TO DO LIST FOR SUMMER
Finals week is upon us and soon we will be preparing for another exciting commencement day (May 22). But there is still work to be done. We all need to submit our grades by Monday (May 18) and while we have prepared and given our finals, there is grading so this weekend may be very busy for many of us. I thought I would continue the end-of-semester theme for you. While many of you are transitioning your online content to the new LMS Canvas, some of you may be too busy for that now. The good news is that Blackboard does not go away until June but then, that is it. Dr. Steve Volk of Oberlin College provides us with an interesting post that is filled with great end-of-semester ideas. One that I particularly like concerns looking back at the semester and judging our progress. Dr. Steve Krause at Eastern Michigan University has a nice post also. One of my favorite quotes from his post is this gem, "When I was growing up, my mother—who, like me, was a “contingent”
professor—would sequester herself for days to grade, emerging
Medusa-haired and demanding of sympathy. But the older I got, the more
that sympathy dissipated: “If you hate grading papers so much,” I’d say,
“there’s an easy solution for that.” My mother, not to be trifled with
when righteously indignant (that favored state of the professoriate),
would snap: “It’s an English class. I can’t not assign papers.” Be at peace and send me your thoughts.
BEST USE OF YOUR CLOUD
So that brings us to another topic that is top-of-mind at this time. How and where are we going to store all of our electronic data and files? Hopefully you are using one of the Teaching+Learning Center USBs that I have been distributing but that is mainly for things you use frequently. The cloud is the obvious place that you want to save things, especially long-term. EdTech, the epublication that focuses on technology used by higher education, has an informative article about using the full potential of the cloud. Take a look here for more information.
ACADEMIC ADVISING TOPIC
A report recently released by the William T. Grant Foundation sheds some light on how we can best advise our students about alternative paths to the baccalaureate. This new research indicates progress on the access front, but many
unexpected obstacles (lack of counseling, confusing choices, chaotic
schedules) that contribute to students failing to complete. While 37
percent of on-time high school graduates enrolled in a community college
with the intention of getting a bachelor's degree, nearly half drop out
within eight years often taking on debt and gaining no wage advantage
from the experience. Just 33 percent of community college students earn
an associate degree in eight years, the report found. Read more here.
Friday, May 8, 2015
YOUR CANVAS IS READY
The migration to our new LMS Canvas continues as members of the implementation team from BRCC (Susan Nealy, Todd Pourciau, Ron Solomon, and Lenora White) participate in the LCTCS System process. BRCC will be using Canvas for all eLearning, hybrid and face-to-face classes beginning in the Summer 2015 semester. Most of the faculty have completed the Project Canvas training, either with the Teaching+Learning Center or utilizing the online certification process. If you have questions or need additional help, please contact eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy of LMS Administrator Lenora White.
BRAINS LOVE ACTIVE LEARNING
Brain scan research reveals that kinestethic learning (learning by doing) has been shown to be very effective for students in science classes. The research results were published online April 24 in Psychological Science. The study included experiments in the laboratory involving student behavior and brain imaging and one randomized trial in a college physics classroom. The hands-on studies used a system of two bicycle wheels that spun independently on a single axle, which allowed students to understand the concept of angular momentum—at work when a moving bicycle appears more stable than a stationary one. To experience angular momentum, students held the wheels by the axle and were instructed to tilt the axle from horizontal to vertical, while attempting to keep a laser pointer on a target line on the wall. When the axle tilted, the students experienced torque—the resistive force that causes objects to rotate. Read more here.
SUGGESTIONS AS THE SEMESTER ENDS
Looking towards the completion of another semester at BRCC, it is a good time to share some end-of-semester suggestions. There are a number of suggestions from posts in the past. As Maier and Panitz note, ending a course with only a final exam often leaves students with a feeling of dread or inadequacy, rather than with a sense of accomplishment. A better goal for teachers is to help our students leave the course with a solid idea of what they have learned and how they can carry that new knowledge and skill base into future experiences. Here are a few ideas of how you can end your semester in a meaningful way.
The migration to our new LMS Canvas continues as members of the implementation team from BRCC (Susan Nealy, Todd Pourciau, Ron Solomon, and Lenora White) participate in the LCTCS System process. BRCC will be using Canvas for all eLearning, hybrid and face-to-face classes beginning in the Summer 2015 semester. Most of the faculty have completed the Project Canvas training, either with the Teaching+Learning Center or utilizing the online certification process. If you have questions or need additional help, please contact eLearning Program Manager Susan Nealy of LMS Administrator Lenora White.
BRAINS LOVE ACTIVE LEARNING
Brain scan research reveals that kinestethic learning (learning by doing) has been shown to be very effective for students in science classes. The research results were published online April 24 in Psychological Science. The study included experiments in the laboratory involving student behavior and brain imaging and one randomized trial in a college physics classroom. The hands-on studies used a system of two bicycle wheels that spun independently on a single axle, which allowed students to understand the concept of angular momentum—at work when a moving bicycle appears more stable than a stationary one. To experience angular momentum, students held the wheels by the axle and were instructed to tilt the axle from horizontal to vertical, while attempting to keep a laser pointer on a target line on the wall. When the axle tilted, the students experienced torque—the resistive force that causes objects to rotate. Read more here.
SUGGESTIONS AS THE SEMESTER ENDS
Looking towards the completion of another semester at BRCC, it is a good time to share some end-of-semester suggestions. There are a number of suggestions from posts in the past. As Maier and Panitz note, ending a course with only a final exam often leaves students with a feeling of dread or inadequacy, rather than with a sense of accomplishment. A better goal for teachers is to help our students leave the course with a solid idea of what they have learned and how they can carry that new knowledge and skill base into future experiences. Here are a few ideas of how you can end your semester in a meaningful way.
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