Martin Keefer

Excellence in Teaching
CHEP Status: Expired
CHEP Awarded: 06/10/2015

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

This introductory course covers the essential roles of a teacher and the competencies required to be a successful instructor in an educational institution. Proven techniques and strategies for planning and preparation are presented and discussed. In addition, the course offers effective methods for conducting the first class meeting and delivering course content. This course provides a solid foundation for new instructors and serves as an excellent refresher for more experienced instructors.
The instructor is the real key to student retention at any educational institution. Instructors must keep focused on student motivation and retention each and every day of class. Developing strategies for retaining students throughout the entire training sequence is both complex and rewarding. All instructors should have the goal of seeing all of their students successfully complete their class. This course helps you reach that goal by helping you to understand your students and use proven motivation and retention techniques to keep them enrolled and engaged in the learning process.
Educators work with students who want to learn specific skills that will lead to fulfilling careers. As educational instructors it is our job to help each student to achieve this goal. Just as you may have a particular style of teaching that you prefer, your students have preferred ways of learning. This course will help you to identify the different learning styles of your students so that you can adjust your instruction to better accommodate them. Good teachers also regularly monitor the effectiveness of their instruction by assessing their students’ learning. This course will examine several aspects of assessment including how to create good tests, how to ask effective questions and how to get your students to actively participate in their learning by asking questions themselves.
This course shows instructors how to develop a comprehensive approach to effective and efficient instruction. From preparation for the classroom to selection of instructional delivery methods, the course provides effective ways of planning instruction to help instructors keep the content focused and the students engaged. We also cover the steps to set up a complete evaluation system that will work in all settings.
This course will inform you of how careful lesson planning can help to ensure increased student engagement. Proper lesson planning will enable you to teach effectively and efficiently, and ultimately help students meet learning objectives. The information in this course will provide the framework for instructional development enabling you to properly structure a detailed, well thought-out lesson plan.
Outstanding teachers serve their students by guiding them through their coursework and motivating them to complete program requirements. Instructors at educational institutions are often faced with high stress resulting from heavy teaching loads and limited time. When teachers cannot manage their own time and stress, they cannot fully serve the needs of their students. This course will show instructors how to manage time and stress in their lives and teach some of these skills to their students.
This course compares and contrasts four styles of classroom management. The course includes "virtual visits" to animated classrooms where participants observe four instructors who exhibit different management styles. The style that is preferred by most students is identified and described, and suggestions are offered on how instructors can modify their personal style to increase their effectiveness. A four-step model for developing successful classroom management strategies is presented and is followed by a discussion of a practical, behavioral approach to classroom management. Characteristics that foster good discipline in the educational institution and in the classroom are listed and explained, and tips are offered that can improve both institution-wide and classroom discipline. Finally, a number of scenarios involving common discipline problems are described.
The purpose of this course is to familiarize instructors with the concepts of soft skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) so they can use this information to improve their professional performance. The course provides a comparison of hard and soft skills, including people skills and workplace behaviors. Ten "most important" soft skills are discussed in detail and the relationship between EQ and soft skills is explained. The course concludes with tips and suggestions to help instructors enhance their soft skills and EQ.
Generation Y students are often associated with their use of technology. While technology is an essential part of their lives, there is much more to know about Gen Y learners. This course gives a profile of Generation Y learners and how they relate to other generational learners in the classroom. Strategies are given for engaging Gen Y students in the learning process while building on their abilities to use social networks, portable media and personal interaction. Instructors of Gen Y students are given methods that can be used to help them develop the critical thinking and interpersonal skills needed for many of todays careers.
This course is an overview of a variety of ways in which educators can infuse technology and web resources into every day curriculum, to engage learners and promote collaborative learning. A variety of resources and suggestions are contained within this course, allowing everyone from the novice to the technology expert to take away what is appropriate for them, their students, and the course, in order to integrate 21st century teaching resources and practices in a practical and beneficial manner.
This course will provide you with a basic overview of the background of an innovative instructional strategy called the Flipped Classroom. This instructional strategy is gaining popularity and differs from traditional instructional strategies. This course will discuss the background, driving factors, benefits, barriers, theoretical grounding, how to prepare to flip your classroom, and the components of the Flipped Classroom. The impact on student learning will also be discussed in addition to instructor preparation and the future of the Flipped Classroom.
While educators increasingly use technology in the lab setting, many don’t know where to start when trying to use it during didactic instruction. Furthermore, administrators have a hard time rolling out these initiatives. This course will go through the stages of a solid rollout plan to take advantage of available technologies. It will also discuss how to teach with technology as an enhancement to education, not a replacement. This course helps instructors, administrators and support staff to better understand how to use these tools.
This course covers the impact that personal electronic devices, in this case tablets, have on the delivery of instruction. The course discusses the reasons for using tablets in classroom and lab settings to enhance learning and expand educational resources for students. Strategies are given to enable instructors to see how the use of tablets can assist students in becoming active learners both within and outside of the school setting.
As students from different generations are enrolling in post-secondary settings today, instructors are presented with the challenge of how to engage, instruct and relate to these multigenerational learners. This course gives profiles of different generational learners and how they engage in the learning process. Content is shared on how to relate to learners of the different generations and how to use students’ life experiences as learning opportunities. As technology is an essential part of instructional delivery, strategies are given for building on the abilities of multigenerational students to use social networks, portable media (given the parameters of school policy), and personal interaction. In addition, instructors are given methods that can be used to help students develop the critical thinking and interpersonal skills needed for career success.
This course introduces the participant to teaching students with disabilities in the environment of an educational institution. It provides descriptions of the physical, sensory, mental, psychological, and learning disabilities most likely to be encountered, as well as the effects these disabilities have on students and their learning. The course also introduces participants to accommodations and strategies that may help to support students with disabilities and foster their academic success.
Awareness has grown in recent years that, to be effective today, learning must include more than knowledge and "hard skills," or technical ability. In a world where work is often team-based and project-driven, teaching needs also to encompass attitudes and social competencies. This course will describe ways students can enhance their professional skills across the curriculum. Strategies for teaching effective personal interaction and ways to support student professional growth and development will be discussed. This course will also explain how students can improve their writing skills and computer literacy across the curriculum.
The classroom in an educational institution is often more than just chairs, books, and a white board. Frequently the learning takes place in a lab or shop environment, where the traditional rules of classroom management and teaching may not always apply. This course covers the instructional techniques necessary for the non-traditional classroom, including strategies for teaching to each student's individual learning style. In addition, this course describes strategies for assessing student progress. Safety guidelines and considerations for specific lab and shop environments are identified.
As opportunities for education become more prevalent, educational institutions must compete to increase, or even maintain, their student enrollment levels. More and more institutions are adopting the strategy of treating students like customers in order to be successful. This course will review the characteristics of adult learners and determine the reasons adult students leave the institution. It will discuss the concept of interacting with students as though they are customers and how the students-as-customers concept relates to the instructor and the classroom. This course will also describe the methods and techniques of effective communication. Included are guidelines and techniques for advising and mentoring students.
This course will inform you about the purpose of rubrics and will provide you with the techniques to develop rubrics as an assessment tool for student performance, processes and products. This course will explore types of rubrics, the role rubrics play in assessment, as well as the use of rubrics in evaluating elements of your online course to ensure your course is truly student-centered.
This course will provide you with strategies and techniques to help use social networking in the online environment. It provides an overview of social networking, media hosting and sharing, microblogging and blogging. An introduction to each will be provided, and content development, policy, facilitation and assessment will all be discussed. Suggested activities will also be provided.
This course provides sound advice on preparing and delivering presentations that command attention, persuade, and inspire. It includes rehearsal techniques as well as tips for creating and using more effective visuals. The course also addresses the importance of understanding your objectives and your audience to create a presentation with impact.
In this course, you will learn how to strengthen your coaching skills by using a four-step process to facilitate the professional growth of the employees you coach.
How many times have we said “if we’d only known” as a student walks out the door? No one starts classes planning to fail, but unfortunately problems do arise that present barriers to success. Students are good at identifying these problems blocking their path to success, but they frequently don’t have adequate problem solving and communication skills needed to overcome these problems. This course looks at the effect of stress on attrition, the use of tools to identify and help students at risk, and how to develop an institutional culture that shares responsibility for student success across the entire organization.
Building a program to ensure a smooth "hand off" from Admissions to Faculty is a critical component of student retention. Applicants often develop a strong bond with their admissions representative that ends (from the institution's standpoint) once they begin classes. This online course provides practical ideas on designing an orientation program, first-week-of-class and other retention activities that connect the student with faculty, the college and each other that will help you retain and graduate more students.
This course is a collection of ideas and best practices drawn from the implementation of enrollment growth strategies at over 300 educational institutions nationwide. The course is based on a highly successful in-service training program offered by Dr. Joe Pace, Managing Partner of The Pacific Institute and includes video delivery of Pace's presentations. Filled with practical tips and suggestions, the course also discusses the application of current research results on human behavior and organizational culture to enhance student enrollment and retention. This is a unique course that will dramatically change your perspective on institutional effectiveness.