As the higher education landscape continues to shift due to the increasing use of technology and the emergence of new learning environments, learning institutions and their faculty are challenged to both adapt to the new landscape and deliver ever-stronger learning results. To help educators respond effectively to these challenges, McGraw-Hill Education today announced the launch of McGraw-Hill Learning Institute, a professional development program created to keep institutions and instructors up-to-date on the latest education technologies and provide guidance in determining which emerging technologies and best practices are right for their needs. As part of the McGraw-Hill Learning Institute launch, McGraw-Hill Education and Magna Publications today announced a new agreement to jointly develop and offer professional development products and services to educators and institutions.

Too often our students consider their work in the classroom as required assignments—not work that has anything to do with what they will be doing in the real world. Oh, maybe they are picking up some skills they might use in their future employment, but that’s about it. As teachers, how do we get students to understand that the work they do in our classes—such as team projects, community service, technical papers, and even research—is relevant to what they will be doing after they graduate? How do we encourage them to keep their materials and use them to validate their work as students? I think I have an answer. Teaching an e-portfolio capstone course for several years has given me a perspective that I believe should be the framework for validating student learning outcomes across all institutions of higher education.

Many labels have been applied to the current generation of college students, many of them disparaging: lazy, distracted, aimless, needy, greedy, and self-absorbed. Some of the emerging adults who populate college classrooms earn these labels with their classroom behaviors and mediocre performance. However, within most men and women who are 18-22 years old, there is a capacity for greater things.

ScreenChomp is a free, yet highly intuitive and powerful app that you and your students can quickly master. To use ScreenChomp you simply touch the record button; draw on the whiteboard using the available pen or markers; and provide a running narrative. ScreenChomp records your voice and drawing and then allows you to upload your creation to ScreenChomp.com. After uploading your project, you will be provided with a link which you can share via e-mail, Twitter, or on the clipboard. Nothing could be easier than that!

Here is a quick recording that I made to describe how ScreenChomp works: http://www.screenchomp.com/t/bogVMQkXmtrN

ScreenChomp also allows you to make annotations on an image or photo in much the same way you will on the whiteboard. The “Erase Ell” feature is a neat option when you need to write new information on the board or want to create a new page. However, there’s also an eraser that allows you to clear just parts of the screen. It would be nice if ScreenChomp had an “Undo” option to make it consistent in appearance to other apps; however, you shouldn’t miss it much if you remember that you can simply use the erase tool to accomplish basically the same thing.

Summary:
This review was by far one of my shortest I’ve written and it’s because of how easy ScreenChomp is to use! Take a look at the recording I created – it only took a couple minutes to complete -- and I am sure you will agree that mastering ScreenChomp is within the grasp of anyone. So, put your creative mind to work and soon you to will be using ScreenChomp with your students, colleagues, or just about anyone who you wish to show something to while providing voice instructions. Other apps you may wish to look at include: Whiteboard by GreenGar Studios (free), this app also allows for Internet collaboration; ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard by Learnbat, Inc. (free); and Educreation’s Interactive Whiteboard by Educreations, Inc. (free).

Dave Yearwood is an associate professor and chair of the technology department at the University of North Dakota.

I had a most interesting experience last summer. I have taught college composition for many years, but I had not participated in a writing workshop as a writer for a long time. Of course, I had regularly run workshops in my classroom. But this time, I had written a short, 600-word essay, and it was workshopped (which to those of us in composition means reviewed and critiqued) by my peers as part of a larger in-service on curiosity and writing.

Courseload, the leading innovator in the aggregation, delivery and use of digital course materials in higher education, announced the release of Courseload Version 2.3 (Courseload v2.3), the first eText platform to provide a single, unified collaborative experience for faculty and students of all abilities.

The term “teaching effectiveness” had its heyday in the 80s and early 90s during that period when so much work on student ratings was being done. Its connection to evaluation activities remains and even end-of-course ratings are often thought of as measures of teaching effectiveness. Given its continuing importance, it is a term we should regularly revisit.

Higher education institutions generate a wealth of data that can be used to improve student success, but often the volume of data and lack of analysis prevent this data from having the impact it could have. “I think it’s hard for the general faculty population or administrator population to really have a handle on the data that is really driving decisions,” says Margaret Martin, Title III director and sociology professor at Eastern Connecticut State University. “They don’t get a chance to see it or they just get very infrequent information about it. So there may be too much data, but it’s often not communicated effectively to people in ways that are both understandable and useful to them.”

Teaching online is a rewarding experience; but any instructor who makes the transition to online education, thinking it will be easier and less time-consuming than face-to-face classroom teaching, is in for a big surprise! Establishing a regular presence in the online classroom, grading assignments and discussions, and maintaining records and notes from term to term are all time consuming – but essential – tasks. Learning to take care of the details of online teaching more efficiently makes it possible to be more effective in your teaching. The following is an abbreviated version of guidance I provide to new instructors about ways to keep their course files organized, students engaged, and workload manageable.