News Roundup: Teaching Diverse Students

This week, resources and advice for working with diverse students, including first-generation and parent learners.

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Building Family-Friendly Campuses
As the percentage of college students who are raising children climbs, colleges must collect data on age and parental status of students and take steps to ensure that they are meeting the needs of student parents, Melanie Kruvelis writes. (Higher Education Today)

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Bonni Stachowiak provides a list of intriguing podcasts that delve into the growing research on teaching and learning in higher education. (Teaching in Higher Ed)

Flipping the Classroom as an Educational Tool
In this video, a former punk rocker and current professor describes how flipping the classroom—posting lectures online so students can watch them on their own time—is a way of bringing education to the students and giving them flexibility and choice in their learning. (Higher Ed Jobs)

Don’t Do It for Me: Encouraging Student Agency and Power
In describing how she reaches out to students who miss deadlines or blow off classes, Cathryn Bailey clarifies that she is not sending these reminders to solicit apologies, but to remind students that they have control of and are responsible for their own learning. (The Virtual Pedagogue)

Champion for Adult Students: Colleges Must Change How They Teach
Marie Cini describes ways instructors and institutions are rethinking their approach to higher education through such strategies as using Open Education Resources instead of more expensive textbooks to meet the needs of adult students. (EdSurge)

With Innovation, Colleges Fill the Skills Gap
Many colleges are developing programs to meet the needs of employers, including Miami Dade College, which offers a “stackable” approach to a data analytics degree, where students accumulate credentials as they move along the path to their eventual career. (The New York Times)

Paying It Forward to Graduation
Faculty should lend more support to first-generation college students by sharing resources and asking students to do the same, celebrating students’ strengths, and understanding that the definition of success may vary from student to student, Judith White writes. (Inside Higher Ed)