Assignments are a terribly important part of the teaching and learning equation. They aren’t just random activities that faculty ask students to complete for points and grades; they are the vehicles through which students learn course content. By studying for exams and engaging with content
My colleague, Lolita Paff, has been exploring student attitudes and beliefs about participation. Most of her beginning economics and accounting students describe themselves as “limited” or “non-participants.” They say they don’t participate because they don’t want to look foolish in front of their peers or
Teaching developmental courses poses special challenges in the online environment. In addition to helping students learn the content, the instructor also has to help developmental learners navigate the online classroom. Karen Woodring, an associate professor of English HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, teaches developmental English
Publishers are quickly moving into the etext business. Technology makes it possible to provide much more than written descriptions of course content. The authors of an exploration of etexts identify the positive aspects of these technology-enhanced texts: convenience, portability, and currency. But as these authors
Despite this growing need to know how to work with online learners experiencing mental and emotional challenges, there has not been much written on the topic, and higher education institutions generally do not have the resources and policies in place to the extent that they
The Internet is a fundamentally interactive medium. Look in the average lecture hall and you will see students with baseball caps turned backward nodding off or on their cell phones. But peek into a computer lab and you will see students sitting up at the
Ken Einhaus, a project manager at the Center for Applied Research Solutions, offers dos and don’ts for dealing with online learners exhibiting a variety of mental health crises.
Recorded video can be a great enhancement to an online course, offering opportunities for targeted instruction, personalized feedback, and content review.
When Annie Hough-Everage, professor of education at Brandman University, surveyed her graduate-level online students about what factors helped and hindered their learning in the online classroom, she was surprised by their teacher-centered rather than learner-centered orientation. These were adult, graduate-level students who were themselves teachers
In the fall of 2013, at the age of 56 I successfully defended my dissertation and shortly thereafter accepted a job at a regional public university where I taught three new classes. My experiences teaching confirm that even at my age, change and movement to
