Faculty Focus Live Online Seminar: Student-Centered Techniques for Teaching to the Masses

http://www.facultyfocus.com/online-seminars/practicing-learner-centered-teaching-in-large-classes/?aa=13630/?c=FF&t=F100611a-FFA

Date: Thurs., July 15, 2010

Time: 12:00 p.m. Central

Length: 75 minutes

Cost: $229 ($254 after 07/08/10)

Advocates of learner-centered teaching believe that students learn best when they actively engage in the content and take responsibility for their learning. Unfortunately, implementing learner-centered teaching strategies is a challenge for many instructors, especially if they teach large lecture-based classes.



For these instructors, it’s difficult to visualize what student-centered teaching would “look like” in their courses. There might even be a bit of fear of what would happen if students were allowed to help shape the classroom experience.


Faculty Focus invites you to attend Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching in Large Classes, a new online seminar featuring proven case studies of instructors who redesigned portions of their large classes to be learner-centered. You will learn about the specific strategies they used to shift the balance of power to their students to enhance the learning environment, and the impact of learner-centered teaching on student participation and achievement in a large introductory general education course.

Presented by Dr. Carol Hurney, executive director of James Madison University’s Center for Faculty Innovation, this 75-minute session will show you how to:

• make small and meaningful learner-centered adjustments to your courses
• manage changes to the grading process to reflect learner-centered course assessment
• utilize student feedback to successfully implement course improvements
• assess the impact of a learner-centered environment on student attitudes and learning


Implementing learner-centered teaching is more than creating a classroom where students are engaged. It is a philosophical shift in how the instructor approaches the class. This seminar will highlight how to fully embrace the learner-centered paradigm even in your largest classes.

Faculty Focus Live Online Seminar: Student-Centered Techniques for Teaching to the Masses

American Association of University Professors Website

http://www.aaup.org/aaup

Summer Institute / July 29 – August 1 / San Diego State University
The annual Summer Institute is the AAUP’s premier resource for sharpening members’ leadership skills and training them in the arts of faculty advocacy. For four days every July, faculty and other academic professionals from across the country meet for a common goal: to learn how to create and implement strategies for improving shared faculty governance at their institutions.
While faculty and academic professionals have myriad opportunities to attend conferences and workshops to improve their scholarship and teaching skills, formal training in exercising the faculty’s role in shared governance is scarce. Packed with interactive workshops and seminars led by policy, financial, legal, media, and organizing experts, the Summer Institute provides attendees with tools and resources to help them protect and strengthen professional standards and improve the terms and conditions under which they conduct research and teach classes. There’s simply nothing else like it in American higher education.
Details about the 2010 Summer Institute will be posted here as they become available. For more information, contact Jenn Nichols at jnichols@aaup.org & http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/about/events/SI/default.htm

American Association of University Professors Website

Inside Higher Ed: Another Kind of Academic Career Path - June 11 2010

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/11/aaup

An experienced instructor opens up on how instructor training works at some online, for-profit colleges.

WASHINGTON – Some people think they’re qualified to teach online courses because they know how to use e-mail, but there's a lot more instructors need to master to run a Web classroom, a longtime trainer of new instructors said Thursday in a presentation at the American Association of University Professors conference meeting here this week.



“They don’t know how to use Word, they don’t know how to use Excel,” said Bob Barrett, a professor at the American Public University System who has trained online instructors at several institutions. “Statistics on a computer? ‘No, I’ve always done them on paper.' "

As many brick-and-mortar colleges shed untenured teaching staff, and online programs – especially those run by for-profit institutions – continue to hire, teaching in a virtual setting is becoming the new reality for many more academics. Thursday's presentation was one of several on online education at this year's AAUP meeting.


Even if they’re tech-savvy, instructors new to online teaching have a lot to learn, Barrett said, and need extensive training before being put before a virtual classroom. “This is where a lot of schools get into trouble,” he said. “They don’t know how to prepare people to teach online.”


At APUS, a for-profit company that runs American Military University and American Public University and has just entered into an agreement to become Wal-Mart's "education provider," new hires must go through six weeks of unpaid training. “Before an online class is assigned to someone,” he said, “the way that we can find out what kind of teacher they are, what they can do, what they can offer to the university, we make them go through teacher training.”


The training is, in a sense, an extended job interview. It’s where the institution learns whether the new hire can use its learning management system software and how he or she works with other people in the training course – and might interact with students, Barrett said. “What we rely on is the teacher trainer. The teacher trainer is going to do an evaluation at the end, to tell you whether they think this person is a good candidate or this person needs some assistance.”


Administrators generally abide by trainers’ recommendations on trainees, he said, and weaker candidates are often assigned “coaches” or “mentors,” who will “shadow” them for a semester or two. “They will come behind you into your classroom. They’ll look at your grade book, they’ll look at your syllabus, they’ll look at your learning activities. They’re going to take a look at how you’re interacting with your students, how you’re grading papers, to give you ideas.”


The goal in online programs like those with which Barrett has been involved is often to offer a consistent educational experience regardless of who the instructor is. Institutions keep tabs on how often and for how long instructors are logged onto e-mail and learning management systems to ensure that employees are engaged with their students. At APUS, Barrett said he is required to respond to student e-mail messages within 24 hours of when they arrive in his inbox.


Barrett acknowledged that some instructors are irritated by the regimentation, but audience members pushed harder. Protecting academic freedom is, after all, one of the AAUP’s core missions. “How do you observe academic freedom for someone who’s teaching online?” one woman asked.

Barrett said that only a third of the online institutions he’s taught for grant instructors academic freedom. “The rest are, you go by the instruction modules that are given, do not deviate from them. They have people who will come in and look at what you’re doing, will look at what you’re introducing, will comment on things that are a little bit different.” A few attendees shook their head in dismay.
— Jennifer Epstein

Inside Higher Ed: Another Kind of Academic Career Path - June 11 2010

Microsoft at Work: Tips for everyday Office tasks

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/tipsoffice2010.aspx?WT.rss_f=At%20Work%20RSS&WT.rss_a=Office%202010%20is%20here!&WT.rss_ev=a

We know that Microsoft Office is your go-to program for getting everyday home and work tasks accomplished. That’s why, when we heard about the excellent features and improvements packed into Office 2010 (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx) , we couldn’t wait to update our articles. Our articles now include advice on how to use many of the new features of Office 2010, along with instruction on how to find your favorite, tried-and-true Office tools. Don’t worry! Our Office 2007 tips are still included—the articles are now packed with even more helpful tips and advice.


7 ways to organize your email
6 ways to ensure your email gets read
9 tips to manage your files better
12 tips for creating better documents
12 tips for creating better presentations
6 ways to streamline your tasks in Outlook
5 ways to collaborate successfully on a virtual team
4 ways to take control of your email Inbox
Save time with quick computer shortcuts
Create incredible documents more easily using Office 2010
5 good computing habits
Vacation checklist
Back up your data

Microsoft at Work: Tips for everyday Office tasks

Campus Technology Online Education: Immersive Distance Learning To Boost Retention

By Linda L Briggs - 06/09/10

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/06/09/immersive-distance-learning-to-boost-retention.aspx

Campus Technology Online Education: Immersive Distance Learning To Boost Retention

The Chronicle of Higher Education - May 24, 2010

Google Launches New Course-Scheduling System!

By Jill Laster

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Google-Launches-New/24243/

Last week was a big one for Google fans in higher education. Google Wave opened its doors, and Google Voice now lets students get calls forwarded from their old numbers to their new phones.


Google made one more announcement last week—about a new course-scheduling system, CloudCourse ( http://code.google.com/p/cloudcourse/ ) -that could potentially have implications for higher education. CloudCourse is integrated with Google Calendar and allows users to schedule classes, look up user profiles, and sync the service's data with internal university systems. CloudCourse was built entirely on Google's App Engine, which allows users to build and host Web apps. Google hopes that CloudCourse can serve as an example of how to use the App Engine.


One potential use for CloudCourse is to manage class rosters with tools that allow users to look at enrolled versus waitlisted students, mark student attendance, and change a student's enrollment status in a course.


Universities typically already have an internal system to complete the tasks CloudCourse can perform. Irwin Boutboul, a Google software engineer, said in an e-mail to The Chronicle that Google designed this system with businesses, and not universities, in mind.


"Nevertheless, CloudCourse can certainly help university administrators, who most likely don't have the time or resources to worry about hardware hosting and dealing with traffic bursts like the ones that occur during class enrollment periods," Mr. Boutboul said. "We'd love to see universities pick up this platform and code additional features on top of it to make it more relevant to the higher-education ecosystem."

The Chronicle of Higher Education - May 24, 2010

Diverse Issues in Higher Education - June 9 2010

Report: Low-Income Students Reaching College; Too Few Earn Degrees

by Arelis Hernandez

http://diverseeducation.com/article/13866/1.php

An increasing number of low-income students are graduating from high school and enrolling in college, but their success in attaining postsecondary degrees has remained flat over the past decade, says a new report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) released Wednesday.


The report, entitled “A Portrait of Low-Income Young Adults in Education,” is the first in a series of reports that examines impoverished young adults and their role in the nation’s college completion push.


Using data from the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey, the report states that 44 percent, or nearly 16 million, of Americans between 18 and 26 lived in poverty in the U.S in 2008. Despite the numerous documented challenges the demographic faces, most—60 percent—low-income young adults were attending or had attended a higher education institution. Of those, only 11 percent actually earned an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in 2008.


The report doesn’t delve into the experiences, persistence or types of institutions that low-income students are attending, but IHEP’s lead researcher says the report data indicate a changing awareness among students of higher education’s benefits.


“There is some recognition that a college degree is what you need to escape poverty,” said IHEP’s director of research and evaluation, Dr. Gregory Kienzl. “For most that is occurring, but not all.”


As the proportion of low-income student college enrollment increased by 5 percent from 2000 to 2008, the percentage of high school non-completers also declined by about the same amount across all groups. The largest decreases in the dropout rates emerged among Blacks and Hispanics between 2000 and 2008, from 34 to 26 percent and 40 to 28 percent, respectively.


Nonetheless, disparities persist along racial and ethnic lines at the college level. Low-income White and Asian students fare better in reaching postsecondary education than their Black, Hispanic and Native American counterparts. Authors attribute the gap to the larger share of high school non-completers among Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.


Both Black and Hispanic low-income young adults represent the fastest growing group of college enrollees. But again, degree attainment levels for all groups in the last decade have been relatively flat, increasing from 10 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2008.


A disturbing discovery in the report found that, even among low-income students that earned postsecondary degrees in 2008, about 10 percent are still poor.


“In this push for college completion, it’s one thing to say everyone needs to get a degree, but it’s something completely different getting a degree that has value,” Kienzl said. “You can look at 10 percent as a small number or a huge problem, but ideally we want it to be zero.”


The statistic is not unique to the year 2008 but repeats in other cohort data dating back to 2000, Kienzl said, suggesting more questions about what students are encountering in college.


Admittedly, he said, the 10 percent could represent a point of equilibrium describing just how many people will always be poor regardless of policy changes in higher education.


“But it’s hard to tell,” Kienzl noted, adding that IHEP’s forthcoming reports will ask questions about student pathways, outcomes and obstacles. “We are trying to situate low-income students in this college completion debate to make sure we aren’t giving out degrees willy-nilly but are careful and clear about what we want to achieve.”

Diverse Issues in Higher Education - June 9 2010

Magna Publications White Paper: What Faculty Members Need to Know About Retention

http://www.magnapubs.com/catalog/publications/603530-1.html?s=cj&p=email

$169.00

Student retention–and what faculty members should do to increase it–is one of our most requested topics for online seminars. It’s easy to understand why.



Budgets are being squeezed more than ever, and each student retained by a college or university improves the institution’s bottom line. And so, administrators are asking busy faculty members to help decrease dropout rates.


Retention is a new expectation for faculty members, and most instructors receive little, if any, direct training on it. Some faculty members are reluctant to focus on retention issues, fearing that retention efforts mean lowering academic standards.


Nothing could be farther from the truth.


With proper planning, retention-focused strategies can enhance academic rigor, revitalize coursework, and bring a renewed sense of purpose to college programming. It all begins with understanding the principles and purpose of higher education retention efforts.


Our latest Magna Publications White Paper, What Faculty Members Need to Know About Retention, explains what instructors can do to create retention-oriented classrooms.


This exclusive White Paper explains:
• 12 ways to improve retention
• The central role of faculty members in retention efforts
• Effective retention interventions to use in the classroom
• How to improve retention without sacrificing standards
• The relationship between meaningful coursework and retention
• Adapting instruction for Millennial students
• The importance of getting to know students personally
• The need to frontload assistance for at-risk students
• Why the best retention efforts are “intrusive”
• Identifying potential dropouts in your classroom
• Retention and job security
• How retention efforts can improve student evaluations
• Key retention terminology
• Creating an “endowed chair” in your department to support retention


This report includes an informative retention quiz, designed to deliver vital background information, and answers to common faculty member questions about retention. This White Paper is recommended for faculty members, instructors, academic affairs professionals and student affairs administrators and staff.


This 47-page White Paper is based on a Magna Publications Online Seminar originally presented on November 20, 2008 by Dr. Jerry Pattengale, Assistant Provost for Scholarship & Public Engagement and Professor of History at Indiana Wesleyan University. Dr. Pattengale led the development of Indiana Wesleyan University’s first-year experience program, which saw dramatically improved retention rates. He speaks frequently on student motivation and success at national conferences and through media venues.


Cost
What Faculty Members Need to Know About Retention: A Magna White Paper is available in print format for $169. For pricing on multiple copies and information on Campus Access Licenses email customer service or call 800-433-0499 ext. 2.


As front-line defenders in the war against student attrition, faculty members have a crucial role to play. Help the professors on your campus fulfill retention expectations by investing in What Faculty Members Need to Know About Retention: A Magna White Paper today.

Magna Publications White Paper: What Faculty Members Need to Know About Retention

Using MP3s as a Teaching Tool for College English Classes

By Vicki E. Phillips

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/using-mp3s-as-a-teaching-tool-for-college-english-classes/?c=FF&t=F100614a

My recent foray into using MP3s to teach college-level English classes came out of my need to reach more of my non-traditional students. I saw a trend developing where more adults than ever were seeking a college education or even returning to college to change careers, and it only followed that I had a responsibility as an instructor to try and reach these students. It also became apparent in my classroom that I wanted to not only reach, but to retain these non-traditional students who seemed to become easily frustrated with the more traditional lecture and textbook methods.


I started to work with a variety of teaching methods, which encompasses more of the visual, auditory, and even the kinesthetic learners. I found that most of my younger students had grown up with a computer in their homes and in their classrooms; however, my older students struggled with the whole idea of computer-based learning.


My dilemma was how to reach and retain both the traditional-age and adult students, while adding value to their classroom experience. I needed a method that utilized technology that was readily accessible by my students. What I discovered was that music was the key.


Because almost all of my students listen to music on their iPods® (or even on their computers) I decided to try to use MP3s as an additional teaching tool. After a bit of trial and error with my scripts from my lecture notes, I think I have something that really gets my students excited.



I discovered that by highlighting only the key points, I could condense my podcasts down to about three minutes, which seems to be what my students expect on an MP3. After all, they are accustomed to listening to songs that are about two-to-three minutes in length, and I found going over that was not conducive to the students. So instead of one long lecture, I simply broke it up into three-minute segments. Then, they could “tune in” to the part that they were having trouble with as they were reviewing their writing topics.


Most didn’t need to review the entire class, usually just one or two key concepts. For those students who wanted to review more, the main lecture notes were there, just in “bite-size” pieces. It’s become something that they are not only utilizing for review, but are talking about outside of class as well. I am excited to see how this will develop in the rest of my English classes as well. Who would have ever thought that my teaching preparation would now include a studio session as well?

Vicki E. Phillips is an instructor at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Austin, TX.

Faculty Focus Free Report: Keys to Designing Effective Writing and Research Assignments

http://www.facultyfocus.com/private/pdf_products/report-effective-writing.pdf

Faculty Focus Free Report: Keys to Designing Effective Writing and Research Assignments

Inside Higher Ed: Teaching a Leader June 15, 2010

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/06/15/leadership

Career-minded college students (or their concerned and hovering parents) are always in search of surefire ways to make their résumés and transcripts stand out as they try to elbow out classmates for full-time jobs after graduation.

Beyond the grades, internships, student organizations, majors and minors that give employers a sense of what students have learned and what they might be able to do, the University of Iowa will this fall add a seven-course certificate in leadership studies, aimed at making students more attractive to hiring managers in a down economy.


“Leadership is one of the top skills employers say they are looking for looking for,” said Kelley C. Ashby, director of the Career Leadership Academy in the university’s Pomerantz Career Center, which already offers four classes on leadership. “We want students to have the academic component -- various theories of leadership -- and we also want students to have practical experience to apply what we’re teaching them.”



Though the university and its College of Business had for years offered courses on leadership to undergraduates, students and parents seemed to want more, “to know that classes and experiences could translate into something tangible on their transcript,” said David Baumgartner, assistant dean and director of the career center.

Other institutions, including Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, have in the last decade or so introduced leadership certificates open to undergraduates in more than just their business schools.


At Iowa, the certificate will consist of 21 credits -- the equivalent of seven standard Iowa courses. All students will be required to take a core course, “Perspectives on Leadership: Principles and Practices,” developed by faculty in the university’s business, communication studies, education, political science and philosophy departments, as well as by Ashby and a representative of the university’s Office of Student Life. They will also have to choose one pre-approved course from each of the following areas: self leadership, group leadership, communication, cultural competency, and ethics and integrity.


After a student has taken at least three courses, he or she can take on three credits of “experiential course work” -- an internship, on-campus leadership position, or service-learning course. The hope is that the theories of leadership that students learn in the courses will be put into immediate use in leadership positions.


While students generally dive into internships, resident assistant positions or student group presidencies without any specific knowledge on leadership, Ashby said, “we want there to be more intention about why they do what they do when they’re in those positions.”


Ashby said she anticipates that about 50 students will sign up for the core course this fall, but expects that, within a few years, as many as 300 undergraduates might be pursuing the certificate at any one time. So far, she added, there’s no clear pattern of who’s expressing the most interest -- no glut of liberal arts majors hoping to make themselves more employable, and no onslaught of hypercompetitive business majors.


“It’s for students where it’s difficult to see, ‘Where’s my first job?’ and not just for the management majors,” she said. “It’s for the nursing major trying to connect the dots, the student interested in nonprofit management.” The program is being housed in University College, which she described as Iowa’s “kind of miscellaneous college,” rather than being pigeonholed into the College of Business, where the career center is based.


Debra Humphreys, vice president for communications and public affairs at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, said that while “a lot of employers aren’t going to know what this leadership certificate means, a student’s ability to describe or demonstrate what they’ve learned and done could be useful.” At the same time, she added, the certificate could “help the student convey to the employer what they can do.”


But leadership isn’t employers’ top priority in hiring recent graduates, said Ed Koc, director of strategic and foundation research at the National Association of Colleges and Employers. In his group’s latest survey of employers, leadership skills ranked “about 10th on the list -- there are other things employers find more important.”


While the certificate could be “a good idea to the extent that employers looking for leadership would point to the certificate on your resume to say that you ‘have it,’ ” Koc said, “it doesn’t give you a big leg up unless it’s something you’re able to leverage in your interview, if you get one.”
— Jennifer Epstein

Inside Higher Ed: Teaching a Leader June 15, 2010

Innovative Educators Webinar: Retention in Online Education: Return on Investment in Four Steps

Thursday, June 24th and
Thursday, July 15th
3:00-4:30pm EDT
http://www.innovativeeducators.org/retention_p/836.htm

Webinar Description

During the first part of this work-part workshop, participants will measure the cost of lost tuition at their institution due to their online student drop rates. We will review key reasons an online student leaves the institution. The information is based on an award winning dissertation on this topic, written by the speaker. Lastly, you will create an individualized action plan to increase the ROI and student satisfaction.


This second part of the workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on their findings. Participants have had a month to collect data on their current tuition loss/student that drops out and the total tuition money lost over a year. With this data in hand, the institution will have a way of quantifying the loss of tuition through attrition.


Once the magnitude of the issue has been measured, it is far easier to see why the institution should intervene. Often, college administrators will not implement a student retention program until they understand the financial bottom line. Once this is established, then implementing the four step retention process is seen as a necessity for the survival of the institution. Dr. Welch will walk you through how to understand, develop and implement a four step process to fix the retention issues.


This webinar includes a customized follow-up session with the presenter. Dr. Welch will hold a conference call with your institution to assist in the application of these ROI principles to your unique situation.

Objectives

• How to measure current tuition loss per student that drops out
• How to measure the total tuition monies lost over a year by the institution
• How to understand, develop and implement a four step process to fix the retention issues
• The return on investment in implementing such a retention process


Who Should Attend?

• Chief Financial Officer and staff
• Deans of Online Education
• Online Education Staff
• Administrators: Presidents, Deans, Chairs, etc.
• Directors of Admission and staff
• Online and on campus faculty
• Marketing Staff


Who is the Speaker? Dr. Mark Welch
Recently, Dr. Welch was the Dean of Online Education for 12 campuses in the Western US, and is concurrently the dean of one of the campuses. This school now enrolls about 400 new online students per month. He has also been The Chair of Graduate Research, where he oversaw the research of 152 thesis students from 23 counties on three continents. His students included a Zimbabwe Tribal Chief and a financial advisor for Goldman Sachs.

Mark graduated from Oxford Universities' online program in history and has been a student in online courses at Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. He does public relations for Oxford & Cambridge Universities, in the western United States.

He won two awards for his PhD dissertation where he found the cause and solution for a $230,000 per quarter retention issue at an online university. This seminar is based on this award winning research. He teaches at numerous online universities, including dissertation students at Argosy University, in one of the largest online doctoral programs in the country.


Mark is the Executive Director of the Online Education Alliance, which trains universities on the ROI of online education; www.onlineeducationalliance.com. This year he is speaking at one of the largest online education conferences in the country, the eCollege national conference. Both sessions focus on the return on investment in online education. The first session covers the use of technology in online education - to maximize the financial bottom line. The second session focuses on ROI in recruiting, training and retention of faculty. The panelist in the second session include is a Dean of an Online MBA program , with a branch in Taiwan. He also created a doctoral program in the former Soviet Union. He is my a business partner in The Online Education Alliance. The third panelist, has been the President of three Argosy University campuses. Argosy is a member of EDMC, which has 110,000 students.


Mark also has significant experience outside of academia. He has worked in the U.S. Congress, four years at the Department of Homeland Security, four years as an engineer for Microsoft and a decade as a management consultant.

Innovative Educators Webinar: Retention in Online Education: Return on Investment in Four Steps