2011 CTLT Annual University-Wide Symposium on Teaching and Learning

Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Marriott Hotel and Conference Center
Normal, IL

State Your Passion for Teaching and Learning

Many thanks to all those who made the 2011 Teaching and 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

The Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology is proud to announce that Eric Liu will give the Keynote Address at the 2011 Teaching and Learning Symposium, which will be held on January 5, 2011 at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in uptown Normal.

A dynamic leader, educator, and author, Eric Liu inspires and energizes audiences everywhere.

In settings ranging from the World Economic Forum to the Seeds of Compassion event with the Dalai Lama, from the campus of Harvard to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, Liu brings a message of possibility and connection that is unique and powerful.

Hailed by The New York Times and The Washington Post as a leading voice of his generation, Liu has served in senior leadership roles in politics, media, and business. He was a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and later Clinton’s Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor. He has been a regular on-air commentator for MSNBC and has been named by the World Economic Forum a “Global Leader of Tomorrow.” And he has authored several acclaimed books that showcase his power as a storyteller and idea-generator.

Liu’s acclaimed book Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life describes the ways of transformative mentors from all walks and was named the Official Book of National Mentoring Month. The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker – his book about race, identity, and assimilation – was a New York Times Notable Book and was featured in the PBS documentary Matters of Race. The True Patriot, co-authored with Nick Hanauer, was a national bestseller and argues that progressives must reclaim patriotism. And most recently, he is author, with Scott Noppe-Brandon, of Imagination First: Unlocking the Power Of Possibility, which reveals a set of practices for cultivating imagination at work, at school, and at home.

What connects his wide-ranging work, and what Liu speaks about with passion and clarity, is the power of being part of something larger than oneself. Whether the topic is mentorship, imagination, diversity, or American identity, Liu sparks the awareness that we always are influencing one another and creating new possibility.

Keynote Presentation

Budget 101: Making Sense of the University Budget Process

Mardell Wilson, Provost’s Office; Barb Blake, Finance and Planning

The University budget is a complex system. Challenging economic times often prompt additional concerns and confusion about the budget process. Developing a basic knowledge regarding the guidelines and principles related to how the University budget is established and managed can serve to better inform the campus. Maintaining open channels of communication regarding the budget is essential. Join us as we outline the budget process at Illinois State University and share aspects relevant to everyone. We will strive to keep the session simple, informative, and fun. Yes, budgets can be fun!

Can Civic Engagement Projects Spark Student Passion?

Laura Erskine, Management & Quantitative Methods; Danny Mielneczek, Marketing

This presentation describes the Community Organization Research Project (CORP), a semester-long group civic engagement project used in a management decision-making class. The project was included in the curriculum to help students make connections between what they learn in the classroom and the ways those lessons might be applied in an organizational setting, specifically, by a local not-for-profit organization. The purpose of this project is to assess those connections by quantitatively and qualitatively measuring the change in values, attitudes, and competencies of students’ (and thus future business leaders’) decision-making skills resulting from participation in the service learning project. Students’ enthusiasm and passion for the experience were also assessed through process checks during the project.

Civic Engagement at the U.S. Social Forum: Off-Campus Learning

Noha Shawki, Politics and Government

This presentation will describe a project that the presenter conducted with nine ISU students at the United States Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan, in June 2010. The project incorporated elements of civic engagement, collaborative research, and experiential learning. The presentation will have three foci. First, it will describe the project’s format and teaching and learning goals. Second, it will present the key learning outcomes from students’ perspectives; these will be distilled from students’ exit papers. Third, it will propose a set of best practices that can inform similar projects that take place off-campus and promote civic engagement and/or experiential learning. I hope to engage with other presenters and session attendees in a discussion of best practices in designing and leading innovative off-campus learning opportunities that involve active learning and/or collaborative research. Finally, the presentation will conclude with a few personal reflections about the theme of this year’s conference: stating our passion for teaching and learning. These reflections will focus on how this and similar projects can be very helpful in terms of an instructors’ professional development and how such projects can help reignite and sustain our passion for teaching, research, and service.

Developing and Marketing “Green” Products: A Business and Engineering Technology Collaboration

Peter Kaufman, Marketing; Lou Reifschneider, Technology

Companies are trying to develop and market “green” products, yet understanding how these products are made and how best to market them is not well understood. The biobased project approach described in this session enables senior level and graduate level student teams to work directly with manufacturers and marketers of primarily biobased products to find buyers for their products. In fall 2009, 10 teams participated and in spring 2010, 18 teams participated. The technology students benefitted by gaining experience in dialoging with marketing student peers while working on a project that has marketing objectives. In this way, functional silos were broken down. Teams were provided with protocol documents on how to plan and conduct a conference call, how to use email effectively, and how to use a cold call log. As a result, all students interacted professionally with working business people using email and developing verbal communication skills during the conference calls. This experience can be listed on student resumes under work experience.

Interdisciplinary Team-Based Local Sustainability Efforts: Green Light on Energy Efficiency

Peter Kaufman, Marketing; Lou Reifschneider, Technology; Tom Bierma, Health Sciences; Dale Fitzgibbons, Management and Quantitative Methods

Complex social challenges often require interdisciplinary solutions to effectively address them. We describe a course where students from environmental health, business, and technology helped small businesses in Bloomington-Normal to reduce their energy expenses and reduce energy consumption. The objective of the course was to form cross-functional student teams led by faculty in diverse areas of expertise to examine an issue related to the development of sustainable communities in central Illinois. The topics for the course will vary from year to year, but they will address the available technology and the best practices that foster more sustainable communities. The scope of each semester’s project will include research of the available technology and current best practices. Critical analysis of these findings will inform the community outreach component of the project. At term’s end, each team should demonstrate what client interaction and what technology (types of CFLs) yielded the best outcome of energy conservation for clients in our local area. The findings of the teams were documented such that they provided a template of best practices that future conservation teams could implement with similar or even better success. We would like to acknowledge our co-contributors: Dr. Tom Bierma and Dr. Dale Fitzgibbons.

Raising the Bar: An Intervention to Promote Civility and Academic Integrity

Sheryl Jenkins, Mennonite College of Nursing; Deb Stenger, Mennonite College of Nursing; Wendy Woith, Mennonite College of Nursing

The incidence of incivility and academic dishonesty in nursing education has become a national problem. Faculty and students are concerned because incivility and dishonesty disrupt the teaching-learning environment, damage relationships, and increase stress, which impacts the quality of nursing education and can negatively influence patient care. Nursing faculty designed a program to raise students’ awareness of civility and academic integrity. Pre-licensure nursing students completed surveys, taped interviews, and kept online journals. A subset of student leaders also participated in monthly civility journal clubs. This study provided insight into student nurses’ perceptions of civility as a concept that encompasses respect, equality, caring, building relationships, and working together. Journal club participants reported changes in behaviors and attitudes toward civility; they were more aware of the negative effects of incivility, more likely to accept others without judging, and more likely to refuse to participate in uncivil behavior. Participants understood the concept of academic integrity and were able to describe relationships between academic integrity, patient outcomes, and professional outcomes. Panel members will discuss three aspects of this study: 1) research findings related to civility, 2) development of the civility journal club intervention, and 3) research finding related to academic integrity.

Sharing Our Passion for Urban Education Initiatives

Deborah Curtis, College of Education; Patrick O'Sullivan, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; Jeff Bakken, Special Education; Dakota Pawlicki, Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline and Partnerships; Robert Fisher, College of Education; Ellis Hurd, Curriculum and Instruction; Susan A. Hildebrandt, Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Faculty and staff involved in the TEACHER+PLUS program will share an update on the grant-funded urban education project at Illinois State University, primarily focusing on outcomes for ISU students and the institution. They will share details of key projects including neighborhood partnerships, STEP-UP, TEACHER+PLUS Passport, departmental initiatives, course redesign, and scholarship. This overview of the project will note major accomplishments, current activities, and future initiatives.

Solving Freshman Composition’s Relevance Issue

Rebecca Anderson, English

Freshman composition courses fulfill a standard graduation requirement at many American colleges and universities. These courses are requirements, and not electives, because American universities and businesses recognize how important effective writing skills are for students to succeed not only in their chosen majors, but also in their future professions. Nevertheless, from many students’ perspectives, these courses occupy a problematic position in their academic programs. From their viewpoint, the teaching of composition by instructors and departments situated outside their fields of study makes the work of the course appear irrelevant. Many instructors address this relevance issue by designing writing projects enabling students to grapple with topics relating to their fields of study. I propose taking the additional steps of revising instructor rhetoric and synthesizing assignment components to explicitly connect the goals of composition coursework with those of the professional workplace: the production of communications noteworthy for their substance and skillful presentation. In addition to setting forth the components of a sample workplace-oriented composition course in my multimodal presentation, I engage audience members with discussion regarding strategies for incorporating this instructional approach into their own current syllabi.

Writing in Large Lecture Classes: Teaching and Learning Reflections from POL 106

Shamira Gelbman, Politics and Government

This presentation will draw on nearly 100 students’ written reflections on their learning experiences in my Spring 2010 section of POL 106 (U.S. Government and Civic Practices) to explore the teaching and learning outcomes of their participation in weekly in-class writing assignments in a large lecture format General Education course. The writing assignments’ design, implementation, and grading procedures will be discussed, especially as they pertain to the logistical feasibility of making large lecture classes writing-intensive. The presentation’s main focus, though, will be on the students’ articulations of the learning outcomes they achieved by completing the weekly writing assignments, including their improved understanding of and appreciation for course subject matter and its relevance to their non-political science academic and professional goals, improved critical thinking and communication skills, greater confidence in their ability to contribute meaningfully to political discourse, and a newfound willingness to engage in political and civic affairs.

Diversity of Passion in Teaching

Pam Hoff, Educational Administration and Foundations; Venus Evans-Winters, Educational Administration and Foundations; Miranda Lin, Curriculum and Instruction; Lezah Brown, Health Sciences; Mayuko Nakamura, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Passion is defined culturally. People from a variety of cultures express their passions differently. When passions of different cultures crash, it creates dissonance and discomfort among students and colleagues. Our panel members have all experienced this dissonance and discomfort and would like to share it with the ISU community. In this session, faculty of diverse cultures will discuss how their expressions of passion are perceived and misunderstood by students and colleagues and how passion is defined in a narrow euro-centric worldview. The critical awareness gained in this session will also help faculty understand complexity and dynamics of passion, as related to teaching and learning. It will also help faculty conceptualize how they can create learning environments that are open and safe for all members of our classroom communities. Finally, this diverse perspective on passion will show you how you can ignite passion among your students and help them find their own passion as well.

Good to Go: Bridging Community Sustainability with Student Learning

Enid Cardinal, Sustainability; Bruce Bergethon, WGLT; Mike McCurdy, WGLT; Karla Huffman, Communication; Jeff Courtright, Communication

The Good to Go Commuter Challenge debuted this year to promote community sustainability. The project partners included WGLT, the Office of Sustainability, and two courses in the School of Communication. The project provided not only community benefits but also learning opportunities for students. Participants in this session will leave with a better understanding of how to develop a sustainability project that integrates students, campus, and community partners.

Growing the Civic Engagement and Responsibility Minor

Lance Lippert, Communication; Wendi Whitman, University College; Kristine Kawanna, Communication

This panel will provide an update of the University’s Civic Engagement and Responsibility Minor, documenting progress, growing pains, and future directions. This University-wide initiative is in its first year and systematically institutionalizes Illinois State University’s core value of civic engagement and participative citizenship for students. The panelists will present information regarding the implementation of the minor, student recruitment, funding opportunities for faculty and departments, partnership-building opportunities, future funding opportunities, and pedagogical issues involving electives as well as course content relevant to civic engagement. Faculty, administrators, advisors, students, and staff are encouraged to attend this interactive conversation regarding the growth and direction of this interdisciplinary minor.

Igniting a Passion for Publication: Active Learning through Student Journal Publishing

Michaelene Cox, Politics and Government

This presentation builds upon a recent CTLT-funded research project examining the contested pedagogical merits of student research journals. One benefit of student publishing is especially intriguing--learning by doing. It is here that a teacher-scholar’s passion for research can be particularly infectious. Many students approach the discipline as passive consumers, often drawing exclusively upon the scholarship or ideas of others for writing their class papers. Directly engaging with a community of scholars to produce original contributions propels student learning in new and challenging directions. To that end, I will share strategies for preparing students to enter the world(s) of research publication; assignments such as peer review and conference/publication proposal writing incorporated into my graduate seminars, and information presented by a series of guest speakers at a recent CTLT-funded workshop, “Writing for the Profession(s).”

ISU is Ranked in the 95^th Percentile for Binge Drinking: Shhhhh!

Cindy Kerber, Mennonite College of Nursing; Dan Holland, Physics; Julian Westerhout, Politics and Government; Jim Almeda, Health Promotion and Wellness

Illinois State University is passionate about many of its accomplishments. However, ranking at the 95% percentile in the United States for binge drinking is not one of them. In 2010, 77.4% of underage students at Illinois State reported consuming alcohol in the previous 30 days, and 61.3% of students reported binge drinking in the previous two weeks. Among ISU students, 48.5% had memory loss; 42.9% got into an argument or fight; 23.6% have been in trouble with police, residence hall or other college authorities; 23.7% have been hurt or injured in the past year. All of these statistics for ISU are higher than our reference group of colleges. In this interactive session, Dan Holland (Physics), Cindy Kerber (Mennonite), Jim Almeda (Health Promotion and Wellness), and Julian Westerhout (Politics and Government) will share statistics about emergency room transports and alcohol violations, how high-risk alcohol consumption impacts grades, and some of the academic consequences students are reporting related to high risk drinking. Faculty will be given an opportunity to discuss what they are observing and dealing with in their classrooms. There will also be time to discuss effective strategies and techniques for improving classroom performance and management.

When Departments Approach the Teaching Evaluations

George Byrns, Health Sciences; Chris Grieshaber, Health Sciences; Meridee Van Draska, Health Sciences; Marilyn Morrow, Health Sciences

In the spring of 2010, the Department of Health Sciences formally adopted a teaching evaluation strategy that attempts to integrate student evaluations, peer reviews, and other evidence of good teaching into a comprehensive summative assessment. Student evaluations are captured using IDEAs, a nationally normed system. The results are converted into a 5 point scale based on T-scores and account for 40% of the individual’s evaluation. An annual peer review accounts for 20% of the evaluation and is based on a 3 point scale. To receive a top score of 3, the individual must write a reflection on the results. The remaining 40% of the evaluation is based on a review of an individual’s portfolio, using a 4 point scale. The intent is that deficiencies identified in peer or student evaluations will result in reflection and corrective steps in an individual’s development plan.

You, Inc.: Empowering Students to Pursue their Passion through Personal Branding

Richard F. Kane, Family and Consumer Sciences

In his most recent book Me 2.0, author and personal branding authority Dan Schawbel summarizes this revolutionary concept as the process by which individuals and entrepreneurs differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it across platforms with a consistent message and image to achieve a specific goal. By leveraging the reach of social networks and blogs, students from any major are empowered to pursue their passion and display their talents in a way never before possible. Personal branding enables students to work toward recognition as experts in their niches, establish reputation, credibility and rapport with thought leaders in their field, reverse the roles of recruitment to advance their careers, and build self-confidence.

Character Portrayals: Embodying American Slavery and Music in the Classroom

Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, Music

Agooooo…/Amee…/Get ’em out of their seats/Onto their feet/Clap, sing, dance/Old House, Tear it Down/Koo-koo-yi-ko/Ko-ko-yii-ko/Onto their feet/Keep ’em movin. Music educators and performance scholars have long established the importance of incorporating a hands-on approach into the teaching process. Experiential methods help students gain in-depth understandings of concepts. Additionally, they help instill passion for learning, confidence, and improved self-esteem. In my World Music, Non-Western Music Literature, and Black Music classes, students sing, dance, play games, and complete assignments that are challenging and transforming. I designed a project for my Black Music I (MUS 153) class in Fall 2009, which requires students to research and study the life of an enslaved African in the United States of America, Brazil, or Haiti, and then bring that character to life through a 2-minute monologue with song. The assignment grew out of a larger project “Choreographing Memories,” which examines how different arts organizations choreograph, interpret, and perform slavery. Part of the research was undertaken in Colonial Williamsburg, VA, and partially supported by a CTLT Faculty Travel Grant. In this presentation, I will share the results—excerpts from student performances and feedback—and insights gained from those Character Portrayals.

Community Arts and Pre-service Educators: A Study of Civic Engagement

Judith Briggs, Art; Kim McHenry, Art

ISU pre-service arts educators, led by Art Education graduate student Kim McHenry and faculty mentors, Dr. Judith Briggs, School of Art, and Michael Vetere, School of Theatre, conducted six Friday Arts Experiences at the Bloomington-Normal Boys and Girls Club. Working in a small group format, pre-service arts educators led ten to thirty club members in creating visual art projects. The Friday Arts Experience goals included the promotion of empathetic understanding of K-8 student learning through active teaching; the promotion of pre-service teacher-student on-site social relationships using arts-based curriculum; the promotion of a strong sense of social equity among pre-service teachers; the exposure and evaluation of preconceived notions of low-income students; and the promotion of a desire for continued involvement with community service. As part of the SoTL Civic Engagement/Service Learning Small Grants Program, Experience organizers asked ISU participant volunteers to reflect upon their involvement and the impact that it had on their attitudes towards teaching students whose families have socio-economic difficulties. This qualitative study analyzes and reveals attitude shifts and insights as documented by pre-experience and post-experience participant questionnaires and by organizers’ field notes. We recognize Michael Vetere, who could not be here for this presentation.

Greening the Curriculum: A Critical Observation of New Urbanism and Sustainability in Uptown Normal

Joan Brehm, Sociology and Anthropology

As part of my General Education course People in Places: Understanding and Developing Community (SOA 240), I incorporated a unit of material that focused specifically on the broader issue of sustainable community. In an effort to get students to connect with the material in a more direct manner, they were given an assignment that required them to take a directed walking tour of Uptown Normal to observe and reflect on specific examples of New Urbanism, Smart Growth. In a written assignment, students were instructed to use principles of critical thought to discuss specific elements of New Urbanism and Smart Growth, and relate these observations to the broader issue of sustainability. This presentation presents qualitative findings that examine how this assignment impacted students’ understanding of sustainability and their perceptions of this principle at a local level in a community where they live, work, learn, and play.

iFad or Teaching Tool? Exploring the Educational Uses of the iPad in the School of Communication

John Hooker, Communication; Maria Moore, Communication; Lance Lippert, Communication; John Huxford, Communication

Is the iPad simply an iFad, or does it offer tangible benefits to educators? The release of the iPad has been met with both acclaim and criticism by those in higher education; however, there is little disagreement that the iPad provides an ideal platform for examining trends in media convergence. With this trend in mind, the School of Communication recently diffused iPads to all full-time faculty. Beyond using the device as a tool for understanding new, mediated communication patterns, faculty were also asked to explore the potential classroom-based applications of this new technology. Panelists in this session will describe how they are incorporating the iPad into their teaching and research. Panelists will also discuss strategies for supporting faculty use of the iPad as well as the advantages and challenges of teaching with this new technology.

Magic in the Classroom: Stating my Passion Pedagogically

Joseph Zompetti, Communication

I am an amateur magician and enthusiast. I also study the rhetorical components of magical performances. Exploring the intersection of rhetoric and magic greatly enhanced my research agenda while simultaneously making it exponentially more enjoyable. As a result of my research interests, I began using magic tricks in the classroom, at first as an attention-grabbing device, then as a reward for good classroom behavior, and now as a metaphor or meaning-generating device as I integrate complicated theoretical concepts in to my teaching. For this presentation, I will discuss how I combine magic with my pedagogy and the impact it has had in my classroom. In essence, this presentation will demonstrate my passion for magic and my passion for teaching, and how I blend the two together.

Quality Online Course: Lessons Learned & Transformations

Jean-Marie Taylor, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; Linda Clemmons, History; Daniel Breyer, Philosophy; Rodger Singley, Marketing; Joe Smaldino, Communication Sciences and Disorders

In response to the recommendations of the Distance Education Task Force Final Report in 2009, 27 faculty members from across campus spent much of the summer of 2010 involved in an intensive, 45-hour (11-week) program sponsored by the Office of the Provost. The goal was to assist faculty in designing new online offerings for the university. In this session, you’ll meet several participants from the Design a Quality Online Course ’10 cohort who will discuss their experiences designing an online course through this program, and reflect on how this experience has not only shaped their views of designing quality online courses, but also transformed the way they think about and teach their face-to-face courses. Participants will share the lessons they learned in preparing to teach online, and offer suggestions for making your own experience a successful and enriching one.

Re-presenting Good Teaching: The Rhetorical Effects of Conceptualizing ‘Good’ Teachers as ‘Passionate’ Teachers

Julie Jung, English; Kellie Sharp-Hoskins, English; Chris Mays, English

As the 2011 CTLT call for papers illustrates, for teachers “passion” is widely considered in pedagogical discourse to be a desirable quality. Specifically, as the CTLT call puts it, passion is “a factor in increased work satisfaction, decreased burnout” and can lead to “an increase in teacher-perceived adaptive student behaviors.” While undoubtedly part of an effective ethical disposition, passion as a way of being emphasizes passion as a way of knowing; that is, conceiving of oneself as passionate entails a specific understanding of one’s classroom practices and interactions. In this session we will explore how the term “passion” can preclude teachers from thinking about themselves and their teaching in potentially useful different ways. We first outline theories of emotion in order to examine how the figure of the passionate teacher individualizes emotion and renders only certain bodies as capable of being ‘good’ teachers. We then draw on contemporary rhetorical theory to investigate how conceptualizing their work with students as “passionate” can prevent teachers from developing useful alternative narratives about their teaching. We conclude by applying these theories to an analysis of one presenter’s teaching award portfolio, focusing on how ‘bad’ teaching moments were cut in the pursuit of demonstrating teaching excellence.

Stating our Passion for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Studying Civic Engagement and Service Learning

Kathleen McKinney, Cross Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Educational Administration and Foundation; Steve Hunt, Communication

The CASTL (Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) work group is focusing on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) about civic engagement and service learning projects. Recent data collection efforts are guiding the team’s curricular and co-curricular initiatives with a campus-wide, multi-disciplinary approach. We will update participants about our work plan, discuss key initiatives including workshops, training, and research, and provide ideas for other colleagues looking to develop scholarship related to teaching and learning efforts involving civic engagement and service learning.

Better Together: University Partnerships for Civic Engagement

Lance Lippert, Communication; Deborah Halperin, Action Research Center, Illinois Wesleyan University; Dick Folse, Theatre; Joan Brehm, Sociology and Anthropology; Sherrilyn Billger, Economics

In this session, we will discuss several projects in Bloomington-Normal that represent a partnership between Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University. Such partnerships bring about exciting community collaborations that provide civically engaged learning experiences for faculty and students. From sociology to communication and economics to fine arts, faculty from both campuses will describe the pedagogical benefits of these exciting projects.

Class-A-fied LIVE - Bring your Course Content to Life!!!

Alauna Akins, Communication

Each generation comes with its own methods of receiving, processing, and disseminating information. This presents a challenge for teachers faced with having to adapt their attitudes and practices for each new generation. On the other hand, the basic challenge for teachers remains constant: getting and keeping students engaged in the learning process inside the classroom. Also helpful is the fact that some students of each generation are willing to teach the teacher their way of learning. Teachers who are able to integrate some elements of these ways of learning into their teaching methods can enjoy students who are fully engaged in the learning process because they have developed a profound respect for the passion exemplified in a multi-faceted approach of unconventional methods. For example, in an era when social networking and reality television consume the time/attention of many students, the social exchange inside of the classroom becomes more important. Learn why using a talk show format is a great pedagogical tool for increasing students’ level of self-efficacy and facilitating a more collaborative learning environment. Establishing in the classroom a social climate similar to that which students are exposed to outside of the classroom can transform and greatly enhance the nature of the relationship between teaching and learning.

Continuing the Conversation with Eric Liu

Eric Liu, Keynote Speaker

Join Keynote Speaker Eric Liu in Redbird E for a chance to purchase a copy of one of his books, have it signed, and—most important—continue the conversation begun with his remarks at the luncheon.

Liu’s books, Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility ($24.95; hardback) and Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life (13.95; paperback) will be available for purchase through Barnes & Noble. Faculty/staff who present their ISU IDs can purchase books at a 10% discount.

Creating an Online Course Designed to Reach International Audiences

Kimberly McCord, Music

This session will focus on the development of an online course designed to reach an international audience. The course is Children with Disabilities and Music and is in collaboration with Abilities!, a non-profit program in New York. With the support of CTLT, online video modules were developed and posted on the Internet. In addition to the video modules, course content will include live web discussions with experts in special education.

Not Your Standard Student Presentations!

Jodi Hallsten, Communication

Can you assign student presentations in a lecture hall with 200 students! YES - you can! I’ve discovered some modern technologies that make it both possible and fun! In my lecture hall this term, 32 student groups were assigned class concepts and asked to create 5-minute mediated presentations that both taught and applied the concept. The groups used their own video editing software, free easy-to-use online animation software, or free easy-to-use online storybook-creating software. In this presentation, I’ll share one or more of these presentations, discuss how the project turned out, and make suggestions regarding the use of this assignment and these technologies in the future.

Overcoming Sustainable Apparel Design Challenges with Problem-Based Learning

Jennifer L. Banning, Family and Consumer Sciences; Hae Jin Gam, Family and Consumer Sciences

As consumers’ social and environmental concerns have grown in the last decade, so has interest in eco-fashion. Behind fast-changing fashion trends, the apparel industry generates substantial environmental and resource depletion problems throughout the textile lifecycle, from production of materials to disposal of clothing. To respond to these trends, fashion designers and merchandisers have been motivated to practice sustainability in design and production. Some sustainable options are available, such as organic fibers and environmentally safe dyes. Still, there are challenges for apparel designers and merchandisers, such as a limit to the production time that can be spent on a garment or the lack of availability of sustainable materials necessary to construct the garment. To help undergraduate apparel design students problem-solve different approaches to sustainable garment design, a problem-based learning project was created and implemented in an upper-level apparel design course in Spring 2009. Problem-based learning was used since a real-world situation could be created by the instructor and worked through by the students in a way similar to that which students will experience in a post-graduation work setting. Student feedback following the project was largely positive, with most students indicating they would continue using sustainable practices in future work.

Passion for Fashion History Promotes Student Learning

Jennifer L. Banning, Family and Consumer Sciences; Tricia Widner Johnson, Family and Consumer Sciences

The Lois Jett Historic Costume Collection provides over 2,000 items of dress dating from the 1870s to present day to help bring the past alive in Apparel Merchandising and Design (AMD) courses in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. These presenters are passionate about historic dress and seek out ways to use the collection in their teaching. Thus, this session will detail the ways garments and other items of apparel from the collection help AMD students make connections between the past and present in tangible ways and describe how artifacts in general can help add interest and variety to teaching. For example, the use and study of artifacts in teaching can help students understand the people who made or used the items, providing gateways to new knowledge. In addition, student projects in fashion history courses require students to think like researchers as they examine individual 19th and 20th century-era garments and write artifact analysis reports of their findings. Students in fashion promotion choose collection items to use in window displays featuring specific historical periods. Finally, apparel design students use collection items as inspiration when creating new garment designs.

State Your Passion for General Education: Goals, Assessment Methods, and Outcomes

Renee Tobin, University Assessment Services and Psychology; Alycia M. Hund, Psychology; Stephen Hunt, Communication; Brian Aitken, University College

General Education provides students with a broad, common foundation of study upon which to build an undergraduate education. This panel of faculty, staff, and administrators from the Council for General Education and University Assessment Services will provide: (1) an overview of our General Education program, including program goals, scope, and format (i.e., inner core courses focusing on foundational skills, middle core courses highlighting interdisciplinary perspectives, and outer core courses illustrating varieties of disciplinary knowledge), (2) an overview of the Institutional Artifact Portfolio process being utilized to assess the four shared learning outcomes associated with General Education (i.e., developing students’ capacity to think critically and solve problems, to advance public opportunity, to comprehend and contribute to diverse and global perspectives, and to be stewards of life-long learning), and (3) outcomes from the first wave of Institutional Artifact Portfolio assessments identifying public opportunity as an area of strength and critical inquiry and problem solving as more limited in nature. Interpretation of diverse and global perspectives and life-long learning is ongoing.

The Accidentally Open Course: Screencapture for the Masses

Jeff Grabb, Mennonite College of Nursing

One of the latest trends in higher education is the “open course” that lets anyone utilize and/or peruse its materials. Now imagine creating such a course almost completely by accident! That was the real world case of Arts Technology 300 short courses offered in Spring 2010. Software instructional podcasts created with screencapture software proved popular not only with students in the class, but with others outside the class as well. Data from iTunesU indicates the instructional videos continued to be popular downloads well into the fall of 2010, long after the short courses had concluded. This session will briefly examine why the screencapture methodology is so suitable to an open course environment, examine the difficulties and lessons learned, and explore what the data from iTunesU can tell us about how these materials are being used.

Combining Computer-based Learning Modules with Practical Research Experience: Innovations in Content Delivery and Experiential Learning

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

We will discuss and model our web-based research methods and subject matter training “modules” which will be used in the near future to conduct an on campus study of animal abuse and pet abandonment. The interactive modules and associated research project provide a comprehensive and replicable active learning research guide for students. Through the use of SoftChalk training modules, students learn to apply fundamental principles of research methods and gain valuable technical writing, research project conceptualization, data analysis, and presentation skills. The module templates and subsequent project summary are easily adaptable to topics across disciplines and will be made available on request to presentation attendees.

Creating Family Assessment Portfolios: Outcomes of a Service-Learning Project

James R. Thompson, Special Education; Karla Doepke, Psychology; Lauryn Toby, Psychology; Yuwadee Viriyangkura, Special Education

Students enrolled in the honors section of SED 101 completed a service-learning project where they created Family Assessment Portfolios (FAPs) for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who were served by The Autism Project at ISU. The Family Assessment Portfolio (FAP) is a new tool in special education that consists of scrapbooks, web-based profiles, and movies that families of preschool children with disabilities use to introduce their children to future educators.

This service-learning project was investigated in regard to the learning outcomes of students who created the FAPs and the satisfaction levels of parents on whose children the materials were created. Student responses to reflective questions at three points in time during the semester provided qualitative data to evaluate student learning outcomes. Data were analyzed using procedures consistent with the Constant Comparative Method and naturalistic inquiry. Specific methodologies used to negotiate coding schemes and identify themes will be shared. Quantitative data from anonymous responses to survey questions were collected to further evaluate student learning outcomes as well as degree of parent satisfaction. Findings will be summarized and conclusions will be shared regarding implementing a discipline-based service-learning project where there is a close link between the course content and the service experience.

Meanings and Benefits of Interdisciplinary Education: Reflections on Gerontology in the Development of Students in Health and Social Services

Chris Wellin, Sociology and Anthropology

The calls for interdisciplinary education are pervasive; they promise to help students and researchers alike develop more holistic and applicable knowledge of subject areas. The field of gerontology (i.e., the study of social, historical, and cultural aspects of aging) is a case in point. Though housed in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology at Illinois State University, the gerontology minor and a graduate certificate program in this field require students to enroll in courses in a range of other programs, including communications, psychology, and family and consumer sciences. Inversely, as a largely applied field, gerontology seeks to inform those in clinical fields such as health sciences and social work about relevant social, cultural, and policy contexts that impact of their work. However, we have little concrete knowledge (either quantitative or qualitative) of whether and how, specifically, exposure to social gerontology enhances the education or professional practice of those in clinical fields. In this session, attendees will learn about research on this topic and hear semi-structured narratives that the presenter has recently collected from students in introductory gerontology courses.

My Return on Investment: Instructor Perspective

Beverly Barham, Health Sciences

It is often during the delivery portion of the course design and delivery process that we find ourselves making a “mental note to self,” something to the effect of, “I need to revise this section before the next time I teach this course” or “this particular exercise just did not work, and I need to rethink my strategy” but the semester ends and that well intentioned follow up may not be realized. In a “content heavy” curriculum requiring frequent updates in order to prepare each class of new graduates to pass a national certification exam, it is imperative to continually look at one’s own investment in the coursework design and content with a very critical eye. Edits and revisions need to be made in a timely manner, so the ultimate return on investment (ROI) results in both student and instructor success. This presentation is an overview of some areas that can be impacted by implementing a self-administered checklist either during or immediately after a course is completed each semester. Once the checklist is complete, the instructor can reflect on and address those items which may need to be edited or updated and to consider how best to accomplish that task with the ultimate goal of earning a better return on one’s investment in the most efficient way possible. This is all accomplished before it is time to teach the course again so one does not experience that sudden realization that those really good intentions from a previous semester were never realized.

Preparing STEM Teachers for Urban Schools: Why and How ISU Is Unique and Successful

William Hunter, CeMaST; George Seelinger, Mathematics; Jill Freund Thomas, Geography/Geology; Elisa Palmer, Biological Sciences; Elisha Swanson, Chemistry

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teachers in urban schools face a set of unique challenges. But how can we best prepare our ISU graduates for successful careers teaching STEM in urban settings? What has shown to be beneficial? What has not been beneficial? Panelists representing STEM disciplines on campus will address these questions by sharing the experiences of departments specifically aimed at preparing pre-service teachers to teach STEM in urban settings. Special attention will be given to the recruiting, training, and mentoring of pre-service teachers for urban teaching; the development of partnerships and activities with urban schools; and support available on campus from the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology (CeMaST).

CANCELED: Redesigning Lessons to Maximize Student Learning and Engagement with Technology: A Collaborative Effort between Student and Teacher

Kimberly Rojas, University High School

During the last decade, classroom technologies have become a main component of lesson delivery in many schools. Internet access is now available in 100% of public schools in the United States and is used on a regular basis for research and other instructional purposes. Some teachers are also using a variety of other technologies, including document cameras, LCD projectors, smart boards, web and video cameras, and interactive tools such as wikis, blogs, chat rooms, an d social networking sites. With all of these tools available, it can be tempting to use them without really knowing how their use is affecting student learning and engagement.

Do we know if students are really more engaged and learning at a deeper level? Are we using the right tools in the right way? It would be great if the voices of students, those most affected by our technology implementation, were not only heard, but also actively used to help us shape how we carry out instruction in our classrooms. In this presentation, I will discuss a project I developed, funded by CTLT’s Teaching-Learning Development Grant, which involved students reflecting on and analyzing lessons that utilized technology. These students then worked with me to redesign the lessons so that they could take full advantage of the benefits of technology to better engage students and increase their learning.

Sharing Our Passion for Teaching and Research

Phyllis McCluskey-Titus, Educational Administration and Foundations; Susan A. Hildebrandt, Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Joseph P. Zompetti, Communication; Maria A. Moore, Communication; Cara Rabe-Hemp, Criminal Justice Science

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research combines two passions: conducting strong research and improving student learning. This research also helps us to better understand and/or improve our teaching. Some faculty are reluctant to begin a SoTL project because they mistakenly believe that it is not as rigorous as traditional disciplinary research, or that it is additional research developed separately from an existing disciplinary research agenda. This panel will feature faculty who are part of the SoTL Network, which is facilitated by Kathleen McKinney, Cross Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Panelists will briefly present SoTL research projects and explain how this line of research has become part of their own scholarly research agenda. Time will be allotted for participants to ask questions or share their own SoTL projects or ideas for projects.

Transforming Learning: From Classroom to Community

Amy Secretan, Communication; Michael Storr, Communication; Lee Anne Hale, Communication

The transfer of learning from classroom to the real world has always been a goal of conventional education. As scholars concerned with the future success of our students, seeing them develop the ability to take what they have learned in the classroom and then apply that knowledge to the real world is like a dream come true. This presentation will describe one such experience. Students were given the task of creating a training program to teach conflict resolution strategies to middle school aged children. The program was then implemented in the School of Communication. The panelists will discuss the process of developing the training materials, the creation of the program, and the ways in which their classroom experience and training has influenced the formation of a new student group dedicated to teaching conflict resolution in several Bloomington-Normal area schools.

A Departmental System for Promoting Professional Writing

Maureen Angell, Special Education; Kelly S. Appel, Special Education; Lauri Turilli, Special Education; Mary Beth Bantham, Special Education

University faculty expect students to have mastered basic writing skills prior to entry into coursework (Fanetti, Bushrow, & DeWeese, 2010). However, recent studies indicate that many university students use incorrect grammar, spelling, and punctuation in written assignments (Carlson, Irons, & Monk, 2008). Faculty often mark errors throughout student work without seeing generalization to future writing (Haswell, 1983). University students in all fields of study may need explicit writing instruction when faculty evaluation indicates that they perceive their writing skills to be stronger than their actual performance (Carlson et al.) The presenters will describe the background, development, and undergraduate and graduate use of an evidence-based system that facilitates a problem solving approach and encourages students to take ownership of their professional development (Elbaz-Luwisch, 2010; Strijbos, Narciss, & Dunnebier, 2010). Areas of professional disposition, such as reflection, reverence for learning, and application of feedback are emphasized throughout the remediation of writing weaknesses. Authentic examples of use of the system, student/faculty comments, and various resources found helpful in supporting future professionals’ writing skills will be shared. The session will include interactive discussion and the sharing of examples of how attendees monitor and respond to students who struggle with written communication and products.

A Passion for STEM Education: How CeMaST Can Support Your Teaching and Research

Amy M. Bloom, CeMaST; William Hunter, Chemistry, CeMaST

The ISU Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology (CeMaST) brings together faculty, staff, and students with a passion for teaching (formal and informal) and research focused on integrative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We invite you to attend this session to learn ways CeMaST can support and enhance your efforts through our current research initiatives, professional innovation grants, travel awards, professional development services, grant and technical writing assistance, and various outreach programs and events. While we will provide examples of our projects and services, we also encourage you to share suggestions for additional ways we can assist you to state your passion.

Finding (and Keeping) Your Passion (and Sanity) When Teaching a Large Class

Alycia Hund, Psychology; Tom Lamonica, Communication; Erik Rankin, Politics and Government; Joe Solberg, Finance, Insurance, and Law

As instructors, we regularly get a chance to display our passion for our craft, to try to help students become more capable, and to help them find their own passion. But what happens when you walk into the classroom and are peering into a sea of faces: 100, 200, 300 pairs of eyes, many of whom would claim that they are being “forced” to take your class? The panelists in this session will share their philosophies, thoughts, opinions, and strategies for dealing with a multitude of challenges that come with teaching large format classes. Possible topics could include: how to share your passion in a large class, how to get students to be more passionate, how to use technology for communication and class management, and everyone’s favorite: how to deal with disruptive and/or unethical behaviors in the classroom. In addition, attendees will be encouraged to submit questions and/or scenarios for our panelists to address. So if you have ever taught a large class, are currently teaching a large class, may be teaching a large class in the future, or if you teach a small class and want to hear about what you’re missing (and pick up some strategies that you can use as well), you don’t want to miss this panel discussion.

Fostering Student Development through Campus & Community Partners

Becky Mentzer, Honors Program; Kim Pereira, Honors Program

The idea of an honors education is to expand the experiences and partnerships within and beyond the typical courses taken by students. Faculty partnerships that develop into relationships between colleagues are one such way. Whether through research, mentoring or hearing from experts in specific fields of study in honors colloquia and faculty panel events, students have an opportunity to engage with faculty from fields far different from their majors. Such experiences may encourage them to seek out diverse courses, thus embracing new opportunities and riding different streams of knowledge leading to the same destination: a multidisciplinary education appropriate for honors students. Additional examples of ways to broaden the students’ development will be shared. This include the Senior Professional Mentoring Program, involving retired professionals from many career fields; service learning site supervisors from local non-profit organizations; and honors alumni sharing insights at a yearly panel event. We are concerned about our students’ development and know that through these partnerships we are fostering their growth personally, academically and professionally.

ISU’s Transition from Blackboard to Sakai: What You Need to Know

Mark Walbert, Provost’s Office; Patrick O’Sullivan, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology; Mayuko Nakamura, Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology

In this session you will learn details of the pending campus transition from its current proprietary course management system (Blackboard) to a widely used and highly touted open-source system (Sakai). Dr. Walbert, ISU’s Chief Technology Officer, will explain the industry developments that have made a transition from the current CMS necessary and outline the transition timeline. You will also see a tour of the Sakai interface and a review of the wide range of instructional tools that it provides. The wide range of campus support available to faculty during the extended transition timeline will also be presented.

Podcasting-Better than the Real Thing?

Rose Marshack, Music/Arts Technology; Susan A. Hildebrandt, Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Jeffrey Grabb, Mennonite College of Nursing; Matthew Kim, English

This panel will quickly define podcasting and then describe how each of us has used it in classes at ISU. In addition to presenting some current research in higher-ed podcasting, we will share stories about our own experiences with podcasting, and offer a quick list of the hardware and software necessary for creating podcasts.

Teaching Econometrics with Real Data

Oguzhan Dincer, Economics

Econometrics, defined by Guajarati as an amalgam of economic theory, mathematical economics, economic statistics, and mathematical statistics, is probably one of the most challenging economics courses offered by any economics department. Economic theory makes statements that are qualitative in nature. Mathematical economics expresses economic theory in mathematical form. Economic statistics collects and processes economic data. Econometrics is the empirical verification of the theory using tools provided by the mathematical statistics (Gujarati 2003). The empirical verification of the theory requires heavy usage of problem sets. According to Becker (1996), students have unnecessary difficulties learning economics because the textbooks generally do not have realistic examples. In other words, we need realistic examples based on real data when we teach econometrics. Nevertheless, as Becker and Watts (1996, 2001) argue, most of the problem sets used in econometrics courses are not based on newspaper articles or articles published in business and academic journals. Instead, they use unrealistic models using unrealistic data. The purpose of this project is to set up an extensive database providing students with real data supported by academic and news articles that is likely to make learning econometrics not only more attractive but also easier to the students.

The Parable of the Homemade Shirt - Understanding the Why Behind Best Practices

Jeremy Hawkins, Kinesiology and Recreation

Internships provide students with the opportunity to apply what they are learning in the classroom in a non-classroom setting. Preparation for these internships should include the teaching of best practices, or the ideal way to perform specific tasks, in a given discipline. This preparation must come prior to the internship experience. Without understanding the “why” behind this ideal, students cannot fully appreciate the “what” of best practices. Their learning opportunities and overall experience within the internship will be limited. The objective of this presentation is to use a parable to teach the importance of focusing on best practices in preparation for an internship. Further, we will provide a template for integrating this preparation in to the teaching of best practices in the classroom. Lastly, we will discuss how to adapt or modify the template, should the need arise. With the use of reflection throughout the process, but particularly at the end, our students will have a quality and beneficial active learning internship experience, preparing them for future employment.

A Service Perspective on the Marketization of Undergraduate Education

Kimberly Judson, Marketing; Steven A. Taylor, Marketing

Higher education in the United States is rapidly moving toward a marketized model that emphasizes marketing practices based upon relevance and student satisfaction. Such strategies may jeopardize the balance between service quality and the quality of education as a service. In this study, students from seven sections of an Introduction to Marketing Management course were invited to participate in an online survey. The results suggest that grades (an indication of learning) do not provide a positive association with nor serve as an antecedent to a typical service quality/customer satisfaction model. Thus, the question exists as to how well a focus on student satisfaction (and relevance) actually engenders student involvement in the value co-creation process in education delivery, as students’ educational goals are often more related to credentialing than learning. This poster will suggest that faculty must strive to create an inherent long-term value in the educational service product, and not risk emphasizing student satisfaction (e.g., student evaluations) over the quality of the learning experience in terms of learning outcomes. Attention to the balance of quality of the educational service and service quality practices is suggested until service marketers can better understand the unique service marketing characteristics of the educational product.

An Exploratory Study of Student Engagement in Major and Non-Major Coursework

Horace Melton, Marketing; Steven A. Taylor, Marketing; Gary Hunter, Marketing

This poster reports the findings of a study that investigates the goals underlying ISU students’ engagement in major classes, non-major classes, and in extracurricular activities. The study employs both focus groups and goal-mapping exercises. The results suggest that students tend to focus on utilitarian, attribute level considerations mainly related to credentialing for purposes of employment. The results are considered from the perspectives of judgment and decision-making, learning models, and the emerging service marketing perspective. In particular, an argument is made for moving toward models of education delivery focusing on value co-creation instead of the current emphasis on providing value to students. A series of recommendations are offered to help facilitate faculty efforts to increase student passion and course engagement, particularly in large-section course offerings. However, the authors ultimately conclude that student passion and engagement will best be served in models of value co-creation by a focus on more than intellectual maturity in education. Specifically, an argument is presented for also targeting moral and motivational maturity. The practical and research implications of the study are discussed.

Collaborative Teaching on Apparel Design through Historic Costume

Hae Jin Gam, Family and Consumer Sciences

Creative ability is a vital skill that apparel design students should enhance in order to be effective and productive professionals in the apparel industry, yet there is an absence of methods and materials to assist educators with how to adequately teach such an abstract concept. Two instructors with different areas of expertise collaborated to develop and analyze course materials for guiding apparel students as they interpret historic costumes through the creation of new garment designs. The movie The Young Victoria, set in 1830s England, was used to show apparel design students how historic costume can serve as an inspirational source. The outcomes of this project were assessed through feedback from students and faculty member’s analysis. This new teaching and learning approach develops perspectives on how to solve a current problem of how to motivate students in the field of apparel design. It also demonstrates how sharing faculty expertise across courses can enhance student learning.

Development of a Web-Based Grocery Store-Supermarket Teaching Simulation

Patrick O’Rourke, Agriculture

The food business and agriculture business programs at Illinois State and other universities could benefit from a user-friendly food business simulation. The only user-friendly Web-based food or agribusiness simulation available today for classroom instruction is the ProStar retail fertilizer business simulation which is rather complicated for inexperienced students and teachers. The principal investigator recently received permission from the author of a DOS based supermarket simulation to redesign the simulation to be a more modern grocery store business user friendly Web-based simulator. The principal investigator is using the Web-based interface model developed for the ProStar simulation to transform the DOS-based Supermarket University into a user friendly Web-based simulation. Because of the broader familiarity of both professors and students with the generic category of “grocery store business” it is expected that a larger number of agribusiness, business, and applied economics programs will adopt it. Those who wish to see the current version of ProStar may access it at the following Web site and with the following Login and Password: www.prostar.ilstu.edu and fall05 and fall05.

Incorporating Online Supplements to Help Middle School Students Unlock their Potential for Physics

Temba C. Bassoppo-Moyo, Curriculum and Instruction; Eurvine Williams, Curriculum and Instruction

The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which computer-based instructional supplements enhance students’ knowledge and skills in the learning of the concepts of electricity and magnets, light and color. The central question is whether computer-based instructional supplements enhance students’ acquisition of knowledge and understanding of solutions to problems that relate to electricity and magnets, light and color. Four classes were selected to receive supplementary instruction regarding the fundamental concepts of electronics and magnets, and light and color at the high school level. A mixed-method approach was employed, so both qualitative and quantitative data were collected.

Investigating Statistical Preparation in Master’s Programs of Nursing

Myoung Jin Kim, Mennonite College of Nursing; Caroline Mallory, Mennonite College of Nursing

Although statistics are an important part of evidence-based nursing practice and preparation for doctoral study, nursing students often struggle with statistics. Currently, there is a lack of research that has investigated statistical preparation of students in master’s programs in nursing. The purpose of this descriptive, exploratory study is to examine the current state of statistics requirement for masters programs in nursing and to make recommendations for students’ statistical preparation towards evidence-based practice and doctoral study. From a total of 178 nursing programs with a doctoral program, a stratified random sample of 89 programs based on 5 different geographical regions (Western, Southwestern, Midwest, New England & Mid Atlantic, and Southeastern) of the US were selected for inclusion in this study and examined through their websites. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics in SPSS (PASW) 18.0. This poster will suggest where improvements in the delivery of statistics education are needed through understanding the current state of statistics requirements in masters program in nursing and these improvements will better prepare our future nursing students with competent research skills.

ISU Voice Resources: Online Tools for Actors, Singers, Teachers, and Directors

Connie de Veer, Theatre; Lori Adams, Theatre

“The IVR” provides a thorough array of resources for actors, directors, teachers, and singers both at Illinois State University, and the broader Internet community. The site includes video and audio recordings of students and faculty performing vocal warm up exercises, as well as dialect self-study materials. The recordings may be downloaded to mp3 devices so listeners may perform them on their own. In addition, the site provides a variety of practical tools and information to professional actors, singers, teachers, and directors on such topics as Vocal Health, Anatomy of the Vocal Mechanism, Tools for Working with Shakespeare’s Text, and more. As a resource for teaching and learning materials, the IVR provides prospective students with a first-hand look at the pedagogical approach taken for training actors’ voices at Illinois State University. The site has information about Illinois State University’s resident professional company, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, as well as a link to the ISF site. It provides resources for actors, coaches, and directors in residence during the summer season, such as a link to Milner Library’s online link to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Laban Bartenieff: Functional and Expressive Movement

Kate Cook, Theatre

Rudolph Laban is one of the most influential figures in the last century of dance. Most notably, Laban created a framework for analysis of movement in space and a comprehensive system for notating that movement. Laban’s work has proven useful in the theater community as well: his system of identification both challenges the actor’s habitual physical movement and provides a framework through which alternatives can be chosen. But how does physical movement further a theatrical narrative? How can the actor be sure her physical self is sharing the story she intends to share? And is an actor limited by physical and mental habit? This poster will further identify the actor’s kinesthetic process, the capabilities and limitations of the human body, and the link between physical expression in space and the mind’s experience of such.

Molecular Modeling Exercises to Enhance Biochemical Learning

Jon Friesen, Chemistry; Ashley Mericle, Chemistry

A biochemist’s research focus in the laboratory is studying the structure and function of biological molecules that constantly change their shape and structure to accomplish biochemical tasks. Drawing chemical structures on the whiteboard or displaying them in a PowerPoint slide provides only a two-dimensional look at the molecules, and does not convey the critical three-dimensional aspects. Biochemistry textbooks are filled with full color pictures of DNA that makes up our genetic code, carbohydrates (sugars) that affect metabolism, proteins that catalyze chemical reactions, and lipids (fats) in a membrane of a cell. Unfortunately, students are often not able to connect the pretty pictures to the biochemical functions of the molecules. If a student were able to rotate the molecule on the page and zoom in on the parts of the molecule critical for function, a greater understanding could be gained. This poster will suggest that providing opportunities for students to manipulate three dimensional structures of DNA, carbohydrates, proteins, and cellular membranes will enhance student understanding of the function of each of these classes of molecules in biochemistry.

Punk! Punch! Pedagogy! Examining Eclectic Methods of Teaching Composition

Rachel Parish, English

Teachers of writing often face a common dilemma with encouraging engaging texts from students. Preconceived notions concerning content to be “taught” and skills to be “learned” run rampant in the composition classroom. But teachers can show their pupils that writing isn’t limited to the traditional five-paragraph essay and single page journal entries. With an emphasis on genre study, writing instructors can incorporate various genres to show that student writing can have multiple forms of trajectory, creativity, and different formats. By examining a variety of unique forms of composition exercises students may participate in, this presentation offers ways to add the proverbial “punch” to the pedagogy of writing instruction. This poster will examine the use of multiple genres, including visual narratives, non-school writing, and digital media/film, encouraging students to look beyond the page when writing in the classroom. The goal is to foster a mindset that there is no one “master” way for a student to compose great texts.

Reflections of Culture in Design

Archana Shekara, Art

Like many other disciplines in Art and Design, Graphic Design education is changing and adapting to contemporary multiculturalism. Its audiences vary in ethnicity, language, religion, gender, race and class. It is imperative that design education should inculcate students with the essential understanding of research, concept and creative methodology to find solutions to design problems that fully communicate with audiences of various backgrounds and cultures. As a cultural researcher and design practitioner, I have taken upon myself the responsibility for creating and sharing cultural awareness through self-initiated projects and teachings. As an assistant professor in Graphic Design, I introduced an Identity Project for beginning Graphic design students. Since most of my students were from varied ethnic origins, they each select one ancestral culture and strive to understand its roots. This poster documents students’ research methodology, cognitive learning and perception about themselves and each other’s cultural identity. Through this project, I believe that I mentored students and encouraged them to be more culturally aware and become more sensitive to the feelings and perceptions of people of diverse backgrounds and ultimately instill a sense of respect to themselves and to others.

School Bullying and Conflict, Whether Violent or Non-violent, Has a Profound Impact on the Academic and Social Development of a Student that Has the Potential to Last an Entire Lifetime

Sam Catanzaro, College of Arts and Sciences; Sharon LaEace Mills, Applied Social Research Unit; Andrew Piotrowski, Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development

Illinois is part of a global initiative designed to diminish the detrimental effects of bullying by engaging young students in organized, non-competitive activities that encourage laughter and cooperation instead of conflict. The project operates out of Illinois State University, coordinated with the DeWitt County Human Resource Center in Clinton, IL, to bring high school students and adult community members to facilitate involvement with the local elementary schools. This poster presentation will give school faculty and administration the opportunity to learn about strategies to combat the pervasive nature of bullying, as well as the impact that Play for Peace leaves on both the schools in which it is integrated and the surrounding community at large.

Six Years of Collaborative Service: EAF 463 and LinC

Phyllis McClusky-Titus, Educational Administration and Foundations; Wendy Troxel, Educational Administration and Foundations; Jodi Hallsten, Communication; Erin Thomas, Dean of Students Office

This poster session will present results of a six-year longitudinal study assessing undergraduate and graduate student learning through participation in a collaborative service-learning project. The purpose of this on-going research is to assess 1) the benefits to students of participation in a volunteer service learning project and 2) the types of learning students reported immediately upon completion of the service project and again after 1-5 years following the experience. This research adds to the current literature in civic engagement and the scholarship of teaching and learning because the service learning project was a cooperative assignment in two classes, one graduate and one undergraduate, and because it provides a longitudinal view of student learning. Learning was assessed through class discussion, reflection papers (pre- and post-service), course evaluations, journals, and an open-ended e-mail survey instrument. The researchers are grateful for the grant funding received from the Cross Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to support this research study.

Students’ Perception of using 3D Computer Technology for Enhancing Learning

Jamie Perry, Communication Sciences and Disorders

Undoubtedly, traditional learning through lectures, human atlases, and 2D images has a valuable place in the educational setting. Efficacy research studies have demonstrated many benefits to using computer technology to enhance the learning process in the college classroom. This poster reports the results of a study designed to assess students’ experience and familiarity with computer technology and to obtain information about their opinions about the use of computer technology in the classroom. One hundred and fifty subjects participated in the study. Students were seated in a computer lab and instructed to watch the video and complete a questionnaire. Of the 150 participants, seventy percent said they wished that professors would use computers more often for in and out-of class learning. When students were asked whether or not they would view the animation if it were provided as a supplemental material for an optional out-of-class learning experience, the majority (92%) stated that they would watch the animation. Students responded that the 3D animation was easier to understand compared to textbook readings (40%), provided multiple perspectives of a complex system (25%), and was a good supplement to the readings (10%). Co-investigators: Danielle Cunningham, BS, Illinois State University

Symposium Project on Middle Level Education Program

Ellis Hurd, Curriculum and Instruction

After engaging the global community of middle level professionals at the Symposium on Middle Level Teacher Preparation, the researcher developed a network of colleagues for collaborations on course redesigns at ISU. The result was an expanded and enhanced Middle Level Program. The poster will provide an overview of the various steps to engaging with professional networks for the purposes of course and/or program redesign and realignment, some of which include: collecting data from key institutions currently involved in realignments; surveying ISU students; identifying NCATE, Black Board, and Live Text data on key assessments; and drawing on various curricular techniques for conducting course and/or program evaluation and assessment.

Tactical Teaching: Letting Student Intervention Guide Classroom Practice

Erin Clark Frost, English

First-year composition students exposed to critical pedagogy can learn to push against confining classroom practices in productive ways. These transgressions not only enhance students’ learning, but also build their confidence in themselves as scholar-citizens. This poster will present a project undertaken in a first-year composition classroom in Spring 2010. Students were introduced to Michel de Certeau’s concepts of strategies and tactics and asked to use their new knowledge in critical theory as a lens through which to examine some samples of medical rhetoric intended for layperson audiences. This poster will lay out the theoretical basis for this project, including pedagogical theories of freedom and transgression (Hooks, Freire), as well as student response to the assignments. Most importantly, this poster will document what happened when students identified as oppressed subjects and rebelled against the project assigned to them. They argued passionately that social media was a more important and socially relevant topic for them to examine than medical rhetoric. This poster will suggest that letting students engage with topics they are passionate about—perhaps especially when this disrupts the classroom’s traditional practices--provides an avenue for students to identify as scholar-citizens doing important cultural work and therefore increases their investment in learning.

Teacher Language Proficiency and Communicative Language Teaching

Montserrat Mir, Languages, Literatures and Cultures; Rachel Shively, Languages, Literatures and Cultures

In communicative language teaching (CLT), the role of the teacher is to both facilitate interaction among learners and provide an environment of rich input in the target language (TL) (Lee & VanPatten, 2003). A TL-rich classroom is one in which the teacher uses the TL to provide instruction, lead activities, manage class, and give instructions. This poster reports the results of a study designed to examine the relationship between novice teachers’ TL oral proficiency and their use of directives, questions, and Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) sequences in the Spanish as a foreign language classroom. Four Spanish instructors participated in the study, including one Spanish native and three non-natives at different proficiency levels. Each instructor was videotaped teaching Spanish for five hours, completed an Oral Proficiency Interview, and participated in a semi-structured interview about teaching practices. The results suggest that teachers’ TL proficiency was related to the use of all three discourse features examined. Higher-proficiency instructors employed a broader repertoire and greater number of directives, produced more complex directives, used more referential questions, and provided more extensive follow-up comments. These findings point to higher levels of TL proficiency as a factor that helps teachers provide a richer and more student-centered classroom environment.

Using MRI & Computer Technology to Teach Complex Concepts in Anatomy & Physiology

Jamie Perry, Communication Sciences and Disorders

This poster offers an overview of a study designed to combine MRI and 3D computer technology to create a 3D module that demonstrates the evaluation and diagnostic process for a child with a submucous cleft palate (SMCP). SMCP is a congenital malformation in which the palate (e.g. roof of mouth) does not properly form resulting in an absence of midline tissue. There are very few good clinical examples in the literature and online that demonstrate the entire breadth of this condition. As a result, this is almost an abstract concept for students and an area of great confusion. The goal of this project was to create a 3D computer module that demonstrates the evaluation for a child with submucous cleft palate. Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and 3D computer technology, a 4-yr old child with SMCP was evaluated and a clinical model or case was reported. Using the child’s data, a computer module was created and made available to students enrolled in the cleft palate course on campus. The computer module served as a visual display of a full diagnostic evaluation for a child with SMCP. It provided students with multiple images to provide an accurate assessment. The program will be evaluated in the spring 2011 semester to determine its value in promoting student learning.

2011 CTLT Annual University-Wide Symposium on Teaching and Learning

State Your Passion for Teaching and Learning

Keynote Speaker

Biography

Keynote Presentation

Budget 101: Making Sense of the University Budget Process

Can Civic Engagement Projects Spark Student Passion?

Civic Engagement at the U.S. Social Forum: Off-Campus Learning

Developing and Marketing “Green” Products: A Business and Engineering Technology Collaboration

Interdisciplinary Team-Based Local Sustainability Efforts: Green Light on Energy Efficiency

Raising the Bar: An Intervention to Promote Civility and Academic Integrity

Sharing Our Passion for Urban Education Initiatives

Solving Freshman Composition’s Relevance Issue

Writing in Large Lecture Classes: Teaching and Learning Reflections from POL 106

Diversity of Passion in Teaching

Good to Go: Bridging Community Sustainability with Student Learning

Growing the Civic Engagement and Responsibility Minor

Igniting a Passion for Publication: Active Learning through Student Journal Publishing

ISU is Ranked in the 95th Percentile for Binge Drinking: Shhhhh!

When Departments Approach the Teaching Evaluations

You, Inc.: Empowering Students to Pursue their Passion through Personal Branding

Character Portrayals: Embodying American Slavery and Music in the Classroom

Community Arts and Pre-service Educators: A Study of Civic Engagement

Greening the Curriculum: A Critical Observation of New Urbanism and Sustainability in Uptown Normal

iFad or Teaching Tool? Exploring the Educational Uses of the iPad in the School of Communication

Magic in the Classroom: Stating my Passion Pedagogically

Quality Online Course: Lessons Learned & Transformations

Re-presenting Good Teaching: The Rhetorical Effects of Conceptualizing ‘Good’ Teachers as ‘Passionate’ Teachers

Stating our Passion for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Studying Civic Engagement and Service Learning

Better Together: University Partnerships for Civic Engagement

Class-A-fied LIVE - Bring your Course Content to Life!!!

Continuing the Conversation with Eric Liu

Creating an Online Course Designed to Reach International Audiences

Not Your Standard Student Presentations!

Overcoming Sustainable Apparel Design Challenges with Problem-Based Learning

Passion for Fashion History Promotes Student Learning

State Your Passion for General Education: Goals, Assessment Methods, and Outcomes

The Accidentally Open Course: Screencapture for the Masses

Combining Computer-based Learning Modules with Practical Research Experience: Innovations in Content Delivery and Experiential Learning

Creating Family Assessment Portfolios: Outcomes of a Service-Learning Project

Meanings and Benefits of Interdisciplinary Education: Reflections on Gerontology in the Development of Students in Health and Social Services

My Return on Investment: Instructor Perspective

Preparing STEM Teachers for Urban Schools: Why and How ISU Is Unique and Successful

CANCELED: Redesigning Lessons to Maximize Student Learning and Engagement with Technology: A Collaborative Effort between Student and Teacher

Sharing Our Passion for Teaching and Research

Transforming Learning: From Classroom to Community

A Departmental System for Promoting Professional Writing

A Passion for STEM Education: How CeMaST Can Support Your Teaching and Research

Finding (and Keeping) Your Passion (and Sanity) When Teaching a Large Class

Fostering Student Development through Campus & Community Partners

ISU’s Transition from Blackboard to Sakai: What You Need to Know

Podcasting-Better than the Real Thing?

Teaching Econometrics with Real Data

The Parable of the Homemade Shirt - Understanding the Why Behind Best Practices

A Service Perspective on the Marketization of Undergraduate Education

An Exploratory Study of Student Engagement in Major and Non-Major Coursework

Collaborative Teaching on Apparel Design through Historic Costume

Development of a Web-Based Grocery Store-Supermarket Teaching Simulation

Incorporating Online Supplements to Help Middle School Students Unlock their Potential for Physics

Investigating Statistical Preparation in Master’s Programs of Nursing

ISU Voice Resources: Online Tools for Actors, Singers, Teachers, and Directors

Laban Bartenieff: Functional and Expressive Movement

Molecular Modeling Exercises to Enhance Biochemical Learning

Punk! Punch! Pedagogy! Examining Eclectic Methods of Teaching Composition

Reflections of Culture in Design

School Bullying and Conflict, Whether Violent or Non-violent, Has a Profound Impact on the Academic and Social Development of a Student that Has the Potential to Last an Entire Lifetime

Six Years of Collaborative Service: EAF 463 and LinC

Students’ Perception of using 3D Computer Technology for Enhancing Learning

Symposium Project on Middle Level Education Program

Tactical Teaching: Letting Student Intervention Guide Classroom Practice

Teacher Language Proficiency and Communicative Language Teaching

Using MRI & Computer Technology to Teach Complex Concepts in Anatomy & Physiology

ISU is Ranked in the 95^th Percentile for Binge Drinking: Shhhhh!