The University Success Seminar or LMAR 1101 is on track for the pilot run this coming Fall semester. Notices are going out now to those who have been selected to teach the new course. Planning is in the final stages for the upcoming training sessions for all the LMAR 1101 instructors. The first training session will occur on Tuesday, May 29 in the Setzer Student Center Ballroom beginning at 9:00 AM while the second training session is set for Wednesday, June 13 at the same time in 127 Communication Building. Instructors are required to attend one of the sessions but are welcome to attend both. You can contact Ashley Boone or Melonee Fife for more information about attending these two events. Save the date of Tuesday, August 21 for the annual CT+LE Faculty Development Blastoff. Look for updates on speakers, topics, places and times on this blog throughout the summer. Congratulations to all of the new LU alums who received their degrees at ceremonies last Saturday. Lamar awarded 1,354 degrees including 27 for doctorates, 599 for master’s degrees, and 704 for bachelor’s degrees. For those involved with May Mini-Session, we encourage you to integrate active learning strategies into your courses as they can provide great benefits to students who are involved in this type of environment. Learning experiences delivered using think/pair/share or stop/start/keep doing are ideal to provide formative assessment feedback for the instructor when the amount of time-on-topic is extremely critical. CT+LE is here for you throughout the summer session, so do not hesitate to contact us. Kathleen Taylor and Annalee Lamoreaux in their article Teaching with the Brain in Mind note that "The brain uses analogy to connect new input to existing patterns: How is the current experience like some earlier experience? Being able to use the past to evaluate present situations is an evolutionary advantage that no doubt came in very handy each subsequent time our cave-dwelling ancestors faced things with fangs and claws. Even more significant, the brain’s “rules” (algorithm) for analyzing connections between new and old patterns become more complex over our lifetime. The phenomenal power of the human mind derives in large part from the fact that the brain learns to change its own algorithm to account for variations, contrasts, and more integrative metaphors, leading to more inclusive, creative, and flexible responses to unfolding experience." They conclude "Though too much stress greatly inhibits learning, insufficient challenge can also have a negative impact; a bored brain stops attending. The most successful learning environments from the perspective of developmental intentions are those that provide high support and high challenge. Scaffolding is an effective strategy that offers both. A scaffold is a temporary structure that enables builders to work beyond a level that is mostly formed in order to start construction of the next, higher level. Similarly, when adult learners construct new meaning, scaffolding enables them to operate beyond their certainties, at what Daloz calls their growing edge. The combination of high support and high challenge may be the “optimal” stress that enhances production of dendrites, which are the parts of neurons most responsible for the “connectedness” of neuronal patterns." The bottom line is to find the right balance between challenging your students while scaffolding onto past learning. Joshua Kim has written an interesting op-ed piece on MOOCs. He says, "In short, while I believe that MOOCS are wonderful for the people who teach them and can be wonderful for our institutions, I don't believe that MOOCs offer any sort of solution to increase access, raise quality, or decrease costs in the higher ed marketplace. MOOCs are a welcome addition to the puzzle, but if we are serious as a society about investing in the human capital of our citizens (and thus provide opportunities for economic self-sufficiency and even economic mobility) that we need to invest public dollars in higher ed. I worry that MOOCs are a distraction to this need for investment, and will divert attention from the systematic dis-investments we are seeing in post-secondary funding by government at all levels."