Group items tagged

The Best Online Teaching Practices Study is an ongoing study by UMUC's Institute for Research and Assessment that seeks to identify processes for effective teaching and learning online. The findings from the study support the underlying prnciples that have an impact on online teaching and learning. The study uses an educational model that builds on existing research and knowledge of effective teaching and learning practices in traditional formats. The study uses a mixed method approach and is carried out in multiple phases.

TWO TYPES OF PEER COACHING: THERE'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE There are two general ways to participate in peer coaching, specific and non-specific. For specific participation, the teacher wants help with certain, pre-determined issues. If they are uncertain about where they most need help, such participants may want to first get videotaped and view the tape critically to help them identify their problem areas. Even teachers who can't get videotaped should try to think about what they would like to improve about their teaching. The peer coaches should pay particular attention to these issues while observing their partner's classes. In non-specific participation, the teacher wants an outsider to come and (1) help determine areas for improvement and/or (2) comment on the teacher's general approach. This form of participation may be ideally suited to experienced teachers who merely want general comments or for those who seeking help in a more general sense. In some ways, non-specific participation is like the "teaching consultants" discussed earlier.

Peer coaching is an innovation that helps teachers improve their teaching. It is intended to be a mutually reciprocal process where two peers attend each other's classes and help each other enhance and enrich their methods of instruction. Because it is not based in formal evaluations, program participants have reported making more long-lasting changes than those based on more evaluative approaches. Peer coaching is a program that can be implemented in a variety of educational settings from elementary to collegiate levels.

Methods for improving tags

To succeed, attempting to improve tag literacy (or tag etiquette) in the folksonomy world involves two processes. Firstly, the community needs to be ready to set rules and agree upon a set of standards for tags. Secondly, users need to be made aware of and agree to follow these rules. At the moment, although there are no standard guidelines on good tag selection practices, those in the folksonomy community have offered many ideas. Ways in which tags may be improved are presented frequently on blogs and folksonomy discussion sites. In his article on tag literacy, Ulises Ali Mejias suggests a number of tag selection "best practices" [14]. These include: using plurals rather than singulars using lower case, grouping words using an underscore, following tag conventions started by others and adding synonyms.

30 million people today qualified to enter a university who have no place to go. During the next decade, this 30 million will grow to 100 million. To meet this staggering demand, a major university needs to be created each week.

Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, which has provided free access to a wide range of courses and other educational materials to anyone who wants to use them.

Web 2.0,

Designing your course to promote quality interaction between faculty and students and among students is essential.  Consider emphasizing the course conference by making it a part of your class assessment possibly as a substitute for test, paper, or project.

Be patient and available.  Remember some of us are first time online learners and are still trying to figure out this method of teaching and learning.

Be accessible

The goal of mastery learning approaches is to have all students learn instructional material at roughly equivalent, high levels.

First and foremost, this is due to the fact that schools curb teacher autonomy. Although teachers are considered to be professionals, they are hardly treated like one. Teachers do not have the independence of determining what is educationally sound for their students.

teachers are also required to teach using prescribed teaching methods

Teachers who are stripped off their sense of autonomy to carry out professional tasks through the micromanagement of higher authorities feel “proletarianised”, de-professionalised, de-skilled and sometimes demoralized. As a result, disillusionment sets in; the level of commitment to the profession of teaching deteriorates. This explains why many teachers start off very excited about teaching and become completely disappointed with the profession.