LEARN Center

LEARN Center Workshops 2009-2010

LEARN Workshops: 2009-2010

The Last Lecture: Reflections of a Retiring Faculty Member

Date

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Time

12:00-1:00pm (Lunch Provided)

Location

UC 275B

"It's Time To Take A Hike"

What will he say?
Will he be funny?
Will he be jaded and cynical?
What does that title mean? Is he taking the hike - or telling us to?

Will he impart wisdom to those of us remaining behind?
Gems of truth about education and life that will change us forever?

Will he reveal secrets about himself or others that will shake us
to the foundation and create a media storm?

To reserve a place, please contact the LEARN Center:
262-472-5242 or learn@uww.edu
Register online at: http://signup.uww.edu using your Net-ID
The workshop is listed under “LEARN Center.”
Deadline is April 21st

Facilitator

Bill Chandler

Campus Tutorial Services: What is it & How Can it Help?

Date

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Time

12:30 -1:30 pm (Lunch Provided)

Location

University Center Room 275 A

The Writing Center. The Math Center. Subject Area Tutorial Center. What Are Campus Tutorial Services? Who Are They For? What Do They Do? When Should I Refer Students?

Last semester 43 student tutors working for Campus Tutorial Services provided 5758 hours of tutoring to 1411 different clients (roughly 15% of the total campus). This informative workshop will provide an overview of the free tutoring offered through Campus Tutorial Services, located in McCutchan Hall. In addition, the session will also explain the process for requesting Supplemental Instruction sessions; this program involves closely linking a subject area tutor to a specific class being taught.

Facilitator:

Dr. Shane Staff, Director of Campus Tutorial Services.

Becoming a Full Professor

Date

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Time

Noon - 1:00pm

Location

University Center Room 275 A

What are the steps to becoming a full professor? What is required? What is the process? When should I apply?

These and other questions will be explored in this LEARN Center lunch hour workshop. The workshop will be led by an expert panel.

Panelists:

Richard Telfer, Chancellor

Richard Brooks, Chair of the College of Letters & Sciences Standards Committee

James Butchart, Chair of the College of Arts and Communication Standards Committee

Pamela Rae Clinkenbeard, Chair of the College of Education Standards Committee

Robert Gruber, Chair of the College of Business and Economics Standards Committee

Department & Program Assessment: Simple, Sustainable, and Useful for Student Learning

Date

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Time

08:50am - 10:45am (Lunch Provided)

Location

University Center Room 259

This workshop will focus on department and program-level assessment. Participants should bring to the workshop any current assessment documents they have. Also bring laptops if desired (not required). During the workshop, each department/program will be able to review, draft, or revise a report of their current assessment process. We will discuss the basic, no-frills department assessment plan, how to make assessment maximally useful to the department and its students, how to simplify the process, and how to meet requirements of regional and disciplinary accreditors.

Facilitator:

Dr. Barbara E. Walvoord, Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame

Dr. Walvoord has consulted or led workshops at more than 350 institutions of higher education throughout the U.S., on topics of assessment, teaching and learning, and writing across the curriculum. She’s published numerous books and articles on the topic, and her readers and workshop participants delight in her straightforward, clear, and practical approach to student, course, and program assessment. Join us!

Student Assignments: Fair & Clear

Looking for new ideas for student assignments? Do students sometimes miss the point of your assignments? Would you like your classroom assignments to align better with the assessment plan for your course, your major, or for general education? Join us as Dr. Barbara Walvoord, one of the nation’s preeminent experts on academic assessment, leads two discussions.

Attend one or both sessions, as your time permits:

Session 1: Establishing and Communicating Criteria for Student Work

Wednesday, March 31, 12:00pm-1:00pm, in the University Center 259. Lunch provided.

Participants will examine several different ways faculty in various disciplines have established criteria for student work and communicated about those criteria with students. The discussion includes establishing criteria for grammar, punctuation, and sentence clarity, as well as broader aspects connected to thinking and writing in the disciplines.

Session 2: Assignments and Assessment

Wednesday, March 31, 1:10pm-2:30pm, in the University Center 259.

Participants will discuss how to structure assignments, both formal and informal. The discussion will include suggestions about controlling the paper load, while giving students the practice and feedback they need.

Presenter: Dr. Barbara E. Walvoord, Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame

Should We Be Renewing Liberal Education at UW-Whitewater

What would that mean? Why would we do it? How would we do it?
When would we do it? Who would do it?

Across the country a variety of colleges and universities are rededicating themselves to liberal education. As part of this initiative, the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), under the title

LEAP

(Liberal Education & America's Promise), has identified some key learning outsomes and high impact education practices that they believe can guide our work in this regard.

Should we at UW-Whitewater join this movement? Should we consider, revise, adopt, or utilize the identified goals and practices?

This workshop will seek to provide you with information regarding LEAP, the key learning outcomes, the high impact educational practices, as well as continue the discussion with various faculty and staff as we continue to consider how best to educate our students in the coming decades.

Facilitators:

Provost Christine Clements, Dean Mary Pinkerton, and various members of the Baccalaureate Learning Team (Tom Rios, Greg Cook, Lois Smith, & Greg Valde)

When: Thursday, March 18 - 12:30-1:30
Where: UC 164
Lunch Provided

Higher Education: As Seen Through Other Lenses

Date

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Time

12:30pm - 1:30pm (Lunch Provided)

Location

University Center Room 275A

Jim Winship, Department of Social Work, recently attended an international conference, “The University in 2010” in Cuba at which the Ministers of Higher Education of Spain, Russia, and China spoke. There were presenters and attendees from four continents.

The contexts are different, and many of the issues we face here–increasing access and maintaining/improving quality, making on-line education work, the growth of for-profit universities–were discussed at the conference from distinct national perspectives.

In this lunch-hour program, Jim Winship will share his experiences and thoughts from the conference, followed by discussion.

Facilitator:

The workshop will be facilitated by Jim Winship, Department of Social Work.

Grading: Take A Break From Grading To Talk About Grading

Date

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Time

12:30pm - 1:30pm (Lunch Provided)

Location

University Center Room 259B

What is a "B"? How can I grade more accurately? How can I grade more quickly? Should every assignment be graded? Is grade inflation a problem? Should attendance count?

Facilitator:

The workshop will be facilitated by Greg Valde, Director of the LEARN Center.

Writing Matters: Using the New UW-W Writing Standards to Streamline Grading and Improve Student Writing

Date

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Time

12:30pm - 1:30pm (Lunch Provided)

Location

University Center Room 259B

Last summer, 36 faculty members from all four colleges met for five days to examine the state of writing skills and instruction at UW-Whitewater. This group read, ranked, and discussed samples of student essays with the goal of defining a set of core writing competencies that all UW-W students should be expected to achieve and developing a means of communicating those expectations to faculty and students alike. The final result is a document entitled “Writing Matters: A Guide to UW-W Writing Standards,” which defines specific standards for developing, competent, and accomplished student writers.

Come to this workshop to learn more about the Writing Matters rubric and hear from instructors who have begun to use it in their classrooms to improve their students’ writing and streamline the grading process. There will also be an opportunity to discuss other steps the university might take to improve our students’ writing across the curriculum.

Facilitator:

The workshop will be facilitated by Marilyn Durham, an associate professor in the Department of Languages and Literatures and Coordinator of Freshman English and Liz Hachten, Assistant Dean in the College ofLetters and Sciences and Coordinator of General Education.

Digital Storytelling

Date

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Time

12:30pm - 1:30pm (Lunch Provided)

Location

University Center Room 266

Digital Storytelling, a modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling, integrates personal narrative, voice, images, and music in ways that can be effectively used both in class and on the Internet. Faculty here at UW-Whitewater are beginning to utilize digital stories as student assignments, challenging students to reflect on their experiences, polish their writing, and be creative in their presentations.

On Tuesday, O ctober 13, 2009, faculty members who have created and are using digital stories will present their own stories and talk about the application in their classes.

There will also be information on an upcoming three-day workshop for faculty on digital storytelling, sponsored by the Learning Technology Center January 11-13, 2010. The workshop will be led by Jim Winship, Professor of Social Work. Dr. Winship is a professional storyteller and is certified as a facilitator by the Center for Digital Storytelling.

To reserve a place, please contact the LEARN Center:
262-472-5242 or learn@uww.edu
Register online at: http://signup.uww.edu using your Net-ID
The workshop is listed under “LEARN Center.”
Deadline is October 6th

Facilitator:

Jim Winship

UWW’s Learning Communities

Date

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Time

12:30pm - 1:30pm (Lunch Provided)

Location

University Center Room 259B

This is for anyone Who is wondering about the Learning Communities on Campus.
What it means to teach in one. Why we have them.
How they work and how to start one.

This year 1/4 of the freshman class is participating in the LCs.
All Colleges now sponsor LCs for their freshman. All faculty, staff, department chairs are welcome!
To reserve a place, please contact the LEARN Center:
262-472-5242 or learn@uww.edu
Register online at: http://signup.uww.edu using your Net-ID
The workshop is listed under “LEARN Center.”
Deadline is September 27th

Facilitator

Diana Rogers-Adkinson, Director of the Learning Communities Program and Chair of the Department of Special Education

Google for Scholarly Research

Date

Thursday, August 27th 2009

Time

9:00am - 10:00am

Location

University Center Room 261

Google is ubiquitous, yet constantly evolving. Advances and improvements
in Google products offer opportunities to more effectively and efficiently
find information on the internet. This Googleology workshop features Google
Scholar, Books, and Reader, which offer vital contributions to scholarship. By
participating in this workshop, you’ll learn to:

Personalize Google Scholar to hybridize Andersen Library resources and
the free internet:
- Search with Google simplicity and find quality articles and books available through the Andersen Library.
- Interlibrary Loan materials not available in our library system.
Use Google Books to find relevant books, book chapters and quotes.
Use Google Reader to aggregate pertinent RSS feeds.

Facilitator

Martha Stephenson, Andersen Library

Successful Course Design: Online and Hybrid

Date

Thursday, August 27th 2009

Time

10:00am - 12:00pm

Location

University Center Room 264

What are the considerations when deciding whether to develop an online or hybrid course? How are these course formats structured differently? How is teaching transformed? What are the strengths and challenges? Answers to these questions and more will be discussed while learning how to develop successful fully online or hybrid (also known as blended) courses. Participants will learn and share strategies to organize online course content, build learner engagement and community, and align courses goals, activities, and assessments using the Quality Matters Rubric as an instructional design tool.

Facilitators

Karen Skibba, Instructional Design Specialist, UWW Learning Technology Center
Steve Boldt, Instructional Design Specialist, College of Letters & Sciences

Understanding and Dealing With Student Behavior in the College Classroom

Date

Thursday, August 27th 2009

Time

10:30am - 12:00pm

Location

University Center Room 266

Do you have students who disrupt your classes by talking incessantly? constantly arriving late? frequently making excuses? using cell phones & other technology? arguing or complaining? This workshop will explore how to better understand and deal with problem behaviors in the classroom. Both prevention and intervention will be explored.

Facilitator

Greg Valde, Associate Professor, Educational foundations, Director of the LEARN Center

Why Are We Here? The Purpose of a University Education

Date

Tuesday, August 25th 2009

Time

10:00am - 11:30am

Location

Timmerman Auditorium in the new Hyland Hall (Room 1000)

L. Lee Knefelkamp, professor of psychology and education, Teachers College, Columbia University, teaches in the programs of social-organizational psychology and higher education, and she has also held administrative posts as program coordinator and department chair. She also directed the student development graduate program at the University of Maryland, served as dean of the school of education at American University, and as academic dean of the faculty at Macalester College.

For thirty years, she has researched and written about student intellectual, ethical, identity and intercultural development; curriculum transformation; issues of race, ethnicity, and gender; campus climate assessment; and the psychology of organizational change and resistance to change.

She is a senior fellow with AAC&U and has been a national panel member for the American Commitments and Greater Expectations initiatives.