- My name is Burcu Karabina.
- My name is John Redden.
- My name's Leslie Sprunger.
- I'm Laura Freberg.
- My name is Troy Wood.
- I teach at an R1 research university.
One of the biggest challenges that we face
is trying to balance teaching responsibilities
against research responsibilities.
- Seeing the decline in the graduation rate
and knowing that part of that is the cost of education.
- I am at a large public institution,
and I can say, without even really hesitating,
that our biggest challenge,
is time.
- Time and time and time.
- I think of my classroom as my research lab,
so that when I'm doing research,
I'm also potentially improving my teaching.
- Having the time to really sit down
and think about what we're doing,
to try to be more creative about it.
- We're being given heavier loads,
higher expectations.
A lot of people who traditionally
have not been asked to do professional development research,
that kind of thing,
they're having to do it now,
so I don't think there is a second challenge
that competes with the lack of time.
- A lot of times, this is where
technology can help us, right?
By automating things or making it possible to do things,
but even that, you have to have the time
to kind of set up the system
and figure out how are you gonna use it effectively
and troubleshoot.
- The changing student demographics,
the changing demographics and the diversity
ultimately strengthens higher ed,
but it still means that we have students
coming from all different walks of life,
all different comfort levels,
all sorts of situations taking place at home,
that we never really get to see
but ultimately impact their success in the classroom.
We have to figure out ways to deal with that.
- All of these students come in
with much different backgrounds.
And for us, at UB,
a significant number of students
that are undergraduates from East Asia.
It's not that the students
are not gifted or talented in our subject area.
They know these terms in their native language,
but in English, they don't know them,
and they're getting exposed to them
for the first time in my classroom,
so that's a challenge.
- I think that a lot of them don't come in
with very good metacognitive skills.
The kindergarten through 12th grade teachers
often do very different things than we do.
- There's a big gap in the skills
that students are experience,
and they come to college unprepared.
- In college, we require a lot more independence
and a lot more time management.
You really just have to teach them that.
They need those kind of soft skills,
not just the academic content.
- We need to help them to get there,
so that they can start taking their college courses.
And then they also need to build this
tradition of learning,
so that they have the set of skills to join the workforce.
- There's also a huge issue that relates to
resources, financial resources.
Because the cost of education has increased dramatically
in the last, whatever, 20 years.
Their income potential has not kept pace with that.
So the debt loads have really skyrocketed.
- The student financial burden,
so many of the students are working
an enormous number of hours.
And being a student at the same time.
They have limits unto how much time
they can actually dedicate to our subject material.
They have to work.
And so that presents a challenge to us
because we're competing for their time.
- The state schools are running 20, 30 thousand a year,
the private schools 70 and up.
So an astonishing amount of money.
And yet the data all show that without a bachelors degree
you're not gonna make an income when you're done.
- The most important thing is to know their students.
Students today learn differently.
Use of technology is essential,
because this generation has grown up with technology.
Technology is part of their lives.
We should help them to turn it into a learning opportunity
not an overwhelming device
that only adds to their social anxiety.
- Don't be afraid to take risks.
Y'know, what's the worst that can really happen?
If you don't take risks,
then you'll never step outside of your comfort zone.
And you'll end up just kinda doing,
what was done for you earlier in your career.
Lecture, lecture, lecture.
And it's boring.
- Keep things simple, when you start out,
so that you don't sort of get lost
of the logistical details of designing something
really complicated.
I think it's better to do something fairly simple,
and do it well
and have it have a good outcome,
Then to design a giant complicated program,
and then have it not really be successful,
and you spend all your time troubleshooting.
So, simple and effective is better than
complicated and, yeah, it didn't really work very well.
(laughs)
- It's okay to experiment.
You have to innovate in your classroom,
and you have to do it in a way
that you're comfortable with.
This is your domain.
And you get to choose how you want to instruct students.
So be willing to explore,
be willing to experiment.
Don't be afraid to fail.
- But, I'd say try one thing at a time.
Do not use all the technology that is available to you,
in one course.
One at a time, and see how your students react.
- Y'know, if you don't switch things up,
and you're teaching the same classes every semester,
that increases your likelihood of burning out drastically.
So definitely take risks,
and don't be afraid of failure.
(optimistic music)