• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Teaching in Higher Ed

  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • SPEAKING
  • Media
  • Recommendations
  • About
  • Contact

Essential Word Processor Features for Faculty

By Bonni Stachowiak | November 1, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Word Processor

I was helping a student get prepared for a job interview yesterday. She said that half of her time at the company was going to be spent in a one-on-one interview, while the other half of the time would be devoted to an assessment of her Word and Excel skills.

She admitted to not being adept at Excel, but touted her Word skills, since she had been using it extensively in her current internship. I inquired as to whether or not she knew how to set tabs. She said she knew how to “tab over,” but didn't even know what I meant when I asked about “setting” a tab.

I have the utmost confidence in her ability to do well on the interview. She will quickly be able to learn more of the word processing and spreadsheet skills she needs and the organization she's interviewing with will have an exceptional intern.

However, it did get me thinking about the most common features in word processors that many faculty don't utilize, which ultimately make their work harder in the long run.

Here are the most essential features I recommend you leverage, when using a word processor:

Use Styles

If you've written an academic paper, or a manual of some kind, you've likely made use of headings and subheadings. However, most people don't know that you can create a style in your word processor that, when applied, automatically places that formatting on a given line/paragraph. There are some built-in styles in most word processors, which you can modify at any time to have the look-and-feel that you want.

This documentation shows you how to create styles in Microsoft Word, but you're only a search away from discovering how to use styles in whatever word processor you happen to use.

Here's a video of how to create styles in Microsoft Word from Lynda.com*.

Auto-create a Table of Contents

Once you have styles set up in your document, it becomes incredibly easy to auto-create a table of contents in your document. After you auto-create a table of contents, you can come back later and right-click and choose update, to have the table of contents reflect any changes you have made in your document since you first created it.

Here's how to auto-create a table of contents in Microsoft Word.

This video shows you how to quickly create a table of contents, and incorporates a review of applying styles, as was discussed, above.

Insert Page or Section Breaks (Versus Pressing Enter a Bunch of Times)

When you want to move down to a new page in your document, many people are tempted to accomplish this goal by pressing enter a bunch of times. The problem with this is that, if you make changes to your document down the road, your page breaks will all likely be shifted a bit and your pages will not appear as you originally desired.

Instead, if you insert a page break, or a section break – new page, you can be assured that no matter what changes you make to the document, a new page will appear where you originally intended. Section breaks are helpful if you want to have a different page numbering scheme (like roman numerals at the start of a document that then move into regular numbers), or if you want each section of a document to have a different header (like perhaps the name of the chapter or section of a document). Page breaks can be inserted and also can be deleted, if you change your mind later.

Here's the documentation on how to insert a page break in Microsoft Word.

Below is a short video on how to insert a page break in Microsoft Word.

Next Steps

Those are just three features in a word processor that have a lot of leverage, but it is really just the beginning of finding ways to save yourself time. I've found that the website Lynda.com* has plenty of video tutorials to help me work more effectively with many different technology tools. Here's a referral link* that will allow you to receive a free, 2-week trial to their service*, which I highly recommend.

Your Turn

What features do you consider most essential in getting the most out of a word processor?

Filed Under: Resources

Sharing on Utopistica About Teaching in Higher Ed

By Bonni Stachowiak | October 25, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Utopistica

I was honored to get to speak with Lina Gomez for the Utopistica YouTube television show, from the Universidad del Este, Puerto Rico, a few weeks ago.

Utopística, programa de discusión y análisis que procura constatar la realidad como precondición para la formulación de alternativas verosímiles de futuro

Lina asked challenging questions that really got me to reflect about how my experience with Teaching in Higher Ed has changed my teaching, since June of 2014, when it launched. Their professional setup for the show made me really wish that we had a green screen in our home studio.

It looks like I'm shaking my fists in anger (or celebration?) in the still shot for the video. Instead, I'm imitating myself playing the Ellen Head's Up game (without using my iPad as a prop).

The interview is in English.

Resources Mentioned During the Interview

  • Attendance2 app
  • Retrieval Practice
  • PollEverywhere
  • Ellen’s Heads Up Game with Custom Decks
  • Research in Action Podcast
  • Plickers
  • Sticky Notes as a Teaching Tool
  • Peer Instruction episode with Peter Newbury
  • Harold Jarche: Personal Knowledge Management
  • Episode with Ken Bain
  • Episode 100: The Failure Episode
  • Inbox Zero episode
  • Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
  • Music’s Role in Our Teaching
  • Choose Your Own Adventure Assessment
  • Episode with Linda Nelson on Specifications Grading

Paul Simon

I also reminisced about how one of my college professors got me to learn more about history by playing Paul Simon before and after classes.


Filed Under: Resources

Engaging Students Using Quizlet Live

By Bonni Stachowiak | October 18, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Quizlet Live

I’m experimenting with flashcards in my teaching this semester. For as long as I’ve been teaching, I’ve strongly recommended flashcards to my students. However, I knew most students didn’t follow through on the advice.

Over the summer, I decided to have my teaching assistant make flash cards for my entire introduction to business course. I recognized that some of the benefits from flashcards are derived by actually making them, yourself. However, I suspected that a larger percentage of students would receive at least some advantages that this form of retrieval practice offers, even if they didn’t make them from scratch.

After doing a little bit of research on possible tools, I decided to select Quizlet as the app for this function.

Results

In my recent mid-semester review, many students commented that the flashcards were contributing to their learning. However, I was concerned that the focus was still on memorization and not enough on application.

This wasn’t the fault of Quizlet, of course, but more so that having baseline knowledge of terms and their associated definitions will only take us so far.

I also was concerned that they were only likely accessing the flash cards, at best, once a week. That level of frequency wasn’t going to prove anywhere near as useful as if they could increase the times they accessed them.

Some students have downloaded the Quizlet app on their phones and have reported being more likely to review them a few times each week. I have the flashcards embedded from within our LMS, which ensures that they’ll likely go through them at least that one time, but doesn’t provide any more accountability than that.

Something New

Overall, my thoughts this semester about Quizlet have been positive, though I already have some ideas about how I might want to tweak things next time around.

However, this week I tried a new feature of Quizlet, in class, and was instantly in awe.

Quizlet Live

The name of this feature is Quizlet Live. It is a game that you can play with a minimum of six students (two teams of three), all of whom have a mobile device.

Introducing Quizlet Live from Quizlet on Vimeo.

I’ve got around 30 students in this class. When I accessed the flashcard deck that reviews for our upcoming exam, I chose to use Quizlet Live.

It brought up a code on my computer that all the students entered into their phones. Then, I had the option of having teams randomly created, or assigning students to teams.

Students then moved around the classroom to sit next to their teammates. Each student saw a question on their devices and 3-4 possible answers.

Only one of the students on a team had the correct answer on their screen, so they spent a lot of time comparing possible answers and discussing the likelihood of one of their answers being the correct one.

On my computer, a scoreboard was displayed, showing each team’s progression. With each correct answer, their team’s circle would move forward on the line. With each incorrect answer, their team’s circle moved all the way back to the beginning.

Recommendation

I wish I had a video of the students playing the game, or at least some audio. Every single student in the room was completely engaged.

They laughed. They groaned. They failed. They tried again.

Quizlet Live provided information about what the students learned while playing, as well as where they need additional clarification.

I will need to think about how to review more effectively, next time. I’m afraid I may have skipped too quickly back to the game play, for another round, versus providing them with further explanations of difficult concepts.

Still, I highly suggest you check out Quizlet Live for an interactive way of reviewing in one of your courses. This tool is especially good for the kind of information that would be suitable to put on a flashcard.

Filed Under: Educational Technology

Curated Episodes that Have Most Impacted My Teaching

By Bonni Stachowiak | October 12, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

NetworkLinked In used to provide a way for us to visualize our network connections in a graphical format. After talking with Bonnie Stewart, recently, about networked pedagogy, I keep wondering how my map has changed since I first wrote this reflection on my network visualization more than five years ago.

Certainly, more of my connections initiate from social media now. I have found more of what Seth Godin calls a tribe through virtual connections, than I ever do in my local community.

When I want to lament about race relations in the United States, I'm just as likely to reach out to my Egyptian friend, Maha Bali, than I am to people I see face-to-face. I find far more challenging and creative teaching ideas through the blogs I subscribe to, than I do in hallway conversations.

I was honored to be interviewed by Lina Gomez for a forthcoming episode of Utopistica a couple of weeks ago. She asked me one question that was incredibly difficult to answer. She wanted to know which Teaching in Higher Ed interview has impacted me the most, in terms of it being challenging and encouraging. I wanted to go with the safe answer and say that I just couldn't narrow it down.

Instead, I shared that it was probably the episode with Ken Bain, since I'm still thinking about how to capture the essence of my courses through a compelling question. His precise challenge to us was to think of the following as we design (and redesign) each of our courses:

Ask engaging questions that spark people’s curiosity and fascination that people find intriguing… – Ken Bain

Also, I made a complete idiot out of myself on the episode, when I read, verbatim, the autocorrected version of The Minerva Prize as “The Manure Prize.”

I decided to create an actual Manure Award that we award annually, to professors who share their failures with the community. The first Manure Award was presented to Maha Bali on episode #100 of the podcast. Others shared their failure stories that encourage us to continue to take risks in our teaching and never settle for safe.

There are so many other episodes that continue to “speak” to me daily in my work. If I would have thought it was appropriate during the Utopistica interview, I probably would have tried to squeeze at least ten episodes into the conversation, that continue to shape me and challenge me today.

Ten Episodes that Shape My Teaching Daily

  1. Episode 19: Cheating Lessons, with James Lang
  2. Episode 30: Teaching Naked, with Jose Bowen
  3. Episode 23: Teaching with Twitter with Jesse Stommel (and more so from what he says about kindness on the episode than even the other magnificent things he had to say about Twitter)
  4. Episode 71: Flipping Out with Derek Bruff (he competely changed my thinking about the best approach for the flipped classroom / blended learning)
  5. Episode 72: How to Use Cognitive Psychology to Enhance Learning with Robert Bjork (the most observable differences in my teaching from before learning about retrieval practice to after come from this conversation with Robert Bjork, when I was first introduced to the approach)
  6. Episode 92: Small Teaching, with James Lang (currently, the most listened to episode)
  7. Episode 87: What the Best Digital Teachers Do, with Sean Michael Morris
  8. Episode 118: Teacher Becomes Student Through LIFE101, with Mike Wesch (even though it is a recent one, I already know this conversation is going to continue to shape my teaching for years to come)
  9. Episode 112: Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto, with Kevin Gannon
  10. Episode 107: Engaging Learners, with Gardner Campbell

The list, above, is not in any particular order. Let's just say I had about 10-15 other tabs open in my browser for consideration. I tried to keep this list as episodes that have observably changed my teaching, versus ones that I think are full of tremendous ideas that I haven't been able to act on just yet.

I am so thankful for all the people who have accepted the invitation to be on the podcast. It is humbling to get to talk to such phenomenal teachers each week.

How about you? What episode(s) has most shaped your teaching?

 

Filed Under: Personal knowledge mastery

Course Evaluations and Mid-Semester Feedback

By Bonni Stachowiak | October 5, 2016 | | XFacebookLinkedInEmail

Mid-semester feedback

There's a lot of talk at my institution about course evaluations right now, since we are moving ours online and also changing the questions that students are asked.

My conversation about course evaluations with Betsy Barre is still rattling around in my head. She has written a fabulous post about whether or not course evaluations really deserve an “F”, which is totally worth a read. This course evaluation literature review compiled by Betsy is also a terrific resource.

Try not to get too lost in this interactive tool for looking at the gendered language that exists on RateMyProfessor.com. Try not to get too depressed by these warnings about response rates going down, once you move evaluations online, not to mention these cautionary tales about these surveys not actually measuring teaching effectiveness.

I'm thankful that there are pioneers out there, trying to do something that gets closer to evaluating what we truly want to assess. Those who “teach out loud” like Ken Bauer and Doug Kee also inspire me, since if we reflect on and share our teaching successes and failures, we seem that much more likely to continue to get better over time.

Mid-semester Feedback

Next week, we cross over the half-way mark in our semester. I spent about five minutes during class on Monday gathering feedback from students, about ten minutes compiling the input into a Word document, and another five minutes in class today sharing the document with them.

Getting Input

I asked my class to take out a sheet of paper and divide it into three columns. At the top of the columns, I asked them to write: start – stop – keep.

Then, I asked them to divide the page into three rows: one for self, one for the class, and one related to the professor.

Consolidating the Feedback

In Microsoft Word, I created the same row/column structure I had asked the students to create on their pages and then typed in their feedback. If they had similar feedback, I combined them and indicated in parenthesis how many other students had the same feedback.

I highlighted in yellow those comments that a large percentage of them had in common. I also highlighted in blue, those things that were stated by one or two people who may be missing key aspects of the class (e.g. the two people who wished there were some sample essay questions they could have, in advance of the exam, when in fact I give them sample essay questions an average of twice a week). I wanted to be sure to take the opportunity to share even more about how the class structure is built to help them do well on assignments and exams.

Sharing with the Class

If we're going to spend class time asking for feedback, it is important to let the class know what you took away from the input and any changes you plan on making.

In my class, I shared that for the self-reflection, students seem to most want to start studying early/more, stop procrastinating, and keep coming to class consistently. The class seemed to want to be building more of a community together and there were patterns about bringing some type of food to class (we meet at noon), and a few random ideas about outside class events they may decide to hold. Finally, students expressed a desire for me to start holding more review sessions outside of class and to keep reviewing through retrieval practice-oriented games and other in-class exercises.

Getting the Most Out of Mid-Semester Feedback

I will admit to being sometimes reluctant to do mid-semester feedback. If you have tried it before, you may have even inadvertently conditioned yourself out of doing it more often, since it doesn't always bring out the most positive or helpful of feedback.

However, my approach is to keep the time invested to a minimum, but still be sure to obtain valuable feedback about the aspects of my class that I may not be able to see. Also, the method I described above helps my students grow their metacognition skills, since they're also reflecting on what they want to start, stop, and keep doing.

Here are a few other ways to get the most value out of mid-semester feedback:

  • Avoid feeling like you have to react or even respond to every suggested change. Focus, instead, on patterns that emerge in the feedback.
  • Be sure to circle back with the students about what you observed through the feedback and any changes you plan on making as a result. Sometimes, faculty do the start, stop, keep in class as a group, which can work, but could potentially leave you wondering how the less vocal people are experiencing your class.
  • Thank the students for their feedback and let them know how important it is to you always continuing to make your own teaching grow and develop, just like you'll hope they commit to being lifelong learners in their own lives.

Have you completed any mid-semester feedback yet? If so, what have you discovered?

 

Filed Under: Teaching

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 26
  • Page 27
  • Page 28
  • Page 29
  • Page 30
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 62
  • Go to Next Page »

TOOLS

  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Community
  • Weekly Update

RESOURCES

  • Recommendations
  • EdTech Essentials Guide
  • The Productive Online Professor
  • How to Listen to Podcasts

Subscribe to Podcast

Apple PodcastsSpotifyAndroidby EmailRSSMore Subscribe Options

ABOUT

  • Bonni Stachowiak
  • Speaking + Workshops
  • Podcast FAQs
  • Media Kit
  • Lilly Conferences Partnership

CONTACT

  • Get in Touch
  • Support the Podcast
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy Policy

CONNECT

  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Teaching in Higher Ed | Designed by Anchored Design