As, a librarian, I constantly encourage field trips to the library from classes, so that students will become expert users of library resources. If, students get to see what their field of work looks like outside of the class this helps them to become more focused on their studies.

What kind of rubrics do some of you utilize as your giving students extra credit in a project? Do you use their creativity?

What strategies have you utilized to get this accomplish in your classroom?

Instructors who are disorganized lead the students to believe that said instructors do not know anything about the subject matter.

I enjoyed this topic on powerpoints. I use powerpoints generally for all classes that I teach. Students seem to appreciate keypoints of the overall lecture. I agree that you must be careful with the audio simply because you want to keep the focus on the lecture and not to distract them with sounds.

I really enjoyed this topic. I was able to easily figure out what type of instructor I am. I am a very passionate person who cares about my students. Everyone single one. It is imperative for me to know every student involved in my program. I agree that is very important to take a look at yourself because we as facilitators should set the example for our students. This is something that instructors should do day in and out. There is a common saying "practice what we preach". It should reflect in our daily lives especially for our students to see.

Grades are a instrumental on evaluating class room material but hands on labs and soft skills are equally important

Once several tests and homework assignments have been completed and several class sessions have been recorded, I share the students grades with them. On the first day of class, I explain where the numbers come from. When they receive their grade they are usually surprised to see it is better than they expected having all the factors of the total grade considered. So even a student who is having difficulty with the subject and has not done well on test, can feel that their homework and class participation counts as well.

On the first day of class, I ask each student how much they know of or their experience with the subject matter. It helps to know where they are coming from. I also encourage students with prior knowledge or experience to tutor other students who are studying the subject for the first time.

I believe that field trips play an important role in giving a student a first hand look at how they apply what they learn in the real work setting. It also lets them see things in action and helps motivate them to do well and be successful.

Field trips enable students to visualize individuals operating in the profession.

i allow my students to earn extra credit in the first few weeks of class and in order to have it applied to their final grade they must have 90%attendance in the course

My biggest difficulty here is the subject of open book exams. I, for the most part, do not ever use open book exams, except in very few circumstances. One example would be when a professional skills involves using reference materials to complete tasks.

I believe that when a class involves a tremendous amount of theory, it is very important that various examples of how the theories are applied in actual work settings should be a significant component to the lecture and class discussion. I also believe that it should be an important part of testing on the subject.

I really have not used field trips, though I would certainly like to implement this aspect in the classroom. I am going to look at starting field trips to those agencies that sponser our externships.

It is difficult when allowing make up exams because you cannot hand back the ones already graded and that is not fair to the other students. I have figured that letting the students see their exams and requesting them back because the class still have a few people who need to take the exam works best. However, when the makeup tie is then extended and extended, you want to be fair to all of your students but at some point the extenstions have to stop. How do you develop a clear cut this is all that will be allowed for makeups? There is always extenuating circumstances but there has to be a limit, right?

I think that the pretest is a good idea if you have time prior to the start of class. However, I think the best way to determine the efficiency of learning and the rate at which the students are learning is to do an evaluation during the course to get feedback from the students to get an understanding of hot to change the course delivery so more learning is accomplished. The only forseeable problem is that some students by the middle of the course have potentially given up on the course. How do you gage when you should reevaluate the course, after two lectures, after five, how do you know when you need to try something else when you only have so many lectures to get the content through. You cannot go back and start again, so what do you do?

In theory based courses in adult education, using multiple media options is easy to accomplish. Theory does not have the hand on need of some courses, but the way in which theory is conveyed opeds the doors for multiple media types such as white boards, ppt, and demonstrations. The difficulty comes when the theory is difficult to convey and you want the students to learn but you end up training. It is hard to find that balance between training and instructing.

When approaching a new class, it is important to know yourself as an instructor and the types of students you will run into. The issue I am facing is I have students on both sides of the spectrum of learning - some want to and others want it handed to them. It is difficult to find the middle ground where both types are being challenged so they can identify their strengths and weaknesses. How do you teach in the middle of the road?

Creating tests is a learned skill. So is deciding on appropriate test questions from a test bank. Not all test bank questions are equal.