Recent changes noted in student behaviors, skills, etc.:
--Satisfied with mediocrity
--On-spot assimilation (want material given)
--Expect professor to keep their attention
--Expect professor to make the case for value of course content
--Students don't want to be in class
--Students don't know what to do after class to process the material just discussed
--In larger numbers, students argue about grades and seem insulted with grades earned.
--Range of technical abilities is wider than ever and competence at these skills is not as high as it used to be
--Students are accustomed to being praised at everything they do; not used to criticism

Despite the snow and power failure, 13 out of the 19 registered participated in the luncheon discussion. Thanks to the emergency lights in the hallway, we were able to see each other and take notes.

Reasons for cheating
Basically, when students need the credits but don’t want to learn and earn it, cheating is a convenient shortcut. Factors that contribute to student resort for cheating include:

Here are two resources of interest concerning plagarism that we did not include in our resources for this luncheon.

First, is a report on the usage of Turnitin.com by instructors at Penn State. This report was created by the Senate Committee on Computing and Information Systems and summarizes nearly 30,000 reports that were analyzed by Turnitin.com and surveys of the instructors that used this tool. The report is available at: http://www.psu.edu/dept/cew/TurnitinFinalReportFS.doc

Second, is a link to University of Albany's Institute for Teaching, Learning, and Academic Leadership. This page supplies links to plagiarism tutorials at help students understand how to identify plagarism: http://www.albany.edu/teachingandlearning/tlr/prevention.shtml

The group of participants at Schuylkill had quite a bit of experience with team-based learning, and the discussion was lively. The most common reason given for students not liking team projects was that they don't like that their grade depends on other people. Also, the idea that working in groups gets students out of their comfort zone was thought to be a top factor.

Many ways to help groups be successful were shared. Specifying clear objectives and goals for the project is important, as well as having the students write and agree to a contract detailing who will do what and when. Someone suggested having checkpoints along the way, that aren't necessarily graded, but that break the project up into smaller pieces. This structure helps students gauge the status of the project and identify any problems early. Someone suggested that having a presentation due at the end of the project seems to give the students more motivation than just a paper might.

Here are the conclusion highlights from the New Kensington discussion:

• Midsemester feedback is critical in that it helps the students become more active in their own learning process
• The timing of this feedback allows an instructor to make adjustments in time to benefit the students currently enrolled in that course, not just future students
• Collecting and utilizing mid semester feedback is an excellent retention technique!

Our HDFS faculty member posed the question "Can Midsemester Feedback Hurt You?". Our thoughts:

• Yes - it can be detrimental if you collect feedback and then do not act on that feedback. Why bother? Students will feel seriously ignored! May be worse than not collecting feedback at all.

A variety of disciplines were at the table including Geo-sciences, Speech Pathology, Fluid Mechanics, English and Architectural Engineering. We all were alike in citing a common set of motivations for doing mid-semester evaluations. Included were to find out what is right with the course and what might be impeding student progress. Included also was the felt need to allow students to report how the course was addressing each student's needs. While the discussion was pretty focused on a few issues, the broader discussion including comments from remote sites had some ideas that just jumped out. Here is a list of some of those ideas:

The following is a summary of the discussion at Harrisburg. I encourage others to add additional comments.
Primary goal in collecting mid-semester feedback:
• Ensure students are learning and make any necessary changes
• Ensure teaching strategies and approaches are effective
• Meet course objectives
• Improve students’ involvement in/with the course
• Increase student retention, especially the silent/quiet students and those on verge of failing
• Gauge effectiveness of new teaching technique/approach
Favorite mid-semester feedback question:
• What are your expectations and am I meeting them?

Our group at Lehigh Valley agreed with many of the top disruptions from the Arizona Idol video as top disruptions in their classes as well, with leaving early/arriving late and doing other things in class besides participating (e.g., texting, IM-ing, web-surfing, sleeping) being the most common. We appreciated the comment from one of the other campuses about attendance in class including "mental attendance". All agreed that addressing appropriate behavior at the beginning of the semester and in the syllabus were the most effective ways of preventing these problems.

The faculty at my table agreed that setting the fundamental rules of th classroom, right at the beginning, were most important. Discussion with the students the necessity of these rules helps make the students stakeholders in the classroom. Some rules/standards may be negotiated, and thus give the students some control over their own environment. The syllabus can serve as a contract of sorts because it allows the faculty to put the behavior in writing. Deal with inappropriate behavior as soon as possible, in private if possible, to avoid embarrassment to the student.

Participants at this table mentioned cell phones, students who want to keep talking, and reading newspapers as the most common incivility issues they experience.

With respect to cell phones and newspapers, the most popular way to deal with the issues was to put the rules on the syllabus. For newspapers or sleeping or talking, the message can be made even stronger by including participation in the final grade and pointing out to students that if they are reading a newspaper they can't also be participating and their grade will suffer.

One instructor does a presentation on the first day to show students what is and is not allowed in the class.