Sharpen your pencils and charge your laptops. It is time for the next semester to start.
How about some tips to those that will be involved. Yes, I am talking to you. All of you.
Students:
- I know you are concerned about grades, but try to move past this. What is important? Why are you in school? If you answer "to get good grades and to graduate", you might need to think about that some more. Instead of worrying about grades, think about learning. Consider learning in class just like working out at a gym. The more you sweat and the more your muscles get sore, the better you will be. In college, sweat and sore muscles have a name: confusion. Yes, confusion is a part of learning.
- It doesn't really matter which instructor you get for a course. Really, that might make 10% difference in the outcome. What matters much more is what YOU do in the course.
- Build a community. You (the students) are a community. Participate in activities, learning and social. You won't get another chance like this later in life.
- Challenge yourself. Suppose you are a history major, try taking an introductory physics course (I just randomly chose physics). Oh, I hear that you won't be a physics major - but it will help you think about things in a different way. Physics majors, take an art class. This is your chance to push yourself.
- Don't get behind. Really, don't. I know your professor doesn't give you a grade for the homework, but you should still do it. Don't wait until the last week of class to try and fit all this stuff in.
Finally, here is a link for you - Learning Goes Through the Land of Confusion.
Learning Facilitators:
- What is a learning facilitator? It's you. Oh, you thought you were an instructor or teacher or professor? Well all of those imply you are doing something to the students. You can not make them learn. You can not "pour knowledge into their heads." If only it were that easy. So, instead think of yourself as someone that helps them learn. Not one that makes them learn.
- Students are people. I know it is easy to set up rules to prevent them from slacking off and taking advantage of the situation. We have all done that at some point. But instead of using rules such to force certain behaviors, treat students like people. Communicate with them.
- If you want to try something new in class, I think that is great. However, don't try too many new things at once, you might pull a muscle or something. Just change one thing. If that works, you can change something else the next semester.
- What is a grade? Do you know? Think about that. I am not going to tell you the answer today.
- I will say this about grades: please please please don't make attendance a grade. It is a terrible idea. I know what you are thinking: if I don't give a grade for attendance, then they won't come and then they won't do well. It is also true that if they don't eat well and sleep well, they won't be able to think during an exam. Should you also give grades for how they eat and sleep?
- Aim high. High level of thinking that is. Here is my rule of thumb: if your students can study for all your exams with flash cards, you are at too low of a level. Oh sure, there are exceptions. Maybe an anatomy class needs this. However, flash-card classes should be the exception, not the rule. If your course is based on knowing things like dates or facts, google can look those up just fine. If your exams are about plugging numbers into equations, I am sure Wolfram Alpha can do that better than you.
- Remember, you have two jobs combined together. Job number one is to help students learn (learning facilitator). Job number two is to evaluate what students know (assign a grade for the course). It is sad that the same person has to do both of these sort of conflicting jobs. It would be like a football coach that is also the referee.
Also, a link for the faculty: The Allegory of the Grade.
Administrators:
- There is something very important that you should know. It is that universities are not a business (well, some online universities are). Universities are also not a worker-producing factory. Many admins and politicians say this kind of stuff. I don't know how many actually believe it to be true.
- What is the goal of a college education? Is it to get a job? It shouldn't be. It should be about people exploring things that make us human. You know, science, art, literature. Stuff like that.
- Assessment. I know it is there. I know you have to make reports about how many students graduate and what their GPAs are and stuff like that. You have to do this, I get it. However, don't think that assessment and numbers like this are the goal. They are just a game. I will be happy to play this game as long as we all realize that it is indeed a game.
Finally, a link for administrators: GhostBusters and Tenure in Louisiana.
Do you have any tips for students, faculty or administrators? Add them in the comments.
