LE,
I am glad you do have at least the right to provide supplemental information. I hope the administration pays attention to the suggestions made in the course evaluations. Thanks!
Jay,
Sounds like you have a system that's working for you. Time management and organizational skills are essential to survive. Thanks.
The courses that I teach are very rigidly controlled . I do not have the ability to modify the assignments. But I do have the ability supplement the learning environment with outside material and with videos. I often provide supplemental materials and record short video lectures where I can explain topics that are particularly difficult for the students. The only opportunity I have to change course assignments or content occurs through the formal end of course evaluation. This is a short survey that solicits my inputs for needed change.
Given that I work for a variety of for-profit institutions, the majority of documents are created by the university. I save the forms in a file per institution, and I delete the information as periodic updates occur. Once I have all the pertinent forms in the associated folder for the institution, I am able to go to that folder when I need to retrieve the information particularly when setting up a new course for the session.
Stephanie,
Personal experiences help the students connect the content to the real world. This is very helpful.
Nice job.
I do something similar in our discussion boards. I will post a personal experience related to the topic being discussed, and then provide open ended questions for the students to answer. The questions could be anything from asking them to share similar experiences, or share news articles they read on the topic, or give their thoughts on what I provided such as would they have any suggestions to do it differently next time. One of the best topics for discussion amongst my classes has been in the programming class. As part of one of the discussion boards, it is required for the students to provide 2 ethical considerations related to programming. We always get into the topic of hacking, share recent (and past) news stories of hacking, movies on hacking, etc. The students really like this topic.
Thomas ,
A personal question that has a connection to the content can be very effective. As we connect the content to real life, students grasp it better. Thanks for the idea.
I always add in a personal question to the weekly discussion boards that has to do with the topic they will be discussing that week. This way it allows students to "share" a story that they might have that pertains to the topic for the week.
Tom
Hi, everyone.
Even before the school started requiring that students post on the discussion by the middle of the week, I was strongly encouraging that. I also provided students who were off track with guidance, which prompted other students to post early and obtain the same assistance. This alleviated some of their pressure at the end of the week. Some students even recognized that, for themselves, spacing out their work over the week made it less difficult to complete it on time.
Janis,
This is a good things to do. It will save you time and help students more quickly as you have information right at hand. Thanks for your input.
Janis,
Glad we are continuing to learn from each other.
Take care.
That is an interesting approach - thank you for sharing!
Jan
I keep files on discussion board comments I can use...it could be a news article that supported the learning that week OR it could be something I prepared to aid students in better understanding a topic.
Dr McFaul
Robert,
Love it. It's good to know that the students will work for just bragging rights and not extra credit. Spread the wealth if you will. Thanks!
I've also begun promoting the Dr. Bob Award in which I post the top three assignments submitted each week. No student can win the award more than once and no extra credit is awarded. Just bragging rights. I've heard many students eagerly share this 'honor' with their families.
Robert,
The celebration technique is a great idea. It may help motivate them to achieve their goals by the due dates. Nice job.
I publish a list of university labs in the faculty files along with an announcement for the library tour.
In asking for the student introductions it important for each to know how they will manage the week/day/workload and offer suggestions that may be helpful to others in the class.
Tools such as checklists that the student can create of 'to do's' each day/week can also be helpful.
I encourage students to celebrate completion of the week's assignments with something they enjoy. It could be a movie, a drive in the country, watching a sporting event...anything that is not related to the work they've just completed. Play is part of performance.
Sarah,
Nice. So students can continue to do problems until they "get it." It's good to have a variety of problems and nice you point them in the right direction. Thanks!
Miriam,
Isn't it nice when you get to the point that you can reuse your learning objects and save time in your teaching. Nice job.
I have created weekly math lessons that correspond with the weekly math assignments. Not only do they include problems with the work shown but they also include notes on where to find similar problems in their textbook and elsewhere in the LMS. I also include information about which specific Learning Labs correspond to those particular math topics as well as when they can get "live" help from me each week.
