Guest lecture Series
Welcome to CETLA's Guest Lecture Series. Designed for faculty, the series features speakers who can deepen your understanding of learning processes and broaden your repertoire of teaching strategies. Each lecture showcases a Howard University faculty member sharing insights with other Howard faculty gathered at CETLA. To attend future lectures, check your Howard FacNet account for notices. To view a lecture online, click a title or see the abstracts below.
Teaching Millennials
Yuvay Ferguson, Ph.D.
March 9, 2016
Have you found yourself struggling more and more to engage your students—those multi-tasking digital natives who seem more and more distracted in your classroom? Do you find more often than not that their expectations for teaching and learning do not match yours? If so, watch Marketing Professor Yuvay Ferguson's interactive lecture about teaching Millennials, the generation of students who were born in the 1980s and early 1990s and came of age in the new millennium. A Millennial herself, Dr. Ferguson identifies four defining characteristics of the Millennial generation (Generation X) to help faculty teach Millennial students more effectively. Then she concludes with a warning about the next generation of students who are beginning to enter colleges and universities now: Generation Z.
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Effective Advising
Melanie Carter, Ph.D.
October 19, 2015
Speaking to Howard University faculty, Dr. Melanie Carter provides an overview of the advising structures, services, and strategies that support student success at Howard. Although she describes the organization, tools, and resources for advising at Howard in particular, she also discusses the roles and responsibilities of faculty advisors in general, explaining why faculty play such a critical role in the advising process. Given their roles and responsibilities, she lists eleven steps that faculty can take to become effective advisors.
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sTIMULATING ACTIVE LEARNING IN LARGE CLASSES
Lennox Graham, D.M.
March 9, 2015
Teaching a large class can be daunting. Gazing out at a sea of faces, you may wonder how you can possibly reach each student. After all, you can't maintain eye contact or physical proximity with all of your students. Moreover, if the class fills a lecture hall, you can't see whether students are emailing, texting, or sleeping in class. Even if the students are paying attention, it may seem impossible to find enough time for every student to participate. However, in this video, Allied Health professor Lennox Graham assures us that it is possible to engage students in classes of 60 or more students. Citing examples from his own classes, he explains how to engage large classes through the use of teams, student presentations, student co-facilitators, attention-getters, interactive polling, and TV-style games.
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Adaptive Learning
Harry Keeling, PH.D.
November 19, 2014
A revolution in learning is taking place, and it is called "adaptive learning." As Computer Science Professor Harry Keeling points out in this video, more and more adaptive learning technologies are emerging—technologies that can adapt instructional content and delivery to an individual student's needs. In the video, Dr. Keeling explains why such personalized learning applications are needed, how they work, and how both faculty and students can benefit. After describing some of the most popular adaptive learning products on the market, he shares research on the impact of his own adaptive learning application (Assess Track) at Howard University.
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Contemplative Pedagogy: Stimulating Mindfulness and Inquiry Through Meditation
Bradford C. Grant, M.Arch, AIA
April 16, 2014
What is "contemplative pedagogy," and how can it improve teaching and learning? Professor Bradford Grant answers these questions in this video, drawing upon his training in architecture, his personal history of meditation, and his experience engaging students in contemplative practices in the classroom. To illustrate the effectiveness of these practices, he invites his audience to participate in exercises designed to facilitate introspection, reflection, and critical inquiry.
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Flipping the classroom
Andre Farquharson, D.D.S.
March 26, 2014
An Associate Professor of Dentistry, Dr. Andre Farquharson can not only pull a tooth, but flip a class. In this video, he explains what "flipping the classroom" means, why he decided to flip one of his classes, and how he did it. In vivid detail, he describes what part of the instruction he moved online and what part of the instruction he changed inside his classroom. Then he compares his students' response to the class format before and after "flipping." Although his experiment proved successful, he closes with suggestions for improving the "flipped" class next time.
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Problem-based learning
Oluwaranti Akiyode, Pharm.D.
Februrary 10, 2014
What is Problem-Based Learning (PBL), and why does it work? You can find the answers in this video by Pharmacy professor Oluwaranti Akiyode. Drawing upon her experience teaching PBL in the College of Pharmacy, she describes the benefits and the challenges of PBL and how she modified PBL to fit the resource constraints of her college. Then, providing lots of concrete examples, she explains how faculty can design, facilitate, and evaluate PBL activities.
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CYBERSECURITY: Protecting yourself and your students
Rajni Goel, Ph.D.
October 10, 2013
Information Security specialist, Professor Rajni Goel, knows what dangers lurk in the cybersphere. That is why she agreed to give this eye-opening lecture. As you watch her video, you will understand the nature and objectives of cybersecurity and discover a host of cyberthreats that threaten faculty and students at universities. Most important, though, you will learn how to protect yourself and your students in an increasingly dangerous world.
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Digital gaming in higher education
Derek Lloyd, Ph.D.
Februrary 19, 2013
COMING SOON
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Instilling Professionalism
Clive Callender, M.D. , F.A.C.S..
November 6, 2012
In 2010, Professor of Surgery Dr. Clive Callender was appointed chair of the College of Medicine’s Task Force on Professionalism (TFOP), a task force charged with fostering a culture of professionalism and developing a curriculum to promote professionalism among students, staff, and faculty. In this video, Dr. Callender shares what that committee learned and achieved. Although he focuses on professionalism in the Health Sciences, he presents the College of Medicine’s experience as an example of what other schools and colleges can do to instill professionalism. For instance, professionalism in patient care in the Health Sciences might translate into professionalism in customer care in Business or client care in Social Work and Law, or listener/viewer care in Communications. In other words, this video reveals how important it is for faculty to instill professionalism in their students, regardless of the career or field.
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Leveraging Social Media to Enhance African American Students' Learning
Ingrid Sturgis M.A..
May 12, 2012
Student use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google Docs has skyrocketed in the last ten years. According to Dr. Ingrid Sturgis, Assistant Professor of Journalism, faculty cannot afford to ignore this phenomenon, especially among African American students, who use social media even more than white students. Therefore, in this video, Dr. Sturgis explains which social media African American students prefer and how they use these media. Then she documents the extent to which professors are teaching with social media, pointing out why more professors should incorporate social media in their teaching. To encourage more professors to adopt social media, she concludes with tips and resources for teaching with social media and avoiding the risks.
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Mentoring African American Undergraduate Researchers
Abdul Karim Bangura Ph.D.
April 18, 2012
Studies suggest that African American undergraduates, in particular, benefit from involvement in research. 1 So how can faculty engage African American students in original research? Having successfully mentored dozens of African American undergraduates, Political Science Professor Abdul Karim Bangura explains how other faculty can do the same. After explaining what "counts" as undergraduate research, Dr. Bangura describes the impressive learning outcomes for many of the African American undergraduate researchers he has mentored during his career. Then he explains how other faculty members can also motivate undergraduates to pursue original research and help those students follow through—from formulating a research question to producing a presentation or publication.
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Assessing the impact of high-impact practices on african american students
Dana Williams, Ph.D.
February 15, 2012
According to the Association of American Colleges & Universities, ten active learning practices increase rates of student engagement and retention. These "High Impact Practices" (HIPs) include (1) First-year seminars and experiences, (2) Common intellectual experiences, (3) Learning communities, (4) Writing-intensive courses, (5) Collaborative assignments and projects, (6) Undergraduate research, (7) Diversity and global learning, (8) Service-learning and community-based learning, (9) Internships, and (10) Capstone projects. In this video, English professor Dana Williams, a practitioner of many of these practices, shares data from Howard University to document the impact of HIPs on the predominantly African American undergraduate population at Howard.
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African American Student Learning and Engagement in STEM
Kimberley E. Freeman, Ph.D.
November 21, 2011
What individual, instructional, and institutional variables promote the achievement and retention of African American undergraduates who have declared a major in STEM? In this video, that is the research question explored by Dr. Kimberley Freeman, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Principal Investigator of the Excellence and Motivation in Education Research Group (EMERG). Analyzing survey responses from 1st-year Howard STEM majors, Dr. Freeman explains why students choose STEM majors at Howard and what motivates 1st-year STEM students to achieve.
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increasing the retention and achievement of african-american college males
Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D..
October 24, 2011
The media are constantly bombarding the American public with dismal statistics about young black men. In this video, Education Professor Ivory Toldson shows us how many of these statistics distort reality. At the same time, he highlights the statistics that deserve our attention, statistics such as the following: "If all 1,127,170 black males who are currently enrolled in undergraduate programs eventually graduated, the number of total black males with college degrees would increase by 71%, nearly achieving parity with white males." Therefore, Dr. Toldson's research explores not only the factors that motivate black males to enroll in colleges but also the factors that enable them to graduate. These factors, his research reveals, are personal, financial, familial, institutional, and societal. But, above all, his research shows us how secondary schools can better prepare and advise black males before they enroll in college and how college faculty and administrators can better support them once they arrive.
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service learning
Jean
Bailey, Ph.D.
May 3, 2011
What is service-learning, and how can you incorporate it in your curriculum? This video provides the answers. Dr. Ura Jean Oyemade Bailey draws upon her experience as Graduate Professor of Human Development in the School of Education, where she has designed and supervised multiple service-learning projects in District of Columbia communities. She explains what service-learning is, why it is important, and describes several curricular models of service-learning that faculty can select. Situating service-learning at the intersection of academic courses, experiential learning, and civic learning, she identifies the key components of successful service-learning projects: (1) preparation, (2) action, (3) reflection, and (4) assessment. She also recommends strategies to prompt reflection and cites additional service-learning resources.
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stimulating quantitative reasoning
Adeniran
Adeboye, Ph.D.
April 21, 2011
Taking viewers back to Ancient Africa, mathematics professor Adeniran Adeboye presents archaeological evidence that early humans engaged in mathematical reasoning. This evidence is just one more reason he contends that every healthy human being has the capacity to learn math. What learners need is an opportunity to discover the fundamentals and to reinforce their learning throughout their school years so that they develop the habit of quantitative reasoning. So what is quantitative reasoning? In this video, Dr. Adeboye demonstrates and defines it, explains why it is critical for success in today’s society, and reveals why schools—primary through college—must engage students in quantitative reasoning to solve real-world problems across the curriculum. “It takes a village” to teach a child to speak, he says, so the same applies to teaching mathematics. Through campus-wide quantitative literacy programs, he insists, America’s college graduates could finally achieve the standards for quantitative reasoning that the Mathematical Association of America recommends. Thus, he concludes his presentation by explaining how colleges can develop and assess quantitative literacy programs—in short, how colleges can turn a campus into a village.
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Cultivating a Culture of Academic Integrity
Kortright Davis, Ph.D.
February 24, 2011
Nationwide more and more faculty are complaining about Internet-age cheating and plagiarizing. Many feel that the problem reflects a crisis in values. If so, how do we instill a sense of academic integrity in our students? How do we create an academic culture that makes cheating, plagiarism, falsification of research, and other unethical practices unthinkable? Professor of Theology Kortright Davis proposes a "re-formation and transformation" of character. After identifying the realities that promote cheating and the cultures that foster it, he reviews definitions of academic integrity. Then he discusses "the patterns of deficits and infelicities" that lead students to cheat and the institutional policies and practices that are designed to deter cheating. However, he explains that policies alone will not suffice. "Cheaters," he insists, "need to be educated away from cheating." So he concludes this video by suggesting ways that faculty as well as administrators can "enlighten, encourage, and energize maturity and honesty."
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Teaching With Facebook
Miles, Reginald, M.A.
January 25, 2011
Facebook in the classroom? Some faculty may scoff at the notion of integrating the social networking website into the curriculum. However, in this video, Reginald Miles, Assistant Professor of Radio, TV, and Film, urges faculty to reconsider the instructional potential of Facebook. Then , step by step, through a series of screencasts, he guides faculty through the process of setting up a Facebook site for classes. He shows faculty how to set up a "teacher profile," establish a group for each class, foster a virtual classroom community, and create an event (such as an assignment). Citing student comments, he reveals how Facebook improved teaching and learning in his classes. For instance, since over 85% of U.S. college students used Facebook in 2010, teaching via Facebook made it easier for his students to access him and the assignments. As a result, he exulted, nearly all of his students submitted their homework on time!
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Teaching With Humor
Unger, Darian, Ph.D..
November 17, 2010
Business School professor Darian Unger claims that he is not a funny guy. Yet he has earned a reputation for keeping his class laughing—and learning. In this video, he explains why and how. Humor, he states, engages students, and engagement strengthens learning. Moreover, it increases retention while decreasing tension. Citing his "Three R's" of learning—Relevance, Relationship, and Rigor—he demonstrates how humor can make course material relevant, build a positive student-teacher relationship, and maintain rigorous standards for student performance. Challenging misconceptions about humor, he shows faculty that they don't need to be comedians to infuse humor into lectures, slides, or exams. He also indicates how technology such as Blackboard or YouTube can help. Finally, he advises faculty about how to avoid common pitfalls related to teaching with humor.
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case-based teaching
Crooms, Lisa, J. D.
October 13, 2010
Cases are narratives that students explore interactively in order to draw a conclusion, determine a course of action, or to debate issues in a realistic context. Since Case-Based Teaching (CBT) originated in law schools, this video features a professor of law, Lisa Crooms, explaining how to set up a case, how to brief a case, and how to use cases to stimulate and assess student learning. However, CBT has been widely adopted by professors in other professional schools such as medicine and business, and has proved to be a powerful tool for stimulating active learning in the liberal arts and sciences. Therefore, from this video, faculty can learn strategies that can enhance their courses, regardless of the discipline.
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Green teaching
Tharakan, John, Ph.D.
May 4, 2010
In this age of dwindling natural resources, being a "green" teacher has assumed a new and positive meaning. As Engineering Professor John Tharakan explains in this video, universities need more green teachers in order to protect the environment and sustain life on this planet. Citing American University's "Green Teaching" Program, Dr. Tharakan explains how green teaching practices reduce paper use, save energy, and reduce emissions. He, then, describes other green measures faculty can take, including applying for CETLA's Green Teaching Certificate, which is modeled after American University's.
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Internationalizing the Curriculum
Scott, Jr.
Harold, Ph.D
April 14, 2010
Most faculty would agree that they need to equip students for a “flat world,” a world where people everywhere are increasingly connected. However, despite their agreement, some can’t imagine how they could internationalize their courses without straying from the purpose and content. That is why International Affairs scholar Harold Scott, Jr. explains in this video how to internationalize courses across the curriculum. Quoting the learning objectives from diverse syllabi, he demonstrates how faculty can fulfill those objectives by infusing their courses with an international perspective. As a result, he reveals, “students begin to think about where they fit in the global context” and they can more clearly see how to achieve their career goals and intellectual interests in an international arena.
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Avoiding faculty burnout
Livingston,
Ivor, Ph.D.
March 29, 2010
Sociologist, psychologist, and public health educator, Dr. Ivor Livingston explores faculty burnout from an interdisciplinary perspective. He begins his presentation by defining burnout, identifying its symptoms, and documenting its incidence among faculty. Then, highlighting the role of stress and perception, he explains burnout’s causes and outcomes. Finally, he proposes five stress management strategies that faculty can adopt to avoid burnout: cognitive restructuring, psychosocial adjustments, lifestyle adjustments, situational adjustments, and relaxation experiences.
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Using protfolios to assess student learning
Bond,
Helen, Ph.D.
February 17, 2010
What is an electronic portfolio? According to Dr. Helen Bond, an Assistant Professor of Education, a portfolio is an “organized and purposeful” collection of information and artifacts, “supported by reflections that document a candidate’s progress.” The portfolio becomes “electronic,” when it is posted online via a website such as a wiki, where students can integrate documents, photos, slide shows, audio, video, and other multimedia. As a result, Dr. Bond argues, an electronic portfolio can provide both faculty and students with a powerful tool for assessing students’ learning. To prove her point, Dr. Bond guides viewers through an array of portfolios, including portfolios in the fields of education, art, law, and medicine. Then she explains how to use standards to develop and assess them. In addition, she cites resources for mastering the wiki technology she and her students use to build them.
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teaching entrepreneurship in any discipline
Lafond,
Anestine, Ph.D.
November 24, 2009
In this video, Dr. Anestine LaFond explains why entrepreneurship education should not be confined to schools of business. After defining “entrepreneurship,” she argues that entrepreneurial thinking is a key to success across the disciplines and in public and nonprofit organizations as well as in corporations, small businesses, and private practices. Citing examples from Howard University and beyond, she shows how faculty have incorporated entrepreneurship in courses in the liberal arts and sciences as well as the health sciences and fine arts. Then she shares resources for learning more about entrepreneurship and challenges faculty to follow a four-step plan for getting started.
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understanding the role of african american english at the university
Taylor,
Orlando, Ph.D.
October 6, 2009
In this video, Professor of Communication Dr. Orlando Taylor defines African American English (AAE) and dispels common misconceptions about it. After providing examples of AAE’s vocabulary and syntax, he concludes that AAE is a legitimate tongue, but AAE-speakers still need to master Standard English. However, he insists, Standard English does not mean "white English.” In fact, he advocates the use of what he calls "African American Standard English" and calls on educators to abandon the traditional “Correction Model” of pedagogy for a “Bidialectal Model” that promotes “code-switching” between AAE and Standard English. He also urges university researchers to develop an evidence-based pedagogy for empowering AAE-speakers to master the standard.
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effective listening
Lyndrey
Niles, Ph.D.
April 22, 2009
According to Dr. Lyndrey Niles, Professor Emeritus of Communication, when we communicate, we spend nearly 45% of our time listening rather than speaking, reading, or writing. Yet, he observes, “we spend the most time learning how to write,” and “we spend the least amount of time learning to listen.” Dr. Niles attributes this irony to the assumption that we automatically listen when we hear. But since listening requires concentration, he warns, “Because you are hearing, you’re not necessarily listening.” Therefore, in this video, Dr. Niles identifies common barriers to effective listening, strategies faculty and students can adopt to listen better, and strategies that faculty can use during their lectures to help students listen more effectively.
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developing critical readers
Richard
Wright, Ph.D.
March 25, 2009
According to Dr. Richard Wright, Professor of Linguistics, “you must become a reader of the world before you can become a reader of the word.” In other words, to read texts critically, students must think about the world critically. How can teachers help students develop such a “critical consciousness”? In this video Dr. Wright, explains how faculty can adopt a “critical pedagogy” that will help students approach the word and the world with a sense of personal agency and a questioning mind. Noting that “every text is biased,” he presents strategies that faculty can share with students so that their students can recognize an author’s purpose, tone, and perspective. In short, he shows us how to teach students to “read between the lines.”
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improving students' study skills
Sharon
Fletcher, M.A.
February 18, 2009
According to Professor Sharon Fletcher from the Center for Academic Reinforcement, study skills encompass a wide variety of techniques that help students succeed in school. These techniques include global strategies such as goal-setting and time management as well as discrete skills such as note-taking and textbook reading. In this video, Professor Fletcher identifies useful study skills, providing concrete examples that faculty can easily incorporate in their pedagogy. She concludes the video with a set of exercises to help students think critically—one of the most important study skills of all.
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"READING" AND "WRITING" VISUAL MESSAGES
Alfred Smith, MFA.
November 19, 2008
Many commentators say that we are living in a visual world—a world where analyzing and creating images is as important as reading and writing text. If that is the case, how do we prepare our students to think critically about visual communication? How can we help them “read” visual messages and incorporate them effectively in assignments? And how can we incorporate visuals effectively in our teaching? In this video, Art Professor Alfred Smith attempts to answer these questions by, first, explaining the physiology of perceiving images and, then, illustrating how “picture-writers” use line, light, perspective, and space to communicate through images. Then, he challenges the audience to use their understanding of these tools to “read” the positive and negative messages in a series of photos from the 2008 presidential campaign. At the end of the video, he discusses with his audience how selecting appropriate images can enhance their teaching.
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using drama as a teaching tool
Kim
Bey, Ph.D.
October 28, 2008
In
this video, Assistant Professor of Acting and Voice, Dr. Kim Bey,
argues that drama is not just for the stage and screen.
It can play an important role in the classroom—regardless of
the level or discipline.
Citing the value of integrating all arts in education, Dr. Bey
explains how drama, in particular, helps students learn in multiple
ways—visual, aural, tactile, and kinesthetic.
Through a group exercise and classroom examples, she
demonstrates how faculty can use dramatic tools such as point of
view, diction, monologue, role-playing, and body language to engage
students in learning a subject.
Likewise, she points out how faculty can use
performance-based assessments to evaluate that learning.
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increasing student retention
Anette
Davis, Ph.D.
September 28, 2008
Nearly half of American college freshmen never graduate, especially African Americans, Dr. Annette Davis announces in this video. Yet faculty members can reverse this trend, she maintains. Drawing upon her experience in teaching and counseling, she explains why so many students drop out and how faculty can identify these at-risk students before they disappear. Best of all, she suggests concrete steps that faculty advisors and classroom teachers can take to help students succeed.
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Gregory
Carr, Ph.D.
Ralph Gomes, 
George Middendorf, Ph.D 
William B. Lawson, MD, PhD, DFAPA 
Marguerite Neita, Ph.D. 
Folahan O. Ayorinde, Ph.D. 
Samuel Paschall, J.D. 
Silvia Martinez, Ed.D.
Ramesh Chawla , Ph.D.
Laura A. Fleet, Ph.D.
Leslie Hicks , Ph.D.
Kay T. Payne, Ph.D.
Veronica Thomas , Ph.D.
A. Wade Boykin , Ph.D. 
Gerunda Hughes , Ph.D.
Wilfred Johnson, Ph.D.
Steve Jamar, J.D.
Anita Nahal, Ph.D.
Debyii L. Sababu Thomas, Ph.D.
David G. Fitzpatrick, MBA
Constance Ellison, Ph.D.
Richard Jones, Ph.D.