Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

It seems like in every course I teach I end up spending some time on active listening. In the age of multi-tasking my students believe they can do many things at the same time, but I have to convince them that they are probably not doing any of the things very well. At least, not as well as they would if they do one at a time. A great exercise is I'll have two students read from different articles of a magazine at the same time for about 45 secs. I'll then ask the audience what the articles were about,… >>>

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Retention Calls

I have had a huge increase in retention when I began calling students immediately when they miss class. But, the other part is that once you reach them you have to stay positive about their chances of catching up once they return to class. I offer to email them missed information and assignments so that when they come back they will not be as far behind. Once students realized that I do care how they do in my classes and that I am here to help them be successful they now contact me before they miss class. I have also… >>>

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Classroom Expecations

At the beginning of each mod as I cover my syllabus, I also go over my expectations for the students in the classroom. I discuss topics such as phone use, breaks, classroom discussions, asking and answering questions, eating, tardiness, plagiarism, email and phone communications and other items that may be distracting or inappropriate behavior. In discussing, these matters I found that some students have many questions on appropriate behavior and are not sure of themselves as it is the first time in a formal educational setting. And when they see others have questions, they realize they are not alone in… >>>

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Orientation

As a professor I was never involved in the new student orientations, but after reading this section of the course I realize that it may have been helpful. Maybe having the students do one of my exciting classroom activities may have quelled some of their fears that college would be boring or too difficult. Many of my colleagues could have offered lesson plans that showed the new students a glimpse of what college classes would be like and that regardless of their previous educational background or learning style they can be successful by first just showing up!

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Handling Issues

I have found that many of my students are unable to handle everyday problems or more serious life issues that happen to them. Anything from a car breaking down to a death in the family may cause them to go missing for weeks. What I realized is that the individuals that they go to for advice are unable to help them cope and resolve the problems. Many times those same individuals make the problem worse or do not see school as a priority when advising my students how to handle those issues. So when students advise me of issues they… >>>

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Soft Skills

I really enjoyed this course. Not only did it remind me of how important having these types of skills is, but it reminded me that I need to be sure I am grooming these types of skills in my students. As professors we sometimes focus so much on the learning of the materials and objectives that we forget there are other skills important to our student's careers. I teach many of these same topics in my Organizational Behavior class, but I will now remember to go over some of these important soft skills and positive workplace behaviors in all of… >>>

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Planning Effective Writing Assignments

I teach several courses which require a writing assignment and just like the lesson stated it is very difficult to come up with effective assignments. With the access to information on the internet even some of my best students are tempted to plagiarize. I have found that some of my creative writing assignments produce their best work and allow me to critique their writing alone with little threat of plagiarism. I am wondering what others do to reduce the use of unnamed outside sources besides just the general code of conduct and threat of failure.

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Students helping Students

I think that it is vital to the online/distance learning for the students to engage and help each other. So having students post questions and then rewarding other students for correctly answering them is really important to the learning process. It really develops critical thinking and the communication process, which will help all the students with their future career goals.

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Daily Quizzes

I have always given daily quizzes in my classes in all different formats. I never thought of them in terms of providing a sense of security to my students. I think it is important to help them believe in themselves. Alot of my students are coming from unfortunate situations and very porr educational backgrounds so the thought of excelling in college is already difficult for them to see themselves doing. I was happy to read that my instructional methods can also add to their sense of knowing they can do what I require of them.

Lauren Pruitt

Discussion Comment

Noisy Students

I have dealt with many student in a classroom setting that dominate the discussions with off-topic revelations. I was confident in my methods of handling those students by being respectful to them, but also getting them back on topic. I had not considered this type of student being online and how I would handle it. This situtation could be very difficuly especially if you have several noisy students and several quiet students.