Otis College LibGuides: Teaching/Learning Center: SUPPORTING STUDENTS

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Classroom Management

The classroom environment continues to change as our students change. There is an increasing faculty need for resources and support in understanding how to identify and triage at-risk student behavior in the classroom. The following resources will support your learning about how to manage crisis in the classroom.

Otis College Faculty Student Care Guide

Best Practices: Preventing and Managing Challenging Classroom Situations Professors currently face significant challenges in the classroom. Over the past two decades, teachers have increasingly been called on to handle minor classroom disruptions, accommodate learning needs of students with disabilities, and recognize and address warning signs of significant student distress and potentially volatile behaviors. Particularly vulnerable to these challenges are future and early career (EC) faculty as they begin to build their teaching repertoire. Through our work in mentoring hundreds of future and EC faculty and a review of research on best practices in faculty development, we present a basic toolkit of strategies and resources to support and to improve the overall teaching and learning environment.
Classroom Management Issues and Solutions Table Elements of classroom management vary. In researching this topic, it is clear that a common understanding for the term management might be useful. For this purpose, management refers to issues of supervision, refereeing, facilitating, and even academic discipline. Not all student behaviors require intervention or confrontation while some are serious enough in nature to warrant formal disciplinary action. Rest assured that while there are current studies in higher education literature that suggest a growing trend of rudeness and even overt animosity towards faculty by students, the vast majority of classroom experiences are not dramatic.
Dealing with Troublesome Behaviors in the Classroom Handbook of College Teaching: Theory and Applications (1994)
EdSurge: Virtual Signs of Serious Mental Health Problems: A Teacher's Guide to Protecting Students Today’s students are the most at-risk for mental health problems in a generation. That was already true before the start of this turbulent year, thanks to the advent of the smartphone, the rise of social media and the growing dominance of internet culture in daily life. Now, students face a minefield of new and ongoing trauma-producing challenges, including the upheaval of normal school life caused by COVID-19, financial and social-emotional problems at home related to a parent’s job loss or family death due to the pandemic, parents’ frustrations from juggling multiple demands, and the stressful, systemic realities of racial injustice.
LinkedIn Learning (lynda.com): Classroom Management
Responding to Disruptive or Threatening Student Behavior: A Guide for Faculty In an ideal world, we would not experience misconduct that disrupts or obstructs the educational process. Such behavior undermines instruction and, thereby, negatively impacts student learning. Yet, the unfortunate reality is that a small number of our students will exhibit disruptive behavior in classrooms, lab areas, offices, field sites and other educational settings. Should you find yourself confronted with this behavior, you may benefit from the guidance and support this publication seeks to provide. If you are presently in need of immediate assistance, consider consulting with your department chair as quickly as possible. Department chairs often have unique insights into classroom culture and a great deal of knowledge about relevant campus procedures and practices. The following support services are also available to assist you.

Classroom Management Issues

FERPA

Otis College FERPA Policy

FERPA and Social Media (Faculty Focus, 2011)

“FERPA is one of the most misunderstood regulations in education. It is commonly assumed that FERPA requires all student coursework to be kept private at all times, and thus prevents the use of social media in the classroom, but this is wrong. Simply stated, FERPA requires schools to maintain control over certain student records. These records include medical information, social security numbers, and grades.”

FERPA does not prevent faculty from assigning students to create public content as part of their course requirements. Faculty who want to incorporate social media into their classrooms should be mindful of the following (adapted from Faculty Focus):

When students are assigned to post information to public social media platforms outside of the College’s LMS, they should be informed that their material may be viewed by others.
Students should not be required to release personal information on a public site.
Faculty comments or grades on student material should not be made public.
While not clearly required by law, students under the age of 18 should get their parent’s consent to post public work.

Disability Services

All students seeking disability accommodations in the classroom need to contact Dr. Carol Branch at 310-846-2554 or e-mail cbranch@otis.edu.

"From Where I Sit" Video Series

- featuring eight CSU Fullerton students with disabilities who share their experiences in the college classroom. Recorded in 2011.

They tell their stories by answering five questions:

What is your disability?
What made you decide to come to college?
What is it like in the classroom?
What do you have to do to keep up with the class?
What suggestions can you offer to faculty that will make their classroom more accessible?

It is amazing to realize what we can do as faculty to support student learning.

Disability Services Website

Additional forms, articles, policies are found in the Dashboard > Staff/Faculty Forms under Menu.

Process For Accommodations

Students go to OwlCare in Otis College Dashboard to submit an application to request accommodations. They select the classes in which they wish their accommodations to apply. When approved, students will receive a letter they can share with their faculty and/or department chair.

Faculty should provide the specified accommodations to students upon receipt of this letter.

Accessibility

Accessibility Tools in the Nest

Accessibility of online course content is an important part of following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. Designing accessible courses provides educational opportunities for all students.

Describing Visual Resources for Accessibility in Arts & Humanities Publications

Teaching/Learning Center

IN AN EMERGENCY CONTACT 911 AND THEN OTIS CAMPUS SECURITY AT 310-665-6965 (24 HRS A DAY).