Volume XXXV, No. 21 | October 4, 2013 Do I Have Your Attention? Introduction When teaching rigorous or abstract content, it is common for students to become disengaged from the lecturer. Frequently, instead of asking questions to dispel their confusion, students choose to mentally separate themselves from the situation. While faculty and educational [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 20 | September 27, 2013 Help is at Hand! Accurate and thoughtful communication, delivered quickly and efficiently, is often difficult when the expectation does not allow for a delay in response time. Like many institutions, Shelton State Community College has worked to improve how we respond to the needs of [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 19 | September 20, 2013 Conversations with Canadians Our campus, like campuses across North America, is faced with numerous challenges and opportunities associated with increased enrollment of international students. Learning to relate to other cultures is essential for today's students for social, political and economic reasons, yet some research suggests [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 18 | September 13, 2013 Teaching Students to Be Active Listeners The simple act of nodding your head in acknowledgment when someone is explaining an idea to you is something we learn at a relatively early age. Saying "yes" in agreement or repeating back what was stated to you to [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 17 | September 6, 2013 “Heroes” Increase the Genesis of STEM Scholars One day after a lecture/discussion on the cardiovascular system, the class took a quiz on the topic. Although all of the students did very well on the quiz, only one received a perfect score. When we started reviewing [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 16 | August 30, 2013 Marching Forward: Veterans, CLEP, and Student Success When I first started working in a college testing center in 1999, one of the first things I had to do was to become “CLEP Certified.” I had no idea what that meant exactly, but it was something [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 14 | April 26, 2013 Donated Discards: A Creative Way to Dispose of Unwanted Library Books An initiative that sends discarded books from the campus library to people who will value them is obviously a good idea. However, an administrative challenge stands between the idea and its success. Knowing what [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 13 | April 19, 2013 The Value of Distance Learning for Developmental English Students At Lone Star College–CyFair, three out of four developmental courses are offered as distance learning (DL) classes. Hybrid classes, which meet once a week with an online component or online supplements, are also offered. As we [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 12 | April 12, 2013 Adjuncts as Effective Community College Team Members Many community colleges have a large adjunct faculty to full-time faculty ratio, with adjunct faculty members teaching critical-to-retention (high-demand and/or high-failure) courses. A simple, inexpensive plan to include, prepare, develop, and recognize adjunct faculty members can remedy [...]
Volume XXXV, No. 11 | April 5, 2013 “Playing in the Mud”: Teaching Goofy (or Otherwise) Personal Research Some years ago I read a professor’s lament that teaching geological concepts had become problematic because recent students had not played enough in the mud—experience with TV and videogames had detracted from useful intuitions into the [...]
