Commons

Faculty Development in the Age of Digital, Connected Learning

2019-07-31T15:19:00.002-07:00

“Untethering” at CSU Channel Islands Changes Campus Culture

Centers for teaching and learning are at the nexus of campus administration, faculty and students in transforming higher education. New models of faculty development are arising from renamed/repurposed “centers for innovation” as a result. In this 2016 opinion piece from EdSurge, the authors argue that it’s not enough for faculty to incorporate technology in their teaching, they need to incorporate technology in their work practices as well — no more printed agendas at meetings! The authors provide links to a variety of resources for learning more about “untethering” faculty development through the use of technology.

The Career Framework for University Teaching

2019-07-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

The SOU Faculty Senate recently commissioned a task force on student evaluations. Like many schools, SOU is grappling with the difficulty in relying on student evaluations as a proxy for teaching effectiveness, given that they are prone to bias for gender and race, among other problems. The UK Royal Academy of Engineering, commissioned this work to create a more valid framework for evaluating teaching achievement based on spheres of influence, promotion criteria and forms of evidence. Student evaluations are only one of many acceptable forms of evidence; more significant are self-assessment, professional activities, measures of student learning and peer evaluation. Direct link to the Teaching Framework.

How are students doing?

2019-07-31T15:08:00.001-07:00

Keeping with the theme of student evaluations, here is a quick and easy way to gauge the student

experience during a course. This is a lightweight option to reading open-ended responses to questions
like “What did you like this week?” or giving lengthy end-of-course questionnaires.

Here are five questions students could respond via a 5-point Likert scale:

I was challenged intellectually by the content and activities this week.
I had plenty of support from the professor, my classmates, and the course tools as I worked this week.
I am closer to mastering the ideas of the course now than I was at the beginning of the week.
I made progress in learning this week because of my own efforts and choices.
I felt I was part of a community of learners this week

The first two questions regarding challenge and support can be mapped on to the 2x2 matrix in the graphic to get a sense of who might need an intervention. The final three regards intrinsic motivation as described by self-determination theory. Read the details here