Topics Archives

Supporting Academic Success of International Students in Online Learning Difficulties in Transition to U.S. Universities

Michiko Kobayashi, PhD September 1, 2013

Educators need to understand international students’ challenges in online classrooms. Both language and cultural differences influence how well they can fit in U.S. universities. To promote international students’ academic success in online classrooms, faculty should not only focus on teaching their subject matter knowledge, but

Teaching Online with Errol: Effectively Teaching the Multicultural Online Classroom

Errol Craig Sull September 1, 2013

The multicultural classroom is found in nearly every online course. It blends students from a variety of cultures, resulting in a rich and diverse learning environment. Some students may use English as a second language (ESL) or English as an additional language (EAL), while others

Prompts That Get Students to Analyze, Reflect, Relate, and Question

Maryellen Weimer August 28, 2013

A simple teaching technique that helps students learn; now there’s something few teachers would pass up! This particular technique involves a four-question set that gets students actively responding to the material they are studying. They analyze, reflect, relate, and question via these four prompts:

Five Things to Do on the First Day of Class

Maryellen Weimer August 21, 2013

I don’t know if the first day of class is the most important day of the course, but I don’t think many of us would disregard its significance. What we do and how we do it matters. There are lots of good first-day activities—we’ve shared

How We Learn and How We Teach

Maryellen Weimer August 14, 2013

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Helping Students Learn to be Professional

Maryellen Weimer August 7, 2013

“My students act so unprofessional,” a faculty member complained. “Two of them were all but making out before class started and they never stopped touching each other during class.” Heads nodded and more examples followed.

Relationships with Students Are What Matter Most

Patty Kohler-Evans, EdD August 1, 2013

In our experiences, we have moved from teaching face-to-face to working in front of a computer with headsets to ditching the headsets in favor of classes taught in a totally asynchronous manner. We can see the advantages and disadvantages of all formats. With each new

Cumulative Finals: There’s Good Reasons to Give Them

Maryellen Weimer August 1, 2013

Finals that cover all the material presented in the course are decidedly unpopular with students. They much prefer exams that include one chunk of content at a time. But there are good reasons to make finals comprehensive. Consider these results from a recent study of

Threshold Concepts: Portals to New Ways of Thinking

Maryellen Weimer August 1, 2013

A threshold concept is discipline-specific, focuses on understanding of the subject and … has the ability to transform learners’ views of the content.” (Zepke, p. 98) It’s not the same as a core concept, although that’s a useful place to first put the idea. “A

Six Things That Make College Teachers Successful

Mary C. Clement, EdD August 1, 2013

This article explains areas that instructors need to work on in order to be successful: knowledge base of teaching and learning, underprepared students, instructional management, teaching strategies, assessment, and passion.

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