LEARN Center Workshops 2002-2003
April 2003: Campus Dialogues
How We Teach & How They Learn
Any discussion about the most important values on this campus has to include issues relevant to teaching and learning. In these campus dialogues, we'll take an introspective look at what students have to say about how we teach, how they learn, and explore how the implications influence current practice and campus planning.
Session #1: Tuesday, 22 April, 12:30pm to 1:30pm, South Commons, UC
What Students Say About Teaching & Learning at UW-W
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) collects student perception data from hundreds of four-year colleges and universities around the U.S. It is designed to assess student perceptions (freshmen and seniors) of the extent to which the campus engages them in educational practices that are strongly associated with high levels of learning and personal development. NSSE allows for comparisons of responses of students at similar institutions.
This session will focus discussion on the campus results from 2002, and include a panel of students that will react to the results of the NSSE survey and address questions raised by attendees. Attendees will be sent, in advance of the session, an article about the NSSE and a summary of UW-Whitewater results received in fall 2002.
Facilitators:
Barbara Jones, Assistant Chancellor for Student Affairs, and coordinator of NSSE on campus; and Richard Telfer, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Session #2: Tuesday, 29 April, 12:30pm to 1:30pm, South Commons, UC
What Now?: Reactions & Implications to Dialogue #1
This session will extend and refine the dialogue initiated the week before. After briefly reviewing some of the observations and conclusions from the previous week, the discussion will focus on what this information suggests about what the campus does well, and what it might do better relevant to fostering improved student learning. Discussion will focus on local practices, but also on broader issues relevant to the mission, values and principles of the institution.
Facilitators:
Richard Telfer, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; and Barbara Jones, Assistant Chancellor for Student Affairs.
Tuesday, 8 April 2004, 12:30pm — 1:30pm, South Commons, University Center,
Sharing, Exploring, Venting & Solving Blackboard Faculty Panel Session
This session is a get together of instructors who use Blackboard or other systems to deliver course material on-line. Four panelists will briefly share their observations and experiences and then open up a dialogue and share experiences, tips, frustrations and solutions with attendees.
Panelists
- Diana Rogers-Adkinson (Special Education)
Using Discussion Forums - Mark Lencho (Languages and Literatures)
Using On-Line Assessments - Marcia James (Business Education)
Using and Managing Group Features - Dianne Jones (Health, Physical Ed. & Recreation)
Organizing a Course for Total On-line Delivery
February-March 2003: Campus Dialogues
Towards a Scholarship of Teaching & Learning Program at UW-Whitewater
The University of Wisconsin System has been asked by the AAHE and Carnegie Foundation to serve as a Leadership Site for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Each institution within the UW-System will have the opportunity to seek funding through the UW-System Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) to develop programs that promote faculty examining teaching and learning "problems" and "questions" as legitimate objects of scholarly inquiry.
During spring term 2003, the LEARN Center will sponsor a series of lunch hour dialogues about this System initiative on Friday afternoons. The sessions are designed to gather perspectives and ideas from faculty that will be used to draft a proposal to support a SoTL campus-based initiative in 2003-2004.
Session #1: Friday, 14 February, Noon to 1:30pm, Minneiska Dining Room
Key Questions: What is (and what isn't) the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning?
The primary piece of advice from campuses nationwide that have adopted a scholarship of teaching and learning paradigm of faculty development is to come up with shared definitions. During this session, we'll endeavor to that. We'll push for common understandings of what SoTL is, what it isn't, and what it should be on this campus. In advance of the session, attendees are encouraged to peruse the following websites:
- http://www.indiana.edu/~sotl/ ;
- http://www.iusb.edu/~josotl/about_josotl.htm (not available at this time) ;
- http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/elibrary/docs/bibliography.htm
Session #2: Friday, 21 February, Noon to 1:30pm, Minneiska Dining Room
Key Problems: What are the Roadblocks to a Campus-Wide SoTL Program?
During this session attendees will identify and discuss the key challenges to adopting SoTL—moving from personal barriers to larger discussions of departmental, college and institutional policies and norms that inhibit in-depth explorations of teaching and learning. We'll also overview reasons identified by campus participants from the LEARN Center's first three offerings of the Teaching Scholars Programs.
Session #3: Friday, 7 March, Noon to 1:30pm, Minneiska Dining Room
Key Decisions: What Should a SoTL Program Look Like?
In this final session, we look at the definitions and challenges identified in the previous sessions and begin to outline the characteristics of successful campus-wide SoTL Program. We briefly look at the characteristics of other successful SoTL programs. The ideas emergent from this session will form the basis for the grant proposal to be submitted to the UW-System Office of Professional and Instructional Development in late March for funds to be used during the 2003-2004 academic year.
Thursday, 16 January 2003, South Commons, University Center, Noon-3:30pm,
Waiting for the Moon to Turn Blue: Reviving Your Research Agenda and Completing Your Journal Article
Susan Simmons's second interactive workshop focuses on planning, choosing a venue, preparing to write and writing, preparing the submission packet, and handling editor and reviewer letters. She will share lessons she's learned from her extensive work with faculty and explore other issues raised by attendees.
Participants should bring their spring calendars and dates and times of both home and work commitments. They may also wish to bring department timelines, journal due dates, and any notes they may have about their research agendas and writing plans. The workshop goal is to have everyone leave with at least one journal article mapped out and a clear picture of how to proceed.
Facilitators:
Susan Simmons is an editor, writer, and writing consultant who has specialized in editing and formatting scholarly work for ten years. She works with faculty in a variety of disciplines at a number of universities throughout the United States. Her latest book, Terrorism: 1996—2001, has just been published by Praeger/Greenwood.
Wednesday, 15 January 2003, Winterim Lunch and Workshop, Noon — 4:00pm, University Commons,
Teaching and Learning About Diversity in Your Classroom
Infusing greater attention to diversity into the mainstream curriculum is one of the recommendations recently made by the UW-Whitewater Task Force on Diversity. "Usually," noted a member of one UW-W student organization, "the only time we talk about diversity is in a "diversity class."
This highly interactive workshop, led by a nationally-recognized facilitator Mathew Ouellett, explores how to effectively address issues related to diversity in the classroom. Through a series of brief reflective exercises, a short case study, and small group discussions, attendees will:
- explore classroom dynamics that inhibit and facilitate dealing with inclusion issues;
- assess personal comfort-level in leading classroom initiatives relevant to diversity;
- examine methods for responding to "hot button" issues that arise when fostering student learning about inclusion and diversity; and
- increase their repertoire of instructional strategies useful when teaching about inclusion.
Attendees are asked to bring a syllabus of a class that they consider a worthy candidate for integrating diversity-related teaching improvement goals and strategies.
Facilitator:
Mathew Ouellett, is a faculty member and Assistant Director of Faculty Development at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He presents workshops related to diversity both regionally and nationally, and has been a frequent and higher evaluated workshop leader at the UW-System Faculty College series. His research interests and publication focuses on issues of multicultural organizational development in education and settings and social justice and equity issues related to instruction and instructor training. Most recently, he is author of the chapter, "Teaching for Inclusion," in Teaching Large Classes (2002, Jossey Bass).
Monday, 18 November 2002, Noon-1:00pm, South Commons, University Center,
A New Direction for Faculty Development in the UW-System: A Conversation with Lisa Kornetsky
The University of Wisconsin System has been asked by the AAHE and Carnegie Foundation to serve as a Leadership Site for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). As early as spring 2003, each institution within the UW-System will have the opportunity to seek funding through the UW-System Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) to develop programs that promote faculty examining teaching and learning "problems" and "questions" as legitimate objects of scholarly inquiry.
During this session, Lisa Kornetsky, Director of OPID, will briefly discuss the implications of this initiative on the UW-System generally, and UW-Whitewater specifically, and overview the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as a cornerstone of faculty development. Attendees will be encouraged to discuss, ask questions, respond, and assist in planning this new program.
Session Leader:
Dr. Lisa Kornetsky is Director of the UW-System Office of Professional and Instructional Development in Madison, and is responsible for oversight of nationally-acclaimed OPID programming and system-wide faculty development initiatives. She is formerly a theater professor at UW-Parkside.
Wednesday, 2 October 2002, Noon to 1:00pm, South Commons, University Center,
FERPA: It's Not About Hairy Fathers
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that affords students the right to inspect their education records and requires that university officials protect the privacy and confidentiality of the education records. Faculty who have access to confidential and/or restricted information student information (including transcripts, class schedules, grades, and grade point averages), assume legal responsibility for protecting the privacy and security of the information.
So if parents call inquiring about the academic performance of their son or daughter, what can you share with them? What does it mean if a student has exercised his/her right to restrict information? Can I discuss with a student a grade earned from another instructor? Attend this workshop to learn more about FERPA and how to comply with it.
Facilitators:
Dan Edlebeck, Registrar, and Mary Beth Mackin, Assistant Dean of Student Life.
Workshops
Thursday 30 August 2002
8:45am-10:00am McGraw 117, Part of the Roseman Award Winners on Teaching Series
Even If It Ain't Broke, You Can Still Fix It: Refining With the Web
John Kozlowicz has had great success teaching a variety of lecture and discussion sections of introductory and upper level courses, yet he has converted several of his courses to web courses and several to web enhanced courses. In this presentation he will discuss why the changes when everything was going well and provide specific examples of how he enhanced and converted his courses.
Facilitator:
John Kozlowiciz is a Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department, was recipient of the 1991 Roseman Award for Excellence in Teaching, and previously recognized by the UW-System Board of Regents for Teaching Excellence.
8:45am-10:00am McGraw 120
Converting Your Dissertation: Journal Article(s) or Wallpaper?
In this highly interactive session, Susan Simmons, a scholarly writing consultant, will lead participants through a discussion of critical issues and key considerations relevant to the process of converting what is one of the most career-shaping scholarly projects into published work. She will share lessons she's learned from her extensive work with faculty and explore other issues as raised by attendees (e.g., positioning student thesis projects for publication).
Facilitator:
Susan L. Simmons is an editor, writer, and writing consultant to faculty in a variety of disciplines at universities across the U.S.—assisting faculty with editing and formatting scholarly work as well as coaching individuals in achieving their writing goals.
8:45am-10:00am McGraw 125,
Instructional Communication in the Classroom: What Affects Learning?
In this, the first in a series of two workshops (2nd scheduled later in fall at a time convenient to participants), Sally Vogl-Bauer will briefly review the communication literature regarding which communication behaviors students perceive to have the greatest influence on their learning. Interested parties can participate in a second phase, collecting data from their students regarding their verbal and non-verbal immediacy behaviors—comparing student perceptions with their own self-perceptions.
Facilitator:
Sally Vogl-Bauer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, and researches in the area of instructional communication.
10:15am-11:30am McGraw 117
Finding Funding for Instructional Research
The continuing interest in developing a "Scholarship of Teaching" has prompted growth in both journals devoted to publishing pedagogical research and sources providing funding to support instructional research. This session will survey campus-based, UW System-based, and federal sources of funding available to help faculty and staff secure support for conducting classroom and non-classroom-based research.
Facilitator:
Denise Ehlen is Director of Research and Sponsored Programs at UW-W.
10:15am-11:30am McGraw 125
The Course Portfolio: Documenting Student Learning
Dar Habanek will introduce the purposes and the process behind the development of a post-secondary Course Portfolio—a tool designed jointly by the AAHE and the Carnegie Foundation to assist faculty in all disciplines investigate and document student learning. This session will serve as the first of five held throughout the 2002-2003 academic year (scheduled to accommodate interested parties) where participants will work through the process of creating a Course Portfolio suitable for a personnel file.
Facilitators:
Dar Habanek is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, and faculty development consultant who has worked with faculty across the Midwest.
Tuesday: 27 August 2002, (Led by Lion Gardiner, 9:00am – Noon; 1:00pm – 4:00pm),
Faculty & Staff Roles in Producing Dramatic Gains in Student Learning
Contingent upon which portions of the day-long workshop faculty and staff attend, attendees will be able to:
Module #1: Overview (9:00am – 10:00am)
- identify what the empirical literature suggests are the core critical competencies of higher education and assess how these competencies are (dis)concordant with the goals of a UW-W undergraduate education;
- distinguish what the empirical literature suggests are the postsecondary elements and processes (e.g., campus climate, instructional practice, curriculum, academic advising) most likely to affect the development of the critical competencies;
http://www.iusb.edu/~josotl/about_josotl.htm
Module #2: Campus Climate (10:00am – 10:30am; 10:45am – 11:15am)
- generalize about the relationship between campus climate and student development and discuss the variables found to influence campus climate;
- given these variables, assess how his/her professional behaviors (e.g., interaction with students) foster or undermine a climate conducive to student learning and development;
Module #3: Instructional Practice & Curriculum (11:15am – Noon; 1:00pm – 2:30pm)
- assess his/her individual efficacy relative to each of five key aspects of instruction that enhance learning—instructional methods, perpetuation of intellectual climate, perpetuation of student's active involvement, quality of assessment of learning outcomes, and grading practices—and triaged strategies for improvement relevant to each aspect;
- summarize what the literature suggests about how general education and discipline-based curricula influence student development, and identified "critical concerns" that faculty, as keepers of curricula, should harbor when designing, sequencing, and reviewing curricula; and
Module #4: Academic Advising (2:45pm – 4:00pm)
- evaluate how UW-W's campus-wide, departmental, and individual faculty members' academic advising practices, have fostered and undermined student learning and development against an empirically identified set of criteria, and plotted a strategy for improvement.