Teaching Strategies

March 2024
Critical thinking and clinical judgement of the nursing student is essential to the preparation of a competent novice nurse. Opportunities for students to practice making high-stakes decisions independently can be limited in the live clinical setting, for obvious safety reasons. Variations among local clinical placements may further limit the ability for entire cohorts to experience equitable patient cases. In addition, multiple nursing schools are competing for a limited number of clinical sites, straining programs’ abilities to meet clinical contact hour requirements. High-quality...
March 2024
In 2022, Humber College launched the Bhutan Education and Skills Training (BEST) project, a five-year, $4.8 million (CND) initiative funded through the Government of Canada to support the reformation of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system in Bhutan’s technical training institutions. The project unites Humber College, Bhutan’s Ministry of Education and Skills Development, 10 national TVET institutions across Bhutan, the private sector, and local civil society organizations. The project is focused on building institutional capacity to support students who are often...
February 2024
In a world fixated on conventional measures of success, the call to empower students as agents of change resounds with urgency. The journey begins by shifting our educational paradigm, placing intrinsic factors like competence, authenticity, and connection at the forefront. As we embark on this transformative endeavor, the following principles delve into practical steps to enhance student engagement and motivation, amplify student voices, and foster collaborative experiences. We envision a realm where education transcends mere preparation for an undefined future and instead becomes a catalyst...
January 2024
With a focus on accessibility, diversity, and job-relevant education, community colleges are well-positioned to address the evolving needs of students and the workforce. Within the broader field of higher education, community colleges can serve as laboratories for experimentation in pedagogy and curriculum while providing affordable and high-quality education (Hadzi-Antich, 2023). Recognizing the crucial role of quality and innovative teaching, Johnson County Community College (JCCC) used its strategic plan to leverage student learning to the forefront of institutional initiatives. Goal 1,...
November 2023
Since its inception, Anne Arundel Community College’s (AACC) Model Course Program has provided over 100 faculty members with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of social hierarchy, structural inequalities, and individual-level biases and to apply diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism, and accessibility (DEIAA) theory and praxis to their curriculum and pedagogy. The program began with a focus on highly enrolled classes, with the goal of eradicating race/ethnicity-based equity gaps in student outcomes. Each year, the program has evolved, expanded, and continuously improved based...
November 2021
In the December 2020 issue of Innovation Showcase, Diane Janes and Lorraine Carter (2020a) described educational institutions’ pivot to “remote operations, quarantine, and technology-enabled strategies for working and learning” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (para. 1). In particular, the article described how Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) ensured the techno-resiliency of instructors. In response to the shift to fully online teaching and learning, the Centre for Academic Development and Innovation (CADI) created several initiatives, including the Teaching Online at...
May 2021
The Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) Office of Online Learning developed a Boot Camp for hybrid course design meant to help faculty with little to no experience in an online setting to rapidly design hybrid courses. KCTCS Online shared an open access version of this training for use at other institutions for the first time at the department’s “Free PD: Come for the Free, Stay for the Why” session at the 2021 Innovations Conference. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed many faculty members into a new teaching reality. Designed to help faculty quickly acclimate to online and...
November 2020
Sacramento City College student and entrepreneur Christian Espinoza’s personal essay was published in Makerspace Impact: Implementation Strategies & Stores of Transformation: “At the time, it was all I ever wanted—to create things that were unbelievable and out of this world,” wrote Espinoza, who exemplifies thousands of students whose lives have been transformed by the CCC Maker initiative. He continued, But as I grew up, those dreams felt more and more unachievable. I thought I could only work a standard job with a fixed pay and maybe benefits, which didn’t sound half bad. I assumed...
August 2020
Somewhere in the United States today, six-year-old Shelby musters enough courage to report physical abuse to a school counselor. The counselor, who has good intentions but is not well trained in best practices for responding to child maltreatment, calls Shelby’s parents to talk about the allegations. The parents promptly deny the child’s assertions and explain away Shelby’s bruises as a fall down the stairs. No investigation is initiated and Shelby, disheartened after working up the nerve to ask for help, will never tell anyone else about this incident or those still to come. If an...
May 2020
STEM teachers often lament the fact that their students struggle to read content for understanding, write in the vocabulary of STEM fields, and present their ideas well orally (RWP). In fall 2015, the STEM faculty at Bergen Community College identified RWP as the focus of its professional development initiative under a nationally funded STEM grant. At the beginning of this endeavor, a colleague provided a link to a National Council of Teachers of Mathematics article titled “Anticipation Guides: Reading for Mathematics Understanding” (Adams, Pegg, & Case, 2015). Based on insights gleaned...
June 2019
Two years ago, faculty in the Communication department at Allen Community College were considering ways to make the introductory communication course more practical and applicable for students. After all, most students don’t see themselves standing at the front of a room full of people giving speeches in their careers; however, they do acknowledge the need for effective communication skills. At the same time, employers are pleading for job applicants with soft skills—fundamental professional behaviors. In fact, one study found that 60 percent of employers cited communication and interpersonal...
May 2018
Mesa Community College (MCC) was the first college, among six in the nation, selected by Apple to launch the iOS app development project and the first to offer associated courses for academic credit. The college views the Everyone Can Code project as more than a collection of courses. This is a foundation for a successful future for a diverse body of students. MCC faculty embrace the concept that the key to innovation is to provide something that is unusual, to test the norms, to do it in a timely and meaningful manner, and to embrace teaching excellence through diversity and differentiated...
November 2017
Communicating to students in a way that leads to student satisfaction and success in online courses requires teaching presence. The main instrument of learning is communication and the success of students’ learning depends on the faculty member’s preparedness to engage them in the learning process (Serdyukov & Serdyukova, 2015). Online instructors must, therefore, work to find strategies to improve students’ satisfaction of teaching presence through approaches that address these concerns. According to Florescu and Pop-Pacurar (2016), one of the most important factors influencing the...
May 2017
Marlie Burt was 75 miles away from fellow classmates when she worked on a group project last semester. Burt, who lives in La Harpe, Illinois, and attends classes at Carl Sandburg College’s branch campus in Carthage, collaborated with her classmates via a telepresence robot located on the Main Campus in Galesburg, where the other students in her police administration and management course met. Burt attended the class by controlling the robot—affectionately named Sheldon, after The Big Bang Theory character—while sitting at a computer station at the branch campus. With Sheldon, distance was no...
October 2016
It’s a pitch meeting on Music Row in Nashville, the center of the city’s music industry. Young people are presenting a complete package for a new rap artist, Malik Deshaun, known professionally as Vantage. They screen a video, show features of a website, discuss the social media pages they have created for the release, and run through a business plan. Then, it’s off to the listening room to play the tracks. The bass rumbles and the drum beats are sharp. Heads nod in the room in sync with the rhythm. But these aren’t Nashville music pros presenting—they’re students from Volunteer State...
July 2016
San Jacinto College launched a collaborative course in the fall 2015 semester that incorporates algebra and English composition. The new course links college algebra and introductory composition, both gateway core courses for all students who plan to either earn associate degrees or transfer to universities. “This is a novel concept at San Jacinto College,” commented Mark Johnson, North Campus language arts department chair. The course explores the power of narrative in math and English. Give a person some facts and part of the brain lights up. Tell a person a story and the whole brain lights...
January 2016
Gamers, animators, and filmmakers now have an unparalleled training ground with the August opening of the Miami Animation and Gaming International Complex (MAGIC) at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus.  It is the first facility of its kind at a public higher education institution in Florida and one of only a handful in the nation. MAGIC is a game-changer for animators, gamers, filmmakers, health care professionals, and many others, serving as a training center in the bourgeoning area of 3-D animation used in so many industries and fields.  “This new state-of-the-art facility will be the...
November 2015
Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) is having tremendous success in promoting completion and transfer among talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students through the DCCCD STEM Institute. The Institute focuses on a crucial leakage point in the STEM pipeline—the freshman and sophomore years of college. Much of the movement out of STEM majors occurs in these pivotal first two years. Since its initiation in 2009, the STEM Institute has evolved to include comprehensive extracurricular support for students preparing to complete a bachelor’s degree or...
February 2015
Having spent the last 16 years working in metropolitan community colleges, I have had the opportunity to see all types of students: new-to-college eighteen year olds, fifteen year old non-driving dual credit students, and returning students who would rather not divulge their ages. All bring with them the sum of their life experiences. But one group that brings a set of experiences and skills like no other is returning student veterans. Because of the nature of the service, these men and women are arriving on our college campuses with more technical knowledge than most generations of students...

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