Articles

Should You Let Students Lead Discussion Boards?

Several years ago, a colleague suggested that having students lead discussions in the online classroom would be a good idea. I agreed and searched the literature for research on this topic but found nothing. No one at that point had been looking at having students moderate, or they hadn’t written about it. I still thought it was a good idea and decided to pursue this line of research by having my students moderate and follow up with an end-of-course student questionnaire.

Joan Thormann PhD. December 11, 2009

Making the Shift from Rhetoric to Performance

Discussion of teaching and learning as an academic, scholarly endeavor has become an acceptable conversation on college campuses. A shift is beginning to take place whereby the scholarship of teaching and learning is now being taken seriously. We are making progress in higher education by making undergraduate education intentional, thus moving toward a learner-centered paradigm.

Michael Harris PhD and Roxanne Cullen PhD December 10, 2009

Six Tips for Effective Writing Groups

By offering students a supportive group for writing assignments and research projects, students can form strong learning communities and feel less isolated when they see

Kathryn Linder M.A. December 9, 2009

Critical Pedagogy Brings New Teaching and Learning Challenges

It’s not always easy to differentiate between critical pedagogy, active learning, and the learner- or learning-centered approaches. Each is predicated on the notion of student

Maryellen Weimer, PhD December 8, 2009

Primed for Learning: Maximizing Teachable Moments When Students are Ready and Willing to Learn

Teachable moments, those special times when students are most ready and willing to learn, are traditionally considered unplanned opportunities. But should teachable moments be treated like unexpected gifts or can they actually be set in motion with a little advanced anticipation and planning by the instructor?

Mary Bart December 7, 2009

A New Look at Student Attention Spans

Have you heard that advice about chunking content in 10- to 15-minute blocks because that’s about as long as students can attend to material in class? It’s a widely touted statistic and given the behaviors indicative of inattentiveness observed in class, most faculty haven’t questioned it. But Karen Wilson and James H. Korn did. They got to wondering how researchers made that determination. “What was the dependent measure, and how did researchers measure attention during a lecture without influencing the lecture itself as well as students’ attention?”

Maryellen Weimer, PhD December 4, 2009

Five Tips for Wrapping Up a Course

The ending of a course deserves greater attention than it typically receives. While we have thoroughly ritualized the start of a new semester often somewhere between weeks 11 and 14, what seemed like reasonable plans are regretfully sidelined and we launch into catch-up overdrive.

Margaret Walsh PhD. December 2, 2009

Keep Your Classes on Track During the Holidays

This time of year is always one of the most difficult times for students to focus on their studies. In the online classroom it can be an especially challenging to keep students engaged, serious, and committed to assignments and deadlines. For while students in the face-to-face classroom know they must be in X classroom on Y days at Z time each week—no matter the month—the casual setup of the online classroom can bust wide open if not addressed during these holiday months.

Errol Craig Sull December 1, 2009

Stress Management Strategies for Academic Leaders and Faculty

During the past year or so the poor economy has forced everyone to do more with less. Now it’s almost December and we’re in the thick of the end-of-semester crunch … with the pressures of the holiday season closing in fast. Feeling a little stressed?

Mary Bart November 30, 2009

Reflecting on Your Teaching Practices

The two nurse educators who authored the article referenced below begin with a quote from the first page of Stephen Brookfield’s book Becoming a Critical Reflective Teacher. “One of the hardest things teachers have to learn is that the sincerity of their intentions does not guarantee the purity of their practice.”

Maryellen Weimer, PhD November 24, 2009

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