Although group work can provide a welcome change to the regular classroom routine, the results are rarely all positive. Invariably, one or two students in each group, because they are shy or lack self-confidence, are reluctant to share their input. These are often the same students who have to be coaxed to participate in large class discussions. Because of group dynamics, the student who usually emerges as the group leader, either by default or proclamation, is often not sensitive to the need to engage the quieter students in the conversation. As a result, the more outspoken students may unwittingly extinguish the very dialogue that the small group is intended to promote.

Most faculty have seen test anxiety firsthand. It’s that hot, sweaty smell that lingers in a classroom after students have finished an exam. It’s that student who comes to the office to discuss an exam and can answer in detail questions missed on the exam. It’s the student who doesn’t follow directions on the exam or the one who selects the correct option but then regularly changes the answer. Test anxiety manifests itself in various ways and to varying degrees.

If you ask students what they want to get out of a course, most give the same answer: an A (never mind if learning accompanies the grade). If you rephrase and ask why students are taking your course, those answers are just as enervating: nothing else was open at the time; it’s in the same room as my previous course; my fraternity has copies of your exams on file; my boyfriend’s in this class; I heard you were easy; I heard you were funny; your textbook’s the cheapest one; or, my favorite on Ludy Benjamin’s list, “because my mother took this class from you 24 years ago and she said I could use her notes.” (p. 147)

The last post explained how self-assessment is an important professional skill and how it’s a skill students should be learning, but aren’t in college. Here are some quick and easy ways to work with students on developing the skill.

Jonathan P. Mathews, assistant professor of energy and geo-environmental engineering at Penn State University, teaches a high-enrollment (more than 400 students) general education online course, Energy and the Environment. Although he has two teaching assistants, the logistics of managing such a large class would be overwhelming without implementing the following online course design and management ideas.

Blended learning, which combines face-to-face and online learning activities into a single course, has experienced tremendous growth during the past few years. A blended learning course (also called a hybrid course) can satisfy students’ need for flexibility, as well as alleviate overcrowded classrooms. However, the biggest benefit to a well-designed blended course could be a much improved teaching and learning experience.

As colleges and universities continue to expand their online course offerings, increasingly they're turning to adjuncts to help carry the load. These online instructors, many of whom work full-time in addition to their part-time teaching gig or teach online courses at multiple schools, create unique training and retention challenges. This report features strategies for ensuring distance education faculty have the necessary training and support to succeed.

I’ve been reading some articles on self-assessment—as in having students look at their own work and come to some conclusions about its quality. Most faculty don’t let students self-assess and for good reasons. Most students can’t get past the grade they would like to the one they deserve. Moreover, several of the studies I’ve read document that when given the opportunity, given the criteria, and even given some guidance, students still see the activity as an opportunity to figure out what the instructor wants and/or would likely give them on the completed work. Almost none of them see self-assessment as a useful skill.

I grew up watching M*A*S*H, a dramatic comedy set in a mobile U.S. Army hospital during the Korean War, and it has influenced my teaching in some surprising ways. One of the characters, Corporal Klinger, spent most of the series trying to get sent home. In one of my favorite episodes he tries to secure a compassionate leave to attend his grandmother’s funeral in Toledo, Ohio. His commanding officer, Colonel Henry Blake, reviews this latest request and discovers that Klinger has claimed dozens of grandparents’ deaths in the course of a single year, along with various unlikely permutations of this family crisis. Blake never accuses Klinger of lying; he just suggests it is remarkable that the same four grandparents could repeatedly meet such tragic ends.