Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The National Teaching & Learning FORUM E-Mail Newsletter December 2010
http://www.ntlf.com/html/ti/toc.htm
Table of Contents
V20N1 EDITOR'S NOTE
How To Make Microsoft PowerPoint Work
A new book by Brits Duncan Peberdy and Jane Hammersley offers sound advice on using this software effectively.
COMPLIMENTARY ARTICLE:
BOOKS: Citizenship Across The Curriculum, eds. Michael B. Smith, Rebecca S. Nowacek, and Jeffrey L. Bernstein (Indiana, 2010)
A review profile by Executive Editor James Rhem.
ESSAY: The Mystery of Teaching
Vincent Kavaloski, Edgewood College
A professor of philosophy ponders a student's suicide and the effect of Kierkegaard and Kant.
LEARNING DIARY: Once More, with Feeling: Whole People and Partial Lessons
David S. Goldstein, University of Washington Bothell
Again, the power of affect demands its place in what we learn and teach.
PROGRAMS: Why Creativity? Why Now?
Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet, Eastern Kentucky University
Can creativity be taught? Don't we need to try?
TECHPED: A Video Response to the Student Who Asks, "What Did I Miss?"
Michael L. Rodgers and Guohua Pan, Southeast Missouri State University
Maybe with video there's a better way to answer them beyond the security cam approach.
AD REM . . .: The Paralysis of Choice
Marilla Svinicki, University of Texas-Austin
As Thanksgiving should have taught us, sometimes you can just have too much on your plate.
Table of Contents
V20N1 EDITOR'S NOTE
How To Make Microsoft PowerPoint Work
A new book by Brits Duncan Peberdy and Jane Hammersley offers sound advice on using this software effectively.
COMPLIMENTARY ARTICLE:
BOOKS: Citizenship Across The Curriculum, eds. Michael B. Smith, Rebecca S. Nowacek, and Jeffrey L. Bernstein (Indiana, 2010)
A review profile by Executive Editor James Rhem.
ESSAY: The Mystery of Teaching
Vincent Kavaloski, Edgewood College
A professor of philosophy ponders a student's suicide and the effect of Kierkegaard and Kant.
LEARNING DIARY: Once More, with Feeling: Whole People and Partial Lessons
David S. Goldstein, University of Washington Bothell
Again, the power of affect demands its place in what we learn and teach.
PROGRAMS: Why Creativity? Why Now?
Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet, Eastern Kentucky University
Can creativity be taught? Don't we need to try?
TECHPED: A Video Response to the Student Who Asks, "What Did I Miss?"
Michael L. Rodgers and Guohua Pan, Southeast Missouri State University
Maybe with video there's a better way to answer them beyond the security cam approach.
AD REM . . .: The Paralysis of Choice
Marilla Svinicki, University of Texas-Austin
As Thanksgiving should have taught us, sometimes you can just have too much on your plate.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Academic Impressions: Gates Foundation Invests in Research on Teacher Evaluation
Teacher Ratings Get New Look, Pushed by a Rich Watcher
Travis Dove for The New York Times
Lindsey Cozat, a technology teacher at Croft Community School in Charlotte, N.C., set up a classroom recording device.
By SAM DILLON
Published: December 3, 2010
PRINCETON, N.J. — In most American schools, teachers are evaluated by principals or other administrators who drop in for occasional classroom visits and fill out forms to rate their performance.
Travis Dove for The New York Times
The aim is to capture what happens in the classroom of a fifth-grade teacher, Damien Kingsberry, and to evaluate him.
The result? More than 9 out of 10 teachers get top marks, according to a prominent study last year by the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group focusing on improving teacher quality.
Now Bill Gates, who in recent years has turned his attention and considerable fortune to improving American education, is investing $335 million through his foundation to overhaul the personnel departments of several big school systems. A big chunk of that money is financing research by dozens of social scientists and thousands of teachers to develop a better system for evaluating classroom instruction.
The effort will have enormous consequences for the movement to hold schools and educators more accountable for student achievement.
Twenty states are overhauling their teacher-evaluation systems, partly to fulfill plans set in motion by a $4 billion federal grant competition, and they are eagerly awaiting the research results.
For teachers, the findings could mean more scrutiny. But they may also provide more specific guidance about what is expected of the teachers in the classroom if new experiments with other measures are adopted — including tests that gauge teachers’ mastery of their subjects, surveys that ask students about the learning environments in their classes and digital videos of teachers’ lessons, scored by experts.
“It’s huge,” said Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education. “They’re trying to do something nobody’s done before, and do it very quickly.”
The Gates research is by no means the first effort of its kind. Economists have already developed a statistical method called value-added modeling that calculates how much teachers help their students learn, based on changes in test scores from year to year. The method allows districts to rank teachers from best to worst.
Value-added modeling is used in hundreds of districts. But teachers complain that boiling down all they do into a single statistic offers an incomplete picture; they want more measures of their performance taken into account.
The Gates research uses value added as a starting point, but aims to develop other measures that can not only rate teachers but also help educators understand why one is more successful than another.
Researchers and educators involved in the project described it as maddeningly complex in its effort to separate the attributes of good teaching from the idiosyncrasies of individual teachers.
Mr. Gates is tracking the research closely. The use of digital video in particular has caught his attention. In an interview, he cited its potential for evaluating teachers and for helping them learn from talented colleagues.
“Some teachers are extremely good,” Mr. Gates said. “And one of the goals is to say, you know, ‘Let’s go look at those teachers.’ What’s unbelievable is how little the exemplars have been studied. And then saying, ‘O.K., How do you take a math teacher who’s in the third quartile and teach them how to get kids interested — get the kid who’s smart to pay attention, a kid who’s behind to pay attention?’ Teaching a teacher to do that — you have to follow the exemplars.”
The meticulous scoring of videotaped lessons for this project is unfolding on a scale never undertaken in educational research, said Catherine A. McClellan, a director for the Educational Testing Service who is overseeing the process.
By next June, researchers will have about 24,000 videotaped lessons. Because some must be scored using more than one protocol, the research will eventually involve reviewing some 64,000 hours of classroom video. Early next year, Dr. McClellan expects to recruit hundreds of educators and train them to score lessons.
The goal is to help researchers look for possible correlations between certain teaching practices and high student achievement, measured by value-added scores. Thomas J. Kane, a Harvard economist who is leading the research, is scheduled to announce some preliminary results in Washington next Friday. More definitive conclusions are expected in about a year.
The effort has also become a large-scale field trial of using classroom video, to help teachers improve and to evaluate them remotely.
1 2 Next Page »
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition..Sign In to E-Mail
Gates, Bill
Educational Testing Service
Kane, Thomas J
Education (K-12)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/education/04teacher.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Travis Dove for The New York Times
Lindsey Cozat, a technology teacher at Croft Community School in Charlotte, N.C., set up a classroom recording device.
By SAM DILLON
Published: December 3, 2010
PRINCETON, N.J. — In most American schools, teachers are evaluated by principals or other administrators who drop in for occasional classroom visits and fill out forms to rate their performance.
Travis Dove for The New York Times
The aim is to capture what happens in the classroom of a fifth-grade teacher, Damien Kingsberry, and to evaluate him.
The result? More than 9 out of 10 teachers get top marks, according to a prominent study last year by the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group focusing on improving teacher quality.
Now Bill Gates, who in recent years has turned his attention and considerable fortune to improving American education, is investing $335 million through his foundation to overhaul the personnel departments of several big school systems. A big chunk of that money is financing research by dozens of social scientists and thousands of teachers to develop a better system for evaluating classroom instruction.
The effort will have enormous consequences for the movement to hold schools and educators more accountable for student achievement.
Twenty states are overhauling their teacher-evaluation systems, partly to fulfill plans set in motion by a $4 billion federal grant competition, and they are eagerly awaiting the research results.
For teachers, the findings could mean more scrutiny. But they may also provide more specific guidance about what is expected of the teachers in the classroom if new experiments with other measures are adopted — including tests that gauge teachers’ mastery of their subjects, surveys that ask students about the learning environments in their classes and digital videos of teachers’ lessons, scored by experts.
“It’s huge,” said Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education. “They’re trying to do something nobody’s done before, and do it very quickly.”
The Gates research is by no means the first effort of its kind. Economists have already developed a statistical method called value-added modeling that calculates how much teachers help their students learn, based on changes in test scores from year to year. The method allows districts to rank teachers from best to worst.
Value-added modeling is used in hundreds of districts. But teachers complain that boiling down all they do into a single statistic offers an incomplete picture; they want more measures of their performance taken into account.
The Gates research uses value added as a starting point, but aims to develop other measures that can not only rate teachers but also help educators understand why one is more successful than another.
Researchers and educators involved in the project described it as maddeningly complex in its effort to separate the attributes of good teaching from the idiosyncrasies of individual teachers.
Mr. Gates is tracking the research closely. The use of digital video in particular has caught his attention. In an interview, he cited its potential for evaluating teachers and for helping them learn from talented colleagues.
“Some teachers are extremely good,” Mr. Gates said. “And one of the goals is to say, you know, ‘Let’s go look at those teachers.’ What’s unbelievable is how little the exemplars have been studied. And then saying, ‘O.K., How do you take a math teacher who’s in the third quartile and teach them how to get kids interested — get the kid who’s smart to pay attention, a kid who’s behind to pay attention?’ Teaching a teacher to do that — you have to follow the exemplars.”
The meticulous scoring of videotaped lessons for this project is unfolding on a scale never undertaken in educational research, said Catherine A. McClellan, a director for the Educational Testing Service who is overseeing the process.
By next June, researchers will have about 24,000 videotaped lessons. Because some must be scored using more than one protocol, the research will eventually involve reviewing some 64,000 hours of classroom video. Early next year, Dr. McClellan expects to recruit hundreds of educators and train them to score lessons.
The goal is to help researchers look for possible correlations between certain teaching practices and high student achievement, measured by value-added scores. Thomas J. Kane, a Harvard economist who is leading the research, is scheduled to announce some preliminary results in Washington next Friday. More definitive conclusions are expected in about a year.
The effort has also become a large-scale field trial of using classroom video, to help teachers improve and to evaluate them remotely.
1 2 Next Page »
A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition..Sign In to E-Mail
Gates, Bill
Educational Testing Service
Kane, Thomas J
Education (K-12)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/education/04teacher.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Thursday, December 9, 2010
University Business Magazine: Solutions for Higher Education Management
http://www.universitybusiness.com/
Professional Media Group LLC publishes University Business and District Administration.
University Business is the leading provider of smart management solutions for higher education administrators at two- and four-year colleges and universities throughout the United States, and is the most-closely followed and most-regularly read information source in the industry, bringing top-quality journalism to the unique issues, challenges and opportunities faced by higher-education executives.
District Administration is the leading provider of smart management solutions for K12 administrators at school districts throughout the United States.
Together, University Business and District Administration provide the best comprehensive industry coverage of the entire K20 market, demonstrating Professional Media Group's serious and comprehensive commitment to education, characterized by a track record of success, and long-term loyalty to our audience.
Professional Media Group LLC publishes University Business and District Administration.
University Business is the leading provider of smart management solutions for higher education administrators at two- and four-year colleges and universities throughout the United States, and is the most-closely followed and most-regularly read information source in the industry, bringing top-quality journalism to the unique issues, challenges and opportunities faced by higher-education executives.
District Administration is the leading provider of smart management solutions for K12 administrators at school districts throughout the United States.
Together, University Business and District Administration provide the best comprehensive industry coverage of the entire K20 market, demonstrating Professional Media Group's serious and comprehensive commitment to education, characterized by a track record of success, and long-term loyalty to our audience.
Interest in Online Courses Growing
www.Shreveporttimes.com
December 9, 2010
Interest in Online Courses Growing
More students across the country are opting to take more online classes, according to a report from an organization that wants to make online courses in higher education commonplace.
Local students reflect that trend with more students taking online courses this semester than before.
Bossier Bosier Parish Community College has led the area in online offerings, which started in 1996. Now, in fall 2010, more than 4,375 students, up from 3,750 this time last year, are taking an online course or a hybrid course (a class mixing traditional with online). Southern University-Shreveport, which is relatively new to offering online learning by comparison, has seen growth as well. That means not only is online learning here to stay, but it's the next thing in higher education, said Kathleen Gay, BPCC's dean of the educational technology division.
"In the future, we'll see more mobility," Gay said. "We're going to see students take courses on their iPhone or iPad. I think Google will come up with a learning management system, and (there'll be) more 2.0 learning using avatars. In five years, it's going to explode."
In the recent survey, The Sloan Consortium, an organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, found that 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2009. The eighth annual survey included 2,500 college and universities and is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The survey also found:
-- The 21 percent growth rate for online enrollments exceeds the two percent growth in the overall higher education student enrollment.
-- Nearly one-half of the schools say the economy has increased demand for face-to-face courses and programs compared to three-quarters of schools citing the same reason for the increased demand for online courses and programs.
Gay said that's one reason BPCC's online numbers have increased.
Online courses also appeal to a wide variety of students, from the traditional to the non-traditional.
December 9, 2010
Interest in Online Courses Growing
More students across the country are opting to take more online classes, according to a report from an organization that wants to make online courses in higher education commonplace.
Local students reflect that trend with more students taking online courses this semester than before.
Bossier Bosier Parish Community College has led the area in online offerings, which started in 1996. Now, in fall 2010, more than 4,375 students, up from 3,750 this time last year, are taking an online course or a hybrid course (a class mixing traditional with online). Southern University-Shreveport, which is relatively new to offering online learning by comparison, has seen growth as well. That means not only is online learning here to stay, but it's the next thing in higher education, said Kathleen Gay, BPCC's dean of the educational technology division.
"In the future, we'll see more mobility," Gay said. "We're going to see students take courses on their iPhone or iPad. I think Google will come up with a learning management system, and (there'll be) more 2.0 learning using avatars. In five years, it's going to explode."
In the recent survey, The Sloan Consortium, an organization dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education, found that 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2009. The eighth annual survey included 2,500 college and universities and is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The survey also found:
-- The 21 percent growth rate for online enrollments exceeds the two percent growth in the overall higher education student enrollment.
-- Nearly one-half of the schools say the economy has increased demand for face-to-face courses and programs compared to three-quarters of schools citing the same reason for the increased demand for online courses and programs.
Gay said that's one reason BPCC's online numbers have increased.
Online courses also appeal to a wide variety of students, from the traditional to the non-traditional.
The People’s Place Blog | The Anita Estell Blog
http://anitaestellblog.com/
Anita Estell, a shareholder at Polsinelli Shughart PC, is an attorney, lobbyist and columnist, with more than two decades of experience in re-shaping federal laws and policies and securing billions of dollars in funding for the programs that mean the most “back home”.
If you like the blog, please feel free to check out www.anitaestell.com. On the site, you have access to audio, video and printed resources that inform, inspire, teach and guide you through the nooks and crannies of the federal governmental process. No matter your interest, Anita Estell gives you access to exactly what you need, to get what you want from the elected officials and bureaucrats in Washington.
At the beginning and the end of the day – when it comes to Washington, both the Anita Estell blog and anitaestell.com -- are all about YOU all the time!
Anita Estell, a shareholder at Polsinelli Shughart PC, is an attorney, lobbyist and columnist, with more than two decades of experience in re-shaping federal laws and policies and securing billions of dollars in funding for the programs that mean the most “back home”.
If you like the blog, please feel free to check out www.anitaestell.com. On the site, you have access to audio, video and printed resources that inform, inspire, teach and guide you through the nooks and crannies of the federal governmental process. No matter your interest, Anita Estell gives you access to exactly what you need, to get what you want from the elected officials and bureaucrats in Washington.
At the beginning and the end of the day – when it comes to Washington, both the Anita Estell blog and anitaestell.com -- are all about YOU all the time!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
2011 Conferences in Higher Education Teaching, Learning & Academic Technology
http://www.conferencealerts.com/highed.htm
http://www.kennesaw.edu/cetl/resources/na_conf_list.html
http://www.academic-conferences.org/
http://www.kennesaw.edu/cetl/resources/na_conf_list.html
http://www.academic-conferences.org/
Top 10 Faculty Focus Articles for 2010, parts 1 & 2
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/trends-in-higher-education/top-10-faculty-focus-articles-for-2010-part-1/
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/trends-in-higher-education/top-10-faculty-focus-articles-for-2010-part-2/?c=FF&t=F101208a
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/trends-in-higher-education/top-10-faculty-focus-articles-for-2010-part-2/?c=FF&t=F101208a
Friday, December 3, 2010
Dillard University Library Hours for Fall 2010 Finals
November 29th-December 4th 2010
Sunday Nov. 28th 1pm-9pm
Monday Nov. 29th – Thursday Dec. 2nd 7am-11pm
Friday Dec. 3rd 7am-5pm
Saturday Dec. 4th 10am-4pm
December 5th-11th
Sunday Dec. 5th 1pm-12am
Monday Dec. 6th – Thursday Dec. 9th 7am-12am
Friday Dec. 10th 7am-5pm
Saturday Dec. 11th 10am-2pm
Cynthia Charles
Interim Dean
DU WWA Library
504-816-4786
ccharles@dillard.edu
http://books.dillard.edu
Sunday Nov. 28th 1pm-9pm
Monday Nov. 29th – Thursday Dec. 2nd 7am-11pm
Friday Dec. 3rd 7am-5pm
Saturday Dec. 4th 10am-4pm
December 5th-11th
Sunday Dec. 5th 1pm-12am
Monday Dec. 6th – Thursday Dec. 9th 7am-12am
Friday Dec. 10th 7am-5pm
Saturday Dec. 11th 10am-2pm
Cynthia Charles
Interim Dean
DU WWA Library
504-816-4786
ccharles@dillard.edu
http://books.dillard.edu
Academic Impressions: Using Assessment to Improve and Account for Student Learning
San Antonio, TX :: March 24 - 25, 2011
http://www.academicimpressions.com/events/event_listing.php?i=1060&q=6984v427988xO
OVERVIEW
Developing a coherent and comprehensive program of student learning outcomes assessment is a challenging, if not daunting, endeavor. Adding significantly to the challenge is increased demand for accountability for student learning, including a notable push for standardized testing at the collegiate level. Faculty are understandably skeptical about efforts to reduce teaching and learning to a few simple measures, especially when they are asked to do so under new time demands and with little reward or incentive.
Join our national assessment and accountability experts to identify approaches to creating a culture of improvement-oriented assessment at your institution while meeting the growing external demands.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
•Institutional leaders
•Coordinators and facilitators of student learning outcomes assessment
•Faculty and academic administrators involved in assessment and accreditation
PROGRAM FORMAT
The program is intended to minimize time out of office and maximize learning. It will balance presentations with group discussions and focused interaction with speakers. In so doing, participants will be able to identify and develop assessment elements that can be translated to fit their unique institutional settings.
http://www.academicimpressions.com/events/event_listing.php?i=1060&q=6984v427988xO
OVERVIEW
Developing a coherent and comprehensive program of student learning outcomes assessment is a challenging, if not daunting, endeavor. Adding significantly to the challenge is increased demand for accountability for student learning, including a notable push for standardized testing at the collegiate level. Faculty are understandably skeptical about efforts to reduce teaching and learning to a few simple measures, especially when they are asked to do so under new time demands and with little reward or incentive.
Join our national assessment and accountability experts to identify approaches to creating a culture of improvement-oriented assessment at your institution while meeting the growing external demands.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
•Institutional leaders
•Coordinators and facilitators of student learning outcomes assessment
•Faculty and academic administrators involved in assessment and accreditation
PROGRAM FORMAT
The program is intended to minimize time out of office and maximize learning. It will balance presentations with group discussions and focused interaction with speakers. In so doing, participants will be able to identify and develop assessment elements that can be translated to fit their unique institutional settings.
Faculty Focus Article: End-of-Course Ratings: Lessons from Faculty Who Improved
December 3, 2010
By: Maryellen Weimer in Faculty Evaluation
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-evaluation/end-of-course-ratings-lessons-from-faculty-who-improved/
Two researchers used end-of-course ratings data to generate a cohort of faculty whose ratings in the same course had significantly improved over a three-year period. They defined significant improvement as a 1.5-point increase on an 8-point scale. In this cohort, more than 50 percent of faculty had improved between 1.5 and 1.99 points, another 40 percent between 2.0 and 2.99 points, and the rest even more.
The researchers surveyed this group, asking the faculty members to respond to several questions, including this most important one: “Your student ratings have increased for at least three consecutive semesters during the last three years in your [Course Name] class. What factors led to this change in your teaching performance?”
The slightly more than 200 respondents most frequently attributed the increase in ratings to changes made in one or several of these five areas:
1.more active/practical learning, including efforts to make the content’s relevance apparent to students;
2.better teacher/student interactions, exemplified by learning students’ names and having individual conferences with them;
3.making expectations for learning outcomes clearer while still maintaining high standards;
4.being better prepared for class; and
5.revising the evaluation policies and procedures used to assess student work.
The first three of these categories accounted for almost 50 percent of the faculty responses. A bit surprisingly, 5 percent of the respondents whose scores had improved didn’t list anything they’d done or they indicated that they were not aware of having implemented any changes.
This cohort of faculty included full-time tenured faculty (actually this was the largest group, 56 percent), full-time nontenured faculty (12 percent), and part-time appointees (35 percent). The researchers note that this indicates how faculty in all kinds of positions can improve. That so many in the already-tenured and part-time categories did so is especially noteworthy and encouraging.
In addition to the survey, 30 faculty from 10 of 12 colleges at the institution were interviewed “to gain a better understanding of the change process.” (p. 167) Several interesting findings emerged from the interviews. For many faculty members, the most difficult part of the process was being willing to admit that they needed to change. “Humbling” was an adjective used to describe the feeling. Often there was some sort of triggering event—frequently it involved end-of-course ratings results. After teaching a course seven times, one faculty member received his lowest-ever overall course rating. He was shocked but reported that he decided to find out why. Others talked about an overall lack of excitement in the course and their own motivation to change and do better.
In the interviews, almost 80 percent of the faculty indicated that the effort required to implement the changes was minimal. It seemed that for most it was more a matter of fine-tuning their teaching. The researchers conclude, “The results of this study should be encouraging to faculty members who feel they cannot improve.” (p. 171)
Reference: McGowan, W. R., and Graham, C. R. (2009). Factors contributing to improved teaching performance. Innovative Higher Education, 34, 161-171.
Reprinted from “Teachers Who Improved.” The Teaching Professor, 23.10 (2009): 2.
By: Maryellen Weimer in Faculty Evaluation
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-evaluation/end-of-course-ratings-lessons-from-faculty-who-improved/
Two researchers used end-of-course ratings data to generate a cohort of faculty whose ratings in the same course had significantly improved over a three-year period. They defined significant improvement as a 1.5-point increase on an 8-point scale. In this cohort, more than 50 percent of faculty had improved between 1.5 and 1.99 points, another 40 percent between 2.0 and 2.99 points, and the rest even more.
The researchers surveyed this group, asking the faculty members to respond to several questions, including this most important one: “Your student ratings have increased for at least three consecutive semesters during the last three years in your [Course Name] class. What factors led to this change in your teaching performance?”
The slightly more than 200 respondents most frequently attributed the increase in ratings to changes made in one or several of these five areas:
1.more active/practical learning, including efforts to make the content’s relevance apparent to students;
2.better teacher/student interactions, exemplified by learning students’ names and having individual conferences with them;
3.making expectations for learning outcomes clearer while still maintaining high standards;
4.being better prepared for class; and
5.revising the evaluation policies and procedures used to assess student work.
The first three of these categories accounted for almost 50 percent of the faculty responses. A bit surprisingly, 5 percent of the respondents whose scores had improved didn’t list anything they’d done or they indicated that they were not aware of having implemented any changes.
This cohort of faculty included full-time tenured faculty (actually this was the largest group, 56 percent), full-time nontenured faculty (12 percent), and part-time appointees (35 percent). The researchers note that this indicates how faculty in all kinds of positions can improve. That so many in the already-tenured and part-time categories did so is especially noteworthy and encouraging.
In addition to the survey, 30 faculty from 10 of 12 colleges at the institution were interviewed “to gain a better understanding of the change process.” (p. 167) Several interesting findings emerged from the interviews. For many faculty members, the most difficult part of the process was being willing to admit that they needed to change. “Humbling” was an adjective used to describe the feeling. Often there was some sort of triggering event—frequently it involved end-of-course ratings results. After teaching a course seven times, one faculty member received his lowest-ever overall course rating. He was shocked but reported that he decided to find out why. Others talked about an overall lack of excitement in the course and their own motivation to change and do better.
In the interviews, almost 80 percent of the faculty indicated that the effort required to implement the changes was minimal. It seemed that for most it was more a matter of fine-tuning their teaching. The researchers conclude, “The results of this study should be encouraging to faculty members who feel they cannot improve.” (p. 171)
Reference: McGowan, W. R., and Graham, C. R. (2009). Factors contributing to improved teaching performance. Innovative Higher Education, 34, 161-171.
Reprinted from “Teachers Who Improved.” The Teaching Professor, 23.10 (2009): 2.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Innovative Educators: You Got the Job! Now What? Strategies and Tips for Fundraising at Your College
http://www.innovativeeducators.org/retention_p/877.htm
Tuesday, January 18 ~ 3-4:30 EST
$345.00
Overview
The new college development director can move the foundation’s fundraising program forward quickly, but it’s vital to understand your role, develop your skills in working with your board, and conduct an assessment in three key areas in order to ensure soundness and capacity for growth. This session will review the roles and responsibilities of the development director, tips for developing the Board, and tools for assessment in the three key areas of infrastructure, planning, and management systems.
Objectives
Understand the role and responsibilities of the development director
Develop skills in working with the Board of Directors
Assessment tools for infrastructure, planning, and management systems
Who Should Attend?
College Chief Development Officers
Development Directors
VP’s of System Advancement
Foundation Staff Members
Fundraising Staff Members
Speaker
Leah Goss was appointed Executive Director of System Advancement for the Louisiana Community & Technical College System (LCTCS) in November 2007. She is providing leadership, training, and resources to establish and develop the private fundraising capacity of the 16 colleges of the LCTCS. In addition, Leah serves as Executive Director for the newly established LCTCS Foundation. She is building a dynamic state-wide board that is providing critical support for key LCTCS initiatives. Prior to her move to Louisiana, Leah served in the Colorado Community College System for 7 years in administrative as well as development roles. She earned an Associate of Arts from Adirondack Community College, Queensbury, NY, a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a Master of Business Administration from Regis University in Denver, CO. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and serves on the board of the Council for Resource Development, an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges.
Tuesday, January 18 ~ 3-4:30 EST
$345.00
Overview
The new college development director can move the foundation’s fundraising program forward quickly, but it’s vital to understand your role, develop your skills in working with your board, and conduct an assessment in three key areas in order to ensure soundness and capacity for growth. This session will review the roles and responsibilities of the development director, tips for developing the Board, and tools for assessment in the three key areas of infrastructure, planning, and management systems.
Objectives
Understand the role and responsibilities of the development director
Develop skills in working with the Board of Directors
Assessment tools for infrastructure, planning, and management systems
Who Should Attend?
College Chief Development Officers
Development Directors
VP’s of System Advancement
Foundation Staff Members
Fundraising Staff Members
Speaker
Leah Goss was appointed Executive Director of System Advancement for the Louisiana Community & Technical College System (LCTCS) in November 2007. She is providing leadership, training, and resources to establish and develop the private fundraising capacity of the 16 colleges of the LCTCS. In addition, Leah serves as Executive Director for the newly established LCTCS Foundation. She is building a dynamic state-wide board that is providing critical support for key LCTCS initiatives. Prior to her move to Louisiana, Leah served in the Colorado Community College System for 7 years in administrative as well as development roles. She earned an Associate of Arts from Adirondack Community College, Queensbury, NY, a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a Master of Business Administration from Regis University in Denver, CO. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and serves on the board of the Council for Resource Development, an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges.
Online Classroom December 2010 Issue
http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/issue/1233/
Adding Interactivity to Online Lectures with VoiceThread
If you're looking for a way to add interactivity to your online course, consider using VoiceThread to create multimedia presentations that enable students to post comments or questions directly within the presentation. John Orlando, program director for the online Master of Science in Business Continuity Management and Master of Science in Information Assurance programs at Norwich University, uses VoiceThread in his courses and has found that it encourages students to interact, improves a sense of presence, and helps students understand nuances within subject matter.
Online Teaching Fundamentals: Making Online PowerPoint Content Engaging: Why You Should Add Narration
When you use PowerPoint as a presentation tool (in presentations or when you teach a face-to-face course), your slides support what you, the presenter, are saying. All the guidelines about using PowerPoint in this way explain that text on PowerPoint slides should be minimized and truncated. You want listeners to listen to you rather than read the slides.
Practical Advice for Going from Face to Face to Online
Developing an online course based on an existing face-to-face course requires more than learning how to use the technology and loading the material into the learning management system because, as Catherine Nameth, education outreach coordinator at the University of California-Los Angeles, says, "not everything will transfer directly from the face-to-face environment to the online environment." This transition requires the instructor to rethink and reconfigure the material and anticipate students' needs.
Teaching Online with Errol: Personality DOES Matter in Teaching Online!
Online instructors are hired because they are judged as having the right combination of education, teaching experience, content expertise, and professional accomplishments. But once an instructor is in the classroom, these abilities and achievements can go only so far. There also must be a constant injection of good-natured, passionate-to-teach, "I'm really glad to be here" personality.
Tips from the Pros: Four Questions to Ask when Moving Course Online
Catherine Nameth, education outreach coordinator at the University of California-Los Angeles, recommends asking the following questions to guide the process of taking an existing face-to-face course online.
What Are We Doing This Week? A Case for Weekly Lesson Overviews
One of the biggest issues we face with initial student satisfaction in online courses is course organization and navigability. Students want consistency between course environments within the learning management system. One of my self-inflicted charges as a new director was to foster a climate that embraced structural consistency within online course shells. Balancing student expectations with the desire of many faculty members who want the freedom to structure their courses without being handcuffed by a template can be a challenge. Two early endeavors to address consistency included devising a beginning of semester checklist and training opportunities that emulated the checklist and addressed national standards.
Magna Publications
2718 Dryden Drive • Madison, WI 53704-3086 • 800-433-0499
support@magnapubs.com
© Copyright 2010 Magna Publications
Adding Interactivity to Online Lectures with VoiceThread
If you're looking for a way to add interactivity to your online course, consider using VoiceThread to create multimedia presentations that enable students to post comments or questions directly within the presentation. John Orlando, program director for the online Master of Science in Business Continuity Management and Master of Science in Information Assurance programs at Norwich University, uses VoiceThread in his courses and has found that it encourages students to interact, improves a sense of presence, and helps students understand nuances within subject matter.
Online Teaching Fundamentals: Making Online PowerPoint Content Engaging: Why You Should Add Narration
When you use PowerPoint as a presentation tool (in presentations or when you teach a face-to-face course), your slides support what you, the presenter, are saying. All the guidelines about using PowerPoint in this way explain that text on PowerPoint slides should be minimized and truncated. You want listeners to listen to you rather than read the slides.
Practical Advice for Going from Face to Face to Online
Developing an online course based on an existing face-to-face course requires more than learning how to use the technology and loading the material into the learning management system because, as Catherine Nameth, education outreach coordinator at the University of California-Los Angeles, says, "not everything will transfer directly from the face-to-face environment to the online environment." This transition requires the instructor to rethink and reconfigure the material and anticipate students' needs.
Teaching Online with Errol: Personality DOES Matter in Teaching Online!
Online instructors are hired because they are judged as having the right combination of education, teaching experience, content expertise, and professional accomplishments. But once an instructor is in the classroom, these abilities and achievements can go only so far. There also must be a constant injection of good-natured, passionate-to-teach, "I'm really glad to be here" personality.
Tips from the Pros: Four Questions to Ask when Moving Course Online
Catherine Nameth, education outreach coordinator at the University of California-Los Angeles, recommends asking the following questions to guide the process of taking an existing face-to-face course online.
What Are We Doing This Week? A Case for Weekly Lesson Overviews
One of the biggest issues we face with initial student satisfaction in online courses is course organization and navigability. Students want consistency between course environments within the learning management system. One of my self-inflicted charges as a new director was to foster a climate that embraced structural consistency within online course shells. Balancing student expectations with the desire of many faculty members who want the freedom to structure their courses without being handcuffed by a template can be a challenge. Two early endeavors to address consistency included devising a beginning of semester checklist and training opportunities that emulated the checklist and addressed national standards.
Magna Publications
2718 Dryden Drive • Madison, WI 53704-3086 • 800-433-0499
support@magnapubs.com
© Copyright 2010 Magna Publications
TLT Group FridayLive! Teach Students How to Learn: Metacognition is the Key!
FridayLive!
Teach Students How to Learn: Metacognition is the Key!
http://tltgroup.roundtablelive.org/events?eventId=204189&EventViewMode=EventDetails
Saundra McGuire, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Learning and Teaching and Professor, Dept of Chemistry LSA
December 10, 2010 at 2pm EDT - free to all.
FridayLive! is pleased to present our good friend, Saundra McGuire, in this session designed to help faculty, learning center professionals, and student affairs personnel develop strategies to help students become independent, self-directed learners. A discussion of the characteristics of today’s students will help participants understand why many students lack effective learning strategies when they enroll in college, and how simple it is to teach them strategies for successful learning.
Reflection and think-pair-share activities will introduce participants to cognitive science research based methods that can be used to improve teaching and learning. The session will provide a variety of strategies that have proven successful in helping students experience meaningful, transferable learning.
Don't forget that you can have a FASTPASS for the whole season's FridayLive! if you are an Individual Member or if your institution is a TLT Group subscriber. A FASTPASS. enables you to be automatically registered for every FridayLive! this fall.
NOTE: Login instructions for the session will be sent in the Registration Confirmation Email. Please check your Junk folder as sometimes these emails get trapped there. We will also send an additional login reminder 24 hours prior to the start of the event.
Teach Students How to Learn: Metacognition is the Key!
http://tltgroup.roundtablelive.org/events?eventId=204189&EventViewMode=EventDetails
Saundra McGuire, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Learning and Teaching and Professor, Dept of Chemistry LSA
December 10, 2010 at 2pm EDT - free to all.
FridayLive! is pleased to present our good friend, Saundra McGuire, in this session designed to help faculty, learning center professionals, and student affairs personnel develop strategies to help students become independent, self-directed learners. A discussion of the characteristics of today’s students will help participants understand why many students lack effective learning strategies when they enroll in college, and how simple it is to teach them strategies for successful learning.
Reflection and think-pair-share activities will introduce participants to cognitive science research based methods that can be used to improve teaching and learning. The session will provide a variety of strategies that have proven successful in helping students experience meaningful, transferable learning.
Don't forget that you can have a FASTPASS for the whole season's FridayLive! if you are an Individual Member or if your institution is a TLT Group subscriber. A FASTPASS. enables you to be automatically registered for every FridayLive! this fall.
NOTE: Login instructions for the session will be sent in the Registration Confirmation Email. Please check your Junk folder as sometimes these emails get trapped there. We will also send an additional login reminder 24 hours prior to the start of the event.
The Teaching Professor December 2010 Issue
http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/issue/1230/
An Assessment Technique Using Research Articles
In entry-level courses it’s often a struggle to get students to see that the content has larger significance and intriguing aspects. In most science textbooks, for example, only well-established facts are presented, and they are supported by equally well-know research studies. Textbooks don’t usually identify areas of inquiry where the questions have yet to be answered or the findings so far are controversial. And yet often, this is the content most likely to interest students. But can you expect beginning students to read original sources, like research studies? Could you expect them to answer test questions about those articles?
Communication Satisfaction Scale
Some research efforts produce tools that can be used by teachers to generate interesting and useful feedback—we’ve illustrated that in previous issues and have another example to share here. Communication education researchers have developed a communication satisfaction scale that measures how satisfied students are with the communication they have with their instructor.
Embracing Texting during Class
If you want to get your students’ attention, try listing this course policy in your syllabus: “Texting during class is encouraged.” Most of us wouldn’t dare. We know firsthand how distracting cell phones in class can be. But with so many students disengaged and increasing pressure to create more student-centered learning environments, maybe we should stop thinking about texting as a problem and start seeing its potential as a solution.
Enhancing Out-of-Class Communication: Students’ Top 10 Suggestions
Out-of-class communication makes student-teacher relationships more personal and contributes to student learning. It is also the wellspring for continued academic exchange and mentoring. Unfortunately, electronic consultations via email have diminished the use of in-person office hours. Although students and faculty favor email contact because it’s so efficient, interpersonal exchanges still play an important role in the learning process—much research verifies this. As teachers we have a responsibility to encourage, indeed entice, our students to meet with us face-to-face.
From the Last Five Years to the Last Two Semesters: An Update
The last time I wrote about retirement (The Teaching Professor, March 2010), I could count the remaining number of semesters on the fingers of one hand. Now in my last year, I’d like to offer observations about the final lap.
Gateway Criteria: Minimum Standards before an Assignment is Graded
Do you sometimes (maybe regularly) get papers from students filled with spelling, punctuation, proofreading, and other more serious grammatical problems? Yours is not an English class and you have other content to teach, making it difficult to address these writing problems. And yet leaving them unaddressed puts students in jeopardy. They may not believe us, but the fact is we still live in a culture that “sorts out” people based on their use of language. Maybe that won’t be the case in 50 years, but today it is a reality. A student who can’t put together an error-free résumé or cover letter isn’t likely to get many interviews or good jobs.
Of Mice and Men: Using a Book Club to Improve Teaching and Learning
Effective teaching requires continual reflection about teaching techniques, strategies, and materials. This necessary reflection can be prompted by attending teaching conferences, classroom observation, formal and informal assessment, and reading research on teaching and learning. All these activities can be done on your own, but all are more effective when undertaken with a fellow teacher. However, few of us find the time to sit down with colleagues and thoughtfully discuss teaching. Instead, too often we only participate in a once-a-semester teaching in-service activity.
Participation Money
Encouraging students to talk, getting a variety of different students speaking, improving the intellectual caliber of what they contribute, and then fairly assessing those contributions makes participation a more challenging instructional strategy that it might seem at first. The following approach addresses several of these participation problems
Using Reading Prompts to Encourage Critical Thinking
Students can critically read in a variety of ways:
•When they raise vital questions and problems from the text,
•When they gather and assess relevant information and then offer plausible interpretations of that information,
•When they test their interpretations against previous knowledge or experience,
•When they examine their assumptions and the implications of those assumptions, and
•When they use what they have read to communicate effectively with others or to develop potential solutions to complex problems.” (p. 127)
An Assessment Technique Using Research Articles
In entry-level courses it’s often a struggle to get students to see that the content has larger significance and intriguing aspects. In most science textbooks, for example, only well-established facts are presented, and they are supported by equally well-know research studies. Textbooks don’t usually identify areas of inquiry where the questions have yet to be answered or the findings so far are controversial. And yet often, this is the content most likely to interest students. But can you expect beginning students to read original sources, like research studies? Could you expect them to answer test questions about those articles?
Communication Satisfaction Scale
Some research efforts produce tools that can be used by teachers to generate interesting and useful feedback—we’ve illustrated that in previous issues and have another example to share here. Communication education researchers have developed a communication satisfaction scale that measures how satisfied students are with the communication they have with their instructor.
Embracing Texting during Class
If you want to get your students’ attention, try listing this course policy in your syllabus: “Texting during class is encouraged.” Most of us wouldn’t dare. We know firsthand how distracting cell phones in class can be. But with so many students disengaged and increasing pressure to create more student-centered learning environments, maybe we should stop thinking about texting as a problem and start seeing its potential as a solution.
Enhancing Out-of-Class Communication: Students’ Top 10 Suggestions
Out-of-class communication makes student-teacher relationships more personal and contributes to student learning. It is also the wellspring for continued academic exchange and mentoring. Unfortunately, electronic consultations via email have diminished the use of in-person office hours. Although students and faculty favor email contact because it’s so efficient, interpersonal exchanges still play an important role in the learning process—much research verifies this. As teachers we have a responsibility to encourage, indeed entice, our students to meet with us face-to-face.
From the Last Five Years to the Last Two Semesters: An Update
The last time I wrote about retirement (The Teaching Professor, March 2010), I could count the remaining number of semesters on the fingers of one hand. Now in my last year, I’d like to offer observations about the final lap.
Gateway Criteria: Minimum Standards before an Assignment is Graded
Do you sometimes (maybe regularly) get papers from students filled with spelling, punctuation, proofreading, and other more serious grammatical problems? Yours is not an English class and you have other content to teach, making it difficult to address these writing problems. And yet leaving them unaddressed puts students in jeopardy. They may not believe us, but the fact is we still live in a culture that “sorts out” people based on their use of language. Maybe that won’t be the case in 50 years, but today it is a reality. A student who can’t put together an error-free résumé or cover letter isn’t likely to get many interviews or good jobs.
Of Mice and Men: Using a Book Club to Improve Teaching and Learning
Effective teaching requires continual reflection about teaching techniques, strategies, and materials. This necessary reflection can be prompted by attending teaching conferences, classroom observation, formal and informal assessment, and reading research on teaching and learning. All these activities can be done on your own, but all are more effective when undertaken with a fellow teacher. However, few of us find the time to sit down with colleagues and thoughtfully discuss teaching. Instead, too often we only participate in a once-a-semester teaching in-service activity.
Participation Money
Encouraging students to talk, getting a variety of different students speaking, improving the intellectual caliber of what they contribute, and then fairly assessing those contributions makes participation a more challenging instructional strategy that it might seem at first. The following approach addresses several of these participation problems
Using Reading Prompts to Encourage Critical Thinking
Students can critically read in a variety of ways:
•When they raise vital questions and problems from the text,
•When they gather and assess relevant information and then offer plausible interpretations of that information,
•When they test their interpretations against previous knowledge or experience,
•When they examine their assumptions and the implications of those assumptions, and
•When they use what they have read to communicate effectively with others or to develop potential solutions to complex problems.” (p. 127)
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Academic Leader Newsletter December 2010
http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/issue/1232/
Dealing with Serious Employee Issues
Like all employers, institutions of higher learning are experiencing increasingly serious issues caused by troubled or troubling employees. Personnel exhibiting serious conduct or performance issues can threaten the mission of the entire organization—which, in the case of higher education, is ultimately to serve the interests of the institution's student population.
Finding Administrative Balance
When we think of the qualities that are central to great academic leaders, a commitment to balance usually doesn't head the list. We may talk about the leader's need for vision, integrity, superb communication skills, collegiality, decisiveness, and resourcefulness. But we may overlook balance entirely, dismissing it as a soft, almost weak, quality—the sort of trait more suitable for a manager than a leader. Providing genuine leadership, we may think, requires us to be determined and focused; seeking balance is the sort of thing people do when they're willing to compromise on key principles simply to avoid a little conflict. And yet there are many ways in which administrators who don't give balance its due end up harming their institutions and undermining the very leadership they thought they were demonstrating.
How to Create a Successful Service-Learning Project or Program
Service-learning has been recognized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and other groups as being an effective way to increase student engagement and contribute to their learning.
Barbara Jacoby, who implemented a service-learning program at the University of Maryland in 1992, taught other institutions how to build or improve their own service-learning programs during the online seminar "Building Service-Learning Programs: 10 Essentials" in November.
Recruitment and Retention at the Program Level
What role do faculty in your program play in student recruitment and retention? It's an important issue. Faculty represent their disciplines and have the potential to influence students' choice of major and the likelihood that students will remain in a program until graduation. The role of faculty in recruitment and retention also has the potential to significantly affect the health and even the continued existence of the program.
Magna Publications
2718 Dryden Drive • Madison, WI 53704-3086 • 800-433-0499
support@magnapubs.com
Dealing with Serious Employee Issues
Like all employers, institutions of higher learning are experiencing increasingly serious issues caused by troubled or troubling employees. Personnel exhibiting serious conduct or performance issues can threaten the mission of the entire organization—which, in the case of higher education, is ultimately to serve the interests of the institution's student population.
Finding Administrative Balance
When we think of the qualities that are central to great academic leaders, a commitment to balance usually doesn't head the list. We may talk about the leader's need for vision, integrity, superb communication skills, collegiality, decisiveness, and resourcefulness. But we may overlook balance entirely, dismissing it as a soft, almost weak, quality—the sort of trait more suitable for a manager than a leader. Providing genuine leadership, we may think, requires us to be determined and focused; seeking balance is the sort of thing people do when they're willing to compromise on key principles simply to avoid a little conflict. And yet there are many ways in which administrators who don't give balance its due end up harming their institutions and undermining the very leadership they thought they were demonstrating.
How to Create a Successful Service-Learning Project or Program
Service-learning has been recognized by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and other groups as being an effective way to increase student engagement and contribute to their learning.
Barbara Jacoby, who implemented a service-learning program at the University of Maryland in 1992, taught other institutions how to build or improve their own service-learning programs during the online seminar "Building Service-Learning Programs: 10 Essentials" in November.
Recruitment and Retention at the Program Level
What role do faculty in your program play in student recruitment and retention? It's an important issue. Faculty represent their disciplines and have the potential to influence students' choice of major and the likelihood that students will remain in a program until graduation. The role of faculty in recruitment and retention also has the potential to significantly affect the health and even the continued existence of the program.
Magna Publications
2718 Dryden Drive • Madison, WI 53704-3086 • 800-433-0499
support@magnapubs.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)