Articles
April 16 - What’s an Empowered Student?
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
That was the question, followed by, “Are they students who want to take over the classroom?” “No,” I replied, “it’s about how students approach learning—motivated, confident, and ready to tackle the task.”
April 14 - Moving a Face-to-Face Course Online without Losing Student Engagement
By: Louise Sharrar and Paula Bigatel in Online Education
The rapid growth and popularity of online learning is necessitating the creation of online courses that actively engage learners. Research has shown that effective integration of multimedia that is content relevant and pedagogically sound can be a valuable teaching tool for facilitating student learning (Mandernach, 2009).
April 11 - From Rusty to Robust: Overcoming the Challenges to Effective Faculty Development
By: James Kowalski in Faculty Development
The past 10 years have witnessed some massive growing pains in education. Nearly all aspects at all levels have been touched by efforts to reform in an attempt to create meaningful learning opportunities for today’s students. New tools, skills, approaches, and media have redefined the way we create those experiences, and educators who don’t learn and engage in them will see themselves become increasingly irrelevant. In short, faculty development now more than ever is necessary to an institution’s viability.
April 10 - Do Cumulative Exams Motivate Students?
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Students don’t like cumulative exams—that almost goes without saying. They prefer unit exams that include only material covered since the previous exam. And they’d like it even better if the final wasn’t a comprehensive exam but rather one last unit test. But students don’t always prefer what research shows promotes learning and long-term retention, and that is the case with this study of the effects of cumulative exams in an introductory psychology course.
April 9 - Creating Learning Environments that Help Students Stretch and Grow as Learners
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
The March 12, 2014 post raised issues about those students who really don’t want to work with others in groups … “lone wolves” as they’re called in the literature. Your responses raised a number of issues. I thought it might be worth exploring some of them a bit further.
Many of the comments defended the lone wolves, pointing out that their good academic performance could be compromised by having to work in a group. Did anyone comment about those social learners (whose existence is also well documented in the research) who do well working in groups? We require those students to spend time listening and learning alone, experiences that potentially compromise their academic performance.
April 8 - Encouraging Online Learner Participation
By: Joan Thormann, PhD. in Asynchronous Learning and Trends, Online Education
Sustained, high-quality student participation usually doesn’t happen on its own in the online learning environment. The instructor needs to model participation, create assignments that encourage it, and foster an environment that supports it. Here are some ways that I promote student participation in my online courses.
April 7 - Helping Students Overcome Their Fear of Writing
By: Heather Jones in Teaching and Learning
Most students in my developmental writing classes claim they “hate” writing. It’s a familiar refrain. But, it is less about “hate” and more about a lack of preparation in the subject area. They do not have sufficient experience with the writing process in order to understand what to do. It is not until they gain this experience and realize for themselves what is wrong and what is right with their own work will their writing improve. This personal realization has to happen. It is key to neutralizing their fear and boosting their confidence.
April 4 - A New Way to Assess Student Learning
By: Deborah Bracke, PhD in Educational Assessment
I’m “reflecting” a lot these days. My tenure review is a few months away, and it’s time for me to prove (in one fell swoop) that my students are learning. The complexity of this testimonial overwhelms me because in the context of the classroom experience, there are multiple sources of data and no clear-cut formula for truth.
April 2 - Taking a Look at the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
The Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory, developed by a research group at the University of Bristol in the UK, is a self-assessment tool that helps learners develop an awareness of how they learn and encourages them to take responsibility for their learning. It contains seven scales that profile an individual’s capacity for lifelong learning. The high and low ends of those scales identify two very different approaches to learning. I think they make a nice companion to the list of learner characteristics in the January 22, 2014 post.
March 31 - Can You Flip an Online Class?
By: Barbi Honeycutt, PhD and Sarah Glova in Online Education
We recently asked a group of teaching assistants, “How do you think today’s college classroom is different than when you were an undergraduate student? What is the most significant change you’ve noticed?”
The number one answer? Technology.
