Posts Tagged ‘building student engagement’
March 22 - Reflections on Teaching: From Surviving to Thriving
By: Chris Palmer in Faculty Development
Editor’s Note: In part one of this article, the author shared openly some of the mistakes he made early in his teaching career. In this entry, he outlines some of the changes he’s made to his teaching over the years and the principles he uses to guide his teaching.
I had known it all along at some level, but now it suddenly became glaringly obvious to me. Deep down, sometimes out of conscious reach, students want to be transformed and their lives made more useful, productive, and powerful. I added the following new goal to my personal mission statement:
March 4 - Who Are You? Putting Faces on Virtual Learners
By: Cynde Gregory in Online Education
One of the first and most difficult tasks an online instructor faces is how to establish the presence of a learning community. Learning in isolation may be possible, but it’s neither enjoyable nor complete, and many online students end up quitting or failing the course simply because they miss the classmate support that is readily available in face-to-face classes. To ignore the importance of peer learning and personal connection in any classroom, including those in which participants might not physically meet, is to deny the significance of social interaction in learning.
February 28 - The Most Overlooked Items That Can Help Keep Online Students Engaged
By: Errol Craig Sull in Online Education
Student engagement is a popular topic and the overwhelming majority of the information on this topic is concentrated on the big issues of keeping students engaged, such as the importance of faculty presence in the classroom, adhering to deadlines and responding to students in a timely manner, and giving thorough feedback on assignments.
February 1 - Humor in the Classroom: 40 Years of Research
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Effective Teaching Strategies
You have to admire scholars willing to look at 40 years of research on any topic, and this particular review is useful to faculty interested in understanding the role of humor in education. It starts with definitions, functions, and theories of humor. It identifies a wide range of different types of humor. It reviews empirical findings, including the all-important question of whether using humor helps students learn. And finally, this 30-page review concludes with concrete advice and suggestions for future research. It’s one of those articles that belong in even modest instructional libraries—imagine having to track down the better-than-100 references in the bibliography.
January 29 - Motivating Students: From Apathetic to Inspired
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Modern learners have a different mind-set about education, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn. They just go about it differently. During this seminar, you will learn the small changes you can make to your course design and instructional methodology to better engage students and foster accountability.
September 25 - A Call for Engaged Teaching
By: Mary E. Berg in Teaching and Learning
As I left my desk to attend the faculty development workshop, I picked up four thank-you cards for the rotations program, a report to read, and a newsletter to edit. I’ve been to dozens of development seminars, and I’ve learned to be prepared with something else to do in case the presenter is mind-numbingly boring. The pleasant surprise of the morning was that the speaker engaged us in learning for more than three hours! How did he do that?
September 13 - Teaching Something You Don’t Like: A Model That Works
By: Veronica T. Rowe in Instructional Design
I am not a history buff and do not enjoy teaching or learning about history in general. So, as an instructor who is required to teach the history of my field, I have had a difficult time finding an interesting way of relaying the information. Needing a new approach, I decided to see if I could adapt the Family Involvement Model. This research-based model found that when family members are involved in the courses of Latino college students, their persistence and success in higher education improves. The model is based on the idea of including family to promote students’ education and as such supports the old premise that you really don’t understand something unless you can convey that knowledge to another person.
August 30 - Student Engagement 4-Pack
By: Mary Bart in 20 Minute Mentor, Student Engagement
Today, “student engagement” is much more than an academic buzzword. It could be considered the foundation for successful learning. Learn how to promote this essential connection in the new Student Engagement 4-pack.
August 17 - Experiential Learning Inside the Classroom
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Conventional pedagogy views experiential learning as taking place primarily outside the classroom. However, experiential learning works effectively inside the classroom as well. It enables faculty members to pose problems, increase student engagement, and facilitate learning. This seminar will show you how to integrate experiential learning into your classroom regardless of discipline.
August 14 - School Daze: Eye-Tracking Study Reveals What Earns Students’ Attention in Classroom
By: Mary Bart in EdTech News and Trends
A new study contradicts the widely accepted belief that classroom attention peaks during the first 15 minutes of class and then generally tapers off. Instead, David Rosengrant, an associate professor of physics education at Kennesaw State University, discovered that classroom attention is not as linear as previously thought and is actually impacted by various factors throughout the duration of the lecture.
