There are two major global educational trends that have changed the form and execution of humor in the classroom and in professional conferences: (1) the burgeoning instructional technology, especially PowerPoint, which can provide a vehicle for several forms of low risk humor anyone can present; and (2) the diversity of classroom demographics,…

Disclaimer: I have been an active "free" user of LinkedIn for 5.463 years with more than 3000 (1st degree) connections from all over the world. I have no vested interest in LinkedIn other than as a user of the services it provides. Despite the fact that LinkedIn was originally designed as a network for business professionals, not…

One of the simplest indicators of teaching or course effectiveness is student ratings on one or more global items from the entire rating scale. That approach seems intuitively sound and easy to use. Global items have even been recommended by a few researchers to get a quick-read, at-a-glance summary for summative decisions about faculty. The…

Meetings have a bad reputation with faculty. Rarely does one hear a positive word uttered about an upcoming or past meeting. That reputation has metastasized throughout higher education. The primary reason is because meetings can be major time wasters, accomplishing very little, often deteriorating into just another social event, or they may be…

This is the sequel and companion piece to the first five tips published in this journal's winter 2010 issue. To recap, the first five tips are: (1) Write Everyday; (2) Write Everywhere; (3) Conquer Distractions and Interruptions; (4) Write for a Niche; and (5) Write with a Purpose. Now, in this article, the other five tips are discussed: (6) Write…

The purpose of this article is to describe a bunch of strategies with which teachers may already be familiar and, perhaps, use regularly, but not always in the context of a formal PowerPoint[R] presentation. Here are the author's top 10 engagement techniques that fit neatly within any version of PowerPoint[R]. Some of these may also be used with…

The term "netiquette" is the abbreviation for "network etiquette." It is derived from two French words: "net," meaning "bucket," and "iquette," meaning "of doilies." It is not new, dating back to 1983, but it certainly deserves the attention of both veteran and newbie Internet users, especially academicians. Rules for corresponding on the Internet…

Most faculty developers have a wide variety of rating scales that fly across their desk tops as their incremental program activities unfold during the academic year. The primary issue for this column is: What is the quality of those ratings used for decisions about people and programs? When students, faculty, and administrators rate a program or…

This article discusses how to design and execute a faculty development workshop. The author first describes the characteristics of the faculty development event that can sabotage or facilitate attendance. They relate to: (a) format and frequency; (b) venues; (c) technical support; and (d) competing activities. Then, the author presents ten…