Berkshire Community College Center for Teaching and Learning

Thirty full- and part-time faculty met at BCC today to review core competency samples of student work. The student work – including a mix of excellent, average, and poor levels – were considered in light of BCC’s core competency rubrics. Faculty spent two hours discussing the strengths and weaknesses they saw, and authored reports summarizing their findings. It was a unique opportunity to see a group consisting of Nursing, Early Childhood, and Sociology instructors reviewing student writing; or English, Human Services, and Hospitality faculty considering critical thinking. Faculty granting the oral communication competency met to review video of student speeches. Comments about the event ranged from useful to “we need to do more of this.”

Tags: Assessment, core competencies, critical thinking, reflection, student learning, student success, teaching and learning

No big surprises here, but it’s a fun use of infographics with digital post-its and “handwriting” (remember that?). Click the image for a larger view.

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Tags: infographics, mobile learning, online learning, social networking, web 2.0

This Pearson survey (Pearson the publisher), “Pearson Foundation Survey on Students and Tablets,” provides some interesting data on students who own tablets already, and also what students are thinking about tablets:

http://www.pearsonfoundation.org/downloads/PF_Tablet_Survey_Summary.pdf

Tags: etextbooks, iPad, mobile learning, OER, online learning, tablets

Here’s just a sample. Read the reviews at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_iphone_ipad_and_android_apps_for_december_2011.php

Tags: Android, apps, iPad, mobile learning

It’s interesting to see Wired University’s view of essential learning. One quick perusal of their “7 Essential Skills” shows that BCC’s Core Competencies are aligned with what new professionals need in the world of work these days. Stay tuned for further exploration of careers/competencies/skills in upcoming posts leading up to our March 1 Professional Day!

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/09/ff_wiredu/all/1

Tags: brain based learning, collaborative learning, core competencies, critical thinking, Service Learning, student learning, student success

The Sloan Consortium 2011 report “reveals that the number of students taking at least one online course has now surpassed 6 million. Now nearly one-third of all students in higher education are taking at least one online course.”  Wow!

The 9th Annual Survey of Online Learning: Going the Distance – Online Education in the United States, 2011

Tags: online learning

This article discusses some sophisticated uses of LA in the classroom, such as: what if you could track responses to a problem, then have a student’s computer group him/her with those holding alternative views, by name? In other words, Jane would be signaled by her computer to go have a discussion with Joe and Javier, based on their responses.

Like any sophisticated data gathering tool, there are dangers in the use of the data… read the article to find out more.

A ‘Moneyball’ Approach to College – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Tags: active learning, Assessment, clickers, collaborative learning, learning analytics, pedagogy

This is an amazing set of sites that lets the user explore quantitative reasoning, history, geometry, populations, environment… and a host of other disciplines through interactive comparative graphics and information. You really need to click in and check this out! The pedagogical and creative uses of these tools are legion (how many soldiers are in a legion anyway? – leave a comment if you know the answer!):

http://howmanyreally.com
http://howbigreally.com

Tags: multimedia, online learning, quantitative literacy, quantitative reasoning, student engagement

This study, which is not new but was recently cited in the Department of Education meta-study of 2010, finds that students can benefit greatly from interactive video in online courses, if they are able to control the delivery. In other words, lecturettes or other content that is presented with play/pause/rewind/fast forward queueing, and scrollable and searchable text, are much more highly rated by students than static video or online courses without video. The interactive video-supported classes also received higher student outcomes. See the full study here:

“Instructional video in e-learning: Assessing the impact of interactive video on learning effectiveness”
Dongsong Zhang et al.

http://www.qou.edu/arabic/researchProgram/eLearningResearchs/instructional.pdf

Tags: multimedia, online learning, pedagogy, student success, teaching and learning

The link below will lead to a brief excerpt from the Walvoord and Anderson book: “Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning Assessment.” Many BCC faculty expressed an interest at the recent Adjunct event in having a workshop on grading, and this is definitely under consideration. For now, please check this out:

http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Teaching/JAN03/teaching.htm

Tags: Assessment, critical thinking, student learning, WAC