How to Win Your Audience’s Heart in 7 Minutes The average attention span of today’s audience member is short — 7 minutes to be exact. You either win their hearts in the first few minutes or are forgotten forever. Don’t believe me? - Attention spans have shrunk by 50% in the last decade - 9.5% of all children (your future audience) have been diagnosed with ADHD - The average office worker checks their email 40 times per hour - Only 9.42% of audiences will watch a video that is 5 minutes or longer - Only 4% of page views last longer than 10 minutes These are proof we live in a world built around immediacy and now. How do you do this? Perfect Your OpeningYou need to really think through how you plan to open your next talk. Don’t Be a Poser or FakerMany of us have been an audience member in addition to a speaker. Change Your LanguageYour presentation is not about you, it’s about them. Make sure to take advantage of those seven minutes. READ MORE: The Secret to Activating Your Audience’s Brain Author Bio
Master Academic Plan: Part 5 | Michael G. Dolence and Associates The Academic Plan must be the center of any Strategic Plan for an Institution of Higher Education. It serves as the ‘Master’ Academic Plan because “Curriculum drives enrollment, enrollment drives revenue, revenues drive everything else!” It can also be termed the Academic Master Plan because it translates institutional mission and vision into action and establishes the strategic terms and conditions for the development of all things academic. An Academic Master Plan by its nature is dynamic and in a constant state of evolution. The Master Academic Plan is essential to the process of fostering institutional vitality and fiscal health. Change the ParadigmFocus on ValueDevelop Capacity, andMake Everything Count. The Master Academic Plan must enable the academic enterprise to lead on the pathway to institutional vitality and fiscal health. Conversely, each of these plans supports, nurture, and are essential to the success of the master academic plan and the institutions strategic plan.
Prompts to Help Students Reflect on Learning November 12, 2014 By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog One of the best gifts teachers can give students are the experiences that open their eyes to themselves as learners. Most students don’t think much about how they learn. Mine used to struggle to write a paragraph describing the study approaches they planned to use in my communication courses. As fall courses start to wind down, it’s an apt time for reflection. A friend asks if he/she should take this course. How could you use these prompts with your students? If you’ve used prompts or have activities that encourage student reflection on learning, please take a moment to share. © Magna Publications. Tags: improve student learning, metacognition, reflective learners, student learning, student motivation, student reflection exercises
‘Just-in-time’ Training for Online Instructors Have you attended a professional development course, conference or training workshop within the last six months? Most likely the answer is yes. Training and development continues to be an emphasis for higher education institutions, yet many online educators and instructors still lack the necessary skills for delivering effective online instruction. A study done for Educause, by IDC Education reported that instructors of online courses report, ‘lack of knowledge to design online courses’ (69%), and ‘lack of confidence in using technology‘ (62%) as the two biggest challenges in e-learning. Why? Reasons abound, including programs that are, not focused on the needed skills, too broad in scope, too technical, not relevant, delivered as a one-shot deal (one-time training with no follow-up), poor delivery, the list is long. ‘Training’ often misses the Mark To be fair, higher education institutions do provide a fair share of training for faculty in online instruction. What is JITT? Like this:
What does an instructional designer do? | Experiencing E-Learning In the past few months, I’ve been asked by a number of different people what an instructional designer does and how to get into the field. I love instructional design because it is a field where I am constantly learning and I have a great variety in what I do. I use so many different skills—writing, web design, graphics, collaboration, planning, plus of course how people learn. Since this question has come up more than once, I thought it would be useful to collect all the information I have emailed people privately and post it here. So without further ado, here’s the first installation: What does an instructional designer do? I’m emphasizing “experiences” here deliberately, even though that isn’t always how others would describe the job. If all you’re doing is dumping content into PowerPoint slides or text to read, you don’t need an instructional designer. How do we do that? Note: I don’t consider this to be a completely comprehensive description by any stretch of the imagination. Related
How to make bone broth We are the product of a Filipino mother and a dad who was a British army officer. Both of them grew up living frugally – Dad delighted in our squeals as he indiscriminately bit into apples with wormholes in them – and our mum is the queen of leftovers. She has a knack of making something brilliant from whatever she happens to have lingering in the fridge. As children, we didn’t really ever have Sunday roasts or traditional Christmas lunches. Our mum’s standout recipe – her “big soup” – is impossible for us to recreate, let alone write a recipe for, because it is different every time. Bone broth is now our not-so secret weapon. Here are two of our family recipes – a simple broth, then a restorative soup which makes full use of the carcass and remaining cold cuts from a roast dinner. Once you start making broth, you’ll be adding it to all your soups, stews and sauces. Bone broth This sits at the heart of all our cooking: it makes everything taste and feel better. Restorative chicken soup
Socratic Questioning: 30 Thought-Provoking Questions to Ask Your Students Distance Education Report newsletter Stay on current on the best practices in distance learning administration In an industry as dynamic as distance education, it’s a constant battle just trying to keep pace. Not only do you have to find ways to separate hype from reality, but there is always pressure to do more with less … and do it better than ever before. Since 1999, distance education administrators have turned to Distance Education Report for practical solutions and best practices for solving their trickiest problems. Through case studies, best practices, and analysis, Distance Education Report brings clarity to the issues you need to pay attention to right now, and monitors the emerging trends you can expect to see in the future. Published twice a month, Distance Education Report features articles from our expert editorial staff, plus insightful contributions from your colleagues around the country. Distance Education Report | Sample Issue by FacultyFocus Start a trial subscription today.
publishes strategy for employer engagement Page Content QQI has just published Education and Employers: A Strategic Approach to Employer Engagement. The publication highlights the role of employers in the education and training system and encourage them to participate more at local or national level. Closer cooperation with the employment sector helps education and training providers develop curricula that are relevant and meet the needs of individuals and society, equipping graduates with the right skills, including transferable skills, that better meet the current and future needs of employers. The publication: Outlines the key principles that underpin QQI’s approach to employer engagement Specifies objectives, actions and outputs Invites employers to join forces with education and training providers to promote quality and innovation across the education and training sector