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Posted on this site are excerpts of original manuscripts, each of which has been annotated by undergraduates who have spent a semester critically evaluating the work and assessing the authors' own perspectives. Deep research by UGs. By including their interviews with primary investigators, links to background information, and tips for understanding and critically interpreting data, these undergraduates have developed a unique pedagogical tool that should enhance their peers ability to navigate and understand the primary literature. Developing scholars will benefit from their colleagues' insights as they are invited to explore the living history of a scientific inquiry.

There are several widely-accepted rubrics (Quality Matters, the ION one in Illinois, etc.), but in my opinion, they focus on course design, not on teaching the course. When I was at Black Hawk College, we created a Best Practices for Exemplary Online Teaching set of standards based on the Chickering and Gamson's "7 Principles of Good Practice for Undergraduate Education" meta-analysis. Individual best practices for online teaching were pulled from the literature and listed as possibilities under each of the 7 principles, and an 8th was added with some of the course design elements not already mentioned in the first 7. In other words, we created a local document that could assist faculty in doing self-assessment, peer evaluations of each other's courses, and potentially institutional review of online courses. However, our instrument was not used for institutional assessment because it was not approved as part of the faculty [union] contract. It is important for a document like this to be shared with the faculty ahead of time so that they know how their courses are going to be evaluated. I also think it is helpful to have several people evaluate various aspects of online courses, such as someone who is an expert in online education who can evaluate the learning experiences and course design elements of the course, someone from the faculty member's department who can evaluate the quality and accuracy of the course content, as well as the administrator whose job it is to evaluate teaching. If the institution uses a type of rubric or assessment document when evaluating face-to-face teaching, it needs to be vetted by online experts to determine if it emphasizes appropriate, comparable variables in the online environment. For example, if activities to promote student engagement is on that form...what does that look like online? Not all administrators or faculty who have not taught online would know what to look for as indicators of student engagement.

The Century America compilation of websites are a part of the COPLAC digital history project, a collaboration of several colleges in which student researchers have explored their local community's experiences during the Great War. Spearheaded by Dr. Bill Spellman, and under the direct leadership of Dr. Ellen Holmes Pearson from the University of North Carolina Asheville and Dr. Jeffrey McClurken from the University of Mary Washington, the project combines digital technologies, distance mentoring, and undergraduate research. The UNC Asheville website explores parts of Western North Carolina, with particular emphasis on the college's home city of Asheville, during the Great War.

There are lots of reasons that you might use Google Spreadsheets instead of Microsoft's Excel or SPSS. Here I'll focus on just a narrow set of the benefits you'll find with Spreadsheets.

Where Levine gets it wrong is to assume that this shift is being driven by the demand of digital natives for new methods of teaching and learning. Levine writes that, "Today's traditional undergraduates, aged 18 to 25, are digital natives. They grew up in a world of computers, Internet, cell phones, MP3 players, and social networking." I recommend that Arthur Levine, and all of you, download (buy, whatever) a copy of Clay Shirky's new book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. Shirky talks about the fundamental_attribution_error, the tendency to explain behaviors as the result of character as opposed to the opportunity structure.

I love CUNY and I love public education. Blackboard is a parasite on both. Writing free software is the best way I know to disrupt the awful relationship between companies like Blackboard and vulnerable populations like CUNY undergraduates. Good list of why Bb is bad, including It forces, and reinforces, an entirely teacher-centric pedagogical model.

The classroom of the future features face-to-face, online, and hybrid learning. And the future is here.