Education Commons^™

Virtual Reality As A Pedagogical Tool To Design For Social Impact: A Design Case, Tiffany Roman, Jon Racek

Faculty and Research Publications

Three-dimensional (3-D) virtual environments have key affordances that can improve learning, particularly when context, culture, and pedagogical aims are aligned to a given learning situation. One challenge in detailing effective uses of 3-D virtual environments in teaching and learning contexts is that the design judgments involved are not always made explicit. We argue that the transparency of design judgments, as it relates to the use of 3-D virtual environments, are critically important. This article advances scholarship of emerging technologies by detailing the design judgments of a university instructor within a Design for Social Impact cross-disciplinary course. To address learner needs …

Report Of The N|150 Commission, Donde Ashmos Plowman, William G. Thomas Iii

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Administration: Papers, Publications, and Presentations

As the campus prepares to mark its 150th year, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is poised to chart a bold and distinctive course for the next generation. UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green appointed more than 150 stakeholders of the university – faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members – to the Nebraska Commission of 150 to envision how the university can best serve Nebraska and the world for the next 25 years.

The university’s inaugural charter in 1869 as a land-grant institution offered a sweeping vision for our founding:

To afford the inhabitants of this state with the means of acquiring a …

A Classroom Activity For Teaching Kohlberg’S Theory Of Moral Development, Cheryl L. Carmichael, Anna M. Schwartz, Maureen Coyle, Matthew H. Goldberg

Publications and Research

In two studies, we demonstrate an engaging classroom activity that facilitates student learning about Kohlberg’s theory of moral development by using digital resources to foster active, experiential learning. In addition to hearing a standard lecture about moral development, students watched a video of a morally provocative incident, then worked in small groups to classify user comments posted in response to the video according to Kohlberg’s six stages. Students in both studies found the activity enjoyable and useful. Moreover, students’ scores on a moral development quiz improved after completing the activity (Study 1), and students who completed the activity in addition …

Assessment Strategies To Promote Peer Learning In An Online Course, Pauline Rooney, Caitríona Ní Shé

Conference papers

The value of peer learning in higher education is now well recognised. Just as we continually learn from eachother in our everyday lives, so our students also learn from eachother as part of informal and formal learning experiences. Within educational programmes, peer learning is facilitated through a variety of pedagogical strategies which promote active participation, collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and ideas. With the increasing ubiquity of social networking and online learning platforms, new opportunities for facilitating peer learning, have emerged. Within online courses – where students often study at geographically disparate locations – peer learning strategies assume arguably …

Comics, Questions, Action! Engaging Students And Instruction Librarians With The Comics-Questions Curriculum, Stephanie Margolin, Mason Brown, Sarah Laleman Ward

Publications and Research

In a four-session Summer Bridge programme, we experimented with new curricular and pedagogical ideas with a group of incoming freshmen. We developed the Comics-Questions Curriculum (CQC), which melds students’ question asking with a focus on comics. The purpose of this paper is to describe the rationale for and ongoing development of the CQC as well as the ways the CQC fosters engagement of students and librarians, builds upon students’ existing skills but propels them forward toward college-level work, and positions librarians as partners in students’ college work. Although it was designed for a specific purpose initially, the CQC in its …

A Word From The Writing Team (December 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els, Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• January Writing Retreat
• Find the Time Workshop

Bridging The Gap: Engaging Business Sophomores To Ensure Information Literacy Competency, Heather A. Crozier, Harry J. Wilson

Heterick Faculty Scholarship

This project showcases a two-week series of assignments that are designed to illustrate the value of information literacy skills to undergraduate sophomore business students. We demonstrate how the project integrates with our business curricula and show how leveraging the expertise of librarians ultimately improves the quality of education for our students.

Developing A Stem Outreach Plan With Data Viz, Emily K. Hart

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

As an academic liaison librarian serving a wide range of departments in the STEM fields, there are many competing priorities. My goal in developing strategic planning matrices for STEM outreach is to move away from a reactionary service approach to one that is proactive and evidence based. Mapping the current assessment goals of the university, colleges, and departments I serve, alongside the Libraries’ initiatives to support student and faculty research, information literacy, open-access and scholarly communications endeavors, has been a large but worthwhile undertaking. To pilot the project, data for the College of Engineering and Computer Science was collected into …

Capstone Assessment As Faculty Development, Rowanna L. Carpenter, Seanna M. Kerrigan, Vicki Reitenauer

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland State University (PSU) is a public institution in Portland, Oregon, serving 28,000 students, including 23,000 undergraduates. PSU implemented Capstone courses in 1995 as the culminating experience in the revised general education program, University Studies (UNST). Capstones at PSU are community‐based courses composed of interdisciplinary teams of students actively engaged with community partners, designed to address the UNST learning goals (inquiry and critical thinking; communication; ethics and social responsibility; and diversity, equity, and social justice). Each Capstone course creates one or more collaboratively developed final products intended to serve the community partner.

In this article, we describe the evolution of …

La Comunicación Lingüística En Español Y Sus Barreras En El Sistema De Salud De Los Estados Unidos, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

La enseñanza del español con fines médicos en los Estados Unidos ha experimentado un crecimiento exponencial en las dos últimas décadas. Sin embargo, los pacientes de origen hispano se encuentran desprotegidos ante las barreras lingüísticas que impone el sistema de salud estadounidense en muchos contextos monolingües y bilingües. Esta investigación descriptiva muestra como, por un lado, los malentendidos producidos por la comunicación ineficiente desarrollada por intérpretes e intermediarios (familiares, enfermeras con conocimientos de español, facultativos con una preparación lingüística deficiente, etc.) tienen serias repercusiones para la salud en el tratamiento de los casos. Por otro lado, el estudio da cuenta …

Components Of, And Approaches To, Effective Feedback, Sarah Gibbons, Jonathan Mccarthy, Paul Mcevoy, Patricia Mordaunt

Practitioner Research Projects

Feedback is the subject of much research and discussion in Higher Education. Nationally the focus has intensified due to reports of low levels of student satisfaction with the feedback process e.g. the Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE). The focus of this report is an examination of effective feedback in undergraduate education. The importance of effective feedback (particularly for those beginning their third level education) is reflected in a project funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, called the Y1Feedback project. This is aimed at increasing the quality of the third level experience and has …

A Word From The Writing Team (November 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els, Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• New! Open Access Funds Available
• January Writing Retreat
• A Thanksgiving Thought

Achieving Graduate Attributes Through Authentic Learning: The Case Of Student Managed Funds, Robert Dunne, James Fitzgerald, Jennifer Manning, Sean O'Reilly

Practitioner Research Projects

According to the Department of Education and Skills (2011), as cited by Murphy and Whelan (2016), there has been a growing emphasis on the importance of graduate attributes in higher education in Ireland. This not only places emphasis on the application of disciplinary specific knowledge, but also on the ‘soft skills’ highly sought by employers. By providing an authentic learning environment, higher education institutes can facilitate the development of graduate attributes while also ensuring graduates are gaining disciplinary specific knowledge. This project explores how Student Managed Funds (SMFs) represent an authentic learning experience through which students achieve a range of …

Problem-Based Learning As An Authentic Assessment Method, Stuart Henderson, Mary Kinahan, Elaine Rossiter

Practitioner Research Projects

Traditional learning and assessment typically focus on students being told what to do, memorising it, and the teacher assigning a problem on how to use it (Savery, 2006). By contrast, in problem-based learning (PBL) and assessment a problem is assigned to a group or individual, the teacher then facilitates the students’ learning as they identify what they need to know, and the students learn and apply a solution to the problem (Savery, 2006). PBL was developed and pioneered by Barrows and Tamblyn in McMaster University as part of the Medical School programme due to students’ lack of application of their …

A Generic Integrated And Interactive Framework (Giif) For Developing Information Literacy Skills In Higher Education, Aoife Donnelly, Maria Chiara Leva, Ayman Tobail, Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos

Practitioner Research Projects

Information literacy (IL) is defined as “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning” (ACRL 2015, p.3). The term IL was originally confined to library and IT skills (Behrens, 1994; Johnston & Webber, 2003) but has since received increasing international interest. It is considered as an important 21st century skill in combination with critical thinking (Kong, 2014), and is perceived as basic human right within the digital world (UNESCO, 2008). The importance …

Alternative Methods To Traditional Written Exam-Based Assessment, Shane Dillon, Alan Mcdonnell, Diarmaid Murphy, Lynsey White

Practitioner Research Projects

Donnelly and Fitzmaurice (2005, p.14) suggest that “assessment methods should be in accord with the learning outcomes of the module and should foster a deep approach to learning”. While unseen written exams do develop skills such as “examination techniques, writing under pressure, recall” (Smyth, 2004), there are a number of alternative assessment methods that determine what students actually understand and what they can do, in contrast to what they can recall. As one student noted “I hate to say it, but what you have got to do is to have a list of “facts” …you write down the important points …

Between Paralysis And Empowerment: Action In Mathematics For Social Justice Work, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

In this article, I focus on my experiences teaching a seminar in critical pedagogy and the math for social justice (MfSJ) work that grew from of my students’ reflections as to how they might promote change towards justice. The course was designed to acquaint students with the research literature in critical pedagogy as we explored the social, political, cultural, and economic realities around our system of public education. Yet there came a point where students questioned the value of such exploration as they genuinely considered what to do next. I, too, struggled both to support the students I was working …

How Songbirds Learn To Sing Provides Suggestions For Designing Team Projects For Computing Courses, Ashwin Satyanarayana, Radhika Natarajan, Lior Baron

Publications and Research

Understanding how our brain works and how we learn is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing twenty-first computer science. Songbirds are good candidates for trying to unravel some of this mystery. Over the last decade, a large amount of research has been made to better understand how songbirds learn complex songs. The Canary (Serinus canaria) and the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) have been widely used bird models to study these brain and behavior relationships. Like songbirds, we humans are vocal and social learners. In such learners, the development of communication is initially steered by social interactions with adult tutors. …

Medical Biochemistry Without Rote Memorization: Multi-Institution Implementation And Student Perceptions Of A Nationally Standardized Metabolic Map For Learning And Assessment, Douglas B. Spicer, Kathryn H. Thompson, Michelle S. Tong, Tina M. Cowan, Tracy B. Fulton, Janet E. Lindsley

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Despite the growing number of patients worldwide with metabolism-related chronic diseases, medical biochemistry education is commonly perceived as focusing on recall of facts irrelevant for patient care. The authors suggest that this focus on rote memorization of pathways creates excessive cognitive load that may interfere with learners’ development of an integrated understanding of metabolic regulation and dysregulation. This cognitive load can be minimized by providing appropriate references during learning and assessment. Biochemistry educators collaborated to develop a medically relevant Pathways of Human Metabolism map (MetMap) that is now being used at many medical schools as a nationally standardized resource during …

"Our Stories" Of Becoming A College Student: A Digital Writing Project For First Year Students, Philip Kreniske, Karen Goodlad, Jennifer Sears, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

This blogging assignment serves as a low-stakes activity that encourages students to make sense of the social, emotional, and bureaucratic challenges in their transition to college, and to simultaneously develop digital literacy.

Podcasting The Place: Using Tech To Create Community, Rachel S. Evans

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Satisfaction Of Library Services By Catholic Religious In Ss. Peter And Paul Seminary, Ibadan, Nigeria, Oyedele Abimbola Ojeniyi Mr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Libraries not only acquire, organize, retrieve and disseminate information but also provide some services such as references services, current awareness, selective dissemination of information, document delivery services and inter-library loan services. Others include internet, audiovisual, reprographic, customer relation and user education services. The sole aim of these services is to satisfy the information needs of the users and clienteles of the library. The catholic religious who are studying to become priests have information needs not only for their academics but also for their pastoral training, which is given a greater priority towards their eligibility as priests. Therefore, they need to …

A Word From The Writing Team (October 2018), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els, Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Writing Lessons from Ted-Ed
• WHYY's Maiken Scott on Communicating Science
• Paywall: The Business of Scholarship

Nefdc Conference Program, Fall 2018, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Conference Programs

New England Faculty Development Consortium

The Challenges of 21st Century Education

November 9, 2018

College of the Holy Cross

Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Keynote address: Four-Dimensional Education for the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Charles Fadel

Conference Co-Chairs: Peter Shea and Marc Ebenfield

Proposal Co-Chairs: Marc Ebenfield and Peter Shea

President: Marc Ebenfield

Learner-Centered Design: Is Sage On The Stage Obsolete?, Sheri Stover, Sharon Heilmann, Amelia Hubbard

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications

This quantitative research study examined one instructor’s redesign of her introductory Anthropology course (N = 265) from Teacher-Centered (TC) to Learning-Centered (LC) and the resulting impact on her students’ perceptions of Teaching Presence (TP), Social Presence-Interaction(SP-I), Social Presence-Participation (SP-P), Cognitive Presence (CP), and Satisfaction (SAT). Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey (Swan et al., 2008) in a face-to-face classroom environment; results indicated that implementing a LC classroom compared to a TC classroom was found to have a significantly positive impact on students’ perceptions of TP (p= .021), SP-I (p< .001), SP-P (p< .001), CP (p= 00 2), and SAT (p= .022). Multiple regression results indicated that TP, SP-I-, and SP-P were able to predict 42% of students’ level of satisfaction score with TP having the highest level of prediction (β=.37). Preliminary evidence suggests that instructors who implement LC teaching methodologies can have a positive impact on TP, SP-I, SP-P, CP, and SAT.

The Learning Loss Effect In Genetics: What Ideas Do Students Retain Or Lose After Instruction?, Amber Todd, William L. Romine

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Modern genetics is a relatively new domain, but it is increasingly important for students to have a firm grasp on the content, because genetic technologies are becoming more commonplace. In a previous study, we used the Learning Progression-based Assessment of Modern Genetics to assess high school students’ knowledge of genetics concepts after an intensive inquiry-based genetics instructional period. Given that this type of intensive inquiry-based instruction is unique, we are now investigating how students’ knowledge of genetics changes after instruction (i.e., learning loss effect). Using a six-measure longitudinal design, we found that students retained significant gains in five of the …

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 31, Fall 2018, New England Faculty Development Consortium

NEFDC Exchange

Contents

President's message: Faculty development in the 21st century, Marc Ebenfield

NEFDC publication schedule change

“I will forever be changed”: Encouraging meaning-making in service-learning, Isabelle Jenkins, MDiv, Virginia Ryan, Ph.D., and Michelle Sterk Barrett, Ph.D. - College of the Holy Cross

Call for proposals for the spring 2019 conference

Lessons from the mat: 17 things being a new yoga student taught me about effective, student-centered teaching, Jen Girgen, J.D., Ph.D. - Salem State University

Connected: Building meaningful relationships for online learning, Sara Donaldson, Ed.D., Karen Caldwell, Ed.D., and Carey Borkoski, Ph.D., Ed.D. - Johns Hopkins University

Defamiliarizing the familiar: Challenging …

How Learning Happens And What It Means For Effective Teaching, Molly Jameson

Teaching, Learning & Assessment

This workshop will provide a brief overview of prominent learning theories and their relation to effective teaching. Activities and discussion will center on realistic ways to implement learning theory in your classrooms. Please bring course material you would like to better align with learning theory.

Practical Strategies For Creating Inclusive & Equitable Classrooms, Rashida Banerjee, Lyda Mccartin

Teaching, Learning & Assessment

Creating a learning environment that supports all students can be challenging as there are numerous ways inclusion and exclusion manifest in the classroom; for example, student-student interactions, faculty-student interactions, course content, course policies, and assessment. While inclusive teaching gets a lot of attention on campus, these topics rarely get discussed in a manner that provides practical strategies for instructors to address course participants’ individual and cultural backgrounds and experiences. This panel brings together Dr. Raquel Wright-Mair, Dr. Rashida Banerjee, and Fleurette King, educators guided by the principles of inclusive teaching, to share their practice. Panelists will share how they create …

High Stakes: Creating Summative Assessments That Align To Student Learning Outcomes, Wendi Flynn, Aaron Haberman

Teaching, Learning & Assessment

Do your exams, research papers, or other major assignments fully assess desired course-level student learning outcomes? Would you like to put your students in a better position to both develop key skills and demonstrate what they’ve learned through your course? Through this workshop, we will explore different summative assessment methods, and you will develop or refine a high stakes summative assessment that directly aligns with one or more of your course-level student learning outcomes. Please come with a course in mind, particular outcome(s) that you plan to assess, or a current summative assessment that you would like to revise.