November 2007

Content Knowledge: A Barrier to Teacher Development
By Maryellen Weimer
Now, there’s a story headline you might read in the educational equivalent of the National Enquirer. Are you aware that your material prevents instructional growth? How can that be?

Improving Documentation for Promotion and Tenure
By Jeffrey L. Buller, PhD
At most colleges and universities, the documentation that faculty members submit when applying for tenure or promotion is so massive as to be burdensome at the same time that it is often unhelpful to the review committee.

Using Video Clips to Stimulate Discussion
If you’re looking to improve threaded discussions in your online courses, consider using brief video clips as discussion prompts. When carefully selected and integrated into a course, these clips can lead students to higher-order thinking and appeal to auditory and visual learning styles.

Take the Poll!
Last month's question was "Have you used a blog to supplement any of your courses? If not, do you plan on using a blog? If so, was the experience positive or negative? Please elaborate."