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.

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Making a Positive First Impression

Hi Pheng, What do you see as being the most important things an instructor can do to see the proper tone for the upcoming class? Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Instructor REFOCUS

Hi Ken, Thanks for this great information. I have often wondered how actors do it when they are in a road production for months on end doing the same play almost every night. It is a small thing but highly effective. I am going use this technique in my own duplicate classes to make sure I am focused on every aspect of the class and the students. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Making Your Expectations Clear

Hi Adam, I really like your approach because you make your expectations clear through the explanation you give the class. In addition you make it easy for every student, including those that are not as outgoing to get their questions asked and answered. This is a great way to start off a new class. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Creating Personal Support Systems

Hi Sandra, I think this is a very important effort. By having them list out their network they can see who they have surrounding them and who they can call upon when faced with certain situations. This reassures them that they are not alone and that they can be successful in college as a result of their network and support system. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Understanding learner characteristics...

Hi Kim, I commend you for our outreach in terms of getting to know the learning preferences of your students even when teaching online. This effort is very important to the students as well as helping with increasing engagement and focus for their learning. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged in Learning

Hi Denise, Well said. When you show students application and relevancy you are "connecting the dots" for them between the classroom and their lives. This helps them to be able to transfer their newly acquired knowledge and skills to their futures. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Adapting Your Instructional Strategy

Hi Paul, Little things like this are what helps the students to be successful while reducing their frustration in not being able to keep up with what is going on in the class. I am sure they are going to do well in remembering their passwords with this method. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Instructor Enthusiasm

Hi John, I am sure there are many things that can be done when teaching food safety and sanitation. By making it interesting and fun the retention of content is going to be much higher and the students will get the message about how important both of these areas are to restaurant success. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Strategies for Keeping Students Engaged in Learning

Hi Brandi, I think you will find that you get better retention of content with the mini-lectures along with higher engagement. By lecturing and then using the new information through discussions or Q&A sessions the students get to use the information quickly after receiving it. This really helps them to store it in their working memories. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

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Developing Clear Goals and Objectives

Hi Jeremiah, Right you are. We have to work constantly with helping students to see relevancy and application to what they are learning. The more we can "connect the dots" between course content and real life applications the higher the motivation levels of the students are going to be. Gary

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