Resources

Wisdom and sermons from William Placher throughout his lifetime.

College professors are expected to perform a large number of tasks for which they receive little or no training. For instance, where in graduate school do you learn how to teach most effectively in a large auditorium, and what do you do differently in those classes from when you are teaching in a more intimate setting, with a few upper-level students around a seminar table or in a tutorial? How do you secure a contract for a book that you would like to publish? How do you go about applying for external funding to support your research? How do you write a particularly effective syllabus or exam? How do you create the sort of curriculum vitae that is most likely to earn you tenure, promotion, another position, or an administrative appointment? How do you chair a committee? How do you deal with a student who is disrupting one of your classes? Why should you engage in fundraising, recruiting new students, or maintaining close ties with alumni? Why should you develop a "strategic plan" for your career, improving your teaching and enhancing your research? Why is service only a small part of genuine academic citizenship? The Essential College Professor is about the "how" and "why" of being a faculty member in higher education today. Based on the author's series of highly successful faculty development workshops, each chapter deals concisely with the most important information college professors need at their fingertips when confronted by a particular challenge or faced with an exciting opportunity. Written both as a comprehensive guide to an academic career and as a ready reference to be consulted when needed, The Essential College Professoremphasizes proven solutions over untested theories and stresses what faculty members need to know now in order to be successful in their careers. (From the Publisher)

How can online instructors and course designers' instruction harness the popular Web 2.0 tool, the wiki, for successful collaboration and learning outcomes? This book focuses on using wikis in the active learning processes that are the hallmark of collaborative learning and constructivism. It provides both the pedagogical background and practical guidelines, tools, and processes for accomplishing these goals with special emphasis on wikis and other collaborative design tools. This book supports the effective design and delivery of online courses through the integration of collaborative writing and design activities. (From the Publisher)

Designed for College Students Taking Their First Course in the Study of Religion A solid overview to introduction to religious studies courses, this text is neither too broad nor too narrow. Chapters explore what religion is and how it is formed and studied; religious experience; truth claims; ethics and moral theology; violence and religion; social involvement; religion and the environment; asceticism and mysticism; religion, technology, and science; religions and their words, stories, writings, and books; and more. The text respects cultural considerations and the contemporary global climate in showing religious studies in action and exploring questions of theory, method, and research. The contributing authors are in tune with college students' interests and are well suited to address the issues and methods of religious studies. (From the Publisher)

"For those who think online learning can't be truly interactive, Patti Shank and her colleagues clearly demonstrate—in hundreds of examples—that it can. The real lesson in The Online Learning Idea Book is that technology doesn't build interactive learning; creative thinking and good, solid instructional design does. Using even a smidgen of the great ideas in this book will increase the learning effectiveness of any online program." —Marc J. Rosenberg, consultant, and author of Beyond E-Learning "Patti Shank has collected great ideas about online learning and teaching from all over the globe. If you are an online instructor or instructional designer looking for new ways to involve and engage your learners, you'll be inspired by this book!"—Terry Morris, associate professor, William Rainey Harper Colleges Filled with techniques, tools, tips, examples, resources, and dozens of "great ideas,? this invaluable resource helps people who are looking to build online instructional materials — or improve existing materials — discover and implement what the best and brightest in industry and education are doing to make online learning more engaging and compelling. Increase your know-how in the following areas: • Look and Feel: how to increase ease-of-use • Graphics and Multimedia: how to make instructional graphics engaging and compelling • Activities: how to make instruction itself engaging and compelling • Tools: how to use a variety of online tools • Instructional Design: how to design better and faster. (From the Publisher)

Students' Experiences of e-learning in Higher Education helps higher education instructors and university managers understand how e-learning relates to, and can be integrated with, other student experiences of learning. Grounded in relevant international research, the book is distinctive in that it foregrounds students' experiences of learning, emphasizing the importance of how students interpret the challenges set before them, along with their conceptions of learning and their approaches to learning. The way students interpret task requirements greatly affects learning outcomes, and those interpretations are in turn influenced by how students read the larger environment in which they study. The authors argue that a systemic understanding is necessary for the effective design and management of modern learning environments, whether lectures, seminars, laboratories or private study. This ecological understanding must also acknowledge, though, the agency of learners as active interpreters of their environment and its culture, values and challenges. Students' Experiences of e-learning in Higher Education reports research outcomes that locate e-learning within the broader ecology of higher education and: * Offers a holistic treatment of e-learning in higher education, reflecting the need for integrating e-learning and other aspects of the student learning experience * Reports research on students' experiences with e-learning conducted by authors in the United States, Europe, and Australia * Synthesizes key themes in recent international research and summarizes their implicationsfor teachers and managers. (From the Publisher)

Written for both new and existing lecturers, this handbook is based upon exemplary practice and case studies. It gives readers the information they will need to ensure that teaching practice is in line with current standards and best practice. (From the Publisher)

You go into teaching with high hopes: to inspire students, to motivate them to learn, to help them love your subject. Then you find yourself facing a crowd of expectant faces on the first day of the first semester, and you think “Now what do I do?” Practical and lively, On Course is full of experience-tested, research-based advice for graduate students and new teaching faculty. It provides a range of innovative and traditional strategies that work well without requiring extensive preparation or long grading sessions when you’re trying to meet your own demanding research and service requirements. What do you put on the syllabus? How do you balance lectures with group assignments or discussions—and how do you get a dialogue going when the students won’t participate? What grading system is fairest and most efficient for your class? Should you post lecture notes on a website? How do you prevent cheating, and what do you do if it occurs? How can you help the student with serious personal problems without becoming overly involved? And what do you do about the student who won’t turn off his cell phone? Packed with anecdotes and concrete suggestions, this book will keep both inexperienced and veteran teachers on course as they navigate the calms and storms of classroom life. (From the Publisher)

This comprehensive book focuses squarely on academic portfolios, which may prove to be the most innovative and promising faculty evaluation and development technique in years. The authors identify key issues, red flag warnings, and benchmarks for success, describing the what, why, and how of developing academic portfolios. The book includes an extensively tested step-by-step approach to creating portfolios and lists 21 possible portfolio items covering teaching, research/scholarship, and service from which faculty can choose the ones most relevant to them. The thrust of this book is unique: • It provides time-tested strategies and proven advice for getting started with portfolios. • It includes a research-based rubric grounded in input from 200 faculty members and department chairs from across disciplines and institutions. • It examines specific guiding questions to consider when preparing every subsection of the portfolio. • It presents 18 portfolio models from 16 different academic disciplines. Designed for faculty members, department chairs, deans, and members of promotion and tenure committees, all of whom are essential partners in developing successful academic portfolio programs, the book will also be useful to graduate students, especially those planning careers as faculty members. (From the Publisher)