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alexandra m. pickett

Does Class Size Matter? - Distance Education Report Article - 1 views

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    Does class size matter? http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/distance-education-report/270/Does-Class-Size-Matter-13523-1.html This article originally appeared in Distance Education Report. I've been the director of online education at my institution since 2007. One question I've been asked many times over the years is "What is the optimal number of students to have in an online class?" My usual response is to pretend I didn't hear the question and walk away as quickly as possible. Well, that's not totally true. But as you can imagine, this is not an easy question to answer, as there are many variables that come into play--the topic of the class, the overall course design, the academic rank of students in the class, the experience of the instructor teaching the class, etc. I've had many interesting discussions with students, staff and administrators over the years about enrollments in online courses. When I first started teaching online, my courses would fill almost immediately, sometimes within minutes. Inevitably, students would contact me and request an override for the course - not just one or two students, but dozens upon dozens of students. They were usually surprised when I said no. These frustrated students would often reply with a comment such as, "But it's an online class, so you can take unlimited numbers of students and it won't be any additional work for you." Surprisingly, I've heard this kind of comment from some faculty, staff and administrators as well. I usually view these interactions as opportunities to offer a bit of education about online learning. So I might say, for example, that if I had seven graded assignments in my online course, and 25 students, I would end up grading 175 assignments--with the emphasis on "I." However, if I doubled the number of students in my class and graded seven assignments for 50 students, that would be 350 assignments to grade. There were also 22 quizzes, two exams and multiple
alexandra m. pickett

How Would Students Rethink Education? - 0 views

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    * Better cafeteria food with real ingredients * No school busses - nearly every child mentioned the bullying of bus rides as one of the reasons they hated school * More choice in their assignments or projects * Replace grades with feedback and portfolios (like we did in our class) * Staggered start and end times so that the school would "feel smaller" * More alternative sports in addition to the traditional ones * Off-campus community service once a week * Job-shadowing for one month of the year * A monthly educational field trip * iPads, netbooks or laptops in classes - they even brought up some interesting ways to raise money for these devices * More freedom in terms of leaving to use the restroom, eating a snack or getting a drink of water * More electives - while most of them agreed that we need math, they suggested that maybe they could choose pre-geometry or pre-algebra or in reading, they could have reading classes geared toward certain topics * A school garden
Rob Piorkowski

Seven Keys to Improving Teaching and Learning - Faculty Focus | Faculty Focus - 0 views

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    "My first suggestion is to start where the bottlenecks in the discipline are," he said. "What topics in your course are harder for the students? Why is that? Are students lacking requisite prior knowledge? Do they need more practice of certain basic skills? Do they bring misconceptions to the table? If you don't know, collect some data. Once you get a handle on the reasons why, start bridging those gaps with appropriate interventions. Work incrementally. Get comfortable with a few changes in your teaching first, and then expand to others, until you reach a tipping point. …
alexandra m. pickett

How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures | The National Academies Press - 3 views

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    Skip to main content The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine The National Academies Press About Ordering Information New Releases Browse by Division Browse by Topic Login Register Help Cart How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures
alexandra m. pickett

1. Macro environment - EM - University-wide Academic Programs - Welcome to Confluence - 0 views

  • Macro environment (trends in demographics, technology, the economy, political issues) Summary of the overall financial picture for SUNY and plans for funding university-wide programs (status of potential changes in campus recharges) – Gerard/Carey Update on plans for campus budgeting – Gerard/Carey How is funding flowing to campuses and is that changing? What is the initiative for shared services amongst campuses in a region Academic/Higher Ed Landscape – Kim/Alex SUNY Enrollment Capacity Planning initiative Accreditation issues Policies and regulations that affect academic programs Demographics – info about SUNY Technology scan for education, training, and library services – Maureen/Alex (with input from Doug) Reports/info from Educause, NMC (New Horizon Report), Gartner, Eduventures, POD Network, ACRL, RLG, OCLC, and Sloan Consortium Topics – Social media, educational technology/technology enhanced instruction, cloud computing, digital publishing, information security, technology support services, content management, and others TBD
Bill Pelz

Creating Effective Responses to Student Discussion Postings - 2 views

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    An integral part of nearly all online classes is the threaded discussion-it is where students interact on a nearly daily basis, posting their thoughts and information on main discussion topics, your postings, and the postings of other students. While you have measured control over the content, length, and tone of student postings, you have full control over your own.
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