Faculty Focus Live

Have you ever looked at your students and saw their eyes glaze over, knowing they most likely are not retaining anything you’re saying? So, what tools can you implement to help your students retain more of what you teach in class? Today, we’re going to go through study skills you can provide to your students to enhance their recall, and we’ll cover interleaving and microlectures. Research says you have 15 minutes of attention span before minds start to drift and wander. What can you do to increase long-term memory skills within your students?

Recommended Resources:

• How Can I Use My Teaching to Improve Student Study Skills?
• Using Interleaving in Course Design to Improve Retention
• How Can I Use Microactivities to Engage Students and Improve Learning and Retention?
• Mindful Moments: 50 Microactivities for Energizing the College Classroom

What can you do to propel your teaching career, and what advice do some of our great higher ed instructors have for you? In this episode, you’ll be reminded of the importance of remaining open to learning, how to seek mentorship, and how to foster meaningful connections within your academic circle. Additionally, we’ll cover prioritizing work-life quality over monetary incentives, along with truly understanding your teaching methods and recognizing both your strengths and weaknesses. Through insightful anecdotes and practical advice, this episode offers a roadmap for those of you seeking to elevate your teaching practices and advance your careers.

Recommended Resources

• What are 14 Strategies to Take My Teaching Career from Good to Great?
• What is the Best Leadership Advice I Ever Received?
• How Can I Move My Teaching Forward at Midcareer?

This episode is sponsored by the Teaching Professor Conference. Join us in New Orleans from June 7-9 and share ideas, discuss strategies, and get the charge of inspiration from knowing you are not alone in tackling today's teaching!

We always talk about the beginning of the course and setting the tone, but what about the end of the course? How can you make your course memorable? How can you make your end-of-course project meaningful? Today, we’ll look at it from multiple perspectives. First, we’ll look inward and outward and ask ourselves pertinent closing questions. Next, we’ll look at how an end-of-semester service learning project can make students feel empowered and feel as if the class work they are doing is meaningful. Last, I’ll read an article from Maryellen Weimer about a learning moment, and how it impacted her students from the first day until the last day. You may think that the first day is the most important day, but how students feel walking out of your classroom on the last day is just as important.

Recommended Resources:

• Can I Create a Memorable Course Finale?
• How Can I Create a Meaningful Service Learning Project for My Online Class?
• Teaching Professor article: A Learning Moment
• Teaching Professor article: The Art of Ending Well

Today, we’re going to explore innovative assessment strategies that enhance student learning. We’ll talk about reflection and how to use feedback as a tool for growth and knowledge, and then we’ll talk about asynchronous online teaching assessments such as a weekly choice board or brochure. Finally, we’ll talk about the integration of generative AI in assessment practices. Whether you teach in-person or online, these ideas offer new ways to reveal student understanding and better connect complex ideas for your students.

Recommended Resources:

• How Can I Use Assessment Data to Provide Meaningful Feedback and Deeper Learning?
• What Assessment Strategies Are Effective for Asynchronous Online Teaching?
• How Can I Use Generative AI to Assess Student Understanding?

In this episode, we dive into the power of gamification in education, exploring how it can transform student engagement and motivation. We start by examining the role of failure as a motivating tool within gamified learning, proposing that challenges and setbacks can be reconfigured as stepping stones toward success. We also talk about strategies, such as playful openers, game-infused instruction, and storified assessments, to spark interest and sustain engagement among students, especially reluctant learners. Lastly, we'll delve into the importance of leveraging pop culture to create memorable learning experiences, from incorporating familiar characters (like Harry Potter) into case studies to embedding entire courses with engaging, fictional scenarios. So, how can you start gamifying your courses? Game on!

Recommended Resources:

• How Can I Use Simple Gamification Strategies to Engage My Students?
• How Can I Spark and Sustain Engagement in Reluctant Learners?
• How Can I Bring Pop to My Classroom with Pop Culture?

This episode is sponsored by The Teaching Professor, a source of inspiration for more than 10,000 educators at universities and colleges worldwide.

In this episode, we dive into the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI tools in education. Dr. Jayne Lammers emphasizes the importance of collaborative exploration, urging teachers and colleagues to embark on a collective learning journey together. We also discuss specific AI tools such as Claude, Bing, Bard, TeachAI, Magic School, and more, and how educators can use these tools for brainstorming sessions, language translation, and lesson planning.

“We are all learning how to use these tools together. And I think that will go a long way to not keeping it as something we need to hide or feel like we’re cheating with but using it as a tool to make the things we don’t like to do or that are hard to do, easier. And this gives us the energy and space to be more creative and to do the things that humans are best at.”

Mentioned resources:

• ChatGPT
• Claude.ai
• Bing
• Google Bard
• Magic School
• Teach AI
• Magic Studio (Canva)
• Khan Academy
• Commonsense Education
• Our Generative AI in Education Experiments: Lessons Learned | Edmentum

Other recommended resources:

• How You Can Use AI to Maximize Time Management
• How Can I Use Generative AI to Assess Student Understanding?
• Educators Reflect on Teaching and Learning in the Era of Generative AI
• How Can I Use AI to Draft Course Materials?
• How Can I Use AI as a Student Writing and Editing Coach?
• How Can I Use AI to Create Multimedia Teaching Materials?

Last summer, I attended our Teaching Professor Annual Conference, one of my favorite conferences that we host. If you haven’t been to it, I highly recommend attending it this year in New Orleans. You can check it out at www.TeachingProfessorConference.com. When I attended last year, I went to a session by Jonathan Howle about empowering trans-spectrum students. He said something that I’ll never forget. He said, “Your space and your class may be the only safe space that a student has. Your class being a safe space, could save lives.” So today, we’re going to talk about strategies that instructors can use to create safe spaces where transgender students feel as if they belong without fear or stress, and ultimately, help students grow personally and academically. Both instructors in this episode will share their own stories and explain how making small, inclusive adjustments will help students feel more comfortable, perform better academically, and grow personally.

Recommended Resources:

• Simple Strategies to Create an Inclusive Classroom for Gender Variant Students
• How Can I Move from Supporting to Empowering Trans-spectrum Students?

Join Staci Gilpin and Courtney Plotts in their research on how social media impacts the educational journey and engagement of undergraduate students. They explore the transformative power of social media in bridging a genuine human connection, and discuss strategies to integrate social media into the educational journey, sharing insights on cultivating communities, empowering students, and enhancing the overall learning experience. Discover how social media is reshaping education, fostering lifelong connections, and preparing students for the interconnected world of tomorrow.

"Humaneness can transcend technology, it really can, and that's what it comes down to. And at the end of the day, we can't be everything for every student, but we can give them access to what they need in those psychological and social spaces for a relationship, for connection, for those other important pieces of learning, right? Because learning is not done alone. It's done in a community."

Recommended Resources:

• Research article by Staci Gilpin and Courtney Plotts: From Likes to Learning: Enhancing Classroom Culture through Social Media Engagement

Other related articles:

• Using Social Media to Retain and Connect with Students in the Shift to Online Education
• Adventures with Snapchat in an Online Course
• Bitmojis, Gifts, and Snaps in the Classroom? Oh My!

This episode is sponsored by The Teaching Professor, a source of inspiration for more than 10,000 educators at universities and colleges worldwide.

As we wind down in the month of December, I’m always in awe at how fast it goes by. I thought it would be a good reminder to slow down this month, to really practice our mindfulness muscles. It’s the season of giving, so let’s give ourselves a break and remind ourselves of what we can do to really live in the moment.

Today, we will have Seena and Stuart Haines dive into mindfulness and offer strategies on how we can build our mindfulness muscles. Picture this: you're zipping through life on autopilot, not noticing the tension building in your body until you flop onto the couch at night. Sound familiar? Well, you're not alone! This episode dives headfirst into what mindfulness really means. It's a superpower that helps us pay attention to the here and now—our thoughts, feelings, and the world around us—without putting a "good" or "bad" label on it. Our brains can do amazing things, but sometimes they need a little nudge to calm down. Mindfulness isn't about shutting off our thoughts (because hello, ideas and creativity!), but it's about taming the internal chaos that can overcome us.

Recommended Resources:

• Virtual Workshop: Mind Full to Mindful: Strategies to Enhance Teaching and Learning
• Wellbeing Elixir Community with resources: https://www.wellbeingelixir.org/
• Online Course: Wellbeing Elixir Course
• Book: Real Happiness: A 28-day program to realize the power of meditation

Join Michael Strawser as he explains how he maintains motivation in his teaching amidst the challenges of complacency and burnout. Strawser explores the power of professional development communities and the impact of public teaching on invigorating classroom dynamics. He uncovers the value of reaching out to former students, seeking recognition, remembering your why, and embracing rejection as part of the growth journey. Additionally, he explains how building relationships and advocating for students' needs are integral to sustaining motivation, and explores ways to support students in their journey toward discovering their passions and professional development.