Guest Speakers in the Classroom

Having guest speakers in the classroom can be a great motivator for students! There's nothing quite like having a guest speaker talk about what life is like in a "real world job."

Guest speakers can add a great deal of perceived value to the class as your students don't know what's waiting for them in future careers, and the guest speaker can provide them with insights as to how to prepare for a given field.

For the instructor, hosting a guest speaker requires extra planning. Approach hosting a guest speaker like you would managing any project. Logistically, here are the basics of hosting a guest speaker:

1. Contact the speaker and establish a date and time for the speaker's presentation.
2. Inform the speaker of your classroom's technology availability (type of computer system, version of Windows, etc).
3. Make sure the speaker knows the location of your classroom, and where to park on campus (along with directions to the campus). Check the university's website for directions to various campuses.
4. Confirm with the speaker the date a few days prior to the class.
5. Stop by the department offices and ask the administrative assistant for any small gifts that we may have to show the guest speaker's our gratitude for taking the time out of their busy schedule to come talk to our classes.
6. Prepare your students for the guest speaker. Tell them about the speaker and his/herexperience and why you have chosen this particular person to speak to your class. Also work with your students and brainstorm some questions that could be asked in the Q & A section after the speaker has finished. Having a robust Q & A session will help your speaker feel valued. (Don't forget to give the speaker the gift).
7. After the speaker is done, put your class on break and be sure to "host" your speaker and walk them to the door of the building or to the outside.
8. Follow up by having either you, the class, or a student from the class, send the speaker a thank you note.

Follow up with your students and discuss what they learned from the speaker. Was this helpful? How will they act on what they have learned?

Just a bit of planning can help hosting a guest speaker go more smoothly.

Connecting IDEA Goals to Teaching Your Class

A few months after the end of each course, instructors receive a summary of their IDEA evaluations. These are completed by students and designed to measure how much learning took place, how well they liked the class, and how well they liked the instructor. For instructors, getting good scores on IDEA evaluations is important because this is one factor of how an instructor's teaching effectiveness is evaluated.

Getting good scores on IDEA evaluations has a lot to do with understanding what IDEA goals are to be achieved in any one particular course. The IDEA goals for the course are marked in small text at the very top right hand side of the first page of the generic syllabus. The text will look something like this: E-2; I-3.

IDEA goals vary by course. For example, some courses are designed to provide greater insights and knowledge about a subject matter, while others are designed to provide insights and reflection about a topic, and yet others focus on working in teams to build skills and knowledge. Each one of these focus areas are marked with a different IDEA goal.

In order to "match" your teaching to the IDEA goals, instructors should take a look at the intended IDEA goals of each class. You can go to the IDEA website (http://www.theideacenter.org/) and look up what these goals mean. Then, once you are clear on what the IDEA goals are for your course, you can tailor your teaching methods so that you have a better chance of achieving higher scores on those goals!

Action Learning

You may have heard about Action Learning, an instructional method and learning tool in which students engage in solving "real-life" problems. Action Learning has been used in corporations as managers and workers collaborate to solve a work-related problem, and in MBA programs to teach management students how to "fix" their organizations. Action Learning can also be used at the undergraduate level to engage students in the learning process, particularly if students lack any background knowledge in the subject at hand! Action Learning is a teaching technique in which students are given a "real-life" problem to solve. It works best when done in groups, since the various tasks of inquiry can be divided and conquered among several people.

At the undergrad level I have also used a modified version of action learning by giving students a case study of a past event, and had students research the problem and the causes of the problem, and then make recommendations on how this problem could be avoided in the future. Sometimes, I modify this experience even further by giving students specific "roles" they have to take on as they explore and research the problem further.

Action Learning was originally conceived by Reginald Revans in the UK in the 1940's. Since then, many corporations have used this to develop a collaborative approach to problem solving, and Dr. Michael Marquardt at The George Washington University has expanded Revan's original formula to also include a reflection piece. Marquardt claims that in order for students to truly understand what they need to know, they also need to understand what they don't know. And at the end of this learning experience, the reflection piece required in the Action Learning process can also be used to help students understand what they have learned.

Faculty As Learners: Fall 2012 Faculty Development Day

Twice a year Wilmington University holds Faculty development Day for its adjunct faculty. The purpose of this event is to provide training in pedagogy and educational technology.

This event also updates adjunct faculty about Wilmu initiatives, and what’s new and happening. It is one of the few times that adjunct faculty actually have an opportunity to meet each other, talk, and share experiences.

Wilmu’s adjunct faculty are practitioners in the field, and therefore, have busy lives in which they don’t often have a chance to just sit and share teaching experiences with their adjunct faculty colleagues.

Kicking off the day was a welcome by the Vice-President of Academic Affairs encouraged instructors continue to provide academic quality and personalized attention to students in every class.

What followed were small break-out sessions with presentations about educational technology, assessment, and using the Ipad for educational purposes.

Instructors watched, listened, manipulated, and learned.

Instructors as learners... all in all, a wonderful day!

Creating the "Hook"

Do you know how to create a "hook" to get your students interested in your subject matter? We could all take a lesson from marketing and sales... first determine what the client wants and then sell them your goods. They key is to understand your students... Who are they? Why are they taking your class? If your class is an elective you could assume they are taking it because they're interested, however, it could also bbe because your classes is convenient in the grand scheme of things, and therefore, the students may not be necessarily interested in the subject matter, because they're really in the class to "get their ticket punched." So... how do you get them interested, excited, or even just willing to contribute to the class learning experience? Here are 4 basic human "needs" that marketing experts pay attention to. As you read about them, how can you use this information to tap into your students' "need" to get them to become interested in your class and what you have to offer? 1. What are your students' short term needs? - These are immediate needs and must be taken care of right away. This need can be taken care of by constantly advertising. If students are concerned or worried about the difficulty of the class, then you should constantly advertise that this class is "do-able," and that many have been successful. Provide reassurance that this need can be met.

2. What are your students' long term needs? - Students are in your class because they recognize they have a long-term need for a degree. However, they often get bored or are just too busy with their lives to truly engage in your class or subject matter. This is where you must constantly advertise the value of an education, and not just getting their ticket punched to a degree. Provide examples of how this subject or class content will be important in their future careers.

3. What are your students' perceived needs or desires? - Individuals recognize they have perceived needs, but they are not absolute needs. For example, students may perceive that they need to have a fancy car or whiter teeth or name-brand things, but they don't absolutely have to have them to be successful. Related in another way, students may perceive that they have to get all A's at the cost of taking more challenging classes, and so take all the easy ones, but the easy classes may not contain the subject matter content that would be more useful to them in their chosen careers. The best way to address perceived needs is to emphasize the enhanced status or benefits of accomplishing something on your class.

4. What are your students' unrecognized needs or desires? - These are the needs/ desires your students don't know they have-- but they do have them! They may not recognize the value of your subject or class content, and they may not know what the knowledge studied in this class can do for them, so you need to make them aware of how this "stuff" is going to help them in their lives after graduation! Therefore, it is important for instructors to emphasize how "cutting edge" this stuff is, and explain what this knowledge can do for them and how it is used in "real" life. Understanding our students' needs will help you make a significant impact on your students' ability to connect what they study with how it is applied in the "real" world!

Teaching About Scholarly Journals

Are you teaching students about scholarly journals? Here is a great little Youtube video clip to help your students recognize what scholarly journals are: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuyCJnv3auk You can see this by either clicking on the link, or copy and paste the url into your browser.

Language & Vocabulary

Teaching an undergrad class?

Learning the language is key to understanding, and one of the reasons students struggle with comprehension is because they don't understand the "language" being used in the sub-specialty. One of the ways to reinforce learning is to have students pay attention to the vocabulary words at the end of the chapter is most textbooks. Either have them write out definitions to vocabulary words each week, and also use the word in a sentence, or construct an oral class quiz using the vocabulary words.