The web is bursting with instructors passionate about finding new ways to help their students. We’ve done our best to gather resources, interview interesting people, suggest tips for better teaching and learning, and encourage new ideas and techniques.

In case you missed it, here are some of the most popular posts from the last few months:

• Lesson #1 in Student Engagement – Understand Your Students
  Kicking off our popular 7-part series, this article advises instructors to learn more about their students, then stay focused on teaching in a way that will engage the class. You can also read the entire series, or download the Student Engagement Ebook.
• 10 People in #highered Worth Following
  Educators love exchanging ideas on Twitter. Here are some of our favorites to follow.
• Get Your Students to Speak Up During Class
  How do you get your students to wake up and speak up during class? This post shares a few tips to help you inspire your students to volunteer their thoughts and answers, without making it terribly painful.
• Using Color in the Classroom
  An interesting look at how color psychology can be applied to the classroom.

Based on one of the most popular intro psych texts (Psychology by David G Myers), our assignments have already been tested in the classroom for quality. And we’ll let you use two of them at no cost.

Watch the video (below) for more information:

Why? We want your opinion and suggestions! We’re eager to learn how we can improve SAGrader to make it the ultimate learning tool. In exchange, you and your class will get full access to SAGrader for the Spring ’09 semester.

Those of you who have been waiting for a commitment-free chance to try automatic grading, now is your chance! Sign up deadline is November 17th.

To learn more and to sign up, visit www.sagrader.com/beta.

I call this writing to the point. The underlying goal is to remove any content that does not help define your main point in a unique way.

It’s similar to the system used by screenwriters. When you’re writing a script for a movie, each scene needs to contribute to the underlying theme of your film. If you can’t explain how a scene relates to the overall movie, cut it.

Use the same process for each word and sentence in your writing.

I recently read some of Ayn Rand’s editing notes for her first draft of The Fountainhead and she repeatedly criticized herself for using adjectives that don’t contribute something distinct to the noun.

I fall into this trap all the time. Often, I’ll end up using two adjectives to describe a noun that mean the same thing (“We need to keep our workplace clean and tidy.”).

Just stop it. It’s okay to reinforce your point. Repetition is a useful technique. But don’t add “filler” words and sentences just to take up space. It’s poor writing and less enjoyable to read.

It’s an easy way to inject some robust assignments into your curriculum. And since they’re already setup in SAGrader, you won’t have to grade them. We’ve got over 20 assignments to choose from. Use as many as you want for only $19 a student.

You can learn more about it and get access to all the assignments for free on our website.

For the beta test we are offering instructors the ability to have three essays programmed into SAGrader for free, and then have up to 150 students in a class submit to their personalized assignments. This will give instructors the ability to offer the SAGrader learning environment to their students without requiring their students to pay anything (as always, instructors pay nothing).

Why would we do something as crazy as offer such a powerful program as SAGrader for free? In short, we need data. We want to know what people think about our new features, and how we can improve in the future. Also, we want to know a few things about SAGrader instructors. We want to know how their experience goes, and how their students’ experiences go. In order to do that, we are asking that instructors and students fill out a couple surveys.

We hope to be able to use this opportunity to dramatically improve SAGrader, and build an even more powerful learning system. Go to www.sagrader.com/beta for more information on the beta. Find the solicitation after the jump.

The beta:

Idea Works is proud to offer free beta testing of the newest version of SAGrader™. SAGrader is the only completely instructor directed automated essay grader that focuses on the actual content of student essays and then compares it to instructor-specified criteria. More information can be found on our website: www.sagrader.com. Registration will take place through Aug. 1st, 2008.

We’re trying to make SAGrader as useful as possible for instructors and students, so we’re soliciting beta testers to help by using SAGrader for free in their classroom this fall semester. We’re specifically looking for instructors who teach a college course of 35 to 150 students, teach in a discipline well-suited for SAGrader (see website for more details), and have up to three essay assignments you can use with SAGrader this semester.

Sign up for the free beta test and get:

* Three completely customized assignments.
* The ability to enroll up to 150 students to submit to these assignments and have them automatically graded.
* Access to our full suite of classroom tools.
* The ability to help shape a powerful educational tool that could affect thousands of students, instructors, and institutions.

In return, you will be asked to:

* Provide feedback on the program – tell us what you love, what you dislike, what you’d like to improve, etc.
* Report your level of satisfaction with SAGrader’s scoring and feedback on each essay assignment

For more information on the beta or to sign up, please visit www.sagrader.com/beta. Please sign up by Aug. 1st, 2008.

I look forward to hearing from you! If you have any questions, contact me at the info below.

Jonathan Brent
Office: 573-445-4554
jbrent@ideaworks.com

P.S. Don’t qualify as a beta tester? You can still use SAGrader in your classroom! Contact sales@ideaworks.com for more information.