Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Innovative Educators Webinars: Critical Thinking: Designing Instructional Strategies to Promote Critical Thought
$750.00
3-Part Workshop ~ All sessions are 1:00-2:30pm EDT.
Part 1: Wednesday, September 29
Part 1: Introduction to Foundational Critical Thinking Concepts and Principles
In this first segment, participants will be introduced to a robust, cross-disciplinary conception of critical thinking. We will discuss what critical thinking is and explore how it can be substantively infused into our content areas and instructional contexts. It will be argued that critical thinking is not something that is merely added to our existing curriculum and workload, but should be the way we teach and learn. When critical thinking is treated as the organizing idea of teaching and learning substantive understanding will naturally result.
Part 2: Tuesday, October 5
Part 2: Question Generating Concepts
The critical mind is the questioning mind. The extent to which students ask genuine questions and seek to answer them reflects the extent to which students take content seriously and think it through. The problem is that our students rarely know how to systematically ask questions that probe content by searching out assumptions, concepts, purposes, information, inferences and solutions, points of view, or implications. They rarely seek out intellectual standards to evaluate the quality of their thought and the thoughts of others: questions that target clarity, depth, relevance, validity, significance, and accuracy. We want to create a classroom culture where students actively, reflectively, and fair-mindedly question the content and each other. Such a culture cultivates important intellectual skills and abilities as well as virtuous dispositions like intellectual flexibility, empathy, humility, integrity, open-mindedness, and perseverance to name a few. This session will focus on the relationship between our ability to question and our ability to think critically. Participants will explore various ways to help students develop questions that analyze and evaluate content and their thinking.
Part 3: Tuesday, October 12
Part 3: Focus on Instructional Strategies that Promote Critical ThoughtThis session will build on the foundational critical thinking concepts and principles addressed in the first session. In doing so, participants will explore the intimate relationship between what it means to think critically and how we can design instruction to promote critical thought. Based on best practices in teaching and learning, participants will engage and discuss specific instructional strategies designed to foster critical thought and the cultivation of higher order thinking skills. The instructional strategies act as examples of what instructors can do on a typical day of class, so at the end of the session participants should have a short list of practical strategies they can immediately incorporate into their instruction.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Faculty Focus: Back to School Tools: A Shopping List for Faculty
By Patty H. Phelps, EdD
As the fall semester approaches, it’s time to restock my classroom teaching supplies. It occurred to me that other faculty might find useful these inexpensive tools that I regularly use in the classroom, so I’m sharing my shopping list with you here. The items on my list serve the purposes of creating a sense of community and promoting student engagement.Large index cards. An essential way to create a sense of community in the classroom is to know and use students’ names. Note cards of the largest size (5 by 7 inches) can readily be folded horizontally to make name plates. Different colors of card sets can be used for individual course sections. For the first few weeks, I use these to get to know students’ names and as a way to check roll. I distribute them at the beginning of class and collect them at the end of each class period.
Stickers or colored dots. These can be placed on the index cards to form small groups (according to the dot color). For a senior level course, I try to find graduation themed stickers or happy faces of different colors. Groups can be quickly structured by asking all the orange (and blue and green) dots to get together. Early use of small groups within a classroom helps to create a greater sense of community among students.
Playing cards. This is another tool for assigning students to groups. For short, in-class activities, a standard set of playing cards can be used to set up random group assignments. In addition, children’s playing cards often have unusual faces on them such as animals, career roles, shapes, etc. When a class has an odd number of students, one unusual card (e.g., the Old Maid or Joker) can be included in the mix. The person who gets this card can then choose any group to join. Other groups would consist of those who have the same card.
Wooden craft sticks. It is common to fall into the habit of calling on the same students (e.g., those who raise their hands, those who sit near the front, or those whose names are easily remembered). Making a set of student name sticks for each class is a useful way to call on different students and to keep them engaged. With a permanent marker, print the name of each student on a wooden stick and place the sticks in a container such as a cup or basket. During class randomly draw sticks to call on students to participate.
Small foam ball or ball of yarn. Students can toss a form ball to another classmate to hear their perspective during a class discussion. To create a discussion maze, a ball of yarn can be used to create an interesting interaction pattern and to include more participants. A tool like this makes the class more energized.
Play money. Whenever students are asked as individuals or as groups to evaluate (i.e., select the best solution, decide on the best title, or generate the most interesting question), they can write their response on the back of a piece of play money. Using the money symbolically communicates a sense of value for what the student offers to share and enhances student engagement. I have found that groups of students seem to discuss more intensely as they decide what to write on the paper money, rather than just a piece of paper.
Now it’s time to go shopping. These tools are inexpensive, easy to find, and provide ways to make learning more engaging.
What’s on your shopping list for the fall semester? Please share some of the tools you use to keep your students engaged and organized.
Patty H. Phelps, EdD is a professor in the department of Teaching & Learning at the University of Central Arkansas.
ProfHacker: Faculty Development on Campuses
August 16, 2010, 03:00 PM ET - By Billie Hara
Faculty-development offices -- often called centers for teaching and learning -- provide a wide array of services for faculty members at universities and colleges nationwide.
Faculty-development offices -- often called centers for teaching and learning -- provide a wide array of services for faculty members at universities and colleges nationwide.
What We Do at ProfHacker
Monday through Friday, ProfHacker delivers tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education. For more information, including our origin story and some tips for using ProfHacker, please see our original project launch announcement.
Read on for more information about our editors, authors, content categories, ways to contribute content, and our commenting policy and community guidelines. If you're just looking for a contact address, please use ProfHackerCHE@gmail.com
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Microsoft at Home: 4 power tools for students!
•Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
•Microsoft OneNote 2010
•Microsoft Office.com images
Faculty Focus Alert Whitepaper: Effective Retention Strategies for the College Classroom
A 47-page white paper • $169
Many faculty members believe that, when it comes to retention, it is the students’ responsibility to “retain” themselves by doing the work that is assigned in a course and achieving passing marks on tests. This is certainly the traditional view, and there is much validity to it.
Some faculty members fear that focusing on retention means that academic standards will have to be lowered. However, the growing focus on student success and retention involves an increased awareness of the processes of education, rather than merely on assessing learning outcomes.
Increasingly, colleges and universities are expected to document the efforts that they are expending to help students make it from admission through to graduation—whether this information is collected by accrediting agencies, potential donors, or by governmental authorities. Faculty members are instrumental to this effort.
This white paper explains 12 specific things faculty can do to improve retention, while also covering:
• Why retention matters
• Why faculty members are central to campus retention efforts
• How to improve retention without sacrificing standards
• The relationship between meaningful coursework and retention
• Effective retention interventions to use in the classroom
• Strategies for getting to know all the students in your classes
• Advice on retaining today’s Millennial students
• Ways to “frontload” assistance in a semester
• How to make retention efforts more “intrusive”
• The connection between student retention and job security
• How retention efforts can improve student evaluations
• Creating an “endowed chair” in your department to support retention
If you have been asked to become a part of a retention effort on your campus, you’re not alone. This 47-page white paper provides the guidance you need.
Inside Higher ED: A Recovery at Risk: Delgado Community College - New Orleans, LA
A Recovery at Risk
August 27, 2010
Five years after Hurricane Katrina left Delgado Community College underwater and in shambles, the largest institution of higher education in New Orleans is beginning to look like its old self again. Student enrollment and the number of full-time faculty members are now greater than they were before the storm. Demolition of the last few damaged buildings and their reconstruction on the college’s main City Park Campus are imminent.
Many Delgado administrators and instructors are hesitant to talk about the storm and their rebuilding efforts these days, either because they still get emotional about the subject or they are simply tired of being asked about it all the time. As bad as the natural disaster was, some now see a financial disaster looming that could undercut their post-Katrina progress.
Ron Wright, Delgado's chancellor, is one of those who don't like to talk about Katrina much. And with good reason: he was not the institution’s leader when the hurricane hit. He took the job of chancellor two years ago, coming from Cincinnati State Technical & Community College. And though many might have shied away from such a role, especially at a time when the college was struggling to win back students and faculty, Wright said he reveled in the opportunity.
“I’m a community college graduate,” Wright explained. “I graduated from a two-year school and ended up with an Ivy League education. I understand the heart and soul of the community college movement. This was just the greatest opportunity I had ever considered. The idea of coming and helping a college reestablish itself as a leader in the community college movement and as a vehicle helping people after the storm recover and regain life skills was powerful. If it weren’t for these challenges, what would be the fun of waking up every day?”
In the past two years, Wright has overseen most of Delgado’s repopulation. In fall 2004, Delgado served nearly 16,700 credit-seeking students. The year after the storm, in fall 2006, the college’s overall enrollment dropped to about 11,900. This year, its enrollment is at an all-time high, around 18,600.
“We made the pitch for students more than usual,” Wright remembered. “I went on several radio stations, cable access shows and community news shows. I went to churches, essentially preaching the gospel of getting an education. I think we did a good job of getting people to hear the story of Delgado and how we can help them.”
Numbers of faculty have experienced similar growth. In fall 2006, a year after the storm, there were 334 permanent full-time faculty and 248 adjuncts. Now, there are an estimated 348 permanent full-time faculty and 483 adjuncts. Though also evidencing a recovery of professors, some of the growth in faculty, especially adjuncts, can be attributed to Delgado’s recent absorption of a local branch of Louisiana Technical College.
Another challenge, beyond attracting both students and instructors back to the college, was giving them a place for teaching and learning to happen. Delgado suffered an estimated $58.9 million in physical damage and received nearly $62.6 million in federal funds for its losses. Last year, though, Delgado had to turn away students for the first time in its history — about 1,500 of them — because around 42 percent of its main City Park Campus was still unusable, four years after the hurricane.
This year, however, all comers were welcome at Delgado. Its student services building, student life center and a major instructional building finally reopened this spring and summer. At present, three more storm-damaged buildings on the City Park Campus are awaiting demolition, and four others are in stages of construction.
“It’s not nearly as bad as it used to be,” Wright said of the main campus. “When I arrived here two years ago, it used to be a war zone. There were buildings still in collapse, buildings that you could still look in and see the devastation and what needed to be repaired or replaced.”
Though certainly pleased with how far the college has come, Wright much prefers to talk about where it is going. Now that Delgado has Katrina mostly behind it, Wright has already identified another oncoming storm, a metaphorical one this time — severe state budget cuts.
“A 38 percent cut to our budget will cause much more devastation than what Katrina did,” said Wright, referring to a potential figure that some state officials have peddled as Louisiana hopes to fill a major budget deficit. “We’re about to cut the heart and soul out of what we do. We’re going to have to stop some of the forward progress we’ve been making since Katrina. … Now we’re in the same boat as every other community college in the country. It’s just that we happen to have been through a natural disaster.”
Wright said he was unsure whether having not been around for the storm will have a positive or negative impact on his ability to lead Delgado into the near future, given the prospect of having to cut back on programs the college just recently brought back to their pre-Katrina health.
“I can be more cold and calculating with what we have to do with these budget cuts than people who went through the emotional story of having to recover after Katrina,” Wright said. “So many people have emotional ties to things that I guess I can make a more detached business decision. I think that’s a good thing, but it’s not always seen that way by the people I work with and my leadership team.”
Deborah Lea, Delgado’s vice chancellor of learning and student development, has a different take on life at the college after the storm. She has been at Delgado for 32 years and noted that her Katrina experience will always influence her decisions at the institution.
“It’s so surreal that unless you experienced it, you don’t know what it’s like,” Lea said. “I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for Katrina. We are who we are now, and it’s because of Katrina. We’re stronger than we ever were before. You can’t go through what this college, this community has gone through and not let it affect you. For instance, I never would have been vice chancellor.”
Before Katrina, Lea was director of curriculum and program development and a professor of radiologic technology. When the storm hit, due in part to a mass shuffling of administrators and faculty, she was thrust into her current position, helping instructors and students continue taking courses online despite the severe damage on the college’s campuses.
“I’m an x-ray tech,” Lea explained. “I never thought I’d be in the administration at a community college. The storm was a very empowering experience. I made decisions. I learned how to make decisions. That’s what it helped me to do. Before, I would work and take a long time to come to a decision. … Now, I’m so empowered. I can always close my eyes and hear [our former chancellor] say, ‘Debbie, make the right decisions for the right reasons and you’ll never be wrong.’ I embrace that.”
Lea argues that moving forward in the face of severe state budget cuts, with the hindsight of having lived through Katrina, gives her both a sense of duty and perspective.
“Education always gets the hit in Louisiana,” said Lea, noting that it and health care are two of the major state spending items not protected by its constitution. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. But, when faced with the decisions that have to be made, hopefully we’ll endure. I feel supported by what we have gone through by saying we’ve survived.”
Joan Hodge, professor at Delgado’s Charity School of Nursing, recognized a certain twist of fate in her college’s state five years after Katrina.
“We were so worried if we could survive at all,” Hodge said. “Now, we’ve survived the flood. We’ve increased enrollment, and now there’s a different problem with the potential cutting of our budget. It’s a double-edged sword. We’re glad that we lived to see this and that we’re surviving, but it’s just one of those things. This too will pass, and we’ll see a better day. We’ll be stronger and live through these budget cuts. I mean, you’re always adjusting to adapt to get by the next crisis.”
— David Moltz
Inside Higher Ed: In Katrina’s Shadow: Five years after storm, New Orleans colleges work to rebuild enrollment, faculty and – in some cases – trust
August 27, 2010
These are not the sorts of road trips college kids like Darryl Phillips dream about.
Forced from his home in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Southern University at New Orleans student fled the city to enroll at Texas Southern University. For the next two years, Phillips would return to New Orleans about three days a week to help his father repair their damaged home, and he still remembers the darkened streets and the stench of something he still can’t quite describe.
“At nighttime, you’d hold your hand in front of you, and you can’t see your hand in front of [you],” he recalls. “The smell was horrible … I don’t even know a word to explain it to you.”
But Phillips, like thousands of others, has returned to New Orleans to finish what he started at Southern University, or SUNO, a historically black campus that many thought might not still be operating today. There are new faces now, and Southern feels different too. Five years after the worst natural disaster in the country’s history upended Phillips’s life, he still attends some classes in makeshift trailers that have taken on a haunting permanence.
And he feels lucky to be alive.
“I just have to take it day by day. That’s life,” says Phillips, 25. “Sometimes you get dealt a deck of cards that’s a good hand, and sometimes you get a bad hand – just have to know how to work it.”
“We have to keep in mind and remember the ones who have passed [away] and went before us,” he adds, “and we have to continue to keep pushing.”
***Photo: Southern University at New Orleans Southern University at New Orleans took a beating during Hurricane Katrina, and some still fear for the university's continued survival.***
Stories of inspiration aren’t hard to come by in New Orleans, where locals have used the improvisational skills of jazz giants to reconstruct a city and its system of higher education. But there are still plenty of sour notes to be heard. That’s in large part because it wasn’t just buildings that were damaged or destroyed in Katrina’s wrath; in some cases, trust was a casualty, too.
That frayed trust is still pronounced at Southern University, where many felt early on that policymakers would use the crisis to bring about the closure of an institution often criticized for low graduation rates and subpar outcomes.
“It is very difficult to rebuild trust,” says Victor Ukpolo, Southern’s chancellor. “Credibility is something we have to use to rebuild trust. If you ask me what’s my greatest challenge now, it’s the rebuilding of trust between the state and the campus community, moving us to be able to get where we need to.”
Even now, however, there’s talk of whether Southern University can remain an independent entity. This spring, a draft plan for greater collaboration among Southern and Delgado Community College was widely interpreted as a pathway toward a merger between the two-year and four-year institutions.
“We don’t believe that anyone is going to succeed in closing this institution,” Ukpolo says. “Since [the university’s] inception there has been talk about 'Do we need it?' But we’re still here.”
Buoyed by the construction of new dormitories, Ukpolo envisions a renaissance at Southern, which he sees transitioning from a commuter campus into a residential one with greater services aimed at improving student retention. Others, however, aren’t so sure. Indeed, faculty recently voted “no confidence” in Ukpolo and his administration, citing a lack of progress in rebuilding the campus or restoring 22 programs that were “unnecessarily and unreasonably terminated” after the storm.
George Amedee, president of the university’s faculty senate, views the merger talks and the introduction of more stringent – although still low – admissions standards as part of the “slow death” of the university.
“Everyone is happy about dressing up the campus and the dormitories, but the question is who are the dormitories being prepared for? If they are being prepared for folk from the two-year college and not the students we serve, there are some questions there,” says Amedee, a political science professor.
If Southern University faculty are concerned about the direction of their campus, they have something in common with professors at the University of New Orleans, which is part of the Louisiana State University System. As the Louisiana State campus works to rebuild from disaster, it has been undercut by a series of budget cuts that are seemingly without end. Having already endured cuts of 25 percent in the past several years, the university – along with other public institutions, including Southern – is drafting plans to cut as much as 35 percent more in the next fiscal year.
“Students are not getting the classes they want. Class sizes are increasing, and now they are not getting the programs they want either,” says Neal Maroney, faculty senate president and an associate professor of economics and finance. “What I thought was a big hump to get over [after the hurricane] is nothing compared to what is coming up. I thought Katrina was a challenge, but this budget situation is horrible.”
So horrible, in fact, that budget-cutting proposals led to something of a showdown between Maroney’s former dean and Timothy Ryan, the university’s chancellor. James Logan, who was removed as dean earlier this month, says his ouster resulted in part from differences of opinion he had with Ryan on how best to cut the College of Business’s budget. Logan says he argued for preserving popular majors like finance and marketing, rather than moving toward the chancellor’s favored idea of a more general business degree with various specializations.
“I thought what we had done was to give him an alternative that was better,” Logan says. “He basically told everybody else that he knew more than everybody else. I think the people who are going to pay the price [are students], and they are not going to be able to get jobs.”
Ryan was not made available for comment, and university officials said he would not discuss “personnel matters.”
“All [budget reduction] plans went through a very specific process of creation and review that was adopted by the University Senate, and we have a high level of confidence that the plans best serve our students well in the face of continued constraints,” Mike Rivault, a university spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to Inside Higher Ed Thursday.
For Logan, the post-Katrina era has been heart wrenching. While some faculty left for good after the storm, those who stayed truly believed in serving an urban area with a large population of African American and first generation students, he says. Now that mission is imperiled, Logan says.
“We really thought we were building something that was worthwhile,” Logan says with a tone of resignation.
There were tensions at the University of New Orleans before the flood waters had even dried. Citing financial exigency, the university placed employees on lengthy furloughs that some professors interpreted as tantamount to termination or forced retirement. Among them was Joe Murphy, a physics professor who – displaced by the storm – moved to live with family in Slidell, La., where he now has his own home.
“The way it was handled in a way hurt me more than anything else,” recalls Murphy, who was a faculty member at New Orleans for 37 years.
Like many who would be forced to take one-year furloughs, Murphy found out he was on the list through an e-mail that – without naming professors – provided the salaries and departments of those who’d be targeted.
“When I looked at the salaries, I knew immediately who the people were, including myself,” says Murphy, who retired rather than take a furlough.
Murphy had already made it known before the storm that he planned to retire within a few years, but he says he felt shabbily treated and insulted by the way his final months transpired. Not long after, he received a congratulatory letter on his “retirement.”
“I felt like somebody was rubbing salt in my wounds,” he says. “You’re congratulating me on my retirement, but you’ve forced me to retire.”
Those wounds are still open on some campuses. The American Association of University Professors censured the University of New Orleans and three others for violating faculty rights in Katrina’s aftermath. While Tulane University and Southern University have since been removed from the censure list for taking corrective action, the University of New Orleans and Loyola University New Orleans remain censured.
Robert O’Neil, who co-authored a report for the AAUP on the treatment of faculty after Katrina, says the censures demonstrated that the academic community – while sympathetic – would not sit back and allow tenure and due process rights to be violated, even under extreme circumstances.
“Censure is a very serious sanction, and it is not taken lightly by any of the people I’ve known who have been subject to it, and the hope is for redemption through removal,” says O’Neil, a former president of the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin System, who also directs the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and serves as general counsel to the AAUP.
The censured institutions have denied wrongdoing.
Rebuilding Loyola
And if there was a city, who would want to come to it? Indeed, images of devastation, stories of criminality run amok and allegations of police brutality are not the kind of selling points a Jesuit institution like Loyola includes in its promotional materials.
“These are very vulnerable students between 18 and 22 years of age,” Kvet says. “Would parents allow them to come back into the city with all the graphic images [on TV]?”
To a significant extent, the students have come back. Loyola projects an enrollment of 5,100 students this fall. While that’s down from the pre-Katrina enrollment of nearly 5,750, the university is bringing in ever larger freshman classes to bolster its numbers. And while Loyola took criticism for laying off faculty in the storm’s wake, the university has hired aggressively and now has more full-time professors than it did in the year before Katrina hit.
The Rev. Kevin Wildes, Loyola’s president, says the hurricane forced the university to think seriously about what its mission was. That contemplation led to some painful choices and program eliminations, including those in elementary education and computer science. At the same time, however, the storm inspired university officials to increase Loyola’s emphasis on service learning opportunities and led to the launch of an interdisciplinary minor on the study of New Orleans.
“It’s not exactly the presidency I had in mind,” Father Wildes says. “But anyhow.”
Marvalene Hughes, who took over as president of Dillard University just before Katrina, was similarly surprised by the trajectory her presidency took. Indeed, evacuating students from campus was among her first duties. Retelling the story of those tense days, Hughes says, "It's a time that I hope I never fully relive again, because it was frightening."Since that time, Hughes says she has seen the campus bouncing back. Demolished buildings and flooded grounds have given way to new construction, including the development of a long-awaited student union, complete with a theater and bowling alley. "It certainly feels like a different day," she says.
Private, tuition-driven universities like Loyola have faced their own peculiar challenges in Katrina’s aftermath. Ed Kvet, the university’s provost, recalls the complete uncertainty Loyola officials had in the weeks and months following the storm.
Iza Wojciechowska contributed to this report.
Katrina By the Numbers
http://www.slideshare.net/ccharles/inside-higher-ed-katrina-by-the-numbers-chart
SOURCE: Individual Colleges
*Due to incomplete data, 2006 numbers were provided.
**Includes funds for lost revenues, physical damages.
— Jack Stripling
Alumni of Historically Black Colleges and Universities invited to audition for the HBCU Alumni Choir
August 24th, 2010
By Patrick McCoy, Kennedy Center Examiner
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In addition to the Third Annual 105 Voices of History Concert on September 19, 2010 at The Kennedy Center featuring our nation's most talented students from the 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, alumni from these institutions are invited to audition for a HBCU Alumni Choir! This choir will render music for The Annual Celebration Service of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Legislative Conference. The celebration will be held on Sunday, September 19, 2010 at Metropolitan A. M. E. Church at 9:00 A. M.
Distinguished conductor, pianist and composer Roland M. Carter will be the direct the HBCU Alumni Choir. Dr. Carl Haywood of Norfolk State University, Professor Damon Dandridge, Former Conductor, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Professor Edryn Coleman, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania will serve as the HBCU choir coordinators. Will your university have a voice in the choir? Do you know a graduate of a HBCU in the Washington, D. C. or surrounding area?- Howard, Hampton, Virginia State, (Go State!) Lincoln, Cheyney, Morgan State, etc. Check out the information and represent your school with your voice!
Audition Date: September 10, 2010 6:00 - 8:30 (10 minute slots)
Rehearsal One: September 11, 2010 / 9:30-noon
Rehearsal Two: September 16, 2010 / 6:30 -9:00 PM w/ Roland Carter
Rehearsal Three: September 18, 2010 / 9:00 - 11:30 AM
Celebration Service: September 19, 2010, 9 AM
Metropolitan A. M. E. Church "The National Cathedral of African Methodism"
1518 M Street, NW-Washington, DC 20005
The HBCU Alumni Choir directed by Roland M. Carter, distinguished composer, pianist and educator
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Assessing Online Facilitation: An Instrument to Assess Online Facilitation
An optional, voluntary aid for individuals seeking an objective self- or peer-assessment of their facilitation of online courses.
An Instrument to Assess Online Facilitation
The "Assessing Online Facilitation" instrument (AOF) is for online course facilitators to objectively evaluate their facilitation for strengths and areas for improvement. Facilitators may choose to offer the AOF to others to guide a peer evaluation of their performance in the online classroom.
The AOF recognizes the different roles of an online facilitator, as outlined by Berge (1995), Hootstein (2002), and others.
•Pedagogical: Guiding student learning with a focus on concepts, principles, and skills.
•Social: Creating a welcoming online community in which learning is promoted.
•Managerial: Handling organizational, procedural, and administrative tasks.
•Technical: Assisting participants to become comfortable with the technologies used to deliver the course.
There are many criteria that influence student satisfaction and learning in any course, including online courses. Recent publications have included criteria specific to online courses. The Project Team identified criteria from many sources and categorized them in the framework of the four roles of an online facilitator.
Criteria were further divided into intervals. Facilitation tasks vary throughout the course (Mandernach, et al 2005). The intervals selected by the Project Team included:
•"Before class begins"
•"During the first week"
•"Throughout the course"
•"During the last week"
Each page of the assessment instrument represents one interval of the course facilitation and contains criteria organized by category type: Pedagogical (P), Social (S), Managerial (M), or Technical (T). The remainder of the page is the Comments area.
Magna Online Seminar: Beyond Course Design: Planning for Successful Facilitation
Event Date: 10/20/2010
Time: 8:00 am Central
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Virginia State U. Business School Buys E-Textbooks for Students
August 24, 2010 By Jeff Young
Why do students have to pay for college textbooks? Couldn't the reading material be considered part of the college infrastructure paid for by officials as part of tuition, like classroom buildings and course-management systems?
Virginia State University is experimenting with that idea this fall, with a new effort to give free e-textbooks to students in its business school for eight core courses. The university recently negotiated a deal with upstart publisher Flat World Knowledge that treats buying e-books like buying campuswide software—with the institution paying a small per-student fee. The university plans to formally announce the deal Tuesday.
Student complaints about the high cost of traditional textbooks drove the university to try the giveaway. "For our accounting books senior year, there's nothing under $250," said Mirta Martin, dean of the Virginia State University business school. "What the students were saying is we don't have the money to purchase these books."
Last year Ms. Martin became so frustrated from hearing stories about students who were performing poorly because they could not afford textbooks that she made a pledge that no needy student would go without a book. She asked community officials and others to donate to a fund to pay for books of students who came forward asking for financial help, and last year that project paid for $4,000 worth of books for students. But Ms. Martin felt that philanthropic model was not sustainable, so she began reaching out to publishers to see if the institution could get some sort of bulk rate that would allow the institution to pay for textbooks for all students.
The university found Flat World Knowledge, which offers free e-textbooks to students and makes money by selling study guides and printed versions.
In its standard model, Flat World offers free access to its textbooks only while students are online. If students want to download a copy to their own computers, they must pay $24.95 for a PDF (a print edition costs about $30). But the publisher offered the business school a bulk rate of $20 per student per course, and it will allow students at the school to download not only the digital copies but also the study guide, audio version, or iPad edition (a bundle that would typically cost about $100).
"It's a really significant shift in the business model of the publishing industry," argues Eric Frank, president and co-founder of Flat World Knowledge, who compared the new approach with the way colleges buy software licenses.
Professors at the university spent the last few months frantically reviewing Flat World's available textbooks to see which ones to adopt, as part of a curriculum review that was already under way.
If the experiment goes well, the business school will hope to add more courses next semester. Ms. Martin says her hope is to give away e-books for students in about 30 courses by about 18 months from now.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Faculty Focus: Distance Education: The Centralization vs. Decentralization Debate
The debate for “control” of distance education at institutions of higher learning continues. On one side, the administration side, there is a need for centralization of operations, to include course development, instructor training and development, scheduling, evaluation, and student and faculty issues. On the other side of the debate, faculty leaders (deans, department chairs, program coordinators) tend to favor decentralization.
In June 2010, the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunication (WCET) asked the membership how institutions were doing with this issue: centralization vs. de-centralization. Twenty-three administrators (provosts, VPs, associate VPs, directors, associate directors, COOs, deans, associate deans) and faculty members provided their valuable insights on the issue.
We are experiencing an era of reduced resources. Those favoring centralization espouse the benefits of both consistent instruction and course development, as well as the avoidance of more resource-consuming stove-piping prevalent if colleges/departments are allowed to develop their own online instructional programs. Those favoring decentralization are convinced that college/departmental control is the best solution for students, faculty, and institutions. The contention of these respondents was that college deans would take on the added responsibilities of their college’s portion of centralized operations of distance learning, faculty development, and learning technologies. A key is to find distance learning champions for each college within an institution. And, that is extremely costly when supporting multiple distance learning organizations versus one.
Both centralization and decentralization of distance learning have advantages and disadvantages; causing many to favor a hybrid approach. The recognition of local control and personal engagement of decentralization must be blended with centralized services that are often more efficient, cost effective, and liberating.
Ensuring the same level of service
Technology advancements have brought new opportunities and responsibilities for instructional quality and control. (Fletcher, J., Tobias, S. and Wesher, R) The true responsibility of this lies with the faculty.
When comparing distance learning to face-to-face instruction, a number of important factors emerge, including similarity of student learning experiences, student outcomes, and employer acceptance of credentials. It is important that the instruction provided in both venues be seamless. Centralization ensures that institutions offer services specifically to the online population, while ensuring that they receive the same level of service and instruction that the onsite students receive.
A number of institutions favor decentralization, but do not (or are not willing-to) hold their institutional campus to the same standard and rigor (metrics, support, quality, rubrics, etc.) as their online courses. The ability of college deans in the decentralized modes of administration to be able to discern the differences is the crux of the issue of whether services are better (and more economical) when provided “centrally” instead of by the college or departments.
Michael T. Eskey, PhD is an associate professor of criminal justice at Park University.
References
WCET (October, 2009) Online education programs marked by rising enrollments, unsure profits, organizational transitions, higher fees, & teach training for faculty, Managing Online Education, pp. 1 – 4.
Fletcher, J., Tobias, S. and Wesher, R (2007), Learning anytime, anywhere: Advanced distributed learning and the changing face of education, Educational Research, 36 (2), 96-102.
The Teaching Professor: Teaching Online vs. F2F: 15 Differences That Affect Learning
Featured Higher Education Presenter: Dr. Ike Shibley
Date: Thursday, 09/16/10
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 PM CDT
Cost: $279 ($304 after 09/09/10)
Three easy ways to register!
Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-246-3590
If you’re thinking about teaching online or are looking for ways to improve your online instruction, join us on September 16 for Teaching Online vs. F2F: 15 Differences That Affect Learning, a Magna Online Seminar led by Dr. Ike Shibley, associate professor of chemistry and life science coordinator at Penn State Berks. In an email interview with The Teaching Professor, Shibley discussed how face-to-face (F2F) and online instruction differ, the benefits of online instruction, and how to meet the challenges of teaching online.
TP: What are the main pedagogical challenges of teaching online?
Shibley: The major issues seem to revolve around student engagement. In some ways engaging students in face-to-face learning is also a challenge. I think that the physical presence of the students in a F2F course helps remind them about the commitment they have made to learning. The F2F commitment is a bit like having a running partner: even if you don’t feel like running that day you know that your partner will be there and so you don’t want to let him or her down. I recently took a three-week online course and found that I completed the first several assignments at one time. But then I forgot about the course and had to struggle to complete assignments right at the end of the third week. My experience is probably not that much different from the experiences of students taking online courses. An online experience can be moved to the back burner all too easily. A teacher needs to design the course with clear checkpoints throughout the course and with continual communication to the class. Assigning students to teams for group projects helps them overcome a sense of isolation and motivates them a bit because they have a responsibility in the course beyond themselves (like having a running partner).
TP: Which differences are most significant in making the transition from face-to-face to online instruction?
Shibley: The lack of F2F contact is probably the biggest difference. You cannot find a substitute for that contact, but you can institute policies that help ameliorate the lack of contact. Email is a great way to communicate as are podcasts, message boards, and the course management system. Another difference is the need for clarity because any time you confuse students you will get a lot of emails. For teachers new to course management systems the technology can be a major hurdle to overcome, but there seems to be enough technical support at most institutions to help teachers surmount any technical difficulties.
TP: How can teaching online enhance face-to-face instruction and vice versa?
Shibley: I think that the organization required for online teaching helps you when you teach F2F because you become more aware of just how students might interpret the syllabus, assignments, etc. When I started teaching online I realized that good teaching has a lot of similarities in any kind of course. Good F2F teachers will probably be effective online teachers. Unfortunately, that means that teachers who face significant pedagogical challenges in the F2F environment will also face significant challenges online. So much of teaching is finding ways to help students connect with the course content, and whether F2F or online that connection is always difficult to create and to sustain. In either online or F2F the more reflective you are as a teacher–paying attention to what helps students learn–the better you’ll do the next time. That holds true for either online or F2F or a combination of the two (blended or hybrid courses).
TP: How might this online seminar affect the way instructors view online teaching?
Shibley: I’ve already had a comment from a Teaching Professor reader that the advertising for this seminar was disingenuous because I suggested that some aspects of online teaching are an improvement over F2F teaching. I stand by that assertion, and I hope that after 90 minutes of discussion about online education, participants will have a more positive view of online education. I am not claiming that online education is better than F2F, but I do believe that teaching online can help us improve our F2F pedagogy. The ideal learning environment continues to be one-on-one, but the reality of higher education is that we rarely achieve that ideal in undergraduate studies. Online education helps approach the ideal of one-on-one education if the course has been well designed. And when online sources improve learning they can be used to augment F2F teaching. I hope to help teachers who teach online to do so more effectively and to encourage those who are contemplating an online course to try it.
One price provides for unlimited attendees!
The cost to attend this live, 90-minute video online seminar is $279, regardless of the number of participants from a single sign-on location. To maximize your limited training dollars, we recommend planning to view this seminar from a conference center or meeting room large enough to accommodate a big group.
This video online seminar is appropriate for:
• Faculty considering teaching an online course
• Faculty getting ready to teach an online course
• Faculty who are currently teaching an online course
• Administrators who want to learn ways to support faculty who teach online
Innovative Educators Webinar: Teaching Students to Be More Successful Learners and Thinkers
$545.00
Friday, September 24 & Friday, October 1 ~ 1:00-2:30 EDT (2-part workshop)
You can register online by adding this product to your shopping cart. If you have any questions,
please call 303-775-6004.
OverviewIn this two part workshop, Dr. Timothy Walter will present a validated instructional program of basic cognitive and behavioral critical thinking and learning strategies that are viewed as general education outcomes by many institutions of higher education. The critical thinking and learning strategies these students have learned are those basic strategies upon which much higher level critical thinking and learning is based as described in Bloom's Taxonomy. The workshop will focus on introducing participants to the intellectual model upon which these cognitive and behavioral strategies are based and then participants will see how instructors in the classroom can engage students in interactive classroom exercises which facilitate the learning of basic critical thinking and learning strategies Participants will leave the workshop with skills to teach students in all courses the critical thinking and learning strategies upon which higher level thinking and learning is developed and which make thinking and learning more orderly and effective. They will specifically learn how to teach students to apply these cognitive and behavioral strategies to their texts, readings, lectures, and class discussions.
Objectives
Part I - Participants will . . .
Define what successful learners and thinkers do in the classroom and outside the classroom
Learn how to teach:
focusing reading, thinking, and learning
focused note-taking
focused test preparation
Part II - Participants will learn . . .
what the TCDR strategy of critical thinking entails as described in Dr. Walter's co-authored book "Critical Thinking: Building the Basics."
how Dr. Walter and his colleagues studied successful critical thinkers and learners to determine the essential characteristics of successful learning and thinking.
what more successful thinkers and learners do as compared to less successful thinkers and learners.
why the TCDR strategy is the basis upon which higher order thinking skills (i.e. applying, analyzing, and evaluating information) are based.
why the TCDR strategy is the basis for critical thinking skills required for academic success.
how to teach students the TCDR strategy of critical thinking by working through a series of exercises
how the TCDR strategy is related to Bloom's Taxonomy.
basic classroom instructional strategies that increase the likelihood of students learning the critical thinking and learning strategies that are the basis of the TCDR strategy of critical thinking.
Any college faculty member, staff member or administrator who interacts with or teaches students will benefit from participating in this workshop.
Dr. Timothy L. Walter, Dean of Academic and Student Services at Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Dr. Walter is a leading authority in the area of student success. He has written eight editions of his text Student Success, three editions of The Adult Learner's Guide to College Success, and two editions of Critical Thinking: Building the Basics. He was honored in 1994 as an Outstanding Advocate of First Year Students by The National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. He has consulted widely in the area of student success and the first-year experience.
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