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Archive : May 2008

875. Hey, You! Pay Attention!

May 27, 2008

The students sit in class, tapping away at their laptops as the boring old law professor mechanically plods through his lecture. Except one. Instead of hunching over a portable computer or a notebook, he's playing solitaire with a deck of cards on his desk. The professor halts his droning. "What are you doing?" he demands. The student shrugs. "My laptop is broken," he says.

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Posted by markep on May 27, 2008

874. Online Tutorial for Designing Effective and Innovative Courses

May 20, 2008

"Is it time to really shake the tree and do something about one of your courses? Do you have a great idea for an innovative course but aren't quite sure where to start in designing it? If so, you might try using the following online tutorial designed to provide practical and effective help for faculty members interested in designing or redesigning a course."

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Posted by markep on May 20, 2008

873. Professors Need to Lighten Up

"I found that self-efficacy was directly and positively influenced by faculty approachability and negatively affected by faculty distance. Thus, a professor's interactions with students are crucial to student performance."

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Posted by markep on May 20, 2008

872. The College as Campus (Review)

"Chapman's book is distinguished by his emphasis on how higher education fits within society, figuratively and literally. His thesis is that American higher education has from its inception conceptually positioned itself in relation to the natural landscape and urbanity."

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Posted by markep on May 20, 2008

871. Designing Courses

May 15, 2008

"At CTL, we have found helpful the concept of learning-centered course design, in which the teacher designing the course first identifies the learning goals of the course, and then "works backwards:"designing the course from the perspective of what we hope our students will have learned from the course when it is over, and then figuring out how best to help them achieve these goals."

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Posted by markep on May 15, 2008

870 Teaching Large Evening Classes

"How can faculty effectively teach, control, or even simply keep awake the students in such classes, many of whom start their days very early in the morning with family responsibilities?"

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Posted by markep on May 15, 2008

869. Design with Learning in Mind

May 08, 2008

In the classroom when you give encouraging words to one student, you are simultaneously giving positive feedback to all the students. But online students never hear these words to other students. Nor do they hear you say "good morning" and see a smile from you each class period. None of those cues are available to students in Web-based courses. Instead, for online students, everything becomes verbal; it takes lots of verbal positive reinforcement to replace all those visual cues that are not happening.

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Posted by markep on May 8, 2008

868. Conflict Management and Problem Solving as Chair

"We believe that basic conflict resolution and problem-solving tenets go hand in hand when dealing with the human condition. For example, let's look at some basic premises behind dealing with the eclectic members of academic departments. They may all be in the same discipline but higher education by its very nature promotes and encourages the individual. How best to live and work together as a group becomes the primary question. This is a huge challenge for department chairs, and for all administrators as well."

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Posted by markep on May 8, 2008