In academia, whispers and tales often circulate, shaping how educators perceive their roles and the strategies they employ in their classrooms. From the mysterious efficacy of specific teaching methods to the supposed shortcuts that promise academic success, rumors, myths, and urban legends abound in the realm of teaching part-time college classes. Though often unsubstantiated, these narratives can wield significant influence, subtly guiding the decisions and beliefs about our career choices.

Creating course announcements and reminders that students will actually read can be a challenging task. With inboxes and courses flooded with messages from various sources, it's crucial to craft announcements and reminders that are informative, engaging, and relevant to students' learning experiences. Here are some tips to help you create announcements and reminders that grab students' attention and keep them informed.

Most of us have participated in an online discussion board. This learning tool brings small groups or hundreds of students together in a single conversation. Virtual discussions are essential components in most online classes. However, are we truly taking advantage of what discussion boards have to offer?

Take a look at four different ways to enhance your class discussion boards.

If you work in a for-profit business or recruiting, you may already be familiar with push-and-pull marketing techniques. However, for someone like me, an everyday college instructor, these were new communication strategies, and I wondered how they could be used in my classes to motivate online learners.

I found both techniques to be effective in engaging learners. Here are some suggestions to recreate a similar experience in your class.

As the last week of classes approaches, you might be overwhelmed with tasks, leaving little time to plan an amazing finale for your course. However, achieving a renewed sense of excitement and purpose in your teaching and your student's learning is possible with just a few simple steps and a genuine desire to make it happen. This article will explore these steps and guide you toward finishing your course on a high note.

When we use strategies that make learning stick, the learner is more likely to remember what they have learned, value the experience of learning, and put what they have learned into practice.

Has course planning or course design recently consumed your schedule as you struggle to strike a balance between alternating online and face-to-face instructional content?

If so, you're not alone.

I’ve found that one of the major pitfalls of repurposing course content in any modality is that when I pull materials together from multiple sources I tend to lose the cohesiveness and necessary smooth navigation that students crave within my course modules. I’ve found that in order to make quick work of remixed content, I first need to better understand the materials I have to work with before making any adjustments.

We understand that there are two things that every instructor needs more of: time, and energy.

But before we can even begin to break down steps for efficiency, you must first believe balance is attainable! In fact, there are easy ways to automate and digitize routine communication and feedback, simple ways to help students build a community of inquiry, and resources to balance different teaching modalities.

Let’s review a few quick strategies and examples for adapting student engagement techniques and draw inspiration from a simplified approach to feedback and grading. These are big issues for sure but by addressing the strategies systematically through a series of small changes, simple approaches could add up to big results.