Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Www (When Websites Work): Students’ Perceptions Of Their Engagement When Using A Website Creation Tool, Jamie J. Els

Perspectives In Learning

When students find value in technology and can apply that technology in their learning and beyond, they become more actively engaged in the classroom. After having first-year seminar students use Web 2.0 technology, specifically a website creation tool as part of an assignment, they participated in a survey to provide feedback over their engagement in creating a Google Sites® website. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed to determine students’ perceptions of their engagement when using website creation tools to complete a modified discussion assignment. Results indicated students were significantly more engaged than the normal population when they used …

Evaluating Active Lecture And Traditional Lecture In Higher Education, Kathleen Klein, Jennifer Calabrese, Adam Aguiar, Sunny Mathew, Kimoni Ajani, Rania Almajid, Jennifer Aarons

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional and active lecture methods in higher-education courses. A multiple group convergent parallel mixed method design was used, with measurement of learning, attention, and student preference for active or traditional lecture methods. Six faculty at a public university in the northeast region of the United States engaged 178 undergraduate and graduate students in a traditional lecture session and an active lecture session during the Spring 2022 semester. Results indicated effectiveness of active and traditional lecture approaches (p < .05). Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data in the study provides additional information regarding student preference for active lecture based on perceptions of increased learning benefits, interaction/engagement, attention, activities, discussion, and the use of multimedia. In implementing both traditional and active lecture sessions this study employed pre-lecture and post-lecture quizzes that students found to be very beneficial to learning.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 7, Issue 2, Fall 2023

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Fall 2023 issue (Volume 7, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

The Fall 2023 issue presents research and guidance on topics related to educational adaptation. The first article by C. Farrell describes an adaptation of the interteaching method to the hybrid delivery method. The second article by C. C. Loose and R. Jagielo-Manion describes a study of modules on personalized learning to preservice teachers and its impact on their comfort level and preparation to implement personalized learning in their classrooms. The third article by B. …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 5, Issue 1, Spring 2021

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Spring 2021 issue (Volume 5, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Enacting Rhetorical Listening: A Process To Support Students’ Engagement With Challenging Course Readings, Jessica Rivera-Mueller

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Many educators assign course readings to purposefully enlarge students’ perspectives. In doing so, though, educators may face a range of behaviors—reluctance, resistance, avoidance, disengagement—from students who feel that such readings negatively press upon their prior knowledge, belief systems, or educational goals. This teaching challenge is often present for social justice educators. However, “rhetorical listening,” a rhetorical theory developed by Ratcliffe (2005), is a pedagogical tool that can help shift students’ understandings of and expectations for the activity of reading, thereby creating a learning environment that supports meaningful engagement with challenging course readings. In this article, the author outlines a process …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 4, Issue 2

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Fall 2020 issue (Volume 4, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 3, Issue 1, Kim Hales

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Spring 2019 issue (Volume 3, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence, Spring 2019

Why Ask Why?, Beth Kraemer, Beth Fuchs, Jennifer Hootman, Debbie Sharp

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The History Of Design, Patrick Lucas, Helen Turner, Trey Conatser

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Teaching Stem For The Public Good, Rita Basuray

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

On Rapport: Connecting With Students, Brandi Frisby

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Inquiry, Discovery, And The Complexities Of Teaching: Learning From The Research Of Practitioners, Angela Hooser, Laura Sabella

Journal of Practitioner Research

In this opening article, Guest Editors Angela Hooser and Laura Sabella define the purpose of this special themed issue of Journal of Practitioner Research: Inquiry, Discovery, and the Complexities of Teaching: Learning from the Research of Practitioners and introduce the seven pieces of teacher research published in this volume that encapsulate this theme.

Engagement Across The Miles: Using Videoconferencing With Small Groups In Synchronous Distance Courses, Amy Piotrowski, Marla Robertson

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

This article presents suggestions for conducting small group work in synchronous distance courses taught using Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) systems. One challenge of teaching over an IVC system is getting students involved in class activities. The authors share how they have used a videoconferencing tool to break up IVC classes into small groups for discussion activities and get peer feedback on written work. These activities engage students in applying what they are learning and constructing knowledge through discussion with their peers.

The Apparition Of These Screens In The Crowd, Trey Conatser

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

To unpack some of our assumptions about attention, learning, and technology in the classroom, CELT's Trey Conatser spoke with Dr. Yuha Jung and Dr. Rachel Shane of the Department of Arts Administration. Jung and Shane have worked with colleagues to integrate technologies into their teaching so that students are more likely to be on task. What follows is an informal exploration of what it means to pay attention and to learn in the context of the contested value of digital technologies.

Entitled Or Engaged?, Kate Collins

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

Recent student activism on campus, particularly around safe spaces, trigger warnings, and microaggressions, has led to rising criticism lobbied against millennials as a generation unwilling to engage opposing beliefs or challenging discourse. Yet, taking into consideration all that young adults navigate to pursue higher education, their dissident presence on campus does more to reveal how they actively participate in the world, including their education.

Building Positive Student-Instructor Interactions: Engaging Students Through Caring Leadership In The Classroom, Oscar J. Solis, Windi D. Turner

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

When instructing and managing classrooms in university settings, instructors face numerous challenges such as student disengagement and managing course expectations. In this article, we offer new and revised techniques and strategies to engage students through the art of caring leadership. We accomplish this through three defining characteristics: knowing students’ names, managing course expectations, and the use of technology. These intentional strategies create positive student-instructor interactions in both small and large classrooms which in turn enhances student learning and engagement.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 1, Issue 1

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

For our inaugural issue, we reviewed the feedback from our 2016 ETE faculty conference—an event for USU faculty hosted every August on the USU main campus. We identified several of the presenters who received high marks in post-session surveys and invited them to submit a proceedings paper for their presentation. Many responded, and their papers now comprise the majority of this issue. Because most of the articles began as stand-up presentations for a conference, several adopt a first-person narrative style in which the authors share examples of things they have tried in their teaching that have worked. In the process …

Discussion In The College Classroom: Getting Your Students Engaged And Participating In Person And Online. Jay R. Howard, 2015, Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 224 Pp., $38.00 (Hardcover)., Tiffany Flowers

Journal of Research Initiatives

Discussion in the college classroom is an important and timely book for college level instructors who want to improve, revise, and deliver engaging courses across disciplines. The purpose of this work is to help college instructors understand the purpose behind fostering classroom discussions. Issues related to participation, classroom management, and class facilitation is discussed within this work. College instructors who teach face-to-face and online courses will find the content of this book useful. In the next section of this review, the reviewer provides a detailed overview of each chapter in the book and discusses the importance of this body of …

“Initially, We Were Just Names On A Computer Screen”: Designing Engagement In Online Teacher Education, Sharon M. Pittaway, Timothy Moss

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper describes a research project that investigated the process of redesigning a fully-online unit, in order to enhance undergraduate Education students’ engagement in their learning. This redesign was guided by the development of an Engagement Framework, which presents five elements of engagement that are distinct yet interrelated. The results of this redesigned unit indicate that this Engagement Framework has the potential to offer unit developers and instructors a strong pedagogical and theoretical foundation for enhancing engagement in online learning. This paper provides a description of the Engagement Framework, the processes undertaken in redesigning a fully-online unit, the findings, and …