FACULTY DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
The Teaching+Learning Center (T+LC) will be offering a workshop focused on mental health for the first time tomorrow at 1:00 PM. Dr. Bridget Sonnier-Hillis, a psychology instructor, and Wendy Devall, director of disability services for BRCC, will co-present on this important topic. There is still time to register. Then on October 6 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM, T+LC will be presenting a workshop about the millennial learner in response to your ranked requests at the fall faculty development kickoff. We will spend some time looking at the characteristics of this group of student and how we can tailor our teaching to their specific needs. The session will conclude with an open discussion session and registration is now open.

REPLACE POLICIES WITH DEMONSTRATION
Dr. Lolita Paff believes that that policies we put in place in our classes may not be garnering the response we hoped for. She writes, "Policies are necessary. They serve as a warning to students: this is what will happen if you are absent, miss an exam, turn work in late, text or surf the Web during class, and the like. Policies don’t teach students why these behaviors hurt their effort to learn. Despite extensive evidence to the contrary, many students believe their learning is unaffected by technology distractions. 'No screens' policies are aimed, at least in part, to minimize distractions that hurt learning (their own and peers’). But policies aren’t nearly as powerful as an activity that demonstrates the effects of distraction." Keep reading... 

STUDENT RETENTION IMPROVES WITH ONLINE CLASSES
Does online learning impede degree completion? That is the problem that Drs. Peter Shea and Temi Bidjerano sought to resolve in their research. What they found is just the opposite. They report, "Contrary to expectations, the study found that controlling for relevant background characteristics; students who take some of their early courses online or at a distance have a significantly better chance of attaining a community college credential than do their classroom only counterparts. These results imply that a new model of student retention in the age of the Internet, one that assumes transactional adaptation, may be warranted. Keep reading.