Posts Tagged ‘assessment’
September 15 - A Modular Course Design Benefits Online Instructor and Students
By: Rob Kelly in Online Education
Andrea Henne, dean of online and distributed learning in the San Diego Community College District, recommends creating online courses composed of modules—discrete, self-contained learning experiences—and uses a course development method that specifies what to include in each module.
August 25 - Eight Ways to Support Faculty Needs with a Virtual Teaching & Learning Center
By: Kathleen MacDonald in Faculty Development
Teaching and learning support professionals, particularly those who must perform miracles as a “Department of One,” can have one of the most challenging jobs on campus. They not only support the course design, content delivery strategies, technology integration, and training/orientation for faculty and students in online learning programs (asynchronous and synchronous formats), but they also support all other teaching/learning needs for classroom, blended, and any other teaching environment. This professional may be an instructional designer, an educational technologist, or very often, a designated faculty member with some or all of these skills.
August 12 - Aligning Assessment Strategies with Institutional Goals
By: Mary Bart in Educational Assessment
Troll through university websites and you’re likely to see mission statements with such lofty phrases as “instill a passion for lifelong learning” or “a commitment to student-centered education.” But what do these things really mean and, more importantly, how do you know you’re doing them?
July 16 - Mentoring Undergraduates in Research and Scholarship
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Interested in a good example of how teaching, student scholarship, and service can be integrated into a single activity? Cecilia Shore [reference below] suggests that mentorship of undergraduates doing scholarship (be it research in labs or bibliographic searches) may just be that example.
July 13 - Applying Learning Agreements in the Classroom
By: Loren Kleinman in Teaching and Learning
As a former editor in the business profession and now educator, I see connections between business and classroom best practices, especially applying professional development plans and performance reflection exercises as academic learning agreements in order to promote student leadership and engagement.
July 7 - Academic Affairs and Student Affairs: Bridging the Gap
By: John N. McDaniel, PhD in Trends in Higher Education
A recent informal poll conducted by Magna Publications asked, “Would you like to see student affairs work more closely with academic affairs on your campus? What is preventing—or encouraging—collaboration on your campus?”
May 22 - Getting Started with Assessing Institutional Effectiveness
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
While not a new concept, institutional effectiveness is increasingly necessary as the demand for services has expanded and the pool of available resources has contracted. This seminar will help participants identify practical steps they can take to launch an institutional effectiveness assessment program.
May 22 - Balancing Challenge and Support in Undergraduate Teaching
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
It’s a dilemma every teacher faces: How much help can you give your students before you’re being no help at all? Learn how you can empower students to grow and solve problems independently, while providing the necessary support to help them stay on track.
May 18 - Student-Centered Teaching: The Academic Leader’s Role in Shifting Paradigms
By: Mary Bart in Teaching and Learning
During the past 10 years or so, higher education institutions have made strides in transitioning from an instructor-centered approach to a learner-centered approach to teaching. These strides, both large and small, have transformed the college classroom environment to provide students with greater opportunities for active learning, collaboration, and engagement.
February 25 - How to Make Course Evaluations More Valuable
By: Robert T. Brill, PhD. in Effective Teaching Strategies, Faculty Evaluation
The major benefit any conscientious professor seeks in course evaluations is in gaining useful student feedback. Yet most rating instruments generate vague, unjustified student comments. Quantitative scales provide ambiguous statistics for such generic instructional areas as preparation, fairness in grading, etc., but they don’t include any formative commentary. Open-ended questions ask students what things the
