CTAAR Newsbeam

Teachers of the year from the Chronicle

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:05:15 -0500

Today's Chronicle has Professors of the Year Are Celebrated for Innovative Teaching

Note the emphasis on active learning and the way that improves student engagement.

Students and faculty...ships in the night?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:36:00 -0500

Inside Higher Education reports on a new book, The College Fear Factor, by Rebecca Cox at Seton Hall University. The main point of the book it seems is that faculty and students don't communicate all that well with each other. Though she focused on community college students, I find many of the points she raises very familiar from my own teaching experience. What students think we are doing, what we think we are doing, and what we think our students are doing, are sometimes like ships passing in the night.

Student engagement does not just mean students being involved in the life of the university, but also that students and faculty communicate effectively at the meta-level about what the point of the whole academic exercise is about. As faculty, we sometimes take for granted that students understand our motives and goals. Sometimes, they don't. Students take a lot for granted about faculty, too, e.g., 'they don't care if I learn or not', etc.

In the article, Cox offers a simple outline that is worth considering:

In this way, the most promising pedagogical approach accomplished three crucial goals: it (a) demonstrated the instructor's competence in the field of study; (b) clarified both the instructor's expectations for student performance and the procedures for accomplishing the work; and (c) persuaded students that they were more than capable of succeeding.

Another type of portfolio review process

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:00:13 -0500

Road Too Little Traveled in Inside Higher Education today, presents a rubric based process to review entire academic programs in the face of budget reallocations and strategic planning.

iTunes for K-12

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:37:01 -0500

This is from today's NYTimes. Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions

Ten years ago or so, a group of new media types created the MERLOT website, which has grown into a massive information sharing site for collegiate instruction. (There are many other such sites these days.) But, things on MERLOT are free, at least they were the last time I looked. As one might expect, (Adam Smith would have so expected in such a case) the quality of the materials is inconsistent.

These new sites for K-12 are 'iTunes for lesson plans'. This much more robust model than MERLOT, and much like the new publishing sites for textbooks, where students can purchase chapters or pages if they like, but see the full text free in a restricted environment.

I'm raising this only because the rate of change in the way we develop and use educational media, and the manner in which we communicate as educators, is increasing. This acceleration is visible in the above article.

Here's an excerpt:

Teachers Pay Teachers, one of the largest such sites, with more than 200,000 registered users, has recorded $600,000 in sales since it was started in 2006 -- $450,000 of that in the past year, said its founder, Paul Edelman, a former New York City teacher. The top seller, a high school English teacher in California, has made $36,000 in sales.

As one might also expect (again Adam Smith), school districts want to get in on the action. If a kindergarten teacher sells a lesson plan on M&M sorting, does the school district get a cut of the profits?

Virtual economies and real-world economics

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:40:20 -0500

Many multi player games, or virtual worlds, have vibrant economies. Some of them cross the line between the virtual world and the real world. For a long time now avid gamers have been purchasing with 'real money' virtual implements. products and real estate for use in a local online world, like Second Life or World of Warcraft.

This phenomenon is growing, and Reuters reports that some companies are doing so well earning their only revenue by selling in-game products to gamers, they have become takeover targets. Little games could see big deals after EA-Playfish

The proliferation of online worlds and games with multiple players has created a plethora of economies that our students work and play within. They are learning economic lessons in a rapid fire fashion. (See Lemonade Stand for the iPhone for a quick example). I don't think students will be able to sit still for introductory courses that are not at least somewhat interactive, when they do so many things that teach them economics in an interactive way every day.

Teaching basic writing

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:33:27 -0500

Today's Inside Higher Education reports that the City College of New York (CCNY) is changing the way basic writing is taught. Instead of a department or program focusing on writing with a standardized approach, like our Writing Program, CCNY is shifting the focus to the departments. Each department will offer its own basic writing instruction, and the teaching will be done by tenure track faculty to a great extent.

Choose Your Own Freshman Comp. outlines this new approach.

A three year B.A. ?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:10:28 -0500

At the Academic Leadership Program last month, I brought copies of Robert Zemsky's new book, Making Reform Work: The Case for Transforming American Higher Education, and handed out about 20 copies. I think it's an important statement about higher education. In it, Zemsky discusses the three year B.A. degree as a way to lower the costs of higher education. He feels it would be a good things to do. Other's disagree, arguing that we higher education would lower its costs if it got students through a B.A. in the state four years, instead of the all too typical 6 or so.

In today's Chronicle, there is a mini-debate on the issue, Renewed Debate Over the 3-Year B.A.

A new website for comparisons

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:39:22 -0500

The Chronicle reported today that a new website, College Insight, is up and running. The site provides data about colleges and universities, and presents them for comparison. Much of the data is probably gleaned from the colleges' and universities' websites.

The site does much of what the VSA sets out to do, except for the learning outcomes data from a source like the CLA or CAAP or MAPP.

I'm not sure how useful any of this is, but I expect more sites like this to be developed, each with its own special focus.

A hot button

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:45:28 -0500

Reduced university budgets cause major dislocations. And, as any budget cutting committee knows, just how to enact the cuts, who should bear the pain, is no easy task. How many courses should be eliminated and which ones? Should administrative staff take a larger cut than instructional budgets? The list goes on and on.

In today's Chronicle, reporting again on the Educause conference in Denver this week, the questions are given some focus in Faculty and Technology Officials Fight Over College Values

The article raises some interesting points about how university budgets are being reshaped as as new communications and computer technologies merge and grow whole new ways of doing things. Another ingredient in the mix is the rise of 'cloud computing', which I heard one analyst on Bloomberg Radio liken to 'rentable software'. That's part of it, but even more than that, cloud computing means outsourcing of information technology to companies like Google or Microsoft. For example, it was recently reported that the Los Angeles City Council voted to move the city's email to Google. (Here's one report, Los Angeles City Council Approves Google E-Mail Plan from Government Technology. )

Such outsourcing implies a lot about security, about access to information, and about just what kind of software is available for users in the university. I think though that we are going to see a lot more movement to the cloud. We're building a 'railroad in the sky' that will store and transport information in very useful forms at rather low cost. No matter whose budget we're talking about, that is a very tempting prospect.

New technologies, similar approaches, more multimedia

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:03:32 -0500

Over 10 years ago, Monica Devanas of CTAAR started using WebCt to teach her Biomedical Issues - HIV/AIDS course. She encouraged students to use a new feature in WebCt, the discussion board, which allowed them to discuss things asynchronously. When the course ended, the students kept using the discussion board. When Monica tried to shut it down, they complained. Students liked talking to each other 'on topic' especially as various current events brought some of the material in the course to life.

Here's a more recent example, reported in the Chronicle, using much more sophisticated social networking tools than a discussion board, but tools that do the same basic thing; Continuing Education and Social Networking Combine to Attract Students . The difference, though, is that social networking is becoming ubiquitous and may help keep groups of students, and alumni, 'together enough' to form learning communities with a significant life 'after class'.

A new approach

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:43:59 -0500

Robert Zemsky, in his new book,Making Reform Work: The Case for Transforming American Higher Education, mentions a new initiative at the University of Minnesota, a new school with a new approach to teaching and learning.

Today's Chronicle reports on this initiative, in Learning Goes Under a New Microscope.

The focus is on health science, and the approach is to document what works, and what doesn't, in promoting student learning. It should be interesting to watch this one. The commitment is large and the energy behind it is high.

Accreditation provisions and the Higher Education Opportunity Act

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:03:28 -0500

Brent Ruben forwarded this to me. It's an outline of the proposed regulations for accreditation under the Higher Education Opportunity Act (2008) (HEOA) forwarded through the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Click here to view.

The good news is that HEOA enforces the principle that institutions set their own standards for learning outcomes, and accreditors set the accrediting organization's standards.

Here's one example:

Operating Procedure: Transfer of credit. Current Rules do not address transfer of credits. Proposed Rules require that accrediting bodies make sure:

1. Programs to be accredited have transfer credit policies.

2. The polices are public.

3. The criteria used to determine accepting credits from another institution is made public.

Napster for Educaton?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:41:29 -0500

The movement to open courseware and open education is accelerating. Here's a link to a presentation by Richard Baraniuk of Rice University, who has created a new education site, Connexions.
http://www.ted.com/speakers/richard_baraniuk.html

More on Higher Education at $99 per month

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:21:10 -0500

About a month ago, we reported in the Newsbeam (September 15, 2009) on a new open courseware system that would permit students to take courses for $99/month. As one might imagine, that lead to a vigorous series of discussions in a number of fora. In particular, the Professional and Organizational Development Network (POD) had a very lively one on their list serve. Monica has forwarded to me a list of links from POD that give some of the flavor of the discussion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091104312.html

http://etcjournal.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/is-99-a-month-for-college-really-a-cute-little-kitten/

http://etcjournal.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/2341/

http://etcjournal.wordpress.com/

http://collegiateway.org/news/2008-gwot

I don't know if the future holds a $99/month college degree or not. But, change is certainly accelerating. For example, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has decided to move its introductory spanish courses online, with no hybrid or in class component. See, Adios to Spanish 101 Classroom.

Can technology change teaching? How?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:13:28 -0500

When I participated in some of the seminars run by the Mellon Foundation, while I was co-PI on the Mellon Cost Effective Uses of Technology in Teaching a few years ago, a major topic was just how technology would change teaching.

One analogy was this; that using technology in teaching was like a produce store buying a new, faster, safer, better delivery truck. But, there was no agreement on just what that truck would do.

Some argued, it would deliver the same produce (the same type of learning) faster and safer and cheaper.

Other's argued it would deliver a whole new type of produce (new learning outcomes), that could never be delivered before.

I argued that both processes were going to happen, the first in the short run, and the second in the long run. First, we would use technology to do the same things faster, or more conveniently, but that over time, we'd see learning itself change.

Here's a much more robust presentation of that point, by Stephen C. Ehrman, Ten Things I (no longer) Believe about Transforming Teaching & Learning With Technology.