NUTSHELL NOTES "Teaching tips in a nutshell" - The University of Colorado at Denver's One-page Newsletter for Teaching Excellence

Frequent student - faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Technology can indeed be used to build another bridge for this contact. E-mail and conferencing software increase opportunities for students and faculty to interact through the entire learning process. Shy students who are reluctant to speak up in class often find that electronic communication from their homes is less intimidating than disclosure in front of an entire class.

2. Good Practice Encourages Cooperation Among Students.

Much learning is enhanced when it is experienced through team effort. Sharing one's own ideas and responding to others' reactions improves thinking and deepens understanding. E-mail clearly overcomes the limitations of schedules and space and allows an extensive cooperation between students without any requirement that they be in the same place at the same time.

3. Good Practice Encourages Active Learning.

Research shows that doing is important to learning. Learning is enhanced when students write about material, discuss it, and/or apply it. Technology provides opportunity for students to grapple with material and manipulate it, answering their own "What if...?" queries. Through technology, students can team-revise and edit a manuscript, compose music, see the results of varying chosen parameters in equations, and do simulated experiments in virtual laboratories where assembly of components and effects of changing component settings can be learned prior to dealing with the actual physical equipment.

4. Good Practice Gives Prompt Feedback.

Students need appropriate feedback on their performance. Technology allows students constant opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. Computers can store, organize, and provide quick access to student work, which can serve as a record of each student's improvement and intellectual growth.

5. Good Practice Emphasizes Time on Task.

Learning takes time, and it's not simply a question of amount of time but also the degree to which one is engaged during the time spent. Some professors have combined electronic gaming with content as a special way to make time spent particularly engaging. Technology now permits students and teachers to interact without spending hours in commuting and can provide a cumulative record of student participation and interaction in a course. Electronic access now allows a search for key literature through many libraries to be completed in less time than it takes to commute to a single library.

6. Good Practice Communicates High Expectations.

Technology provides ways to enact high standards. Assignments can be widely distributed for review and peer evaluation. In some courses, written assignments are peer evaluated by students taking the same course at another university. Broad evaluation strengthens the peer review process. Rationalizing poor performance by blaming one professor is difficult under such conditions. Shared learning challenges help develop high level cognitive skills and an ability to distinguish between excellent and average work.

7. Good Practice Respects Diverse Ways of Learning.

There are many roads to learning, and also many ways to build roads with technology. At the cutting edge are professors like Curt Carver of West Point, who use technology to allow students to assess their own learning styles and then have the content material delivered from a server—customized to each individual's preferred learning style. Self-reflection, visualization, collaboration, and individual pacing can all be incorporated into a course through use of current technology.

*The Seven Principles for Good Practice were compiled in 1987 (Wingspread, v. 9, pp. 1-8) and have probably been quoted more often than any short synopsis of "teaching tips." This month (AAHE Bull., Oct. 1996, v. 49, n. 2, pp. 3-6) some authors of the original article revisited their Principles and evaluated how they apply to use of instructional technology. This note is taken partially from that source.

Getting Help in Bringing The Virtual Classroom to Your Course

Computing, Information and Network Services now offers a computer conferencing system to support distance education. Parts of the system can also be used to augment conventional classes. CU in the Virtual Classroom (CU Virtual) is a bulletin board system available to all faculty and currently supports several on-line courses in C.L.A.S. and the College of Business.

CU Virtual facilitates communication between students and instructors by providing asynchronous conferences, on-line chat, and powerful file transfers. Students enrolled in courses that employ CU Virtual receive CU Virtual client software on floppy disks. They are given an Internet e-mail address and have access to Usenet news groups on-line. Connectivity options include direct dialup and Internet hookup. For access from home, students need only a modem and any Macintosh or Windows computer. When the new server software becomes available (anticipated for Spring/Summer 1997), standard web browsers (Netscape, Internet Explorer) will be able to connect with the CU Virtual server.

Because of the bulletin board format, professors or assigned grad students, etc. can post course materials on-line at will. The flexible, easy-to-use management tools allow for quick course setup, excellent security, and plenty of customizing. To examine CU Virtual and learn how professors are currently using the system to deliver courses, contact Leo LaDell at 556-8576, or leo@maroon.cudenver.edu.

NO- NO's!

Uh-Ohhhh! A couple of cases have occurred where our 60 point formative evaluation has been copied, given in a class, and brought for scan processing to the Office of Teaching Effectiveness by third parties. In such cases we refused (sorrrrrry!) to process these because our form is intended to be used for improvement and not for evaluation for retention, rank, salary etc. When this Office was set up, it was agreed at all levels that it would exist to aid faculty in their efforts to become more effective and would not become evaluative. When our form gets "invited" into others' classes and third parties have authoritative access to the results, the agreement that makes this Office a safe place to come for help is endangered. If any of you are administering your own 60-point evaluations and then want the results, don't send them over with third parties or ask that results be returned to anyone other than to yourself. In terms of evaluation, RTP, etc., this Office can give advice on setting up good evaluation procedures and interpreting surveys, but we don't get involved with evaluating individuals for personnel decisions.