EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR 2008-09 FACULTY DEVELOPMENT EVENTS (Workshops, Webinars, Showcases)
The center’s steady growth this year with regard to faculty participation and stature is admirable, especially considering both the state- and university-wide anxiety about the budget crisis and its possible affect on employment. Because of budget concerns, the center had to hold back on many plans and practices (most involving faculty travel to conferences, showcase speakers from out of state, and production of promotional materials). Despite these reductions, the center held steady with its attendance records and even grew in some areas.
Between 250-275 faculty members attended events in the LT&ITC in 2008-09 (including summer webinars); in addition, 20 graduate students participated in workshops (note that about 15 % of this total group attended more than 1 event throughout the year).
In 2007-08, the center recorded faculty participants from 36 academic departments on campus; this year, that number has risen to nearly 50 , which includes rising numbers in academic support and off campus departments. DEPARTMENTS WITH MOST FACULTY ATTENDING LT&ITC EVENTS
Socio/Anthro – 7
Mgmt/Mktg/Bus – 17
Education – 15
Psychology – 13
Math – 9
Foreign Lang – 9
Human Sciences – 10
History – 12
English – 16
Speech/Theat – 9
Other interesting facts about event attendance concern the distribution of registrations between Learning-L listserv subscribers (which the center regards as faculty committed to teaching & learning issues) and non-subscribing faculty. When comparing workshop registration lists against the Learning-L subscriber list, we found that over half registering/attending were not subscribers (and would have therefore received delayed announcements of events). There are a few good reasons explaining this phenomenon, the primary one being that faculty are cautious about signing up for email lists (though we take care not to email our subscribers excessively). Another is weak publicity -- our listserv should probably be promoted annually to all faculty through email and The Record.
LT&ITC events are well promoted with flyers, targeted group appeals (email & interoffice), general email announcements, web site postings, listings in Sourcelink (our newsletter), and in the campus paper,The Record. In an attempt to improve range/convenience of registration options, we built an events calendar on our web site where faculty could browse and register for events, as well as download presentation materials. Whether this had an impact on attendance, it’s too early to tell. But the “calendar of events with registration features” provided a convenient place to post presentation materials for faculty downloading.
FALL 2008 The center offered 10 events in the fall semester and each one was well attended and, compared with last year, more highly rated (on a scale of 1-5, 5 the highest, the average rating was 4.72 compared with last year’s average of 3.4!). •
153 + faculty members (and 37 off-campus teachers) attended fall events in the center, including workshops, showcases, and webinars
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Per event, LT&ITC workshops (First Tuesdays & Teaching Excellence) registered on average 18 faculty members; showcases typically register 30+ faculty because they are jointly sponsored, thus serving diverse academic communities, or because they feature nationally known figures. Webinars averaged 9 faculty members per event.
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Compared with last year, workshops remained steady (the budget crisis caused much re-priortization): showcases grew because of multiple sponsorships; webinar attendance doubled due to improved promotion, better topics, improved presentation formats. First Tuesday Series on New Environments for Learning These workshops dealt with alternative learning strategies and environments.
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Adventures in Pedagogy—Report from the Teaching Professor Conference. Presenters: Lynn Hampton (Sociology), Nate Callender (Aerospace), Joon Soo Lim (Journalism) 14 faculty attended from 7 depts , avg rating, 4
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Hybrid Course Design. Presenters: Karen Ward (Nursing) & Barbara Draude (ITD) 13 faculty from 8 depts, avg rating 4.9
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Using E-Games in Your Curriculum. Panel: Jackie Gilbert (Mgmt & Mktg), Scott Seipel (Computer Info), Don Roy(Mgmt/Mktg), Carolyn Hopper (English), Barbara Draude(LT&ITC) 15 faculty from 8 depts, avg rating 5 Teaching Excellence Series
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Classroom Assessment Techniques. Presenter Robin Blackman (CIS) 17 faculty from 7 depts, avg rating 4.9
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Course Design. Presenter Becky Alexander (Elementary & Special Ed) 13 faculty from 6 depts, avg rating 4.8
Webinars & Webcasts The Educause and D2L webinars are becoming increasingly popular with faculty, with registration climbing from a handful (last year) up to 10-15 attendees per event this year. (Webinars are primarily audio sessions, but most now include simultaneous powerpoint
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slide presentations.) Still a new event for the center, we have not begun consistently tracking feedback and attendance (sign-in’s & feedback forms), but we do monitor and plan to implement tracking this coming year. •
Teaching Visual Learners. Presenter: Susan Metros (USC)—Educause
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Innovative Course Design in Popular Music. Presenters: Steve Rossini and Ben Smith (Hibbing CC)—D2L
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How to Merge YouTube with D2L. Presenter: Marsha Beal (Andrews U)—D2L Special Events/Showcases
These events are jointly sponsored and managed. ShareFair, an all-day event in which faculty come whenever they can, browse exhibits, and then go, drew about 25 people, both to the exhibit and award ceremony. The showcase, which drew 42 people from campus faculty and off-campus educators, was very successful and held in the Faculty Senate. •
ShareFair: A Showcase of Innovative Teaching Methods at MTSU. This year 12 faculty members from 9 disciplines created exhibits for ShareFair. Five faculty members were nominated (by their colleagues, chairs or deans) for the 2009 Award for Innovative Teaching: Randy Livingston (Journalism); Daniel Prather (Aerospace); Maria Clayton (English); Martha Waller (Physics and Astronomy) and Amy York (Walker Library. 2009 Award Recipient: Maria Clayton
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Developing Community Partnerships to Achieve Service Learning Outcomes. Presenter: Robert Kronick (UTK). Jointly sponsored with the Office of Democratic Studies.
SPRING 2009 The center offered 5 workshops, 1 showcase, and about 15 webinars from Feb through June 2009. Eighty-three faculty attended the workshops which, on average, received a 4.9 rating on a 1-5 scale. The First Tuesday Series on Information Literacy was one of our best series to date, a result of harmonious collaboration among the 3 presenters. Twenty-one faculty gave all three workshops an average of a 5 rating. (Attendance was not what we hoped for the spring events, again attributable to an atmosphere of crisis due to budget and personnel issues. Rest assured that the spring workshops were all of high quality--expertly presented, amply promoted and well-received.) First Tuesday Series on Information Literacyy Walker Library faculty Jason Vance, Kristen West, and Mary Ellen Pozzebon designed and presented the 3 workshops in this series. •
Beyond the Research Paper: Developing Alternative Assignments to Teach Library Research. 15 attending, 7 depts, 5 rating.
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When Wikipedia Fails: Teaching Students to Evaluate Information. 22 attending, 7 depts, 5 rating.
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Copy and Paste Plagiarism: Promoting the Ethical Use of Information Among Undergraduate Students. 12 attending, 6 depts, 4.9 rating.
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Teaching Excellence Series •
Enjoying Teaching. Presenter Cliff Ricketts (Agribus & Agriscience) 10 attending, 7 depts, 4.8 rating.
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10 Ways to Improve Blended Learning Course Design. Facilitator: Barbara Draude. (The center piloted a new type of workshop—facilitated—in which the presenter uses published materials selected and derived from another academic source.) 24 attending, 9 depts, 4.8 rating.
Partnerships
Showcases/Special Events •
Recognizing and Lessening Systems of Privilege with regard to Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. Jointly sponsored with the June Anderson Women’s Center, Women’s Studies Program, American Association of University Women, and Holocaust Studies Committee, this workshop on multicultural teaching issues, featuring Peggy McIntosh (Wellesley) , attracted around 50 faculty members campus wide.
Educause and D2L Webinars & Webcasts In addition to the sessions below, the center hosted 15 more webinars from April through June. Barbara Draude hosted the Educause events; Brenda Kerr, D2L. Both webinars are gaining in popularity indicating that teachers are looking more and more to technologies for instructional purposes. The most popular D2L webinars are those that promise coverage of a practical skill—using the quiz feature, overall beginner strategies, and building e-portfolios in the D2L environment. Educause • Creating Media as Learning—Digital Media Based Assessment. Presenter: Louise Thorpe (Sheffield University) •
Student Generated Content for Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, & YouTube. Presenter: Julie Higdon (USC)
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The Role of Play in Learning with Technology. Presenters: Barbara Draude (MTSU), Gail DeNatale (Simmons College)
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Making the Most of the Quiz Feature. Presenter: Ruth Kinder (OSU) Easy Steps for Expanding D2L with Web 2.0 Tools: J. Falkofske (St. Cloud U) How to Get the Most Out of Your D2L Learning Repository. Presenter: Y. Monterosso (D2L)
D2L
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES The center continues to sponsor the travel of faculty to professional development conferences. In return, faculty support the center and its mission by contributing to workshops, center initiatives, and programs, and by sharing knowledge with colleagues. The center also creates opportunities for faculty by forming on-campus partnerships that improve the range and variety of opportunities for faculty.
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OCTOBER 2008 – JUNE 2009
Professional Development Conferences
Randy Livingston (Journalism) attended the Professional Organizational Development (POD) conference in Las Vegas, October 2008. Randy is a regular contributor to SourceLink and often nominated for the Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
Mary Phillips (Accounting) attended the Southern Regional Faculty Instructional Development Consortium (SRFIDC) in Lexington, March 2009. Mary will share what she’s learned at the First Tuesday workshop in fall 2009.
Michelle Bobbitt (Mgmt & Mktg) attended the Teaching Professor’s Conference in Washington D.C., June 2009.
Maria Clayton attended the International Conference on College Teaching & Learning (ISSOTL) as the recipient of the 2009 Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, & Technology. The College of Basic & Applied Sciences agreed to sponsor the award. Maria is a steadfast supporter of the center and contributes regularly to its operation.
Partnerships and Special Initiatives
From the start, the center has been committed to faculty mentoring, and its Faculty Mentoring Program, managed by Tim Graeff (Mgmt & Mktg), has been effective at MTSU. This year, the Faculty Mentoring Program evolved to meet the changing needs of faculty, particularly in light of new challenges posed by the revised instrument for teaching evaluation. The new Academy for Teaching Excellence, with Tim Graeff as its director, is now a two-semester program whose mission will be on par with other university peer evaluation programs. Unlike the mentoring program, the academy will require its mentees to produce a SoTL research project suitable for publication. In inaugurating the academy, the center funded the travel of Mary Phillips and Michelle Bobbitt, the academy’s first mentees, to professional development conferences. In the fall, they will share the fruits of their labor with colleagues by presenting information at our initial First Tuesday workshop.
The center partnered with the June Anderson Women’s Center, Women’s Studies department, the Office of Democratic Studies, and Holocaust Center to support the Peggy McIntosh workshops on diversity.
The center has agreed to help bring Susan Griffin to MTSU, in partnership with the Office of Democratic Studies. Dr. Griffin is a nationally recognized scholar and “eco-feminist,” who has won numerous awards for her creative and academic work. Her latest book “Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen,” was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Griffin’s presentation will help faculty members enrich their courses by incorporating relevant themes into the curriculum.
This spring, the center worked with Ann Funkhouser, Walker Library, to provide resources for faculty attending a collegewide session on promotion and tenure.
Our partnership with the Office of Democratic Studies produced a well-attended workshop led by Dr. Bob Kronick, founder of the Institute for Civic Engagement at UTK. Teachers from the local area joined MTSU faculty for this workshop.
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Working with the College of Basic & Applied Sciences, the center was able to fund the travel for the recipient of the 2009 Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning, & Technology.
The new Faculty Learning Community for Civic Engagement (FLC/CE) is now focusing on its fall agenda. This FLC grew out of one of our first workshops led by Dr. Milton Fox, nationally recognized as a expert on this kind of scholarly collaboration.. This FLC /CE) will be facilitated by Drs. Ron Kates (English) and Jim Williams (Office of Democratic Studies). Other members include Mary Evins (History); Jason Reineke (Journalism); Michelle Boyer-Pennington (Psychology); Tony Johnston (Agribus & Agriscience);Hillary Stallings (Dean, Liberal Arts); Kim Sadler (Biology); Maria Edlin (Economics); Kaylene Gebert.
Graduate Assistants/TA’s The center employs Graduate Assistants to help fulfill its mission to professional development. The students support the center by helping with events, special projects, and faculty relations. Some of the projects handled by the GAs –
Conducted literature surveys and reports for faculty members associated with the center (provided information on peer review programs to Tim Graeff; literature references on block scheduling to John Sanborn, etc).
Organized both the course module library and the lending library.
Assisted with the revamping of the center’s web site.
Analyzed participation in center’s events by comparing attendance rates of learning-l subscribers to non-subscribing faculty.
LT&ITC Advisory Board The advisory board convened in October 2008 with three new members-
Dr. Arthur Ford, Psychology Department
Dr. Dorothy V Craig, Educational Leadership Department
Dr. Randy Livingston, Journalism
Agenda topics included ways to sustain the center’s programs in the midst of budget cut. For example, the board advised the center to (1) diligently track the outcomes/effects of its offerings so that a convincing argument can be made about the center’s value and (2) build more on-campus partnerships so as to pool resources, and (3) consider offering “faculty development grants” (replacing the lost faculty fellowship positions) that would have more faculty working on important teaching and learning issues for MTSU. The center has moved on items 2 & 3 and plans to implement item 1 this coming year.
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Communication and Resources The center improved its web site and developed new resources for MTSU faculty—
LT&ITC Web Site: The center revamped its website to add more teaching resources for faculty use.
LT&ITC NetVibes: The center is piloting this ancillary site as a complement to the web site. A data mashup, it contains feeds to academic news sources and links to other useful & innovative academic sites on the internet.
LT&ITC Delicious Bookmarks: The center now offers its online selection of documents, tips, tools, and resources to share with both the MTSU community and other higher education communities all over the country.
Sourcelink: Published two issues of our newsletter—fall 2008 and spring 2009. For the spring issue, we transitioned to an online-only version for budgetary reasons.
LT&ITC Library Collection: The LT&ITC library collection can now be accessed on line by means of a web-based cataloguing service called Library Thing. Faculty can now check our books, media, presentations, periodicals, and handouts collections and request them online.
Learning-L: Our learning-l membership continues to grow as evidenced by our listserv, which now contains nearly 200 subscribers university wide. The center regularly sends subscribers news about: o
workshops and events
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innovative teaching tools , tips, and resources, teaching tips
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publishing and grant opportunities
DIRECTORS’ ACTIVITIES Despite challenging demands posed by the severe economic crisis of the country, the state of Tennessee, and the university, the directors persevered in enacting a plethora of activities and events, albeit in budget-conscious fashion. Both directors met with faculty and administrators throughout the year, developing partnerships, seeking collaborations, and renewing commitments so that MTSU faculty would not lose the opportunities, workshops and events, and professional development expertise required to sustain teaching and learning excellence in the university.
Faye Johnson was heavily involved in the university’s budget crisis, but, still, she networked with faculty leaders to ferret out opportunities for the center.
The workshop on community-based learning (Dr. Bob Kronick, UTK) became a showcase event for the center because of Faye’s collaboration with the Office of Democratic Studies. Over 100 teachers, many from a range of departments on campus and others from local schools, attended this event.
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By collaborating with the June Anderson Women’s Center and the Women’s Studies Department, Faye participated in a multi-sponsored effort to bring a prestigious academic--Dr. Peggy McIntosh--to MTSU and, by doing so, ensured that the center would have another showcase event.
Faye has also used her savvy to nourish much-needed, existing programs even if it meant temporarily cutting back and operating on a much smaller-than-envisioned scale. For example, The Academy for Teaching Excellence, directed by Tim Graeff, preserves the center’s commitment to faculty mentoring. It is hoped that the academy will grow into a larger scale peer evaluation program, which is now standard in higher education.
Barbara Draude has also used her partnerships on behalf of the center. For example, ShareFair and the Award for Innovative Teaching are huge undertakings which require support in the way of partial funding from partners on campus. Barbara also uses her networking prowess to acquire good workshop speakers. This year, all speakers received high ratings —on a scale of 1-5, speakers were rated with high 4s and 5s.
Barbara’s presentations and publications on teaching and learning research on the post-secondary level bring credibility to both MTSU and the center. Below is a list of many research projects Barbara has been involved with this past year:
Educause Southeast Regional Conference June 2009; General Session Panel Discussion: Community Dialogue: Best Practices, Emerging Trends, and Views of the Future Audience Response Technology provided by Turning Technologies; Barbara Draude, Assistant Vice President for Academic and Instructional Technologies, Middle Tennessee State University; William F. Hogue, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO, University of South Carolina; Kathryn F. Gates, Chief Information Officer, University of Mississippi; Session moderator: Thomas L. Maier, Vice Chancellor for Information and Instructional Technology/CIO, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. (Presentation)
Educause Learning Initiative Webinar, May 2009; The Role of Play in Learning with Technology; Barbara Draude, Assistant Vice President for Academic and Instructional Technologies, Middle Tennessee State University and Gail MatthewsDeNatale, Associate Director, Academic Technology, Simmons College. (Presentation)
Draude, Barbara and Ward, Karen; Hybrid Course Design for the Best of Both Worlds, Middle Tennessee State University Instructional Technology Conference, March 2009. (Presentation)
Behind the Curtain: The Making and Execution of the ELI Annual Meeting Alternate Reality Game; Webinar, February 2009. (Presentation)
Educause Learning Initiative January 2009 Annual Meeting; PreConference: The Role of Play in Learning with Technology; Barbara Draude, Assistant Vice President for Academic and Instructional Technologies, Middle Tennessee State University; Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Associate Director, Academic Technology, Simmons College (Presentation)
Schaffer, S., Fry, M., Draude, B and Mathews-DeNatale, G. (2009) PodcastIT: Information Literacy and IT Fluency. Educause Review, May/June 2009, 8-9. (Publication)
Draude, B. J., Clayton, M. A., & Brinthaupt, T. M. (2009). “We’re changing again? Noway!” A case study of a course management system transition. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 5, 131-137. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no1/draude_0309.pdf (Publication)
Brinthaupt, T, Draude, B. and Clayton, M. (2009) Barriers to and Strategies for Faculty Integration of IT, in Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Second Edition; Editors: Rogers, P., Berg, G., Boettcher, J., Howard, C., Justice, L., and Schenk, K., IGI Global - Hershey, Pennsylvania. (Publication)
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