivalent (usually a GED) to get into college if they could demonstrate the ability to benefit through a test score. But the rule was repealed by the U.S. Congress. Now, there is a move to bring it back. Matt Read's blog which appears on the Inside Higher Ed website provides more details about this additional pathway.

SAVE NOVEMBER 21 NOW
Teaching and Learning Interventions to Improve Student Success is a faculty development workshop built in response to your requests. Todd Pourciau and Jeanne Stacy are closing the loop on teaching and learning in this interactive workshop set for November 21 at 3:00 PM. Some of the topics to be covered include how to get everyone seated, attentive and ready to start class, how to gauge the temperature of your class and determine your impact on student learning, solving the student excuse dilemma, and calming test anxiety. We will also be sharing the newly revised Active Learning Guide. Participants will have the opportunity to bring their issues before the group and receive immediate feedback. This is a not to be missed opportunity that you have been asking for, so mark your calendar now.

UPCOMING WEBINAR WILL BE LIVE
There are still seats available for the faculty development live webinar, Promoting the Development, Achievement, and Persistence of Students from Diverse Backgrounds, to be held on Thursday, November 14. The participants from BRCC will be able to ask questions and fully participate in the live webinar which begins at 12:00 PM and will be held in the T+LC (311 Magnolia Building). Come and hear from a national expert as well as peers from colleges and universities across the U.S. Topics include how to use culturally appropriate interventions, shifting students to a task-involved approach, and how to use intrusive advising techniques for student success. This webinar series event is being co-sponsored by the Title III Program and the Teaching+Learning Center. Register now.

HYBRID FLC FILLS NEED
The Building a Hybrid Course Faculty Learning Community (FLC) met on Wednesday to explore the best ways to use discussion in a class meeting face-to-face and virtually. The members thought it was most important to insure that student discussion be insightful rather than superficial and that developing a democratic classroom environment where the students feel safe will produce the best class meetings. As the session moved to the use of feedback to assess learning and monitor teaching, the formation of retrieval mechanisms and development of correct mental models took center stage. The FLC agreed, as one of their outcomes, to create a pre-test that students could take to help them make decisions about taking classes delivered in an online environment.

NEWEST MEMBER OF THE CIRCLE

The latest recipient of a Keep Calm and Be Engaged shirt is Assistant Professor Wes Harris, who teaches English and also directs the Honor College at BRCC. Wes has demonstrated his commitment to student success by redesigning his courses to include topics that are student-relevant, using active learning in his classes, and being a leader in the recent Common Reader Faculty Learning Community. Wes said of his experience on the FLC, "Our conversations and study have re-invigorated my pedagogy and reminded me that driving the classroom necessarily involves traffic jams, the occasional fender bender, and sometimes even wrecks, and that each of these moments can be learnable and teachable. What a pleasure it has been to get to know each of you better, hear your experiences, and learn." He is pictured below (in his green shirt) with students from two of his classes. These students have currently earned an A mid-term grade and are well on their way to achieving academic excellence in the classroom. We offer congratulations to them as we celebrate learning and to Wes Harris for his commitment to student success.

John Langston, Jana Roosa, & Deana Hodges

Elizabeth Foster, Adrian Arabie, & Elizabeth Doerfler

LARGER CLASSES CREATE OPPORTUNITIES
Many of us have more students in our classes this semester. That provides us with a great opportunity to try some different active learning methods that we might not have been able to use with smaller groups. One method, team-based learning (TBL), is a natural for larger classes because it breaks students down into small groups for learning. The key components for TBL include permanent teams, readiness assurance, application activities, and peer evaluation. The University of Texas faculty development center has a great video explaining the concepts although you need to remember that a large class for them is a lot bigger than us and usually starts at 150 students. TBL teachers report high levels of student attendance, preparation, participation and critical thinking. TBL students report being more motivated and enjoying class more, even when the subject is not in their major. Please visit the online resource library posted in the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Faculty Development community for more resources about active learning and managing large classes. You can also make suggestions to help your colleagues on the community discussion board. As always, let us know how the Teaching+Learning Center can help.

WHAT DO YOU THINK
Based on suggestions from you, we are offering a new faculty development opportunity. It is called Mid-Day Musings and will meet on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at noon. We plan to gather in the faculty dining room of the Bienvenue Building, which allows you to grab lunch and bring it with you. The Monday before the gathering, we will send an email announcing the topic for the week. Again, we are looking to you for ideas so if you have something that you think will generate an inspiring discussion, please send it to pourciaut@mybrcc.edu. Registration is now open. We hope to see you this coming Wednesday for the first Mid-Day Musings gathering.

INTEGRATING WRITING INTO YOUR COURSE
The next faculty development workshop will be held on September 25 and the topic is Writing Across the Curriculum. Writing Specialist Natalie Smith, who directs the Academic Learning Center's student support services for writing, will deliver a powerful, informative workshop building on her teaser presentation at the Faculty Development Kickoff last month. She will cover a number of topics including how you can integrate writing into your classes and the different types of writing used in our courses. Since she is also an adjunct faculty member who teaches English, she will offer valuable insights about the BRCC student profile. Be one of the first to register for this workshop and look for more details as the date approaches.

BRCC AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE
The Mid-Day Musings gathering today was wonderful, filled with terrific insight and words of wisdom. As we began to grapple with the idea of race relations and social movements, an idea emerged about BRCC being the agent of change in our community. Because of the racial and economic diversity at our college, we have a unique opportunity to effect change. The participants discussed and suggested methods that could be used in the classroom to start the process. One of the main ideas was that each of us as faculty should do something that asks our students to confront their racial and cultural biases. We should cause them to think about the baggage they arrive with and how that effects their lives and their community. Another idea that found support concerned the mission of BRCC. Many of the participants have embraced the idea that we are here to build a viable middle-class. There was also discussion about the concept of what middle-class means in this time. The participants spent a considerable amount of time on the issue that class has become just as important as race in many of our social experiences. At the end of the gathering, many of the participants felt that this topic should be revisited. Mid-Day Musings is one of the many faculty development programs sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center. The next Mid-Day Musings will take place on Wednesday, October 8 at noon. Look for the topic in your email on October 6 and feel free to send your ideas for topics to pourciaut@mybrcc.edu. In case you missed it, here are some of the articles we used to frame our discussion (Diversity Matters, Pronoun Preference, College Presidents, Colorblind Notion)

TEACHING WRITING IN YOUR CLASS
Join us tomorrow for Writing Center Specialist Natalie Smith's faculty development workshop on writing across the curriculum. Based on your requests, she will present her approaches that lead to student success. She will also share information about the student success resources offered by the Writing Center and the Academic Learning Center. There is still time to register for the workshop that begins at 1:00 p.m. in 311 Magnolia. This faculty development workshop is sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center. For more information, contact Natalie Smith at smithn@mybrcc.edu or Academic Support Specialist Barbara Linder at linderb@mybrcc.edu.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE STUDENT SUCCESS
If you enjoyed the Tech Tuesday Tip you received in your email yesterday, you will want to register for the faculty development workshop set for Tuesday, September 30. eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy will be joined by Innovative Learning and Academic Support Dean Todd Pourciau and a representative from Blackboard to share what is coming in the next version. We will also be discussing more active learning interventions like the tip from yesterday. This professional development workshop is sponsored by the Teaching+Learning Center and will be held in the Louisiana Building's Boardroom. Registration is open now.