Professional development is, “any activity that is part of a contentious and strategic effort to improve professional skills and competencies” (Higher Education Recruitment Consortium). It’s no surprise, then, that there are a tremendous number of means to improve. Here, we will focus on the domains of professional development and ways to seek advancement.

Syllabus Access in Blackboard: It is important to make a syllabus accessible to students, so that they can refer to it often and stay informed about current class activities. While instructors may wish to provide a paper copy so they can review the syllabus in class together, posting the document in Blackboard ensures students have access.

Many of our students come to us underprepared for college or stuck in unhelpful study beliefs and habits. Spending small amounts of time talking about metacognition – how students understand their own learning – can make a huge difference in their learning and performance (McGuire, 2022).

Students are not empty vessels to be filled (Freire). They enter classrooms with years of knowledge, skills, and perceptions acquired through formal and informal educational experiences.

Reflecting on the learning process is a skill that will serve students well. Utilizing student self-assessment or self-grading can lead to learning benefits (2022 & 2017):

What is meaningful to you, may not be meaningful to students. What is meaningful to one student, may not be meaningful to another student.

Using both formative and summative assessment allows students to get a better idea of their progress in the course, allows the faculty member to gauge understanding and progress toward the course learning goals, as well as evaluate knowledge and skills. 

How many times have you given students an assignment and what you got back was nothing like what you thought you asked for? Not only is it a frustrating experience for you, but also for your students—what’s more, it is a missed opportunity for students to practice or apply what they are learning. Faculty have an important role in student success, and that is providing both high standards and high support to students.

Be Explicit About Why

As an expert, it is clear to you as the instructor why you choose to cover or omit topics, how class activities support student learning, and that the assignments you give students provide opportunity to practice or demonstrate knowledge around the course learning goals and outcomes. However, for a student, those connections are rarely as clear.

While students may desire to have grades back on submitted assignments immediately, this may not be a reasonable (or doable) turnaround time for you, particularly with assignments like papers or projects (though with Blackboard you can actually create auto-graded assignments—see here or contact Cyberlearning for more info).