Articles
February 3 - Helping Students with Disabilities Reach Their Educational Goals: Reflections and Lessons Learned
By: Melissa Street-Caulder in Philosophy of Teaching
There has long been the debate as to whether college is right for everyone. I follow the school of thought that college should be open to everyone and they may decide if it is the right fit for them. The educational realm has evolved so well that many students who could not even fathom college in the past are now attending and flourishing.
February 2 - Four Keys to Successful Service Learning in Online Courses
By: Christopher Hill in Online Education
Many faculty members may believe that service learning and distance education are mutually exclusive endeavors. However, David Pratt, associate professor of education and coordinator of learning and technology for Purdue University North Central, has found otherwise. He has successfully integrated a service learning component into an online course, and the lessons he has learned are applicable for anyone planning to do likewise.
February 1 - Student Self-Assessment: A Sample Assignment
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
For me examples are like pictures; worth a 1,000 words. In the previous post I wrote about the need to intervene in the development of student self-assessment skills, leaving the process less to chance and making it more the result of purposeful intervention. At a recent Teaching Professor Workshop, I saw an assignment that illustrates that kind of intervention. It was from a 100-level, Introduction to U.S. Government course, but is adaptable to any course. The assignment has two parts and they are the first and last pieces of work students complete in the course.
January 31 - A Strategy for Grading Student Writing Assignments
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Effective Teaching Strategies
Do you sometimes (maybe regularly) get papers from students filled with spelling, punctuation, proofreading, and other more serious grammatical problems? Yours is not an English class and you have other content to teach, making it difficult to address these writing problems. And yet leaving them unaddressed puts students in jeopardy. They may not believe us, but the fact is we still live in a culture that “sorts out” people based on their use of language and a student who can’t put together an error-free résumé or cover letter isn’t likely to get many interviews or good jobs.
January 30 - Multimedia Lectures: Tools for Improving Accessibility and Learning
By: Mary Bart in Teaching with Technology
College course work is meant to be challenging. The content and the vocabulary used are often unfamiliar to many students. For at-risk learners, the challenges are even greater. In some cases, these students have physical or learning disabilities that create accessibility issues, other times the challenges may be the result of the fact that they’re an international student, have anxiety issues, or a strong learning style preference that runs counter to the instructor’s style.
January 27 - Developing Student Self Assessment Skills
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
Our interest in more learner-centered instruction has changed the way many of us think about teaching as well as what we do in the classroom. We are devoting more energy to getting students involved during class. We are trying to give them more opportunities to practice those learning skills that expedite learning. We let them summarize the content; rather than doing it for them. We try to have them ask more questions than we do. We design activities which encourage them to learn from and with each other.
January 26 - A New Kind of “Space” for Quizzes
By: Audrey Deterding, Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning
Quizzes are standard in many college classrooms, and determining how to best use this learning format generates a variety of discussion and suggestions. I, too, continue to search for ways to inspire the often dull quiz routine. In an effort to bring new strategies to the classroom and keep student engagement high, I have recently discovered a successful strategy that encourages a sense of community in class, offers students an opportunity to engage in collaborative learning, and motivates students to come to class prepared. Let me explain how it works.
January 25 - Tips for Teaching Adult Students
By: Brooks Doherty in Effective Teaching Strategies
With the number of non-traditional students growing, many educators have discovered that adult learners are fundamentally different than their younger counterparts in many ways. Yet, most instructors have been left to their own devices to figure out how best to reach these students who come to class with an entirely different set of challenges, demands and expectations, and generally at a much different level of maturity.
January 24 - College Shares Two Professional Development Strategies
By: Rob Kelly in Faculty Development
One of the main mechanisms for faculty development at Century College is the idea of teaching circles, in which five to eight faculty members work with a trained faculty facilitator to design and implement a project related to a topic chosen by the group at its initial meeting.
January 23 - Antidotes for the Publish or Perish Syndrome
By: Mark J. Cooper, PhD in Faculty Development
Most universities require tenure-track faculty members to achieve in three particular domains – teaching, service, and scholarship. Scholarship provokes the most anxiety. Faculty members quickly succumb to the publish or perish syndrome; a syndrome depicted by obsessive thoughts about scholarship expectations, a frenzy to publish, restless nights, and a plethora of excuses. The antidotes cleverly identified in this article are designed to treat the publish or perish syndrome.
