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If you use Flashlight Online
Template ZS33515 to collect low threshold activities and
applications from your faculty, you might want to adapt this
text as an introduction to the survey. (The template does not
include any introductory text. In order to have paragraphs,
boldface or italics in Flashlight Online text, you will need to
use html. We usually use Flashlight Online's html
customization feature plus a web editor such Dreamweaver or
FrontPage.Introductory Text for an invitation letter
Some ways of using technology to improve
learning take lots of time: you need to go through a workshop,
or more, to learn how to do it. This survey isn't about
that.
It's about ideas that are easy to explain, easy to try,
easy to appreciate. In the survey, for
example, we will ask you about ways to help students learn
in more active ways, ways of enriching the student-faculty
connection, ways of improving feedback (assessment), and
ways of attracting students to spend more time studying. (If
you don't have a suggestion, you can skip the question and
go to the next one.) These topics, and several others,
were suggested back in 1986 by Arthur Chickering and Zelda
Gamson. Their suggestions for improving learning are called
"The Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate
Education." The seven principles summarize the results
of decades of educational research; you'll probably find
that they also chime with your own common sense about how to
improve learning.
For each of these seven topics, we hope
you may have some suggestions that each have all the
following characteristics:
- You've tried this use of technology, and it works for you;
- It's a time-saver;
- There are probably at least a few other
faculty and instructors who aren't yet doing this but
who would appreciate hearing about it; and
- It's easy to describe in a few sentences.
The brief description that you write below should be enough
for those other faculty to try out this idea if they like it
(especially if you also include your name and e-mail address
so they can contact you if you have questions).
We call such activities and applications "Low
Threshold Activities/Applications" ( LTA's). Here's an
example:
"Using e-mail, my students
DEFINITELY ask me questions more often and at better times
than was true otherwise, when they depended upon the "note in
the mailbox," or office hour contact possibilities. I have
students that just generally update me on how they are doing
-- not necessarily contacting me to report problems. Further,
I also have students who are forwarding events and happenings
that are of interest to the coursework -- information that I
can share with the class at large very easily via email."
As you can see, the individual ideas are easy to explain.
Some people will already be doing what you suggest, of course,
and others won't find the idea to their taste. But, if you think
there's ANYONE at this institution who hasn't yet thought of
htis and who would appreciate hearing the idea, please explain
it.
Thanks for helping your colleagues. This is a
micro-publication, but we think it's an important one.
[NOTE TO AUTHORS: add an
explanation of how these ideas will be distributed to
faculty.]
Introductory Text to insert at the beginning of the
Survey
What ways of using technology in your courses work well and
save time? We will share your ideas with all
interested faculty. Each of the ideas you describe should have all the
following characteristics:
- You've tried this use of technology, and it works for you;
- It's a time-saver;
- There are probably at least a few other
faculty and instructors
who would appreciate hearing about it; and
- It's easy to describe in a few sentences:
The brief description that you write below should be enough
for those other faculty to try out this idea if they like it
(especially if you also include your name and e-mail address
so they can contact you if you have questions).
Before you fill in any of the questions,
please skim the whole survey. Then
answer just those questions where you have LTAs to share.
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