communicating for

LEARNERS 2010

featured in this issueDid You Know?RLE Hot 5Join a Learning Community Visionary Status

SUMMER

Recognizing Learning ExcellenceWorkshopsClarification

On May 6, 2010, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and the Student Achievement Assessment Committee (SAAC) held a “Recognizing Learning Excellence” dinner. The Center’s director, Bonnie Fink, and SAAC chair, Susan Kleine, joined forces to celebrate the accomplishments of faculty and staff members who worked to enhance teaching and learning and student success at BGSU.

Among the more than seventy attendees were members of the Center’s nine learning communities, SAAC committee members, and this year’s SAAC award nominees, who were recognized for promoting student success through program assessment. Center learning communities presented posters detailing accomplishments for the year. The Center’s nine learning communities include:

• Cultivating STEM Student Motivation, Engagement, and Learning

• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning• Social Learning (Firelands)• Service Learning• Pedagogy and Scholarship in Second Life• Applying Learner-Centered Teaching Practices• Library e-Tools for Teaching, Learning, and Research • Integrating Publication and Undergraduate Learning• Active Learning and the Transition to Digital

Learning community facilitators presented a variety of accomplishments ranging from peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations, to the development of new courses, to establishing partnerships with community organizations.

Twenty-four programs were nominated for this year’s SAAC awards for promoting student success. Criteria for the awards include the extent to which the program used direct assessments of student learning tied to their program learning outcomes, the clarity of the reporting and analysis of those assessments, and the extent to which they used the results to improve their programs.

The 2010 winners were:

• Asian Studies • The Counseling Center • Early Childhood Education• Graduate Programs in Sociology • Health Information Management Technology• Interior Design • Physical Education Teacher Education• Respiratory Care • Romance and Classical Studies: French and Spanish • School of Art• Visual Communication Technology

Watch highlights of the celebration at http://www.bgsu.edu/ctl/page30860.html

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5Web Crawlerwebcrawler.comthe Web’s Top Search Engines Spun Together

1New Horizons for Learningeducation.jhu.edu/newhorizons

web resource for educational change that identifies, communicates, and helps implement successful educational strategies

4Celebration of Teaching & Learningthirteencelebration.org

professional development conference that brings together more than 8,500 educators to share their passion for teaching and learning

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Classroom 2.0classroom20.coma social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and social media in education. Offers resources and groups to build a community for “digital dialogue”

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Theory Into Practice Databasetip.psychology.orgthis database contains brief summaries of 50 major theories of learning and instruction

HOT 5 (click the link to visit)

Coming Soon: to the Center for Teaching and LearningEach year, the Center sponsors a number of Learning Communities that are organized around a particular issue having to do with teaching and learning. Joining a Learning Community is a great professional development opportunity that will allow you to study a topic in depth and network with colleagues from all over the university who share your interests.

Those interested in joining a learning community in the fall will have these to choose from: “Interdisciplinary Peer Review and Assessment of Writing,” “Making Great Teachers,” “Pedagogy and Scholarship Using Virtual, Online and Mediated Environments,” “High Impact Practices” (Firelands), “Internationalizing the Curriculum,” “Service Learning,” “Applying Learner-Centered Teaching

ClarificationIn our last newsletter, we published an article by an international graduate student who wanted to raise awareness about the cultural nature of the idea of plagiarism. She noted that in many cultures, intellectual property is not viewed in the same way that it is in the United States and Western Europe. Student writers from many cultures are encouraged to quote extensively from sources in order to demonstrate their knowledge; adding their own, original content is considered much less important than it is in many western countries.

This article generated some controversy, because some readers felt we were asserting that international students should be allowed to continue to write in a manner appropriate to their own cultures rather than adapting the standards of an American university. That was not the writer’s intention nor, of course, the intention of the Center

for Teaching and Learning.

Practices for Curricular and Co-Curricular Learning,” “Active Learning and the Transition to Digital,” and “Improving Student Learning with STEM Education.”

Beginning on July 1 the application for the 2010-2011 communities will be posted on our website at http://bgsu.edu/ctl along with information on who should apply and the applications themselves. The deadline for applying to join a learning community is Friday, August 13.

This is your chance to be a part of a community of scholars as they work together to enhance teaching and learning at BGSU. Don’t miss out.

If you have questions, call Karen Meyers at 2-7874 or email at meyersk@bgsu.edu.

The idea was to remind instructors of the differences in cultural expectations and to point out that international graduate students may not necessarily have the same understanding of plagiarism as natives and may need more help and coaching to appreciate proper citation and the importance of original work and ideas.

Fortunately, there is a wonderful resource that instructors can use in this coaching process. BGSU Librarians have created a lib guide that clearly outlines the university’s expectations for academic integrity and provides many excellent examples of what to do and what not to do. Students will find this research guide to be engaging, easy to use, and thorough. Faculty can incorporate the guide into classroom activities or allow students to complete it on their own.

It can be accessed at http://libguides.bgsu.edu/bgsu1000academicintegrity

Did You KnowMore and more colleges and universities are using electronic portfolios to help with student learning and retention, as well as for purposes of assessment. LaGuardia Community College in New York City has been a pioneer in the effort to use this powerful tool. While LaGuardia’s situation is somewhat unique (70% of their students are foreign born), the data they have collected on electronic portfolios is impressive. They have demonstrated that the use of electronic portfolios has a positive impact on retention and on student grades. They also found another benefit: many of their students use the portfolios to connect with relatives back home. Since the portfolios are posted to the Internet, students can allow anyone anywhere in the world to see their accomplishments. LaGuardia also has ample evidence that creating an electronic portfolio helps students learn a great deal about themselves. As one student says, “My experience with e-portfolio at LaGuardia has made me see more of who I want to be and how I can accomplish my goals.”

The New Century College at George Mason University uses electronic portfolios for program assessment. Groups of faculty and others review the electronic portfolios of graduating seniors and frequently make program changes as a result of information they gather from the review process. Darren Cambridge, who teaches in the New Century College and who has written extensively on the uses of e-portfolios, believes that e-portfolio is a new communication genre, a new way of conveying information about the self and about learning, as well as an important tool for program assessment.

Part of the Connecting the Undergraduate Experience (CUE) process at BGSU will involve an increased emphasis on electronic portfolios. In order to take advantage of this tool, educators must, in some cases, rethink their course structure and assignments. Assignments that clearly demonstrate student learning—such as projects, presentations, and case studies—are the key to building powerful portfolios.

Student reflection on learning is also a crucial part of the portfolio process and must be built into assignments. There is a sense in which students do not actually learn until they make an explicit connection between what they’ve done and read and what they know as a result. To the extent that electronic portfolios encourage reflection, they enhance student learning.

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visionarySTATUS

The purpose of our Visionary Status column is to introduce our readers to the pedagogical research and practice of outstanding faculty around the world. This time our visionary is BGSU Professor of Media and Communication, Dr. Oliver Boyd-Barrett, who has had the unique experience of working at Britain’s Open University.

According to Boyd-Barrett, the Open University is the largest distance education unit in the UK. It was opened in 1960 and modeled on Indira Gandhi’s university in India. The workflow of the university is unique in terms of the engagement of faculty members in the development of courses. As Boyd-Barrett says, it normally took more than three years to create a complete course. Faculty members drawn from other universities formed the production and presentation team. One of the greatest things about such collaborative work, Boyd-Barrett says, is the possibility of bringing in experts from business and industry who can offer an original perspective on the subject matter of the course.

When asked if he sees any constraints in distance education, Boyd-Barrett answers that he does not: “Everything that is possible in traditional universities is possible online and even more, including simulations, group discussion, group project work and so on.” The only constraints he sees are negative attitudes towards distance education and the lack of adequate financial resources: “If educational institutions invest less-than-adequate resources in online education, that, of course, is likely to be damaging to quality and perceptions of quality. The remarkable feature of the British Open University and some of the other open universities that have been modeled on it is that it has attracted very generous resourcing from government, at least in the initial years and that it has been acknowledged that any form of quality higher education, traditional or distance, requires substantial resources.” Moreover, Boyd-Barrett adds, “distance and online education have worked best in the past when developed within the context of purpose-built institutions focused only on that model of teaching and learning.”

One thing Boyd-Barrett brought from his experience at the Open University to his classes at BGSU is the method he uses to engage students with the course work. While teaching, he appeals to students’ personal experiences and discusses their opinions on the structure of the course.

If you would like to find out more information about the Open University or talk with Dr. Boyd-Barrett about his teaching techniques, you are welcome to contact him at oboydb@bgsu.edu

Oliver Boyd-Barretteducator, speaker, author

visionary

Discussions and Workshops

Evaluating Student Learning Using Assessment Rubrics Facilitator: Steve Langendorfer

Friday, June 25, 9:00am-10:00amTuesday, July 13, 9:00am-10:00amWednesday, August 4, 2:00pm-3:00pm

Assessment

Active Learning and Problem-based Learning Strategies Facilitator: Bonnie FinkWednesday, July 14, 3:00pm-4:00pm

Friday, July 30, 9:00am-10:00am

Effective Public Speaking in Academic Settings Facilitator: Anastasia Alexandrova

Wednesday, June 30, 1:30pm-3:00pm Tuesday, August 10, 10:30am-12:00pm

Designing a Learner-centered Syllabus Facilitator: Bonnie Fink

Thursday, July 22, 2:30pm-3:30pmThursday, August 5, 10:00am-11:00amMonday, August 9, 11:00am-12:00pm

Integrating Your Courses with BGSU Learning Outcomes & Core Values Facilitator: Bonnie Fink

Wednesday, June 30, 9:00am-10:00amMonday, July 26, 3:30pm-4:30pm

The Ethics of Teaching Facilitator: Karen Meyers

Tuesday, July 20, 9:30am-11:00am

Strategies for Teaching and LearningSocratic Circles Facilitator: Karen Meyers

Thursday, June 24, 2:30pm-3:30pm

Pragmatic Practices for Teaching Assistants Facilitator: Anastasia Alexandrova

Monday, June 28, 11:00am-12:00pm

Deep Learning: Can You Make It Happen? Facilitator: Karen Meyers

Wednesday, July 7, 9:30am-10:30amFriday, July 23, 9:00am-10:00am

Foster Significant Learning using Integrated Course Design Facilitator: Steve Langendorfer

Thursday, June 24, 1:00pm-2:00pmMonday, July 12, 1:00pm-2:00pm

CLA in the Classroom: Developing Critical Thinking and Analytic Writing Skill Using Performance Tasks Facilitator: Steven Langendorfer

Tuesday, June 29, 9:00am-10:00amFriday, July 16, 9:00am-10:00am

Championship Teaching: Lessons From Lemov Facilitator: Karen Meyers

Thursday, July 15, 2:00pm-3:00pm

Technology to Support Student LearningUsing Audacity and Podcasting to Extend the Classroom Facilitator(s): Kristen Morman & Sami Stephenson

Wednesday, July 14, 9:00am-10:15am

Using e-Portfolios to Foster Intentional Learning Facilitator: Karen Meyers

Wednesday, July 21, 9:00am-10:00am

This newsletter is a publication of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Visit us online at www.bgsu.edu/ctl/ or in 201 University Hall. 4

For more information on our workshops or to register, contact the Center at: ctl@bgsu.edu, 419.372.6898, or www.bgsu.edu/ctl/page11755.html

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