Life of E's

As an academic, you certainly need to be productive and to extend your reach (without spending TONS of time and additional effort). Here are some ideas for increasing both your productivity and your reach by using teleconferencing.

1. Interview previous students who have been successful with you. Current or future students can listen in and gain insight into what it takes to be successful in your classes or as one of your graduate students.

2. Conduct focus groups. If part of your research or service involves focus groups, it’s not necessary to do them face to face. You can conduct them via tele-conferencing.

3. Teach something that your students need. Even if you teach the majority of your classes in a face to face format, you know there are little problem areas for students that they will want to review. Go ahead and teach segments on these potential problem areas. You can record these and you don’t have to teach them every semester. Just share the recording.

4. Hold “office hours” where students can call in and you’ll be available to answer questions, provide information, or otherwise demonstrate your value. I used to call these call-in times “The Doctor Is In,” which matched a sign I had on my door that I could change for whether I was “in” or not in (i.e., available for drop-in visitors or not. Choose a name that works for you and conveys what you’re trying to help students understand about your special availability during these times.

5. Do follow-ups for something you have taught in class. Let’s say that you have been working with your students on improving their writing in science to help prepare them for writing up scientific papers, articles, and so forth. You could let them know that you have created (or will be offering) some follow-up time via teleseminar for those students who want additional support and a deepening of their learning. Then let them know how to call-in if you are doing these real-time or how to access if you have recorded them previously.

6. Create learning segments for community members to access through your website. Let’s say that you do a great deal of outreach and are trying to serve the community, but without having to do so face to face. Teleseminars, especially if you also record them, allows you to do that. If you work through Cooperative Extension, you could create learning segments on dealing with mushrooms in your yard. If you are a college of education professor, you could offer tips for parents. If you are a journalism professor, you could teach segments on the first amendment. The possibilities are endless here – and the benefits to others (and your reputation) are also endless.

7. Two more suggestions I would make:

   • Get a free bridgeline. Just search in Google for information on bridgelines or contact me for recommendations.

   • Subscribe to a service that allows you to record and easily post your recordings.

Try out one or more of these ideas and see how you like it – and also how it makes you more productive.

The best resource for recording and posting your audios is www.HowtoRecordAudio.com.

And if you want to learn a multitude of strategies & ideas for creating and benefitting from teleseminars (and other similar technologies), I’d love to teach you.