Gary Meers, Ed.D.

About me

I am an Education Advisor/Consultant for MaxKnowledge. I write courses that assist in the professional development of career college instructors. These courses range in content from the introductory level to advanced instructional development. I started my teaching career as an instructional technology teacher on the high school level, completed graduate school and then moved into higher education. I spent many years in the area of teacher training at the University of Nebraska. While at the University of Nebraska I stared working with career college instructors to improve their instructional delivery skills. As a result of these experiences I have been a consultant to career colleges throughout the United States and a number of foreign countries.

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Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Reinforcement as Motivation

Hi Robert, Right you are about encouragement. We all have students that we have to look hard for something positive to comment on. What I try to do is find that one thing I can make positive comments about and then outline what the student has to do in order to make improvement on the other areas. I show him/her the specifics of how they can improve their performance so they leave our session with a plan of action for improvement. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Instructor Enthusiasm

Hi Patti, Right you are about instructors taking content and make it exciting. What are some ways you make your content exciting for your students? Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Valuing Student Opinions

Hi Olga, You are doing a great job of blending both individual and group work together. This way each student and see how he/she can use their strengths to increase their learning opportunities. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Making Instruction Relevant

Hi Nora, You have hit upon a critical point that is the topic of discussion everywhere I go throughout the career college community. Faculty are asking for baseline assessments to determine where to start with their students. By having such their planning is much more productive. In my courses I do the baseline assessments myself since my college doesn't do them. This way I know from the beginning of the course what I can expect in terms of knowledge and skill from my students. This really helps me to be more effective and efficient. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Making Instruction Relevant

Hi Nora, Great strategy. This really helps the students to feel involved and have a say in the direction the discussions can take. I really like the "field experience" experts idea because it gives them some status in the field plus lets them use their expertise. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Teaching to Multiple Intelligences

Hi Nora, I know of what you are speaking since I teach a number of my courses using the same format and delivery as you. It does make it tough to offer the variety that students like and keeps them engaged. I know there constant improvements on the things that we can do with our online courses as technology gives additional tools to use. We do have to keep the human factor introduced in all of this and make sure our students can benefit from our experience and expertise even if we aren't meeting face to face. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Developing Clear Goals and Objectives

Hi Sabrina, Grading rubric are extremely valuable to and for students. They know where the points are located and how they are going to be evaluated in each section of the test, project or assignment. Your method of tying the rubric back to the objectives makes it very clear as to what they have learned and how they have been evaluated. I am sure this reduces a lot of complaining and increases the value of what they students have accomplished. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Kevin, Thank you for sharing these examples of how instructors have to be flexible in order to target their students and really impact their learning. One size fits all only works if you are buying a sack for clothing, otherwise the clothing has to be sized to fit you. This is what we must do as educators. I commend you for your efforts to do such with you online courses as well. I know this has to be quite a challenge due to class size and the format of the courses. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Steven, In relation to your instructional style being formed by past instructors you have had I think this is something that we all do as instructors. Those instructors we have had served as models for us as well as giving us a legacy that we can impart to our students. This is what makes teaching so exciting and rewarding. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Theresia, Thank you for sharing your experience as a new teacher and how you changed your delivery based upon student feedback and your own sense of teaching style. These comments will serve as an example for new instructors to think about as they work through their course content the first few times. As instructors we have to listen to and read our students if we are going to be successful in our delivery. Gary

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