teaching tips

Author: Greg Underwood, English Department Chair at Pearl River Community College As a chair, I helped oversee the Pearl River Community College English department’s shift from offering nine non-transferrable developmental hours before students could enroll in the traditional first semester writing course, to a track where those same students now directly enroll in a transferrable, four-credit hour first semester writing course. We’re now in our second year, and our tracking numbers show that academically, students perform at or above the levels they did previously. Combined with the fewer developmental hours students no longer have to take, we now retain more Read More…

Author: Dr. Jenny Billings, Chair of English and Study Skills at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and Cengage Faculty Partner A year ago, I attended a state-wide meeting about changes coming to North Carolina Community Colleges: Developmental English was going to be redesigned, again. Rather than panic, pretend like it was going to go away, or wait around, I volunteered my department, my college, to be the first to pilot the proposed changes. I figured that if we were the first to pilot, we could help inform the System Office and possibly influence the decisions made. Plus, this is a good Read More…

  Want to capture the attention of your Introduction to Business students? Check out the following five tips to engage your students and increase success in class — and beyond. Tip 1: Make Content Applicable to Students’ Daily Lives Incorporating hot topics in business from Amazon, to AI, to the #MeToo movement, helps students relate course concepts to their everyday lives.  The Cengage Higher Ed Faculty Community provides articles related to discipline content that you can bring in for classroom discussion.  From reviewing new branding strategies in Marketing Dunkin’ to learning about the Worst Read More…

As an instructor, you want your students to gain the skills needed to think and act like successful managers. Unfortunately, it’s easy for new managers to fall for the many myths about what good managers do. Check out these nine management myths, plus discover ways to help your students navigate the management world. MANAGEMENT MYTH #1: There’s only one right way to lead or manage. THE TRUTH: Leadership can be customized for different employees. Hersey and Blanchard argue employees have different levels of readiness for handling different jobs, responsibilities and work assignments. Accordingly, Hersey and Blanchard’s situational theory states that leaders need Read More…

Author:  Dr. Stephanie Thomas, Cornell University How do you engage a class of more than 450 students with varying academic backgrounds and vastly different interests in the subject? This is the challenge I face every fall semester when I offer Introductory Microeconomics. I approach this question from the following perspective: students come to class on the first day because they have to come. They come to class the rest of the semester because they want to come. It’s hard for us to imagine why a student wouldn’t want to come to class! As instructors, most of us enjoyed going to Read More…

Authors: James M. Emig, Ph.D., CPA, Villanova University; Robert P. Derstine, Ph.D., CPA, West Chester University and Thomas J. Grant, Sr., M.B.A., CMA, Kutztown University To help students truly understand (rather than memorize), we have used our combined 100+ years of teaching experience to develop some “tricks and techniques” for the Variable Costing topic in Managerial Accounting courses. We have found it effective to initially present material in a “simplified manner,” along with some visual props, designed to help students understand the concepts and proceed from that basis to the more difficult material later in the course. This article is Read More…

By now, you know that all students are unique and have their own learning preferences and strengths. You can adapt your teaching strategies to meet these needs, including the needs of students with learning disabilities. It’s vital for all instructors to become familiar with the types of learning disabilities in order to help facilitate a positive learning experience. Try these tips for expanding your teaching methods to be inclusive of all learning types.

Approach each student as an individual

Students with learning disabilities are the largest group of students with disabilities. Some of the many disabilities include difficulty in writing or reading, Read More…

Although it can be a challenge to convince college students to complete their reading assignments, just reading them isn’t enough. To really get the benefit of reading, students need to employ critical thinking skills. We cannot expect that all of our students possess these skills and know how and when to use them. Reading requires skills that have to be learned, and college-level reading requires additional skills to create student success. Here are some teaching tips to help your college students improve their critical thinking skills.

Reading textbooks

What exactly is reading, and what does it mean to read a Read More…

Even when students choose to write on a topic that interests them, they may still experience the frustration of writer’s block. They may deal with the frustration by spending too much time researching and then run out of time when it comes to writing and revising their work. As instructors with advanced degrees, we’ve written more papers than we care to count. It’s easy to forget that our students are still neophytes when it comes to academic writing. What can we do to help students complete their writing assignments more effectively?

Reasons for writer’s block

Some people are procrastinators by Read More…

As a college student, you quickly learn that there are good habits and bad ones. Unfortunately, sometimes you may need help learning how to translate tips for success into your study habits. Read on for help setting priorities along with other tactics to improve your college experience.

Good habits for college students

When setting priorities, there are three main things all college students should remember: Don’t put yourself in an impossible situation. Prioritize which classes are most important, use your time wisely to create success, and plan for two hours of studying for every hour of class.
Be sure to define priorities. Read More…