Let’s meet our students at “home”

Let’s meet with our students in their “home” page, that is. If that is where they are hanging out, let’s educate them where they are or at least meet them half way. I am one that allows the use of technology (laptop, mobile devices, etc.) in the college classroom. Every once in a while during the discussion I ask guiding questions that they can search for. In a quantitative analysis class, I may pose a question about seeing the +/- % at the bottom of polls, survey results, articles, etc. Many of them go to their devices to look for that. Or, I refer to an article found at xyz site.

Of course, not all students are engaged in the discussion, but usually, all are engaged at some point or another. I don’t have to call on anyone as they are more than eager to share (and brag) about what they found. I ask them to post their links in a central location in online board. 

Taking advantage of what students love: Tech

The online world is here and technology should be able to help (not hurt). We can use it to teach our students responsible behavior. My daughter conducted research regarding phishing. Her objective during this nice summer weekend was to explain three instances where phishing has occurred and identify 5 ways to prevent it. She is in middle school and as technology is used more and more in the classroom, she needs to be aware of the possible dangers and the better ways to approach its usage.

Again, nothing will be perfect, but I would much rather experience this vicariously and maybe even fall a fool for a couple of trick now giving her favorite color and life’s savings away today than when she has much more to lose like a job, real savings, etc. 

This article from CNN shares more about bringing the classroom to our students using technology (but, the technology that 'they' use):

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/tech/innovation/new-tech-high-school/index.html?c=tech    

Offering more entry points

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we can condense sessions by offering 8-week courses and that this would allow students to enter into school earlier than waiting 15-16 weeks. Well, better than that would be having different terms or calendars. So, for instance, you can have a calendar A and a calendar B for offering classes and even a calendar C, if you want to have more entry points. Students want to go to college now, today, right this second. The age of instant gratification is here and even though academia cannot be in that method for various reasons, we can get students started and in the education journey at different entry points.

I mean, why is it that a student that moves in the middle of their 10th grade year can just pick it right up at the school where they continue the year, but in college we make people gain a W or F for the semester and then wait until the new college at the new place starts and the student has to start from the beginning of the class? I am not suggesting that the student starts class at the new college where s/he left off, but we should be able to assess the student sooner than waiting for the next term to start in 10 weeks. Basically, we should have more than 3 or 4 entry points a year. How about 10 or 20?

Setting pre-requisites based on concepts; not courses

I wish we would revise all of our courses to identify the competencies that are being taught/learned in each course in order to pin-point the pre-requisite for the next course. Therefore, when testing a student that falls into DEVmath for different concepts than those needed for accounting we can determine that s/he can take accounting because they meet the competencies needed for accounting even though they have not mastered all of the ones needed to be above DEVmath. OR just teach them the competencies that they are lacking.

Not making students wait to earn a grade

Looking at course scheduling from a flip side: in a semester system, we are making students wait 15/16 weeks before earning a grade. Why? Why can't they complete the 45 hours of instruction sooner? 

Well, they can. It deals with having the instruction and assessment separate. As long as we can account for those hours, then it should be ok for them to assess for the student learning outcomes. 

Our students are finding alternate methods of education

Because our schools are so expensive many of our students (or to be students) are fleeing to Canada for their higher education. In many instances, tuition falls under 10k for their degree. We certainly have to figure out a way to be more efficient in order to provide a high quality level education while also saving our students money. It is certainly not an easy task. Cutting spending and maintains quality does not always fit in the same sentence. However, efficient scheduling and responsible spending are just two ways it can be accomplished.

Shorter Sessions and Moving Entry Points

Someone recently asked me to think about shorter sessions and moving entry points.

Here are my thoughts:

1. We have to identify courses than lend themselves to a modular environment. Or, transition to it.
2. More importantly, we should separate learning events from assessment events. Or at least not tie them to each other. Why does someone have to wait until we are past the unit to be assessed? That’s the thinking behind this.

With these two things in mind (and others) in trying to change a semester model, I would start by

1. Making online courses 8 weeks (period, whether or not they will be modularized). This fits in the current semester model. With this, a student that is two weeks late for the semester can start in 6 weeks. Although, I think 6 weeks is too long, so maybe have 4-week modules in an 8-weeks course, so that the student can start half way without a problem or we can have 8-week courses starting every 4 weeks. 
2. For that last thought and maybe in general, we cannot offer things that give student too many choices at the same time. Why dilute our offerings by having too many choices? So, instead of offering 262 and 263 at the same time and having 10ish in each, we offer 262 now and 263 alternating to it. This is only for those low enrolling courses. Of course, we have classes that we can run all year long and be full (ENGL, MATH, BIOL, etc). 
3. Ok, so now we have, hopefully, been able to create learning events and assessments that can be done in 4-week modules inside an 8-week course. So, we move this to the local environment. Assessments would remain online while learning events happen in the classroom (easy, right?). Well, it would require faculty to follow the same 8-week course schedule that was done already, so we (and students) would know what will be thought each live-session of the 8 weeks. Now, students can either start a course half way or wait until the next one begins. If we can have starts every 4 weeks, then I would do that.