Page 235 – Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning

The Benefits of Blended Learning Explained

Post author:Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti
Post published:January 5, 2011
Post comments:4 Comments

Blended learning — a strategy that combines online and classroom learning activities and resources to reduce in-class seat time for students in a face-to-face environment — can be a tremendous boon for a university. It can help the institution enhance under-enrolled programs, complete faculty teaching loads, and improve cost effectiveness. However, convincing the institution’s constituents that a blended course or program is a good idea may take some work.

Copyright and Fair Use Issues in Online Education

Post author:Magna Publications
Post published:January 3, 2011

There are three main legal issues that can cause trouble in online educational programs: ownership issues, copyright issues, and issues of harassment and defamation. Each of these issues also pertains to the face-to-face classroom setting but requires a fresh perspective when applied to distance education.

Helping Students See Correlation Between Effort and Performance

Post author:Maryellen Weimer, PhD
Post published:December 20, 2010
Post comments:1 Comment

One of the student engagement techniques described in Elizabeth F. Barkley’s Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty has students predicting and reflecting on their exam preparation and performance. It’s a technique that helps students see the correlation between their efforts and their exam scores, as well as one that helps them assess the effectiveness of the study strategies they use.

A Vision of Students Today, as Told by Students

Post author:Mary Bart
Post published:December 17, 2010
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A Vision of Students Today is a short video created by Michael Wesch, associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, and 200 KSU students. Since being uploaded to YouTube in Oct 2007 it’s been viewed more than 4 million times. Even if you’ve already viewed it, it’s worth a second look. It describes some of the most important characteristics of students today, as told from the student perspective.

Effective Uses of Video in the Classroom

Post author:John Orlando, PhD
Post published:December 15, 2010
Post comments:7 Comments

Social media has allowed anyone to become a video producer. The result is an explosion of high-quality teaching videos. Thirty years ago a teacher might show a PBS video in class every once in a while, mostly just as a break from the usual routine. But today there are thousands of videos from which to choose.

Beware of Faculty Promotion and Tenure Pitfalls

Post author:Rob Kelly
Post published:December 14, 2010
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Controversies surrounding promotion and tenure can lead to legal trouble for departments and institutions. It’s up to academic leaders to guard against possible pitfalls by adopting, disseminating, and implementing equitable policies.

Tips for Restoring Classroom Civility

Post author:Mary Bart
Post published:December 13, 2010
Post comments:4 Comments

Most people, when they conceive of hell, conjure up an image of a subterranean inferno to which sinners are forever consigned to an afterlife of endless suffering and punishment. But according to Dr. Gerald Amada, author of Coping with the Disruptive College Student: A Practical Model, hell also can take many temporal forms, especially in the world of academia.

Instructor’s Personality: An Essential Online Course Component

Post author:Rob Kelly
Post published:December 10, 2010
Post comments:2 Comments

An instructor's "digital" personality can influence student achievement, retention or completion, and satisfaction with courses, says Todd Conaway, an instructional designer at Yavapai College in Arizona. This is why he encourages instructors to infuse their personalities into their online courses. A growing number of tools and technologies can help.

Using Wikis for Collaborative Learning

Post author:Rob Kelly
Post published:December 9, 2010
Post comments:1 Comment

If you are looking for ways to facilitate collaboration among students, consider using a wiki—a website that contains pages that can be easily created and edited by multiple users. Several characteristics of Wikis make them excellent choices for projects that involve brainstorming and research and that require a final report, says Rhonda Ficek, director of instructional technology services at Minnesota State University Moorhead.