Engaging College And University Students

Engaging College and University Students outlines creative and effective course organization and teaching-learning strategies for higher education courses. By describing specific instructional best practices, rather than addressing general questions about teaching in higher education, the author presents a valuable resource for educators to consult in the moment. The author explores the challenges of engaging students in online settings and draws comparisons with face-to-face strategies of engagement. By organizing the strategies according to course progress, and offering corresponding rubrics for assessment, this guide for instructors offers a solid foundation for an ever-changing teaching and learning landscape.

In the updated edition of this important volume, the editors and chapter contributors explore how diverse populations of students experience college differently and encounter group-specific barriers to success. Informed by relevant theories, each chapter focuses on engaging a different student population, including low-income students, Students of Color, international students, students with disabilities, religious minority students, student-athletes, part-time students, adult learners, military-connected students, graduate students, and others. New in this third edition is the inclusion of chapters on Indigenous students, student activists, transracial Asian American adoptee students, justice-involved students, student-parents, first-generation students, and undocumented students. The forward-thinking, practical, anti-deficit-oriented strategies offered throughout the book are based on research and the collected professional wisdom of experienced educators and scholars at a range of postsecondary institutions. Current and future faculty members, higher education administrators, and student affairs educators will undoubtedly find this book complete with fresh ideas to reverse troubling engagement trends among various college student populations.

Practical Strategies and Winning Techniques to Engage and Enhance Student Learning The revised and updated second edition of Student Engagement Techniques is a much-needed guide to engaging today's information-overloaded students. The book is a comprehensive resource that offers college teachers a dynamic model for engaging students and includes over one hundred tips, strategies, and techniques that have been proven to help teachers across all disciplines motivate and connect with their students. This edition will provide a deeper understanding of what student engagement is, demonstrate new strategies for engaging students, uncover implementation strategies for engaging students in online learning environments, and provide new examples on how to implement these techniques into STEM fields. "Student Engagement Techniques is among a handful of books—several of which are in this series!—designed specifically to help instructors, regardless of experience, create the conditions that make meaningful, engaged learning not just possible but highly probable." —Michael Palmer, Ph.D., Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, Professor, General Faculty, University of Virginia "This practical guide to motivating and engaging students reads like a quite enjoyable series of conversations held over coffee with skilled colleagues. It has been met with delight from every faculty member and graduate instructor that we've shared the book with!" —Megan L. Mittelstadt, Ph.D., Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, The University of Georgia "Student Engagement Techniques belongs in the hands of 21st century instructors and faculty developers alike. Its research-based, specific, yet broadly applicable strategies can increase student engagement in face-to-face and online courses in any discipline." —Jeanine A. Irons, Ph.D., Faculty Developer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, Syracuse University "This book is an essential resource for faculty seeking to better engage with their students. Anyone seeking a clear, research-based, and actionable guide needs a copy of Student Engagement Techniques on their shelf!" —Michael S. Harris, Ed.D., Associate Professor of Higher Education, Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, Southern Methodist University

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which five engagement benchmarks namely: (i) level of academic challenge , (ii) active and collaborative learning ,(iii) student-faculty interaction , (iv) enriching educational experiences and (v) supportive campus environment predict various dimensions of self- reported academic, personal, and social development/ growth for senior international students at Research Universities. The benchmarks were regressed against self-reported outcomes: i) acquiring a broad general education, acquiring job or work-related knowledge and skills, thinking critically and analytically, working effectively with others learning effectively on your own, and understanding yourself. Results indicated that a supportive campus environment and the level of academic challenge were the best predictors of the self- assessed outcomes. Students had lower means in the student-faculty interaction and enriching educational experiences indicating less engagement in these benchmarks. Students reported gaining more in thinking critically and analytically and in the acquisition of a broad and general education.

This book offers faculty practical strategies to engage students that are research-grounded and endorsed by students themselves. Through student stories, a signature feature of this book, readers will discover why professor actions result in changed attitudes, stronger connections to others and the course material, and increased learning.Structured to cover the key moments and opportunities to increase student engagement, Christine Harrington covers the all-important first day of class where first impressions can determine students’ attitudes for the duration of the course, through to insights for rethinking assignments and enlivening teaching strategies, to ways of providing feedback that build students’ confidence and spur them to greater immersion in their studies, providing the underlying rationale for the strategies she presents. The student narratives not only validate these practices, offering their perspectives as learners, but constitute a trove of ideas and practices that readers will be inspired to adapt for their particular needs.Conscious of the changing demographics of today’s undergraduate and graduate students – racially more diverse, older, and many employed – Harrington highlights the need to engage all students and shares numerous strategies on how to do so. While many of the ideas presented were used by faculty teaching face to face classes, a number were developed by faculty teaching online, and the majority can be adapted to virtually any teaching environment. Based on student-centered active learning principles, structured to allow readers to quickly identify practices that they may need in particular instances or to infuse in a course as a whole, and presented without jargon, this book is a springboard for all faculty looking for ideas that will engage their students at any level and in any course.

Keep students engaged and actively learning with focused, relevant discussion Second only to lecture as the most widely used instructional strategy, there's no better method than classroom discussion to actively engage students with course material. Most faculty are not aware that there is an extensive body of research on the topic from which instructors can learn to facilitate exceptional classroom discussion. Discussion in the College Classroom is a practical guide which utilizes that research, frames it sociologically, and offers advice, along with a wide variety of strategies, to help you spark a relevant conversation and steer it toward specific learning goals. Applicable across a spectrum of academic disciplines both online and on campus, these ideas will help you overcome the practical challenges and norms that can undermine discussion, and foster a new atmosphere of collaborative learning and critical thinking. Higher education faculty are increasingly expected to be more intentional and reflective in their pedagogical practice, and this guide shows you how to meet those expectations, improve student outcomes, and tackle the perennial problem of lagging engagement. Thoroughly grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning, this book gives you concrete guidance on integrating discussion into your courses. You'll learn to: Overcome the challenges that inhibit effective discussion Develop classroom norms that facilitate discussion Keep discussion focused, relevant, and productive Maximize the utility of online student discussions The kind of discussion that improves learning rarely arises spontaneously. Like any pedagogical technique, careful planning and smart strategy are the keys to keeping students focused, engaged, and invested in the conversation. Discussion in the College Classroom helps you keep the discussion applicable to the material at hand while serving learning goals.