1. Respect confidentiality concerning what we learn about each other.
2. Respect agreed-upon time limits.  This may be hard, but please understand that it is necessary.
3. Maintain collegiality.  We’re all in this together.
4. Stay psychologically and physically present and on task.
5. Respect others’ attempts to experiment and to take risks.
6. Listen and speak in turn, so everyone can hear all comments.
7. Enjoy and learn from the process!

1. Students perceived audio feedback to be more effective than text-based feedback for conveying nuance.
2. Audio feedback was associated with feelings of increased involvement and enhanced learning community interactions.
3. Audio feedback was associated with increased retention of content.
4. Audio feedback was associated with the perception that the instructor cared more about the student.

1. Click the Office Button.
2. Click the Word Options button.
3. Click Customize.
4. Click the drop-down arrow of the Choose Commands From box and select Commands Not In Ribbon.
5. Scroll to and select Insert Voice.
6. Click the Add button, and then click OK.

1. "Ask real questions even though they may seem off-hand, simple, or imprecise." Avoid using stock questions that fail to match course content and worst of all, your teaching style. Instead, form questions that are related to course content, current and ongoing discussions, and ones that are interesting to your students. Finding students’ interests can be achieved through an early course survey and more intimate classroom discussions.

2. "Be ingeniously responsive to the students' answers and questions." Class conversations, as Eble suggests, should be accepting of all points of view, whether or not the answer is correct, "vague, wandering, irritating, or whatever" (1988, p. 89). In other words, everyone should feel comfortable answering questions without fear of ridicule, non-acceptance, or laughter. This is especially important when asking questions in a classroom of diverse learners. Some students not educated in western cultures may not be comfortable answering questions they learned by listening to more autocratic instructors and did not ask questions because doing so questioned the authority of the instructor. Other students could have learning disabilities or are fearful of speaking in class. It is important, then, to create a learning environment in which you welcome and encourage questions. Model your expectations at the beginning of the semester and provide examples of ways you expect questions to be asked and answered. "Never deliberately ignore a question or demean the questioner" (Eble, 1988, p. 89). If class time is coming to an end and you feel students have questions yet to ask, have them write the questions on a note card that they submit before leaving class. You can address these questions at the beginning of the next class period or comment directly on the card which you can return to the student.
3. "Try to achieve a rhythm in a series of questions so that the group arrives at moments of larger understanding." Prepare a series of questions that begin with less complicated content that eventually leads to more complex content. Present questions with just enough information to encourage students to think deeply and form a meaningful answer. Instead of expecting one person to answer the question, ask students to pair up and discuss the question and prepare a shared answer. This allows them to talk about and share their collective knowledge with the class.

• First and foremost, design course goals and learning objectives to help students achieve what you want them to learn. Once course goals and objectives have been developed you can begin to prepare complementary and effective questions.
• Get acquainted with your students so you can customize questions that challenge them to think more critically about course content to help them learn. This does not mean that you must scrap the foundations, key concepts and content that drives your course. It means, however, that you can meet your students along the way to challenge the knowledge they bring to the classroom and to present content through questions that is useful and relevant to them.

• Arrive early to help students who have questions about previous lectures, readings and exam preparation.
• Begin the semester the very first class, by asking students the type of questions you plan to ask throughout the semester. This will set the stage for the class, and help students form more complete impressions and establish expectations.
• Begin the class with a key question. Assume that students who come to your class are interested in being there. “Hook” students with a question based on what they know (through readings and course content, by virtue of their academic level, freshmen versus seniors, or by their major). This key question can be the foundation upon which they can "hang" further concepts (facts and content). The key question can be projected on the screen as students enter the room or asked as soon as the class begins. Here are a few key question examples:
• "How will the proposed economic stimulus package affect you as a college student?"
• "Why should we be concerned about melting arctic ice?"
• "How will your successful completion of this class prepare you to enter the work force?"
• Ask provocative questions to energize students into saying something. Keep the topic relevant to the course and be prepared for discussions that could begin to get divergent. Know when to draw the line on discussions that veer from the question or when students dominate the discussion at the expense of others. Here are examples of provocative questions from Ken Bain's book:
• "Why did some societies get in boats and go bother other people while others stayed at home and tended to their own affairs?"
• "Why are human beings occasionally willing to leave home and hearth and march off into the wilderness, desert, or jungle and kill each other in large numbers?"
• "Why are some people poor and other people rich?"
• "How does your brain work?"
• "What is the chemistry of life?"
• "Can people improve their basic intelligence?"
• Tell stories about your life, your friends, and other people that provide meaning to the topic of the day. Stories can provide the springboard some students might need to ask questions. For example, as an instructor in a University Experience class, you could tell the story of your first experiences away at college and that you were academically dismissed for poor grades. This personal story might compel students to ask questions about study skills, time management and taking exams.

• Teach with the notion that students are naturally curious and have them “develop an intrinsic interest that guides their quest for knowledge, and an intrinsic interest?that can diminish in the face of extrinsic rewards and punishments that appear to manipulate their focus (Bain, 2004, pp. 46-47). In other words, provide content in such a way that students can see how it can be used in their professions and the relevance of course content to job-related skills. Provide meaningful comments on graded papers and exams show them the "why" so they can learn "how" to improve.
• Be aware of how you present questions.  Do you ask questions in a friendly or authoritative manner? What is the purpose of asking questions? Do you want your students to learn from the question or are you asking the question just because?
• Avoid schooling where bulimic learners (Bain, 2004, p. 40, citing Nelson) memorize facts and short-ranged information to later purge, making room for the next feeding (Bain, 2004, p. 41).  This force fed competitive-type of schooling reduces students to be mere receptors of information to compete for grades and have little interest in learning something new.
• Incorporate relevant vocabulary when responding to a student’s question. For example, when a student asks why her computer is not operating as fast as it had been, you can tell her that she might need more ROM. The student can then ask, "What is ROM?" a question she would not have asked except in this context (the idea for this example was improvised from Bain, 2004, p. 104).
• Ask students to bring one or two questions to class based on textbook readings or content covered in the previous class. Provide some sample questions to help students write meaningful questions. These questions can then be submitted (a good way to take attendance) and randomly addressed at the beginning of the class period or used to develop exam questions.
• Avoid answering your own question. Once asked, give students a few seconds to form a good answer. If the first answer is not what you had expected, do not discount the effort the student has made. Instead, ask the student if they could re-phrase their answer or to elaborate a bit more. If they are still having some difficulty, ask another student to help form the correct answer. Ask questions that students can think for themselves (McComas & Abraham, 2004).
• Engage other students by having them answer the question of one of their peers. It has been shown that students can learn from other students if given the opportunity to do so.

• End the class by asking the students:
• "What questions do you still have about today’s topic?"
• "If you were to ask one last question, what would it be?"
• "What was the muddiest point today?"
• "What was the most meaningful point we covered today?"

• These questions help the students to synthesize the information and draw conclusions. Their responses to one last question and muddiest point can be submitted for your review—you can address student issues at the beginning of the next class period or review to clarify content.

• Make notes about how students responded to questions asked during the class as well as the type of questions students asked of you. These notes can help you prepare for and modify subsequent classes (Gross Davis, 1993 citing Kasulis).

• Questions do not have to be limited to the classroom setting. You can ask specific questions related to textbook readings, homework and study. Meyers and Jones (1993) suggest that questions should fit into prospective classroom activities, model theories and approaches used in academic disciplines and professional careers, extend meaning to materials read or discussed previously, promote a critical analysis of the materials, and make the students think about how the text applies to their personal experiences (p. 128).  Here is an example of such questioning:

• Please take particular note of pages 13-14 of Kaisha's article in which he comments on decision-making in Japanese business. Recall our discussion of decision-making in the American auto industry last week. What comparisons and contrasts can you draw between the two approaches to decision making? We will be using these two approaches in a simulated decision-making exercise Thursday (Meyers and Jones, 1993, p. 129).

• Grade Rule - This rule is based on the students’ grade for a particular assessment. It can be an automated Blackboard assessment such as a test, a survey, or a safe assignment, or a manually added assessment. Blackboard generates the warning notification based on the score entered into the Gradebook, whether the score is calculated automatically or entered manually.
• Due Date Rule - This rule generates warning notifications based on specified due dates for assessments that are created and graded through Blackboard. It cannot be applied to manually graded assessments.
• Last Access Rule - The last access rule generates a warning notification based on when students last accessed the Blackboard course.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 for Graduate Student Reception and Outstanding TA Awards Ceremony, from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 for Teaching Assistant Orientation, from 8:00 am to 3:15 pm

• presentations with audio and video narration
• multi-way audio and video chat
• public and private text chat
• electronic whiteboard
• polls, quizzes, and surveys
• desktop sharing/application sharing
• breakout rooms
• full-featured archives
• telephone access
• accessibility features

• Fostering on-demand, informal communication from student-to-student and student-to-instructor.
• Inviting guest experts to present real-time online lectures to students using a wide array of rich media.
• Using a live online classroom to provide revision sessions for students needing extra help or optional assessment preparation sessions. Providing the link to the session archive for those who were unable to attend.
• Offering peer-to-peer ?coffee breaks? or optional study sessions for students to network and learn from each other?s experiences.
• Offering online office hours with voice and video
• Allowing for online conversations with both voice and video in areas such as patient diagnosis for healthcare, public speaking exercises, negotiation skills in business, or any discipline where communication is the key.

• Select suitable tasks that match curriculum goals and students? needs.
• Allow students to help create instructional goals (this can increase students? motivation and their commitment to learning).
• Consider students? backgrounds and prior knowledge to assess their progress (material that is too easy will quickly bore students and reduce motivation. On the other hand, material that is too difficult can turn off students? interest levels).
• Use a variety of supports as students progress through a task (e.g., prompts, questions, hints, stories, models, visual scaffolding ?including pointing, representational gestures, diagrams, and other methods of highlighting visual information? (Alibali, M, 2006).
• Provide encouragement and praise as well as ask questions and have students explain their progress to help them stay focused on the goal.
• Monitor student progress through feedback (in addition instructor feedback, have students summarize what they have accomplished so they are aware of their progress and what they have yet to complete).
• Create a welcoming, safe, and supportive learning environment that encourages students to take risks and try alternatives (everyone should feel comfortable expressing their thoughts without fear of negative responses).
• Help students become less dependent on instructional supports as they work on tasks and encourage them to practice the task in different contexts.

• Challenges students through deep learning and discovery.
• Engages students in meaningful and dynamic discussions in small and large classes.
• Motivates learners to become better students (learning how to learn).
• Increases the likelihood for students to meet instructional objectives.
• Provides individualized instruction (especially in smaller classrooms).
• Affords the opportunity for peer-teaching and learning.
• Scaffolds can be ?recycled? for other learning situations.
• Provides a welcoming and caring learning environment.

• Planning for and implementing scaffolds is time consuming and demanding.
• Selecting appropriate scaffolds that match the diverse learning and communication styles of students.
• Knowing when to remove the scaffold so the student does not rely on the support.
• Not knowing the students well enough (their cognitive and affective abilities) to provide appropriate scaffolds.

• Internet: comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the Internet


• ProQuest ABI/Inform database: with over 1,100 publication titles and about 2.6 million articles from '90s to present time, updated weekly (exclusive access)


• Institutional document archives: containing all papers submitted to SafeAssign by users in their respective institutions


• Global Reference Database: containing papers that were volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions to help prevent cross-institutional plagiarism

1. be enrolled as a graduate student in good standing at NIU during the semester the award nominations are due;

2. have been employed as a graduate teaching assistant for one or more semesters, excluding the semester of nomination, during the past 2 years at NIU,

3. have been responsible for teaching a course fully or teaching-related support (example: leading discussions, grading, tutoring, recitation, laboratory development/supervision, etc.) which involved student contact as part of the graduate teaching assistant employment,

4. have contributed above and beyond the general expectations of the position, and

5. have not previously received this award at NIU.

1. Nominee information: - name, degree and major, phone, and email address, department where graduate teaching assistantship was/is held, semesters and years employed as a GTA in that department, course(s) responsible for as a GTA, and description of responsibilities handled (primary responsibilities for teaching, or tutoring, grading, recitation, lab development/supervision, etc.).

2. Nominator information: - name, title, department, phone, email address, how long have known the nominee, and in what capacity related to the nominee’s GTA responsibilities.

3. Reasons for nomination: explain the nominee's contributions above and beyond the general expectations of the position, impact on the course(s) handled by the nominee and the students, and the efforts made by the nominee to improve teaching by participating in TA development programs.

4. Supporting documents: evidence of outstanding teaching or teaching-related support, such as student evaluations, classroom observations/performance reviews by supervisors, letters of support by supervisors, department/college/external recognition, unsolicited feedback from students, etc.

• New Appearance: A robust search engine has been added to the top of the list of discussion fora along with data regarding the number of total posts, unread posts, and total unique participants in each forum.


• Forum View: Discussion threads are now separated rather than each being expandable or collapsible from the forum view


• Thread Detail: The thread detail view of a discussion includes not only a search box at the top, but also a box displaying the structure of the entire thread along with another box below that displays the substance of the individual posting currently selected.


• Forum and Thread Grading: Discussion fora can now be graded either by forum or thread, making it possible for faculty to view either selective or comprehensive collections of postings for a student and then to post grades for discussion contributions directly to the Blackboard gradebook.


• Forum Moderation and User Management: The new forum manager role is assigned by default to the faculty member for the course or leader of the community but can be delegated to another user in the course.


• Group Discussion Features: Group members can now create new threads in the group discussion board by default without the faculty member having to first create a forum or thread.


• Rate Postings: When this new feature is enabled by the faculty member in forum settings, users can assign a scaled rating to posts, based on a scale of 1-5 stars.


• Statistics: Statistics of user forum participation such as total posts, date of last post and average post length are now available in the Performance Dashboard.


• Thread Subscription: Faculty members can allow forum users to subscribe to threads. A notification email is sent to the subscriber’s official NIU email address when a new post has been added to the thread.

• Customized Feedback: Feedback options are now ungrouped so that any combination of them may be displayed to students upon completion of an assessment.


• Enhanced Submission Reports: Assessment submission reports now include first name, last name, course name, username, course ID, name of the assessment and date/time of the submission, serving as verification of assessment completion for the student.


• Extra Credit: Faculty members can now mark questions as 'extra credit only' when creating tests.


• Multiple Attempts: Assessments can now be configured to allow for an unlimited or specified number of attempts.


• Self-Assessment Option: Blackboard assessments can now be used for self-assessment purposes without figuring the results into the gradebook final score calculations.


• Display/Disable Average Score: The average score for assessments can be disabled, preventing students from viewing the average class grade.


• Test and Survey Import/Export: Tests and surveys can now be exported from Blackboard individually as well as imported individually into a specific course section.


• Visual Text Box Editor Cross-browser Support: Users can now embed links to a variety of audio/visual materials as well as perform more advanced text editing functions and even spell check using the text box editor without knowing any html.


• MathML and WebEQ Tools: Mathematical and scientific equations can now be entered more effectively in Blackboard.

• Define the topic:The topic for discussion should be clear enough to focus the students' attention on relevant issues that are more likely to engage them. Brainstorming - having students suggest possible solutions without discussion of their feasibility - is an excellent approach to achieve this goal.

• Preparation: The instructor should be prepared to explore any issue reasonably related to the topic. Plan each discussion session by creating writing assignments; composing lists of issues or questions for guidance and focus; and giving students assigned readings and study questions related to the topic a class or two in advance of the discussion. A key element in the facilitation process is choosing how you will cover the content before the discussion takes place. Assigned readings should present more than one side of an issue.

• Openly discuss your expectations: Explain the ground rules to students by verbally defining the role discussion will play and describing what students’ responsibilities will be on the first day of class.

• Activities that involve relevant (and perhaps one personal) questions that increase the memorization skills of the teacher and spark introductory conversation among the students will help to break the ice.
• To prepare students, have them discuss the nature of a good discussion using questions that provoke a conversation, such as: What role do listening and asking questions play in a conversation? What kinds of responses make people feel bad?
• To help some quiet or shy students to overcome their fears, invite them to try out their voices by speaking as reporters for their small groups to the larger group during the last part of the class.
• Implementing a strategy such as "sign-posting" (Dawes, 2002-2007) for your students by explaining where the class has been, where it is going, and how the day’s discussion relates to the topic, in the last five minutes of class, can help everyone refocus.
• Revoicing (O’Connor and Michaels, 1993, as cited in Finders, Jan. 16, 2006) is a strategy that can be used by teachers to respond to what the student has said with a summarizing statement such as, "So what you are saying is...." This subtly allows the teacher to intervene when students may not be able to articulate their views.

• Flat affect (inexpressive face)
• Slow speech
• Decrease in interest in course material
• Difficulty concentrating
• Poor class attendance
• Failure to complete assignments
• Expressions of hopelessness or worthlessness
• Agitation or irritability
• Crying
• Low energy/lethargy

Listen
• Take the issue seriously
• Directly express your concern for the student
• Directly ask the student if he or she is feeling depressed
• Try not to threaten, admonish, or reproach a depressed student for falling behind in course work or missing class
• Try to find alternative ways for the student to catch up on missed work
• Make the appropriate referral to Counseling and Student Development Center (CSDC)

• Community participants/voices
• Community agencies and organizations
• Definition of service learning by students of color

1. be enrolled as a graduate student in good standing at NIU during the semester the award nominations are due;

2. have been employed as a graduate teaching assistant for one or more semesters, excluding the semester of nomination, during the past 2 years at NIU;

3. have been responsible for teaching a course fully or teaching-related support (example: leading discussions, tutoring, recitation, laboratory development/supervision, etc.) which involved student contact as part of the graduate teaching assistant employment;

4. have not previously received this award at NIU.