n o t e s&NEWS Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology
Volume 7, Issue 2 • October 2005
Celebrating Ten Years of Success at CTLT Director Dr. Dan Madigan to Leave CTLT
Dr. Dan Madigan, Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology since 1996, will be leaving his current position for a new position as Provost Associate in the Office of the Provost. The Provost’s Associate program is designed to provide tenure-system faculty members with administrative experience and to enhance faculty understanding of the operation of the Office of the Provost. Although Dr. Madigan will be involved in a variety of projects in his new job, his primary focus will be in the areas of curriculum reform, course assessment planning, and the integration of engagement activities into course design. Dr. Madigan’s experiences in faculty development and notably in the area of teaching and learning will complement other team members from the Office of the Provost. Dan will draw on his experiences to assist the Provost and his team in supporting an innovative learning environment for students, faculty and staff based on the BGSU Academic Plan. He will begin his new duties in January 2006. During Dr. Madigan’s tenure at the Center, he developed the current iteration of faculty learning communities in which 110 faculty are now participating in 10 learning communities. During the past four years, over 300 faculty have participated in faculty learning communities that were both topic based and cohort based. Every Friday, over 1800 faculty, graduate students and administrators read Dr. Madigan’s Teaching Tips, launched three years ago, across campus.
As Director of CTLT, he has also taken a primary leadership role in supporting the seamless integration of technology into the areas of teaching and learning. His office launched WebCT, BGSU’s first content management system, and supported faculty using it and its replacement Blackboard until just recently.
Under Dr. Dan Madigan’s leadership, CTLT grew from just a few hundred clients in 1996 to over 2,000 clients for each of the past several years. Most recently, Dr. Madigan has introduced threaded workshops in which participants are enrolled in a series of pedagogical workshops over the period of a semester. This kind of workshop environment allows a group of faculty a chance to share ideas over time, rather than for just one independent workshop. Under Dr. Madigan’s leadership, CTLT grew from just a few hundred clients in 1996 to over 2,000 clients for each of the past several years.
Integrated Course Design Workshop Series Introducing a New Workshop for Faculty Members
In most recent years, faculty have been introduced to a growing body of new literature (e.g., Bransford’s How People Learn, Zull’s The Art of Changing the Brain, Donovan and Bransford’s How People Learn in Science...) on student learning that has both complemented past work on how students learn, and has shed new light on how people learn. Emboldened with such knowledge, faculty at BGSU have begun to look for opportunities that are transforming they way they teach.
Dr. Madigan participates in a workshop with some of BGSU’s faculty members.
staf f MEMBER Jeff Wax is a doctoral student in Theatre that is new to CTLT this semester. In the ‘off-season’ he makes his home in Portland, Maine. At the center, Jeff ’s primary duties include: • Consulting BGSU faculty teaching pedagogy courses. • Work with the graduate student teaching community at large.
Armed with such knowledge, CTLT has launched a series of workshops called “Integrated Course Design.” This threaded workshop, (see more at www.bgsu.edu/ctlt) has drawn over 50 faculty since it was first launched in the fall of 2004. Facilitators Dan Madigan and Steve Langendorfer have designed this series of 1.5 hour workshops to support faculty who want to ...Continued on Page 2
jeff wax
201 University Hall • (419) 372-6898 • http://bgsu.edu/ctlt
...Continued from Page 1 improve the way they construct, implement, and assess dynamic learning outcomes in learning environments that engage, excite and motivate both students and teachers. In these workshops, the facilitators engage faculty in practical, serious discussions about the value of creating course-learning outcomes that are aligned with intellectual and innovative questions relevant to the lives of students as well as teachers. Participants in these workshops learn to employ strategies and ideas that are innovative, exciting, and practical. In these 5 workshops, the focus is on active learning strategies, issues of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, identifying learning outcomes, and frequent/formative assessment strategies. Faculty who have participated in this workshop series have overwhelmingly commented that the design and implementation of these workshops was effective in helping them transform the way they design their syllabi and courses to meet the learning needs of their students. For more information on participating in this series, please contact Kris Sautter at ksautte@bgsu.edu.
A group of faculty members and graduate students discuss classroom assessment techniques during a workshop.
CTLT Joins The Blogosphere
Attention Teaching Graduate Students
For information about blogs (what are they?), blogging in the classroom (uses and strategies) as well as periodic updates and events at the center, visit our blog at:
Along with the faculty at BGSU, you also are invited to attend our workshops, join our learning communities and utilize the creative development studio in order to improve your teaching. Individual consultations on specific topics regarding the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning are also available.
http://facultydevelopmentbgsu.blogspot.com/ If you have any additional ideas for classroom blogging uses in your subject area or department, send a summary to Carrie Rathsack (carrier@ bgsu.edu) at the Center and we’ll gladly share it on our blog.
Contact Kris Sautter (ksautte@bgsu.edu or 26898) or visit our web site for more information (www.bgsu.edu/ctlt).
workshop
Assessment Workshop Update
CTLT’s New Threaded Series Continues
We’re almost halfway through our threaded workshop series on Assessment. Portfolios/ ePortfolios were presented as a way to assess student learning and growth throughout a course and Milt Hakel demonstrated how BGSU’s electronic portfolio tool, Epsilen, could be utilized for instructional and professional purposes. In our second session, we focused on classroom assessment techniques (CATs) and how these usually brief, anonymous methods of gathering student feedback can help create a collaborative, purposeful and enriched learning experience for both the students and the instructor. Craig Mertler was on hand to discuss the “umbrella” of assessment options available to faculty - well beyond the standard TPPs (tests, papers, & presentations). For both traditional and alternative types of assessments, technology tools can assist faculty in the management, efficiency and effectiveness of the assessment. A matrix of the 50 CATs was shared, with a brief description and a list of technology tools that could be employed to gather student input both in and out of the classroom. As our series progresses into the shorter days of fall, we will continue to shed light on various assessment methods and techniques such as: concept mapping as an assessment tool, rubrics, and CRS (class response systems or “clickers”). For most sessions there are several seats remaining, so if you’re interested in attending, contact Kris (ksautte@bgsu.edu or 2-6898). This spring, we will again be offering the full Assessment Series of workshops, but in the meantime, watch for independent assessment workshops later this semester.
HIGHLIGHT Podcasting 101—An Introduction to Podcasting
Faculty Gadgets, Gizmos and Gotta-Haves
Digital Story—Using iPhoto, iMovie or PowerPoint
Wednesday, October 26
Wednesday, November 9
iPhoto: · Monday, November 21 11:00–11:45am iMovie: · Friday, October 21 10:00–10:45am PowerPoint:
3:00–3:45pm
Find out how podcasting can be utilized in your course to facilitate or enhance student learning. Basic topics such as what is podcasting, how to subscribe, classroom uses to achieve learning outcomes and an overview of what is needed to create your own podcast will be discussed.
3:00-3:30pm
Come learn about the latest technologies that can make your life as a faculty member/researcher/ service provider more efficient, secure, portable or even fun. Examples include: flash/jump drives, presentation devices, external storage & backup options, PDA tools, web cams, security devices, on-the-go tools, and more!
For the complete list of available workshops, visit our web site at www.bgsu.edu/ctlt.
· Thursday, October 27
11:00–11:45am
Learn to use a specific application (see above) to manage and organize your photos and/or videos to create and edit a digital story as a means for expressing course concepts and ideas. This workshop gives participants the tools to teach students how to use the digital story concept in order to present major ideas in class.
Published by The Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology