Results are in from the Faculty Focus survey on Twitter usage and trends among college faculty. The survey of approximately 2,000 higher education professionals found that nearly one-third (30.7 percent) of the 1,958 respondents say they use Twitter in some capacity. More than half, (56.4 percent) say they’ve never used Twitter.

On the road again this week, I was listening to a talk show in which callers were invited to talk about taking their kids to college for the first time. Having never done this myself, it does sound like an emotional letting-go moment. But what impressed me even more were the high expectations these parents have for college experiences. Yes, most of them did mention hopes that their child would fit in, find friends, and have as one mom described it, “a wholesome social life.” Also true, most of them did mention career goals—the hope that college will prepare students for professions that pay well and for professions where there will be jobs. All that I expected.

The cliché that you only get one chance to make a first impression is especially true when you teach online. Each item you post—email, discussion message, announcement, etc.—must be created with much thought, and none is more important than the first post to your class.

Avid golfers and baseball players often talk about the elusive “sweet spot.” Find it, and you can make the ball go exactly where you want it to go, almost effortlessly. There’s a sweet spot to teaching, too. And, just like in sports, it takes a little experimentation to find and is a thing of beauty when you get it right.

“If the shift from the instructional to the learning paradigm is to have a lasting impact on education, it must influence not only how people think about teaching but also how teaching is evaluated. Evaluation is one of the primary means by which an institution conveys what is valuable and important to its members. If institutions fail to emphasize student learning in their evaluation practices, they will find it very difficult to promote a focus on student learning. Evaluation practices must be aligned with and support the learning paradigm.” (p. 345)

Teaching and learning support professionals, particularly those who must perform miracles as a “Department of One,” can have one of the most challenging jobs on campus. They not only support the course design, content delivery strategies, technology integration, and training/orientation for faculty and students in online learning programs (asynchronous and synchronous formats), but they also support all other teaching/learning needs for classroom, blended, and any other teaching environment. This professional may be an instructional designer, an educational technologist, or very often, a designated faculty member with some or all of these skills.

It happened seemingly overnight, but suddenly the education community is all a-Twitter. Or is it? That’s what Faculty Focus set out to learn when it launched in July 2009 a survey on the role of Twitter in higher education. The survey asked college and university faculty about their familiarity and use of the micro-blogging service, if any, as well as whether they expect their Twitter use to increase or decrease in the future.

It’s important at the beginning of a course for students and their instructor to find out about each other. This exchange of information helps to create classroom climates of respect and fosters a spirit of exchange that can encourage students to ask questions, make comments, and otherwise participate in dialogue throughout the course.

Faculty who regularly use group work are always on the lookout for new and better ways of handling those behaviors that compromise group effectiveness—group members who don’t carry their weight and the negative attitudes students frequently bring with them to group work.