Faculty Focus: Are You Committing Plagiarism? Top Five Overlooked Citations to Add to Your Course Materials

By Miki Crawford, PhD

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/are-you-committing-plagiarism-top-five-overlooked-citations-to-add-to-your-course-materials/?c=FF&t=F100929a

Although we strive to uphold academic integrity, we may unknowingly be committing plagiarism. As we know (and tell our students) plagiarism is copying from a source verbatim, but it is even more than that. According to Reference.com, “plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.”


When we hear of faculty plagiarism, it mostly involves a publication. However, do you create PowerPoint® presentations from text content? Do you use ideas or handouts from colleagues? Do you copy a chapter from a book as supplemental reading without providing the source information? Do you use pictures or trademarks from the Internet? If so, you may be guilty of plagiarism. As faculty we should be aware of content that we distribute and whether we need to provide proper citations.


While searching Google with the keywords, faculty plagiarism, there were over 7,000,000 results. While narrowing the search using the keywords “faculty committing plagiarism,” the sites that I viewed have: 1. information about student plagiarism or 2. information about a professor who has committed plagiarism. Information to remind faculty how they may be committing unintentional plagiarism is needed.


Students are now using the same tool that faculty often use to identify faculty plagiarism—the Internet. By typing in a line or two from an assignment or other teaching materials, students are able to find online sources and possibly expose faculty plagiarism.


Here are some considerations for faculty when creating course materials:
1. Place a citation at the bottom of your PowerPoint slides (or better yet, on the master slide) to reference your textbook. If you use a direct quote/definition from the text, include the page number afterward.
2. Provide credit where credit is due when using ideas, organization of content, or quotes from colleagues.
3. Provide references on any copied materials that you use as supplements and consider the Fair Use Law.
4. Write or type Web links or references on any articles that you send to students or upload on a course content site such as Blackboard. After recording the citation on the article, it can be copied as a pdf. Merely citing these on Blackboard may not be enough.
5. Do those pictures from the Internet that you wish to use have a copyright sign or is the website copyrighted? If so, request permission before you copy. There are plenty of open source pictures and graphics on the Web that are for anyone’s use. However, trademarked images should not be used without permission.


Academic integrity is a vital component of our professional responsibility. We set an example for students and, make no mistake, they are watching!


Dr. Miki Crawford is the faculty coordinator and an associate professor in communication at Ohio University Southern Campus.

Faculty Focus: Are You Committing Plagiarism? Top Five Overlooked Citations to Add to Your Course Materials

Times Higher ED: What Motivates International Students?

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/30/foreign

September 30, 2010

Overseas students head to Britain for quality, to the United States for career improvement and to Germany for low tuition, according to a new study.


The British Council’s Student Decision Making Survey includes information gathered from around 115,000 students, from 200 countries, who hope to study abroad. The poll has been conducted over the past three and a half years.


The introduction to the report notes that the market for overseas students is becoming "more sophisticated," with domestic higher education investment in many countries making overseas study less attractive, and courses taught in English increasingly being offered in non-English-speaking countries.

The survey found that when choosing a country, just over half of students put quality of education in their top three priorities. Just over a quarter (26.3 per cent) see the reputation of a country’s universities as a key factor.



Of students naming Britain as their ideal destination, 59 percent said they considered quality of education the top priority – the highest rating of any destination country on that criterion.


Prospective students aiming to study in the U.S. were most likely to focus on enhancing their career prospects (38 percent).


Those with their eyes on Australia or Canada were more inclined than others to see the opportunity to work while studying as a key consideration (24 percent), while those seeking a place in Germany were most likely to mention low tuition fees as a priority (25 percent).


But overall the "cost of studying overseas does not feature strongly when students are choosing a study destination," according to the survey, with only one in 10 citing low tuition as one of the three most important factors.


The survey found that when asked to identify three factors that most influenced their initial decision to study abroad – before choice of destination – higher quality is cited by 54.2 percent, followed by career improvement (53.8 percent) and the chance to live overseas (51.5 per cent).


The survey report notes changes in the market. "Having traditionally drawn students who are comfortable with the English language, the UK is now competing with non-English speaking countries offering tuition in English," it says. "In addition, some of the key countries for international students are investing heavily in their domestic higher education systems, making study abroad less attractive at undergraduate level."


According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, five countries attract a combined 50 percent of all students studying outside their home nations: the United States (19 percent), Britain (10 percent), Germany (7 percent), France (7 percent) and Australia (7 percent).


But the market shares of most of these countries have dropped over the past eight years.

The OECD’s recent Education at a Glance 2010 report found that the US share of the overseas student
market fell from 26 to 19 percent over an eight-year period, and Britain's share dropped by two percentage points. The shares of Australia, Korea and New Zealand rose by one percentage point and Russia’s by two percentage points.


The OECD also noted that "an increasing number of institutions in non-English-speaking countries now offer courses in English to overcome their linguistic disadvantage in terms of attracting foreign students," a trend identified with the Nordic countries in particular.
— John Morgan for Times Higher Education

Times Higher ED: What Motivates International Students?

Diverse Issues in Higher Education: STEM Teacher Recruitment Effort Launched by Obama Administration

http://diverseeducation.com/article/14185/

September 28, 2010 by Ben Feller, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama started the school week with a call for a longer school year and said the worst-performing teachers have “got to go” if they don't improve quickly.


Also on Monday, the president announced a goal of recruiting 10,000 teachers who work in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) over the next two years. In a statement, Obama said such education is vital to allowing students to compete against their peers in today's economy.


“When I came into office, I set a goal of moving our nation from the middle to the top of the pack in math and science education,” Obama said in a statement. “Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing our students to compete in the 21st century economy and we need to recruit and train math and science teachers to support our nation’s students.”


Bemoaning America's decreasing global educational competitiveness, Obama sought in a nationally broadcast interview with NBC “Today” show host Matt Lauer to highlight his education agenda. At the same time, the president acknowledged that many poor schools do not have the money they need and he defended federal aid for them. But Obama also said that money alone won't fix the problems in public schools, saying higher standards must be set and achieved by students and teachers alike.


Asked in an interview if he supported a year-round school year, Obama said: “The idea of a longer school year, I think, makes sense.” He did not specify how long that school year should be but said U.S. students attend classes, on average, about a month less than children in most other advanced countries.


“That month makes a difference,” the president said. “It means that kids are losing a lot of what they learn during the school year during the summer. It's especially severe for poorer kids who may not see as many books in the house during the summers, aren't getting as many educational opportunities.”


The Education Commission of the States reported last year that U.S. schools through the high school level offer an average of 180 instruction days per year, compared to an average of 197 days for lower grades and 196 days for upper grades in countries with the best student achievement levels, including Japan, Korea, Germany and New Zealand.


On other topics in a live half-hour television interview, Obama said White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has not told him whether he will resign to run for mayor of Chicago, as is widely expected. Obama said he knows Emanuel must decide quickly to mount a serious campaign.


The president also sought anew to show that he understands the frustration of millions of people coping with a slow economy and high joblessness some 20 months into his term. He said that, even if people know he is working hard to fix their problems, what they expect from him is “something concrete” to help them get a job and pay their bills.


Obama appeared on the “Today” show in an interview that focused on education.


Education is primarily the domain of state and local governments. But the federal government has leverage and uses it, for example, through the strings it attaches to poverty aid that thousands of schools depend upon to support their programming.


The president admitted that his own daughters, Malia and Sasha, could not get the same quality education at a Washington, D.C., public school that they currently get at their private school. The Obama girls attend Sidwell Friends School, an elite private school in the Washington area.


“The DC public schools systems are struggling,” Obama said, though he added that the school district has “made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform.” Public schools in Washington have long faced criticism for their low test scores and high dropout rates.


In the interview, the president said he wants to work with teachers unions, and he embraced the role they play in defending their members. But he said that unions cannot and should not defend a status quo in which one-third of children are dropping out. He challenged them not to be resistant to change.


And the president endorsed the firing of teachers who, once given the chance and the training to improve, are still not serving students well.


Associated Press Writers Julie Pace and Erica Werner contributed to this story.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education: STEM Teacher Recruitment Effort Launched by Obama Administration

Inside Higher ED: A Call for Open Textbooks

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/01/textbooks

October 1, 2010

Student PIRGs, the activist group and gadfly of the textbook industry, has anointed a savior in its campaign against the high cost of course materials.


Here's a hint: It's not e-books.
In a new report, released Thursday, the group officially throws its weight behind “open textbooks” -- textbooks that are made freely available by their authors and can be chopped up and manipulated by professors who use them. Student PIRGs (short for Public Interest Research Groups) specifically endorsed the model proposed by Flat World Knowledge, a company that puts open textbooks through peer review and then offers them in different formats -- digital, black-and-white soft-cover, color soft-cover -- for different prices.


According to the study, students of professors who adopt open textbooks are likely to spend about $184 per year on their books. That would mark a significant reduction from the amount the average student spends now -- anywhere between $600 and $1,000, depending on whom you ask. (Publishers are liable to point to data from Student Monitor, which has the average at around $600 and trending down.)



Student PIRGs determined this by asking 1,428 students at 10 public institutions which version they would choose if their professor adopted an open text. More than half said they would choose a black-and-white softcover version, which costs $36 on average. A fifth said they would get the digital file in a printable format for $18, and another fifth said they would just read the digital file off their computer screen for free. Less than 10 percent said they would spring for the softcover version with color, which Student PIRGs estimated would cost more than $60.


Altogether, that means that if all of a student’s professors adopted an open text, that student would spend an average of 80 percent less than he or she currently does on textbooks, according to the group’s report.


That scenario is unrealistic right now. While it has seen a bump in adoption this year, Flat World still offers only about 20 titles. And the open-textbook landscape beyond Flat World’s modest catalog is a bit of a wild west. An informal study released earlier this year, commissioned by Student PIRGs and carried out by the University of California at Berkeley, found that faculty members believed “there were no high-quality and reliable open textbooks currently available in their subjects that were comparable to the print/traditional textbooks they used.”


“It is clear,” the Berkeley authors continued, “that there are many, many fields and subfields with no viable and acceptable open textbooks at this time.”


Eric Frank, co-founder of Flat World, told Inside Higher Ed Thursday that he agrees that open textbooks currently constitute “a bit of a caveat emptor market place.” But that is always the way when open-source alternatives challenge entrenched commercial industries, Frank said.


Microsoft disparaged Linux as untrustworthy when it first came along. Blackboard cautioned colleges against Moodle. Once companies emerged to help turn each freewheeling concept into something stable, he said, the open alternatives slowly found their way into the mainstream. That is what Frank thinks Flat World can start to do with open textbooks.


But it is still unrealistic to think that the 80 percent savings cited in Thursday’s Student PIRGs report -- or anything approaching that -- will come to fruition, said Mehdi Maghsoodnia, CEO of BookRenter.com. Maghsoodnia, who is one of many who have capitalized on the recent boom in textbook rentals, says Student PIRGs' pushing for a plurality of professors to adopt open textbooks is like a health care lobbyist pushing for a plurality of doctors to adopt herbal medicine: interesting, maybe even compelling with the right evidence, but ultimately impractical.


Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers, made a similar point. It might sound impressive that “1,300 educators” have adopted Flat World, but not when one considers that there are more than 1 million faculty members nationwide, says Hildebrand.


Hildebrand said Student PIRGs' critical assessment ignored various efforts the big publishers have made to reduce the cost of textbook materials, such as selling individual chapters of e-books, licensing electronic course materials directly to colleges at a discount, and wading into the market for print rentals themselves.


The fact that the group is backing a model that is untested at scale and a product type whose quality professors tend to question -- while ignoring the learning benefits of innovative course materials being sold by mainstream publishers -- shows, Hildebrand says, that Student PIRGs is obsessed with price and cares little for value. “Nothing publishers can do is right, according to [Student PIRGs],” he said.


Nicole Allen, the textbooks advocate for Student PIRGs, brushed aside this criticism. “It’s great that publishers are giving students more options, but the change is only incremental,” Allen wrote in an e-mail to Inside Higher Ed. “Prices are lower, but it still perpetuates the same market structure that will continue to allow prices to increase unchecked.”


Flat World, on the other hand, “create[s] a market structure where students have leverage as consumers (since they can opt for the free version if prices get too high),” she wrote, “and that’s where we set the bar for a solution.”
— Steve Kolowich

Inside Higher ED: A Call for Open Textbooks

Issue Update: Academic Leader October 2010

http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/issue/1214/

Century College Professional Development Strategies
One of the main mechanisms for faculty development at Century College is the idea of teaching circles, in which five to eight faculty members work with a trained faculty facilitator to design and implement a project related to a topic chosen by the group at its initial meeting.


Effective Strategies for Hiring the Best New Faculty
Colleges and universities have traditionally relied on search committees to select new faculty members. To ensure a successful new hire who can teach, publish, and serve the institution, search committees need a blueprint for their work—a set of strategies to lead them from the creation of the job advertisement to a productive on-site interview. The use of behavior-based interviewing (BBI), an interview style based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future performance, can guide those who hire in every step of the selection process.


Interdisciplinary Goals, Disciplinary Faculty: Bridging the Gap with Faculty Learning Communities
Temple University set out to develop an innovative, interdisciplinary general education (GenEd) curriculum for students, addressing significant questions and issues of our time, including globalization and sustainability. In the process, we discovered an opportunity to develop interdisciplinary knowledge, attitudes, and collaborations among the faculty pioneers who would design and teach these boundary-breaching new courses.


MnSCU's Center for Teaching and Learning
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities' (MnSCU's) Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is a system-wide center that serves all of the state's institutions, an approach that has the advantage of bringing together good ideas from across disciplines and institution types. While this model is unusual, there are some interesting practices that could be adopted on a smaller scale at individual institutions or among institutions.


Serenity and Academic Leadership
In an exercise I often use in administrative workshops, participants are asked to select one of their favorite words and then to reflect on what that word might reveal about their philosophies of academic leadership. It inevitably happens that the participants ask me to do the same, and the resulting discussions are always interesting. As it happens, my favorite word in the English language is "serenity," and, as one workshop participant phrased it rather bluntly, "If that's what you're looking for in life, you've chosen the wrong profession." That conclusion certainly seems reasonable. Academic administration frequently requires leaders to enter into situations fraught with conflict, strong emotions, hurt feelings, constant change, confrontation, and moral indignation. At times, academic leaders are lightning rods for anger, simply because they happen to be in charge, and people often have a need to direct their anger at something. How can a person who values peaceful co-existence survive in, let alone succeed at, this type of daily challenge? Is there any role for serenity in academic leadership today?


The Bright Spot of Development in a For-Profit College
In a time when for-profit postsecondary institutions are more highly scrutinized than ever in terms of achieving student outcomes and criticized for emphasizing the quantity of student enrollment over quality of learning, there is a growing need to provide evidence of good practice that encourages authentic learning.

Magna Publications

2718 Dryden Drive • Madison, WI 53704-3086 • 800-433-0499

support@magnapubs.com.

© Copyright 2010 Magna Publications

Issue Update: Academic Leader October 2010

Issue Update: Online Classroom October 2010

http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/issue/1217/ 

Group Quizzes—a Strategy for Fostering Collaborative Critical Thinking
Looking for a way to get your students to collaborate and think critically? Consider group quizzes, a technique that Ida Jones uses in her business law courses at California State University, Fresno.


Online Teaching Fundamentals: PowerPoint for Online Courses, Part 7: Manipulating Clip Art
PowerPoint is essentially a visual communication medium. A wall of words or long series of bullets on your slides looks boring and doesn't take maximum advantage of this visual communication medium. Consider how you can show what you are talking about rather than tell using text. Then tell in narration what you want students to know about what they are seeing. Additional telling can be provided in electronic print documents (such as PowerPoint slide notes or a Word document), if needed.


Teaching Online With Errol: On the Road with Your Computer—Part 2
Part 2 of my annual column on using the computer to enhance your online teaching prowess offers a variety of websites and software (all free) that can take your distance learning efforts to new levels of efficiency, productivity, and engagement. There are thousands of websites that online teachers can explore, of course—some set up specifically for online teachers, others that need be honed, polished, and sanded before they are "distance-learning ready." When you come across one or more that really stand out, send them along to me; I'll be happy to publish them in a future column.


Tips From the Pros: 4 Ways to Engage Students
When using video, it's important to comply with ADA requirements by providing subtitles for any videos used in a course.


Transformative Learning in the Online Classroom: Experiences of an Educator
How can we foster an environment for transformative learning online? The focus of this article shares my thinking on how to facilitate the precursors that may lead to transformative learning. The precursors are the trigger (also known as the disorienting dilemma), personal critical reflection, discourse with others, and action (Mezirow, 2000).

Magna Publications

2718 Dryden Drive • Madison, WI 53704-3086 • 800-433-0499

 support@magnapubs.com.

© Copyright 2010 Magna Publications

Issue Update: Online Classroom October 2010

Issue Update: The Teaching Professor - October 2010

http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/issue/1213/ 

A Reminder about The Teaching Professor Conference
October 31 is the deadline for submitting program proposals for the 2011 Teaching Professor Conference. The conference is scheduled for May 20-22 in Atlanta, Georgia. Go to www.teachingprofessor.com for information about the conference and to find program proposal submission requirements.


Making the Most of 2,700 Minutes
Most faculty schedule at least three office hours per week—that's 2,700 minutes a semester. If you have 135 students, that's 20 minutes for each student. Even if you have 270, that's still 10 minutes per student. Recently I've been working to make the most of these 2,700 minutes of office hours. They offer prime time for one-to-one mentoring. In the process, my thinking about office hours has shifted a bit, and I'm using my office hours in more ways. Consequently I have had a greater number of students taking advantage of this learning opportunity.


Syllabus Redesign: Strategies That Support Students with Disabilities
The syllabus, now present in virtually all courses, serves three major roles: 1) as a contract, 2) as a permanent record, and 3) as an aid to student learning. This document also serves as an information source and an advance organizer for the course. It can let students know what resources are available at the college and indicate a faculty member's willingness to provide accommodations, support, and extra help. Because of its universal use, the syllabus becomes an ideal place to embed support and accommodations for all students, including those with disabilities.


The Challenge of Teaching Content When Test Stakes Are High
As educators, we share the challenge of how to teach an overwhelming amount of content in a short period of time to a sometimes motivated but often bored and listless student population. I do believe that most students enter higher education with a true desire to master their subject area. Some are even interested in learning for the sake of learning. But lectures overloaded with PowerPoint slides quickly change the motivation to extrinsic. This is especially true in fields where high-stakes testing determines future career options. In the case of medical school, where I work, it's a combination of boards (testing subject knowledge) and licensing examinations. But undergraduates face similar high-stakes testing when they take medical, legal, business, or graduate entrance exams. Even a course final that counts for a large portion of the grade can change the motivation to extrinsic.


The Imposter with the Roster: How I Gave up Control and Became a Better Teacher
By the spring of 2008, I had been a full-time professor for seven years and had learned (I thought) a great deal about becoming more of a "guide on the side." But now I was at a different school and facing senior students in an advertising and promotions class. I had never taught advertising and promotions before. My marketing courses to date had all focused on strategy, market research, data analysis—I'm Mr. Logic, not Mr. Creative.


Using Google Docs as a Teaching Tool
I have started using Google Documents (Google Docs) in my classes and have become quite a fan of this technology. It helps students save effort and time with assignments; it reliably backs up their work as well. Whether used for an individual assignment or collaborative project, Google Docs provides a user-friendly interface. Students can use Google Docs to effectively create and revise documents using Microsoft Office products. All students need is a Gmail account and access to its Documents feature to open this exciting cyber world.


Why Peer Editing Matters to Majors
Even though more professors are using peer editing, it is being used mostly in introductory courses, not with upper-division students. We have this idea that students learn how to write in their basic courses, so we don't continue involving peers with each other's writing. I think there are three good reasons why we should be using peer editing in upper-division classes, especially in our major courses.


Magna Publications
2718 Dryden Drive • Madison, WI 53704-3086 • 800-433-0499
support@magnapubs.com.
© Copyright 2010 Magna Publications

Issue Update: The Teaching Professor - October 2010

Black Classic Movies Celebrated Women of Color DVD Collections

http://www.blackclassicmovies.com/Featured_DVD/celebrated_women_of_color.html 

Black Classic Movies Celebrated Women of Color DVD Collections

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR): “Undergraduate Research and American Innovation”

http://www.cur.org/

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), in conjunction with the House Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Caucus, cordially invites policymakers and staff to a luncheon briefing on: “Undergraduate Research and American Innovation”

12:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 26th

Cannon Building Room 121

Every day, across the nation, undergraduate students are engaged in research that is reshaping their education. This Capitol Hill briefing will feature two national experts and their students discussing the transformative educational role of undergraduate research with a corresponding discussion of the federal programs that support this work. Regardless of type of institution, undergraduate research has the potential to radically change the understanding of any number of important existing scientific or engineering concepts and add new knowledge to the field.


Undergraduate research opportunities attract and retain students in STEM fields that are crucial to the country’s ability to innovate and remain competitive globally. Further, undergraduate students from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields, after working with faculty on research, are more likely to advance in their studies. Ultimately, there is a strong correlation between undergraduate research opportunities and persistence in science-related programs of study and related careers.


The involvement of undergraduates in research has led universities and their faculties to devise new approaches to curriculum that cut across disciplines and to develop new ways of addressing intellectual property in order to bring discoveries to market. Student/faculty collaborative research at predominately undergraduate institutions, as well as at research institutions is contributing to economic development and job creation. These efforts play a key role in the success of federally funded research and development. It is crucial that policymakers understand which federal programs support undergraduate research, their benefits, as well as the potential new developments in this area.


Speakers:
Robert Full, Professor of Biology, and Tonia Hsieh, undergraduate research student, of University of California-Berkeley
Paul Edmiston, Associate Professor of Chemistry, and Deanna Pickett, undergraduate research student, of The College of Wooster

Moderator:
Beth Paul, Provost, Stetson University


RSVP: curbriefing@cur.org  or 202-783-4810

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR): “Undergraduate Research and American Innovation”

Create a Campus Technology FREE 1-hour Webinar:Green, Cost-Saving Imaging and Printing Environment for Today's Campuses

Date: Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Time: 11AM (PT)/2PM (ET)

http://campustechnology.com/webcasts/2010/09/hp_create-a-green-cost-saving-imaging-and-printing-environment-for-todays-campuses.aspx?pc=e161em01&utm_source=webmktg&utm_medium=E-Mail&utm_campaign=e161em01

Create a Campus Technology FREE 1-hour Webinar:Green, Cost-Saving Imaging and Printing Environment for Today's Campuses

Tomorrow's Professor Postings - October 12, 2010

http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/postings.php 

CHECK OUT THE NEW MIT SPONSORED: "The Tomorrow's Professor Blog"

A place for discussion about teaching and learning at: http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/

Tomorrow's Professor Postings - October 12, 2010

Faculty Focus: Using Polling and Smartphones to Keep Students Engaged

By John Orlando, PhD

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/using-polling-and-smartphones-to-keep-students-engaged/?c=FF&t=F101004a

It's an age-old problem. You want to make the most of every minute you have with your students, but it’s been proven that most people can only retain about 20 minutes of content in our short-term memory before we have to reflect on it in order to move it to our long-term memory or it will be lost. Add to this the violently condensed attention span of the general population and anyone hoping to provide a content-rich education in the time slots of traditional classes faces an uphill battle.


Polling provides an ideal way to both keep a class’ attention and provide a reflective activity to move information into long-term memory. Plus, it’s remarkably easy. Free websites allow you to set up polls that students take by submitting their answers via text message or on the Web. These polls are a wonderful way to engage students in the material and keep their interest. Best of all, the results appear in real time so students can see changes as they come in.


One good use of polls is to gather information about a subject before it is covered. This is especially helpful when the subject concerns information that students might not want to make public with a show of hands. For instance, a teacher could introduce a discussion of cheating on exams by asking students in a large lecture to indicate if they have every cheated on an exam. This could be used to demonstrate that cheating is more common than people think. A science instructor can ask students to guess the results of an experiment before it is conducted to generate thought and interest in the outcome. Forcing students to take a position not only creates reflection, but also commitment to results. Everyone wants their position affirmed.



Another option is to ask students for their opinions and use the results as a way of initiating a discussion on the issue. Or you could ask a simple factual question that you know most people will get wrong in order to demonstrate a widespread misconception.


Polls also can be used after content is presented as a means of generating reflection on the issue. These can be simple factual questions that demonstrate whether the students understood the material, or higher level questions that will help them to retain the material.


Using smartphones to conduct polls


While many instructors consider smartphones the bane of teaching—causing distraction and even cheating during a test—polling turns the technology into a teacher’s advantage by engaging students with the content.


Feedback

As usual, I welcome your comments, criticisms, and cries of outrage in the comments section of this blog.


Links
Poll Everywhere ( http://www.polleverywhere.com )
Unlimited polls with up to 30 respondents on the free plan.

Flisti ( http://flisti.com )
Super easy polling system. No signup required.


MicroPoll ( http://www.micropoll.com )
Good for creating a poll to embed in a blog or some other website.


Vorbeo ( http://vorbeo.com )
Another system for creating a poll to embed in your website.


BuzzDash ( http://www.buzzdash.com )
Quite a few presentation formats.


TextTheMob ( http://textthemob.com )
Free plan allows for up to three questions with 50 responses.


John Orlando, PhD, is the program director for the online Master of Science in Business Continuity Management and Master of Science in Information Assurance programs at Norwich University. John develops faculty training in online education and is available for consulting at jorlando@norwich.edu

Faculty Focus: Using Polling and Smartphones to Keep Students Engaged

ASM/NIGMS Learning Interventions Institute: Understanding Research Techniques to Study Student Interventions

January 10-13, 2011

Washington, DC

http://www.facultyprograms.org/page04a.shtml

ASM/NIGMS Learning Interventions Institute: Understanding Research Techniques to Study Student Interventions

8th Annual Teaching Professor Conference May 20-22, 2011 Atlanta, GA

http://www.teachingprofessor.com/conference?track=email&utm_source=MagnetMail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=ccharlesdillard.edu&utm_content=10/11/10%20-%20Why%20do%20you%20teach%3F&utm_campaign=Why%20do%20you%20teach%3F 

8th Annual Teaching Professor Conference May 20-22, 2011 Atlanta, GA

The Collaboration for Learning 2010 Annual Conference - November 18-20, 2010

"Ripples in the Pond: Transforming Higher Education for Today"

November 18-20, 2010

Radisson Conference Center

http://www.kleermeetingsolutions.com/Collab2010.aspx

The Collaboration for Learning 2010 Annual Conference - November 18-20, 2010