October 2007

Some Lessons Learned about Learner-Centered Teaching
Because so much of what college teachers learn about teaching they learn from experience, there is a bit of a tradition of senior faculty sharing instructional wisdom with beginners. It’s not a strong tradition or one that has any consistent format, but, with some regularity, articles and sometimes even books appear in which the “senior” attempts to distill lessons that can be passed on to those more “junior.”

Overcoming Tension between Faculty and Staff
By Jeffrey L. Buller, PhD
In any hierarchical system, the tone for the behavior of a unit is established by the person at the top. So ask yourself what you are doing or not doing that could exacerbate the very situation you are trying to avoid.

Open-Source Blog Platform Provides Much-Needed Communication Flexibility
When Margaret Anderson, a psychology professor at the State University of New York at Cortland, began teaching online 12 years ago, she used an open-source communication tool to facilitate online discussions. She later moved to WebCT when the college decided to stop supporting the open-source product for security reasons. But WebCT did not provide her with the flexibility she needed, so she found a new open-source communication tool—LiveJournal.

Take the Poll!
Last month's question was "Have you taught an online course? Do you plan to teach an online course in the upcoming academic year? Does your institution provide additional compensation or other incentives to teach online?"