Key report findings include:

• More than 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2011 term, an increase of 570,000 students over the previous year.
• Thirty-two percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.
• Only 2.6 percent of higher education institutions currently have a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), another 9.4 percent report MOOCs are in the planning stages.
• Academic leaders remain unconvinced that MOOCs represent a sustainable method for offering online courses, but do believe they provide an important means for institutions to learn about online pedagogy.
• Seventy-seven percent of academic leaders rate the learning outcomes in online education as the same or superior to those in face-to-face classes.
• The proportion of chief academic officers who believe their faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online education has not increased – it now stands at only 30.2 percent.
• The proportion of chief academic leaders who say online learning is critical to their long-term strategy is at a new high of 69.1 percent.
• The perception of a majority of chief academic officers at all types of institutions is lower retention rates for online courses remain a barrier to the growth of online instruction.

Frank Mayadas, Senior Advisor to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and founding President of the Sloan Consortium noted “As in past years, the survey demonstrates the continuing robust growth in a wide range of institutions. It underscores the importance of online learning in higher education in the U.S. What a remarkable ten year period the survey has captured.”

The tenth annual survey, a collaborative effort between the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board, is the leading barometer of online learning in the United States. Based on responses from over 2,800 academic leaders, the complete survey report, “Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States” is available at http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/changing_course_2012

Previously underwritten by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the report has been able to remain independent through the generous support of Pearson Learning Solutions and the Sloan Consortium.

In yesterday’s online post we counted down from number 12 to seven. Today’s post reveals the top six most popular articles of the year, starting with number six.

6. Three Steps to Better Course Evaluations
With each semester’s end comes the often-dreaded course evaluation process. But a better time to think about course evaluations is at the beginning of the semester. At that point, an instructor can be proactive in three areas that I have found lead to better course evaluations. Continue reading »

5. Should Effort Count? Students Certainly Think So
In a recent study, a group of 120 undergraduates were asked what percentage of a grade should be based on performance and what percentage on effort. The students said that 61% of the grade should be based on performance and 39% on effort. Continue Reading »

4. My Students Don’t Like Group Work
Students don’t always like working in groups. Ann Taylor, an associate professor of chemistry at Wabash College, had a class that was particularly vocal in their opposition. She asked for their top 10 reasons why students don’t want to work in groups and they offered this list. Continue Reading »

3. A Lesson in Academic Integrity as Students Feel the Injustice of Plagiarism
In an effort to make my lessons about plagiarism and the appropriate citation of sources more personal for the students in my rhetoric and research classes, I now use an assignment that forces them into the role of victim rather than thief. The results of my most recent experience with this approach were encouraging. Continue reading »

2. Does PowerPoint Help or Hinder Learning?
I’ve had some nagging concerns about PowerPoint for some time now. I should be upfront and admit to not using it; when I taught or currently in my presentations. Perhaps that clouds my objectivity. But my worries resurfaced after reading an article in Teaching Sociology. I’ll use this post to raise some questions and concerns about the role of PowerPoint both in the classroom and in student learning experiences. Continue reading »

1. Students Think They Can Multitask. Here’s Proof They Can’t.
With easy access to all sorts of technology, students multitask. So do lots of us for that matter. But students are way too convinced that multitasking is a great way to work. They think they can do two or three tasks simultaneously and not compromise the quality of what they produce. Research says that about 5% of us multitask effectively. Proof of the negative effects of multitasking in learning environments is now coming from a variety of studies. Continue reading »

A conversation with Parker Palmer and Maryellen Weimer

If you could listen to a conversation between two highly respected professionals in the field about what matters most in teaching, who would they be? For us, it’s Parker Palmer and Maryellen Weimer.

Parker Palmer, Ph.D., author of The Courage to Teach and Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., editor of The Teaching Professor newsletter, have inspired countless conversations about why we teach and how we can find it in ourselves to bring out the best in our students.

They are each known for their passion and recognition that teachers experience both success and frustration when working with students. For the first time, they come together to talk about the underpinnings of their approaches to their work as teachers.

We were lucky enough to record this conversation between them. Here’s a brief clip of what transpired:

Their 60-minute conversation is not about ticking off a list of teaching tips. Instead, it gets to the heart of why teachers teach. Drs. Parker and Weimer discuss the critical—and difficult—role of self-knowledge as a precursor to your work with students. The conversation will give you something to reflect on now … and revisit in years to come.

Considering the Courage and Practice of Teaching revolves around the following questions:

• Why does effective teaching require courage?
• How does knowing why you teach change the way you teach?
• Many teachers lose heart as the years go by. What is required for healing?
• If your objective is to create a community in your classroom, how do you set rules and policies that support learning?
• For many, instruction is either teacher-centered or learner-centered. Can good teaching be both?
• What should we do about our shortcomings as teachers?

Whether you are a new or experienced faculty member who ended your semester on a high note or a low note, you’ll gain insight, inspiration, and validation from this impassioned conversation. Listening to Drs. Palmer and Weimer, you’ll have no doubt that finding the fortitude to teach past the challenges you face can produce deep joy and satisfaction.

The editors at Magna Publications believe that this is one of the best productions we’ve ever done. As such, we’d like to make it affordable for everyone. For a limited time, we are offering this program at a price that simply covers our costs. You can get on-demand access of the video for 30 days for just $29 or purchase the video on CD for $49. Both options include the complete transcript.

An optional Campus Access License is available for an additional $100. It allows the purchasing institution to upload the CD of the seminar onto the institution’s password-protected internal website for unlimited access by the entire campus community.

Don’t miss this uplifting conversation from two of the world’s most respected voices in higher education!

ORDER NOW

Some highlights to note:

• 70% of respondents prefer to study for exams on their own
• Students still use pen and paper, which was beaten out only by laptops for note taking
• Google Drive tops the cloud based apps for 30% of the users

Today’s post lists articles 7-12, starting with number 12.
12. Classroom Discussion: Professors Share Favorite Strategies for Engaging Students
On The Teaching Professor’s LinkedIn Group we asked members to share some of the strategies they use to engage students in discussion, manage the dominant talkers and the nontalkers, and steer a discussion that’s gone off track. Nearly three dozen faculty members shared their techniques for prompting discussion. Continue reading »

11. Using “Frameworks” to Enhance Teaching and Learning
The tool I call a “framework” is a visual structure to capture students’ thinking. It has a non-linear format and provides writing space to record what students are thinking about course content as well as how they are thinking about it. I generally assign frameworks on a weekly basis, to be completed with course reading outside of class. I collect them weekly, when assigned reading is due, which helps students stay accountable to the reading. Continue reading »

10. Mapping Success: Essential Elements of an Effective Online Learning Experience
An online course is like walking into a foreign land with an entire map laid out, but having no sense of the land’s origin or how to navigate the terrain. How the instructor formats and interacts with the class will ultimately determine the student’s travel experience. The purpose of this article is to provide an understanding of how the elements of an online course are integrated such that they form a cohesive whole that creates easy travel based upon instructor presence, appropriate feedback, and easy navigation for students. Continue reading »

9. Deep Learning vs. Surface Learning: Getting Students to Understand the Difference
Sometimes our understanding of deep learning isn’t all that deep. Typically, it’s defined by what it is not. It’s not memorizing only to forget and it’s not reciting or regurgitating what really isn’t understood and can’t be applied. The essence of deep learning is understanding—true knowing. That’s a good start but it doesn’t do much to help students see the difference between deep and surface learning or to help persuade them that one is preferable to the other. Continue reading »

8. A Syllabus Tip: Embed Big Questions
Much has been written about the course syllabus. It’s an important tool for classroom management, for setting the tone, for outlining expectations, and for meeting department and university requirements. It’s an essential document in a higher education course, but do your students read it? And if they do read it, do they see the real purpose of the course beyond the attendance policy and exam dates? Continue reading »

7. Five Characteristics of Learner-Centered Teaching
Although learner-centered teaching and efforts to involve students have a kind of bread and butter relationship, they are not the same thing. In the interest of more definitional precision, I’d like to propose five characteristics of teaching that make it learner-centered. Continue reading »

See what teaching and learning articles topped out our list here.

Not only is it a learner-centered approach that gets students off the sidelines and actively involved in and responsible for their learning, but, pragmatically speaking, experiential learning inside the classroom is welcomed by students with busy schedules and doesn’t carry the logistical burden for faculty that community-based programs can, said Barbara Jacoby, Faculty Associate for Leadership and Community Service-Learning at the University of Maryland, College Park.

During the recent online seminar Experiential Learning Inside the Classroom, Jacoby explained what experiential learning is, and what it’s not. She also talked about the most appropriate times to use it, and provided examples of how to set up an experiential learning exercise using role-plays, problem-based learning, group projects, and debate and deliberation — any of which could occur in a variety of disciplines.

“In experiential learning, the teacher takes the role of the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage,” Jacoby said. “So the nature of the teaching experience really changes from transferring knowledge to be regurgitated on an exam to guiding students through the process of learning, providing information and resources as needed.

“Faculty roles include selecting suitable learning experiences, posing challenges and problems, co-creating with students the safe learning environment that learning requires, supporting students as learners, and facilitating critical reflection. Experiential learning in the classroom looks and is different from what happens in the traditional classroom. It is not, as it is sometimes accused of being, students teaching themselves. It is certainly not lightweight, fluffy, or busywork. It is not about experience alone.”

Critical reflection, and getting students to participate in that process of analyzing, reconsidering, and questioning, are key components of any successful experiential learning exercise. Critical reflection can be done individually or in groups, and it can take many forms — oral, written, or through digital media, Jacoby said.

Steps for Design and Implementation of Experiential Learning
To get started with an experiential learning activity in your course, Jacoby offers the following guidelines:

1. Identify learning outcomes.
2. Create a safe environment.
3. Select an activity that pushes students to their learning edge.
4. Introduce students to the concept and practice; cover basic material.
5. Engage students; provide guidance and support.
6. Discuss the process and result.
7. Provide structure for critical reflection.
8. Obtain feedback throughout the process.
9. Assess learning.

“Assessment and grading in experiential learning often produces angst for faculty members who have never done it. They wonder ‘How will I know it? How will I know that they’ve achieved it? How will I know it when I see it?’” said Jacoby. “The answer? Rubrics. I can’t emphasize enough how effective I believe rubrics are. I give students rubrics early. That way they know my expectations, and it also enables me to be consistent in my grading.”

ECAR has surveyed undergraduate students annually since 2004 about technology in higher education. Key findings from this year’s ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology include:

• Blended-learning environments are the norm; students say that these environments best support how they learn.
• Students want to access academic progress information and course material via their mobile devices, and institutions deliver.
• Technology training and skill development for students is more important than new, more, or “better” technology.
• Students use social networks for interacting with friends more than for academic communication.

The entire ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2012 including recommendations from ECAR based on the findings and a list of participating institutions can be downloaded from the Educause website.

A 2011 national study published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice explored the psychological symptoms, symptom severity, and suicide risk of 628 student veterans. The study found that 24 percent of the sample experienced severe depression, 35 percent had severe anxiety, and 36 percent experienced significant symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In addition, 7.7 percent have made an attempt to take their own life and 46 percent said they’ve thought about suicide.

The recent online video seminar From Rucksack to Backpack: Ensuring Student Veteran Success, featured three presenters; all with deep experience working with student veterans and students with disabilities. During the seminar Bruce Kelley, director of the Center for Teaching & Learning at the University of South Dakota, Justin M. Smith, the Fides Program coordinator at the University of South Dakota’s Center for Teaching & Learning, and Ernetta Fox, the director of Disability Services at the University of South Dakota, shared some proven ways you can better serve the veterans in your classroom and at your institution as a whole.

Fox explained how faculty needs to be aware that student veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan often have “signature disabilities” that affect their cognitive abilities. Traumatic brain injury, concussive brain disorder, depression, and pain are common and may manifest as a variety of acquired learning disabilities, including dyslexia, dysnomia, audio or visual processing disorders, reading comprehension difficulties, and short- and long-term memory issues. It’s important to work with the institution’s disability services office to provide the appropriate accommodations that allow students with disabilities an equal opportunity to learn and show what they learned, Fox said.

When designing your courses, Kelley said there are a number of significant factors to consider related to student veterans. In many cases, these things you do to support student veterans will benefit all your students. For example, chain of command is very important in the military. If you teach large classes with TAs, then it’s helpful to explain in the syllabus who students should see if they have a question about a specific assignment, an exam grade, an excused absence, and so on.

In terms of learning activities, Kelley encourages faculty to precisely define criterion by which assignments will be evaluated and to assess frequently—formatively and directly.

“It’s very interesting that best practices in higher education coincide to a very close extent with best practices in the military when it comes to assessment,” said Kelley. “The military puts a lot of thought and a lot of value in assessment. It’s a part of every type of training exercise; and the goal of training and the goal of assessment in the military is to help units and personnel improve. They provide clear goals in terms of what the purpose of the mission or activity is, and we in higher education should do the same. Assessment is frequent and it’s immediate, and that should also happen in higher education.”

Reference:
Rudd, D., Goulding, J., & Bryan, C. (2011). Student Veterans: A National Survey Exploring Psychological Symptoms and Suicide Risk. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 42(5), 354–360.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Court found that the First Amendment does not prevent employees from being disciplined for expressions they make “pursuant to their professional duties” and that “public employees are not speaking as citizens when they are speaking to fulfill a responsibility of their job.” Although faculty at state institutions are public employees, the Court declined to say if its decision would apply to speech related to scholarship or teaching, leaving that for lower courts. Since then, a number of cases nationwide have been decided based on Garcetti—some in favor of faculty, some against, said Deborah Gonzales, founder of Law2sm, a legal consulting firm.

During the recent online seminar Academic Freedom and Free Speech: What You Need to Know, Gonzales and Rob Jenkins, an associate professor at Georgia Perimeter College, outlined a number of these lower court rulings related to the First Amendment rights of faculty and offered suggestions on how faculty and administrators can protect themselves.

“I think it’s very important for faculty and administrators to understand Garcetti, to understand these cases that are out there, and how they’re being applied, and that they’re also aware of some of the consequences and ramifications,” said Gonzales.

Gonzales and Jenkins also provided a long list of academic freedom do’s and don’ts for faculty members and administrators. We’re including some of them here:

For Faculty Members:
Don’t assume that you can write or say whatever you want in a public forum and that you will be protected by the First Amendment.

Do understand the courts’ rulings, in Garcetti v. Ceballos and subsequent cases, regarding First Amendment protection for public and private employees.

Don’t assume you can say whatever you want to in your classroom and that you’ll be protected by academic freedom.

Do familiarize yourself with your institution’s statement on academic freedom and policy manual, as well as with your professional organization’s guidelines for the proper exercise of academic freedom.

Don’t be intimidated into silence by the Garcetti ruling.

Do have the courage to stand up for what you believe in a civil, professional, and appropriate manner.

For Administrators
Don’t ignore the potential impact of Garcetti on your faculty and your institution.

Do familiarize yourself with the relevant rulings and their possible ramifications.

Don’t assume that your faculty members are familiar with Garcetti and its impact on them.

Do make sure that faculty members know about the rulings and understand how to protect themselves both in and out of the classroom.

Don’t assume that Garcetti won’t affect your institution.

Do take steps to protect your institution and its faculty, staff, and administrators through training, policy revisions where necessary, and other appropriate steps.

“The point that we’re really trying to get across here more than anything else is that the federal government isn’t going to protect the right of faculty members to speak out,” said Jenkins. “For so long, we’ve relied on the government, and we’ve assumed that we’d be protected by free speech, or we’ve mistakenly thought that academic freedom was, you know, somehow written in stone. The Garcetti ruling makes it abundantly clear that that’s not the case. The government isn’t going to take care of it for us. We have to take care of it ourselves. In general, I believe that higher education should encourage speech not squelch it. I think that should be one of the underlying principles behind our approach to academic freedom in this post-Garcetti environment.“

Robert Cipriano, Ed.D., professor and department chair at Southern Connecticut State University, has conducted research and written extensively on the topic of collegiality for more than 10 years and in his consulting work has heard the horror stories.

“When I got into higher education back in 1972, I had the expectation that collegiality and civility permeated the climate of institutions of higher education,” Cipriano said. “I’ve since come to realize that this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, what is reality.”

In the recent online seminar Fostering a Collegial Environment: Guidelines for the Department Chair, Cipriano outlined what collegiality is and what it is not, what the U.S. courts have said about “lack of collegiality” as a basis for personnel decisions (even the firing of a full-time, tenured faculty member), and proactive strategies for facilitating a collegial, civil and respectful environment.

According to Cipriano, the number one thing a department chair can do to promote a collegial workplace can be summed up in three words: “invest in people.” This can be operationalized, he said, by doing the following:

• Help people achieve their goals.
• Develop a genuine interest in every faculty member.
• Treat people with respect and dignity—always.
• Remember that relationships built on trust and fed by personal integrity are the foundation.
• Recognize that poor behavior by others does not require you to respond in kind (but you do need to respond).
• Model characteristics you wish the faculty and staff to exhibit.
• Acknowledge that leadership is more a function of people’s relationships than the position.
• Recognize people publicly for their achievements.

Yet even with all these efforts, department chairs can find themselves with a vitriolic faculty member. In the case of promotion and tenure decisions, Cipriano said the courts have consistently concluded that collegiality, even when not specified as a separate evaluation criterion, is a relevant consideration in assessing teaching, research, and service.

“The most valuable assets in a university are its people and the intellectual capital they possess and the culture they create,” Cipriano said. “There will be conflict. Conflict is normal and conflict can be positive, but it should not be personal and it should not be disrespectful.”

For most college professors, it’s an all-too-familiar scenario. Whether it’s the student who is in real danger of failing the course or the student who is unaccustomed to any grade lower than an A, many students make these pleas for the very simple reason that many high schools allow students to retake tests or do extra-credit assignments to raise their grades. When these students get to college, they expect similar options and often struggle without them, said Mary Clement, EdD, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Berry College, where she also is a professor of teacher education.

During the recent online seminar A Good Start: Helping First-Year Students Acclimate to College, Clement shared ideas for recalibrating student expectations of how things work in college so they can be successful during that first critical year and beyond.

“How do we change this mindset going from high school into college?” Clement asked. “The number one way is to put your policy in writing in the syllabus. If the paper is due Monday, and the student is not in class that day, will the paper be accepted after Monday? Will it be accepted after Monday at all? If the answer is yes, until when and with what penalty?”

Further, because there’s so much variation across different high schools in terms of homework, attendance requirements and making up for missed work, and grading practices, Clement recommends creating an interest inventory to give students during the first week of class. If it is anonymous, students may feel more comfortable answering the questions. Here are some questions you may wish to ask, and use as a springboard for discussing your expectations for the course:

• Describe your high school academic program. For example, did you take any Advanced Placement courses?
• About how many days were you absent during your senior year of high school? Was it easy to have “excused” absences in your school? Could you make up the work missed, including tests?
• Were you ever allowed to re-take a quiz or test? If so, please describe the policy.
• About how many hours did you study per week? Which subjects required the most homework?
• Were you able to check your grades throughout the semester in high school? If so, how (electronically through the school’s website, by keeping track yourself, by checking with the teacher)?
• If your grade in a high school class was not as high as you wanted, could you complete extra credit or re-do assignments and tests to improve the grade? Please describe.

“Why should we know about high school [policies]?” Clement asked. “I think that knowing helps us to meet students where they are and then change their mindsets for college success. This is not about making college like high school. College is very different, and, yes, college should be different.”

In the recent online video seminar Grading Strategies to Promote Student & Faculty Success, Anderson talked about some of the misconceptions that faculty and students have about grades and how faculty can establish a fair and supportive grading environment. Anderson, a professor of biological sciences at Towson University and co-author of Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College, also acknowledged that grading typically isn’t a teacher’s favorite part of the job.

To illustrate, she told the story of a faculty member from New York whose department chair called out of retirement. It seems the institution had been unable to find someone to teach a specific course that seniors needed in order to graduate, so the department chair asked whether the retired professor would be willing to teach one more semester on a part-time basis.

The professor agreed to teach the course. Then the department chair said, rather apologetically, “Well, now I hate to bring this up, but you do know this is going to be at part-time pay. What’s the least you would take for teaching this course?”

And the professor looked right at him, and said, “Oh, I’ll teach for free,” before adding, “but you’re going to have to pay me to grade.”

“I think that’s the way that most of us feel about this process,” Anderson said.

However, given the importance of grading to the teaching and learning process, faculty need to be more strategic in how grading and assignments are used. Here are a few of the strategies Anderson shared during the seminar.

1. Rethink the big question. Ask yourself “What will students be able to know and do at the end of this course?” rather than “What am I going to cover?”

2. Stop using the word “understand.” If you list as a learning objective that, for example, “Students will understand the concept of photosynthesis,” students may gain a very surface level of knowledge that it’s something plants do and then will feel they’ve met the requirement. Anderson recommends using words from Bloom’s Taxonomy that require higher levels of cognition, such as apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate.

3. Identify, model and engage students in the kinds of thinking that are important to your discipline.

4. Construct a welcoming, thorough and explicit syllabus, and refer to it often. Anderson recommends printing your syllabus on colored paper so it stands out and students can find it easily throughout the semester. The tone you use is equally important.

“When I read syllabi … I have to remind myself that I’m not working for the state penal institution because they start off with threats of how students will fail, and how they will be thrown out. Those [consequences] have to be there. But first say, ‘Welcome to Biology’ or ‘Welcome to English 101.’ ‘Here are the kinds of things that you’re going to be able to do when you successfully complete this course.’”

Using eye-tracking Tobii Glasses from Tobii Technology to exam the attention patterns of students in the classroom, the study provides new insight into effective teaching techniques that aim to keep students engaged and motivated to learn during lectures.

“Until now, there has been no first-hand, innate measurement of student attention from the student’s perspective in the classroom,” said Rosengrant. “We were able to measure what the students observe during a lecture, how much of their time is dedicated to the material presented in class and, as an instructor, what are the greatest inhibitors to keeping their attention.”

Rosengrant’s four-month pilot study observed eight college students wearing the special glasses to track their eye-gaze patterns during 70-minute pre-elementary education lectures at Kennesaw State University. He found a number of factors that influence whether students remain on task, or allow their attention to drift.

For example, the verbal presentation of new material that is not contained within the instructor’s PowerPoint, the use of humor by the instructor and the proximity of the instructor to the student, all contribute to greater attention from the student. Rosengrant’s study also concluded that “digital distractions” such as mobile phones and the Web, particularly Facebook, are the greatest inhibitors to retaining students’ attention in the classroom. From these insights, Rosengrant stresses the need for professors to alter their lecture structure through the injection of varying activities and the use of humor to engage students.

Rosengrant will publish the full study, “Studying Student Attention via Eye Tracking” in the fall and will continue to expand his research in order to generate insights that can impact the future of classroom instruction and ultimately, students’ success and the field of teaching.

“I hope that this study enlightens the education community about how to engage students effectively in the classroom, maximize student focus on the material and, ultimately, increase their achievement,” added Rosengrant.

On The Teaching Professor’s LinkedIn Group we asked members to share some of the strategies they use to engage students in discussion, manage the dominant talkers and the nontalkers, and steer a discussion that’s gone off track. Nearly three dozen faculty members shared their techniques for prompting discussion. Below are excerpts of just a few of the strategies shared.

Bob Burdette, Assistant Professor of Accounting, Salt Lake Community College: No one method works for me to get my non-talking students to speak and the talkers to be quiet and listen. So, I try to change up the tool I use to get the desired results. On one day I will start working a problem on the whiteboard. I’ll then give the marking pen to a student and thank them for volunteering. They get to come to the board to work the next part of the problem. After they are finished they pass the pen to another student to continue work on the problem. We continue this process giving as many students the opportunity to come to the board and teach small parts of the problem to the rest of the class. To remove the anxiety of coming to the board we give the student at the board the authority to ask for help from all the students still seated.

Another day I’ll pass out two or three poker chips to every student. As we begin the discussion I ask each student to give me back a chip each time they answer a question. Rapidly the talking students use up their chips. Since they can no longer speak in the class it leaves the non-talking students to answer the remaining questions.

Another day I’ll bring a deck of cards to class and allow every student to select one from the deck. Once I begin working a problem I’ll stop and draw a card from the deck. Any student with a card higher than mine has to come to the board and continue working on the problem. If I have the higher card then I have to continue working the problem.

Warren Dittmar, Professor of English, Miami Dade College: A good foundation for interactive conversation is a relaxed atmosphere and an understanding by students that their ideas and opinions are important and will be accepted and entertained. Students must feel that their comments are going to be listened to and sincerely responded to. Establishing student trust and acceptance is an important aspect of their participation.

As an example of one technique that I use in my classes, I have a Burning Question Period that starts just before the beginning of class and runs through the first five or ten minutes. Students can ask any question about current world happenings, national problems, or any important issue to them. Their questions are always varied and create general discussion that includes vocal students as well as more reticent students. The issues are usual hot issues and generate strong reactions and controversy. They are required to substantiate their positions. This technique has generated regular interactions and open communication.

Erica Kleinknecht, Associate Professor of Psychology, Pacific University: I find that in lecture classes, most students don’t read before-hand, they do so after class. When I want discussion, I create a series of writing assignments due at the start of select class periods. This gets them to collect their thoughts before class so they don’t feel pressured to come up with something on the spot. Many students are afraid of being wrong. I also do what others on this list have suggested: small group discussion with one delegate who reports to the whole class. When I do both in one class, I get many more talkers.

Chitu Okoli, Associate Professor of Management Information Systems, Concordia University: Clickers are quite helpful. You ask a question, give people time to think about it (and they are allowed to discuss with their neighbours first), and then click in their multiple-choice responses. Before you tell the students the right answer, you ask people from each answer group (e.g. those who answered A, B or C) to justify their responses. This gets a wide variety of people to talk who wouldn’t otherwise because 1) everyone has time to think and commit to an answer before you ask them to talk to the class; and 2) different people give different answers, so it’s not always the same 5-7 people talking every time. Of course, even then, the 5-7 people problem pops up, so after these people have responded twice or so, you ask to hear from people who have not yet spoken. This approach has helped me hear from a lot more students, especially the more thoughtful but otherwise silent ones.

If you’re interested in joining The Teaching Professor’s group on LinkedIn go here »

For more on Effective Teaching Strategies, download a FREE copy of Tips for Encouraging Student Participation in Classroom Discussions!

Sign In Create an Account

“What I’d like to do is change this to a more proactive approach,” said Jill Schiefelbein, who teaches online at Arizona State University. “For example if you’re giving an assignment and you know that in the past students have had difficulty with certain aspects of the assignment you can preempt that with a voice announcement that says ‘In the past students have had trouble with the assignment in this way…”

Highlighting potential pitfalls and offering the resources for overcoming them is just one of the ways Schiefelbein ensures a continuous feedback loop throughout her courses. During the recent online video seminar Engage Online Students with Targeted Feedback, Schiefelbein demonstrated a variety of strategies and methods faculty can use to collect, harness and disseminate feedback.

Four times each term Schiefelbein sends out an email to each student that outlining the possible points available and earned to date. Within that email is a list of resources, such as the tutoring center or writing center. She then encourages a little reciprocal feedback by asking students for feedback on the course. She’ll ask questions such as: ‘What was your favorite part of the course so far?’ or ‘What have you found most challenging?’ and then takes that feedback to make improvements throughout the remainder of the course.

In addition to the quarterly check-ins, Schiefelbein also sets up an area where informal conversations can take place. These “hallway conversations” are intended to mimic what students in a face-to-face class might talk about with each other before and after class. When important topics come up in the hallway conversations, Schiefelbein will mention them in a text or voice announcement. “I’ll post an announcement that says, ‘Check out the hallway conversation area and chime in on the discussion about …’ and I’ll give the subject line of whatever discussion is relevant. A more organic type of feedback emerges.”

An effective feedback loop also means communicating with students across multiple channels — discussion boards, email, audio and video — and Schiefelbein recommended a number of tools for accomplishing this task if the course’s learning management system (LMS) doesn’t have the functionality already built-in, including: VoiceThread, which supports text, audio and video, Audacity, AudioPal and Voxopop.

Active learning, a learner-centered approach to teaching in which the responsibility for learning is placed upon the students (often working in collaboration with each other), is not new. Yet there are still many faculty who lecture almost exclusively and are convinced that active learning activities won’t work in their courses.

Some of the most frequently cited concerns about learning activities include that they take up too much class time, make it more difficult to control the class, work only in small classes, take too much time to design, and are difficult to grade.

Supporters of learner-centered teaching may counter those objections by citing a growing volume of research that supports active learning techniques. Or they may just have their students share their perspectives on active learning and what makes a learning activity effective for them.

In the online seminar Active Learning That Works: What Students Think presenter Ken Alford, Ph.D. took the latter approach. Using video clips from about a dozen students from across a variety of disciplines, the associate professor at Brigham Young University allowed students to share their thoughts on active learning—what they like and why they like it. Their comments, summarized here, cover a wide spectrum, including the benefits of learning activities to:

• Help students build connections with what they’re learning
• Bring a change of pace to class sessions so students don’t get bored
• Force students to participate rather than allowing them to just sit back and be spectators
• Allow students to get to know one another
• Open the class to different perspectives
• Make it easier to understand and remember the material

Of course being a learner-centered teacher doesn’t mean you never lecture. Active learning and lecture are not mutually exclusive. They can, and often are, used together in the same class session.

“It’s very easy to overpopulate your class with learning activities,” said Alford. “Learning activities should be the seasoning and not the main course. Look for opportunities in the class; normally they will stand out—key concepts, important transitional lessons, or a summation. View things from a student perspective. When do they really need to internalize a concept? Those kinds of places set themselves up for learning activities.”

View a brief clip from the seminar:

Consider the following scenarios one might experience in the classroom:

• A student behaves in an entitled manner. He texts in class, shows up late, gets up frequently to use the bathroom (or take a smoke break) and surfs the Internet during class. The student was asked to reduce these behaviors. He does not comply. The student smells of alcohol and talks about parties the night before.
• An older student emails her adjunct faculty member, challenging two exam questions and her grade. The faculty member responds via email. Then the student brings it up during class, becoming argumentative and enraged, resulting in her yelling and shoving a desk.

Either of these behaviors can quickly derail the learning experience and create an unpleasant, or even dangerous, environment. During the online seminar Handling Annoying, Disruptive, and Dangerous Students, presenters Brian Van Brunt, director of Counseling and Testing at Western Kentucky University, and Laura Bennett, student conduct officer at Harper College, outlined strategies for dealing with difficult students.

One of the keys, they said, is to be proactive in setting expectations on the first day of class, and communicating those expectations, both verbally and in the syllabus. Explain what types of behavior you expect from your students and the type of learning environment you are looking to create. Taking the time to set the tone, learn students’ names and share a little bit about yourself is an investment that will pay dividends throughout the semester.

And yet, even if you do everything right, there still will be students who push your buttons and become (or have the potential to become) a destructive force in the classroom. Depending on the situation, you may want to refer that student to the student conduct office or campus behavioral intervention team. More often, however, you will first want to speak with the student about the behavior, and Bennett offered the following tips.

Eight-step outline for difficult conversations with students

1. Describe the behavior and its impacts
2. Listen to the student’s perspective and response
3. Discuss appropriate behavior
4. Discuss resources to promote success
5. Reiterate or set parameters for future behaviors
6. Share consequences for noncompliance
7. Summarize the conversation
8. Inform of any follow up:
• Document the conversation and plan
• Decide who you will inform
• Check in with the student

“These are not easy conversations to have but you want to approach the conversation from the point of ‘I’m really concerned about this behavior because if it continues it’s going to get in the way of you being successful’ and not ‘How dare you,’” said Van Brunt. “Students, particularly this generation of students, want to know that you care about them and that you want to see them succeed.”

Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 12:25 p.m. Eastern based on reader feedback.

More than half of the 1,000-plus readers who completed the survey rated unprepared students as either “very problematic” (32.9%) or “extremely problematic” (22.8%); with another fourth (25.2%) saying the issue of unprepared students was “moderately problematic.”

Meanwhile, more than one-third of readers rated student motivation as “moderately problematic” (36.5%); with just over one-fourth (25.4%) saying “very problematic” and 11.6% calling it “extremely problematic.”

The issues of unprepared students and student motivation far outpaced the nine other potential challenges listed in the survey question which asked: What are some of your biggest day-to-day challenges? Coming in at number three was technology distractions, which nearly half of the readers said was either “moderately problematic” (28.4%) or “very problematic” (18.2%). All the remaining issues, which included student incivility, faculty incivility, class size too big, helicopter parents, classroom safety, and limited resources, were rated much lower.

Other results from the survey:

• In terms of article topics, the five areas of interest that scored the highest were: learner-centered teaching, teaching with technology, course design, assessment and grading, and assignment strategies.
• 60.5% of readers identified themselves as professor/instructor, 10.3% as dean/administrator, and 10.7% as other.
• 28.1% of readers have worked in higher education for more than 20 years, 22.1% for 6-10 years, 18.4% fewer than 10 years, and 18.3% for 11-15 years.
• 29.2% of readers work at a four-year public institution, 26.9% at a two-year public institution, and 26.3% at a four-year private institution.
• 61.8% of readers teach or manage at least one online or blended course.

Thank for everyone who took the time to complete the survey. We take all of the insight and feedback received very seriously and will use it to continue to improve Faculty Focus throughout the coming year.

“I have a lot of content to cover, so there’s really no time to address multiculturalism.”

Diversity, once largely centered on race and ethnicity, has evolved over the years to include a broad range of personal attributes, experiences, and backgrounds, each interlocking to create one’s social identity.

For example, Texas A&M University defines diversity as “The inclusion, welcome, and support of individuals from all groups, encompassing the various characteristics of persons in our community. The characteristics can include, but are not limited to: age, background, citizenship, disability, education, ethnicity, family status, gender, gender identity/expression, geographical location, language, military experience, political views, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and work experience.”

When viewed through this lens, it becomes easier to see the importance of teaching inclusively, regardless of discipline or ethnic makeup of your course. But what exactly makes a course multicultural?

In the recent online seminar, Four Strategies to Engage the Multicultural Classroom, Texas A&M’s Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity, Dr. Christine A. Stanley, and Dr. Matthew L. Ouellett, Associate Director of the Center for Teaching & Faculty Development at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, outlined a framework for multicultural course design. As outlined below, the four conceptual areas — instructors, students, teaching methods and content — are all inextricably linked, while integrating into the larger campus climate and culture.

1. Who are you? Spend some time examining your own experiences, values, assumptions and stereotypes. How have you come to understand your complex social identities? Which aspects are most salient for you in the classroom?
2. Who are your students? Get to know your students, and just as important, give them opportunities to get to know each other. The more students have invested in helping to create a positive classroom environment, the more likely they are to take risks, share their viewpoints, and hear each other out even if they may disagree, Ouellett said.
3. What are your pedagogical choices? Create a more student-centered teaching model that engages students. “What we need to do is shift the dynamics so we’re less about demonstrating our expertise and more about getting students to build their own ability to construct knowledge,” Ouellett said.
4. What are your content choices? Understand that the principles of an inclusive course apply across all disciplines. Model inclusive behavior by ensuring diverse perspectives, and use examples and illustrations that reflect the diversity that may be in your classroom, Stanley said.

Managing Difficult Conversations
One of the biggest challenges to embracing a multicultural course design is being able to effectively manage potentially polarizing topics where emotions can run high and old stereotypes are exposed. It’s a given that, at some point, a student will say something inflammatory that completely catches everyone off guard and it’s important to have what Ouellett calls “pedagogical parachutes” for those times when you just don’t know how to respond. Examples include: Can you tell me more? How did you come to believe this? Are there other perspectives on this topic?

During the more intense situations, you may want to give students a chance to collect their thoughts and respond to writing prompts, such as How do you feel at this moment? You also could break students into small groups with the discussion prompt: What do we need from each other to continue?

“It’s important to recognize, too, that as instructors we’ve all been there and there is nothing wrong with coming back the next class period and admitting ‘Hey, we were having this discussion last time and I don’t think I handled it particularly well. Let’s talk about it some more,’” Stanley said. “I think that goes a long way with students.”

“One of the issues with service learning and civic engagement is they are such great programs and everyone is excited about doing something good for the community and doing something good for the students — and of course that’s true — but sometimes we sort of lull ourselves into this feeling that ‘If I’m doing good, how can I possibly get into trouble? Who would sue us?’” said Rob Jenkins, an associate professor at Georgia Perimeter College. “That kind of thinking can be problematic because there are a number of areas in civic engagement and service learning where you can open yourself up to liability.”

Consider the following scenarios outlined in the recent online seminar Managing Legal Risks of Service Learning and Civic Engagement:

• A student is robbed and assaulted in the parking lot of the agency where she had been assigned by the institution for an internship. Is the institution liable?
• Malpractice claims arise involving accounting and law students who volunteer at tax and legal aid clinics. Is the institution liable?
• While at her internship, a student with epilepsy has a seizure. Is the institution liable?

These scenarios, based on actual situations, underscore the importance of understanding potential risks that can occur when institutions send their students out into the community. Rather than thinking “What are the chances …” you should be thinking “What if …” What if there’s a car accident on the way to the site? What if a student inadvertently damages the community partner’s property? What if the community partner serves vulnerable populations, such as children, the elderly, people with disabilities, or victims of domestic violence? What special precautions and training should be in place then?

Although it’s impossible to eliminate risk entirely, assessing risk and having controls and procedures in place to mitigate risk is critical. This includes thorough training for students and faculty, regular site visits, adequate supervision, and frequent communication with your community partners.

“You have to keep in mind, these students are not professionals so you need to be clear in your expectations,” said Deborah Gonzalez, an attorney with experience running a civic engagement program. “Prepare the students in terms of how to dress and how to behave. That they should only park in lighted areas; that they should avoid one-on-one situations where they’re isolated from everybody else. And also go over just a few things of what to do if something goes wrong, such as making sure they have the name and number of an emergency contact.”