Barry Westling

Terrell, Great. There are always different challenges with different cohorts of students. Using these strategies, or ones similar can only help. Barry Westling

Wenda, In career education, of course there's the skills and knowledge that's needed for success on the job. Usually, this includes professionalism, communication, and critical thinking, which may not hard course objectives, but we help our students be better employees and citizens when we can provide training for these traits. Barry Westling

Terrell, Another aspect of sharing course status can give an idea to the instructor about their teaching style, effectiveness, and areas they might need to place additional emphasis. Barry Westling

Terrell, Of course, I'm sure your students have a clinical or extern component to their program. But in addition to that, getting some one on one prior to their required extern is probably quite helpful. Barry Westling

Ronald, These activities do open up opportunities, questions, and possibilities for students to ponder. Barry Westling

Ronald, Students do notice the habits, behaviors and expectations of their instructors. I try to use that nature for the positive; prepare and inform, doing the same behaviors and degree of readiness everyday. It doesn't take long for students to see the patterns and expectations established, and students are comfortable when they know what to expect. Barry Westling

Ellen, Yes, if we are interested in accurately measuring learning, we can only fudge just a little or else we will skew grades and give an inaccurate picture of student performance. Barry Westling

Okasamar, Too much EC can contribute to artificially raising a grade so that accuracy is lost. Barry Westling

Okasamar, Field trips do inspire and motivate, as well as inform and educate. Barry Westling

Bo, I approach grading systems with this simple concept: how can I best measure learning? So, is this accomplished by a lot of daily quizzes? Or perhaps the homework plays a bigger role than usual. Or maybe the project serves to demonstrate comprehensive learning. In programs where there is an external, post graduation credentialing or licensing exam, exams my carry more weight. In general, weight of the different components should be based on how we can measure learning, keeping in mind that there are many ways to achieve that, and we want to be as accurate as possible. Barry Westling