New Issue of Journal on Excellence Focuses on Evaluating Instructional Effectiveness

A new issue of the Journal on Excellence in College Teaching is now available online at the Journal website:

http://celt.muohio.edu/ject/

Volume 23, number 1 (2012) focuses on Defining and Assessing College Teaching—Diagnosis and Prognosis. The issue’s articles offer evidence-based practices to engage readers in the dialogue about evaluating the effectiveness of instruction. It is guest edited by Mike Theall, Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Education at Youngstown State University.

For those who are not yet aware, the Journal is a peer-reviewed venue published at Miami University by and for faculty at universities and two- and four-year colleges to increase student learning through effective teaching, interest in and enthusiasm for the profession of teaching, and communication among faculty about their classroom experiences. It answers Ernest Boyer’s (1990) call for a forum to present the scholarship of teaching and learning. The Journal provides a scholarly, written forum for discussion by faculty about all areas affecting teaching and learning, and gives faculty the opportunity to share proven, innovative pedagogies and thoughtful, inspirational insights about teaching.

Miami faculty and staff are invited to use the Journal as a resource for teaching and learning. On the website, click “Issue Archive” to access all issues of the Journal published since its inception in 1990; to locate teaching and learning topics you wish to research, click on “Search Archive.” This electronic version of the Journal is provided by funding from the Committee for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching, and University Assessment (CELTUA) for all Miami faculty and staff.

For information about submitting manuscripts or other inquiries, click “Submitting Manuscripts” on the website or contact Gregg Wentzell, Managing Editor, at the Center for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching, and University Assessment, 317 Laws Hall, on Miami’s Oxford campus (telephone: 529-9265; e-mail: wentzegw@muohio.edu).

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Miami Undergraduate Students and Faculty Mentors Attend 2012 Alternative Spring Break Exploring Government and Leadership Conference

Students and Mentors at the U.S. Supreme Court Building

During Miami’s 2012 Spring Break, the Office for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship (OARS) sponsored 12 undergraduate research students and a group of faculty mentors to participate in the Miami University Government Relations Network Alternative Spring Break Exploring Government and Leadership Conference in Washington, DC. The Conference seeks to empower students, alumni, and University friends to become engaged citizens who use their knowledge and skills with integrity and compassion to improve the future of Miami University, the State of Ohio, and our global society.

For the purposes of the Leadership Conference, the field of government relations is broadly defined to include the areas of political science, strategic communications, public policy, advocacy, international relations or studies, politics, media relations, journalism, law, community engagement, science, and related areas. The Conference provides students with a first-hand look at how an individual can impact government and how government impacts an individual. Participants are provided unfettered, direct on-site access to those Miami alumni and friends who advise some of our nation and state’s key decision and policymakers: the individuals who run our government. Exposure to these experts is designed to both enlighten and inspire student participants as to the potential leadership contributions each of them can make to improve the future of our global society.

Students and Mentors at the U.S. Capitol

The student Conference participants engaged in a series of components designed to provide them with information, education, and exposure to different aspects of the field of government relations. Students discussed the research opportunities available to them at Miami during a series of Capitol Hill office visits during the day. Later that evening, students presented their research findings at a “Posters on the Hill” event. The purpose of the poster presentation was to showcase Miami’s undergraduate student researchers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, show our funding agencies the diversity of work we do with undergraduates, and provide our congressional delegates a sense of what the Miami Experience means to our students and faculty.

The Conference also serves as a student feeder program to the Miami University Government Relations Network Living Learning Community (GRN LLC) and the Inside Washington Internship Program (WIP). In conjunction with Miami University’s Office of Institutional Relations, The GRN LLC interdisciplinary community ((http://www.units.muohio.edu/saf/reslife/reslife/livingatmiami/GRL/GRL.php), sponsored by the Office of Residence Life, exposes students to a variety of career and volunteer opportunities in areas related to government and journalism. Students who live in this community will examine how an individual can impact government and how government can impact an individual both inside and outside of the classroom.

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Vicka Bell-Robinson Reflects on Winning the 2011 Jennie Elder Suel Woman of Color Award

By Vicka Bell-Robinson, Office of Residence Life

Vicka Bell-Robinson

In reflecting on receiving the Jennie Elder Suel Woman of Color Award, I think it is important to understand the context of why the award exists and its namesake, so that is where I will begin. The Jennie Elder Suel Woman of Color Award was first awarded in 1994. It was established to recognize the significant contributions of Women of Color at Miami University. The award is named for Jennie Elder Suel for her consistent ability and desire to create a warm and welcoming environment for Miami students through providing housing, meals, and entertainment. Jennie Elder Suel died in 1999, but the spirit of the life she lived continues to impact students and staff at Miami University as well as the surrounding communities to this day.

When I learned that I was nominated for this award, I was truly honored. A colleague in the Office of Residence Life, Phillip Campbell, took the time not only to think of me for this award, but also to write out the nomination and find quotes about me from others in our area. Phillip wrote about how I had demonstrated commitment to the growth and development of others and the support of their learning. He went on to discuss my involvements within Miami, including advising to the Alpha Lambda Delta student honorary organization, chairing the Student Affairs Professional Development Committee, and serving on the Black History Month Committee. The nomination also discussed my involvement with Fairfield South Elementary School as the yearbook co-editor and a member of the Diversity Committee, as well as my involvement in the Vineyard Community Church as a small-group host and job coach. My nomination also discussed some of my teaching experiences at Miami as well as my involvement in GLACUHO (Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers) as the Ohio Delegate.

The mention of my formal accomplishments in my nomination was not surprising, but I was surprised by the observations that others had made of my behavior. Elizabeth Gordon, a colleague, for example, said,

“[Vicka and I] shared a hotel room at a recent conference, and I was able to hear her morning conversations with her family, as her husband prepared their children for school and day care. While common acts of everyday life, like packing a lunch and making a bottle, may become repetitive to any parent, it was a small glimpse for me to see the life of a woman who has been able to achieve it all. As Vicka traded her morning check-in with her family to a phone call into the office to verify the administrative tasks she had left behind at Miami University, I saw how easily she traded off one of her ‘hats’ for another. All of these things to me depicted a professional who is able to balance her different roles in life.”

I remembered sharing that hotel room and making those phone calls, but I had not considered the impact those actions would have on a young professional. As a mother of three and a working woman, I was doing what needed to be done in order to make sure I wasn’t too missed while I was gone.

Upon learning that I had been chosen for the Jennie Elder Suel Award, I was humbled. I was humbled because I have had the privilege to work with a variety of talented women of color during my time at Miami, including Yvette Simpson (Arts & Science), Valerie Robinson (OARS), Linda Dixon (Learning Assistance), Juanita Tate (Diversity Affairs), and Jacqueline Rioja Velarde (American & World Cultures), to name a few. I know that they work very hard to create an environment at Miami where students and staff members thrive. My humbleness only increased as I learned more about the previous winners, winners who have been at Miami far longer than I and have impacted me personally in positive way, including Susan Mosley-Howard (Student Affairs) and Ruchelle Dunwoody (Recreational Sports Center). I was happy to be able to share this experience with them and the others who had come before me. I was also excited to be receiving the award along with two other outstanding women, Jacky Johnson (University Libraries) and Denise Taliaferro Baszile (Educational Leadership). I have had wonderful interactions with each of these women and was privileged to share the stage with them that evening.

The Jennie Elder Suel award is presented at Miami’s Women of Color Celebration, and I was fortunate to be able to have my husband and parents attend. I was also fortunate that my brother and sister-in-law volunteered to babysit my young children so that I wouldn’t have to wear multiple hats that evening as well. The presence of my family at that event was significant, because there is no way that I would be able to be involved in so many things and do them relatively well without the support of my family, especially my husband, Frank. Having a supportive home environment allows me to get continually personally recharged so that I can go back out into the world each day and serve others.

That evening, my award co-recipient Denise Baszile said it well when she said, “I do it, because it is what I am called to do.” I completely agree. I recognize that I live a blessed life and have been given very much, so I am willing and charged to give back. Helping others doesn’t feel like a drag or a drain; it feels like a privilege. I look forward to continuing to impact students, staff, and the community in a positive way.

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First Ever Student Startup Weekend Launched at Miami

By Mark Lacker, Marketing

A catchy mobile application that helps grocery shoppers ease hunger in their communities took home the top award at Miami University’s first ever Startup Weekend MU. Miami’s Entrepreneurship program hosted a pioneering entrepreneurial workshop the weekend of February 17-19, 2012. The 104 students from across campus who participated in Startup Weekend MU were immersed in a 48-hour “how-to” for starting a business.

Startup Weekend, founded in 2007 and based in Seattle, is a nonprofit dedicated to educating entrepreneurs around the world. The organization held more than 500 events in 202 cities and 67 countries in 2011. Miami’s event, which was supported by a CELTUA grant, was the first of its kind in the world to be offered exclusively to students—and the first to award those students course credit for participation. Traditionally, the events are set in metropolitan areas and open to all age groups.

Mark Lacker

“Startup Weekend is a microcosm in 48 hours of all of those things you would do when you roll up your sleeves and actually start a business,” said Mark Lacker, event organizer and John W. Altman Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at Miami. “This was an experiment in entrepreneurial education. We wanted to test a short form, high-impact immersion method of learning. Students responded with enthusiasm, spending 26-30 hours working onsite at the event within the 48-hour time window.”

Another unique aspect of the event was using outside mentors as part of the teaching team. Miami brought in 15 successful Miami alumni entrepreneurs to work with the student teams. The mentors embedded with students for the weekend to answer questions, provide guidance, and act as a sounding board.

Startup Weekend MU took place in Benton Hall, and it kicked off Friday evening with students’ business pitches. A popular vote to select the best of the 37 ideas presented followed, with the presentations judged on business model, customer validation, and execution. Nineteen of the proposals became prototypes for businesses, ranging from a system that allows micro investing, to a recycling service for used IV bags, to a site that matches study-abroad students with local guides in the country they’ll visit.

The best business concept, a panel of judges said, was the app called NomNom, which makes it easy for shoppers to scan barcodes of items they wish to donate to charity. Because grocery stores already give items daily to local food pantries, the customer donations add to that tally. NomNom has already attracted a lead investor and endorsements from local foodbanks.

Four student teams decided to continue working on their ideas and have participated in a follow-up course, Startup Bootcamp: Prototype to Launch, to build out their concepts and launch their business.

The weekend exceeded the expectations of entrepreneurship director Brett Smith, Marketing: “What they’re doing at Stanford with the graduate people is what we’re doing with the undergraduates here,” he said, referring to a Lean LaunchPad process used at the top-ranked Palo Alto, California, university.

 

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Calling Book Club Participants for Summer 2012!

Summer is a great time to read a new book and talk about it with colleagues. For the third consecutive year, CELTUA, Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT), and the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) are sponsoring a summer reading program. We’ll buy the book and facilitate discussions!

CELTUA and the CTL have selected Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn, by Cathy N. Davidson (Viking Press, 2011). ALT has selected Hamlet’s Blackberry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age, by William Powers (Harper, 2011).

The book discussion meetings (1 session of approximately 3 hours) will take place on the Oxford, Middletown, and Hamilton campuses on dates in June and July. For more information and to register (the registration deadline is April 30, 2012), go to the Summer Book Club blog site at

http://blogs.muohio.edu/sbc/

 

Descriptions of the selected books are included below.

Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
By Cathy N. Davidson

When Cathy Davidson and Duke University gave free iPods to the freshman class in 2003, critics said they were wasting their money. Yet when students in practically every discipline invented academic uses for their music players, suddenly the idea could be seen in a new light-as an innovative way to turn learning on its head.

This radical experiment is at the heart of Davidson’s inspiring new book. Using cutting-edge research on the brain, she shows how “attention blindness” has produced one of our society’s greatest challenges: while we’ve all acknowledged the great changes of the digital age, most of us still toil in schools and workplaces designed for the last century. Davidson introduces us to visionaries whose groundbreaking ideas-from schools with curriculums built around video games to companies that train workers using virtual environments-will open the doors to new ways of working and learning. A lively hybrid of Thomas Friedman and Norman Doidge, Now You See It is a refreshingly optimistic argument for a bold embrace of our connected, collaborative future. (http://www.amazon.com/Now-You-See-Attention-Transform/dp/B007HW37VS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333722870&sr=8-1)

Hamlet’s BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age
By William Powers

Our computers and mobile devices do wonderful things for us. But they also impose a burden, making it harder for us to focus, do our best work, build strong relationships, and find the depth and fulfillment we crave.

How to solve this problem? Hamlet’s BlackBerry argues that we just need a new way of thinking, an everyday philosophy for life with screens. William Powers sets out to solve what he calls the conundrum of connectedness. Reaching into the past—using his own life as laboratory and object lesson—he draws on some of history’s most brilliant thinkers, from Plato to Shakespeare to Thoreau, to demonstrate that digital connectedness serves us best when it’s balanced by its opposite, disconnectedness. Lively, original, and entertaining, Hamlet’s BlackBerry will challenge you to rethink your digital life. (http://www.amazon.com/Hamlets-BlackBerry-Building-Good-Digital/dp/0061687170/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333722901&sr=1-1)

To listen to an interview with author William Powers, go to http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuer/news/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1903203/RadioWest

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April Parents’ Newsletter Article Highlights Instructors and Staff Who Made a Difference for Students

In a survey of Miami’s graduating seniors in 2011, over 1300 faculty/staff/Teaching Assistants were identified as having an influence on the students’ learning and development.  The students’ comments “leave a clear impression of faculty members who helped students, who made class an interesting learning experience, who were passionate and enthusiastic, who challenged students, made them think, engaged them in research, and taught them skills that would be useful in the future.”

The article includes a word cloud (below) summarizing the most frequently appearing words in the student comments:

 

 

 

 

 

Read the full article here:

http://www.miami.muohio.edu/parents/stay-in-touch/newsletters.html

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Tips on Classroom Teaching of International Students, Part 2

(In last month’s blog postings we shared some of the teaching tips
for diverse student groups complied by Felice Marcus,
Associate Director of Miami’s Culture and English Program <http://www.miami.muohio.edu/academics/international-programs/american-english/>;
this month we offer more.)

Felice Marcus

Tips on Classroom Teaching of International Students, Part 2

  • Ask “Yes or no?” or “Is it A or B?” questions in addition to open-ended questions. More timid students are more likely to volunteer answers that way and less likely to “hide” by lowering their eyes.
  • Check for understanding several times during each class period. Ask students to restate a main point that you explained; the polite nods may not signal understanding, as you might expect. This will help US students as well!
  • Allow students to work in small groups, and then have them present information, rather than presenting individually. This helps students work on their communication skills, while also taking the pressure of public speaking off of them. You may want to assign group roles, such as facilitator, reporter, and scribe.
  • When breaking class into small groups, professors should try to do it themselves instead of putting the burden on the students. People tend to form ethnically similar groups or join with people they know already. Find a mechanism to group them for diversity.
  • Keep in mind that not talking in class does not equate to lack of engagement. Consider that if students are “tuned in,” they are participating.
  • Offer all students the option to email you with “ideas that you wanted to contribute in class” but did not.

 

 

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Incorporating Writing Into Courses With Large Enrollments

Presented by The Howe Center for Writing Excellence

 

Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Time: 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Place: 320 King Library
RSVP to: Maurica Allen (Maurica.Allen@muohio.edu) by Thursday, March 29, 2012

Presented by Ron Becker, Communication, and Chris Thaiss, Clark Kerr Professor, University of California-Davis

Ron Becker

Ron Becker’s research interests include television studies, cultural theory, LGBT studies/queer theory, and media history.

 

 

 

Chris Thaiss

Chris Thaiss teaches undergraduate courses in writing in disciplines and professions and graduate courses in writing studies pedagogy, theory, and research and in writing program administration. He consults on writing and conducts workshops on teaching and program development for schools and colleges, as well as serving as a consultant/evaluator for the Council of Writing Program Administrators.

Reception to follow.

Howe Writing Center Flyer 



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