Jay Hollowell

A few days ago, one of our bloggers, Jacqui Moran, commented, "I am a veteran of 15 years and was delighted to see the ethics our school indulges in daily be part of this training.  Knowledge is the key to your success and well as your students."

It is always refreshing in our career educational venue to see an institution's faculty member reference the positive and effective practices of his or her campus as well as relate such practices to the training in the online courses.

We may have the opportunity as Faculty Coaches to exemplify our school's professional practices… >>>

I read a blog comment recently from an online course participant, Faye Tackett, who said, "I enjoyed.....responding to some of the forum questions and asking my own questions."

It's always great to hear that participants are utilizing the discussion forums to not only share comments, examples and hopefully best practices, but also to ask questions. As Faculty Coaches, we know that the discussion forums are more than simply a course completion requirement. They provide an interactive component that makes an online course come alive and gives the opportunity for participants to tailor information to their own needs and interests. We… >>>

Please know that I am not at all criticizing geographers or minimizing the importance or major contributions of that discipline, but the quote got me thinking about the hands-on practicality of what we teach in our career colleges and universities. We, in fact, have the honor of training sailors who, in turn, will have the… >>>

One of The Lounge's recent bloggers, Barbara Kisakye, mentioned that she hoped in the future to return to the discussion forums in a course that she had just completed to share her insights and successes. Thanks Barbara!

It reminded me that when instructors complete courses, they can certainly come back later to the discussions through the Performance Forums (on the CEE site's blue menu) and share additional successes and best practices.

With busy schedules and teaching workloads, it is normal for instructors to "be done" with a continuing education course once they have successfully completed the requirements and received their… >>>

Recently I read some blogs in The Lounge that speak to student retention and it reminded me how important tapping into the motivation of adult learners is to their success in school. I also started to think again about retention of our faculty amidst competing responsibilities and teaching workloads. Surely tapping into the motivation of our instructors, just as we encourage our instructors to do so with their students, is an important factor of faculty retention.

Please let me invite our Faculty Coaches to share what they feel are motivational factors for our instructors.  

Recent instructor blogs in The Lounge reminded me once again of the importance of faculty development for all of us - at every level of experience and credentials. Continuing teacher education not only provides the opportunity to learn new ideas, techniques and strategies, but, as referenced by many of our bloggers, creates a refresher, a way to look at something a little differently and even a chance to step out of our "teaching comfort zone."

As commented by Francesca Augustine in a recent blog about ED101, "it really reminded me of how much we take for granted if we have… >>>