MY PROFESSOR HATES US
Jean Twenge's research has uncovered that "Millennials want to think for themselves rather than accepting, without reflection, what authority figures tell them." This presents a unique challenge for us as we try to teach a class full of Millennials. But there are a number of solutions that can help you create a safe environment that encourages discussion and produces higher rates of learning and retention. Join us on Thursday, November 1 at 3:00 PM in the Teaching+Learning Center (311 Magnolia Building) for "Engaging Millennial Learners." You can register now for this faculty development seminar.
THE POWER OF INTROVERTS
Julie Kelleher has an interesting post about trying to get all of your students to participate in class. She cites Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking as a good resource to help undestand that sometimes students are unwilling to talk but will respond in other ways. Kelleher writes, " Managing students in the classroom can already seem like a juggling act
– but the key to making sure you’re reaching the introverted student
may be to make sure you’re giving them the option to engage with
material in a method that best suits them."
HELICOPTER INSTRUCTORS
Beginning college students are often spacey. Because they have a lot on their minds, we have got to push them to think about their thinking. Making thinking visible for busy students who are going to school, working, and living their lives is a tough chore but has proven to be an effective retention tool. Becoming a helicopter instructors means that you are there to clarify the demands and culture of higher education for beginning students. It may also mean that you have to become more intrusive in your advising strategies. Let your students know how college is different from high school and that they will need to assume more responsibility for their academic career.
START HERE, GO ANYWHERE
The National Student Clearinghouse released a study showing just how prevalent a role two-year
institutions play in providing an educational foundation for those who
go on to get bachelor's degrees. The study
reveals
that 45 percent of all students who finished a four-year degree in
2010-11 had previously enrolled at a two-year college. Of those students, 24 percent had been enrolled at the two-year
institution for just one term, 16 percent for two terms, and 19 percent
for three or four terms. But a full 12 percent were enrolled for at
least 10 terms, suggesting that even students who spend a significant
length of time at a community college might eventually go on to a
four-year college.
Friday, October 12, 2012
ANOTHER REASON TO TEST
While reviewing some material for an upcoming presentation on Millennials, I found a terrific one-pager from Mary A. Pyc and Katherine A. Rawson entitled Why Testing Improves Memory: Mediator effectiveness hypothesis first published in Science (vol. 330) in 2010 (Q1 .S35 V.330). They set out to disprove the assumption that learning can only occur during study. They also wanted to see if testing could be used for something other than evaluating the state of memory. What they found was intriguing and could be incorporated in your classes as a test-restudy intervention. They noted that testing improves memory. One of the more important ideas to remember when constructing tests is to focus on what is truly important. Take a look at the course learning outcomes and make sure that you are aligning your learning experiences and assessment with those outcomes. The other important connection that this empirical research confirms is that important concepts should be included on subsequent tests and a comprehensive final may be your best opportunity to help your students retain what they have learned in your course.
TEACHING ONLINE
If you are looking for strategies for group learning activities for the online environment, take a look at this blog post by Debbie Morrison. Stephen Downes writes that the PAD (Personal Access Device) will become the dominant tool for online education, combining the function of book, notebook, and pen.
CHARACTER MATTERS
Paul Tough believes that character development may be the most important thing we can teach our students. He writes about that and may other things including the effects of poverty in his book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. When asked how failure can help us succeed, he responds, "That’s an idea that I think was best expressed by Dominic Randolph, the head of the Riverdale Country School, where they’re now doing some interesting experiments with teaching character. Here’s how he put it: The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure. And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything. That idea resonated with a lot of readers. I don’t think it’s quite true that failure itself helps us succeed. In fact, repeated failures can be quite devastating to a child’s development. What I think is important on the road to success is learning to deal with failure, to manage adversity. That’s a skill that parents can certainly help their children develop--but so can teachers and coaches and mentors and neighbors and lots of other people." He elaborates in this podcast.
While reviewing some material for an upcoming presentation on Millennials, I found a terrific one-pager from Mary A. Pyc and Katherine A. Rawson entitled Why Testing Improves Memory: Mediator effectiveness hypothesis first published in Science (vol. 330) in 2010 (Q1 .S35 V.330). They set out to disprove the assumption that learning can only occur during study. They also wanted to see if testing could be used for something other than evaluating the state of memory. What they found was intriguing and could be incorporated in your classes as a test-restudy intervention. They noted that testing improves memory. One of the more important ideas to remember when constructing tests is to focus on what is truly important. Take a look at the course learning outcomes and make sure that you are aligning your learning experiences and assessment with those outcomes. The other important connection that this empirical research confirms is that important concepts should be included on subsequent tests and a comprehensive final may be your best opportunity to help your students retain what they have learned in your course.
TEACHING ONLINE
If you are looking for strategies for group learning activities for the online environment, take a look at this blog post by Debbie Morrison. Stephen Downes writes that the PAD (Personal Access Device) will become the dominant tool for online education, combining the function of book, notebook, and pen.
CHARACTER MATTERS
Paul Tough believes that character development may be the most important thing we can teach our students. He writes about that and may other things including the effects of poverty in his book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. When asked how failure can help us succeed, he responds, "That’s an idea that I think was best expressed by Dominic Randolph, the head of the Riverdale Country School, where they’re now doing some interesting experiments with teaching character. Here’s how he put it: The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure. And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything. That idea resonated with a lot of readers. I don’t think it’s quite true that failure itself helps us succeed. In fact, repeated failures can be quite devastating to a child’s development. What I think is important on the road to success is learning to deal with failure, to manage adversity. That’s a skill that parents can certainly help their children develop--but so can teachers and coaches and mentors and neighbors and lots of other people." He elaborates in this podcast.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
CHAMPIONS VS VICTIMS
Timothy Judge of Notre Dame has led a two-decade study that looks at how we can predict success in students. He declares that grades, test scores and pedigree can't predict success as well as the simple ability to confidently choose one course of action while abandoning others. That is why helping your students develop the ability to think critically is so important. When faced with complexity and uncertainly, many of our students lack the mental acuity to close the door on distracting activities while focusing on what will help them achieve their goals. Critical thinkers see themselves as champions who are in control of their outcomes. Others portray themselves as victims who are quick to place the blame of failure on others. This is a key component to student success. We should be encouraging our students to take responsibility for their academic progress. Your student engagement approach should always include the proposition that you are here to help but they have to meet you half-way. When the focus becomes student learning rather than about other distractions, everyone wins.
CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITY
Proposals are now being accepted for the annual SoTL Commons Conference to be held in Savannah, Georgia March 27-29, 2013. They are looking for proposals about the scholarship of teaching and learning as a focused, but expansive, evidence-based path for the improvement of teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes.
PUT YOUR STUDENTS IN CHARGE
Ken Bain, in his book What the Best College Teachers Do (LB2331 .B34 2004 ), says that, "human being are curious animals. People learn naturally while trying to solve problems that concern them. They develop an intrinsic interest that guides their quest for knowledge and an intrinsic interest that can diminish in the face of extrinsic rewards and punishments that appear to manipulate their focus. People are more likely to enjoy their education if they believe they are in charge of the decision to learn."
MANAGING ASSESSMENT
Because we are a learner-centered institution, we are constantly looking to improve student learning and in turn improve our graduation, completion and transfer rates. Mary J. Allen has created a list of characteristics that most learner-centered institutions share. Assessment is an essential process. Faculty ask if students master learning outcomes and staff assess their impact on students, and they are flexible and creative when developing solutions to identified deficiencies. Faculty and staff see institutional effectiveness as a goal, contribute to it, and work collegially to promote student success. Campus recognition and reward systems recognize and reward contribution to student learning. Campus policies and procedures, including program reviews and budgeting, support learning and rely on empirical evidence for decision-making. You can find the rest of her list in her book Assessing General Education Programs (LC985 .A55 2006).
Timothy Judge of Notre Dame has led a two-decade study that looks at how we can predict success in students. He declares that grades, test scores and pedigree can't predict success as well as the simple ability to confidently choose one course of action while abandoning others. That is why helping your students develop the ability to think critically is so important. When faced with complexity and uncertainly, many of our students lack the mental acuity to close the door on distracting activities while focusing on what will help them achieve their goals. Critical thinkers see themselves as champions who are in control of their outcomes. Others portray themselves as victims who are quick to place the blame of failure on others. This is a key component to student success. We should be encouraging our students to take responsibility for their academic progress. Your student engagement approach should always include the proposition that you are here to help but they have to meet you half-way. When the focus becomes student learning rather than about other distractions, everyone wins.
CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITY
Proposals are now being accepted for the annual SoTL Commons Conference to be held in Savannah, Georgia March 27-29, 2013. They are looking for proposals about the scholarship of teaching and learning as a focused, but expansive, evidence-based path for the improvement of teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes.
PUT YOUR STUDENTS IN CHARGE
Ken Bain, in his book What the Best College Teachers Do (LB2331 .B34 2004 ), says that, "human being are curious animals. People learn naturally while trying to solve problems that concern them. They develop an intrinsic interest that guides their quest for knowledge and an intrinsic interest that can diminish in the face of extrinsic rewards and punishments that appear to manipulate their focus. People are more likely to enjoy their education if they believe they are in charge of the decision to learn."
MANAGING ASSESSMENT
Because we are a learner-centered institution, we are constantly looking to improve student learning and in turn improve our graduation, completion and transfer rates. Mary J. Allen has created a list of characteristics that most learner-centered institutions share. Assessment is an essential process. Faculty ask if students master learning outcomes and staff assess their impact on students, and they are flexible and creative when developing solutions to identified deficiencies. Faculty and staff see institutional effectiveness as a goal, contribute to it, and work collegially to promote student success. Campus recognition and reward systems recognize and reward contribution to student learning. Campus policies and procedures, including program reviews and budgeting, support learning and rely on empirical evidence for decision-making. You can find the rest of her list in her book Assessing General Education Programs (LC985 .A55 2006).
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
DISRUPTION CAN BE GOOD
The U.S. Department of Education is hosting a meeting today to talk about the "disruptive ideas" that are changing the landscape of higher education. On the agenda for discussion were the topics of massive open online courses (MOOCs), competency-based education, course redesign and prior learning assessment. The latter two topics are also trending at BRCC right now. This past Friday and Saturday, I was joined by Susan Nealy, Gail Suberbielle, and Laura Younger at a course redesign workshop. We were joined by colleagues from around the world to talk about how good course redesign can not only improve student learning but typically drive down costs as well.
LIFE EXPERIENCE FOR CREDIT
Prior Learning Assessment, awarding college credit for college-level learning from work and life experience, is becoming a standard practice at many institutions. Pat Green Smith and I have been working on developing a PLA policy that will allow us to recruit and retain more adult students. PLA has been proven to be beneficial to student success. The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) recently conducted a study on PLA and adult student outcomes. The study examined data on 62,475 adult students at 48 colleges and universities across the country. CAEL found that graduation rates are two and a half times higher for students with PLA credit. PLA students also had higher persistence rates and a faster time to degree completion.
MID-SEMESTER ASSESSMENT
As we approach the middle of the term, I want to encourage you to take the temperature of your classes. Mid-semester assessments help you avoid the surprises that a once a semester student rating survey can only reveal once it is too late. You can, of course, create your own survey instruments or you can have the Teaching+Learning Center come in and help either with the creation of the tool, implementation, assessment or all of it. If you want to do it on your own, the folks at Dalhousie University have a good website that can get you started. The Field Tested Learning Assessment Guide for Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology Instructors website is another good resource and gives you a very concise explanation of what assessment should accomplish.
INTRUSIVE INSTRUCTION
Revisiting the theme of engagement, I want to encourage you to use all of the available tools to track the activities of your students. If you assign reading, then you should be testing them on that and I would encourage you to use a short online quiz via your Blackboard site. If you are asking them to watch a video, then monitor who has watched it. Taking a look at these and other analytics will alert you to problems early. Research shows that if a student waits to become engaged with the material, that is a pretty good indicator that they will struggle with the class. Being intrusive with your students indicates that you are a good teacher who cares deeply about their learning. In addition, it is important to understand what types of learners you have enrolled in your courses. The use of a Learning Style Inventory (LSI) instrument can help them understand how they learn best but it also provides them with information on what they may need to work on to become a better student. You can also use this information to better tailor your instruction to your student's needs. There are a number of free LSI surveys that provide solid feedback.
WHAT DO YOU THINK
Finally, I want to remind those who have not done so to complete the T+LC Needs Assessment survey now.
The U.S. Department of Education is hosting a meeting today to talk about the "disruptive ideas" that are changing the landscape of higher education. On the agenda for discussion were the topics of massive open online courses (MOOCs), competency-based education, course redesign and prior learning assessment. The latter two topics are also trending at BRCC right now. This past Friday and Saturday, I was joined by Susan Nealy, Gail Suberbielle, and Laura Younger at a course redesign workshop. We were joined by colleagues from around the world to talk about how good course redesign can not only improve student learning but typically drive down costs as well.
LIFE EXPERIENCE FOR CREDIT
Prior Learning Assessment, awarding college credit for college-level learning from work and life experience, is becoming a standard practice at many institutions. Pat Green Smith and I have been working on developing a PLA policy that will allow us to recruit and retain more adult students. PLA has been proven to be beneficial to student success. The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) recently conducted a study on PLA and adult student outcomes. The study examined data on 62,475 adult students at 48 colleges and universities across the country. CAEL found that graduation rates are two and a half times higher for students with PLA credit. PLA students also had higher persistence rates and a faster time to degree completion.
MID-SEMESTER ASSESSMENT
As we approach the middle of the term, I want to encourage you to take the temperature of your classes. Mid-semester assessments help you avoid the surprises that a once a semester student rating survey can only reveal once it is too late. You can, of course, create your own survey instruments or you can have the Teaching+Learning Center come in and help either with the creation of the tool, implementation, assessment or all of it. If you want to do it on your own, the folks at Dalhousie University have a good website that can get you started. The Field Tested Learning Assessment Guide for Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology Instructors website is another good resource and gives you a very concise explanation of what assessment should accomplish.
INTRUSIVE INSTRUCTION
Revisiting the theme of engagement, I want to encourage you to use all of the available tools to track the activities of your students. If you assign reading, then you should be testing them on that and I would encourage you to use a short online quiz via your Blackboard site. If you are asking them to watch a video, then monitor who has watched it. Taking a look at these and other analytics will alert you to problems early. Research shows that if a student waits to become engaged with the material, that is a pretty good indicator that they will struggle with the class. Being intrusive with your students indicates that you are a good teacher who cares deeply about their learning. In addition, it is important to understand what types of learners you have enrolled in your courses. The use of a Learning Style Inventory (LSI) instrument can help them understand how they learn best but it also provides them with information on what they may need to work on to become a better student. You can also use this information to better tailor your instruction to your student's needs. There are a number of free LSI surveys that provide solid feedback.
WHAT DO YOU THINK
Finally, I want to remind those who have not done so to complete the T+LC Needs Assessment survey now.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION
Are you looking to integrate active learning into your course or perhaps you want to use inquiry-guided learning in your class? Do you know why Millennial students are different from students you may have taught in the past? Did you know that student engagement has proven to be the most important deterrent to student attrition according to the latest research? These questions are just part of the Teaching+Learning Center's Needs Assessment survey now being collected. If you have not had the opportunity to complete the short survey, please take a few minutes to do it today.
CONNECTING NEW INFORMATION TO MEMORY
Speaking of student engagement, there are a number of resources that can help you create a student-friendly classroom. Elizabeth Barkley says that engaged students are involved in the academic task at hand and are using higher-order thinking skills such as analyzing information or solving problems. In her book Student Engagement Techniques: A handbook for college faculty, Barkley notes that engagement is linked to active learning because learning is about making sense and meaning out of new information by connecting it to what is already known. Although the BRCC Library does not have access to Barkley's book, you can view large portions of it using the Google books feature. She concludes by saying that there is "no single tip, technique, or strategy that offers a magic formula or blueprint for student engagement. Yet some approaches and activities do engage students better than others."
YOU CAN USE THIS NOW
If you are looking for a way to enhance the question and answer portions of your class, you might want to try to the Waiting Game technique. Tell your students that once you ask the question, they must wait until you say it is okay for them to answer. The wait time should generally be short (15 seconds or so) - but research shows this is one of the hardest things for faculty to do yet it creates a better learning environment for many reasons. It is important to insist that no one raise their hand (or shout out the answer) before you give the okay, in order to discourage the typical scenario in which the five students in the front row all immediately volunteer to answer the question, and everyone else sighs in relief. Waiting forces every student to think about the question, rather than passively relying on those students who are fastest out of the gate to answer every question. When the wait time is up, the instructor asks for volunteers or randomly picks a student to answer the question. Once students are in the habit of waiting after questions are asked, more will get involved in the process.
DOCTORS OF THE FUTURE
A $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health has been awarded to LSU and BRCC to establish a new biomedical and behavioral sciences education initiative called the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program. The program will encourage underrepresented students in the biomedical and behavioral science fields to complete their associate degrees at BRCC, and then move on to complete bachelor's degrees at LSU.
Are you looking to integrate active learning into your course or perhaps you want to use inquiry-guided learning in your class? Do you know why Millennial students are different from students you may have taught in the past? Did you know that student engagement has proven to be the most important deterrent to student attrition according to the latest research? These questions are just part of the Teaching+Learning Center's Needs Assessment survey now being collected. If you have not had the opportunity to complete the short survey, please take a few minutes to do it today.
CONNECTING NEW INFORMATION TO MEMORY
Speaking of student engagement, there are a number of resources that can help you create a student-friendly classroom. Elizabeth Barkley says that engaged students are involved in the academic task at hand and are using higher-order thinking skills such as analyzing information or solving problems. In her book Student Engagement Techniques: A handbook for college faculty, Barkley notes that engagement is linked to active learning because learning is about making sense and meaning out of new information by connecting it to what is already known. Although the BRCC Library does not have access to Barkley's book, you can view large portions of it using the Google books feature. She concludes by saying that there is "no single tip, technique, or strategy that offers a magic formula or blueprint for student engagement. Yet some approaches and activities do engage students better than others."
YOU CAN USE THIS NOW
If you are looking for a way to enhance the question and answer portions of your class, you might want to try to the Waiting Game technique. Tell your students that once you ask the question, they must wait until you say it is okay for them to answer. The wait time should generally be short (15 seconds or so) - but research shows this is one of the hardest things for faculty to do yet it creates a better learning environment for many reasons. It is important to insist that no one raise their hand (or shout out the answer) before you give the okay, in order to discourage the typical scenario in which the five students in the front row all immediately volunteer to answer the question, and everyone else sighs in relief. Waiting forces every student to think about the question, rather than passively relying on those students who are fastest out of the gate to answer every question. When the wait time is up, the instructor asks for volunteers or randomly picks a student to answer the question. Once students are in the habit of waiting after questions are asked, more will get involved in the process.
DOCTORS OF THE FUTURE
A $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health has been awarded to LSU and BRCC to establish a new biomedical and behavioral sciences education initiative called the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program. The program will encourage underrepresented students in the biomedical and behavioral science fields to complete their associate degrees at BRCC, and then move on to complete bachelor's degrees at LSU.
Friday, September 21, 2012
ENTREPRENEURIAL CHEATERS
Student cheating has always been a problem for teachers but the advent of mobile technology has certainly created new challenges. The addition of e-learning delivery has created new opportunities for those hoping to get an advanced degree or complete a certification program. But it has also created new problems for instructors because of the difficulties in verifying who is actually taking a course using online technology. Now the game has changed again due to unethical entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck by exploiting the vulnerabilities of others. Inside Higher Ed ran an insightful article about this today. If you really want to get mad, take a look at this site. The e-learning software companies are working hard to thwart these efforts and in fact Blackboard has a feature called TurnItIn that helps you identify incidents of plagiarism in a student's work.
DEEP LEARNING
You know that faculty members play a key role in shaping students’ approaches to learning. Research shows that faculty who focus on deep learning provide the most benefits to their students. Looking at students’ reading strategies, Marton and Saljo identified deep and surface approaches to learning. They discovered that students preparing for a test take two different approaches: deep learners read for overall understanding and meaning; surface learners focus on stand-alone, disconnected facts and rote memorization. Barbara Millis tells us that "Teaching for deep learning requires teachers to identify the most important elements in their course, and to design and develop sequenced activities that will enable students to grapple deeply with these key concepts or skills outside of class. The concepts are further reinforced with in-class or online activities involving active learning and student-student interactions."
CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITY
Niagara University has announced that registration is now open for the 12th annual Conference on Teaching and Learning: Envisioning the Future of Teaching and Learning and the Active, Integrative Classroom. The 2013 keynote speaker will be Dr. Ann E. Austin, Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University. The conference will be held on January 7-8, 2013.
ARE YOU ONE OF THE BEST
Ken Bain, in his best-selling book What the Best College Teacher Do, tells us, "Without exception, outstanding teachers know their subjects extremely well. They follow the important intellectual and scientific or artistic developments within their fields, do research, have important and original thoughts on their subjects, study carefully and extensively what other people are doing in their fields, often read extensively in other fields, and take a strong interest in the broader issues of their disciplines: the histories, controversies, and epistemological discussions. In short, they can do intellectually, physically, and emotionally what they expect from their students."
Student cheating has always been a problem for teachers but the advent of mobile technology has certainly created new challenges. The addition of e-learning delivery has created new opportunities for those hoping to get an advanced degree or complete a certification program. But it has also created new problems for instructors because of the difficulties in verifying who is actually taking a course using online technology. Now the game has changed again due to unethical entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck by exploiting the vulnerabilities of others. Inside Higher Ed ran an insightful article about this today. If you really want to get mad, take a look at this site. The e-learning software companies are working hard to thwart these efforts and in fact Blackboard has a feature called TurnItIn that helps you identify incidents of plagiarism in a student's work.
DEEP LEARNING
You know that faculty members play a key role in shaping students’ approaches to learning. Research shows that faculty who focus on deep learning provide the most benefits to their students. Looking at students’ reading strategies, Marton and Saljo identified deep and surface approaches to learning. They discovered that students preparing for a test take two different approaches: deep learners read for overall understanding and meaning; surface learners focus on stand-alone, disconnected facts and rote memorization. Barbara Millis tells us that "Teaching for deep learning requires teachers to identify the most important elements in their course, and to design and develop sequenced activities that will enable students to grapple deeply with these key concepts or skills outside of class. The concepts are further reinforced with in-class or online activities involving active learning and student-student interactions."
CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITY
Niagara University has announced that registration is now open for the 12th annual Conference on Teaching and Learning: Envisioning the Future of Teaching and Learning and the Active, Integrative Classroom. The 2013 keynote speaker will be Dr. Ann E. Austin, Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University. The conference will be held on January 7-8, 2013.
ARE YOU ONE OF THE BEST
Ken Bain, in his best-selling book What the Best College Teacher Do, tells us, "Without exception, outstanding teachers know their subjects extremely well. They follow the important intellectual and scientific or artistic developments within their fields, do research, have important and original thoughts on their subjects, study carefully and extensively what other people are doing in their fields, often read extensively in other fields, and take a strong interest in the broader issues of their disciplines: the histories, controversies, and epistemological discussions. In short, they can do intellectually, physically, and emotionally what they expect from their students."
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
WORDLE TIPS
Rebecca Wesley, Clinical Coordinator and Instructor in our Veterinary Technology program, says that she and her students love using Wordle in the classroom. I have heard from a few of you since talking about that online resource at Vice Chancellor Cross's fall semester kickoff meeting. Wordle does not provide a way to save your projects but there are ways around that. Of course you can print it but you may also want an electronic copy. The best way to create your file is to use this technique. In Windows you can always hit the Print Screen button. Next open up Word, Open Office, or graphics program such as Paint and paste it in. Use the cropping tool in that program to get what you want. In Windows 7 you may wish to use the Snip It Tool which gives you a lot more options including the ability to save as an image and crop. Send me some of your favorites and I will post them to the blog.
CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITIES
The call for proposals is now out for the 5th annual conference on Higher Education Pedagogy to be held at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA on February 6-8, 2013. Proposals are due by October 8, 2012. The conference showcases the best pedagogical practice and research in higher education today. Sessions address disciplinary and interdisciplinary instructional strategies, outcomes, and research. Registration is now open for the Designing and Improving an Effective Online Science Course annual conference to be held November 1 and 2, 2012 at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. This conference will allow for the sharing of ideas, experiences, and research on online education in the fields of physics, chemistry, astronomy, earth science, and biology, focusing on courses which are both 100% online and hybrid. The goals are to promote a high quality online science education and to improve student learning in the online environment. If you have taught online classes and have something to share, or are new to online delivery and need a few pointers, this workshop is for you.
YOUR OPINION MATTERS
If you have not completed the Teaching+Learning Center's needs assessment survey, I urge you to take it now. The survey is short but will provide valuable information as we move to begin programming for the coming months.
Rebecca Wesley, Clinical Coordinator and Instructor in our Veterinary Technology program, says that she and her students love using Wordle in the classroom. I have heard from a few of you since talking about that online resource at Vice Chancellor Cross's fall semester kickoff meeting. Wordle does not provide a way to save your projects but there are ways around that. Of course you can print it but you may also want an electronic copy. The best way to create your file is to use this technique. In Windows you can always hit the Print Screen button. Next open up Word, Open Office, or graphics program such as Paint and paste it in. Use the cropping tool in that program to get what you want. In Windows 7 you may wish to use the Snip It Tool which gives you a lot more options including the ability to save as an image and crop. Send me some of your favorites and I will post them to the blog.
CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITIES
The call for proposals is now out for the 5th annual conference on Higher Education Pedagogy to be held at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA on February 6-8, 2013. Proposals are due by October 8, 2012. The conference showcases the best pedagogical practice and research in higher education today. Sessions address disciplinary and interdisciplinary instructional strategies, outcomes, and research. Registration is now open for the Designing and Improving an Effective Online Science Course annual conference to be held November 1 and 2, 2012 at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. This conference will allow for the sharing of ideas, experiences, and research on online education in the fields of physics, chemistry, astronomy, earth science, and biology, focusing on courses which are both 100% online and hybrid. The goals are to promote a high quality online science education and to improve student learning in the online environment. If you have taught online classes and have something to share, or are new to online delivery and need a few pointers, this workshop is for you.
YOUR OPINION MATTERS
If you have not completed the Teaching+Learning Center's needs assessment survey, I urge you to take it now. The survey is short but will provide valuable information as we move to begin programming for the coming months.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
THE DAY THE WORLD STOPPED TURNING
For the past 11 years, we have commemorated of one of the most tragic of days in our nation's history. We join with people around the world who mourn the losses we incurred that horrific day. As educators it is certainly an opportunity to engage with our students about the events of that day. While it easy to imagine tackling this topic in history or political science, there are just as many opportunities to create a discussion in biology, English, or psychology. However you choose to approach it, I hope that you take some time today to honor the memories of all that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
FREE WEBINAR OPPORTUNITY
There is still time to register for the free webinar How To Help Students Discover Their Ideal Learning Environment that will be held on Thursday, September 13 at 2:00PM. This webinar will focus on a new program being implemented at Colorado State University, called LifeTraits. This innovative 20-question assessment is designed to profile both students and staff to map their individual personalities to their ideal environments. Unlike other personality profiles, LifeTraits helps students express the needs and wants they seek in their surroundings and gives staff a vocabulary to aid in that approach.Some of the specific topics scheduled to be covered include: understanding which students are most likely to drop out and identifying behavior indicators prior to a stressful encounter; identifying the ideal environment/stressors based on student and staff personality; developing strategies for adapting to the environment to promote learning; and, using student personality data to better reach and communicate with students.
ONLINE COURSE REDESIGN TIPS
If you are looking to revise a current or create a new online course, we recommend Dr. Robin M. Smith's book Conquering the Content: A step-by-step guide to online course design (LB 1044.87 S617). Dr. Smith developed and directed the Center for Web-Based Learning at Southern Arkansas University Tech and was the first WebCT trainer in the South Central United States. Not only is her book filled with useful advice, she includes templates and forms that help guide you to create an online course of excellence. Each chapter begins with learning outcomes as she models the behavior she is championing. Levin, Cox, Cerven, and Haberler in their article The Recipe for Promising Practices in Community Colleges identify and examine the key practices of California community college programs that have demonstrated success in improving (or that have shown significant potential to improve) the achievement of underrepresented groups. They note, "Programs in our study were prepared to work with the students they served while addressing their surrounding social, geographic, and economic contexts. The college program with promising practices, often as a result of faculty behaviors, develops and maintains relationships with local communities, industries, institutions, and agencies."
For the past 11 years, we have commemorated of one of the most tragic of days in our nation's history. We join with people around the world who mourn the losses we incurred that horrific day. As educators it is certainly an opportunity to engage with our students about the events of that day. While it easy to imagine tackling this topic in history or political science, there are just as many opportunities to create a discussion in biology, English, or psychology. However you choose to approach it, I hope that you take some time today to honor the memories of all that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
FREE WEBINAR OPPORTUNITY
There is still time to register for the free webinar How To Help Students Discover Their Ideal Learning Environment that will be held on Thursday, September 13 at 2:00PM. This webinar will focus on a new program being implemented at Colorado State University, called LifeTraits. This innovative 20-question assessment is designed to profile both students and staff to map their individual personalities to their ideal environments. Unlike other personality profiles, LifeTraits helps students express the needs and wants they seek in their surroundings and gives staff a vocabulary to aid in that approach.Some of the specific topics scheduled to be covered include: understanding which students are most likely to drop out and identifying behavior indicators prior to a stressful encounter; identifying the ideal environment/stressors based on student and staff personality; developing strategies for adapting to the environment to promote learning; and, using student personality data to better reach and communicate with students.
ONLINE COURSE REDESIGN TIPS
If you are looking to revise a current or create a new online course, we recommend Dr. Robin M. Smith's book Conquering the Content: A step-by-step guide to online course design (LB 1044.87 S617). Dr. Smith developed and directed the Center for Web-Based Learning at Southern Arkansas University Tech and was the first WebCT trainer in the South Central United States. Not only is her book filled with useful advice, she includes templates and forms that help guide you to create an online course of excellence. Each chapter begins with learning outcomes as she models the behavior she is championing. Levin, Cox, Cerven, and Haberler in their article The Recipe for Promising Practices in Community Colleges identify and examine the key practices of California community college programs that have demonstrated success in improving (or that have shown significant potential to improve) the achievement of underrepresented groups. They note, "Programs in our study were prepared to work with the students they served while addressing their surrounding social, geographic, and economic contexts. The college program with promising practices, often as a result of faculty behaviors, develops and maintains relationships with local communities, industries, institutions, and agencies."
Friday, September 7, 2012
NO SUCKERS ALLOWED
As you transform your course using a student-centered approach, you should consider using group work learning experiences. W. Martin Davies has a good research article that outlines the benefits of group work while acknowledging the problems that may arise like free-riding and the sucker effect. The article provides solutions as well as providing a good background for this type of active learning method. Davies notes, "Groupwork is one of the most expedient ways—along with work placements—of ensuring that students develop transferable skills for life-long learning (teamwork, leadership, project management skills, communication skills). This has largely been in response to industry demands for more flexible workers."
DID YOU DO THE READING
Are you assigning reading material but finding that your students never even crack the book open? Using some type of formative assessment will usually solve that problem. One of the more popular methods is to give a reading quiz on the material you assigned. Here is an option suggested by Paulson and Faust at Cal State-L.A. Active learning depends upon students coming to class prepared. The reading quiz can also be used as an effective measure of student comprehension of the readings (so that you may gauge their level of sophistication as readers). Further, by asking the same sorts of questions on several reading quizzes, you will give students guidance as to what to look for when reading assigned text. If you ask questions like "What color were Esmerelda's eyes?" you are telling the student that it is the details that count, whereas questions like "What reason did Esmerelda give, for murdering Sebastian?" highlight issues of justification. If your goal is to instruct (and not merely to coerce), carefully choose questions which will both identify who has read the material (for your sake) and identify what is important in the reading (for their sake).
MODELS OF EXCELENCE
The Aspen Institute holds an annual competition to recognize the best community colleges. In fact, they award $1,000,000 in prizes in addition to the publicity and honor of being chosen. The Institute changed its criteria for evaluating community college performance, and this year's list includes 40 different institutions, meaning one-third of last year's eligible colleges were bumped. The process is based on graduation rates, degrees awarded, student retention rates and equity in student outcomes. Out of the 120 institutions that submitted nomination packets, they have narrowed the competition to ten and that list includes: Brazosport College (TX), Broward College (FL), College of the Ouachitas (AR), Kingborough Community College-CUNY (NY), Lake Area Technical Institute (SD), Santa Barbara City College (CA), Santa Fe College (FL), Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY), Walla Walla Community College (WA), and West Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY). This is definitely a list that BRCC would like to be on next year.
As you transform your course using a student-centered approach, you should consider using group work learning experiences. W. Martin Davies has a good research article that outlines the benefits of group work while acknowledging the problems that may arise like free-riding and the sucker effect. The article provides solutions as well as providing a good background for this type of active learning method. Davies notes, "Groupwork is one of the most expedient ways—along with work placements—of ensuring that students develop transferable skills for life-long learning (teamwork, leadership, project management skills, communication skills). This has largely been in response to industry demands for more flexible workers."
DID YOU DO THE READING
Are you assigning reading material but finding that your students never even crack the book open? Using some type of formative assessment will usually solve that problem. One of the more popular methods is to give a reading quiz on the material you assigned. Here is an option suggested by Paulson and Faust at Cal State-L.A. Active learning depends upon students coming to class prepared. The reading quiz can also be used as an effective measure of student comprehension of the readings (so that you may gauge their level of sophistication as readers). Further, by asking the same sorts of questions on several reading quizzes, you will give students guidance as to what to look for when reading assigned text. If you ask questions like "What color were Esmerelda's eyes?" you are telling the student that it is the details that count, whereas questions like "What reason did Esmerelda give, for murdering Sebastian?" highlight issues of justification. If your goal is to instruct (and not merely to coerce), carefully choose questions which will both identify who has read the material (for your sake) and identify what is important in the reading (for their sake).
MODELS OF EXCELENCE
The Aspen Institute holds an annual competition to recognize the best community colleges. In fact, they award $1,000,000 in prizes in addition to the publicity and honor of being chosen. The Institute changed its criteria for evaluating community college performance, and this year's list includes 40 different institutions, meaning one-third of last year's eligible colleges were bumped. The process is based on graduation rates, degrees awarded, student retention rates and equity in student outcomes. Out of the 120 institutions that submitted nomination packets, they have narrowed the competition to ten and that list includes: Brazosport College (TX), Broward College (FL), College of the Ouachitas (AR), Kingborough Community College-CUNY (NY), Lake Area Technical Institute (SD), Santa Barbara City College (CA), Santa Fe College (FL), Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY), Walla Walla Community College (WA), and West Kentucky Community and Technical College (KY). This is definitely a list that BRCC would like to be on next year.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
HURRICANE ISAAC
The post-Isaac BRCC campus looks amazingly well. We hope that our students, faculty and staff made it through the hurricane unharmed as we make the move back to "normalcy."
GROW YOUR DEPARTMENT
Are you looking to increase the number of majors in your discipline. A panel, Active Learning: Engaging Activities to Create Eager Students, at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association pointed to ways to draw students to your classes. The session featured accounts from faculty members -- at community colleges and four-year institutions who teach both introductory and upper-level courses -- who have moved beyond standard textbook-and-lecture teaching methods to make anthropology more tangible, and make it come alive. What they learned suggests that the best way to save anthropology on college campuses may well be to allow students to actually experience anthropology by using active learning experiences.
BLENDED LEARNING
You may have heard of the term blended learning and wondered what it meant. Blended learning in its simplest form is about having students use online tools to communicate, collaborate, and publish to develop the 21st-century skills they need to succeed. With blended learning, teachers can use online tools and resources as part of their classroom instruction. Using many of the online tools and resources students already are using for social networking, blended teaching helps teachers find an approach that is more engaging for this generation of students. The benefits of blended learning include giving students a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge while appealing to diverse learning styles and fostering independent learning and self-directed learning skills in students, a critical capacity for lifelong learners. Liz Pape has more information in her article Blended Teaching and Learning.
WHAT DO YOUR STUDENTS HEAR
Susan M. Brookhart has written a good article on the benefits of formative assessment. She says, "Feedback is effective only if it helps students improve their work. Thus, the most important characteristic of feedback is that students understand it and use it. Whether or not feedback is effective depends on what students need to hear, not what you need to say." She goes on to explain how assessment can help a student improve and gives a number of suggestions for effective feedback.
The post-Isaac BRCC campus looks amazingly well. We hope that our students, faculty and staff made it through the hurricane unharmed as we make the move back to "normalcy."
GROW YOUR DEPARTMENT
Are you looking to increase the number of majors in your discipline. A panel, Active Learning: Engaging Activities to Create Eager Students, at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association pointed to ways to draw students to your classes. The session featured accounts from faculty members -- at community colleges and four-year institutions who teach both introductory and upper-level courses -- who have moved beyond standard textbook-and-lecture teaching methods to make anthropology more tangible, and make it come alive. What they learned suggests that the best way to save anthropology on college campuses may well be to allow students to actually experience anthropology by using active learning experiences.
BLENDED LEARNING
You may have heard of the term blended learning and wondered what it meant. Blended learning in its simplest form is about having students use online tools to communicate, collaborate, and publish to develop the 21st-century skills they need to succeed. With blended learning, teachers can use online tools and resources as part of their classroom instruction. Using many of the online tools and resources students already are using for social networking, blended teaching helps teachers find an approach that is more engaging for this generation of students. The benefits of blended learning include giving students a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge while appealing to diverse learning styles and fostering independent learning and self-directed learning skills in students, a critical capacity for lifelong learners. Liz Pape has more information in her article Blended Teaching and Learning.
WHAT DO YOUR STUDENTS HEAR
Susan M. Brookhart has written a good article on the benefits of formative assessment. She says, "Feedback is effective only if it helps students improve their work. Thus, the most important characteristic of feedback is that students understand it and use it. Whether or not feedback is effective depends on what students need to hear, not what you need to say." She goes on to explain how assessment can help a student improve and gives a number of suggestions for effective feedback.
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