Faculty Development Conference

Great conference! Here's what you said, plus stories

  The 2015 Faculty Development Conference received 100% satisfaction rating from the participants. Here’s some of the comments:

“Unique and engaging.”  Chastity W. English, North Carolina AT&T

“I love sharing information and learning new approaches,”  Jared Campbell, Florida Institute of Technology

“Faculty development is crucial to the life of an institution. This conference provided ideas I will recommend for my institution.”  Antoine J. Alston, North Carolina AT&T

“This conference always reinvigorates and instills new ideas.”  Jill Fuson, American Public University System

“Relaxed, friendly with ‘take home’ applications.”  Kim Helms, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL

What’s Next for Faculty Development

   Comprehensive faculty development is one of the three big ‘what’s next’ items for faculty development, Michael Lewis told the Third Annual Faculty Development Conference participants this spring.

   Lewis is in a relatively unique and insightful position in faculty development in higher education.  As Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs and Development at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, he is one of just a few faculty developers at the vice president level, reporting to the provost of his institution.  His big 3 items in what’s next for faculty development:
   1.Comprehensive faculty development
   2.Building faculty development programs to be lasting
   3.Enhanced identification of faculty development with the central mission of the institution.

Text Feedback Will Change Your Class

   “Text feedback will change your class,”  Jared Campbell of Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, told the Third Annual Faculty Development Conference participants.
   Text feedback - - texting the instructor during the class - - is one of the big ways to engage Gen Y and Gen Z in face-to-face classes, he noted.  
     Because response do not identify the individual student, texting is a way for students to “painlessly fall on the ground” in their learning, said Campbell.
   “Texting is also a way to deepen the discussion in class,” relayed Campbell.  

Breaking New Issue! Teaching People Older Than the Instructor

   This is the first year faculty developers and trainers are both reporting a new phenomenon and issue: young instructors teaching adults older than they are.
   Gen Y instructors are now teaching Boomers and Gen X, adults as many as 25 years older than the instructor and with much more life experience than the youthful instructor.
   It’s clearly an issue now for learners, young instructors and faculty developers and trainers working with young instructors.

Rise of Low Tech Tools

Rise of Low Tech Tools
   eTools are merging with old tools in the in-person classroom to create a powerful 1-2 punch for engagement and student involvement in learning. 
   The common element in both is that they are ‘active tools,’  enhancing not only student interaction but often student involvement in the creation of information.  Student participation in the creation of information is a new and key element in helping Gen Y and Gen Z learn, according to the research.

   Faculty developers Dionne Felix and Odessa Jordan of Calhoun College in Huntsville, Alabama,  premiered one low tech tool at the Third Annual Faculty Development Conference that excited and energized the participants. 
   Whiteboard paddles were given to the participants.  At the instruction of the presenters, the participants held them up with their answer, feedback, vote or other input. 

How to Beat “I Can’t Do It”

How to Beat “I Can’t Do It”
   The “I can’t do it” response of students challenged by their studies can be overcome, say Dionne Felix and Odessa Jordan of Calhoun College in Huntsville, Alabama.  The belief  operates out of a fear, they note.  “The issue is not a particular learning style, but being differently-abled,” says Felix.
   They created their own definition of differently-abled as “learners whose learning disposition is outside of the established norm, and who receive, perceive, and interact with information differently.”
    
    Johnson and Felix also provided their own four step ‘You Can’ approach:
1.Use a multi-modal approach.  Avoid boxing your students in to styles.
2.Use a multi-medium approach. Engage your learners with a variety of low tech and high tech media in and outside of the classroom.
3.Encourage student creativity.
4.Help students harness their learning ability.
   Using these four strategies You Can as a teacher prevent resignation and deprecation, and convey to your students You Can successfully learn.

Synthesize Student Posts

Synthesize Student Posts
   At the end of the week in an online course, teachers need to post a message in the Discussion board that synthesizes the student posts for that week, say faculty developers Jill Fuson and Suzanne Minarcine of American Public University System.
   The weekly synthesis by the teacher has at least two positive effects:
One, it lets the students know the faculty member heard them;
Two, we learn more by having important concepts and ideas summarized.

Replace static teacher bio with video

   Replace those static photos and written bio’s for your instructors with more lively videos, says John Alexander of the College of Extended Studies at San Diego State University.
  He says when instructors introduce themselves to their online (or even face-to-face) students with a video, it makes the course more engaging. Among other things, instructor videos:
-Show the personal side of the instructor, making them more ‘human’ and approachable;
-It connects the students to their teacher, stimulates more engagement, which also gets expressed in the Discussion and other interactions with students and instructor;
-It’s the right format for an effective introduction, allowing the instructor to share some things in a dynamic way that’s better than in writing;
-Multimedia for introductions and personal sharing is more effective than static images and the written word.

Research and Results on The Flipped Classroom

Research and Results on The Flipped Classroom
   The theory on how we learn, from John Dewey to Malcolm Knowles, supports The Flipped Classroom, noted Kimberly Helms and Laura Pruitt Walker of Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama.
  The research supports The Flipped Classroom, they report.  “Active learning is associated with improved student academic performance, increased student engagement and critical think, as well as better attitudes toward learning,”  Hamdan, McKnight, and Arfstrom find in A Review of Flipped Learning, published in 2013 for those of you who only find recent research valid.

How to Flip
   To implement The Flipped Classroom, Kimberly Helms and Laura Walker recommend:
1.Integrate The Flipped Classroom gradually into your course.
2.Demonstrate the flexibility of The Flipped Classroom to your students.
3.Incorporate educational technology in The Flipped Classroom, the more engaging the online features, the better success you will have.
4.Allocate points and motivate students to participate in The Flipped Classroom.
5.Have a blast teaching and learning in The Flipped Classroom, say Helms and Walker. If you are not having fun, they won’t be learning.

 

Join the Best Experts - - And Your Colleagues

2015 UPDATE

Help build the Faculty Development movement in higher education. 

1.Join LERN's Faculty Development Advisory Board.
  Help us create a peer reviewed online journal, a new Certified Faculty Development Administrator (CFA) program, our next annual conference, and much more.  Email draves@lern.org

2.Plan on next year's Faculty Development Conference
  Get budget and travel funds now for March 2016, on the west coast.

 

 For the latest on Faculty Development, visit lern.org and under Who We Serve click on "Faculty."
For info on the Certified Faculty Developer programs and next year's conference, look under Events & Education