Highlights of IR group's annual meeting: measuring adult students' academic success, update on NRC survey of grad programs, and lots of talk about retention.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Diverse Issues in Higher Education - GAO Again Recommends Better Oversight of Grants to Minority Serving Institutions
May 28, 2010 By Joyce Jones
WASHINGTON – Since 2004, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been telling the U.S. Department of Education that it needs to improve the way it monitors and provides technical assistance to Title III and V grantees. These federal education funds go to institutions that enroll large numbers of low-income and minority students, including historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribally controlled colleges and universities, and others. And, in the past 10 years, funding has almost tripled, from $230 million to $681 million.
But according to testimony delivered before the House Committee on Education and Labor on Thursday, the agency continues to make only limited progress. In fact, GAO uncovered “questionable expenditures” at four of the seven institutions where it conducted financial site visits last year—to the tune of more than $140,000.
One Maryland-based institution was responsible for $105,117 of that amount. It used $79,975 for student trips to locations such as amusement parks and resorts as part of a character and leadership building activity; $6,000 was used to purchase a desk and chair; and $4,578 was used to purchase an airplane global positioning system although the school does not own an airplane. More surprising, however, is that the Department of Education recommended the school as a model grantee.
“[The Department of] Education has made some progress in implementing a systematic approach to grant monitoring and technical assistance, but much work needs to be done,” said George Scott, GAO’s director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security, at the hearing.
Scott said that the department has made progress in automating its monitoring tools and developing risk-based criteria. The redesigned system, he said, increases the ability to assess the risk of grantee noncompliance. The department also has taken steps to improve its technical assistance programs and develop mechanisms to routinely collect and use grantee feedback.
“Despite progress in these areas, we found that Education still lacked a coordinated approach to guide its monitoring efforts,” Scott added. “It recently developed a draft monitoring plan for Title III and V programs but has not consistently developed realistic and measurable targets for each of the activities in the plan.” In addition, Scott said that not having a comprehensive approach increases the potential for fraud, waste and abuse.
Robert Shireman, an Education Department deputy undersecretary, reported that the agency has made progress in its monitoring and technical assistance efforts. Its monitoring index, he said, helps to identify institutions for possible review based on audit and accreditation findings, commercial credit scores and other measures. In addition, the agency is reviewing annual performance reports to alert them to whether grant benchmarks are being met or the funds are being used in ways not identified in the grant application.
Shireman also said that the Department of Education will increase site visits in Fiscal Year 2010 and is pairing experienced staff with new staff on these visits as part of its training initiative. He added that the department is following up on the incidences of fraud that GAO has uncovered. He also noted that this year the department held a conference with more than 1,000 project directors from minority serving institutions around the country to share best practices across institutions and suggestions for how the Education Department can be more helpful.
“All of this is part of an effort for us to be a stronger learning organization so we can get better and better at what we do and figure out how we can help institutions to grow, improve and graduate more students toward the president’s 2020 goal,” Shireman said. “Our goal is not only to make sure that the funds are used appropriately but also to do all we can to ensure that they’re used as effectively as possible.”
Rep. Robert Scott, D-Virginia, said that making the grant applications more specific could go a long way toward solving some of the problems. Citing the example of the funds used for leadership development activities that took place at amusement parks, he said the line item should offer details other than “leadership development.”
“There’s no reason why there should be any questions after the fact. The line item should have been exactly what they were going to actually spend the money on. Had they required more specificity in the application before they funded it, there would be less discussion after the fact,” he said.
Rep. Scott said that he has spoken to several Education Department representatives and that the next round of applications will be made more specific so this problem will not exist in the future.
SANDRA M. PHOENIX
Program Director
HBCU Library Alliance
sphoenix@hbculibraries.org
www.hbculibraries.org
404.592.4820
1438 West Peachtree Street NW
Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30309
Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis)
Fax: 404.892.7879
www.lyrasis.org
Honor the ancestors, honor the children.
Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/meeting-form.html for the October 24-26, 2010 HBCU Library Alliance 4th Membership Meeting and the "Conference on Advocacy" pre-conference in Montgomery, AL. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.
Dissertation Doctor
Working with the Dissertation Doctor can dramatically boost your productivity and help you to set realistic goals to get you from ABD to PHD.
Copyright Dr. Sally Jensen 2000 All rights reserved
New Mexico State University Teaching Academy & Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning
The Teaching Academy serves all NMSU educators through training, mentoring, and networking.
Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning
What is the Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning?
The Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning (OTL) is for professionals in business, government, education, or other settings who want to develop their knowledge and skills in online teaching and learning.
OTL utilizes technology-based environments to actively engage students in designing formal educational projects that meet professional objectives. The five 3-credit course sequence provides an intense immersion in a dynamic online environment and culminates in an online teaching practicum.
Prime candidates for the OTL program are individuals with a need to explore online teaching and learning techniques and the willingness to engage in collaborative learning projects.
What benefits does the OTL program offer?
Benefits from earning a Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning include:
•proficiency in fostering online learning communities,
•skill in online teaching,
•knowledge of successful assessment and evaluation strategies,
•associations from a network of committed professionals,
•a foundation of theoretical and practical information, and
•expanded career opportunities.
What is required to complete the OTL program?
Once admitted into the program, you must:
•Attend all sessions.
•Complete all five courses with a B or higher.
•Maintain a 3.0 GPA.
Brochure
Academic Leader June 2010 - Full Issue PDF
Being an effective chair has always been a challenging task. However, lately the game has intensified. Assorted higher education rating rituals have fueled competition that has many presidents scrambling to lay claims for distinction. The pressure trickles down to the sometimes hapless chair, who can no longer settle for doing merely a good job but must now try to achieve greatness and must guarantee that others in his or her charge are achieving greatness too.
Keys to Effective Program-Level Assessment By Rob Kelly
Effective program-level assessment requires faculty investment in the process because it’s too large a job for one person and because individual faculty members have knowledge and insights about their courses that others don’t have. Part of getting faculty buy in is making the process meaningful to them and reminding them of its benefits.
The Dangers of Dry Promotions By Jeffrey L. Buller, PhD
Any but the most modest level of budget cuts lead to layoffs, hiring freezes, benefit reductions, and furloughs. But institutions sometimes try to preserve morale in times of crisis by promoting faculty members without increasing their salaries. These dry promotions, as they are called, began to be widely discussed as early as the 1950s [see, for example, Harris (1952) 103, Whitehill (1955) 186, and Yoder (1956) 602]. In 1963, a writer under the pseudonym of “Hamilton Waring” (the names taken from two popular brands of household blenders) warned prospective faculty members against working for any college or university where dry promotions have been common. (Waring (1963) 145.) Nevertheless, during the recent financial crisis, some institutions once again reverted to this practice, perhaps on the assumption that an increase in rank could serve as its own reward. The dangers of dry promotions can be significant, and academic leaders are well advised to engage in this practice only if they’re fully aware of the risks involved.
Trying Times and Departmental Cohesiveness By Rob Kelly
Cheryl Stevens had been chair of the chemistry department at Xavier University of Louisiana (in New Orleans) just two weeks before Hurricane Katrina struck. The storm seriously disrupted operations, damaged equipment, and displaced faculty and students. Maintaining the department was seriously challenging proposition. Here’s her story and her advice on getting through (hopefully not so) challenging times.
Higher Education: Exporting Middle-Class Dreams By Jeffrey Ross, EdD, and Jann M. Contento, PhD
Community colleges, we believe, have become the protectors of the American middles [we have borrowed the contextual use of this term from the American novelist John Updike]. Although this is not consciously intended, community colleges have evolved into places of great tension—tension between developmental (remediation), academic, and vocational/occupational demands; tension between traditional (face-to-face) and online course offerings—and tension among local “stakeholders” concerning staff salaries, travel expenses, baccalaureate training, and bond elections.
Wikipedia Launches an FAQ for Librarians
Wikipedia Launches an FAQ for Librarians
A resource that’s definitely worth knowing about and sharing with colleagues, using in a presentation (if you’re talking to other librarians perhaps a link or handout), or just reading and agreeing or disagreeing with, and perhaps even making changes or corrections you believe are important. Perhaps you might even want to use it as a template and include the opinions of your organization.
Access Wikipedia FAQ for Librarians - Some of the Questions Asked and Answered:
+ Who owns Wikipedia?
+ How common are mistakes on Wikipedia?
+ Will the people who use my library find material on Wikipedia that’s objectionable, or unsuitable for children?
+ If people ask me whether Wikipedia is an appropriate resource for students and researchers, what do you recommend I say to them?
+ Why do I read sometimes that Wikipedia is closed to outsiders, or resistant to help?
+ Can you point me towards other people’s views on Wikipedia – either supportive, or critical?
Source: Wikipedia/Wikimedia
Microsoft at Work: 4 ways to streamline your tasks!
Every job requires a variety of tasks during a given day. Maybe yours includes meeting new clients or writing letters or downloading information into various software applications. Regardless, staying on top of all the tasks you need to perform is crucial. By organizing them effectively, you can plan ahead for tomorrow, and improve your productivity at the same time.
The Tasks program is a feature of Microsoft Office Outlook that helps you create lists of task-related items. But dig a little deeper, and you will find it also does more for you than act as a simple list program. Using these four Microsoft Office Tasks feature tips will help you stay one step ahead of the competition.
1. Customize your view
In Tasks, you can find your tasks and view their status at a glance. Choosing the appropriate view saves time because you can determine which item is most critical on your list without scrolling through all other tasks still marked as incomplete. For example, do you prefer to manage your time by tackling the task that needs to be completed first or by the client name? A variety of options in Tasks help you sort tasks according to your requirements.
There are three key sections in Tasks to note:
•Navigation Pane—Tasks Current View is represented in the left pane. This illustration shows the Simple List view is currently displayed under the To Do bar.
•Subject—This column lists the current tasks you have established. In the Simple List view, you see a subject and a due date.
•Status—This column indicates whether the task has been completed, both with a check mark in the box and a line through the task.
First, decide which Current View works best for you. For example, if you prefer to see items in a visual format, try the Task Timeline. If not, you might prefer the By Category view, which shows your tasks by the categories you have established in a text-only view. This view is particularly helpful if you have specific groups or individuals to complete tasks for. Try out different options until you find one that suits you best.
You can customize your view to sort your tasks by subject, status, due date, percent complete, or category. There are literally dozens of ways you can customize your task lists to suit your needs. You can even change the font and column sizes.
Experiment with different options. If you don’t like the way your tasks appear, you can always change the view to the original or choose a new one. The trick is to decide which view will streamline your tasks so that you aren't digging for information. Your views may not look anything like a co-worker's, and that's okay. This is your chance to personalize Outlook to meet your goals. To find out more about customizing views, go to Create, Change, or Customize a View.
When setting your view, you will also want to consider the reading pane. To find out how to use the reading pane, go to Turn the Reading Pane On or Off. When you turn on the reading pane, you can immediately see any notes that are associated with the selected task. This view can be a great time-saver because it quickly offers you all the information you need to complete a task."
2. Detail your time, billing, or mileage
It's not easy to remember the date you drove to an appointment with a client or how much time you spent completing a task in the office. Most people try to remember to bill the time or mileage later. Often, that means deciphering multiple sticky notes or scraps of paper.
However, you can eliminate that mess by storing all that information in one task. Then, when you need to bill the client, you can easily retrieve the details from your task.
Add details to a task - Do one of the following:
Open a new task. On the File menu, point to New, and then click New Task.
Open an existing task. In Task, double click the task you want to open.
Do one of the following:
In Outlook 2003, in the task, click the Details tab.
In Outlook 2007, in the task, on the Task tab, in the Show group, click Details.
Type the desired details:
Total Work — Enter the total number of hours you have spent for a given client. When you invoice the client, it will be easy to do a search by client and tasks and tally the number of hours.
Actual Work — Type the actual number of hours spent on the task.
Companies — Type the company involved. Sometimes a task will not specifically name the client, so this information is key to helping you track which tasks were performed for each client.
Mileage — Type the relevant date, mileage, and purpose of the trip.
Billing Information — Type the billing information related to the specific task. Perhaps you charged this task at the full rate, but if not, this is a good place to remind yourself of the rate charge. You can add a note to yourself about why the full rate was not charged, for example.
Do one of the following:
In Outlook 2003, click Save and Close.
In Outlook 2007, In the Actions group, click Save & Close.
At the end of each billing period, you can then easily sort through the information by clients and add up the details quickly.
3. Set up tasks from Excel
If you use Microsoft Office Excel, you will likely see a few tasks in the spreadsheets you create. For example, let's say that you created a workbook that outlines all possible aspects of a proposed project. One of the spreadsheets may detail milestones for the project—some or all of which may be yours. Rather than take the time to enter all the necessary information into Outlook that might be needed to complete the task, you can export the Workbook instead, and easily create a new task directly in Outlook from Excel.
You will need to be in the Excel workbook instead of in Outlook to set up this task, but the application integration in Microsoft Office makes this an easy task to set up.
4. Send status reports for assigned tasks from Outlook
If you ever have a client or task that is of utmost importance to your boss, this tip will become a favorite. In Outlook, you can send a periodic status report. It's a great way to communicate that you’re managing things efficiently and remind your boss how well-organized you are.
The report is automatically generated from Outlook to an e-mail message that you send.
Author Bio: S.E. Slack
S. E. Slack specializes in simplifying complex topics so the masses can both understand and apply difficult concepts. She is a co-author of Breakthrough Windows Vista: Find Your Favorite Features and Discover the Possibilities and CNET Do-It-Yourself Digital Home Office Projects. She has written five other books.
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/book.aspx?ID=10366&locale=en-us
Academic Leader: 5 Steps to Renew Program-Level Learning Outcomes
Does your program-level outcomes assessment need a tune-up?
Featured Higher Education Presenter: Lisa Shibley, Ph.D.
Date: Thursday, 07/22/10
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM CDT
Cost: $239 ($264 after 07/15/10)
Based on internal and external requirements, you regularly take time to assess student learning outcomes at your institution. But when was the last time you assessed your assessments?
If the answer is, "I can't remember," or "I don't know," then it's probably time to take a step back and review your school's overall assessment process and strategies. If you are facing a program review or seeking external accreditation, then the pressure is on and the timing is perfect to subject your assessment program to scrutiny, before trying to justify the results to outside parties.
In 5 Steps to Renew Program-Level Learning Outcomes Assessment, Dr. Lisa Shibley of Millersville University will help colleges and universities fine-tune their existing assessment programs and provide detailed guidance for making necessary improvements.
This video online seminar will cover:
• Enhancing assessment of student learning within a program or department
• The Learning Opportunities Matrix
• Connecting program outcomes to trends in the disciplines
• Reviewing collected outcome information
• Assessing particular course objectives
• Using faculty time more efficiently
• Improving learning experiences–inside and outside the classroom
• Integrated assessment strategies
• Identifying available learning opportunities within a program
• Improving connections of outcomes to learning experiences
• Sharing assessment findings with colleagues and stakeholders
Participants in this live, interactive seminar will also identify three updates to implement during the next assessment cycle and create a checklist of key elements to review in their outcomes assessment process.
Your presenter
Lisa R. Shibley is the Assistant Vice President for Institutional Assessment and Planning at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. In her role at Millersville, Dr. Shibley facilitates student learning outcomes assessment, accreditation, and strategic planning processes. Dr. Shibley presents posters and presentations on assessment regularly and is published in the Schuh and Upcraft work, Assessment Practices in Student Affairs.
Get involved in the discussion!
This seminar includes the opportunity to interact with the facilitator and other participants through polls and discussion questions. Join in this important conversation and be sure to bring your questions for our expert presenter.
Who should attend?
• Instructors and faculty
• Department chairs
• Teams of faculty involved in assessment within their department
• School deans
• Assessment coordinators
• Institutional research staff
• Administrators
Three easy ways to register!
Phone: 800-433-0499 / 608-227-8182
If the answer is, "I can't remember," or "I don't know," then it's probably time to take a step back and review your school's overall assessment process and strategies. If you are facing a program review or seeking external accreditation, then the pressure is on and the timing is perfect to subject your assessment program to scrutiny, before trying to justify the results to outside parties.
In 5 Steps to Renew Program-Level Learning Outcomes Assessment, Dr. Lisa Shibley of Millersville University will help colleges and universities fine-tune their existing assessment programs and provide detailed guidance for making necessary improvements.
This video online seminar will cover:
• Enhancing assessment of student learning within a program or department
• The Learning Opportunities Matrix
• Connecting program outcomes to trends in the disciplines
• Reviewing collected outcome information
• Assessing particular course objectives
• Using faculty time more efficiently
• Improving learning experiences–inside and outside the classroom
• Integrated assessment strategies
• Identifying available learning opportunities within a program
• Improving connections of outcomes to learning experiences
• Sharing assessment findings with colleagues and stakeholders
Participants in this live, interactive seminar will also identify three updates to implement during the next assessment cycle and create a checklist of key elements to review in their outcomes assessment process.
Your presenter
Lisa R. Shibley is the Assistant Vice President for Institutional Assessment and Planning at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. In her role at Millersville, Dr. Shibley facilitates student learning outcomes assessment, accreditation, and strategic planning processes. Dr. Shibley presents posters and presentations on assessment regularly and is published in the Schuh and Upcraft work, Assessment Practices in Student Affairs.
Get involved in the discussion!
This seminar includes the opportunity to interact with the facilitator and other participants through polls and discussion questions. Join in this important conversation and be sure to bring your questions for our expert presenter.
Who should attend?
• Instructors and faculty
• Department chairs
• Teams of faculty involved in assessment within their department
• School deans
• Assessment coordinators
• Institutional research staff
• Administrators
Online Classroom Issue Update June 2010
Gone are the days when instructional designers and subject-matter experts could spend months building an online course. The familiar ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) model, developed in the 1950s to meet the increased need of returning veterans searching for learning opportunities, seems to fall short in the 21st century. In higher education, courses must be developed, delivered, and modified continuously.
• Tips From the Pros: Using Twitter for Collaborative Learning
Twitter is an easy-to-use social networking tool that can be used in several ways to benefit learning.
• Providing Practitioner Mentors for Online Learners
Providing students with mentors can be an effective way for them to learn directly from experts in real-world situations. It’s a technique used widely in face-to-face courses, and it can work in online courses as well.
• Online Teaching Fundamentals: PowerPoint for Online Courses, Part 3: Images to Support Learning
PowerPoint bears the brunt of criticism when used as an instructional tool, but it’s the use of the tool that is the problem, not the tool itself. In this series of articles, I’m discussing how to improve your use of PowerPoint as an online teaching and learning tool. Yes, there are tons of other tools to use for creating online content, but PowerPoint is widely used and likely to stay that way, at least for the near future. So we ought to use it well!
• Teaching Online With Errol: The Underbelly of Online Teaching: Be Sure You Are Aware of It
Let me begin this column with an obvious statement: we are all human. No matter how much we embrace and enjoy online teaching, the human frailties of mistakes, disappointment, anger, frustration, and oversights will come calling each time we teach a class.
• 10 Ways to Make e-Learning More Exciting
Recently B. Luskin wrote about thinking of e-learning as a big “E” instead of a small “e” for “electronic.” The letter “e” should be a big “E” for “exciting, energetic, engaging, extended” learning. In the spirit of turning e-learning into an exciting learning experience, I would like to share 10 activity ideas based on my own instructional design and online teaching experience.
Diverse Issues in Higher Education: Improving K-12 Education Key to Reaching U.S. College Completion Goal, Education Secretary Says
by Arelis Hernandez, May 27, 2010
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday that America is still the envy of the world in higher education but cannot rest while other countries improve their competitiveness.“Our higher education institutions are world class, but I think we have a long way to go in our K-12 system, and I worry about our competitiveness there,” Duncan said at an event at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. “There is good international competition, but we can’t rest on our laurels.”
The Obama administration’s push to increase college completion is not unlike goals set in other countries, but their approach, Duncan said, aims to improve education at all levels starting in preschool to reach the 2020 goal.
“America’s success depends on the success of its individual citizens just as the progress of humanity depends ultimately on these shared progress of nations,” Duncan said while taking questions from the audience.
Despite garnering global admiration, the U.S. higher education system has to overcome deep social gaps in educational attainment that continue to erode American progress, according to Duncan. He cited statistics that find nearly one in every three U.S. high school students drops out of school amounting to about 2.1 million students a year.
Estimates, he said, show that about 90 million American adults are below basic education levels. To rapidly increase degree production, the Department of Education estimates that states will have to raise graduation rates by 4.2 percent a year, something Duncan said is difficult but doable.
Investment followed by commitment from both private, public, nonprofit, vocational and for-profit institutions will make the difference in transitioning nontraditional students and those of low socioeconomic means to finish degree and certificate programs, Duncan noted.
Affordability is a premier issue for the Obama administration, which has already invested billions of dollars in Pell Grants and other student financial aid, but Duncan said it’s time for higher education to shift from ensuring access to promoting attainment.
“Poverty is not destiny,” he said. “The only way to fix poverty is education.”
Touching on a myriad of educational topics, Duncan restated his support for congressional legislation that would provide emergency funding to states and avoid massive teacher layoffs.
Democratic legislators have introduced bills in both Houses that would provide additional funds to the original appropriations of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that are expected to run out by 2011.
In a letter to majority leaders in the House and Senate, Duncan last week threw his support behind funding bills that will help school districts save 100,000 to 300,000 threatened education jobs.
Each bill—S.3206 “Keep Our Educators Working Act,” H.R. 2847 “The Jobs for Main Street Act,” and H.R. 4812 “Local Jobs for America Act”—calls for $23 billion in emergency money, the letter said. Democratic leaders hope to attach the education funding to a military spending bill scheduled for debate.
“This funding would keep teachers in the classroom while helping to sustain meaningful and necessary reform in public education across the country,” the letter said.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has said the fund will sustain current employees but also provide for hiring and training new ones.
In opposition, Republican leaders characterized the measures as tantamount to a bail-out for state governments.
HBCU Library Alliance: Harris-Stowe President Receives Board Appointment from the Obama Administration
Harris-Stowe University News May 29, 2010
Harris-Stowe President Receives Board Appointment from the Obama Administration
Dr. Henry Givens Jr., president of Harris-Stowe State University, has been appointed by the Obama administration to serve on the White House Initiative of Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ (HBCU) Capital Financing Advisory Board. The appointment, which is effective immediately, ends on September 30, 2013.
The board provides advice and counsel to the U.S. Secretary of Education and the designated bonding authority regarding the most effective and efficient means of implementing construction financing for HBCU campuses. In addition, it advises members of Congress on the progress of the program.
“I am tremendously honored to serve on such a prestigious board with distinguished college and university presidents and others representing HBCUs throughout the nation,” said Dr. Givens.
SANDRA M. PHOENIX
Program Director
HBCU Library Alliance
sphoenix@hbculibraries.org
www.hbculibraries.org
404.592.4820
1438 West Peachtree Street NW
Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30309
Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis)
Fax: 404.892.7879
www.lyrasis.org
Honor the ancestors, honor the children.
Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/meeting-form.html for the October 24-26, 2010 HBCU Library Alliance 4th Membership Meeting and the "Conference on Advocacy" pre-conference in Montgomery, AL. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.
Faculty Focus: Reasons You Could be Disciplined, Fired, or Sued
By Mary Bart
A parent calls you to ask how her son is doing in your class. Her son, a first-year student, began the semester well but recently started missing class and turning in assignments late. The mother says she’s worried about him and wants to know if he’s showing up for class, how his grades are, and if he will pass your class.
She also tells you that she’s “read up on FERPA,” so she knows that there’s a dependent exception and proceeds to email you a copy of her tax form proving his dependent status. “Besides,” she says, “I’m his mother, I’m paying for his education, so I have a right to know.”
What’s the best way to respond?
This is just one of the scenarios played out in the recent online video seminar Law 101 for Faculty Members: How Not to Get Sued. During the 90-minute seminar higher education attorneys Brett A. Sokolow, J.D. and W. Scott Lewis, J.D. explained the appropriate responses for navigating legal landmines in the classroom, such as dealing with pushy parents, ADA and Section 504 issues, negligence, faculty confidentiality myths, academic freedom and first amendment matters, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying.
FERPA, which stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, is a federal law that governs the privacy of a student’s educational records. An educational record is anything that personally identifies a student that is kept in a written or recorded medium by college officials. It also includes anything that could easily lead to the personal identification of a student.
FERPA has changed the way professors post grades, return assignments, interact with parents – even the casual conversations they have with colleagues about their students. In the case study of the mother who called asking for information on her son’s grades and attendance, the best course of action is to refer the parent to the Registrar — considered the “FERPA gatekeeper” on campus, or to the professor’s dean or department head, if that is the campus policy. Responding directly to the parent can place the professor in a tricky situation for two reasons: the parent may expect all professors to follow suit, and the parent may begin calling you on a regular basis since you were so helpful the first time.
Students with disabilities
Another scenario presented during the seminar dealt with a professor who has a student in his 9:00 a.m. class with a diagnosed disability. The student is registered with the Disability Support Service Office (DSSO) on campus. Per her request for accommodation, she took the first exam of the course at the DSSO office. The professor later learns that, due to proctor availability, she didn’t take the test until noon (three hours after her classmates).
For the second exam, the professor decides to create a special version of the test (Test “D”) for her to take at the DSSO office. This test was not multiple choice and true/false (as were versions A, B, and C given in class), but was short answer and fill in the blank. The student and her mother contact DSSO to complain that the professor violated her rights by giving her a “harder” test.
Did this professor handle the situation properly?
“We’re seeing more and more the intersection of academic integrity issues and disability issues and I think that this is a great example where we’re coming from the right place – in that we want to provide someone with accommodations that level the playing field and give them every opportunity to do as well on the exam as everyone else, but doesn’t afford them an opportunity to take advantage of accommodations or use the accommodations to commit some sort of academic integrity violation,” says Sokolow.
However, he noted, a better approach might be to make two multiple-choice versions of the test, and use both versions in class. That way, the professor can randomly select one of the two versions to give to a student who takes the test at a later time.
The Crisis Online Magazine: The Official Publication of the NAACP - Spring 2010
Standing at the Crossroads By: WENDY G. SMOOTH Spring 2010
African American women as political actors stand at the crossroads of two politically marginalized groups —African Americans and women. Being situated at the intersection of these two groups has historically meant limited access to citizenship and exclusion from “we the people.” However, African American women’s access to both women’s and African American communities may make them the future of Black political representation.As slaves, African American women and men were regarded as only three-fifths of a human being at the writing of the U.S. Constitution. African American women would later move from this marginal recognition under the Constitution to complete exclusion from constitutional protections with regards to the right to vote, as political scientist Mamie Locke points out. Following the Civil War, the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 extended the right to vote to Black men only.
The Teaching Professor June & July 2010 - Full Issue in PDF
Teaching for Inner Growth
By Paul T. Corrigan, Southeastern University, FL
I aim to influence my students toward academic growth and inner growth. I want them to develop in terms of what they know and can do and in terms of who they are, how they live, and how they relate to others. This raises ethical issues. Perhaps I should just teach content and skills. And then, if I want my students to grow as persons, simply hope that goodness rubs off on them in the learning process.A Learner-Centered Approach Affects Motivation in One Course
Most of the time research evidence grows by bits and pieces—not all at once, and the evidence documenting the effectiveness of learner-centered approaches is no exception. It continues to accumulate, as illustrated by this study time. It occurred in a third-year pharmacotherapy course in a doctor of pharmacy program.Does Writing Questions Improve Question Quality?
Let’s detail the scenario a bit more completely: it was a senior-level cell biology course. Before lab sessions, students completed a prelab assignment for which they were instructed to write “three specific, concrete questions that arose as they read the laboratory exercise and thought about the upcoming experiments.” (p. 132) Students submitted the questions before each of eight lab sessions. Researchers were interested in three questions about the student questions: 1) what types of questions did the student ask? 2) did the type or level of questions change over time? and 3) was the quality of the questions or the degree of improvement related to academic performance in the class? 2010 McGraw-Hill and Magna Publications Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning
The 2010 McGraw-Hill and Magna Publications Scholarly Work on Teaching and Learning Award was given at The Teaching Professor Conference, May 21-23. A review committee composed of editors of pedagogical periodicals and faculty developers selected the winning article and two finalists. Here are the highlights from all three.Defining and Implementing Inquiry Instruction
We do have lots of trouble with terminology in higher education. Ideas become popular without ever being clearly defined or without practitioners being aware of or using proposed definitions. There are many examples, but the work highlighted here looked at how faculty members teaching undergraduate science courses defined inquiry-based instruction and how they described “the challenges, constraints, and opportunities” associated with teaching inquiry-based labs. (p. 784)The Truly Heroic
Teaching is not about charismatically charged individuals using the sheer force of their characters and personalities to wreak lifelong transformations in students lives. It’s about finding ways to promote the day-to-day, incremental gains that students make as they try to understand ideas, grasp concepts, assimilate knowledge and develop new skills. Student Groups: How Dysfunctional?
Despite repeated surveys indicating that employers and recruiters place high value on the ability to work productively with others, not all faculty endorse group work or use it regularly in their courses. They worry that the groups don’t take the tasks all that seriously, that the information exchanged within groups isn’t always accurate, that groups handle conflict poorly, and that some group members let others in the group do their work. Three Strategies for Teaching When the Content is Not Well Known
By Leah Calvert and Michelle Sobolak, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
In the wake of budget cuts and other financial constraints, the reality of teaching liberal studies requirements outside of one’s department or major area of expertise is becoming more common. As new faculty, we were assigned to teach two required, liberal studies courses containing content beyond our areas of expertise.
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