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

Motivating Learners

Hi Atiya, Students like real life accounts because they help them to see relevancy and application to what they are studying. So the more examples you can share with them the more engaged they are going to be. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Creating Personal Support Systems

Hi Susan, Good strategies. Your last three words are powerful for teachers. We need to listen to our students because when we are listening we are learning and through learning we can more effectively meet the learning needs of our students. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Accommodating Learner Preferences

Hi Timothy, You are going a good job of mixing up your instructional delivery and then observing the success points as well as the areas that are not working as well. My suggestion would be to keep trying different methods in the courses, like torts that are still a challenge. I teach classes with multiple sections with large enrollments much like your classes and I am still working on different techniques that will work in classes of these sizes. By sharing this information among ourselves we will continue to learn how we can be more effective in large enrollment classes.… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Making Your Expectations Clear

Hi Dr. Okpala, I like the way you lay out the polices of the course and give the student the foundation upon which the course will operate. This helps to reduce frustration and anxiety and focuses the students forward in their thinking. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Tammy, Good point and one we instructors need to remember if we are still working in our field. Our students will be our colleagues and so we need to earn their respect while we are their instructor so we will have their respect when we are fellow professionals. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Your Instructional Style

Hi Samantha, Well said. "Common sense" has a lot to do with how your arrive at your instructional style. It is a growth process as you mention and as long as you are open to reading students and responding to feedback your style will evolve into one that that is student based. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged in Learning

Hi Ibrahim, Good point. You are right on with your comments concerning how to approach the classroom and keep students engaged. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Student Feedback

Hi Lisa, This is a very good point and one that I think is missed with the formal evaluations that are done at the end of the course. I have found that the valuable feedback comes from ongoing input from students throughout the course. This way I can take the feedback and make it a useful way to make adjustments in the course while the students giving feedback are still in it. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Blog

Using Student Feedback

Student feedback can be a very valuable instructional improvement tool. Often student feedback is given at the end of the course in the form of a standardized evaluation. There are a set of questions that cover the range from the classroom/lab environment to how the students perceive the instructor and his/her ability to communicate with students. While these evaluations have some benefit they occur at the end of the course when nothing can be done to adjust the instruction during the current course. Another way to use student feedback is to get input from students throughout the course.

After an… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Making Instruction Relevant

Hi Michelle, Thank you for this great example of how a person can reinvent himself. He decided that he needed a change and took the steps to make that change. I am sure he was a motivating factor for your current students. It is true you can change the course of your career if you are willing to put forth the effort to make the change. It is not easy but it is possible. Many of us come from situations like his that enabled us to be in a career area we love because we decided with the help of… >>>

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