Articles

Building Student Engagement: Beyond the Classroom

In this, the final installment of a six-part series on strategies for building student engagement, I offer suggestions for engaging students beyond the classroom. As professors, we impact students not only during classes, but also through office hours, emails, and feedback.

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Concept Mapping Improves Student Learning

Donna Saulsberry was in a bind. As an associate professor of computer and information technology at Doña Ana Community College, one of her jobs is to prepare her networking students for the Microsoft® Certified Systems Engineer certification test. Having survived a Microsoft certification boot camp herself, she began instructing her students in much the same way as she was taught: lecture, practice, and multiple choice tests.

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How to Reduce Social Loafing in Your Online Course

Are you having trouble getting your online students to contribute equally to team projects? If so, perhaps you should try varying the membership of these teams because, according to a study by Brian Dineen (see reference below), doing so can reduce social loafing and improve online collaboration.

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Tips on Creating an Accreditation Review Timeline

The accreditation review process may never be stress-free, but with proper preparation you can at least minimize the stress that so often accompanies it. So just how far ahead should you start preparing for your accreditation review?

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Building Student Engagement: Classroom Atmosphere

In previous articles I’ve offered effective teaching strategies for building student engagement by setting the tone with the syllabus and first classes. Today we move to the general classroom atmosphere. The following suggestions will help you build an atmosphere of constant engagement, passion and learning.

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Fundraising Strategies for Community Colleges

If you were asked to describe community colleges, the word “entrepreneurial” probably wouldn’t be one of the first things to come to mind. That may be changing. As the traditional avenues for funding decrease and expenses increase, community colleges are turning to innovative fundraising strategies to support everything from student scholarships to program development.

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Building Student Engagement: First Classes

In yesterday’s post I provided tips on how to use the syllabus to build student engagement. In this article I offer some suggestions on how to get students involved in the first few classes to ensure a more engaging course throughout the semester.

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Building Student Engagement: The Syllabus

In this, the first installment of a six-article series on building student engagement, I offer some suggestions on how to use the syllabus to help you set a tone of engagement and excellence right from the start.

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