Teaching Professor Conference, Kissimmee, Florida

I recently had the pleasure of attending The Teaching Professor conference in Kissimme, FL. The conference is designed to improve the teaching skills of professors in all disciplines, in both face-to-face and online teaching.

The conference opened with a welcome address from Barbara Walvoord on Saving time in the Grading Process. Dr. Walvoord's address reminded participants that as professors we should not spend more time grading work than student's have put into creating it! She also spoke about how to not get caught in a trap of "micro-grading", that is spending so much time correcting every grammatical error, etc., that when students turn in rewrites they have just fixed the errors, but not addressed any major writing issues. Her address started the conference out on a very positive note, and I am looking forward to her visit to WSSU on August 11 -12, 2008, for the Action Research Institute.

I attended a workshop by Keith Whittington from Rochester Institute of Technology called Simple Active Learning Activities Designed to Increase Student Learning and Satisfaction. Dr. Whittington shared with a very large group several activities designed to increase classroom interaction and to get accurate feedback from students. One activity he shared was to have students write down anonymously one thing they learned or one thing they liked the most or least about class or readings. He emphasized making it one thing, and providing absolute limits to help students focus their answers. You can collect them at the end of class, and structure your next lecture around the areas that are still unclear to students. A lot of the information he shared was based on research done by Angelo and Cross (1993). He also did a very interesting card activity in which he gave out cards from a deck randomly, grouped people by fours, and had us work on an assignment. We worked on the assignment by having one person start the answer, and we just kept passing it and adding on to it. It was a very non-threatening way to brainstorm, and it requires that everyone participate. When it was time to share, he chose cards from another deck to randomly select people to answer the questions. The audience really enjoyed this method, and I could see how this could be very effective with a large group.

I attended several workshops on how to create communities in online classes. One session, done by Lynda Nauright called No More Sage on the Stage: Strategies for Active Learning in Blended Face-to-Face and Online Courses, emphasized that faculty (and administrators) need to recognize that as our student population changes, so does the role of faculty members. She spends a lot of time trying to make sure her online classes work collaboratively, and when she places them in groups she tells them that their peers can decided to remove them from the group if they don't participate. If this happens, they are automatically removed from the course. This has only happened one time, but you can imagine what a discussion it started in our session!

Another session done by a very lively Economics professor, Dr. Ngoc Bich Tran, gave us How to Succeed in First-Time Online Teaching: Top Ten Tips. They are:
10. Enjoy it
9. Offer student support
8. Be patient and considerate to students
7. Keep open lines of communication
6. Provide clear and consistent instructions and feedback
5. Provide enhancement materials
4. Use available online content resources
3. Motivate your students
2. Be organized by planning and developing the course early
1. Be open-minded and enthusiastic when committing to teach online course

Her co-presenters also emphasized using the support of your institution's instructional designers and any offices with expertise in distance learning.

Finally, I learned a lot about my co-workers as part of this conference. WSSU had a strong presence, and having the opportunity to spend time with other faculty will allowed for increased chances for collaborations and increased collegiality.

I am grateful to CETL for providing this opportunity, and encourage all to utilize CETL as a resource to enhance your professional development.