A Focus on Student
Engagement Whether face-to-face or online, teaching may be the most difficult, complex profession on the planet. The diversity of students, the complexity, depth, and rapidly changing nature of content, the calls for research/evidence-based methods, emphases on critical/creative thinking, learning how to learn, service-learning, and clear, causative links with assessment, are just a few of the issues that instructors must deal with. The number of variables linked to teaching seems to be increasing daily. This article is an introduction to a focus on student engagement – with upcoming issues devoted to elaboration. <read more> "Best
Practices in Adult Learning" by
Lee Bash (ed.) This short book of essays is filled with valuable information on addressing the learning needs of adults. Since this population of students is one of the fastest growing in higher education, the book is particularly timely. This is especially true in the current economic climate, where many are returning to college to further their education so they may better compete in today’s tight job market. <read more> Blackboard Tip: Hiding
Columns in the Blackboard Grade Center Blackboard 8.0 has given us the ability to hide columns in the Grade Center Gradebook. An advantage of hiding a column means you can move columns from view when you don’t need to see them every time you enter the Grade Center. There are two methods to hide columns:
NOTE:
Website to Explore The following website was highlighted on FaCIT’s website during the past month. Click on the title to go to the website. Writing Multiple Choice Items which Require Comprehension. Russell A. Dewey, PhD from Georgia Southern University has written a nice set of instructions for creating multiple-choice items that require comprehension from students (as opposed to guessing). <Link>
What Defines Excellent
Teaching? As I reflect on receiving my second Excellence in Teaching Award in the 13 years that I have been at CMU, I am trying to decipher what it is that makes an “excellent” teacher. I believe meeting learning styles and using different methods are part of the picture, but is there more? <read more> Book Review In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success (2003), Tony Bates and Gary Poole emphasize that an understanding of both learning and the nature of technology is essential to the use of technology for teaching. That is, learner needs and subject matter considerations—not technology—should drive instructional decisions. In this regard, they pose the question “If technology is the answer, what is the question?” (p. xiii). <read more> Blackboard Tip: Enter
Scores into the Blackboard Grade Center Entering Scores into the Blackboard 8.0 Grade Center is now easier than ever. Enter your course, click on control panel and Grade Center. Click in the square that corresponds to the assignment and student (where the grade will be entered). The square will change and become a “live” area for you. Enter the grade and press enter on your keyboard. The “live” square will move to the next lower area in that column, ready for another entry. Note: If you do not press enter after placing the score and attempt to click on another square, a dialogue box will open that states, “You have entered a grade. Click OK or press Enter to save it.” This just creates extra work for you – get in the habit of pressing Enter after each entry. Invitation to Write an Article Many times there is ongoing research, papers or presentations that would be interesting to our Central Michigan University faculty. If you would like to share a synopsis of your material, contact Jim Therrell, FaCIT Director (therr1ja@cmich.edu) to discuss the content and timeline.
Surveys as a Teaching
Tool Faculty members wear a variety of hats. Their roles include such diverse tasks as research, community involvement, and, of course, teaching. In each of these roles, they utilize various tools. A survey is an adaptable tool that is used frequently when faculty members are wearing their research and teaching hats. For teaching, in particular, surveys are used at the end of courses to evaluate the student experience. There are many other valuable uses for surveys, though, that are not frequently realized by faculty. <read more> Book Review In this unusual book, the author proposes a number of strategies to introduce humor into courses, whether they are taught face-to-face or are web-based. The basic premise of the book is that humor helps to keep the class ‘alive’ and often serves to engage students who are otherwise disinterested. In defending the use of humor, Dr. Berk cites research linking problem-solving skills to the cognitive process of understanding a joke, and creativity processing as similar to the mental processing of humor. An entire chapter is devoted to expounding the benefits of humor, both physiological and psychological. <read more> Blackboard Tip:
Moving Columns in the Blackboard Grade
Center Blackboard 8.0 has definitely
improved the ability to organize the
Grade Center. To move a column, enter
your class, click the control panel button
and choose Grade Center. Click the down
arrow next to the Manage button
(in the horizontal gray bar) and click “Organize
Grade Center”. To move
a column, hover over the gray area to
the left of the column name (at the top
of the column is a double arrow); until
see a double arrow. Click with your left
mouse button and move the column up or
down. When it is properly placed, drop
it by lifting your finger on the mouse
button. When all columns are in their
proper order, move to the bottom of the
page and click Submit. You will
then be taken back to the Grade Center
and your columns will be organized.
Book Review Race, Poverty, and Social Justice: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Through Service Learning provides examples of academic service learning that engage students and faculty to learn about social justice through community action. The text is not the expected discipline-specific service learning text, but, rather, it provides descriptions of course-embedded social justice activities applicable to a variety of disciplines and courses. <read more> Book Review Even though we have the best of intentions, reflecting about our teaching is something that often gets put aside when anything else comes along. Brookfield’s book is well worth reading if you want to be a better teacher at the university level. <read more> Blackboard Tip: Freezing
Columns in the Blackboard Grade Center Another favorite feature of mine in Blackboard 8.0 is the ability to freeze columns in the Grade Center Gradebook. An advantage of having names frozen is evident as soon as you start putting grades in a column – your job is much easier! To freeze columns, click on control panel when you have entered your course and enter the Grade Center. Click on the down arrow on the Manage button in the Grayed row above the Grades. Click Organize Grade Center. Note that there is a dark gray bar with the words “Everything above this bar is a frozen column. Drag this bar to change which columns are frozen.” To move rows above the bar, hover over the light gray box to the left of a bar to move until you see the double arrow. Click your left mouse button and hold it down while you drag it above the Dark Gray bar. Drop the row there by lifting up your finger from the mouse. All rows above the dark gray bar will now be frozen. When you have finished, move to the bottom of the page and click submit. NOTES:
Spring Teaching Conference at CMU The 2009 Faculty Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Civic Engagement will be held Sunday, May 17 - Tuesday, May 19 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. All faculty members are expected to be scholars within their disciplines, teaching from a base of relevant research and effective practice. Through this practice we provide a solid foundation from which the next generation of scholars is educated. No less should be expected of the concept of teaching and learning. There is a vast body of literature related to effective teaching practices and methods to enhance the process of learning. This conference is comprised of faculty presentations based on scholarly teaching with a primary mission of sharing documented methods to enhance student learning. Please join us as we learn from each other and further the development of scholarly teaching and learning in our colleges and universities. This year's plenary speakers include John Dirkx, L. Dee Fink, and Tamara Rosier. More information about the Faculty Conference can be found on the website. If you are a CMU faculty member and would like information regarding a stipend to cover registration costs at the conference, please contact Daniel Bracken at 774-6414 or e-mail at brack1dj@cmich.edu. Invitation to Write an Article Many times there is ongoing research, papers or presentations that would be interesting to our Central Michigan University faculty. If you would like to share a synopsis of your material, contact Daniel Bracken (brack1dj@cmich.edu) to discuss the content and timeline.
Metaphor as a Method
for Engaging Learners When someone suggests teaching metaphors, a typical reaction may be to think that this is a subject relegated to an English department and the teaching of literature or creative writing. Yet metaphors can be a powerful teaching strategy in any discipline. This article briefly discusses what metaphors are and suggests how they might be used in different content areas to demonstrate various principles. <read more> Book Review Online teaching is becoming a reality for everyone from technology lovers to technology Luddites. After a shaky overview, Conrad and Donaldson provide a rich variety of practical examples for online activities. <read more> Blackboard
Tip: Online
Quizzes and Scrolling Issues On occasion, as a student takes a multiple choice test in Blackboard, the answers will change when they scroll down the page to the next question. While this can certainly be disconcerting, there is a simple explanation: the answer field is still chosen and the student is using a scroll-wheel mouse to reach the next question on the page. To prevent this from happening let students know that they must click outside of the answer radio button before using the wheel to scroll or should use the scroll bar at the side of the page. As an extra precaution, they should also check all answers before clicking submit. Spring Teaching Conference at CMU The 2009 Faculty Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Civic Engagement will be held Sunday, May 17 - Tuesday, May 19 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. All faculty members are expected to be scholars within their disciplines, teaching from a base of relevant research and effective practice. Through this practice we provide a solid foundation from which the next generation of scholars is educated. No less should be expected of the concept of teaching and learning. There is a vast body of literature related to effective teaching practices and methods to enhance the process of learning. This conference is comprised of faculty presentations based on scholarly teaching with a primary mission of sharing documented methods to enhance student learning. Please join us as we learn from each other and further the development of scholarly teaching and learning in our colleges and universities. This year's plenary speakers include John Dirkx, L. Dee Fink, and Tamara Rosier. More information about
the Faculty Conference can be found on
the conference
website. If you are a CMU faculty member and would like information regarding a stipend to cover registration costs at the conference, please contact Daniel Bracken at 774-6414 or e-mail at brack1dj@cmich.edu.
Videopodcasts (and
Webcasts) for Teaching and Learning: 20
Sources in 20 Minutes (A
summary from my presentation at the 2008
Lilly Conference, Traverse City.) Searching for new ways to engage multimedia-literate Millennial learners? Consider incorporating image-rich videopodcasts and webcasts into your teaching. Video webcasts are transmissions of live or delayed video programming (Reitz, 2004). Videopodcasts or vodcasts are video files hosted on the Web and available for subscription to potential viewers (Braun, 2007). Vodcasts and webcasts can be used in both classroom and distance learning; and may be viewed on portable media players. High quality vodcasts/webcasts can be located from media (television, news), government and educational Web sites. <read more> Book Review This very useful, practical book should be the first one anyone reads before embarking on a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project. The author leads the reader step-by-step through the SoTL research process; she focuses on how faculty can incorporate the results they obtain into improving students’ learning while adding to their scholarship portfolio. Written primarily for college-level faculty, this book explains the history of SoTL, why it is important, what makes it unique, and how it can be incorporated into the already busy schedules of teaching faculty. Dr. McKinney, a professor of sociology at Illinois State University and an advocate of the SoTL, describes the importance of collaboration in the design of a SoTL project and how faculty can get both financial support as well as the support of their colleagues and university administration. <read more> Blackboard
Tip: Hiding
Columns and Scores from Students
in the Blackboard Grade Center On occasion you may want to have columns for your own use that do not add into the final score AND that you do not wish students to see in their My Grades area. Through the Modify Column feature in the Grade Center
Spring Teaching Conference at CMU The 2009 Faculty Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Civic Engagement will be held Sunday, May 17 - Tuesday, May 19 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. All faculty members are expected to be scholars within their disciplines, teaching from a base of relevant research and effective practice. Through this practice we provide a solid foundation from which the next generation of scholars is educated. No less should be expected of the concept of teaching and learning. There is a vast body of literature related to effective teaching practices and methods to enhance the process of learning. This conference is comprised of faculty presentations based on scholarly teaching with a primary mission of sharing documented methods to enhance student learning. Please join us as we learn from each other and further the development of scholarly teaching and learning in our colleges and universities. This year's plenary speakers include John Dirkx, L. Dee Fink, and Tamara Rosier. More information about the Faculty Conference can be found on the conference website. If you are a CMU faculty member and would like information regarding a stipend to cover registration costs at the conference, please contact Daniel Bracken at 774-6414 or e-mail at brack1dj@cmich.edu.
5 Things Established
Faculty Can Do to Improve the New Faculty
Experience Starting as a new faculty member
is quite a transition, regardless of how long
you have been teaching and doing research as
a graduate student. That is, there are
challenges that you must learn to deal with
that you may not have dealt with in graduate
school: relocating, committees, and
bureaucracy. Book Review
Not another book on how to be a better college teacher! Actually, Stage, Muller, Kinzie and Simmons have produced an ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report—rather than a book. Also, its focus is on classroom learning theories – not teaching techniques. At just under 150 pages, the report asks college faculty and administrators to examine learning in college classrooms from the students’ point of view. <read more> Blackboard
Tip There are two methods of moving around the Grade Center to enter grades. The first method is from the “front page” of the Grade Center. Click on a box after scrolling to the name and finding the right column, or have the papers/quizzes in alphabetical order and enter the grade. Click Enter and the cursor will automatically move to the next lower box in that column. There is a little-known shortcut, however, that can definitely save time. Enter the Grade Details page for a student by clicking on the Grade Details button in a grade box. When you arrive, note that in the upper right corner are two active boxes. By clicking on a down arrow (for example next to the name) and clicking “go”, you can move directly to another user in that same assignment. This is especially useful if you need to enter just a few grades in an assignment. Or, you can click on the column down arrow and move to another assignment for that same student (don’t forget to click “go”). Spring Teaching Conference at CMU The 2009 Faculty Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Civic Engagement will be held Sunday, May 17 - Tuesday, May 19 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. All faculty members are expected to be scholars within their disciplines, teaching from a base of relevant research and effective practice. Through this practice we provide a solid foundation from which the next generation of scholars is educated. No less should be expected of the concept of teaching and learning. There is a vast body of literature related to effective teaching practices and methods to enhance the process of learning. <read more> Invitation to Review Like to get free books? Simply request one of the following titles and write a short review for Teaching Central. You help your colleagues and you get a free book. Or if you know of a book you would like to review that pertains to improving teaching, forward the title and ISBN to Sara Langford at sara.langford@cmich.edu and FaCIT will purchase it for you. On Teaching and Learning: Putting
the Principles and Practices of Dialogue
Education into Action by Jane Vella
Book Review Being a committed devotee of experiential education, Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching,held the promise of utilizing group projects and teamwork to increase engagement in the classroom. Specifically, the authors focus on some of the pitfalls to traditional methods of utilizing group work, and how to leverage these learning clusters to maximize student engagement, understanding, and knowledge retention. <read more> CONDOR: A
New Resource for CMU What is CONDOR?
Blackboard
Tip Blackboard 8.0 has given us the ability to easily drop the lowest grade for students. To accomplish this task, enter your course, click Control Panel and then click Grade Center. Hover over the grade to be exempted and click the Exempt Grade choice. The Grade will change to a blue box. The score and the points are now exempted from the running total for the course. To remove an exemption, follow the same steps and click Clear Exemption. Hint: If you are exempting the lowest quiz, for example, use the Organize Grade Center feature under Manage to place all of the quiz columns together. This will make it easier to determine which item to exempt.
Synchronous Learning
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (A
summary of our presentation at the 2007
Lilly Conference, Traverse City) It all starts with an Interactivity Plan. What’s that you say? It’s the skeleton or framework for a synchronous learning session. We’ve found that doing this level of detailed planning and scripting, especially when we are working together on a synchronous session, is what ensures that we achieve our learning outcomes For this presentation our learning outcome was to introduce advantages, drawbacks and challenges in using a synchronous environment for learning. <read more> Book Review Award-winning author Stephen D. Brookfield has a long and impressive curriculum vitae and author bibliography covering several areas of teaching, including adult education, critical thinking, and teaching methods. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher suggests that faculty can improve their teaching by becoming critically reflective! Steps to do this are spelled out clearly, with personal examples as well as scenarios from Brookfield’s wide network in higher education. This is more than self-reflection, but does require quite a bit of introspection and autobiographical memory work. <read more> Blackboard TipTurning off the Email Function in a Course The email function in Blackboard has advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are that if students email you (the instructor) from the course email, the course name and number are on the subject line to help you respond appropriately. Conversely, if you email students, the course name and number are on the subject line to indicate this is an official email from their course instructor. Disadvantages include: 1) conversations between students are not recorded as they work on projects (to record this information, create a discussion board in each group); and 2) the possibility of inappropriate email being sent from a course. If you choose to disable the email function for students:
You can reverse the process at any time during the course by following the instructions above and re-checking the send email box.
Book Review From a detailed profile of the online learner to a complete “Resources” section aimed at both faculty and students, Palloff and Pratt have gathered the most practical research on teaching online in their book, The Virtual Student. Their philosophy embraces what they call “heutagogy” or self-directed learning—a lens that some educators more wedded to direct teaching may not readily accept. Still, their advice is broad enough that it seems to transcend both disciplinary considerations and educational philosophies. Their listing of learner-focused techniques would apply to almost any course. <learn more> Teaching FYE: One
Faculty Member’s Experience As I begin my third year of teaching FYE 101, I stop to reflect on the many benefits I have received as a CMU faculty member from this positive experience. While FYE has offered opportunities to connect with incoming students, it has also allowed me to grow as a professional in numerous ways. What is FYE? First Year Experience is a unique opportunity that allows faculty/staff to connect with freshmen and transfer students. This one credit course is co-taught with a student mentor and includes creative learning experiences that equip first year students with the tools necessary to succeed in college and life. Classes are small and highlight active learning approaches that connect students and engage them in critical thinking. <learn more> Blackboard Tip If you have created a test using the “from a question pool or assessment” feature in Blackboard and want to change a question you must change it in both the original pool as well as in the test. That is because the test pulls out a copy of the questions and creates a new test with them. If you create a test using the random block feature changes only need to be made in the pool as the random block creates a fresh test each time and does not create a separate test from the pool.
Examining Adult Student
Satisfaction in Relation to Three-Weekend
Compressed Class Formats: Using Andragogy
Theory as an Effective Blueprint Where “pegagogy” focuses on the art and science of teaching children, “andragogy” focuses on assisting adults in the learning process (Knowles, 1990). Andragogy theory proposes a set of beliefs based on six assumptions: 1) adult students need to know why they need to learn something before they engage in learning it – they want to know head of time how it applies to their everyday lives; 2) adult students possess the self-concept of being responsible for their own decisions and lives – they expect the instructor to view them this way as well; 3) the adult students’ experiences are very valuable to them – they want to incorporate their life experiences into their learning situations; 4) adults enter a learning situation eager to learn, and further, they use the material they learn to cope effectively with real-life situations; 5) adult students have a task- or problem-centered orientation to learning; and 6) adult students are motivated to learn by extrinsic motivators (such as promotions, better jobs, and higher salaries) in addition to intrinsic motivators (such as job satisfaction, self-esteem and quality of life). <learn more> Book Review The two writers who authored this book have strong simulation backgrounds as a result of their work for the department of defense. This book is, as a consequence of experience and excellent writing, a very valuable to higher education. The target audience of this book tends to be focused toward higher education. Benefiting most will be college-level instructors. Secondary educators may not have as broad of a base for application unless their curricular protocols already integrate simulations into an approved mix. This expectation of constituents from higher education is evidenced in the introduction; the authors make the assumption that the reader has a firm command of his/her effective pedagogy with their targeted learners. Those readers benefiting the greatest have already explored the use of simulations but wish to maximize the learning potential of these powerful tools. This “introduction” may be rather advanced for those beginning to investigate the usage of either simulated experiential exercises or electronic simulations. <learn more> Blackboard Tip A use for folders that is especially helpful for faculty is as a storage area for supplemental course materials. You can create a folder and make it “not available” then place additional folders or items in it that might be used during the semester. For example:
Instructors and Teaching Assistants can view
a folder that is not available; however students
cannot see anything within it. It’s like
having a portable file cabinet available all
of the time.
Between Praise and
Criticism: The
Power of Teacher Feedback Book Review Blackboard Tip
Using Wikipedia to
Teach Critical Thinking Skills Book Review Blackboard Tip
The P.R.O.B.E.© Learning
Journal: A Bridge from Classroom Learning
into a Student’s Life The P.R.O.B.E.© Learning Journal is a three-part journal that students can use to process their experiences. The journaling process can be applied either in the classroom or in their home environment. Both authors have utilized the journal with their students. Professor Stacey uses the journal with his education and interpersonal competence classes and Professor Halliday with groups in his team development and organizational development classes (Halliday, Luoma, & Cadden, 2007). What follows is a review of the P.R.O.B.E.© learning model, the journal’s content sections as well as the authors’ practical experiences with these approaches. <learn more> Book Review As a member of a team that has been providing service-learning opportunities to university students for more than six years, I believe this text does an excellent job of presenting a comprehensive look at what such projects are all about. One of the most noticeable attributes is the organization of the text. It is well-organized with ten chapters divided into four parts, taking the student from the background of service-learning, through the nuts and bolts of processes and projects, to the end and beyond. <learn more> Blackboard Tip The settings button under course options has some interesting ways to personalize each course shell. For example, you can modify the course name and description of each course so it is easily identifiable: PSY101 can become Monday morning PSY101. Then if you teach another section of the same course, it can be Tuesday afternoon PSY101. <learn more>
Creating the Joyful
Writer: Introducing the Holistic Approach
in the Classroom Book Review Blackboard Tip
Advancing Active Learning
through Student Topic Introductions A Student’s
Perspective: The Three Most Valuable Teaching
Methods Used by College Professors Book Review Spring Teaching Conference at CMU The 2008 Conference on Teaching, Learning and Civic Engagement will be held Sunday, May 18 - Tuesday, May 20 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. The overall conference theme this year is “Engaging the Learner.” This theme is designed to take into consideration that the best way to learn is to be engaged in the learning process. The conference is designed for educators concerned about creating the best possible learning environments for students. <learn more> Blackboard Tip If you want students to visit a specific website from your course shell, it is easy to add an external link in a content area. By clicking on the link you create, students will be taken directly to the outside website or directly to a publisher’s materials that complement the text. You can choose to create a button and have a content area specifically labeled External Links or links can be added to a folder within a content area or an as item in a content area. <learn more> Invitation to Write an Article
Using Variety in Your
Instruction to Motivate Students and Maximize
Learning A World
of Opportunities “It looks like we’ll be going to Disney World to present our paper!” I never expected to hear those words in my undergraduate experience. I decided in high school that I wanted to become a mathematics and physics teacher in secondary education; consequently, research was never on my mind as I journeyed through college. However, during my last day of my junior year, which was my first year at Central Michigan University, Dr. Finck, a professor of Physics called me into his office to discuss research opportunities, and I decided to give it a shot. <learn more> Book Review Service-learning has grown extensively in U.S. universities since the 1990s, based largely upon positive anecdotal evidence – but little scientific research – supporting its use. Those who engage their classes with service-learning projects commit the time and energy required to design and implement these programs because they believe that student participation in such projects positively impacts student learning, personal development, and civic responsibility. Eyler and Giles (1999) and other service-learning supporters have encouraged educators to include systematic research as a part of their service-learning plans in order to develop theory, improve the implementation of service-learning programs, aid assessment, justify the allocation of resources, and provide the foundation for service-learning policy (Bringle & Hatcher, 2000). Doing so will be considerably easier since Bringle, Phillips, and Hudson have published a book of multiple-item scales measuring a variety of constructs of interest to many service-learning researchers. <learn more> Adding a Banner to
your Course Shell Spring Teaching Conference at CMU The 2008 Conference on Teaching, Learning and Civic Engagement will be held Sunday, May 18 - Tuesday, May 20 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. <learn more> Invitation to Write
an Article
Learning about Adult
Learners - Approaches
to Classroom Management with an Emphasis
on Compressed Format
Modify the My Courses
List Book Review Ronald Berk, the author of Thirteen Strategies to Measure College Teaching, is Professor of Biostatistics and Measurement at the School of Nursing, John Hopkins University, where he has served for 30 years. He has authored nine other books and numerous journal publications. <learn more> Spring Teaching Conference at CMU The 2008 Conference on Teaching, Learning and Civic Engagement will be held Sunday, May 18 - Tuesday, May 20 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. <learn more> Invitation to Write an Article Many times there is ongoing research, papers or presentations that would be interesting to our Central Michigan University faculty. If you would like to share a synopsis of your material, contact Todd Zakrajsek (zakra1t@cmich.edu) to discuss the content and timeline.
Teaching
Students with Asperger Syndrome in the College
Classroom: Creating an Inclusive Learning
Environment The 2008 Faculty Conference on Scholarly Teaching and Learning will be held Sunday, May 18 - Tuesday, May 20 at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. <learn more> Book
Review Surveys
in Blackboard Invitation
to Review On Teaching and Learning: Putting the Principles
and Practices of Dialogue Education into Action by
Jane Vella
A
Nontraditional Philosophy of Grading Editor’s Note: Both attendance and getting students to do high quality of work can certainly be a challenge at times. At this time of the year, when we are all immersed in grading, and as we reflect back on our semester, I asked Dr. Bailey, winner of the CASE Michigan Professor of the Year Award, to elaborate a bit on her teaching philosophy with respect to grading. Although she was, like most of us right now, swamped with grading student work, she graciously offered the following. And should you be interested in more information about this approach, and criterion-referenced grading in general, Norma said she is always willing to chat with folks about these topics. <learn more> Problem Based Learning Problem Based Learning (PBL) is learning that results from working with complex, real-world issues or situations. They can be structured to be accomplished in groups or individually. <learn more> End
of Semester Blackboard Tip Blackboard can get a bit slow during the last few days of the semester, as students flock to the system to check their individual grades, and many faculty log on while submitting course grades. To avoid a bit of potential stress for those turning in grades “near” the deadline, I offer the following suggestion, which will probably also save you a bit of time in the process of entering grades. <learn more>
Teachable Moments:
Symbols of Hate Teachable moments are rarely announced. They can be positive or negative events, and come from just about anywhere. How we respond to these moments define who we are as individuals and what we are as an institution. <learn more> Student Feedback Students are regularly provided feedback in every class they take. Exams items are marked according to correct and incorrect responses, returned papers include notes where the writer drifted from the central theme, and journals include comments of particularly insightful summaries. With all of this feedback it is our hope that students will learn what they do well, identify areas in which perhaps they are not as proficient, and then make adjustments for future growth. In contrast, faculty rarely get feedback from students regarding the instruction in the course. We certainly receive feedback in terms of how well students complete required work, but that provides little direct feedback on actual instructional components. <learn more> Maximizing the Last
Day The last day of class – sometimes it seems that there are two divergent choices: 1) hand out the student evaluations, say “have a nice break” and leave or 2) talk really fast and try to pack all of those gems that didn’t make it into the rest of the semester into the last 40 minutes or so. Perhaps a better way of gracefully closing out the course is by using one of the following possibilities. <learn more> Book Review Many university and K-12 instructors that use service-learning (S-L) are guided by the research of Eyler and Giles (1999). Regular updates to service-learning and research are added through conferences and research symposia. The chapters in this book are from a series of papers presented at the Third Annual International K-H Service-Learning Research Conference in November 2003. <learn more> Blackboard Tip Sometimes the buttons on Blackboard’s Course page don’t fit your course structure. These buttons are easily changed or modified by using the following steps: To add a Button:
To remove a button:
To modify a button:
Notes and News Minds-on Audio
Guided Activities: Teaching the Coriolis
Effect iPods have entered the academic arena at Central Michigan University. Under the “iTunes U” program (see http://www.cmich.edu/itunesu/), students may use iTunes and their personal iPod to download and listen to recordings of lectures. Although this is certainly a welcome inclusion of technology and one that may benefit instruction, students using “iTunes U” are not necessarily actively involved in the learning process. It is under this premise that we have attempted to develop a use of audio aided instruction that involves active learning by students. <learn more> Book Review There has been a lot of writing going on at our house this summer. Phil attended the FaCIT workshop by Tara Gray in April, and has been following her advice religiously, including joining a group of faculty who meet every Friday to share and talk about their writing—products and process. My writing is much more solitary and focused not on my own voice, but conveying the positions of others or an institution. Our eldest daughter’s writing is of cards and thank you notes—much less stressful than the college essays she was writing six months ago. During that time she had at least a touch of every writing ailment summarized in Robert Boice’s book on writing: Professors as Writers: A Self Help Guide to Writing (1990). In comparison, Phil and I are doing much better—we suffer from only two or three of the common problems writers face. <learn more> Blackboard Tip Beginning this semester (fall, 2007), the IT help desk can now combine course shells in Blackboard for faculty. Requests should be made by the instructor of record with the instructor’s global ID and all section numbers ready to provide. To contact the helpdesk call 3662 on campus or 989-774-3662 off campus.
Notes and News Online
Course Delivery, Tips and Three
Essentials of Course Design (Outcome,
Activity and Assessment) Beginning this process can be a daunting task. You are faced with the delicate balancing act of a wealth of information and the inflexible limits of a semester. One process of organization that works for many faculty is to use the outcome, activity, assessment method. These three elements create the backbone of good course design. Having these elements organized and in place creates a unified whole for building the course. <learn more> Book
Review The stated purpose of this handbook is “to give online instructors a tool to help their students develop and improve the skills and competencies that are necessary for success in online courses” (p. ix). The authors have met their purpose for the most part. The authors address general online student organization and learning skills in addition to three key software tools, web-browser, email, and course delivery environments. This handbook serves as an excellent fundamental resource for beginning and intermediate online and hybrid students. <learn more> Blackboard Tip A new feature in Blackboard has been added to enable faculty to monitor the size of their Blackboard shell. In the past one would not know the shell was reaching full capacity until items would not load. Now it is easy to check before uploading a large document or media. <learn more>
Notes and News Online Course Delivery,
Tips and Techniques That Really Work Making Sense of
Student End-of-Course Written Evaluations Book Reviews Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty (read) Effective College Learning (read) Blackboard Tip Did you know that you can change the color and shape of your Blackboard buttons on the opening page? There are an amazing number of choices within Blackboard to customize the entry point for your class. To find the choices: click Control Panel > Course Design > Course Menu Design. Your first choice includes whether to have text or buttons; if buttons are selected, choices include style, pattern and color. If text is selected, the background and text colors are available. (Note: if the change doesn’t happen automatically, click the refresh button.)
Notes and News In addition to that article, our newsletter this month has an interesting article by Alan O’Keefe and Marco Fornari on problem based learning. This is one of the many methods of helping students engage in the learning process and illustrates how they were able to use this method in Physics. <learn more> In
The Wake of Tragedy: Assistance
for Faculty in Responding in a Time of
Crisis Cooperative
Problem Based Learning and Content Coverage: Experiences
in Physics The
Course Syllabus: A
Learning-Centered Approach Blackboard
Tip
Notes and News The
Learning Contract – Student Course
Management Tool Blackboard Tips Blackboard has now added a feature that allows an instructor to hide the class average (the default setting is to display the average). To activate this feature, click on Control Panel --> Gradebook --> Gradebook Settings --> Spreadsheet Settings. Then Under Section 2, "My Grades Display Options," uncheck "Display Average Score." The setting applies to all Gradebook items, not an individual assignment or assessment and applies to both the "My Grades" view within a course as well as the "View Grades" link accessible from the student's Bb welcome page. Invitation to Review
Notes and News Book Review The Role of Learning
Styles in Effective Teaching Blackboard Tips
Notes and News E Feedback for E Assignments Tracking Changes
and Adding Comments in Microsoft Word Microsoft Word's Track Changes and Comments feature is an excellent resource to use when reviewing student assignments. This tool assists faculty by allowing them to review a document, make changes to it, add comments, and then send it back to a student who can then either accept or reject the changes. <learn more> Book Review* Across the country colleges and universities are changing their focus from what faculty teach to what students learn. A learning-centered course syllabus can help students understand their expanded role and provide faculty an opportunity for scholarly reflection as higher education continues to transform its commitment to student learning. Judith Grunert's book, The Course Syllabus: A Learning-Centered Approach, helps "frame the process" for developing a student-centered syllabus and answer the question, "What do students need to know in order to derive maximum benefit from this educational experience." <learn more> BlackBoard Tips To put a column in the Gradebook that does not impact the overall total points (for bonus points/extra credit or attendance, for example), follow these directions.
When you grade the bonus assignment, you can place points into the column, however they do not calculate into the total points.
Notes and News iPODing Education Book
Review Dr. Laurie Richlin is Director of the Preparing Future Faculty Program at Claremont Graduate University in California and Director of the Lilly West Conference on College and University Teaching. <learn more> Tricks
of the Trade Books to Review College Success Strategies by Sherrie L. Nist and Jodi Patrick Holschuh Online Student Skills and Strategies Handbook by Loyd R. Ganey, Frank L. Christ and Victor R. Hurt Public Work and the Academy edited by Mark Langseth and William M. Plater Service-Learning: Research to Advance the field edited by Marshall Welch and Shelly H. Billig Email Ireta Ekstrom (ekstr1i@cmich.edu) to reserve your first and second choices of titles. Please remember to include your address.
Notes and News Using Rubrics to
Effect Authentic Assessment
of Adult Learners Book
Review Ron Berk, the author of Professors are from Mars Students are from Snickers, is a Professor of Biostatistics and Measurement and Assistant Dean for Teaching in the School of Nursing at The Johns Hopkins University. <learn more> Tip of the Trade
Notes and News One of the things I love about this position is the variety of opportunities I have available each semester. This Fall I am teaching my first CMU class (FYE101). <learn more> Time Management:
A Balancing Act Book
Review Tip
of the Trade Resources @ FAcit.cmich.edu
Notes and
News The First
Day of Class Book
Review Tip of the
Trade Resources
@ FaCIT.cmich.edu The first article is What is Your Classroom Management Style? This link will take you to a self-assessment where you can discover your classroom management profile. Are you authoritarian, authoritative, laissez-faire or indifferent? Another link that seems appropriate for the beginning of a new year is Difficult Behaviors in the Classroom which identifies nine difficult classroom behaviors and gives some ideas about how to respond to each one.
Notes and
News Student
Assessment Resources and Links Book Review Summary of the Book This book takes a look at the way most students learn and process new information. The book applies findings and theories of educational psychology to the faculty of higher education. Both cognitive and constructivism educational theories are discussed and then applied to the higher education classroom. The major sections of the book revolve around the kinds of learning questions and tasks that confront most of us in our classrooms. It then looks at ways to motivate students in the classroom. ... <learn more> Motivation in
the Classroom Tip
of the Trade
Notes and
News Connecting Program Outcomes Assessment with Designing and Improving Courses and Curricula How can we make program assessment work for us in designing courses and curricula? There is a multitude of excellent resources to assist faculty with answering this question... <learn more> Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, 11th edition by Wilbert J. McKeachie and Marilla SvinickiBook Review I received a copy of the 9th edition of McKeachie's Teaching Tips when I began teaching master's level students at Northern Illinois University during my doctoral studies. Since I was trained as a teacher and had taught all grades K - 16, I was a little put-off by being given the textbook. In 1994, it had already been 43 years since the book was written. I thought, "Can this possibly be relevant after all these years?" My mentor considered the book invaluable and soon I found out why. Now in the 12th edition, 55 years after it was written, the text remains a highly regarded classic for college level teachers and a recommended resource for teachers everywhere... <learn more> Tips of the Trade: Below are links to print and movie tutorials for Adding Folders and Adding Items to your BlackBoard shell. To Add a Folder (print) To Add a Folder (movie) To Add an Item (print) To Add an Item (movie)
Notes
and News Service
Learning in Central Michigan University's
Teacher Education Program What
is Service Learning? Service-Learning is an experiential teaching method that intentionally integrates academic learning and relevant community service. Through providing service for a community agency or school, students take part in activities in which both the server and those being served teach and learn. Students, faculty, and community members are interconnected partners and each play a critical part in this dynamic process. ... <learn more> A Working Definition
and Model of Service-Learning A conference of service-learning "pioneers" held in 1995 (Service-Learning: A Movement's Pioneers Reflect on its Origins, Practice, and the Future, Stanton, Giles, & Cruz: 1995) determined that there were two primary strands that came together in service-learning. A number of proponents saw the practice as a way of addressing issues of social and economic justice. Others saw the practice as a way of transforming our educational institutions. It is safe to say that most of the pioneers were interested in both strands and their common thread: the strengthening of democracy. ... <learn more> Reflective
Assessment The decision to use reflection as an assessment tool is one that requires prior planning and thought. The teacher must first decide on the method of reflection to be used. Students might be asked to record thoughts, observations, feelings, activities, and questions in a written journal that is maintained throughout the project period. Projects that require a team approach may use a team journal to ensure interaction within the group. Students can be assigned a paper to write based on their journal or engage in class discussions to encourage critical thinking about their project. Whatever method or methods are selected must be based on the project outcomes defined early in the planning process. In addition, the teacher must decide on two critical elements for using reflection as an assessment tool. The first is to determine if the reflective piece will be assigned a grade or simply be completed by the student. The second decision to be made involves the amount and type of structure or guidance to be provided for the reflection assignment. ... <learn more> Service-learning
as Evidence for Program-level Assessment Service-Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. According to Eyler & Giles (1999), service-learning is ... <learn more> Resources @ FaCIT.cmich.edu on Service Learning FaCIT's website is a valuable source
of information. It contains links for
internal and external collections of
information for improving student learning.
You can find this resource at this link. To Michigan Campus Compact's Service-Learning Award Recipient Tim Otteman, Assistant Professor of Recreation, Parks and Leisure Services Administration at Central Michigan University was recently honored with a 2006 Faculty/Staff Community Service-Learning Award as the faculty/staff person on campus who has made the most outstanding contributions in community service-learning. To Teaching in Excellence Award Recipients Special congratulations, also to the following faculty for being Central Michigan University's 2006 Teaching in Excellence award recipients. Judy Chandler, physical education and sport was recognized for her passion for her profession, her students and for teaching. Joseph Finck, physics was honored for his ability to create intellectual excitement in the classroom and for his creative teaching style. Holly Hoffman, counseling and special education was recognized for being a dedicated, effective teacher who ensures students are engaged, actively participating and learning. Susan Steffel, English was recognized for her effectiveness as an educator, role model and mentor. Suzanne Woods, communication
disorders was honored for her ability
to creatively engage students in learning
Notes
and News First
Order Principles for College Teachers Focus on Learning Tips
of the Trade One of the nice features of Blackboard is the ability to copy all or part of a course into another course shell. This is especially helpful if you teach the same course more than once a year, in succeeding years, multiple times in a semester or want to re-use learning materials in more than one place... <learn more>
Notes
and News Workshop: Classroom
Assessment Tips: How to Quickly
Determine What Your Students Are
Learning Tips
of the Trade: Using Question Pools Classroom
Assessment Techniques from a Students’ Perspective Book
Review
New @ Teaching
Central Interview
with Bill Low A New Weapon
Against Plagiarism Book
Review
Coming
Soon to Blackboard! What
Floats Your Boat? New
Academic Year, New Look, New Newsletter Book
Review |
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