Education Commons^™

Promoting Second Language Socialization Through Course Projects, Elena Shvidko

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

For many international students who are second language (L2) learners, successful integration in the new academic and socio-cultural environment is inseparable from their language socialization. Classroom teachers are well positioned to support students’ adaptation, and through course materials, projects, and activities they can encourage students’ successful socialization and promote their learning. Based on the principles of L2 socialization theory, this article describes how the projects of the course taught in the Intensive English Language Institute aimed at achieving two objectives: 1) foster students’ cross-cultural interaction and participation in various activities in- and outside the classroom, and 2) increase students’ opportunities …

Semester In The Parks: Engaging Students With Common Intellectual Experiences, Jacqualine B. Grant, John S. Maclean

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

High-impact educational practices (HIP) such as Common Intellectual Experiences (CIE) enhance student engagement and positively affect student learning. At Southern Utah University we created a new HIP-focused program to enrich our students and faculty: Semester in the Parks (SIP). Students lived outside of Bryce Canyon National Park in the gateway community of Bryce Canyon City while they worked for Ruby’s Inn Resort and learned about the national parks. Faculty commuted to this off campus venue and redesigned their courses to incorporate national parks thinking and experiential learning opportunities. The CIE of a national parks-focused semester enhanced student engagement and developed …

Design Case: Implementing Gamification With Arcs To Engage Digital Natives, Travis N. Thurston

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Gamification is an emerging topic for both student engagement and motivation in higher education online courses as digital natives become post-secondary students. This design case considers the design, development, and implementation of a higher education online course using the ARCS model for motivational design combined with the four-phase model of interest development as a framework for gamification implementation. Through “designerly ways of knowing,” this design case explores engaging digital native students with a gamified online course design, which will be of interest to instructional designers and instructors in higher education. Overall, students in the pilot course responded favorably to the …

From Outside To Online: Unanticipated Directions For Utah Master Naturalist, Mark Larese-Casanova, Jennifer Perkins

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Utah Master Naturalist is an award-winning Utah State University Extension program that promotes stewardship of Utah’s natural world through place-based, experiential field courses across the state. Although successful in eliciting positive short- and long-term impacts, Utah Master Naturalist’s traditional five-day field courses were unavailable to many students and instructors due to constraints of time and location. This case study examines Utah Master Naturalist’s first hybrid course, Desert Explorations, and describes the positive results from our pilot study, how a hybrid course solves availability issues, and how field-based learning theories can be adapted to online education through careful design.

Approaches To Evaluating Blended Courses, Mateja R. Savoie-Roskos, Stacy Bevan, Rebecca Charlton, Marlene Israelsen Graf

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Blended learning, sometimes referred to as hybrid or flexible learning, is becoming increasingly common in higher education. Unfortunately, many instructors receive limited training on how to effectively evaluate blended courses, and as a result, commonly rely solely on end-of-semester evaluations. Due to the more complex nature of how blended courses are designed and implemented, instructors should consider utilizing a variety of course evaluation methods. This article includes researched-based approaches for evaluating blended courses based on feedback from students, peers, and instructional designers. This combination of formalized feedback is offered as one strategy to ensure instructors achieve course learning objectives and …

About This Issue, Mike A. Christiansen

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Volume two, issue one is here! With great enthusiasm, we welcome you back to the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence, or JETE.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 2, Issue 1

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Spring 2018 issue (Volume 2, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Stalled At The Gate: Addressing Student Failure In A "Gateway" Course, Susan Rhoades Neel

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

This article is a case study of how student data can guide instructors in course redesign. A significant percentage of students enrolled in an American Civilization course did not successfully complete the course. An examination of ACT scores, GPAs, grades in math and English composition, reading tests, and assignment completion rates indicated that two key obstacles to student success were a lack of student engagement and a disparity between student reading capabilities and the required instructional materials. Following a change in the topical focus of the course, the addition of active learning projects, and supplemental aids to the textbook, course …

About This Issue, Mike A. Christiansen

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

An introduction to Volume 1, Issue 2 of the Journal on for Empowering Teaching Excellence, which features articles primarily on teaching and learning innovation in small, often rural classroom settings.

Reflections On Thirty Years Of Teaching For Utah State University Distance Education, John D. Barton

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Abstract:

In this brief essay, author John D. Barton, Principal Lecturer, History, Utah State University Uintah Basin Regional Campus muses on teaching excellence and student engagement. His sources are largely his personal reflections of thirty years teaching and storied examples and quotes from former students. He defends the use of lecture and discussion as primary pedagogical tools, insists that concern and love for students is paramount, and gives five specific guidelines to become a master teacher and mentor of students.

Mnemonic Mechanisms For Making Memories, Thayne L. Sweeten

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

In many classes, students are faced with the daunting task of remembering a lot of terms or structures in a relatively short period of time. Though there is much to memorize, students may not be aware of the many mnemonic mechanisms that can help them make quick and lasting memories. This article describes three such mechanisms: word associations, visual images, and stories. Examples of how these mechanisms can be applied, either individually or in combination, are provided in the context of teaching human anatomy. Whether used by teacher or student, these mechanisms can be incorporated into a class, providing fun …

Engagement Across The Miles: Using Videoconferencing With Small Groups In Synchronous Distance Courses, Amy Piotrowski, Marla Robertson

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

This article presents suggestions for conducting small group work in synchronous distance courses taught using Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) systems. One challenge of teaching over an IVC system is getting students involved in class activities. The authors share how they have used a videoconferencing tool to break up IVC classes into small groups for discussion activities and get peer feedback on written work. These activities engage students in applying what they are learning and constructing knowledge through discussion with their peers.

Learn, Apply, Share: Combining Student Learning And Community Engagement, David D. Law, Sheree Meyer, Latrisha Fall, Rachel Arocho, Kim Labrum

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

This paper describes how an upper division Family Life Education course was redesigned using the personal teaching philosophy of Learn, Apply, Share. This philosophy provides the framework for meaningful learning to occur at three levels. The Learn portion of the philosophy focuses on an experiential learning project based on andragogy principles that prepare students enrolled in the course to be family life educators. The Apply portion describes how student research assistants have used their research experiences to prepare them for professional positions in academia or other helping professions. This paper concludes by describing how students and the research assistants …

Promoting Critical Thinking In General Biology Courses: The Case Of The White Widow Spider, Joseph S. Wilson

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

It is generally accepted that critical thinking is an important and, likely, essential, component of success in college and beyond. Despite the unanimity, only a low percentage of students in the U.S. can demonstrate critical thinking proficiency on standardized exams. This phenomenon may result from instructors using a reductionist view of critical thinking and focusing on learning processes rather than on evaluation of intellectual resources. In general biology courses, I use a non-threatening, active-learning, group activities to promote critical thinking. For example, students are presented with an email from a member of the community and asked to formulate a response …

Apathy And Concern Over The Future Habitability Of Earth: An Introductory College Assignment Of Forecasting Co2 In The Earth’S Atmosphere, Benjamin J. Burger

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Non-science, first year regional undergraduate students from rural Utah communities participated in an online introductory geology course and were asked to forecast the rise of CO₂ in the Earth’s atmosphere. The majority of students predicted catastrophic rise to 5,000-ppm sometime over the next 3,100 years, resulting in an atmosphere nearly uninhabitable to human life. However, the level of concern the students exhibited in their answers was not directly proportional with their timing in their forecasted rise of CO₂. This study showcases the importance of presenting students with actual data and using data to develop student forecasted models. …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 1, Issue 2, Usu Center For Innovative Design And Instruction

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Volume 1, Issue 2 of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence, a publication of Utah State University focused on providing a forum for instructors in higher education to share best practices and ideas related to effective teaching.

Building Positive Student-Instructor Interactions: Engaging Students Through Caring Leadership In The Classroom, Oscar J. Solis, Windi D. Turner

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

When instructing and managing classrooms in university settings, instructors face numerous challenges such as student disengagement and managing course expectations. In this article, we offer new and revised techniques and strategies to engage students through the art of caring leadership. We accomplish this through three defining characteristics: knowing students’ names, managing course expectations, and the use of technology. These intentional strategies create positive student-instructor interactions in both small and large classrooms which in turn enhances student learning and engagement.

Amplify Your Teaching Impact: Capitalizing On 1-On-1 Instruction, Abby D. Benninghoff

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The objective of this essay, which is based on a keynote presentation delivered at the 2016 Empowering Teaching Excellence Conference at Utah State University, is to address this central question: how faculty can make a positive, substantive impact on students through 1-on-1 instruction? The consensus answer derived from experiences and anecdotes offered by this author, her colleagues, and students is to be deliberate in 1-on-1 interactions with students. This simple message is expanded through discussion of 10 key concepts that can help faculty amplify their teaching impact: 1) be available, 2) help students feel comfortable, 3) be a model, 4) …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 1, Issue 1

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

For our inaugural issue, we reviewed the feedback from our 2016 ETE faculty conference—an event for USU faculty hosted every August on the USU main campus. We identified several of the presenters who received high marks in post-session surveys and invited them to submit a proceedings paper for their presentation. Many responded, and their papers now comprise the majority of this issue. Because most of the articles began as stand-up presentations for a conference, several adopt a first-person narrative style in which the authors share examples of things they have tried in their teaching that have worked. In the process …

Undergraduates Crossing The Threshold: Assessing Library Interns Using The Framework, Carly Marino, Sarah Fay Phillips

Library Instruction West 2016

As librarians and educators we are committed to student learning as our highest goal. To be prepared for a competitive job market, undergraduate students benefit from the opportunity to produce work that is available and impactful to a global audience. Internships in libraries provide students an opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers and learn from multiple points of view. Using an internship program in Humboldt State University Library's Special Collections as a case study, we will explain how students construct meaning and knowledge as they create digital exhibits using the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. By engaging …

Trail Guide For New Teachers: Working With Graduate Teaching Practicum Students In First-Year Writing, Sara M. Whitver

Library Instruction West 2016

Come hear how one instruction coordinator librarian used the writing across the disciplines tradition to move beyond inviting new writing teachers to participate in one-shot library instruction to developing deep and lasting teaching collaborations. By assigning reading homework and conducting freewriting exercises during visits to the practicum class, librarians can engage new teachers in critically examining the crossover between writing and information literacy during their first-year as writing instructors. By assuming this role of co-educator, librarians have the opportunity to help first-time writing teachers develop collaborative relationships with librarians early in their teaching experience in order to lay the groundwork …

Going Public: What Writing Programs Learn From Engagement, Shirley K. Rose, Irwin Weiser

All USU Press Publications

An important new resource for WPA preparation courses. In Going Public, Rose and Weiser moderate a discussion of the role of the writing program vis-a-vis the engagement movement, the service learning movement, and the current interest in public discourse/civic rhetoric among scholars of rhetoric and composition. While there have been a number of publications describing service-learning and community leadership programs, most of these focus on curricular elements and address administrative issues primarily from a curricular perspective. The emphasis of Going Public is on the ways that engagement-focused programs change conceptions of WPA identity. Writing programs are typically situated at points …

What We Are Becoming: Developments In Undergraduate Writing Majors, Greg A. Giberson, Thomas A. Moriarty

All USU Press Publications

Greg Giberson and Tom Moriarty have collected a rich volume that offers a state-of-the-field look at the question of the undergraduate writing major, a vital issue for compositionists as the discipline continues to evolve. What We Are Becoming provides an indispensable resource for departments and WPAs who are building undergraduate majors. Contributors to the volume address a range of vital questions for undergraduate programs, including such issues as the competition for majors within departments, the job market for undergraduates, varying focuses and curricula of such majors, and the formation of them in departments separate from English. Other chapters discuss the …

Ethics In Higher Education, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

This presentation focuses on the following Robinson and Moulton quote found in the book "Ethical Problems in Higher Education": The myth that institutions of higher education are sheltered from the struggles and conflicts of the “real world” is widely accepted even by people who ought to know better—those of us in academic settings who confront, struggle with, bemoan, or try to ignore the serious ethical issues that arise. People outside academia may tease us about the ivory tower world and our innocence and naiveté. With a twinge of guilt, we in academia accept their teasing because the myth tells us …

Innovative Reflection Tools For Developing Leadership For Transformation, Susan R. Madsen, Katherine A. Tunheim

Susan R. Madsen

Since developing leadership is seeded in learning, there is a continuous effort to understand the most effective methods and techniques to assist individuals in becoming leaders. The purpose of this engaging workshop is to offer a variety of innovative tools that both academics and practitioners can use with adult learners in various settings to help them further develop leadership knowledge, competencies, and skills through enhanced reflection experiences. We cannot help create leaders who transform without helping them first be transformed by their own learning experiences. Learning that transforms individuals is learning that changes individuals. Since developing leadership is a transforming …

Faculty Ethics Unveiled: Scholarship--Et Tu, Brute?, Susan R. Madsen, James Davis

Susan R. Madsen

Little actual research has been conducted to explore the ethics of the faculty of higher education. A review of the literature has discovered four primary categories of faculty ethics, which include scholarship, teaching, service, and professional (e.g., consulting, treatment of colleagues and peers). This paper will focus on the scholarship category and includes research (e.g., authorship, conflicts of interest, plagiarism/citing-including self-plagiarism, ethical approval, research design, redundant publications, misconduct, accuracy, personal criticism of others) and review of other's work as a reviewer or editor (e.g., unbiased, speed/timeliness, accuracy, responsibility, objectivity, confidentiality, conflicts of interest). The purpose of this paper is to …

The First Steps Toward Developing Leadership Programs For Women In The United Arab Emirates: A Survey Study Exploring The Transformation Of Emirati College Students, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

Developing effective leaders has become one of the most critical challenges for many organizations today, as strong, competent leadership often separates high-performing, successful organizations from less effective ones. In many countries research is being conducted to assist practitioners in designing successful leadership development programs for both men and women. However, in some countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), these efforts are only in their infancy, and leadership development for women is a new concept. Needless to say, there is no evidence of existing research on the development of women leaders in that country, and only a few indications …

Ethics In Publishing, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

The primary purpose of this innovative session is to provide HRD faculty, administrators, and graduate students the forum to listen to panelists and then discuss current issues and challenges related to the ethical decision-making and behavior of researchers and scholars as it relates to publishing. It will provide attendees the opportunity to challenge behaviors and practices commonly seen and held within this arena. I (Susan R. Madsen) just faciliated a very successful session at the Academy of Management in Anaheim (August, 2008) on this topic and realized that we need the same conversation (different panelists) in the AHRD. In fact, …

Preparing For Future Leadership Development Efforts In The United Arab Emirates: Studying The Transformational Learning Experiences Of Women Students In Abu Dhabi, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

To consider designing future efforts toward developing leadership programs for women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it is important to understand how these women learn most effectively. In-depth, qualitative interviews were conducted with Emirati students at a women’s college in the UAE to investigate their learning backgrounds, perceptions, and transformational learning experiences while students. Additional interviews were conducted with faculty and staff to provide insights into many of the issues, challenges, and experiences the students discussed. Since developing leadership is a transforming process, transformational learning theory provided a valuable theoretical lens to guide this study. This paper presents findings …

Ethics In Publishing (11 Workshops), Susan R. Madsen, James Davis

Susan R. Madsen

To begin raising awareness of ethics and publishing concerns and educate doctoral students (future professors and practitioners) within the Academy of Management, Davis and Madsen facilitated 60-minute segments for eleven division's doctoral student consortium at the Academy of Management conference in Chicago. We brought journal editors/associate editors with us for each of our division presentation. Divisions: Business Policy & Strategy (BPS); International Management (IMD); Management Consulting (MCD); Managerial & Organizational Cognition (MOC); Organization & Management Theory (OMT); Organization Development & Change (ODC); Organizational Behavior (OB); Organizational Communication & Information Systems (ODIS); Public & Nonprofit (PNP); Social Issues in Management (SIM); …