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Entr/Mgnt 421: Initiating And Managing Entrepreneurial Growth—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Varkey K. Titus Jr.

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

My primary goal for this portfolio is to codify the processes and goals of this course in a manner that can be transferred to other instructors. Students consistently comment on how much they enjoy the participatory and interactive nature of the course; I would like to formally document methods to create an interactive classroom that aligns with the expectations we have of senior-level entrepreneurship students regarding critical thinking and communication skills.

Ento 403/803: Management Of Horticultural Crop Pests—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Thomas J. Weissling

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

ENTO 403/803, management of horticultural crop pests, is an important class for many students. It is required by undergraduate horticulture majors at UNL, but because it is offered online, it is also of interest to entomology and horticulture graduate students across the U.S. and globally. I chose this class for the peer review process because I find it challenging due to online course delivery, and the breadth of knowledge of students that are enrolled. I feel I need to take this course to a higher level where I can engage students of all backgrounds, and ensure that each of them …

Thea 474: Digital Animation—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Steve Kolbe

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio provides an overview of student learning in my Digital Animation course - THEA 474. This report serves as documentation of my attempts to define and refine the course goals, activities, assignments, and assessment. Through this portfolio, I hope to more effectively see ways to make this course more impactful for the students, but also to lay the groundwork for additional courses within the major in order to open up a more realized and robust animation focus at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film. A facet of student learning that I plan to document and improve upon …

Ento 401: Insect Physiology—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Nicholas Miller

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Insect Physiology (ENTO 401) is a required course for majors in Insect Science. This portfolio documents my efforts to improve the course as I teach it for the second time. My intention was to use the development of a portfolio as a vehicle to modify the course so that the methods I use are better aligned to my overall goals for the course. Consequently, I have produced a portfolio that is directed toward my efforts to develop a more varied approach that improves integrated understanding and scientific thinking and to better document that the development of integrated understanding and scientific …

Jour 302: Reporting Ii—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Joseph Weber

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This document summarizes the results of an inquiry conducted as part of an advanced reporting course. The questions at hand were, “can students be taught to avoid bias in their journalistic work and to provide fair accounts of news developments?” and “how might they best be taught that?” This exploration revolved around a single lecture and discussion session, several reading assignments and the viewing of a video interview, and involved two writing assignments. The results suggest that both the teaching and evaluation of bias and fairness are difficult and complex. The findings suggest a single lesson may not be adequate …

Muop 356/856: Intermediate/Advanced Opera Techniques—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Jamie M. Reimer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Intermediate/Advanced Opera Techniques is a two credit elective course offered each spring at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At its genesis, the course was primarily an opera scenes workshop, focused solely on the preparation and performance of an opera scene in a final concert. It is a cross-listed course meaning that students from the first year through advanced graduate study may enroll. Students may or may not have any experience on the music theater stage, nor have they had training in how to prepare a new role from casting to completed performance.

This course is an elective in the School of …

Thea 234: Scripts In Performance—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Ian Borden

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This had traditionally been a theatre based course for the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film when I took over teaching it in the Fall semester of 2008. At that time, the course (a requirement for Theatre majors, Film and New Media majors, as well as Theatre and Musical Theatre minors) was populated almost entirely by upper level Theatre majors, particularly those in the performance stream. Over the next few years as the Film and new Media program grew, the needs of those students increased in relative importance as they comprised a larger and larger percentage of the class. …

Larc 331: Site Systems Iii: Landscape Implementation—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Bret Betnar

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

LARC 331 Site Systems III: Landscape Implementation is a 3rd year undergraduate course that focuses on the implementation of landscape architectural designs. The course is the final in a 3-course Site Systems sequence. In LARC 331, students take the final design proposal from the previous semester’s Site Design studio, LARC 210 or 211, and develop a set of construction documents for that design.

The research question asked through this inquiry is as follows: Can the inclusion of a drawing and building exercise improve students’ understanding of The Ten Fundamentals of drafting? It is believed that by including an additional drawing …

Muop 356/856: Intermediate/Advanced Opera Techniques—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Jamie M. Reimer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

I began the investigation of this course and subsequent course portfolio with the following objectives in mind:

1. To solidify and articulate the skills I intend students enrolled in this course to achieve by the end of the semester;
2. To think creatively about the presentation of course material to most effectively engage and empower students' success; and
3. To assess the effectiveness of the course activities in achieving course goals stated in the syllabus.

I am also excited to explore the options available for different methods of content delivery in this course, particularly the application of recorded performance for assessment. In the …

Elec 2110: Elements Of Electrical Engineering—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Mahmoud Alahmad

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

I have been teaching this class for the last five years. As an introductory course to electrical engineering, there is a lot of material that needs to be covered. All the material is important and relevant, and I try to go in-depth in each topic area. This approach has resulted in overwhelming the students and made them struggle with the course content, application and utilization. As I consider this course for the peer review, I am evaluating the depth of each topic and the opportunity to adjust the approach and method used to introduce new concepts and at the same …

Spanish Tutoring Center—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Lola Lorenzo

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this Portfolio I have one assessment of the Tutoring Center in Spanish during his first year of work. This center has one on-line component that students can use and also one face to face. I provide information about the type of students that use the Tutoring Center and also the reflection of the Graduate Students working in the Tutoring Center.

Cive 489: Senior Design—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Karen Schurr

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Course Background: Over recent years, the careers of professional civil engineers have become increasingly collaborative, multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial and focused on sustainability. With that comes an expectation from the profession to adequately prepare work force entrants for such challenges. In addition to traditional foundations in math, science, engineering fundamentals and an understanding of professional ethics, graduates now need interdisciplinary depth, critical thinking ability, ingenuity, creativity, leadership, multifaceted communication skills, flexibility and a broad understanding of civil systems in global economic, environmental and societal contexts. The UNL Civil Engineering Department strives to meet the profession's expectation with the capstone design course, CIVE …

Metr 323: Physical Meteorology—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Jun Wang

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Hands-on out-door activities are added into a course that is designed to teach students atmospheric physics ranging form solar light transfer to cloud and precipitation formation in the atmosphere. Statistical analysis and anonymous survey are conducted to benchmark the improvement in students' learning. Results show that these hands-on activities increase the student's interest and understanding in the course materials, and also improve the overall students' satisfaction for the course.

Chme 223: Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics I—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Hossein Noureddini

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio was intended to provide a broad overview of the course. Initially, when I decided to write this portfolio my intention was for it to help me in the student's outcome assessment of teaching for the course and in a broader scope, for my department's effort in establishing a systematic student outcome assessment process. However, as I became more familiar with the program I realized other aspects of the course could also benefit from this portfolio. My goal for this portfolio is to be broad with emphasis on course objectives, delivery methods and their assessment. I like for this …

Metr 200: Weather And Climate—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Matthew S. Van Den Broeke

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio is meant to be an assessment of how well the objectives of METR 200 (Weather and Climate) are being attained by students in several classifications of academic major. Students from a wide range of backgrounds enroll in this course as a general science elective, and for many, it will be the only science course taken in college. Thus, it is important that course material be sufficiently accessible for all students, while providing meaningful information which will be applicable by students of all backgrounds once they leave the course. In this portfolio, an analysis will be presented showing …

Chem 109: General Chemistry I—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Eric D. Dodds

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio has been developed for CHEM 109: General Chemistry I. The course is the first of a freshman level two semester sequence in General Chemistry taken by students with majors in a wide variety of technical and scientific disciplines. CHEM 109 is a high enrollment class, with class sizes for individual sections nearing 200 students. The development of this portfolio was conducted with the following objectives: 1. Clearly identify, justify, and codify the major learning objectives for this course, 2. Describe and rationalize the course structure and learning assessment methods, 3. Analyze and reflect on student achievement in the …

Law 799: Clinical Practice-Criminal—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Steven Schmidt

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio provides a broad overview of my teaching of Law 799. It not only gives the reader an understanding of the goals I have for the course, but also how I endeavor to reach those goals. Finally, through the use of student assessment, this portfolio provides insight as to whether my goals were reached and to what degree. Thus, the portfolio serves to inform me of areas needing improvement.

Larc 331: Site Systems Iii (Landscape Implementation)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Bret Betnar

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio investigates LARC 331 Site Systems III: Landscape Implementation, a 3rd year undergraduate course that focuses on the implementation of landscape architectural designs, in which students take a previous Site Design studio project and develop this project into a landscape architectural construction package.

Span 300: Advanced Reading And Writing In Spanish (Special Section For Heritage Speakers)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Isabel Velázquez

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This is an course portfolio which inquires into an undergraduate class designed to develop the academic reading and writing skills of bilingual students who grew up in Spanish-speaking households and received all or most of their schooling in English.

Geol 106: Environmental Geology—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Leilani Arthurs

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The Peer Review of Teaching (PRT) program provides faculty members the environment, support, structure, and time to carefully think about how they teach a particular course. PRT benchmark portfolios are prepared as a part of this program to assist faculty members in reflecting on and documenting their instructional practices and the potential impact they have on student learning.

This benchmark portfolio targets the Spring 2013 semester of GEOL 106: Environmental Geology. It documents the course objectives that provided the foundation for the instructional approach, the course-level learning goals that defined what students should be able to do by the end …

Geol 440/840: Tectonics—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Caroline M. Burberry

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This document is a follow-up document to the Benchmark Portfolio for this course, created in 2012. It details the changes made to the course following the observations from the Benchmark Portfolio and demonstrates that discussion of the metacognitive issues surrounding critical thinking does have some effect on increasing student learning. The document concludes with changes which will be made to the 2014 iteration of the class, to continue this inquiry and improvement process.

Adpr 357: Account Planning—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Sriyani Tidball

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

A course portfolio investigating student learning in ADPR 357, complete with case studies of student work.

Jomc 486: Mass Media Law—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, John R. Bender

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Mass Media Law, JOMC 486, is a required course for all majors in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. This includes majors in journalism (traditional print journalism and online journalism), broadcasting and advertising-public relations. The purpose of this portfolio is to assess whether the learning objectives of the course are achieved. The evidence compiled for this portfolio suggests that the students are learning basic information about mass media law. Further, analysis of the tests shows that they are also learning how to apply the principles of media law to situations they have not encountered, thus preparing them for dealing …

Mued 345: Instrumental Music Methods, Dale Bazan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The course Instrumental Music Methods (MUED 345) is designed to provide a fundamental preparation for future music educators to teach instrumental music--both orchestral and band--to adolescents in schools. The description in the UNL Schedule of Classes describes this course as dealing with "administrative approaches, rehearsal techniques, and modern comprehensive teaching styles for the secondary instrumental teacher." I chose this course for my peer-review because preparing future instrumental music teachers is one of my primary responsibilities as the instrumental music education specialist at UNL, and this course is the primary course to prepare students for this outcome. It is therefore vital …

Hrtm 479: Perspectives On The Hospitality Industry (Capstone Course)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Dipra Jha

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio investigates teaching and learning in HRTM 479: Perspectives on the Hospitality Industry, a senior capstone course for Hospitality, Restaurant and Tourism management majors, which integrates hospitality core and content courses into managerial and leadership practice within the hospitality, restaurant and tourism industry.

Ensc 220: Introduction To Energy Systems—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Francis Hay

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio investigates "Introduction to Energy Systems," a cross departmental class that is part of the Energy Sciences Minor. The class has a diverse student population and is taught accordingly. Students learn units, magnitudes, terminology, and basic function of current and emerging energy systems. Students finish the semester able to compare and discuss energy systems related to their feedstock, efficiency, capacity factor and environmental impacts. Student learning was evidenced throughout the course in tests, quizzes, writing assignments, discussions, and projects.

Geog 140: Human Geography—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Katherine Nashleanas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio will systematically evaluate my course in relation to ACE and Advanced Placement Human Geography standards and objectives. It will enable me to evaluate ways of increasing student engagement in large lecture classes, student retention, and organization that supports student mental health. As a result of writing this portfolio, I will be able to evaluate the internal consistency and coherence of my course. This portfolio provides a conceptual structure and physical place to put observations and notes about course improvement from semester to semester, which will enable me to become even more secure about the intellectual and pedagogical …

Course Portfolio For Arch333/Cnst305: Building Environmental Technical Systems, Tim Wentz

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Due to the critical nature of team-based learning in this course, I propose to study the learning aspects of team-based learning, as I envision it in this course. Not having formally investigated this issue previously, I am left with a sense that some teams perform much better than other teams. I am looking for those criteria that separate the good teams from underperforming teams. Some of the issues that occur to me as I start this process include the following: - Team size - Academic diversity - Discipline diversity - Gender diversity - Geographic diversity How students best learn in …

Course Portfolio For Nres 311: Wildlife Ecology And Management, Larkin A. Powell

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The main objectives of this portfolio are to: (1) continue to refine the course through the required documentation of connections between course goals and course activities, (2) document the efficacy of teaching techniques, and (3) serve as a preliminary step to publishing some of the case studies being used in the course.