Barry Westling

Carolyn, You're right, a well prepared teacher is anchored to the promise of a solid, organized pursuit of clear direction, instruction and instructions, and clarity for that class session. How nice to be able to rely on the back-up of the assurance of strength through preparation! Barry Westling

John-Howard, Yes, and for me, I think if we want to measure learning, we have to have some objective, fair, and acceptable way to assess if and to what degree learning occured. Barry Westling

John-Howard, A lot of good information that relates well to content specific to individual course topics or career areas. Barry Westling

Shawna, You bet. With good preparation, students are going to be more receptive to the instructor who engages them as the result of solid preparation and interesting class sessions. Barry Westling

Shawna, This is great. Viewing graded material instantaneously coupled with some positive encouragement and feed back from the instructor can do wonders to make a student feel they know where they stand and that their instructor cares about their learning and success. Barry Westling

Tara, I would suggest you don't even adopt an extra credit policy. This practice can be viewed by stronger students (who don't need EC) as unfair. Also grading may be viewed as subjective. And points earned from EC often skew final grades. It's really a question of "measuring learning" vs "raising grades" (which may have little to do with learning). As educators, I think most would prefer to measure true learning. Barry Westling

Shawna, I just like to know where more of my emphasis should be. Sometimes I find students are above or below what my expectations are for them. A brief pretest (non-graded) can help determine where that level of prior learning lies. Barry Westling

John-Howard, I think most work of any significance has some degree of higher level decision making. In the training of students, more senses used will improve retention and recall of needed information. It's true that some training areas may have fewer opportunities to add multiple senses, but then instructors are very creative people and with a little thought can think of ways to help their students. Barry Westling

Shawna, I hope this for my students too. Much of that goal is after I have them, so my goal is to adequately provide them with the needed skills and knowledge, including soft skills. Barry Westling

Shawna, I agree and believe we put students at ease when they sense the instructor knows their material, is prepared with interesting and meaningful activities, and provides smooth, enthusiastic presentation and delivery. Barry Westling