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Designing Significant Learning

Director Dan DeStephen describes the new CTL to emerge in the coming year.

As the university enters the Year of Innovation and the second year in the transition to semesters, the Center for Teaching and Learning is preparing to support faculty efforts to create an innovative learning environment that continues to provide a quality academic experience for our students. The Center will be seeking faculty input on how best to meet the professional development needs as we create a new list of services.

Over the coming year faculty can expect to see a Center for Teaching and Learning that will better meet the needs of faculty. Faculty can expect to see:

1) A focus on assisting faculty to transform the curriculum as Wright State moves to semesters 

The transition to semesters is a unique opportunity to rethink how we teach our students. For years the Center has advocated a learner-centered approach to teaching that the research on teaching has proven improves student motivation-to-learn, critical thinking skills, and learning outcomes. The Center will now focus on how to integrate those principles into the redesign of the curriculum. Within this initiative the Center will provide: 

  1. A series of workshops on innovative course design.
    During Winter quarter, for example, the Center will offer workshops on how to redesign a curriculum using principles on how to create significant learning experiences for students. There will be workshops on writing specific, measurable, and clear course objectives and writing for critical thinking in large classes. Future workshops will look at assessment strategies, ideas for integrating general education goals into courses within the major, and creating electronic portfolios.
        The Center will also be working with the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) and interested departments in drawing upon the NCAT’s expertise in curriculum redesign. Over the next year, the Center for Teaching and Learning will be sending NCAT’s electronic newsletter, Learning Marketplace, to all interested faculty. This newsletter highlights ongoing examples of redesigning learning environments. In Spring of 2010, the Center will lead a team of faculty to the NCAT national conference to learn more about the ability of this association to assist Wright State improve the quality of our courses, particularly large introductory courses.
  2. A place to share information and collaborate with faculty at WSU and at other universities.
    Perhaps the most unique characteristic of our move to semesters is the fact that other universities in Ohio are simultaneously engaged in the same transition. The Center is working with the Wright State Quarters-to-Semesters Committee to create connections among those universities in Ohio that are also moving to a semester calendar in 2012. The Center will serve a central role in the sharing of information on curriculum and course redesign. The Center, for example, will work with the Centers for Teaching and Learning at other schools in transition to create a Wiki on course redesign. This Wiki will post information on course learning objectives, course content, and assessments of student learning. Over the next three years, the Centers will continue to expand opportunities for faculty from similar disciplines to share information and increase collaboration among the faculty.

2) The creation of a place for faculty to gather and exchange ideas on teaching 

One of the best ways to improve as a teacher is to learn from the experiences of other faculty. The Center will become a meeting place for faculty to come together to discuss teaching, share ideas, and learn from each other. Faculty can expect to see:

  1. A gathering space to meet other faculty in a relaxed atmosphere.
    The Center for Teaching and Learning will create a space for faculty from across the university to meet in a relaxed atmosphere and exchange ideas about teaching and learning. This space will allow faculty from different disciplines to discuss the common experience of teaching students. For faculty without assigned offices, the Center for Teaching and Learning will be the place to relax between classes and the place to meet faculty from across the university.
  2. A small resource library of books on pedagogy.
    Over the years, the Center has amassed an extensive library of books on teaching. Many of these books were the focus of successful book groups. Within the Center faculty will now be able to access books on such topics as the latest theory on teaching effectiveness, strategies for engaging students in learning, and how to assess student learning. The resource library has material that will improve anyone’s teaching.
  3. A virtual space to access online resources on teaching.
    The Center will also expand the faculty’s access to the latest theory and practice of teaching through a virtual library on any topic on teaching and learning. The redesigned Center web pages will link the Wright State faculty to a wide variety of online resources from other universities and other faculty from around the world. The web pages will feature a weekly Blog on teaching ideas and an electronic newsletter.

3) Opportunities to participate in a Teaching Academy

The Center for Teaching and Learning will remain the focal point for faculty development at Wright State. The Center will continue to offer one-on-one coaching to faculty on teaching and midterm student feedback as requested. In addition, however, the Center will expand faculty access to professional development through the creation of a Teaching Academy.  The Teaching Academy will provide a means to organize faculty development into a structured curriculum and to recognize those who complete that curriculum. The Teaching Academy will be:

  1. A series of two, four, and six hour classes on a wide variety of topics on teaching, research, and service.
    In addition to the traditional two-hour format used for Center workshops, the Teaching Academy will offer extended workshops and day-long symposia on topics related to effective teaching and learning. While most of the workshops will continue to be face-to-face, more will be webinars, pod casts, and interactive video-based workshops. The Center will bring in experts from outside the university to share their knowledge on teaching with Wright State faculty. The Teaching Academy will host a Summer Teaching Institute each year to provide a group of faculty with the opportunity to spend an intensive week reflecting on their teaching pedagogy and their courses.
  2. An opportunity to discuss teaching and learning with award winning faculty.
    The Teaching Academy will feature a regular series of discussions led by teaching-award winning faculty on the art of teaching. These interactions will focus on sharing experiences and teaching strategies from those who have received recognition from their colleagues for the quality of their teaching and their commitment to student leaning.
  3. An opportunity for recognition of your faculty development efforts through a series of certificate and different levels of membership in the Academy.
    The Teaching Academy will develop a series of awards, certificates and membership levels to recognize quality teaching and professional development efforts. The awards will recognize teaching excellence by individuals and departments based on the Center for Teaching and Learning’s core curriculum. Individuals and departments will be recognized for their mastery of the assessment of learning, successful course and curriculum redesign, the inclusion of diversity in their classes, their focus on student learning, and the quality of their online instruction.
       In additional to the current Online Teaching and Learning Certificate, the Teaching Academy in collaboration with respective program directors will offer additional certificates for excellence in general education, writing across the curriculum, cultural competency, and service learning. These certificates will recognize that the faculty member has evidenced the knowledge and ability to successfully integrate learning outcomes into his/her courses.
       Membership in the Teaching Academy will be based on a faculty member’s engagement in professional development. While the exact levels of membership will be determined later, faculty will earn those levels based on the level of engagement in faculty development.