Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Equity-Minded Faculty Development, Aeron Haynie

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A governing principle of equity-minded faculty development is a commitment to supporting marginalized populations who may feel unwelcome in academia: from minority college students to first-generation graduate students to faculty of color. Faculty development should encourage faculty to notice inequities and not dismiss them as student’s individual failures; to examine institutional data on student, graduate student, and faculty achievement patterns; and to collaborate with other campus partners on interventions. As we work with faculty to develop strategies to ensure all students can succeed, we must also enact the same empowering, strengths- based practices we promote.

Seeking And Doing Justice Through Educational Development, Wayne Jacobson

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

One thing that has shaped my understanding of educational development more than anything else is a commitment to seeking and doing justice. I see this commitment as the animating force that breathes life into the best of what educational developers do and the core value that continually challenges us to do better. In the many contexts in which we work, the one thing that defines the role of educational development is the recognition that we need to continually examine and improve how well our institutional systems are doing justice to the communities that we are trusting them to serve.

“Once A Scientist…”: Disciplinary Approaches And Intellectual Dexterity In Educational Development, Katherine Kearns, Molly Hatcher, Mara Bollard, Michele Dipietro, Devon Donohue-Bergeler, Leslie E. Drane, Elizabeth Luoma, Andrew E. Phuong, Laura Thain, Mary C. Wright

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The authors claim that disciplinary epistemologies—disciplinary habits of mind and ways of thinking—offer productive lenses for observing teaching practices. Furthermore, they argue that educational developers who draw from multiple epistemologies in combination provide rich evidence with regard to teaching and learning and can speak to academic colleagues from an array of disciplines. Clarity is provided for career paths in educational development for colleagues from academic disciplines who are contemplating part- or full-time work in a teaching center. The authors hope that this opening collection develops into a toolkit and area of inquiry about disciplinary approaches to the practice of educational …

Good To Great In Educational Development, Bruce Kelley

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We have been asked to describe One Thing that guides us as educational developers. For me, this is the strategic planning process described in Jim Collins’ Good to Great (2001). Collins provides a model that helps leaders navigate through change to build effective and influential centers. This framework has allowed me to develop a successful center despite periods of transition and uncertainty. Much of what I experience in my professional life is good. The challenge is to take it to the next level—to turn good into great. Collins’ strategic model provides a roadmap for how this might be accomplished.

The Four Rs: Guiding Ctls With Responsiveness, Relationships, Resources, And Research, Mary C. Wright, Debra Rudder Lohe, Tershia Pinder-Grover, Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We offer a framework for guiding an effective Center for Teaching and Learning: Responsiveness, Relationships, Resources, and Research. Our intention is to fill a gap in the literature on guidance for CTL leadership. These four principles are grounded in both scholarly and experiential evidence, drawing from multiple CTL directors with a range of experience levels at different center and institutional types.

Mentoring Graduate Student Staff In A Center For Teaching And Learning: Goals And Aligned Practices, Kristin Rudenga, Joseph Lambert

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Graduate student staff (GSS) positions, commonly used in centers for teaching and learning (CTL) to expand capacity and extend disciplinary connections on campus, also offer the potential for a meaningful developmental experience for the students who fill them. Drawing on the literature on graduate student mentorship, we lay out goals and aligned practices to inform the mentoring of GSS in CTL aimed at advancing their pedagogical, professional, and personal development. Such deliberate attention to mentoring in a CTL context can enhance the experience and development of the GSS themselves, as well as improve the work of the CTL.

Measuring Transparency: A Learning-Focused Assignment Rubric, Michael S. Palmer, Emily O. Gravett, Jennifer Lafleur

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

By combining recommendations for effective assignment design with principles of transparency and the value-expectancy theory of achievement motivation, we developed a rubric capable of for assessing the quality and guiding the design of assignment descriptions. This rubric defines criteria characteristic of well-designed assignments; breaks the criteria down into concrete, measurable components; and suggests what evidence for each component might look like. While the full rubric is valid for major, signature assignments, it can accommodate a diverse range. It can also provide summative, quantitative information to educational developers for research and formative, qualitative feedback to instructors for gauging the quality of …

A Minimalist Model Of New Faculty Mentoring: Why Asking For Less Gives More, Heather Lobban Viravong, Mark Schneider

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We describe a research-based mentoring program for new full-time faculty at a small residential college, which emphasizes the empowerment of the new faculty themselves to identify and obtain the resources they need for success. In our model, the mentor takes on a role of primarily providing accountability, easing the burden on mentors, thereby making for a more sustainable program. Our mixed methods assessment of the program suggests that, paradoxically, these lessened expectations foster closer personal relationships between mentor and protégé than might have occurred if that were a programmatic expectation.

Transforming The Classroom At Traditionally White Institutions To Make Black Lives Matter, Frank Truitt, Chayla Haynes, Saran Stewart

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In recent years, many college campuses across the United States witnessed a significant increase in campus activism regarding the range of experiences and conditions facing racially minoritized communities in higher education. As critical and inclusive pedagogues and scholars, we embrace the belief that a focus on making Black Lives Matter in the classrooms of traditionally White institutions (TWIs) provides educators with the best chance to improve the educational outcomes of all students. In this essay, we examine seven principles of critical and inclusive pedagogies that have the potential to make Black Lives Matter in TWI classrooms and identify several implications …

Workshopping A Workshop: Collaborative Design In Educational Development, Eleanor V. H. Vandegrift, Amy B. Mulnix, Jennifer R. Yates, S. Raj Chaudhury

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Working remotely and collaboratively, our interdisciplinary team created an educational development workshop, Thinking Skills for the 21st Century: Teaching for Transfer, in which participants not only experience, apply, and reflect on teaching across educational settings but also connect this work to principles that have been demonstrated by learning science to support the transfer of knowledge. We used backward design to develop the workshop and evidence-based pedagogies in its implementation. We facilitated the workshop at two different national meetings for distinct audiences and also as part of an on-campus faculty development program. Here, we report on the workshop development and revision, …

Academic Twitter And Professional Learning: Myths And Realities, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

Social networking sites provide opportunities for informal and social learning of academic practices in higher education, yet not all academics engage in these spaces. This qualitative study suggests that while Twitter offers informal opportunities for academi development, inhibiting factors prevent staff from establishing their social presence and participating in conversations on academic Twitter.

Colby College Catalogue 2018-2019, Colby College

Colby Catalogues

No abstract provided.

Bursting The Filter Bubble: Information Literacy And Questions Of Valuation, Navigation, And Control In A Digital Landscape, Komysha Hassan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The evolution of social media platforms and other public forums in the digital realm has created an explosion of user-generated content and data as a component of the already content-saturated digital landscape. The distributed, horizontal nature of the internet as a platform makes it difficult to ascertain value and differentiate between texts of varying validity, bias, and purpose. In addition, the internet is not an inanimate interface. As Pariser (2011) argues, content aggregators, such as Google, actively filter, personalize, and therefore limit each individual's access to information, in both range and type. This has created a crisis of information valuation …

Are You African Or African-American? Exploring The Identity Experiences Of Female Stem Students Born In Africa Now Living In America, David M. Sparks

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Amongst the participants of a qualitative study of Black female students in Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) were two individuals who were born on the African continent. These students moved to the United States at a young age and are now United States citizens—one pursuing a graduate degree and the other an undergraduate degree, both in a STEM field. This brief case study will explore the thoughts of the two students with regard to how they, despite being typically underrepresented in STEM in the United States, (1) describe their experiences as college students; (2) come to view themselves in the …

Using Interactive Digital Wall (Iwall) Technology To Promote Active Learning, Cheryl Bagley Thompson, Suhasini Kotcherlakota, Patrick Rejda, Paul Dye

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Using Interactive Digital Wall (iWall) Technology to Promote Active Learning

Garrat

Cheryl Thompson (UNMC), Suhasini Kotcherlakota (UNMC), Patrick Rejda (UNMC), Paul Dye (UNMC)

UNMC's iWall technology bridges College of Nursing campuses across the state. The multi-taction iWall consists of from 9-12 high resolution video panels. These panels provide interactive monitor space on which to project class content and simultaneously allow instructor and student interaction with content. The iWalls across the state are connected, allowing interactions between students in different locations. Students at home or sites without iWall are able to view and participate in class activities via webinar technology. This …

Beyond Closed Captioning The Other Ada Accessibility Requirements, Analisa Mcmillan, Peggy Moore

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Did you know that there is more to making your online course ADA accessible than just closed captioning your videos? Join us as we uncover the ADA accessibility requirements in Sections 508 refresh. In this session, we will discuss how to design your online course space, your materials, and documents to meet the compliance standards. Learn the whys and how’s to formatting your PDFs, PPTs, Canvas content pages, word documents and multimedia to meet standards as well as considerations for colorblindness.

Learning To Learn Online - Helping Online Students Navigate Online Learning, Suzanne Withem

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Students spend the first 13 years of their schooling learning how to be good students in the physical classroom, but receive little to no direct instruction in how to be successful online students. By developing a “Learning to Learn Online” module for students new to online learning at UNO, the Office of Digital Learning is helping prepare students to be successful online learners and freeing up faculty to focus on course content rather than instruction in the use of digital tools or study skills. This session will introduce strategies for developing and implementing similar online student-readiness programs to prepare students …

Students As Creative Forces To Enhance Curriculum Via E-Learning, Betsy Becker, Peggy Moore, Dele Davies

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Academic institutions are seeking to enhance student centered teaching with active educational encounters, but development can be hampered by limited time and resources. This session focuses on the successful engagement of student-faculty teams to create interactive e-learning modules to enhance our medical school and other health science programs curricula. UNMC launched the "UNMC Student E-Learning Program" for student and faculty teams to build interactive elearning modules. We started with a competitive application process, informational meetings, and a comprehensive website with resources to guide development. Then student developers, with their faculty advisors, utilized our E-Learning Studio to access tools and e-learning …

Broaden Your Passion! Women In Stem, Barbara Oakley

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Women and men develop with equal, often outstanding, abilities in math and science. However, one of women’s advantages is that they also often have a developmental edge over men when it comes to verbal abilities. The result? When women hear the ubiquitous advice to “follow their passions,” they sometimes turn towards their undeniable strengths outside STEM. Some subjects—like STEM—take longer for women and men to master. This talk helps women recognize that it’s sometimes important to be patient with passion—don’t just follow your passions, broaden them!

Structuring Security For Success, Matt Morton, Rick Haugerud

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Structuring Security for Success An overview of the approach and strategy for the reorganization of security. Review of the structure and how it aligns with others in the industry and best practices. What the future plans are and where do we see the organization growing to address the increased needs for security now and in the next 5 years.

Collaborating Across Nu For Accessible Video, Heath Tuttle, Jane Petersen, Jaci Lindburg

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Recent budget trends have led to more collaboration across university systems. These collaborations help members solve common problems, share resources, and develop and support innovative initiatives beyond what individual institutions could do alone. Historically, higher education institutions have fallen behind in ensuring accessibility for teaching and learning systems in general, and specifically for video. In the past several years, the University of Nebraska campuses have seen an increased need to meet accessibility requirements for video, particularly in online courses. In this session, members of ITS from each campus will present processes and outcomes that led to selecting ilos as the …

Closing Keynote. Navigating Change: It's A Whitewater Adventure, Marjorie J. Kostelnik

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Some people think of higher education as a sleepy backwater, where hardly anything changes too often. But for all of us living through it right now, higher education has become a whitewater adventure! Change is happening all around us in hundreds of different ways. Today, we’ll explore the who, why, how and what of change.

• Who is changing…who is promoting change…who has to live with the change

• Why are some people just better at change than others and what can you do to help your organization move forward?

• How can you manage change best … both as …

Extending The Conversation About Teaching With Technology, Marlina Davidson, Timi Barone, Dana Richter-Egger, Ryan Schuetzler, Jaci Lindburg

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Over the past two years, UNO has increased the number of online course selections by nearly 50 percent, offering seven fully online undergraduate programs, seven fully online graduate programs, and an assortment of online minors, certificates, and endorsements. The need to expand the conversation about teaching with technology and cultivating effective online teaching environments has never been more important, as UNO seeks to maintain our growth in online learning and retain our current students taking online courses. A strategy introduced in 2017 that has been extremely effective has been the Faculty Liaisons for Instructional Design Program, co-sponsored by the Office …

Your Learners, Their Devices & You: Incorporating Byod Technology Into Your Didactics, Tedd Welniak

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

It is theorized that mobile technology, in its place alongside other “intellectual technologies” throughout human history, has contributed to significant shifts in the way that newer generations discover, interpret, interact with, and learn new information. The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement in education has been touted as a means of actively and individually engaging these learners with content using technology that many of them may already own or are familiar with. The depth to which this movement has been applied in the medical and graduate medical education communities has been variable, partly owing to the fact that only recently …

Hidden Treasures: Lesser Known Secrets Of Canvas, Julie Gregg, Melissa Diers, Analisa Mcmillan

Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium

Join us as we explore some of the little-known Canvas secrets and tools that you can use to make your user experience more manageable in the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS). In this session, we will share tools, tips, and tricks that will help you take your Canvas skills to the next level. We did the research and want to share the tools and tricks we found that will help you m

Focused Video Reflections In Concert With Practice-Based Structures To Support Elementary Teacher Candidates In Learning To Teach Science, Julianne A. Wenner, Julie Kittleson

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recommendations for science education, including elementary education, highlight instructional practices such as using discussion to promote deep understandings of science. A task facing science teacher educators is to craft instruction to support teacher candidates (TCs) to develop skills that will encourage such practices in classrooms. In 2011, we developed and implemented a class activity —the Supported, Collaborative Teaching Model (SCTM)—to focus TCs’ attention on key aspects of science teaching. The SCTM, which is designed around the idea that practical experience is critically important to teacher education, involves having TCs teach science to elementary students in three different grade levels three …

Possibility And Play: Ludonarratology As Liberating Praxis, Morgan Read-Davidson

English Faculty Articles and Research

Studying and composing ergodic media like interactive fiction can be one way of liberating students from the constraints of linear textual composition, encouraging them to explore and experiment with multimodality and remediation. A pedagogy that incorporates narratology and ludology teaches awareness of the remediation of narrative into digital, ludic media, and creates opportunities for the transfer of nonlinear, interactive writing practices back into more conventional writing. This paper describes an example of this pedagogical approach in a Writing for Video Games course, and the preliminary steps toward understanding how such praxis might transfer to writing in new contexts.

Shared Landscapes, Contested Borders: Locating Disciplinarity In An Ma Program Revision, Whitney Douglas, Heidi Estrem, Kelly Myers, Dawn Shepherd

English Literature Faculty Publications and Presentations

It is not unusual to consider a discipline spatially as a "space defined or touched by a particular characteristic or force" (Wardle and Downs, this collection, emphasis added). This conceptualization makes visible the metaphor at play here: territories are demarcated and differentiated from neighboring environments by borders that can be more or less visible. In this chapter, we use our experience as faculty members invested in a substantive revision of an MA program revision to explore how that process of delineation opens up new questions about disciplinarity. We sought to create a generous curricular space within an MA degree, …

Strategy Group Differentiation: The Effect On Literacy Development Of Accuracy, Fluency, And Comprehension, Megan Deweese

Theses and Dissertations

The problem of practice described in this paper was identified from the varying reading levels of first-grade students and the difficulty faced by teachers to meet the literacy needs of individual students within a diverse classroom. The identified problem guided the researcher to the following research question: what effect does strategy group differentiation during literacy have on accuracy, fluency, and comprehension development? The purpose of the current study is to determine if strategy group differentiation influences the academic success of students in the literacy elements of accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. Through action research studies, teachers can study their own classrooms …

An Exploration Of Elementary Student Responses To The Interest Inventory For Informational Texts Based On The Teacher Disposition Delivery, Alison Elk

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The impact that a teacher can have on their students is monumental. Teachers often are the only consistent figure of authority that a student sees. Therefore, a vulnerable and conformable environment is crucial for students, so they can share their needs and in return have them met. With this in mind, teachers must consider forming their classroom environment, because of how it is received by the students. This study examined the impact that a teacher’s disposition can have on the response of a student through a six-question interview by analyzing the number of words spoken by the students depending on …