Engaging Students in the Classroom,
A Roundtable Discussion Hosted by Dr. Charlie Burnap,
2009 BOA Teaching Award Winner

Fri., Nov. 20, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Atkins Library Room 124
Sign Up Now To Attend

All faculty are invited to attend this interactive roundtable session, where Charlie Burnap will discuss topics ranging from high level goals down to the nitty-gritty of teaching and how we can encourage students to be active learners.

“While setting high standards is important, it is essential to realize that most courses include students with a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and talents. Consequently, it is important that high level goals be approached in small steps. Because mastery comes from the act of doing, students must be engaged in classroom activities and must attempt assigned work.”—Charlie Burnap, 2009 BOA award winner

About Charlie Burnap

A 27-year veteran of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UNC Charlotte, Charlie Burnap was selected from a prestigious list of finalists as the 2009 recipient of the highest teaching honor bestowed by UNC Charlotte – the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence. In addition to classroom teaching and individual tutorials, Charlie has led teaching discussions in his Department and in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has served on panels for Summer Institutes and on the College Task Force on the Evaluation of Teaching. He was one of the original members of the American Association of Higher Education Peer Review Project and has chaired the CLAS Course and Curriculum Committee.

Next in the Faculty Spotlight: Bank of America Award Finalist Series

• January: Patrick Moyer (CLAS) – Critical Thinking
• February: Lori Van Wallendael (CLAS) - Effective Lecturing Techniques
  
• March: James Lyons (COED) - Problem Based Learning
  

The UNC Charlotte Faculty Scholarship on Teaching and Learning Grants Committee is requesting proposals for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) Grants (formerly known as API/CID Grants). The committee awards grants to individual faculty members, departments, colleges, programs, academies, or standing committees to support them in projects that will examine and reflect upon the teaching and learning practices in their discipline in a systematic way by using research methods and by making the results known to the campus community and beyond. Such projects may be aimed at making significant curricular reforms, designing new curricula, conducting research that informs teaching and learning at the local (course, department, college, university) level, or initiating activities that would improve the quality of instruction in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the unit or the campus. The SOTL Grants Committee is particularly concerned with funding projects which have measurable outcomes and will demonstrate evidence of success to the UNC Charlotte teaching and learning community.

Proposals must be submitted electronically as a single email attachment (e.g., MS Word document or PDF) to the Center for Teaching and Learning (ctl@uncc.edu) no later than 4:00 PM on Friday, October 23, 2009. To be considered for funding, you must include a letter of support from your college dean as part of your proposal.

To read the full request for proposals--including the specific criteria, budget information, and other supporting documents--please see http://teaching.uncc.edu/sotl
 

The new CTL newsletter has been published.  Highlights:

• Moodle to Replace Blackboard Vista
• Top 9 Things to Consider When Using Moodle
• Instructional Design Consultations Available
• New! Teaching Tip Sheets Now Available
• Fully Online Professional Development Opportunities Through Sloan-C
• Good Reads: The CTL Library

Dear Colleagues,                                      June 18, 2009

The jury’s in, and so is Moodle. It’s an odd name, but after extensive testing by faculty and students, Moodle, the open-source course management system, proved to have significant advantages over Blackboard, so our campus is beginning the transition to the Moodle system. Because two years remain on our Blackboard contract, we’ll have the benefit of a gradual transition, but I know many of you are planning and preparing your fall classes and will want to make the move sooner rather than later.

We’ve tested Moodle for the past year with the support of Faculty Council and the Learning Management System Evaluation Committee. Forty-nine faculty members (each with Blackboard experience) tested Moodle on 140 sections involving more than 3,000 students. They found Moodle offered “ease of use and mastery, minimal support, collaboration with the open source community, flexibility, and adaptability to the needs of faculty and students.” For their full report see http://www.lmseval.uncc.edu. In addition to improved functionality and ease of use in comparison with Blackboard, Moodle promises to provide significant cost savings to the university and greater opportunity for customization.

To ensure a smooth transition, I have asked the Center for Teaching and Learning and Information Technology Services to begin the process for migration to Moodle. Blackboard Vista will continue to be available through Spring Semester 2011. All courses listed in Banner are now available in both Blackboard Vista and Moodle. To access your course in Moodle along with self-paced training and support resources, visit http://moodle.uncc.edu. For updates and more information on this new learning management system, please contact the Center for Teaching and Learning at http://teaching.uncc.edu.

I would like to thank Marvin Croy and Ron Smelser who chaired the pilot study and all the faculty and students who participated. I request your support and cooperation as we make this transition and customize our learning management system to address our rapid growth while providing increased access, quality, and cost efficiency.

Best regards,
Joan F. Lorden
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Attached Original: Moodle Letter.pdf [359 KB]

When: Friday, 22 May 2009, 12:00pm
Where: CHHS Room 155

The New York Times workshop will provide information on resources and programs available to UNC Charlotte faculty and will focus on ways faculty members can incorporate The New York Times into their classroom discussion. The Times can help faculty cover topics that have direct impact on the lives of students today - from social issues and new technology to the global economy and career opportunities. Most importantly, The Times can play a vital role in aiding students to think more critically, improve their global and social perspective and most importantly, give additional relevancy to what students are learning. Complimentary subscriptions can be provided to faculty who incorporate The Times into their syllabi.

Other benefits include:

• Faculty requiring The New York Times as part of their syllabi can receive a complimentary Monday - Friday subscription for the semester.
• Available to students and faculty; our education websites: www.nytimes.com/college and www.nytimes.com/learning are destinations where you will find unique subject search capabilities as well as curriculum guides, Times Topics, Issues in Depth and the Newsroom Navigator, which is used daily as a research tool for New York Times reporters and editors.
• Access to The New York Times Speakers Bureau which brings reporters, photojournalists, and others from the newspaper to campuses across the nation. There is a minimum copy requirement needed to participate in this program.
• Partnership with the Times on faculty workshops/luncheons, Times Talk forums, curriculum resources, and even sponsorship of campus student contests and activities.

Margaret Morgan is a 2009 recipient of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. She will be recognized at commencement, Saturday, May 9.

Established by the Board of Governors in 1994 to underscore the importance of and to reward good teaching across the University system, the awards are given annually to a tenured faculty member from each UNC campus.

Winners must have taught at their present institutions at least seven years; no one may receive the award more than once. Each award winner receives a commemorative bronze medallion and a $7,500 cash prize.

Morgan began her UNC Charlotte tenure as a lecturer in 1987 after completing a Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Purdue University. She was promoted to associate professor in 1995. Throughout her career, Morgan has worked to facilitate student learning. She championed efforts to improve the curriculum and teaching of freshman composition and implemented new placement procedures for students for whom English is a second language. She organized North and South Carolina writing administrators who now hold biannual meetings. Internationally, she collaborated with colleagues from Germany and Thailand to share information on writing instruction and student support and taught a writing workshop for elementary school teachers in a South African village.

“I teach writing, not how to write stories, or poems or novels, but how to write technical proposals, instructions, arguments about whatever. I teach theories of technical communication and argumentation. Ultimately, because I believe in my heart that language is our soul and we cannot survive at any level (physically, emotionally, spiritually) without it,” said Morgan, who won the University’s top teaching honor this past fall, the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.

[Campus News, 4/29/09]

Using Opscan for Quizzes and Surveys - April 24  and April 28 - Sign Up Now!

This informational session will provide an overview the Opscan process. You will learn where the Opscan office is located, examine the different forms and special directions for each, see how to interpret results, and view the process for uploading the grades into Blackboard Vista.

Sign up now for the April 24 session or sign up for the April 28 session.

Dear Educator,

The Call for Papers is now open for the 15th Annual Sloan-C International Conference on Online Learning. Please submit your papers for Sloan-C's annual conference held in Orlando, FL on October 28 – 30, 2009. Last year's conference attracted over 1,100 participants to more than 180 presentations.

Conference Tracks Include:

• Learning Effectiveness
• Student Services and Learner Support
• Technology and Emerging Learning Environments
• Faculty Development & Support
• Professional Development and Workforce Training
• Leadership, Values and Society

Papers must be submitted by April 30, 2009

For more information, please visit the conference site:
http://www.sloan-c.org/aln

Regards,

The Sloan Consortium Team
info@sloanconsortium.org
---
 

The Sloan Consortium
Olin Way
Needham, MA 02492-1200
info@sloanconsortium.org
 

New Media and the Interdisciplinary Teacher/Student
The 6th Annual Innovation in Instruction Conference
Elon University August 20, 2009

http://org.elon.edu/catl/conference/index.html

For many college and university faculty, the ground rules have changed dramatically. Beyond traditional teaching methods centered on texts and talk, students and faculty alike are increasingly called upon to engage with and making meaning from information in new ways. The explosion of new material available to us as teachers and learners makes integrating insights and methods from multiple disciplines into our teaching and learning easier than ever before.

What is the role of new media in teaching and learning across the disciplines? What are the potential benefits – and burdens – of integrating new technology or visual pedagogies into interdisciplinary work? What do we need to know to promote learning in this new environment, and how can we best empower students to transition from passive consumers to active co-producers of knowledge and culture both within and without the classroom?

We invite you to submit proposals showcasing your Innovations in Instruction for our one day, free, interactive conference -- August 20, 2009 at Elon University.

Proposal submissions are due by April 17th at 5:00 p.m.

Possible Topics Include:

Innovative Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning
How can we most effectively support interdisciplinary learning? The benefits of interdisciplinary learning can considerably outweigh the challenges that it poses to the teacher who may or may not be comfortable stretching beyond disciplinary training and expertise. In conjunction with a plenary presentation by Therese Huston, author of How To Teach What You Do Not Know (Harvard University Press, 2009), we seek proposals that not only inspire educators to reach beyond disciplinary lines, but also provide them with concrete “how to” tools, methods, resources, technologies or case studies that demonstrate best practices in interdisciplinary teaching.

Teaching and Learning with Technology
The web is making it possible to access and use vast storehouses of data, primary sources, and visual images previously not readily or widely available to students. What are the best ways access and use these resources? How might be use social networking sites, mashable applications, and other consumer-created content in education? What are some strategies for handling the complex ethical issues surrounding the use of these new resources, including the blurring of boundaries between public and private domains, intellectual property, and evaluation of student work?

Visual Pedagogy
We live in a highly visual world; what are we doing to help prepare students to analyze and make meaning from the many visual forms all around them? What does it mean to read an image, and how can teachers help students develop the skills to do so thoughtfully? How can we teach students to decode, comprehend, and understand images? How do we teach students to discern point of view or bias? How can we teach students to create imagery that informs, persuades, argues, illustrates or entertains?

Two Possible Proposal Formats
We welcome proposals in one of two formats:
1) 70 minute interactive sessions that involve the audience
2) posters and table-top demonstrations

We particularly encourage you to include evidence of the effectiveness of your instructional innovations as well as practical advice about their use so that educators can implement (and argue for) these ideas in their own courses on their own campuses.

Important Deadlines
Submission Deadline – April 17, 2009, 5:00 PM
Acceptance Notification – May 1, 2009
Conference – August 20, 2009

Submission Instructions
Please send your proposal in an attached Microsoft Word file to catl@elon.edu.

Proposal submissions must be received by 5:00 PM on Friday, April 17, 2009.

Your submissions must include:

• Name and contact information of the primary presenter
• A firm list of any co-presenters
• A title for your session – 10 words or fewer, please
• An abstract of no more than 100 words, suitable for use in the conference program
• The type of session you are proposing (interactive workshop or poster)
• A proposal narrative of no more than 750 words that describes:
  • -the background and context of your session
  • -the goals/objectives for your session
  • -an outline how the session will be conducted
  • -the connection(s) between your session and the conference theme
  • -any other information that will help the program committee understand your proposed session
• A list of equipment/technology needs for your presentation

A committee of Elon faculty will review how your proposal fits into the conference with preference given to those that connect to the theme and that reflect or model innovative practice. Further information about posters and other logistics will be provided upon acceptance of proposals.

Conference information is available at http://org.elon.edu/catl/conference/index.html

Questions about the conference should be directed to catl@elon.edu.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) and Instructional Design & Development (ID&D) at Elon University.
 

If you don't already know about it, you might want to take a look at our new NC Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Network site on ning.com. Currently (Tues., March 11) there are 94 members. Not bad for a network that was created last Thursday. The site also includes campus-based "group" areas that can be used for campus-based discussion of SoTL activities and initiatives...Come take a look (and join us if you are interested) at http://ncsotl.ning.com.

The NC SoTL Network focuses on sharing SoTL work and building a SoTL community across NC universities, colleges, and community colleges.

--
Scott Simkins, Ph.D.
Director, Academy for Teaching and Learning
North Carolina A&T State University