Well-designed Online Courseware Facilitates Attention, Learning

When faculty take the time to put in extra effort to the online components of their courses, it pays dividends in the engagement of their students. Although details of the layout of an online course, such as its level of visual appeal and amount of stimulating or relatable images, may seem purely cosmetic, they offer real value to the student experience in the course by making the course material more compelling.

Other qualities of online courses that recent research has has identified as positive are simple and user-friendly navigation formats and depth in terms of having a variety of features (i.e. discussion forums, content links, files, and assignments) that are used with consistency throughout the course.

Quick Tips to Help Learn Students' Names

At the beginning of the semester, teachers in higher education often are faced with a large room of new faces. Past research suggests that teacher verbal and nonverbal behaviors, including calling students by name, were associated with student motivation and student learning.

Below are a few useful links containing some practical tips to help learn students' names at the beginning of the semester and remember them throughout!

Not Quite 101 Ways to Learn Students' Names

Tomorrow's Professor: Learning Student Names

Protecting teacher immediacy and social presence can be especially difficult in online classes.
Past research links social presence in online classes with learning.

New Research on Student Motivation, Success

Researchers have found new evidence that the motivation and success of students impacted by teaching and learning environments. In a series of studies, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin has found that two factors can alter student performance and success, in particular for minority students. The perception that their teacher cares about their improvement and overall well-being and performance, as well as the perception that they belong in their learning environment have significant effects on student motivation and subsequent performance.

Additional research by Stanford researcher David Paunesku demonstrates the importance of a "growth-mindset" to a students' motivation to succeed, which of course strongly impacts actual success. When students believe that success is based more on one's level of effort and dedication rather than unearned talent or raw intelligence, students were able to perform above their expectations and succeed in academic challenges.

The conclusions center around the following: 1) students who feel they belong and are supported in their efforts for success are more likely to succeed, especially if they are part of a group that historically has not been supported; 2) students who believe the key to success is being hard-working will perform more successfully than students who believe the key to success is being intelligent.

Click To Read The Article Here

New OFE Social Media Experience

The Office of Faculty Enhancement (OFE) has created a new facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OFEFaculty) and a new approach to connecting with faculty at UNF. Follow the discussion by Liking the page, finding a post that connects with you, and comment. Feel free to share the posts with your friends as well.

The old OFE account will be discontinued, so you will need to connect with the new page to continue to receive notices through facebook.

We will still keep up with our OFE Newsletter blog, thecurrent, for news, announcements, and interesting teaching and learning ideas. We also maintain a twitter page (@OFEUNF) that posts tips and ideas for teaching and learning you might find interesting, mostly from conferences, symposia, and the like.

So what are you waiting for? Join the conversation online.

Regards,
OFE Staff

UNF-UFF Faculty Social

The University of North Florida Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida (UNF-UFF) will host a Faculty Social for new and returning UNF faculty on
Thursday, Aug 20th, from 4:00-6:00 p.m.
at the UNF Boathouse.

All faculty, administrators, and staff are invited.

Free appetizers and drink tickets are available.
 Please RSVP to Caroline Guardino

Adjunct Kickstart Syllabus Workshop

Syllabus Kickstarter 
Workshop for Adjunct Professors 
Saturday, August 22, 2015
8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon 
Building 58W, Student Union, Room 3804 This hands-on workshop will provide tools and information to craft a well-organized and focused syllabus with the necessary components for university compliance. Attendees should bring his/her syllabus and laptop.
Breakfast will be provided.
RSVP to ofe@unf.edu

Lilly Conference on Teaching and Learning Call for Proposals

The Lilly Conference on Teaching and Learning has supported the scholarship of teaching and learning for over 30 years. Participants share ideas and evidence regarding effective teaching practices and demonstrated student learning outcomes. See the call for applications below. 

The 35th Annual Original Lilly Conference on College Teaching will be on November 19-22, 2015, and for the 35^th consecutive year will be held on the beautiful campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. 

To submit a contributed paper proposal for the Conference, go to http://www.units.miamioh.edu/lillycon/guidelines/

The deadline for submitting a paper proposal is
Monday, June 15, 2015

This year’s Conference features plenary sessions by Robbie Melton, Tennessee Board of Regents, Jim Sibley, University of British Columbia, and Dennis Cheatham, Miami University.

Visit the Conference website at http://www.units.miamioh.edu/lillycon/reg_info.php to register for the Conference (register by October 1 and receive the $50 early registration discount).