The following is from Faculty Focus, an electronic newsletter from Magna
Publications that deals with teaching on line.  I learned first hand about
this ³Restrained Participation² technique as a student in the author¹s (Dr.
Karen Swan) class.  While taking graduate courses at SUNY Albany I had the
good fortune to take a number of courses from Karen Swan.   This particular
tip REALLY works. 




Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library 
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820

email: [log in to unmask]
phone: 607-436-2701
fax:   607-436-3081
IM:  oneontatltc

"Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"


------ Forwarded Message
From: Faculty Focus <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 14:02:59 -0500 (CDT)
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Volume 1, Issue 10

Volume 1, Issue 10: October 25, 2004

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Ginny Haight, editor

In this issue:
* 
Regulating Faculty Members' Paid Outside Work <#Regulating>

Instructor's 'Restrained Participation' in Threaded Discussions Gives
Students Control, Ownership of Learning <#Instructor's>
* Deadlines and LatePenalties <#motivating>

 

Regulating Faculty Members' Paid Outside Work

According to the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant
Colleges, the percentage of faculty members who engage in paid outside work
increased to 33 percent in 1999 from 21 percent in 1993. Alexei G. Matveev,
associate director of institutional effectiveness and assessment at Norfolk
State University, proposes three possible explanations for this increase:
* There has been an actual increase.
* The increase is due to increased scrutiny.“I did a study on university
regulations on outside work, and more and moreuniversities require that
faculty report their outside activities,” Matveev says.
* There has been a change in academic culture inwhich faculty members are
increasingly valuing their expertise not just to produce publicgood but also
for personal gain. As a result, faculty are more straightforward
indiscussing their involvement in paid outside work.
Because the research in this area is “fragmented,” the question of which of
these applies is unclear, Matveev says. What is clear is that faculty are
often criticized from within and outside academia for their outside work.
Critics of faculty outside work argue that when faculty concentrate their
efforts outside the institution they run the risk of reducing their effort,
integrity, and quality of work at their home institution. On the positive
side, faculty outside work can enhance the individual’s, department’s, and
institution’s expertise and reputation, which can attract other faculty,
students, and funding.
“If you look at the purposes of [outside work] policies, they encourage
faculty members to apply their expertise to outside employment. For example,
one institution's policy explicitly states that faculty should be encouraged
to engage in activities beyond their regular university duties. The main
concern about outside work is not intellectual property but rather conflict
of commitment. They don’t want faculty to engage so much in outside work
that they do not perform their obligations to the academic community,”
Matveev says.
Most institutional policies on this issue allow faculty to engage in paid
outside work one day per week. (Whether that is a work week or calendar week
varies.)
Department-level policies
In his study of outside work policies at 70 institutions, Matveev has found
that the balance of external activities varies among individuals,
disciplines, and institutions. For example, the National Survey of
Postsecondary Faculty (published in 2001 based on 1999 data by the National
Center for Education Statistics) found that, on average,
* income from outside work derived by engineeringfaculty amounts to 14
percent of their base salary
* income from outside work derived by humanitiesfaculty amounts to 8 percent
of their base salary
* income from outside work derived by businessfaculty amounts to 17 percent
of their base salary.
Based on these findings and his own review of policies, Matveev believes
that the most effective policies are developed at the department level.

The above is an excerpt taken from the newsletter Academic Leader. To read
the rest of this article, sign up for a trial subscription to Academic
Leader. You will have access to this article and many more articles for
academic administrators, academic deans, and  department chairs. Go to
http://www.magnapubs.com/subscribe/9altrial.html to sign up now.


Instructor's 'Restrained Participation' in Threaded Discussions Gives
Students Control, Ownership of Learning

When Karen Swan, research professor in the Research Center for Educational
Technology at Kent State University, taught online courses, she used a very
simple rubric for threaded discussions: each posting should relate to the
course material and the student’s experience. This, combined with a
technique she calls “restrained participation,” helped achieve her goal of
eliciting diverse opinions.
Modeling, not dominating
Since the goal of the threaded discussion was to get students to express
their opinions and react to each others’ opinions, Swan made it a point to
not dominate the discussion. However, students need guidance, particularly
early in the course, Swan says.
Although online discussion is more equitable and democratic than classroom
discussion, there is the danger that students will view the instructor as
the authority, which can hinder student participation.
Swan used this perceived authority to model appropriate participation.
“Students tend to adopt the [communication] styles of the instructor. If I’m
formal, they’re going to be formal. If I’m conversational, they’re going to
be conversational,” Swan says.
She also made it a point to reduce the psychological distance between her
and her students by
* revealing things about herself
* being self-deprecating
* responding to students by their first names
* using inclusive statements, referring to “we”or “the class.”
“If I want to talk about a particular concept I will use examples from my
own experience. Hopefully, they’ll experience me as a person, not as a
teacher.”
Gradually, she reduced the number of postings she made to the threaded
discussion. In the first two weeks of her courses, Swan would respond
frequently to students’ postings. “Everybody knew I was listening and that I
cared about their opinions. But a teacher’s response can just kill a
discussion. So by the end of the course, I would be in there very little,”
Swan says. 
Journaling
Swan made it a point to have some interaction with each student each week.
Not all of this interaction was in the threaded discussion, however. Swan
also had an individual dialogue with each student each week. Students were
required to post at least one journal entry per week to which she would
respond. The content of this dialogue was open-ended. It could be reflection
on the week’s work or something personal. Journaling also provided Swan with
feedback she used to improve her courses.
“I’ve gotten everything from ‘My cat died.’ to very long, thoughtful
reflections on the course material,” Swan says. “It’s like making eye
contact in the class, but it’s really nice because you can do it with every
student.”
As the course progressed and Swan gradually withdrew from the threaded
discussion, this one-on-one communication reminded students that she was
still actively engaged in the course even if she wasn’t as active in the
threaded discussion.
Contact Karen Swan at [log in to unmask]

The above article is an excerpt from On-line Classroom, a monthly newsletter
that enhances its readers’ ability to offer quality online courses.
Subscribe today at www.magnapubs.com <http://www.magnapubs.com>  or call
1-800-433-0499.


***Audio Conference Announcement***

Developing a Comprehensive Faculty Evaluation System
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November 9, 2004    1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Eastern)

Do you have a faculty evaluation system implemented in your institution? If
so, how would you rate it? Join Dr. Raoul A. Arreola, as he presents a
proven, research-based, 8-step process for developing a faculty evaluation
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the institution. Based on his best-selling book Developing a Comprehensive
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institution may use to successfully develop its own customized faculty
evaluation system. 

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Deadlines and Late Penalties

By Adam Chapnick, University of Toronto, [log in to unmask]
Although I love to teach, for a number of years, I experienced a great deal
of agony while attempting to determine what constituted appropriate grounds
for granting a student an extension on a course assignment. How long should
the extension be? Should it make a difference if the student asked for an
extension two weeks in advance as opposed to the day before? And who was I
to pass judgment on the impact of a personal crisis on a student’s capacity
to complete an assignment on time? Because most of us still lack pedagogical
training in these important instructional details, policies on deadlines,
extensions and penalties vary across departments and institutions, leaving
too many students justifiably confused, if not angry.
As an instructor who takes deadlines seriously, and believes that assessing
late penalties is a practical and effective means of demonstrating the
importance of timely work to the learning process, I have put a great deal
of thought into ways to develop a policy for deadlines, late penalties, and
extensions that is both fair and reasonable. I’d like to share my solution.
It is one that fits with my philosophy of teaching and one that has
successfully kept my students satisfied.
In my courses, all assignments have a fixed due date. I do not allow any
extensions, and I impose a 5 percent per business day penalty on all late
submissions. I begin to impose that penalty, however, five days after the
assignment is officially due. (It is worth noting that my assignments are
always due in the middle of the week so that the five days include the
weekend). Even though there is no formal penalty, students who plan to
submit papers during those five days after the official due date are
strongly encouraged to inform me of their intention to do so in advance (out
of professional courtesy). Moreover, after the official due date, I do not
provide students with any feedback or guidance on their assignments. After
the official due date, my time is dedicated to marking those papers that
were submitted on time.
Mine is certainly not the only solution but, hopefully, this article will
get us talking. Establishing workable policies for deadlines and extensions
is a crucial part of successful teaching that deserves more attention than
it has received.

The above is an excerpt from The Teaching Professor newsletter. The Teaching
Professor offers a combination of concise information and inspiration to
help faculty members in all disciplines teach more effectively. Subscribe
now at http://www.magnapubs.com/subscribe/magnapubs_tp.html or call
1-800-433-0499.


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*Maximize the learning potential of your instruction
*Challenge your assumptions about teaching and learning
May 20-22, 2005 
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