Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Online Classroom Culture Best Practices, Lisa Martino

Publications

Overcome challenges - create an online classroom culture.

In 2013, over five million post-secondary students enrolled in online courses in America (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). Many universities strive to meet student demands for this online course modality. Challenges for online students continue to exist with (1) social isolation; (2) coursework confusion; and (3) lack of teacher presence (Milheim, 2012). Studies show that by creating an online classroom culture, faculty can overcome these challenges to foster and motivate online student engagement (Ladyshewsky, 2013; Milheim, 2014; Vesely, Bloom, Sherlock, 2007). In this conference presentation, the participants surveyed online classroom culture …

The Challenges Of Promoting Instructional Improvement: Teaching Behaviors And Teaching Cultures At Liberal Arts Institutions In The Associated Colleges Of The South, Kent Andersen, Barbara Lom, Betsy A. Sandlin

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

One goal of faculty development is to improve instructional practice (McKee, Johnson, Ritchie, and Tew, 2013; Ouellett 2010; Sorcinelli, Austin, Eddy, and Beach, 2006). This goal accords with the design of the Associated Colleges of the South Teaching and Learning Workshop, a faculty development workshop begun in 1992 for 16 residential, liberal arts institutions that comprise the ACS consortium. We surveyed ACS faculty members and observed that they are most likely to engage independently rather than collaboratively to improve their instructional practice, despite stated desires for collaborative opportunities for such work. We recommend that faculty development programs and institutions promote …

Designing An Evaluation Of Instructional Consultation In A Higher Education Context, Karen Elizabeth Brinkley Etzkorn, David Schumann, Beth White, Tiffany Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Individual instructor consultation is a common service provided by centers focused on educational development in higher education. The importance of this service has been reflected in its history, increasing demand, and strong anecdotal evidence to its effectiveness. However, the extant literature reveals that comprehensive assessment of consultation effectiveness has proved challenging. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to (a) provide an overview of consultation and summarize the relevant work evaluating this service, and (b) propose a comprehensive process for evaluating consultation services that was piloted at one large research intense university. The goal is to provide a systematic method …

Connect, Change, And Conserve: Building A Virtual Center For Teaching Excellence, Anne M. Schoening, Sarah Oliver

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In an era of limited fiscal and human resources, educational developers are seeking innovative ways to connect with their constituents. Developing a “virtual” center for teaching and learning (CTL) is one approach to consolidating development resources and reaching busy full time and adjunct faculty. This article will describe the process used to create and sustain a Virtual Center for Teaching Excellence (vCTE) at a diverse, mid sized university campus. This process required connection between departmental faculty developers and stakeholders, change of the campus mindset, and conservation of resources through shared efforts. Challenges faced and recommendations to overcome those challenges will …

Institutionalizing Faculty Mentoring Within A Community Of Practice Model, Emily R. Smith, Patricia E. Calderwood, Stephanie Burrell Storms, Paula Gill Lopez, Ryan P. Colwell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In higher education, faculty work is typically enacted—and rewarded—on an individual basis. Efforts to promote collaboration run counter to the individual and competitive reward systems that characterize higher education. Mentoring initiatives that promote faculty collaboration and support also defy the structural and cultural norms of higher education. Collaborative mentoring initiatives, however, support all faculty to be lifelong learners. We analyze a reciprocal model of mentoring—a community of practice for mentoring—that integrates collaborative mentoring into faculty’s daily work. Additionally, we examine the dilemmas, benefits, and costs of institutionalizing a community of practice model for mentoring in higher education. Our analyses indicate …

Don’T Box Me In: Rubrics For Ártists And Designers, Natasha Haugnes, Jennifer L. Russell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Two faculty developers at a professional art and design university were met with uneasy faculty attitudes toward grading when they opened their CTL 13 years ago. Conversations revealed that the faculty artists and designers suspected that grading would somehow shatter the fragile muse of creativity, which is so central to the processes of producing art and design. The developers’ quest for transparent, consistent grading, and assessment practices resulted in an approach to rubric creation that taps into artists’ reverence for the critique. This narrative account reveals how the approach allowed an interactive introduction of rubrics as teaching tools, ensured their …

The Use Of Song To Open An Educational Development Workshop: Exploratory Analysis And Reflections, Lawrence Lesser, Song An, Daniel Tillman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Song has been used by faculty of many disciplines in their classrooms and, to a lesser extent, by educational developers in workshops. This paper shares and discusses a new song (about an instructor’s evolving openness to alternatives to lecture only teaching) and its novel use to open an educational development workshop. Self reported participant data from an exploratory survey suggest that the song was most effective in reducing stress as well as in increasing motivation, morale, engagement, and connection. Practical implications and implementation considerations are discussed regarding the song as well as related creative work.

Subjectivities In The Sandbox: Discovering Biases Through Visual Memo Writing, Bethany Lisi

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Having insider status at an organization under study can present a researcher with benefits and challenges. Insider researchers may have access to honest dialogue with study participants but may also be vulnerable to uncomfortable conversations and organizational conflicts. Insider researchers also have to contend with their own biases they bring to a study. By using the reflexive practice of memo writing, insider researchers can be mindful of their own subjectivities during data collection and analysis. The purpose of this article is to share one approach to memo writing that incorporates visuals into the analysis and reflection. Through my use of …

A Faculty Wellness Workshop Series: Leveraging On Campus Expertise, Thomas M. Brinthaupt, Arielle Neal, Sheila Otto

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTL) that suffer from funding and staffing issues must rely on outside resources to enhance their effectiveness. Even if funds and staff are adequate, most CTL can improve their reach and effectiveness by the partnerships they establish across their campuses. In this article, we describe a faculty wellness workshop series that illustrates the strategic leveraging we have been able to accomplish on our campus. The series included free standing faculty workshops devoted to stress management (partnering with Counseling Services), work life balance and workplace civility (with members of our faculty learning communities), voice coaching (with …

Improv(Ing) The Academy: Applied Improvisation As A Strategy For Educational Development, Jonathan P. Rossing, Krista Hoffmann Longtin

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Improvisational theater training (or “improv”) is a strategy employed by many business leaders and educators to cultivate creativity and collaboration amid change. Drawing on improv principles such as “Yes, And…” and “Make your scene partners look good,” we explore the ways in which educational developers might apply principles of improv in 3 contexts: teaching and building classroom community, organizational development, and research collaboration. Faculty developers who successfully engage the principles of improv have the potential to help colleges and universities respond more effectively to complex problems and to manage the uncertainty of the future. By highlighting successful applications of improvisation …

Beyond Survival: Educational Development And The Maturing Of The Pod Network, Leslie Ortquist Ahrens

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Scholarship about the growth of educational development has charted major shifts in developers’ focuses and roles through time and, especially in recent years, has explored the professionalization of the field around the globe. This essay uses a lifecycle analogy to consider the development of one organization, the POD Network (The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education). After a brief and heady “start up phase,” and a long organizational “adolescence,” characterized by growth and by increasing formalization of processes, governance, and strategy, the POD Network is on the brink of entering a phase of greater maturity.

Toward A New Creative Scholarship Of Educational Development: The Teaching And Learning Project And An Opening To Discourse, Martin Springborg, Cassandra V. Horii

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This invited essay of To Improve the Academy’s special feature on Creative Scholarship presents one example of creative scholarship in educational development as a forward to other forms and approaches in the special feature. This example, the Teaching and Learning Project, merges documentary and art photography traditions with faculty consultation. Following a review of the literatures of visual interpretation and instructional consultation, along with their intersection, the essay presents the Teaching and Learning Project in three ways: (a) as images, analyzed using the disciplinary grounding of the visual arts; (b) as a consultation methodology and an educational development practice; and …