Dear Commons Community,

This piece was sent to me by a colleague in Canada.  Entitled, Seven Habits of the Professor of the Future, it provides practical advice for aspiring faculty.  Actually I would say that these habits are in important for present-day faculty as well.   A quick synopsis:

Habit 1: Reviewing New Research and Information

One major development that began in 2010, and has been developing with more sophistication ever since, is the intelligent magazine-like search engine. Faculty and students will use Zite-like products for project work and research, so they are always on top of current developments.

Habit 2: Continuous Course Construction

The professor of the future will continually think of new ways to improve a course and will modify same as needed.

Habit 3: Collaboration on a Massive Scale

Faculty and students will engage with colleagues throughout the world.

Habit 4: Assessing Competencies

Many courses will become more modularized and competencies established and assessed by module.

Habit 5: Creating New Resources

Course content creation software such as iBook Developer will allow faculty to create new course modules and other materials (videos, simulations, text material) in a matter of days.

Habit 6: Meeting – Anytime, Anywhere

Weekly or monthly departmental and other collegial meetings will give way to more continuous online faculty exchanges.

Habit 7: Face-to-Face Teaching and Learning Sessions

Despite predictions that face-to-face would die and be replaced by online learning, this is unlikely to happen. It’s a key role of the professor to engage directly with students, and a key role of students to engage with the professor and each other.  Face-to-face engagement will be blended/augmented by online learning activities.

Tony