James Jackson

Location: chicago, il

About me

James is the Senior Associate at JAJ & Associates, Adjunct Faculty and eLearning Consultant at MaxKnowledge and member of the Board of Advisors of Dream Catchers Global. James was the Associate Provost of Faculty Development, President of the Online Division at Harrison College and the Director for the Center of Technology Resources for Indiana Business College. Because of his extensive background in technology and his entrepreneurial spirit and passion for assisting aspiring business owners, James has provided his leadership/project management skills in many start-up operations mentoring dozens of young leaders over his career. All providing great growth opportunities for his stakeholders.

James has developed more than 50 courses and dozens of programs in the areas of technology, business, progress management and general education. James has been an instructor for more than 15 years during which time he provided training to over 500 trainers and more than 5000 students. His academic background includes a Masters of Education in Occupational Training and Development and is currently working on his doctoral dissertation in Higher Education Administration emphasis on Strategic Enrollment Management. James enjoys working with students and assisting them through complex concepts which he is able to turn into easy to understand and usable skills.

A full profile of my professional career is available on LinkedIn:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesajacksonjr

Connect with me on LinkedIn and here in the Lounge.

Interests

my family, golf, tennis, swimming, and participating in youth sports.

Skills

faculty development, elearning, program and curriculum development, project management, business analysis and technology integration

Activity

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Fear Factor with Tests

sheila, I am interested in any research or direct experience you have that relates pop quizzes to higher rates of attending a class. Could be an interesting research project. In my experience the students that are tardy do so for reasons that have nothing to do with fear of missing a quiz. Your situation could be very different so I am very interested in learning more. Thanks for anything you can share. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Fear Factor with Tests

Clarence, interesting analogy. My focus as always been on positive reinforcement and assessments should be seen by students as part of the learning process. Knowing where your knowledge needs improvement is a good thing but students need to know that there are ways to recover from a bad test. One assessment should never fully define a student's knowledge or effort in a class. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Traits of Successful Instructors

Ronald, a good sense of humor is critical. It is also critical to know how far to take humor and what topics are considered off limits for different situations or groups of students. Timing and tact go a long way with the humor technique. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Small Groups

david, do students have opportunities to take turns with the protein or the sauce? If students know their time will come then this helps to elevate any stress of not getting a chance to perform their most desired task. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Self-Doubt

Morgan, yes what a great experience. It is like seeing the lights go on in their heads. What resources do you provide to those rare students that may not achieve a level of relaxation that you see in other students? Thanks for anything you can share. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Fear Factor with Tests

Tracee, great post. In your own experience, do you ever encounter students who obviously know the materials but still do poorly on exams? Another way of looking at this would be how you follow-up with students that did not perform to the class average. Do you conduct any type of post exam discussions to determine if poor performance was just a simple factor of lack of preparation or if any other factors could be in play? Thanks for any information you can share. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Improving Classroom Management

Kelly, great topic and a good message for more novice instructors. As a subject matter expert you have a great deal of value to your students and through experience and effort the most novice of instructor can grow to become a true educator. The difference between an instructor and an educator is an educator knows when to leave the lesson plan behind because their students are ready to take their learning to the next level. The lesson plan is achieved but additional skills are also transferred in the process. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Self-Doubt

Teri, great job taking time to engage with your students and getting them to discuss their qualities and allowing them to build in their levels of confidence. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Fear Factor with Tests

Mina, be careful to over simplify the issue. For some students if you allow them to speak with you about the subject matter you will realize they are well prepared and know the material well. However when you issue them an assessment their score will not reflect their knowledge. Any number of issues can account for this issue including learning disorders and different types of anxiety. If you encounter any students where this is the case you will want to be prepared to discuss some alternate methods of assessing their knowledge of your lesson plans. James Jackson

James Jackson

Discussion Comment

Fear Factor with Tests

Kelly, do you perform any type of discussions to allow students to vocalize their discomfort with assessments or does your focus on the "pop quiz" completely alleviate such issues within your classrooms? Thanks for anything you can share. James Jackson

End of Content