I’m Maria Yon from the Center for Teaching & Learning at UNC Charlotte.  Today I’m going to talk about the course syllabus.

When I look back on my college experiences and think about the course syllabi we were given, I vividly remember the impact the syllabus had on me on that first day of class.  Some syllabi were a half-page long, containing not much more than the contact information for the professor and a description of the course and required assignments or test dates.  Others were several pages long and included some detail about the expectations of the course and a calendar of readings for the semester. 

The syllabus was always handed out on the first day of class and how it was dealt with set a definite tone for the course.  I always remembered my own college experiences in developing my syllabi and how I use them on the first day of class.  It says to students something about how seriously an instructor takes teaching. 

The syllabus is the result of your careful and well-informed decision-making about what you’re trying to accomplish.  It’s the students’ introduction to the course and the subject matter.  It’s a kind of road map for the semester.  There is comfort in knowing where you are going. 

The syllabus also serves as a contract that shifts the responsibility of learning to the student.  A comprehensive and clear syllabus prevents confusion and anxiety.  Valuable teaching time is lost if you need to stop and explain details that should have been in the syllabus.  Students appreciate the effort you make in creating a truly useful syllabus.  Present it thoroughly on the first day and refer to it throughout the semester. 

Syllabi vary in format and content, so check with your department for guidelines. Use your colleague’s syllabus as a model if you find that helpful.  There are major content areas that are generally required for all syllabi.  These include:

• Course information such as course title and number, credit hours, prerequisites and so on.
• Instructor information including your name, office location, contact information, office hours.
• Textbooks and websites to be used.
• Course descriptions and objectives which include a summary of the course and objectives that state what students will learn.
• Calendar with topics of each class session, dates of exams, assignments, special events.
• Course policies such as attendance, class participation, behavior expectations, missed assignments, use of electronic equipment, grading, academic integrity policy.
• Available support services such as the library, writing center, disability services, etc.

One thing that I have learned across time is that the contents of a syllabus can change.  Those revisions or additions are usually made when an unanticipated event occurs.  For example, adding guidelines on the use of electronic equipment in class, or a section on plagiarism have been recent additions to my syllabi.

Finally, remember that a syllabus is the only record of your course.  You will most likely need it for reasons beyond your class.  So, make it one that is reflective of the good planning that you have done and the care that you take of your teaching.

Thanks for listening and tune in again for “Teaching & Learning Matters.”

Welcome to this episode of "Teaching & Learning Matters." I am Dr. Garvey Pyke and today’s podcast is about the first of “The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education,” which is to encourage contact between students and faculty. 

According to Chickering and Gamson, frequent student-faculty contact both in and outside of class is an important factor in student motivation and involvement.  So what does that mean, exactly, for you and your classes?  How can you encourage contact between you and your students?

When I have held workshops on the Seven Principles for UNC Charlotte faculty and graduate teaching assistants, this is one area where there is always a wealth of ideas.  The easiest way to interact more with students is to come to class early and stay late after class.  There are certain types of students who prefer this type of interaction with you, ones who may feel intimidated speaking in front of the whole class.  You can ask them how the course is going, if they’ve been keeping up with the reading, or what they did last weekend.   

Some faculty like to attend student events - not just athletic and other extracurricular events where students congregate but they also get involved in such things as judging student presentations sponsored by their college or department or even as part of another instructor’s course.   Likewise, some faculty prefer to hold office hours where the students are - perhaps at Ritazza’s coffee shop or the new Student Union.  Other faculty have office hours online, using the chat feature in Blackboard Vista or Instant Messenger.

Email is another excellent way to encourage contact with your students.  Not only can you use email to contact them, but it is a good idea to have clearly defined email policies for them to contact you.  You don’t want to get an email at 1 AM followed by another one at 1:05, asking you why you didn’t answer the last email.  I recommend spelling out your policies on your course syllabus, for example, “I answer email from 9-3, Monday through Thursday, and I have a 48-hour turnaround time.”

By encouraging contact between students and faculty, we give students a sense of community, a sense of belonging.  These are key components in what we refer to as students’ connectedness to the university.  The greater the connectedness, the greater the chances that they will succeed in your course and also continue with their studies at UNC Charlotte.  And we all know how important student retention is.  With the increase of our student population, we need to be aware of how we can reach out to our students - at the course level - to make them feel a part of the university.

There are many other ways to increase faculty and student interaction.  Get to know your students names, and use their names when you call on them.  Whether you use a seating chart to learn the names or try one of various name-learning games, your students will benefit from your efforts.  Give them personalized feedback - whether in a face-to-face classroom or online.  Require all students to come to office hours once - send a signup sheet around the class with ten minute appointments marked already.  This could be done to hand back the first test or paper or maybe before a big project is due.  Class too large?  Then try meeting in small groups instead of with individuals.  Truly, the possibilities are endless.

So I  ask you now, what are you currently doing to encourage contact between you and your students?  Do you know your students?  Do they know you?  What other, new ways could you interact with your students?  Maybe I talked about something that fits your style, maybe not.  Just think about how you could enhance what you are already doing.  Your students will be the better for it.  I can look back fondly on those teachers I had who made the effort to get to know the students better, to interact with us more.  And if you’re listening to this podcast, you are probably one of those impact-making teachers, too.    

If you would like to learn more about how you can increase interaction between you and your students, feel free to contact me, Garvey Pyke, at the Center for Teaching and Learning at UNC Charlotte.  And of course, check out my next podcast, where I go in depth into the next Principle, encouraging student to student interaction.

Until then, so long, and remember: Teaching and Learning Matters.

Welcome to this episode of “Teaching and Learning Matters.” I’m Maria Yon, faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

This session is meant to help you determine whether lecture is the best strategy for meeting your teaching goal. So let’s get started.

What makes an effective lecture?  Does your teaching style lend itself to giving good lectures?  Are your students getting the most out of the class session during lecture?  These are some important questions to answer. 

But probably the first question is to decide when to lecture and when not to lecture. For centuries, the lecture has been the main teaching tool in higher education.  Sometimes it is the most effective and efficient option and sometimes it isn’t.  But, let’s think about when you should use lecture. 

Lecture is probably most efficient when you need to motivate students to learn about a topic.  Remember that you have a captive audience and not all of them are interested in the subject or the specific topic, so you need to raise their curiosity.  Through relevant examples, by showing your personal interest, and by using an expressive style, you can engage students’ interest right from the beginning with a lecture.

Another reason to use lecture is to give background information or additional information that is not available in their readings.  In today’s high-tech world, it may not be unusual for information in textbooks to be outdated even before they get into the students’ hands. 

It may also be biased and you need to present your personal viewpoint or the viewpoint of others.  You may want to add your own related research. That might be a way to pique students’ interest about the topic.

Sometimes our purpose is for students to use a particular problem-solving approach or a style of thinking.  A good way for them to know how to do this is to model that kind of thinking for them.  We lecture so that they can “see” the thinking going on in our heads.  For example, if we want students to evaluate a piece of art, we might model our own thought process.  And we can do that using a lecture – a demonstration lecture.

A final reason we might lecture is when we need to help students understand sophisticated or theoretical material.  We use lecture to adapt it to their levels and needs.  We translate it in words they understand and use clarifying examples and analogies.  Sometimes textbooks are not well-organized and we must clarify and organize the readings in a way that they can understand the information.

Now just briefly, when do we not lecture?  Don’t use lecture if your teaching style does not lend itself to an expressive style.  Don’t use lecture for any of the following reasons - if your purpose is to explore controversial or ambiguous material with an open mind, if you’re trying to examine or change their attitudes about a topic, if you want students to be able to apply the content to a new situation, or if you want students to remember particular information for months or years to come.

I hope that this has been a helpful guide in helping you determine your first question about which teaching approach to use—Should I lecture or not for this class session?

Thanks for listening. Tune in again for more “Teaching and Learning Matters.”

Garvey Pyke: Welcome to this special edition of “Teaching & Learning Matters.”  My name is Dr. Garvey Pyke, and today we are lucky enough to have with us Ms. Cheryl Spainhour from the Communications Studies department at UNC Charlotte.  Cheryl has been teaching at Charlotte for 10 years, and we have learned that she has been using podcasting in her courses.  We’d like to discuss how she came about this idea and how it has worked out for her.  Hello, Cheryl.  Thank you for coming.

Cheryl Spainhour: Thank you for having me, Garvey.

Garvey: First of all, if you could please tell me, what it is that you teach and how it is that you came about the idea to use podcasting in your courses?

Cheryl: I teach Journalism classes for our department. We offer a journalism minor in the Communications Studies department and one of my classes I really felt lent itself to podcasting was Feature Writing, an advanced feature writing course I teach every semester. And a couple of years ago a colleague talked to me about podcasting and how fast it was catching on and sent me to some sites to look around. And I realized that that was something that was just going to become more prominent in journalism and that it would be good thing for me to share with my students.

Garvey: So how do you use podcasting, what role does it play in your course?

Cheryl: Well about three fourths of the way through the semester while the students are working on a feature article outside of class, I devote class time to podcasting. And I explain to them what a podcast is and then I show them an example from NPR’s “This I Believe” series so that they can see sort of a good example of one that’s done publicly on the radio. And then I encourage them to write a commentary or opinion piece. They get to write in the first person and to talk about something, to write about something that they’re truly passionate about. Then while I’m doing that exercise they do a feature swap in class where they read features and analyze them amongst each other. And I take them one at a time to our interactive lab that we now have in our department and record the commentary that they do and turn it into a podcast and load the better ones up to my journalism web minor page.

Garvey: That sounds great. So how do the students like it?

Cheryl: I think they really like it. First of all they get to write in first person which I don’t let them do very often in my classes so they’re really, they enjoy that aspect of it. In writing about something they’re passionate about, of their choice. And some of them that are interested in going into some sort of broadcasting field like picking up that experience of talking, so to speak on the radio. And so I think it’s a good experience for them, both in a written exercise and oral presentation and then having the journalism web minor page as a venue for those that are better amongst them.

Garvey: How much time do you spend working on this? Sort of walk us through the process a little bit for those of us who are intimidated by the work flow.

Cheryl: I am fortunate to have a student do an independent study with me every semester that operates as a webmaster for me for the journalism web minor page. And so that student’s responsibility also is to help me to record the podcast. So one thing that I would say is that you really need somebody that is knowledgeable about recording with you if you don’t have those skills yourself. And I know how to do them in case that student can’t be there on that particular day. But it’s really good to have two people because you need one person at the at the helm recording and the other person sort of directing the process of getting a student to come into our lab, making them comfortable, communicating back and forth with them until we get the right kind of podcast recorded and then getting the next student and so on. So I think it is a two person process.

Garvey: Is this something you will continue using in your courses? And if so, do you think you may expand it into other areas or other uses?

Cheryl: Absolutely! I think that I’ve been doing it for three or four semesters now and I get a little better each semester at what we’re doing technically and also articulating the exercise I think to the students. And we’re presently developing an online hybrid journalism class and another class that will be strictly online that I think will have elements of podcasting incorporated in the syllabus.

Garvey: Do you have any other advice for your fellow faculty?

Cheryl: I think be patient with yourself in the process. Make sure that if you don’t have the technical skills that you sit down with someone, and I know there are people on this campus that will be happy to help you, but if you sit down with someone and go through that process with them and be patient with yourself and learn how to do this before you get with the students and try to assign something like this, you’ll feel more confident and more competent in your role as their professor or lecturer. So I think that’s important. And know that this is really a trend not just in journalism but I think that podcasting is something that’s just gonna become a bigger trend in the world of more and more professors do their lectures and record them and set them out as podcasts. And I think there’s a lot of meaningful ways in education to use podcasting so use your imagination.

Garvey: Thank you, Cheryl.  We certainly appreciate your coming here today.

Cheryl: Thank you so much.

Garvey: If you would like to learn more about podcasts or how you can incorporate them into your courses, feel free to contact the Center for Teaching and Learning, C-T-L-at-u-n-c-c-dot-e-d-u or call us at 704-687-3022.  Until next time, so long, and remember: teaching and learning matters.

Welcome to this episode of “Teaching and Learning Matters.” I’m Maria Yon, faculty member at UNC Charlotte. In this episode we are going to be talking about classroom management in the university classroom.

Classroom management is not generally a major problem at the university level.  Yet, most of us from time to time, do experience student behaviors that are disruptive to the classroom—behaviors that break our concentration and interrupt learning for the other students. 

Some common behaviors are: talking in class, arriving late or leaving early, showing general disrespect and poor manners toward the instructor and other students, use of cell-phones or other devices, and being unprepared.  The purpose of this Teaching and Learning Matters segment is to share some guidance for minimizing such behaviors. 

First of all, it's essential to set ground rules.  There are a couple of ways you can do this.  One way is to announce on the first day exactly what disruptive behaviors you can’t tolerate in the course and why.  Tell students that those behaviors annoy other students, disrupt their learning, and breaks your concentration.  Some rules belong on your syllabus as well --use of cell phones, expectations for tardiness, class participation, regular attendance, and preparation for class. 

Another way to set ground rules on the first day is to have a class discussion on the behaviors of classmates that genuinely bother them and are counterproductive to learning.  From the discussion, you can write up a contract that students sign at the next class meeting promising not to engage in the disruptive behaviors listed.   

This process gives students ownership in how the classroom environment develops.  Furthermore, expectations set by peers is sometimes more powerful than those coming from the instructor.

Second, from psychological studies, we know that modeling is very powerful.  Your efforts to model the behavior that you expect from your students will pay off.  Setting ground rules on the first day are of no consequence if you don't practice those behaviors yourself. 

For instance, if students are expected to arrive on time for class, you need to arrive on time.  If students are to be respectful of you and of each other, you must show the same respect.  If you expect them to be prepared for class, you need to have a well-planned class session and give timely feedback on their work.

Finally, not enough can be said about gaining and keeping students’ attention.  The key here is to motivate the students about the course in general on the first day and then for each class session.  Help them to understand the purpose of the class session and how the activities in which they will be involved will help them learn.  

Your careful preparation for introducing the class session accompanied by your enthusiasm for the topic can go a long way in keeping their attention.  If you're lecturing, effective uses of the voice, body language, and the use of visual aids, and elimination of distracting behaviors that you might exhibit are all important in gaining and keeping students’ attention. Also, asking questions throughout the class session stimulates attention and holds students accountable for their learning.

Good classroom management involves more than these three guidelines provided.  But these three - setting ground rules, modeling appropriate behavior, and keeping students’ attention - are essential for providing an environment that is orderly so that learning can take place.

Thanks for listening. And remember, teaching and learning matters.

Welcome to this episode of "Teaching & Learning Matters." I am Dr. Garvey Pyke and I want to talk to you about "The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education."

Whew—that’s a mouthful.  “The Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.”  Let’s just call them “the Seven Principles” from here on out.

In 1987, two researchers, Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson looked at 50 years worth of research in undergraduate education and were able to boil it all down to Seven common themes that everything more or less fit into.  They called them the Seven Principles, and since then, these Seven Principles have been widely cited in teaching and learning literature and have been used for everything from aiding program evaluation to designing online instruction.

Here at UNC Charlotte, our faculty professional development philosophy revolves around these Seven Principles: they are the backbone, the foundation, for all of our instructional programs.  They also inform how we approach our use of various learning tools and technologies, so that we can promote such technologies in the appropriate teaching and learning context.  For truly, an e-learning tool is merely a tool: an aid, method, or device for facilitating teaching and learning.  As noted instructional technologist Steve Ehrmann would say, technology is just the lever for implementing these Seven Principles.

So as I go about describing these Seven Principles, I want you to think about what you are doing in your courses, how you interact with your students, how your course activities are designed, and what tools you may be using to achieve your instructional ends.  Think about how each of these Seven Principles applies to your situation, and also think hard about how you could better align what you are doing with each of these.  This is a time for reflection but also a time for planning ahead.  And when we’re done today, I hope you have at least one new idea to implement in your ourse immediately.

So what are these Seven Principles already?  Well, they are not any kind of “magic beans,” nor are they particularly earth-shattering.  In fact, I am sure you already know these intuitively and have been practicing them for some time now.  Ready?  OK.

Principle number one: Good practice in undergraduate education …
Encourages contact between students and faculty.  Frequent student-faculty contact both in and outside of class is an important factor in student motivation and involvement.

Principle number two: Good practice in undergraduate education …
Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.  Faculty should create and encourage opportunities for collaborative learning among students.

Principle number three: Good practice in undergraduate education …
Encourages active learning.  Faculty should require students to apply their learning in oral and written forms.

Principle number four: Good practice in undergraduate education …
Gives prompt feedback.  Faculty should provide appropriate and prompt feedback on performance. Students need help assessing their current competence and performance, and need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestion for improvement. Such feedback should be an ongoing process in collegiate settings.

Principle number five: Good practice in undergraduate education …
Emphasizes time on task.  Faculty should create opportunities for students to practice good time management. This includes setting realistic time for students to complete assignments as well as using class time for learning opportunities.

Principle number six: Good practice in undergraduate education …
Communicates high expectations.  Faculty should set and communicate high expectations for students. Such becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for students and they often will rise to meet the challenge.

And finally, Principle number seven: Good practice in undergraduate education …
Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.  Faculty should create learning opportunities that appeal to the different ways students will process and attend to information. Varying presentation style and assignment requirement will allow students to showcase their unique talents and learn in ways that work for them.

So that’s it.  Those are the Seven Principles.  Again, think about what you’re doing in your course and how these principles may apply.

If you would like to learn more about the Seven Principles or how you can incorporate them into your courses, feel free to contact me, Garvey Pyke, at J-dot-G-dot-P-Y-K-E-at-u-n-c-c-dot-e-d-u or call me at 704-687-2675.  And of course, check out my next Podcast, where I go in depth into Principle number one, encouraging contact between students and faculty. 

Until then, so long, and remember: Teaching and Learning Matters.

Welcome to this episode of "Teaching and Learning Matters." I’m Maria Yon, faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The purpose of this session is to share some ideas about bringing closure to that all important last day of class.

The last day of class has arrived. A semester has ended. Do you realize that the students have reached another milestone in their lives? Do you realize that you have been an important part of them reaching that milestone? Over the semester you have developed a relationship with a group of students—teaching them, guiding them, motivating them, moving them forward both academically and personally.

Milestones are often a time for reflection and celebration. Perhaps it can be so with your class as a way to bring closure to the course and to honor this time of having been together.

Of course there are the usual activities that take place in the last days. Conducting a review session is generally expected by the students. It prepares the students for the final exam by pulling together the main themes or issues that will be covered. It can be done in a brief lecture. And it’s important to leave time for students’ questions so that they feel confident about the content.

Instead you might consider giving a simulated exam to then be checked and discussed as a group. Another possibility is for students to design the exam although you are responsible for the final product. Students will also want to know how long the exam will be and how best to prepare for it. These activities relieve students of the stress they may feel about how or what to study. Also, they will be more motivated to study if they know what to expect.

Student course evaluation forms are traditionally administered at the end of the term to elicit student feedback about a course and the instructor. It is helpful to stress to students the purpose of the questionnaire and how it will be used by your department and how you personally will use the results. And, of course, you will need to follow your department guidelines for administering the course evaluations.

But let’s get back to bringing closure to this important milestone. You can have students reflect on and discuss how the class has changed their beliefs or understandings about a topic. Or how they will take this information into their lives outside of class and use it.

An activity I find most useful is having students write a letter to a future class about the course. They seem to take it more seriously and are very thoughtful when writing for a real audience. Some of their letters are more philosophical, others give more practical guidelines about how to approach the course. Their insights have been useful to me in preparing the course for the next semester—sometimes even more than end-of-course evaluations.

Finally, it’s a time to show acknowledgement and appreciation. Students can acknowledge each other publically for their contributions during the semester. It is a time for you to acknowledge the group, and perhaps some individuals, for their efforts and participation. Emphasize specifically how they have affected you, what you have learned from them.

Wish them luck and offer your assistance to them in the future if they should every need it. And remember, some of them might be graduating now. Make sure that somehow their accomplishment is highlighted on that last day. I always like to offer some words of wisdom and best wishes for the future to all of them, but especially to the graduates.

Thanks for listening. Tune in again for more "Teaching and Learning Matters.