Online Teaching Blog

When training and developing new faculty, words like best practices, pedagogy/andragogy, student engagement, and retention are bandied about quite a bit. While these things are important and certainly need to be addressed, I find new faculty also need to know more practical aspects of what it means to teach for any given college or university. No matter the subject matter taught, navigating various collegiate landscapes can become difficult and confusing, especially when adjuncting at a variety of institutions. So, what do new faculty need to know during this time of adjustment?

Once upon a time, smart people would go to college and work hard.  They would get their Bachelor’s degree in a cost effective way, and then the better ones would go on and get advanced degrees.  The best would then get their PhD’s and go on to long and fruitful career as professors, protected by the Ivory Tower from the time they entered college until retirement in their mid-sixties with a full pension, all needs ultimately taken care of by academia.  And there were sparkly unicorns bringing buckets of gold from research grants, and leprechauns would grade all the tests in the middle of the night.

So, now it has come to the dreaded D word (dissertation) of your doctoral degree, and you have started to lose sleep, procrastinate and lose your hair. Don’t worry, you are not alone. When I first started my dissertation I felt like I needed some intense therapy, because I had no idea what I was doing and had no clue of how I was even going to get to the end point. Up until that point in my academic tenure, I had always just read the directions to an assignment, completed the assignment, turned it in, and was done. I really did not give it another thought, because I knew after that point I would not have to mess with it anymore. Well… you see, the dissertation is quite the opposite and unfortunately it took me a while to realize this. The moment that I had this epiphany was when I titled a document for my chair to review as Revision_24_Chair_Review. At that point, I took a new approach and began to churn away at this beast of a document. Below, is a list of helpful advice that I wish I would have had from the beginning in order to accomplish this beast that you will hopefully see in a Google Scholar search one day.

Being a student can be a very lonely ordeal. We are used to being constantly connected to our family, friends, and co-workers, either physically or virtually. However, when we find ourselves staring at our monitor hoping that some brilliant thoughts will start popping in to our head so we can get past the first sentence of our term paper, we start to feel alone and disconnected from our usual support network. This is one of the most difficult challenges with being a student today, especially when taking online courses.

To many online students, the instructor is simply a person on the other side of the computer screen who they never see. The instructor grades the discussion posts, essays, and responds to student emails. It is rare the student and instructor speak on the phone and even more rare they ever see each other in person. Therefore, the lack of human interaction can become lost. As online instructor’s, it is necessary we show our human side in the classroom. Not only through being enthusiastic with the subject matter but showing our personal side as well.

Most of us have been subject to one. Many of us have performed one. All of us want to improve and act upon it. It’s the classroom observation. The classroom observation tool is rooted in educational reform and the musings of such thinkers as Frederick Taylor and Edward Thorndike. This scientific view of measuring teaching has survived decades of thought-leadership and, if executed well, can be a formative tool for teaching development and improvement. One should note that I deliberately used the word “formative” in that last sentence. As an administrator we should be viewing the action of performing an observation just like we do when we administer a formative assessment to a student—with the goal of assessing and improving teaching mastery. I am not advocating that

Today’s educational climate is a hot one with institutions of all types vying to enroll the highest number of students. Cutting edge programs, ones that will almost guarantee students careers after graduation, are being developed at a rapid rate. Innovative marketing draws attention to these programs along with the institutions themselves as they desperately try to keep up with the academic Joneses. The competition is fierce, that is certain, and those of us in higher education know we cannot forsake quality for quantity. How do we keep enrollment up while also adhering to high educational standards? One answer we’ve found at the small, liberal arts college where I work is the implementation of flex courses.

Are you considering writing more this year? Do you wish to become a published author? If so, check out my Coauthoring: A Pathway to Publication article. If you read that and/or are already on you path to publication, I have some tips for you to become a better writer this year. This can help for both academic and nonacademic writing.

Frozen in Time

Are you a doer? Or do you sit back and wish you can do something but are afraid, unsure, or lack the confidence? Many of us are afraid to take those steps needed to get us started on a new career, launch our business, or dive into a new opportunity. Some of us sit in the shadows and wish we can be like those “successful” people. Others even talk themselves out of it! I used to be one of those people that wished someday I can do great things such as, become a speaker, a researcher, a writer, or open my own business. I mean, puny me? I thought I was meant to be someone’s right hand didn’t realize I can be the right hand! I listened to some of my colleagues, friends and even family members who are so intimidated by taking on a new opportunity that they become frozen in time.

In developing a quality curriculum, keep in mind one simple word: Excellence. Ensuring that quality throughout the curriculum ensures that your students are learning the best possible content in the most efficient and effective manner. If quality and meeting outcome measures are vital for programmatic success, why aren’t more curricula developed with quality as a primary focus? Quality measures should never be afterthoughts, instead, as each course is built, there should a concerted effort to clearly identify the quality measures not only in the individual course, but how those measures of excellence build upon one another to optimize student learning. Providing a current and meaningful curriculum should be the primary goal of every educator, regardless of age or subject taught.