2009 CTLT Annual University-Wide Symposium on Teaching and Learning

Wednesday, January 7, 2009
DoubleTree Conference Center
Bloomington, IL

“Teaching & Learning in a ‘Diverse Community of Scholars’”

Many thanks to all those who made the 2009 Teaching & Learning Symposium a success! CTLT would especially like to thank all those who took the time to prepare posters and presentations, all those who provided financial support for the event, all those who served as speakers and/or session chairs, and—of course—all those who took time from their busy schedules to attend this event.

Keynote Speaker

Biography

CTLT is pleased to announce that Dr. James A. Anderson, co-author and author of The Unfinished Agenda: Brown v. Board of Education (2004) and Driving Change through Diversity and Globalization—Transformative Leadership in the Academy (2007), will be the keynote speaker at the ninth annual Teaching and Learning Symposium.

Dr. Anderson is the Chancellor of Fayetteville State University and a former professor of psychology at the University of Albany in New York. Anderson served as UA’s Vice President for Students Success and Vice Provost for Institutional Assessment and Diversity from 2005-2007. There he led efforts to advance students’ academic success and learning, promote diversity and inclusion, and strengthen community partnerships and outreach.

Anderson has been active in professional, civic, and higher-education organizations, which is reflected in his research and writing. His scholarship has focused on the assessment of student learning, as well as the impact of diversity on student learning, retention, and overall institutional effectiveness.

Currently serving on the Board of Trustees of Villanova University and the advisory board of the International Center for Student Success and Institutional Accountability, he has been honored with the Outstanding Contribution to Higher Education Award (2005) from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the Outstanding Service Award (2004) from the Commission on Human Resources and Social Change of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). *

*Information taken from www.uncfsu.edu/chancellor/chancellors-bio

Presentation

A Classroom Outside a Classroom: Techniques and Technologies to Engage Language Learners Enrolled in Online Courses

Fernando Sanchez-Gutierrez, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

One of the shortcomings of online language education is the inability to provide an adequate environment in which students can interact at all levels of communication. In the past, pedagogical imperatives have been trampled by the rigidity of the electronic medium. Nowadays, due to the potential of new technologies, we can overcome many of those pitfalls, creating new opportunities to energize the way students learn and produce in a foreign language. This presentation will depict some of the strategies used to develop an Advanced Spanish Composition course completely online. Through the use of iShowU to create video presentations, the use of Skype for video conferencing, and the use of Facebook and Twitter for group discussion, students can participate in a class that replicates and furthers the traditional methodologies of in situ courses.

Critical Thinking as an Educational Tool: A Justification for the Revival of the Speech and Thought Paradigm

Elizabeth Chupp, School of Communication

Additional Materials: Critical Thinking as an Educational Tool: A Justification for the Revival of the Speech and Thought Paradigm

Critical thinking is one of the most important abilities students can learn if they are to be successful in their personal and professional lives, as well as their lives as citizens in a democratic society. Through the revival of the “speech and thought paradigm,” higher education provides the optimal environment for fostering critical thinking skills. In this session, we will explore how critical thinking can be effectively incorporated into any classroom through the use of the speech and thought paradigm. After providing an overview of the paradigm, the session will discuss critical thinking in the context of the paradigm and discuss appropriate pedagogical and assessment methods.

Diverse Experiences: Taking Classroom Learning to the Professional World

Thomas A. Lamonica, School of Communication

Additional Materials: Alumni/Professionals in the Classroom

Professional practice, field experiences, internships. These are all terms which represent the process of students practicing their field of study in a working environment before completing their degree studies. While the requirements, processes, and opportunities vary by department and school, all focus on providing students with “real-world” experience and all give students a head start on their careers before graduation. For program coordinators, this may mean supporting and evaluating as many as 50 different students at 50 locations having 50 different experiences. The purpose of this session is to exchange ideas, strategies, and tactics for internship facilitators as well as encourage faculty and administrators to help ensure the success of these programs by promoting student participation, interacting with alumni and other professionals, and supporting the efforts of internship facilitators.

Help Them Hit the Floor Running!: Preparing Students for Professional Practice

Beverly Barham, Health Sciences; Lori Woeste, Health Sciences

The Clinical Laboratory Science curriculum includes a 21-week professional practice experience for students in the first semester of their senior year. Most often there is only one student at the professional practice site, and that student must be prepared to hit the floor running to meet the rigor of the experience. In order to better prepare our students for that experience, we have implemented a variety of strategies within the pre-professional practice courses, addressing a variety topics to help students better integrate into the fast-paced environment of a clinical laboratory. One strategy involves learning how to build a team dynamic with random selections of team members each week and to work within that team to generate quality data in an efficient manner. Another strategy includes the use of case studies and role playing. These scenarios can address topics such as dealing with a difficult patient, to working with a non-communicative co-worker or mentor. This program will discuss a variety of strategies that have been implemented to help students transition from the fairly predictable syllabus-driven, on-campus classroom experience to the never predictable day in the life of a clinical laboratory scientist.

Podcast Usage in Spanish Phonetics Instruction

Benjamin Schmeiser, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

This session will focus on a study that considers the use of a podcast to aid students in their study of Spanish phonetics. The study discusses the current practice of introducing phonetics, which is the study of fones (sounds within a given language). The students receive a chart of the phonetic symbols for Spanish and have to memorize the symbol (e.g. [x]), the sound it represents (e.g. ‘J’ in the name ‘Juan’), and the scientific name given to it (e.g. voiceless velar fricative). With so many symbols to memorize, students are often left frustrated and in need of more practice. The end result of this rote learning of the phonetic symbols is often a student who becomes quickly exhausted of phonetics and simply crams for the upcoming exam. The study considers the data from two classes, one with podcast usage and one without. The study also considers the use of technology within a Spanish classroom in more general terms.

Teaching Content-Driven Courses to Students with Diverse Backgrounds, Needs, and Expectations

Gregory Ferrence, Chemistry; Jon Friesen, Chemistry; David Cedeño, Chemistry

Diversity comes in many forms. Commonly, enormous barriers and challenges arise from the presence of a diverse audience, even in a scenario of perceived homogeneity. Superficially, Chemistry faculty teaching chemistry courses required for Chemistry majors may seem to represent the antithesis of diversity, particularly when one steers clear of issues of ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. On the other hand, the panel members are diverse in their level of experience, teaching methodologies, and content expertise. The courses are diverse in level (100, 200, 300, 400), enrollment size (6 to over 300), content (general chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry), and student major demographic (less than 15% chemistry majors at the 100 level, mostly chemistry and “life-science” majors at the 200 level, nearly exclusively chemistry majors at 300 level). The students in these courses also display tremendous diversity in terms of preparedness, intellectual drive, intellectual ability, and motivation for course enrollment. In this session, we will share experiences, lessons learned, and ongoing challenges. While the issues are presented within the framework of chemistry courses, the issues themselves and the way they will be discussed transcends disciplinary boundaries.

The Promise of Distance Learning: Emerging Trends and Practices

Ray Schroeder, University of Illinois, Springfield

The Sloan Consortium reports in its latest annual national survey of 2,500 colleges and universities that the number of students enrolled in at least one online class grew by an annual rate of 12.9 %, ten times the growth rate of higher education enrollments as a whole. The University Continuing Education Association reports that now 73% of all post-secondary students are classified as “non-traditional learners.” And the newly-released 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement reports higher levels of engagement among online learners than on-campus learners. We will examine these trends and the active-learning practices that are leading to greater student (and faculty) satisfaction while improving learning outcomes.

Undergraduate Research Engages Life Long Learners!

Elizabeth D. Carlson, Mennonite College of Nursing

Additional Materials: Undergraduate Research Engages Life-Long Learners!!!

For the nursing profession, conventional methods of teaching research have been ineffective and associated with a generation of nurses who lack information literacy: the skills to know when knowledge is needed and how to find, appraise, and evaluate research for professional practice. We know that opportunities to participate in research provide valuable experience and prepare students to understand research as a life-long process of curiosity, investigation, and learning. However, only 31% of ISU undergraduate seniors report that they have worked or plan to work on a research project with a faculty member. Increasingly, however, evidence-based literature has identified journal clubs as an active learning strategy that engages front line healthcare workers in clinical investigations to affect quality and safety initiatives. We decided the same principles could be used in the classroom to support curricular changes. Dividing the class into journal clubs of 4-6 members, we coached students on how to investigate a clinical question, find and appraise research articles, and evaluate implications for clinical practice. In this presentation, we report on successful learning activities, lessons learned, and competency outcomes.

White Prof Teachin’: Learning about Diversity on a Seemingly Un-Diverse Campus

Matthew Fuller, University Assessment Office; Bryan Asbury, Graduate Teaching Assistant, School of Communication; Sara Cole, Health Sciences; Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication

Like many predominantly white campuses, ISU is concerned about helping students realize diverse and global perspectives during their ISU experience. A panel of ISU community members recognized for their efforts to “teach diversity,” will share their experiences, philosophies, and techniques. This interactive panel discussion will offer time for participants to ask questions and brainstorm concepts they can put to use in their class. Participants will hopefully realize that ISU’s Diversity is more than “skin deep,” as a wide array of diversity concepts will be discussed in this session.

Achieving the Small Classroom Dynamic and Maximizing Student Involvement in the Large Classroom Setting

K. Aaron Smith, English

Additional Materials: Achieving the Small Classroom Dynamic and Maximizing Student Involvement in the Large Classroom Setting

This presentation reports on three strategies designed to mitigate issues of impersonal atmosphere and learning/teaching challenges in larger classes. The presenter will report on the teaching of a 120-student section of English grammar in the spring of 2008 and scheduled again for the spring of 2009. The session will provide student assessments of the structure of the class in order to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies. Student assessments are also considered as a means of suggesting modifications to the structure of the course in future iterations.

Benign Heteronormativity Limits LGBTQ Students’ Social and Academic Engagement

Paula Ressler, English

In this session the presenter will discuss a study conducted with student focus groups in the spring of 2008. The study investigated students’ potential interest in an LGBT/Queer Studies curriculum. These students belonged to campus organizations known to be particularly sensitive to the needs of LGBTQ students. Participants responded to three general questions about how safe and supportive the campus climate felt for LGBTQ students; their experiences with coursework and what LGBTQ content they would like to see included in the future; and the advantages and disadvantages of instituting an LGBT/Queer Studies emphasis, minor, or certificate. This study sheds light on what LGBT students need to feel safe and supported on campus and what interferes with their social engagement in campus life and being successful in their studies. What students said coincides with studies conducted at other institutions and points to solutions that are manageable and realistic given the context of Illinois State University. Researchers were inspired by the students’ honesty and thoughtfulness and how ready and willing they seemed to work with faculty, staff, and administration on transforming the environment at ISU from one they perceived as benignly heteronormative to one that could be safe and supportive of everyone.

Diversity in the Classroom: The 2008 Modules of the FOCUS Initiative

Elizabeth D. Carlson, Mennonite College of Nursing; Karen Pfost, Psychology; Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication

Additional Materials: Faculty Opportunities for Creating Civic & Community Understanding Among Students

A core value of Educating Illinois 2008-2014 is diversity aligned with active learning experiences that prepare students to be informed and engaged citizens of a global society. However, only 22% of lower division and 29% of upper division ISU faculty report that students in their courses often or very often have serious conversations with students of different religious belief systems, political opinions, or economic backgrounds. In addition, only 19% of lower division and 25% of upper division ISU faculty reported that students in their courses often or very often have serious conversations with students of different ethnic backgrounds. Thus, the FOCUS initiative was conceived to address an important gap in our educational system: preparing students to be effective democratic citizens. In this session, the 2008 FOCUS Faculty will present the final two modules that focus on incorporating the skill sets necessary for open inquiry and policy processes into courses or curriculum. These skill sets prepare students to become informed citizens of a global society, but are seldom modeled in the cultural norms of classroom or community. We provide some practical strategies to make these concepts part of learning activities and competency outcomes for faculty across disciplines.

Education’s Missed Opportunity to Influence Tolerance: The Absence of LGBT Content in Curriculum

Diane Zosky, History/Social Work

Additional Materials: Education’s Missed Opportunity to Influence Tolerance: The Absence of LGBT Content in Curriculum

Higher education has the role and responsibility, to not only educate students in their academic field of interest, but also to promote and develop a responsible and just citizenry to lead the next generation of society. Lessons learned in the classroom and on campuses about diversity, inclusion, and tolerance will be carried into society by our emerging leaders. Higher education, as the catalyst for enlightenment, has an opportunity and indeed a responsibility to shape a society free from prejudice and discrimination. Exposure to LGBT people and issues through knowledge and personal relationship can dispel myth, stereotype, and judgment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. This session reports on a study completed at Illinois State University that indicates that students in college have very little exposure to LGBT content at the collegiate as well as pre-college level. This session provides recommendations to faculty regarding how inclusive curriculum can provide a welcoming environment to LGBT students as well as promote acceptance among straight students.

Engaging Students Through the Use of POGIL and Clickers

Guang Jin, Health Sciences; Tom Bierma, Health Sciences

Additional Materials: Guided-Inquiry Learning in a Large-lecture Setting

Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is both a philosophy and a teaching/learning strategy that promotes more student involvement in class and seeks to engage students in learning. This presentation describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of two POGIL modules, combined with a student response system (“clickers”) to increase student engagement in a large enrollment, general education course, HSC 156, Environmental Health in the 21st Century. The class size of HSC 156 averages approximately 100 in a lecture hall setting. Student perception of the POGIL experience was very positive. Student performance on reading assignment quizzes as well as exam questions showed a slight improvement when the POGIL pedagogy was applied. Although these impacts were not statistically significant, when combined with the positive student perceptions, they suggest that POGIL and “clickers” in large lecture hall settings offer promise in promoting learner autonomy and enhancing learning outcomes.

Learning Entrepreneurship by Making a Movie

Terry Noel, Management and Quantitative Methods

It is difficult to tell how much students are learning when I send them out to start a real business. I have teams of 3-5 students do just that, the only restriction being that the business is legal and no single student may invest more than $100. Last semester, I started having them take an MPEG-4 camera with them for a few days to record anything they thought would document their start up. This presentation focuses on the good, bad, and ugly of student movie-making and some of my thoughts on loosely supervised field learning.

Podcasting to Add Value to Clinically Based Curriculum

Jennifer Friberg, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Additional Materials: Podcasting to Add Value to Clinically-Based Curricula

Supplementary podcasting was implemented within an online course in the department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD 318, Professional Issues in Speech Pathology and Audiology) in response to information collected from a focus group of undergraduate students. This focus group indicated a need for more anecdotal stories and information of the sort typically shared in more traditional course formats. As a direct result of this need shared by students, podcasts were implemented within this course during the fall 2007 semester. Podcasts took two specific formats: Weekly Course Happenings (which provided organization and information related to the mechanics of CSD 318) and Clinician Interviews (which allowed practicing clinicians to share their experiences with students relative to course topics on a weekly basis). Information will be shared related to the design and implementation of these podcasts as a supplement to existing course content. Additionally, data related to student impressions of the overall impact of podcasting upon their experiences within the course will be presented.

Pre-service Teachers in Community Organizations: Reflections From the Field and Classroom

Venus Evans-Winters, Educational Administration and Foundations; Isaura Pulido, Educational Administration and Foundations; Tabitha Major, community agency representative; Emily Iverson, student, Elementary Education

Additional Materials: Pre-service Teachers in Community Organizations: Reflections From the Field and Classroom

The purpose of this panel presentation is to discuss the strengths and challenges of emerging pre-service teachers in diverse field experiences as a requirement of Social Foundations of Education coursework. Two of the panelists are Social Foundations instructors and researchers in the field of education, another panelist is a pre-service teacher, and the fourth panelist is a community agency representative. Thus, one objective of the presentation is to provide a well-rounded perspective on how diverse field placements of pre-service teachers fit into course objectives, as well as coincide with pre-service teachers’ and the community’s needs. Another objective is to share with the scholarly community the inherited pedagogical conflicts associated with preparing the next generation of teachers to work alongside and advocate on behalf of vulnerable student population groups, by placing students in field placements at community-based organizations. Participants will leave with a framework for approaching pedagogical strategies for assisting students in experiencing a meaningful culturally diverse field placement.

The TEAL Program: A Faculty Development Model for Online Teaching

Alan Lacy, College of Applied Science and Technology; Jean Memken, Family and Consumer Sciences; Kate Plantholt, College of Applied Science and Technology

Additional Materials: The TEAL Program: A Faculty Development Model for Online Teaching

Online courses have gained popularity among both students and faculty on many college campuses. The College of Applied Science and Technology (CAST) at Illinois State University viewed faculty training in the development of online curricula options as a way to provide more high-quality online courses during the summer. A professional development model for systematic planning and delivery of high quality online course offerings was developed. This college-initiated program, called Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL), was also designed to enable academic units to provide future professional development for their faculty and thus continue this initiative at the departmental level. The presentation will describe the three year implementation of the TEAL program. It will include the perspectives of an administrator, a technology support staff person, and a faculty member involved with the program. The inception and growth of this program will be detailed. Successes and challenges will be addressed. This initiative has involved faculty and chairs from seven academic units along with administration and IT support at the CAST level and Extended University at the institutional level.

A Strategic Plan for Distance Education at Illinois State University

Susan Deason, Extended University; Darrell Kruger, College of Education

Additional Materials: Handout

Under the direction of the Provost, a distance education task force has been convened and charged with the task of making recommendations to shape distance education at Illinois State University. These recommendations will support and extend ISU’s high academic standards through an integrated, planned, and programmatic approach to distance education consistent with Educating Illinois. The work and progress of the Distance Education Task Force to date will be presented, and the opportunity for questions and discussion will be included in the session.

International Students and the Language of the Academy

Kasia Stadnik, English Language Institute; Carolyn Baughan, English Language Institute; Carol Kerestes, English Language Institute

Students often struggle with academic language when they are writing their papers and/or when they are engaging in academic discussion or giving a report or presentation. This is particularly true for international students and students who come from diverse linguistic backgrounds. This presentation will focus on explaining and teaching collocations—relationships between two words or groups of words that often go together to form a common expression—as a way to help students develop their ability to use academic language. The presenters will share a variety of useful teaching strategies that any instructor can use.

Reflecting on Our Own Career Mentoring Pedagogy and Strategies as they Impact Retention of Women and Persons of Color in Non-Traditional Career Fields

Grace Foote Johns, Physics

Additional Materials: Reflecting on Our Own Career Mentoring Pedagogy and Strategies as they Impact Retention of Women and Persons of Color in “Non-Traditional’ (Science) Career Fields
Reflecting on Our Own Career Mentoring Pedagogy and Strategies as they Impact Retention of Women and Persons of Color in “Non-Traditional’ (Science) Career Fields

In this session, participants with mentoring responsibilities will briefly reflect on the mentoring pedagogies (learning goals and teaching strategies) that they use for mentoring undergraduate students outside of class. The discussion will also address the results from pilot studies into the mentoring of science undergraduates as well as a sampling of current research into the achievement, personal characteristics, and student demographics that impact college retention, persistence, and success—especially for underrepresented groups (women and persons of color) in non-traditional career fields. Attendees are encouraged to bring examples of barrier issues (individual and institutional) facing their undergraduate mentees, as well as creative solutions used to help their mentees “bridge” the gap to persistence, retention, and success.

Reflection and Emotion in the Classroom: Thinking-Feeling-Acting as a Virtual Parent

Bill Anderson, Family and Consumer Sciences; Jennifer Banning, Family and Consumer Sciences; Cory Tunt, student, Family and Consumer Sciences; Christine Neuberg, student, Family and Consumer Sciences

The Virtual Child software program has been used as an authentic task–a classroom assignment requiring students to apply understanding strongly similar to that required in a “real-world” situation–in teaching an undergraduate parenting and family relations course. Virtual Child allows each student to rear a child from birth to age 18. Much of the relation between what people think and the way they intend to behave can be accounted for by their feelings, with motivational sequence viewed as thinking-feeling-acting. In this framework, emotions stem directly from existing ideas, thoughts, attitudes, or beliefs, and can be changed by modifying the thinking process. Throughout the semester, each virtual parent evaluates and responds to age-appropriate scenarios, which stretch students to think reflectively, solve problems, and make decisions about their virtual children while they analyze and synthesize the challenges of parenting and re-evaluate their own attitudes towards parenting. In this session, Family and Consumer Science faculty and students (virtual parents) will share preliminary results indicating the successful role of Virtual Child in thinking-feeling-acting and in enhancing critical thinking skills. Participants will consider how they can use authentic tasks that incorporate thinking-feeling-acting to enhance student learning and understanding in their own courses.

Students Researching the University: What They Learn

Gina Hunter, Sociology and Anthropology

In this session I report on a study of what students learn when they engage in research about their own universities. Sociology and Anthropology students who enrolled in an ethnographic methods class in Fall 2007 were required to conduct research on some aspect of Illinois State University. During this session I will show what these students did, how they did it, and what they learned in the process. Data come from the students’ research pdfuments, learning reflection essays, and interviews with students the semester following the course. The study shows that by researching the institution, students become more critical stakeholders in the university with a greater understanding of university missions, values and communities. I also discuss the obstacles that students and I encountered in developing the research projects over a one-semester course and will suggest possible strategies for overcoming them. This study was sponsored by a 2007 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Grant.

Team Teaching,: A Collaborative Roundtable Conversation

Jodi Hallsten, School of Communication; Lance Lippert, School of Communication; Gigi Fansler, Lincoln College; Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Educational Administration and Foundations; Amee Adkins, Mennonite College of Nursing

In an effort to improve and vary student experiences in the classroom, some faculty are now turning to team teaching. Team teaching might involve two simultaneous teachers (co-teaching), two alternate teachers, or 3-or-more faculty (panel-teaching) in a course. In this program, panel participants discuss their experiences with team teaching. Topics include challenges in the process, implementation and facilitation considerations, and the participants’ personal reflections on their teaching experiences.

The Both/And of Faculty Undergraduate Digital Scholarship

Cheryl Ball, English

This presentation tracks two ecologies: (1) an undergraduate multimodal composition class producing digital scholarship for a digital book collection and (2) the teacher’s work on that digital collection alongside the production of her tenure e-portfolio. Both students and teacher have asked the following questions in and about their research: What can students teach teachers? What can teachers learn from students? What does digital scholarship look like for undergraduates and faculty? These are ubiquitous questions in our field, and I will show examples from both ecologies to discuss possible answers to these questions, from which larger questions arise: How can a multimodal composition class contribute to the sustainability of academic writing? How can the obstacles of low-access computing promote digital scholarship in which undergraduate students talk back to the scholars who are often talking at not with, them? In answering these questions (in light of the class’s scholarly project and the teacher’s current work in digital scholarship), I argue that teaching, learning, and composing digital scholarship across student–teacher barriers provides sustainable ways for digital media scholars to connect their undergraduate curricula with their research lives.

Using Online Learning Communities to Recruit Women and Minorities in Learning

Anu A. Gokhale, Technology; Kenton F. Machina, Philosophy

Additional Materials: Using Online Learning Communities to Recruit Women and Minorities in Computing

Our NSF-funded project is designed to recruit students, especially women and minority students, into Information Technology-related majors. The project draws from a population of students in one section of the Finite Mathematics course (MAT 120), enrolling 176 students. Five of the six computing majors at ISU accept MAT 120 as partial fulfillment of their mathematics requirements. One of the project activities is online learning communities, used to connect with the Net Generation. In this innovative strategy, blogging is being exploited to highlight the opportunities in–and diversity of–computing careers and to motivate students to explore computing majors. Four junior/senior/grad students with demonstrated Web design skills work in teams to run this blog. We are pleased with the response: nearly 100 participants complete two activities every week. The blog, hosted on WordPress, and accessible via Blackboard, is monitored by the PIs for appropriateness of content. The student designers are free to be creative and innovative, as long as their work remains responsible and relevant to the project. We will share some of the blog content and the student response to it during our presentation.

2008 Faculty Needs Assessment Results and Discussion

Matthew Fuller, University Assessment Office; Mardell Wilson, Office of the Provost

Additional Materials: Preliminary Findings from the 2008 ISU Faculty Needs Assessment

Do you remember the Faculty Needs Assessment survey you were asked to complete back in the fall? The preliminary results are in and we want to share them with you. Come provide additional feedback about some of the potential findings from this survey.

American Democracy Project (ADP) Initiatives 1: Incorporating Pedagogy for Civic and Political Engagement in the Classroom

Jan Murphy, Office of the Provost; Lance Lippert, School of Communication; Frank Beck, Stevenson Center; Harriett Steinbach, Dean of Students Office; Cyndy Ruszkowski, Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology

Additional Materials: Trust Me…I’m a Voter!: Voter Initiatives Gone Wild on Campus.

Through Educating Illinois and the American Democracy Project (ADP), Illinois State University prepares students to be informed and engaged citizens who will promote and further the collective goals of society. The University promotes active learning experiences through which students gain an awareness and understanding of civic and political engagement as a lifelong responsibility. Students leave ISU with the ability and motivation to improve the communities in which they live and work. Participants on this panel will discuss classroom-based initiatives (e.g., the Political Engagement Project, Civic Engagement in the Curriculum Initiative, and Community Engaged Classrooms Project) designed to foster students’ civic and political knowledge, motivation, and skills.

An ESL Workshop for Instructors: Making it Work

Rebecca Anderson, English

Increasingly, the United States’ population is a diversified one. This diversification is creating a pressing need for colleges and universities to provide instructors with English as a Second Language (ESL) workshop training and ongoing support. ESL instruction, however, requires specialized skills, and ESL teachers typically take a number of courses to achieve expertise in their field. For this reason, ESL training does not readily lend itself to the abbreviated workshop format. Given this significant constraint, it is important that ESL workshop coordinators ensure that training programs are maximally effective and accessible. In this session, I invite audience members to join me in a guided critique of an ESL workshop presentation oriented specifically toward college composition instructors. The workshop comprises a preliminary anonymous survey, discussion points and writing exercises, as well as a selection of handouts providing classroom teaching suggestions and lists of outside resources. I will then elicit audience input that will contribute to the design of an improved workshop for future (and possibly broader) implementation. Audience members will be provided with courtesy copies of all handouts.

Culture in the Classroom: Tough Questions about International Diversity

John Baldwin, School of Communication

Additional Materials: Culture in the Classroom: Tough Questions about International Diversity

In the new globalized education world, it is common to have either international teachers with American students or American teachers with international students. Either case brings up tough issues in the classroom, including stereotypes that mitigate students’ evaluations of international teachers, the use of “participation grades” for students from cultures where such participation is not part of the typical learning process, competing expectations of what counts as a “research” paper, different perceptions of the role relationship between teacher and student, and, simply, misunderstandings in communication. This presentation will present some of the key issues that emerge when international culture becomes a part of the education process, ending with a discussion of possible solutions to each issue and a list of reading for further study of the issue of culture in the classroom.

Managing a 3-Week Summer Course: Optimizing Learning Opportunities

Darci J. Harland, Curriculum and Instruction; Tena McNamara, Communication Sciences and Disorders; Megan Koch, School of Communication

Additional Materials: Blogging to Encourage Student-Student Interaction & Deeper Reflection
Surviving a 3 Week Course

While squeezing a semester course into three weeks may seem impossible, it can also be quite rewarding. This panel includes instructors from three different programs across the university who will discuss options for teaching both online and face-to-face summer courses. The panel will share tips on how they organized their 3-week courses to make the most of the shortened session–specifically addressing tips for organizing students into groups, optimizing online resources, encouraging reflection through student blogging, and organizing extended projects.

Teaching in Virtual Environments: Faculty Experiences with Second Life

Mayuko Nakamura, Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology; Bill Shields, Geography-Geology; Jessie Krienert, Criminal Justice Sciences; Katherine Ellison, English

Additional Materials: Teaching in Virtual Environments: Faculty Experiences with Second Life

This panel will discuss the experiences of three faculty members who have taught in a 3D virtual reality environment called Second Life. Second Life is an online virtual world where 15 million “residents” interact with each other, create their own buildings, buy and sell products, attend events and meetings and basically do everything you would do in the real world. The panelists give overviews of what and how they taught in the virtual environment, the positive outcomes they gained from the experiences, and problems they encountered as they used the new environment for teaching. Additionally, they will discuss their future plans and promises of teaching in the virtual learning environment.

The Listening Teacher: Report on the Little Village Oral History Project

Elizabeth Hatmaker, English

This presentation will celebrate the completion of the Little Village Oral History Project, a project designed to help future urban teachers in a IDS “Texts and Contexts” course connect to the stories, challenges, and dreams of a senior class at Farragut Career Academy in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. This presentation will detail the process involved in utilizing an oral history design as well as the pedagogical framework employed in its conception. Specifically, the presentation will highlight the use of “rhetorical listening” as a model for challenging future teachers to better listen, represent, and respond to diverse student voices. In addition, the presentation will showcase a special online issue of Euphemism, ISU’s creative arts journal, devoted to the creative work of Farragut students.

Using Computer Technology to Provide Students with a 3-Dimensional Learning Experience

Jamie Perry, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Additional Materials: Using Computer Technology and Stereoscopy to Create a 3D Learning Experience for Students Studying Cleft Palate Surgery

Students enrolled in communication science and disorders program at Illinois State University should develop a firm understanding of the internal oral and pharyngeal anatomy. As speech language pathologists on cleft palate teams, these students will be expected to identify the steps and rational behind surgical procedures used for primary and secondary cleft palate repair. However, using 2D books in the classroom to gain an understanding of 3D concepts (e.g. anatomy and surgery) is often difficult for students. The goal of this project was to create a 3D student learning environment to promote understanding the internal anatomy of a child born with cleft palate as well as the surgical procedures commonly used. The study combined two previously published methodologies to create stereoscopic computer generated models based on MRI. A short video and discussion will be provided to demonstrate the numerous applications of 3D technology in the classroom setting and its application to other areas of science.

A Tale of Two Courses: Collaboration, Critical Inquiry, and Information Literacy

John F. Hooker, Communication; Sally Parry, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Chad Kahl, Milner Library; Nancy McKinney, English

Since the Summer of 2004, the Director of General Education has worked with the coordinators of COM 110, Communication as Critical Inquiry; ENG 101, Composition as Critical Inquiry; and Milner Library’s Instructional Services department to develop curriculum incorporating critical thinking, composition, communication, and information literacy. Rarely have faculty from different courses worked together to develop such an innovative partnership. Furthermore, librarians have rarely participated in curricular discussions. The committee has promoted student learning by creating a year-long sequence that better ties together the course goals for composition, communication, information literacy, and critical thinking. A common vocabulary was created to ease transition of students from one course to the other. Efforts have been made to allow students to utilize a speech or paper from the previous semester in a new rhetorical setting. Twice-yearly meetings allow COM 110 and ENG 101 instructors to meet with each other and the librarians assigned to their sections to discuss pedagogical issues. In Fall 2008, the committee undertook the task of discovering how instructors operationalize critical thinking in the two courses to help strengthen the link from first semester to second for ISU freshmen. This panel will report survey findings from instructors and students.

American Democracy Project (ADP) Initiatives 2: Building Civic and Political Connections and Engaging Students in the Community

Bob Bradley, Politics and Government; Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication; Bryan Asbury, School of Communication; Erik Rankin, Politics and Government; Jennifer Silva McDade, School of Communication; Andrew Matthews, School of Communication

Additional Materials: Infusion of Civic Engagement Into the Curriculum
Selected Measures of Significance from Pre and Post Test of Civic Engagement

Illinois State University prepares students through Educating Illinois and the American Democracy Project (ADP) to be informed and engaged citizens who will promote and further the collective goals of society. The University promotes active learning experiences through which students gain an awareness and understanding of civic and political engagement as a lifelong responsibility. Students leave ISU with the ability and motivation to improve the communities in which they live and work. Participants on this panel will discuss three initiatives (i.e., Washington, DC Civic Engagement Study Tour, Voter Initiatives, and Global Youth Service Day) designed to provide students’ opportunities for civic and political engagement.

Connectivism: A New Learning Theory for Today’s Digital Age

Cheri Toledo, Curriculum and Instruction; Julie Schumacher, Family and Consumer Sciences; Karen Dennis, Kinesiology and Recreation; Colleen Herald, College of Education

There’s a new line of thinking about the learning that takes place in distance education. Technology has made an impact on the way we live, communicate, and learn. Connectivism, a theory developed by George Siemens of University of Manitoba, is “a learning theory for today’s digital age.” From this session, you will take away both an understanding of the principles of connectivism and examples of connectivism in action on the ISU campus.

Creating the “International Classroom” and “International Seminar”

Stewart Winger, History; Issam Nassar, History; Andrew Hartman, History

Rather than teaching about the “Other,” have your student think with, talk with, and collaborate with students overseas! We used video teleconferencing to put students at ISU in the same “international classroom” with students at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Nassar’s courses in Middle Eastern History joined Egyptian students to discuss the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Dr. Hartman’s class in U.. History since 1945 joined an AUC class to discuss Gabriel Kolko’s The Age of War: The United States Confronts the World. And Dr. Winger’s entire course in U.. Religious History II ran jointly with a class at AUC. Students cooperated on projects via the internet. Conversing with Arab students their own age challenged stereotypes and stimulated curiosity about the outside world. Each side found the other more diverse in its views and more open to discussion than expected. In the longer course, students found that the spectrum of religious perspectives–from radically secular to Islamist or Evangelical–largely mirrored one another. We also sought to deepen historical understanding by exploiting the comparative perspective implicit in the approach. To this end we will run an upper level course on Comparative Fundamentalisms this Spring.

Establishing Student-Faculty Expectations in the Classroom

John H. Bantham, Management and Quantitative Methods

Additional Materials: Establishing Student-Faculty Expectations in the Classroom

Establishing shared expectations between students and instructors facilitates effective classroom management and desired student performance outcomes. It is typical for instructors to articulate a set of expectations for their students. However, it is not so typical for instructors to pdfument the expectations for which they themselves should be held accountable. This session describes the process that I employ in my classes to establish a set of shared expectations and to measure our collective performance against those objectives. The process is embraced by students and yields the outcomes that I am looking for. Examples of students’ comments on our performance relative to expectations will be included.

Reinvent Your Course, Revisited

Tim Fredstrom, School of Music; Patrick O’ Sullivan, Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology

Sometimes, tinkering with a course between semesters just isn’t enough–it needs a serious overhaul. You may have first designed the course as a newer assistant professor, you may have inherited it, or you may realize it is not realizing its potential. This is when you need to blow it up and start over so that you can take advantage of your growth as a teacher, make it your own, and enrich students’ learning experiences as you had always intended. This is the premise of the “Reinvent Your Course” workshop conducted for the second time during CTLT’s 2008 Summer Institute for the 21st Century Educator. Thirty ISU instructors from all ranks and from across campus worked together throughout the summer to reinvent their courses. Ten instructors were returning after completing the workshop during the previous summer, taking a second pass at their reinvented course or tackling a new one. In every case, the instructors’ journey was guided by key principles of effective instruction embodied in a curriculum development model supplemented by facilitator and peer coaching. For many, it was an eye-opening and rewarding experience that resulted in enduring transformation to their teaching. In this session, panelists will share their experiences in reinventing and teaching their reinvented courses. They will also share their insights and recommendations for colleagues who realize that their own courses may deserve a reinvention.

Teaching Linguistics to Non-Linguists

Jeannette Sanchez-Naranjo, Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Teaching an introductory Linguistics course is an important enterprise. It is even more so if it is taught in a second language. Most students who enroll into a Spanish linguistics class for the first time are thoroughly acquainted with the prescriptive notion of the grammar. They are less familiar with, and sometimes may even resist, the descriptive view that does not have a place in traditional grammar books. In this session, I will discuss a project supported by a CTLT Teaching and Learning Development Grant that aims to provide supplementary materials that help students expand their understanding of “grammar” and “linguistics,” while presenting linguistics as an accessible, exciting, and motivating field. I will present the antecedents of the project, the supplementary materials I developed, and achievements and limitations based on students’ feedback.

Diverse Lessons I Learned from Taking Part in International Service Learning

Maria Schmeeckle, Sociology and Anthropology, presenting with students Taylor McCabe, Haleigh Morgan, Joanie Grimm, Jordan Hill, Kara Miller, Mallory Atkenson, Rachel Kohlbecker, and Shauna Sutton

Many of us are familiar with service learning, but long-distance, international service learning may be a more remote idea. Global Children Outreach is an international service learning program based in ISU’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Our vision is to help street children, orphans, and deeply impoverished children around the world. Students from a variety of majors have been involved, developing educational materials, planning and implementing fundraising events, creating English language DVD clips, and investigating fair use of media sources for pdfumentaries. In this session a panel of students who have been involved with Global Children Outreach will share the global, sociological, task-specific, professional, and personal lessons they have learned from being involved in the program. It is our hope to inspire you by demonstrating the impact of service learning on the lives of students. This project has been supported by two CTLT Teaching and Learning Grants and a Summer Faculty Professional Development Grant.

Get a…Second Life?: Integrating the Avatar and Second Life in the College Classroom and Campus

Trevor Setvin, School of Communication; Melissa Kampa, School of Communication; Kurt Sies, School of Communication; Curtis Nash, School of Communication

Additional Materials: Get a…Second Life?: Integrating the Avatar and Second Life in the College Classroom and Campus

As we enter a new age of media and digital societies, there is an inherent need to adapt to these changes in educational contexts. With particular emphasis on Second Life, this presentation will focus on how avatars (virtual representations of self) are used to enhance learning communities as a whole (e.g., college campuses using them for admissions and tours) but more specifically in the classroom. Over 150 colleges in the U.. and abroad are using Second Life as a tool to enhance learning and professional development. This presentation will look generally at the overall value of this digital world and specifically at how these digital personae are used to achieve the goals noted above. While examples, statistics, research, and other evidence will be used to explore the subject, the presenters will also have developed a virtual tutorial to illustrate the content of this social online environment.

OMG: The Ghost of Texting Past in the Composition Classroom

Carol A. Lind, English

Additional Materials: Texting ABC’s
Texting Handout

Although they may be “digital natives,” not all the students in my first year composition classroom are what I consider computer literate. Some of my first year students don’t know how to attach a file to an email, know very little about word processing, and need a great deal of help getting up to speed on our classroom computers. It occurs to me that these students spend very little time writing on computers, preferring their cell phones and texting. This session will explore the ways in which texting manifests itself in student papers, pointing out the structure and grammar of texting and how these rules often find their way into student writing.

Preparing to Teach Online: Lessons Learned in the College of Business

Jean-Marie Taylor, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; Steven Goodwin, Marketing; Gary Hunter, Marketing; Matthew Nelson, Accounting; Terry Noel, Management and Quantitative Methods

Additional Materials: Preparing to Teach Online: Lessons Learned in the College of Business

Last spring, faculty members from the College of Business participated in a 10-week series of workshops sponsored by the CTLT aimed at helping to prepare these faculty members to teach online. In this panel presentation, faculty members from Accounting, Management & Quantitative Methods and Marketing will share the lessons they learned in preparing to teach online and offer suggestions for making your own experience a successful and enriching one.

Usage Games: Helping Students with Word Choices

Janice Neuleib, English

Additional Materials: Usage Games: Helping Students with Word Choices

Our students often commit usage (sometimes called grammar, but here I will define grammar as the description of the language) “errors” without knowing that the word they have chosen is inappropriate. For example, many readers object to the use of certain words such as hopefully, contact, prioritize, or eventuate. Writers also confuse words such as flaunt and flout. Then there are the questionable uses: would one ever write past history, fun event, or irregardless? We will have some fun discussing how readers and writers make word choice distinctions. This session will provide some entertaining activities for sorting out pesky usage issues and for helping students understand the reasons for usage choices. Participants will have an opportunity to work with the activities and to discuss the importance of various word choices. These activities originated in my Grammar for Writers course, but they also work for graduate students who are teaching courses with required papers or for faculty who hope to help their students avoid stigmatized words and phrases.

What Counts for Tenure and Promotion at ISU? Faculty Roles and Rewards Survey Results

Patrick O’Sullivan, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; Gary Koppenhaver, Finance, Insurance and Law; Connor Walters, Family and Consumer Sciences

In higher education, the tenure and promotion process is a vivid manifestation of a university’s identity and supporting values. Judgments about which scholarly work is valued and rewarded determine who merits a long-term institutional commitment in the form of tenure. At ISU, what forms of scholarly work are most highly valued and rewarded, and what forms are not? What should count more (and what should count less)? Insights into these topics are provided though a survey of ISU faculty conducted last spring for the Faculty Excellence Initiative Committee under the Provost’s Office. Results provide a glimpse into faculty perspectives on the tension between research and teaching priorities at ISU and sentiment for revisions in the university’s ASPT criteria. Session participants will be invited to discuss their own views on the topics as well as what the results mean for their own scholarly priorities.

A Measure of Student-Instructor Relationships (SIRS)

Patricia A. Jarvis, Psychology; Gary L. Creasey, Psychology; Elyse Knapcik, Psychology alum

We present a new measure entitled the “Student-Instructor-Relationship Measure” (SIRS) developed for our research on college students and their relationships with their instructors. We modified a measure of close relationships for use with students and statistically ascertained two theoretically relevant relationship dimensions: connectedness and anxiety. Connectedness reflected how connected the student felt towards the instructor (e.g., “It’s not difficult for me to feel connected to this instructor”). Anxiety reflected student concerns regarding instructor acceptance and their worthiness as students (e.g., “I worry a lot about my interactions with this instructor”). The two factors were negatively correlated, as expected. In a separate SoTL study, students (ages 18-24) completed the measure at two assessment times 3-4 weeks apart to assess the reliability of the measure. For the Connectedness factor, a bivariate correlation from Time 1 to Time 2 was .69 and for the Anxiety Factor, the correlation was .66 across the two assessment times evidencing adequate reliability. Cronbach’s alphas for the two factors were both .89. Thus, this new psychometrically sound measure (copies provided) should be useful to SoTL researchers studying the construct of student-instructor connectedness.

A Qualitative Investigation of Student of Student Engagement at ISU

Steve Taylor, Marketing; Steve Goodwin, Marketing; Gary Hunter, Marketing; Ryan Kelly, Undergraduate Marketing Student

Issues related to student engagement are growing in importance to SOTL inquiries nationwide. Critical to fully understanding how to engender greater student engagement in undergraduate education will be both qualitative and quantitative SOTL inquiries. This poster reflects a qualitative study conducted during the Fall 2008 that contributes to this purpose. The study reviewed a series of focus groups comprised of undergraduate students at ISU describing perceived antecedents and consequences of student engagement across both major- and non-major-related courses, as well as extracurricular activities. ISU educators and administrators will benefit from a greater understanding of student engagement in the educational process at ISU from the perspective of our own students, which should help us all to better craft pedagogical practices to encourage greater student engagement at the undergraduate level.

Bringing the Field Trip into the Classroom

Deborah Seifert, Accounting; Brice Seifert, Accounting

Brain scans show that cognition is most modified by experience. Presentation of material through means such as lecturing modifies cognition to a much lesser degree. Field trips would be similar to experience in modifying cognition. However, the practicality of field trips is limited by student schedules and other factors. We have embarked on a project to tape local companies and to thus bring the experience of a field trip into the classroom. This poster session will indicate the brain impact of experience versus other types of learning and will demonstrate some of the videos that we have made of local organizations.

Creating an Audio Library of Guest Speakers for a Victimology Course: Employing the iPod as a Method of Delivery

Jeffrey A. Walsh, Criminal Justice Sciences

The Victimology course offered in CJS is very popular with students and relies heavily on guest speakers, primarily individuals working in various capacities with victims, including: the State’s Attorney’s Office, a Victim/Witness Assistance Program, the State’s Attorney General’s Office, Victim Impact Panels, and Campus Victim Counseling Services. For the project, audio/video recordings of agreeable scheduled guest speakers were conducted. The recordings are available to present and future students through a newly created Podcasting library for Victimology. This podcasting initiative has facilitated the creation of the guest speaker audio/video library whereby speakers discuss their involvement with victims and the field of victimology. The library will be added to with each offering of CJS 342, Victimology. New teaching and learning opportunities are now available drawing on these clips. Using limited class time throughout the semester for all important guest speakers is no longer necessary.

Developing and Assessing Student Autonomy in the First-Year Experience of Psychology Majors

Derek Herrmann, Psychology; Dawn M. McBride, Psychology; Corinne Zimmerman, Psychology

PSY 111 was created to aid students in their first year of college as they transition to the university. The course goals include coverage of introductory material for psychology majors and helping students become more self-initiating and self-guiding as they begin their university major. The current study assessed how well PSY 111 was meeting these goals. Students completed pre-tests and post-tests for their description of a psychologist, multiple choice questions regarding psychology content, and questionnaires on attitudes about their autonomy as students. In addition, two of the four small sections of the course included research activities that asked students to think critically about the field and required more autonomous work as the semester progressed. The sections were compared on the above measures to allow us to test the effect of these activities. Students improved on content knowledge and understanding of the field from pretest to post-test in all sections of PSY 111. This improvement was significantly greater than the improvement in a comparable sample of non-majors taking a large section of PSY 110. Autonomy data, however, were inconclusive, as no measured change occurred during the semester.

Infusion of Civic Engagement into the Curriculum

Joseph Zompetti, School of Communication; Steve Hunt, School of Communication; Jennifer Silva McDade, School of Communication

The School of Communication has embarked on a program to inject civic and political engagement into the curriculum and then assess the infusion of civic engagement into the classroom. We examined the several elements coinciding with the adoption of civic engagement into the classroom, including the skills learned, the efficacy, and the knowledge gained regarding civic engagement. This poster explains the process, implementation, and evaluation of the ISU’s School of Communication’s integration of a unified and systematic process of infusing civic engagement into the communication curriculum.

Instructor Behavior, Achievement Messages, and Learner Autonomy: A Longitudinal Study

Gary Creasey, Psychology; Patricia Jarvis, Psychology; Denise Faigao, Psychology alum

Our lab has documented that connected, non-threatening relationships with instructors are tied to the development of autonomous, self-regulated learning in college students. In this study, we examined the role of instructor achievement messages (e.g., advocates mastery goal structure) and instructor behavior (e.g., teacher immediacy) in forecasting the development of student-instructor relationships and positive achievement. The lab has orientations in a sample of 75 college students. Students completed surveys that captured the study constructs three times over the course of a semester in a randomly determined class selected by the researchers. In all analyses, baseline measures of student achievement orientations were treated as control variables. Replicating previous findings, we documented that students who reported highly connected, non-threatening relationships with instructors reported improvements in achievement orientations (e.g., more confidence, greater learner autonomy). In terms of predicting the development of these relationships, it was documented that certain instructor behaviors (e.g., high verbal immediacy) mediated the association between positive achievement messages and these affiliations. These data suggest that although it is important to set a good educational tone for the students in terms of achievement messages, these messages carry little weight if they are not communicated well. Thus, beyond what we say to students, the study results indicate that the “way” we communicate our achievement messages is paramount in influencing student achievement orientations over time.

Students’ Use of Websnapshots as a Final Project Presentation Tool in CJS Research Methods

Jessie Krienert, Criminal Justice Sciences; Jeffrey A. Walsh; Criminal Justice Sciences

Students in CJS 300, Research Methods, participated in a semester-long research project combining active learning, multiple methodologies, interactive group projects and web-based technology to enhance student learning. Final project results were presented via dynamic Websnapshots created using The Carnegie Foundation’s KEEP Toolkit. The project culminated with several students presenting at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Short-term goals included enhanced student learning, group work, web design and content management, public speaking skills, and the opportunity to actively participate in a research project. Long-term goals included the creation of a self-sustained interactive and dynamic learning exercise that can be replicated each semester in CJS 300.

The Value Added Effect of Using Clickers in a Graduate Research Methods and Statistics Course

Lydia Kyei-Blankson, Educational Administration and Foundations

Using a quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the value-added effect of using clickers on student learning in a graduate level research methods and statistics course. Participants in the study were of students enrolled in two research methods and statistics courses offered in the fall of 2008 at ISU. The instructor, course content, and materials were the same for both classes. One of the classes was assigned to the experimental condition, using clickers as a supplement to the other pedagogical strategies used in instruction. The control group did not use clickers. Pre- and post-tests were used to assess student learning outcomes in both groups. Students’ perception of their learning experience was examined. T-tests were used to evaluate differences in learning outcomes. The findings and implications of the study will be presented in this poster.

Unexpected Discoveries of Influences on Students’ Learning Engagement in an Applied Arts Course

John Walker, College of Fine Arts

Students who take Graphic Design History express a desire for their experience in the class to help them be better designers in practice. This project set out to examine if and how students’ engagement in problem solving in graphic design studio courses is influenced by having taken graphic design history. The investigator hypothesized that students who have taken graphic design history would not only posses knowledge of the subject, but that they would apply this knowledge to subsequent courses, while students who have not taken graphic design history would not. It was also predicted that the application of this knowledge could be observed and measured. The learning activities of students enrolled in an upper-level graphic design course were investigated during the spring 2008 semester. A portion of the students in the class had taken graphic design history, while others had not. Each student was asked to keep a journal during one assignment; critiques were observed during this assignment; and finally, each student was interviewed after the completion of the assignment. While the investigator gathered useful information to inform and shape the methods used in teaching graphic design history; broader discoveries about the curriculum and the transference of learning from one course to another were also made.