10 Top Ways for Professors to Plan for the Spring Semester

The spring semesters are always filled with the promise of surpassing your goals for the fall semester. Will this spring be different for you? What do you plan to do differently?

Here are some tried and true items that I have to complete before I begin teaching classes.

1 - Look at the syllabus from last spring to see which aspects I would like to change for this semester.

2 - Update the dates on the syllabus.

3 - Figure out HOW I would like to communicate with the students this semester - Google Plus, Twitter, or Facebook (or all three)?

4 - Add the students's names to my Gradekeeper App for attendance and participation purposes.

5 - Update the Blackboard course structure to reflect the goals for this year's course. For example, if I would like for the students to achieve the learning outcomes for the course in a different way, I need to update the discussion questions, Twitter chat questions, etc.

6 - Contact individuals in the communication and social media industries for Twitter chat engagements to enable students to communicate with professionals working in the industry.

7 - Modify the syllabus on Google Documents. I always place my syllabus on Google documents to make sure it is easy to modify for the following semesters. Also, my students do not have to worry about purchasing and/or downloading any software to interact with different aspects of the course.

8 - Contact the students to introduce myself!

9 - Rest before the semester begins!

10 - Prep my office! I need a great ambiance before the semester starts!

Last, but not least... BREATHE!!! It will be a great semester!

Here's my post from the beginning of last semester!

http://www.millennialprofessor.com/2014/08/7-easy-ways-for-professors-to-prepare.html

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

Making the Switch from Teaching Undergraduate Students to Teaching Graduate Students

During the past few years, this millennial's life has been filled with CHANGE! New baby, new job, and NOW a change in teaching. Starting this month, I will teach my first graduate course. In the past, I've taught independent study graduate courses, but I am looking forward to teaching my first full group of graduate students.

This spring, the course will focus on social media technology and how it can be utilized in the work context. I hope to have several guest speakers (bloggers and other individuals from the industry) and to engage with the students in various interactive experiences (it is an online course). I definitely plan to utilize Google Communities and a few Twitter chats.

I definitely think that I would like to incorporate an "applicable" research project to create a finished product (perhaps an e-book), but I am still thinking about the possibilities.

Ideas are much appreciated!

Sincerely - @drjtedwardsTSU

College Professors - The "Good" , The "Bad", and the "Under Improvement" - My Top Four Books on College Teaching

Readers,

Here are my favorite books for college teaching! I have read each of the books and I LOVE the content and the innovative techniques. Check them out!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

The Year in Review - Top 10 Millennial Professor Blog Posts in 2011!

Readers,

This has been an amazing and exciting, yet tiring year! This week, we will review several TOP TEN lists that are focused on higher education! Today's list is focused on the Millennial Professor blog!

Monday - Top 10 Millennial Professor Blog Posts in 2011

Tuesday - Top 10 Higher Education News Stories in 2011

Wednesday - Top 10 Technology Trends in 2011 (and projections for 2012)

Thursday - Top 10 Education Technology Apps for Higher Education in 2011

Friday - Top 10 Wired Campus Blog Posts in 2011 & Freebie Friday!

Here are the Top 10 Millennial Professor Blog Posts in 2011:

By the way, THANKS for visiting our blog this year! We had 7,087 visits and 10,297 pageviews!

#1 - How to Cheat on Blackboard (1,078 views)

#2 - iPads in the College Classroom - The iPad Pilot and Loaner Programs (763 Views)

#3 - My Online Academic Portfolio (ePortfolio) via Google Sites! - Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards (161 views)

#4 - This Week is OVER! The To Do/Completed List  (147 Views)

#5 - iPod Touch: Classroom Response System (138 Views)

#6 - HBCUs vs. Historically White Colleges and Universities (127 Views)

#7 - My Goals for 2011! - Five Simple Things to Make Me Happy! (119 Views)

#8 - Netflix in the Classroom? (108 Views)

#9 - My 5 Favorite Educational iPad/iPod Apps (105 Views)

#10 - iPad Pilots in Higher Education - iPad Pilots (103 Views)

Enjoy! Thanks for all of your views this year! :)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Happy Finals Prep-Week! - The Mini-Mental Vacation (Professors and TV Series)

http://blog.hootmag.org/

Readers,

During finals prep week, I allow myself to do SOMETHING to veg out for a few minutes each day! This rest enables me to focus on other activities that comprise my daily mini-mental vacation! Every semester the mini-mental vacation is always focused on a different activity. Past semesters focused on television series (thank Netflix)! I admit, I love Bones, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, and Mad Men! Yes, I have reached the semi-middle-aged threshold that looks forward to the 5pm and 10pm news! 

This year, I focused my efforts on Pinterest (because I do not have time for anything else). :) Next week, I will focus on how college professors can use Pinterest in their classrooms.

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Texas Blackboard Users Conference (4/5) - New Developments on Blackboard

Readers,

Today is the first official day of the T-BUG conference! The opening session (breakfast) was amazing! Plus, they gave away an iPad during the breakfast session! :)

Blackboard Idea Exchange

Also, today I discovered that Blackboard has the Blackboard Idea Exchange (BIE). I hope to join the group soon.

BbWorld

This conference is coming up in July in New Orleans! I hope to submit a session proposal soon!

Also, here are some Blackboard Updates:

1- My Blackboard (an online social learning space similar to Facebook for students)

2 - Google Docs Integration

3 - Learning Project Repository (This is a great for academic departments who need to have embedded question for assessment purposes.)

4 - ePortfolio Updates

5 - Native Editor (You can download and upload documents without having to save separate copies on your system. I am not sure how this works, but we shall see!)

6 - Outcomes System (A tool to evaluate surveys and to post survey content.)

7 - The Blackboard Learn App (Our institution does not have access to this app yet.)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Texas Blackboard Users Conference (3/5) - Conference Schedule & Our Session (Establishing Collaboration Opportunities in Your Online Class)

Readers,

Today, I have to examine the T-BUG schedule to figure out which sessions I plan to attend.

Here's the schedule: http://www.t-bug.org/2011TBUGprogram_dallas.pdf

I downloaded this PDF schedule to my iPad library for easy access (even without internet or 3G access - which can be VERY spotty in hotels).

Here are the session tracks:

UPGRADE:

Of interest to anyone who is going through an upgrade, about to go through an upgrade, or thinking 

about doing an upgrade.

SUPPORT:

Held Desk, Technology Teams, Student Support Staff,

Faculty Support Staff, Instructional Designers. Of i

nterest to anyone who supports Blackboard users.

TEACHING AND LEARNING:

Instructors, Adjuncts, Teaching Assistants, Course

Designers, Instructional Designers.  Of interest to

anyone who delivers or designs instructional contents.

VENDOR SHOWCASES:

Come see what the vendors are doing and how they 

collaborate with Blackboard to enhance your current

system

Here's our session:

Room: Longhorn IV

Establishing Collaboration Opportunities in Your Online 

Class 

Credence Baker, Tarleton State University
Jennifer T. Edwards, Tarleton State University

In this session, you’ll be introduced to several different free       

web-based tools that can be used to foster collaboration among 

students in your online class. Incorporating collaboration           

opportunities gives students a chance to sharpen their virtual-team 

skills, and allows you to provide students with real-time scaffolding 

and feedback, monitor progress, and keep track of who has      

contributed to a project

Processing Question: Every session seems very interesting! Which sessions should I attend?

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Texas Blackboard Users Conference (2/5) - While I am Away from Campus...

Readers,

As I prepare to attend the T-BUG Conference, I have to prepare my face-to-face and online courses for my temporary transition from campus.

Here is my conference to do list for this week:

1 - Remember to bring my iPad and laptop (plus snacks).

2 - Remind students about the "Virtual Assignments" for this week in the daily class agenda that I post on the board before each class begins (while I take attendance).

3 - Post my weekly announcements/checklist for the online students.

4 - Remind students that they might experience a two-hour delay in my e-mail replies,  but I remind them about my Google Voice account.

5 - Create 50 Google Documents for the students to post their undergraduate research reflections.

**I never post a "out of office" message on my e-mail, nor on my voice mail, because usually I am able to respond to messages in a timely manner.**

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Texas Blackboard Users Conference (1/5) - Anticipation and Apprehension

Readers,

This week, I am excited about attending the "Texas Blackboard Users Group" Conference in Richardson, TX. However, I am slightly apprehensive about integrating Blackboard 9 in my online and hybrid courses, because our university is still in the pilot phase of the LMS integration period.

So, I plan to attend this conference with an OPEN mind and hopefully I will meet some individuals who can change my mind about Blackboard 9. This shall be interesting!

Also, I would like to formally thank Dr. Credence Baker for including me in this awesome opportunity! Here is some more information about T-BUG: http://www.t-bug.org/. 

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Hello Fall 2011 - Post 4/5 - My Personal and Professional Goals for Fall 2011!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lululemonathletica/

Readers,

Here are the goals for this semester! Keep me accountable!

Professional Goals:

1 - Help at least four student groups submit their research papers for publication.

2 - Help at least six student groups submit their research papers for the various symposiums this semester.

3 - Submit at least three of my own articles for publication.

4 - Write at least three articles this semester.

5 - Plan the "Social Media Conference 2011"! :)

6 - Keep my blog updated.

Personal Goals:

1 - Save, save, save! :)

2 - Start fall/winter garden.

3 - Cook meals at home instead of eating out.

4 - Serve the college student ministry at our church!

5 - Build better interpersonal relationships!

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Hello Fall 2011 (2/5) - Time Management Strategies for the Semester (Responding to E-mail)

Readers,

This semester, I decided that I need to refine my time management skills and to establish a better balance between work and personal life. I usually respond to messages from my online and face-to-face classes within an hour (or two), but this year, I think that I am going to move to a 12 hour time frame. Responding to e-mail messages can become a very time consuming process and I have to reduce the amount of time that I spend typing and retyping replies to e-mail messages.

Here are some time management strategies that I currently use:

1 - When a few students have the same question, I send the students an initial response and then I send the response to all students in a question and answer format.

2 - I save ALL of my received messages and sent messages every semester. The pdf documents from each semester have helped me to form a wonderful repository of message replies. Then, I copy and paste the answers to questions that I typically encounter every semester. :)

Here are some time management strategies that I plan to use:

1 - Replying to students within a 12 hour time frame (while I am at work and during office hours at home).

2  - Typing responses on my iPad. For some reason, I dislike my pop-up iPad keyboard and I started using the Apple bluetooth keyboard instead of the keyboard on the screen. I love this keyboard MUCH better than the keyboard on the screen!

Do you have any suggestions for me? I value your suggestions! :)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

New Semester Prep Week (4/5) - The Importance of the Syllabus in Teaching (Stony Brook University)

Readers,

I strive to incorporate a video (or two) at least once a week in my lectures. As I prepare for the fall semester, I wanted to check to see if there were any videos focused on the syllabus and/or the importance of the syllabus in the college classroom. Stony Brook University had some very informational videos about this subject:

Stony Brook University - The Importance of the Syllabus in Teaching (Part 1)

Stony Brook University - The Importance of the Syllabus in Teaching (Part 2)

Enjoy!

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

New Semester Prep Week (2/5) - "Why Checklists Work"

Readers,

The Profhacker blog is famous for a wealth of wonderful posts focused on teaching, technology, and productivity tips. Recently, Natalie Houston (one of the ProfHacker writers), wrote a great piece titled "Why Checklists Work". 


Based on the book, The Checklist Manifesto, this post was very informative for professors who strive to become more productive in the fall semester. This was VERY exciting for me, because I use checklists on a daily basis!

In her post, she focuses on the following:

1 - Two Kinds of Checklists

*Read-Do

*Do-Confirm

2 - Creating Your Checklist

*Keep it simple.

*Make it usable.

*Try it out and edit as necessary.

Check out her post! - http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/why-checklists-work/35331?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

New Semester Prep Week (1/5) - My Long-Semester Checklist

Readers,


When preparing for a new semester, what game plan do you usually adopt? I refer to my long semester checklist, which includes the following:


1 - Write an pre-course e-mail to each of the students in my online courses. This includes my expectations for the semester, an overview of the course, the technical requirements for the course, and 


2 - Uploading the blackboard courses from the repository.


3 - Changing the dates on the assignments.


4 - Finalizing the last draft of the syllabus.


5 - Uploading the syllabus on blackboard.


6 - Check each of the widgets on blackboard (Twitter and Yahoo Instant Messenger) to make sure that they are compatible with the new blackboard course.


7 - Draft the e-mail for the first week of school (complete with action items for the week).


8 - Make paper copies of the syllabus.


9 - Print my roll for the semester.


10 - Check my notes for the first week of school! :)


What are some items on your to do list?


Sincerely,


J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

My Summer Reflection - A Wealth of Opportunities and Experiences

Readers,

This summer has been incredibly busy! I am teaching two 10-week online classes (upper-level communication studies courses), working with an undergraduate researcher on a project, and organizing my home for the upcoming semester!

Despite the number of projects that I have this summer, I am very grateful for this small amount of time with my friends and family. I value my vegetable garden (in spite of the Texas heat) and my fruit trees. This summer, I tried a new activity...yoga! It has been a great stress reducer for me and my husband.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/waynesutton/

Unfortunately, my online teaching schedule and academic conference schedules have left little time for research. So, I will definitely have to play catch up in the fall semester. Since I started the undergraduate research projects in my upper-level communication courses, I am forced to "model the way" for the students and write a complete research paper for them to create their research papers. None of the topics are the same and their papers follow a similar format to my papers, but they take their own research approaches! :) Very rewarding! I cannot wait for the students to submit their papers to a journal! :) I need to submit my papers to a journal as well! :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/umkc

I hope you are having a great summer and that you are experiencing a slightly more productive summer with your research! :)

Sincerely,

J. Edwards

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

Teaching Tip - Forwarding Blackboard Mail to University or Personal E-mail Accounts

Readers,

Last week, I received a lot of comments regarding blackboard mail. Here's a video that I made for my students to show them how to forward their blackboard messages to their e-mail accounts.

Enjoy!

Any questions? :)

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Become a fan of Millennial Professor on Facebook - http://goo.gl/gnN41

International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - IJTLHE New Issue: 22(1)

Readers,


As all of you know, I LOVE reading journal articles for fun! Well, it IS fun to discover effective ways to use technology and to use new teaching methods in the classroom. Here is a list of articles from the recent issue of the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Enjoy! 


Here's the link to the journal - http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/current.cfm


Balancing Theory and Practical Work in a Humanoid Robotics Course
» » Krister Wolff; Mattias Wahde;

———
Co-Creating Metaphor in the Classroom for Deeper Learning: Graduate Student Reflections
» » Ashlee Cunsolo Willox; Sherilee Harper; Dawson Bridger; Stephanie Morton; Ariella Orbach; Silvia Sarapura;

———
Developing an Undergraduate Global Citizenship Program: Challenges of Definition and Assessment
» » Jill Sperandio; Magdalena Grudzinski-Hall; Hannah Stewart-Gambino;

———
Exploring Leadership as a Phenomenon in an Educational Leadership Paper: An Innovative Pedagogical Approach Opens the Unexpected
» » David Giles; Michele Morrison;

———
How Prepared are the U.S. Preservice Teachers to Teach English Language Learners?
» » Aydin Yucesan Durgunoglu; Trudie Hughes;

———
Inquiry Based Method: A Case Study to Reduce Levels of Resistance
» » Shirley Mthethwa-Sommers;

———
Introducing Students to Ways of Thinking and Acting Like a Researcher: A Case Study of Research-led Education in the Sciences
» » Krisztina Valter; Gerlese Akerlind;

———
Linking Communalism to Achievement Correlates for Black and White Undergraduates
» » Kenneth Tyler; Keisha Love; Carrie Brown; Clarissa Roan-Belle; Denela Thomas; Patton Garriott;

———
Master’s Degree “Educating in Diversity” (MDED): Toward Inclusion Education Quality
» » Olga M. Alegre; Luis M. Villar;

———
Performance Assessment: Lessons from Performers
» » Kelly A. Parkes;

———
Perspective-Taking in Structured and Unstructured Online Discussions
» » Scott Chadwick; Ekaterina Ralston;

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Google vs. Blackboard - Is It a Reality?

Readers,

My husband and I are huge Google fans. In fact, I integrate Google into my blackboard course ANY POSSIBLE way that I can! Through my non-existent "power point slides"... they are all Google Presentations now... to my online assignments through Google Forms, I do not even have to log on to Blackboard (which can sometimes be a cumbersome process) to check students' progress on an assignment.

Lately, my husband has been asking... "So, why doesn't Google complete with Blackboard"? Apparently, a lot of people have been pondering the same question. Here's an article that I discovered today, "Google: Groupon? Not Blackboard?"

In the article, the author states, "Google should buy Blackboard and take the following actions:

• Move gBlackboard as quickly as the market will bear to an all cloud-based, multi-tenancy delivery system. This will drastically reduce implementation costs, allowing the price of the software to drop quickly.

• Deeply integrate gBlackboard with Google Apps for Education, gDrive (Google Storage), and the content available on YouTube/EDU.

• Follow a plan to bring the licensing fee for public institutions to gBlackboard down to zero.

These actions may prove to be great moves for the increasing amount of cash-strapped higher education institutions who are actively seeking cost-cutting measures to help them stay afloat.

Google - If you hear us, we need an intervention!

Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Blackboard Users: EMBEDDING is your BEST FRIEND!

Readers,

Since blackboard is my BEST friend, this summer I started embedding EVERYTHING. Surveys, rubrics, etc. I teach two courses online and two upper-level courses and it is not an easy process to change (or update a power point/document). Uploading is a cumbersome process and it requires users to:


1. Plug in the external drive.
2. Find the file.
3. Correct the file.
4. Log on to blackboard.
5. Find the course.
6. Find the document I need to replace.
7. Delete the document I need to replace.
8. Find my new document on the external drive (the corrected file).
9. Upload the corrected file.
10. Change the username.
*I have to go through these steps EVERY semester!


Now, with my favorite program of all time (Google Documents). I can create a document, embed the document, and add a link (for users who have a firewall).


Here are the steps that I follow:
1. Create the presentation.
2. Share the presentation (upper-right hand corner).
3. Embed the presentation on blackboard.


If I EVER need to update the document, I simply log on to my Google Docs account and correct the document without EVER logging on blackboard! Voila!


Here is a sample Google Presentation for my Intercultural Communication course:

Here is a sample Google Presentation for my Online Communication course:

There are numerous opportunities for Google Presentations! Any additional ideas?


Millennial Professor - Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.

Preparing to Teach Online Courses - A Preliminary Checklist

Readers,

If you teach high school or college courses online, it is wonderful to prepare for your course ahead of time. However, if you have a personality like mine, you have to plan WAY ahead of time to make sure your course runs smoothly. This week, I am finishing a to do list for my syllabus creation boot camp next week! (I will post this soon!)

Here is a great article featuring ideas for online faculty. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-teaching-tips-it-pays-to-sweat-the-small-stuff/

And a few of their suggestions:

Always be positive in your feedback and postings. 


Be sure that page numbers in assignments match the text(s).


Be sure that page numbers in assignments match the text(s).


Keep track of the errors and oversights you discover for future courses. 


Which one is your favorite?


Millennial Professor
Jennifer T. Edwards, Ed.D.