Practice and Process: Investigating the Impact of Local Practice on the ISW Process

Amira Abdelrasoul, Wenona Partridge, Susan Bens

Although studies about the transformative impact of the Instructional Skill Workshop (ISW) have been conducted by Dawson, D., Borin, P., Meadows, K., Britnell, J., Olsen, K., & McIntyre, G. (2014) and Russell Day et al., (2004) these have as yet not examined the specific influence of local practice (Hager et al., 2012) on the ISW process. The goal of our exploratory study is to investigate the influence of local practices of teaching and learning on the overall learning process of the ISW. Our reasons for conducting this study include examining the assumptions that have emerged as part of the educational development practice at our own teaching and learning centre. Read More …

Inside the MNTF Special Interest Group – Crafting a Culture for Teaching Excellence

Earle Abrahamson, Duncan Cross

At the heart of ISSoTL, there lies a unique space populated by special interest groups. One such group is the Multinational Teaching Fellows (MNTF). This group was established to support and engage award winning teachers with conversations and debates around defining and recognising teaching excellence. The group has evolved into an inclusive community of practice focussing on supporting aspiring academics by sharing experiences and journeys. Through the group, members have enjoyed contributing towards conference abstract submissions including panels that are tasked with discerning the structures for, and definitions of, teaching excellence. Read More …

Peer Learning Abroad to Embed Intercultural Awareness in a Short-Term Mobility Program

Tina Acuna, Alistair Gracie, Mojith Ariyaratne, Buddhi Marambe, Pradeepa Silva, Chalinda Beneragama

There is a significant body of scholarly literature on outward-bound mobility programs, which provide participating students with the opportunity to take part of their study abroad (Dall’Alba & Sidhu, 2015) and connects student learning with life outside the classroom. Potential benefits to students are self-awareness, adaptability and resilience, experiences in culture, study and travel. It is suggested that these benefits and the development of intercultural awareness of small groups of students who participate in short-term mobility programs is less than those on semester-long exchange (Dwyer, 2004). Read More …

IKD: Cooperative and Dynamic Teaching and Learning Model in the Basque Country University

Mirari Ayerbe, Elena Díaz, Idoia Fernandez, Mikel Garmendia, Urtza Garay, Iker Ros, Eneritz Ugarte

In April 2010 the University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, approved its own educative model: IKD, ikaskuntza kooperatibo eta dinamikoa, cooperative and dynamic learning. During the course 2010-11 the new degree studies started. It was the right moment to establish new politics. This model states over five pillars:

  • – Curriculum development
  • – Active learning
  • – Professional development
  • – Institutional politics and development
  • – Social and land development

 
This model is the natural evolution of the policies and strategies which drove the development of the studies after EHEA and Bologna process. Read More …

Towards Integrated Earth System Science Education in Norway

Jostein Bakke

Earth science education is a cornerstone of Norwegian Society, underpinning Norway´s major energy and resource based industries, but is also key to societal resilience and environmental safety. Yet the Earth sciences are in change, posed by changing climate, shifting energy landscape and resource utilization acutely highlight the inter-dependence between human society and our planet. In this proposal, we build a national consortium with broad international networks, to transform the Earth Science education in Norway. We will connect excellence in research to excellence in student-active learning by: 1) creating a national competence centre for earth science education, 2) developing a generic approach to cross-disciplinary earth science education within critical fields of societal relevance (geohazards, resources, energy, environment, climate), 3) establishing a coherent system of evaluation to foster teaching excellence and identify best practices to disseminate worldwide. Read More …

Changing the Learning Environment by Developing a National Cross-Disciplinary Course in Geohazards

Jostein Bakke, Åse Hestnes

Geological and environmental hazards (i.e. earthquakes, landslides, floods, etc.) are a threat to society, and bound to increase in a changing climate. Therefore, we need competent Earth scientists to help society tackle these challenges. Hence, it is a pertinent question how educational institutes can fulfil the obligation to create a learning environment that helps to equip students with the relevant knowledge and tools to understand geohazards and implement necessary mitigation measures (Boulton, 2009. University world news). Our vision is to help students build broader skills and competencies, integrating a strong theoretical basis with real-life work and research experiences (Kastens & Manduca 2012. Earth and Mind II). Read More …

Exploring How Students Come to Understand the University

Deb Bennett, Glen Ryland

While philosophers and educators have been hammering out the purpose of the university, students have rarely been asked what they see as the university’s purpose and place. We neglect to introduce students to the university as an object of study in its own right, except perhaps in a graduate level philosophy or education class. Petruzzelli and Romanazzi (2010) found that universities would have more success with student retention if they could show students how the university is a service toward an individual student’s objectives for attending in addition to stressing the social value of the university. Read More …

Researching Institutional Change: A Longitudinal Study on Faculty Teaching Practices

Adriana Briseno-Garzon, Andrea Han, Gulnur Birol

Considerable institutional efforts have been implemented in Canadian post secondary institutions aiming at promoting and sustaining a culture for learning based on teaching excellence. The University of British Columbia (UBC), for instance, introduced the rank of Professor of Teaching into the Educational Leadership stream in July of 2011 with the goal of reinforcing the University’s “commitment to provide educational leadership, outstanding teaching, and curriculum development, and to recognize and reward it when it happens” (UBC, 2016). In 2013, the Flexible Learning Initiative aimed at promoting “evidence-based, technology-enabled teaching methods that improve the learning experience for a broader student community”. The new institutional Strategic Plan includes “transformative learning” as a core element to reach the goal of “enhancing the quality and impact of teaching for all students” (UBC, 2018). Read More …

Transformative Learning through an Undergraduate Public Health Service-Learning Course

Kari Brossard Stoos

This project provides a model for developing social and cultural sensitivity and inclusivity through service-learning. The proposal directly addresses a conference aim by describing an approach connecting student learning to life and work experiences outside the physical classroom. Robert Sigmon established the framework for service-learning by providing three principles that premised work in a reciprocal process between communities and institutions of higher education (Sigmon, 1979). Sigmon’s framework was later operationalized as providing a course-based (credit-bearing) experience for students to engage in need-based community activities simultaneously leading to enhanced content learning and appreciation for civic duties (Bringle et al, 2006). Read More …

Co-Discovery: A Collaborative Evaluation of Broadening

Akeisha Brown, Caroline Campbell, Robert Irnazarow, Karen Llewellyn, Chandni Pandya

This poster shares the outcomes of an evaluative research project funded by the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE). Co-created by two staff and three undergraduates, the aim of the project was to explore the value of the concept of ‘Broadening’ within the University of Leeds’ undergraduate curriculum, from the perspectives of both students and employers.

With a focus on the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attributes, and specifically in the context of developing (foreign) language skills, the project sought to map the learning experiences of students to the perceptions of employers in order to reveal the resonance and/or dissonance in their understanding of the value of broadening as a concept. Read More …

Fostering a Culture for Learning: Embedding Active Learning in European Higher Education

Therese Collins, Marian McCarthy, Catherine O’Mahony

There is an increased emphasis in European Higher Education on teaching approaches that foster active learning (High Level Group, 2013, EUA, 2018) and “encourage students to take an active role in creating the learning process” (ESG, 2015). Active learning can be supported through a multitude of pedagogical approaches which involve “students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing” (Bonwell & Eison, 1991).

This poster will review differing active learning approaches used in higher education institutions in 10 countries in Europe. The different approaches will be critiqued to uncover how they could better support a culture for learning. Read More …

A Culturally Competent Course-Based Research Experience (CRE) for Graduate Students

Sehoya Cotner, Lorelei Patrick, Aud Helen Halbritter Reichsteiner, Brian Engquist, Vigdis Vandvik

For developing scientists, the myriad benefits of research experiences are well established. In response, many collegiate science departments have begun to reimagine the curriculum in ways that incorporate more meaningful (or “authentic”) scientific experiences. Course-based research experiences (CREs) make research more inclusive and can lead to positive outcomes similar to those realized from a more traditional, apprentice-style research experience. A growing body of literature documents novel course-based undergraduate research experiences (or CUREs), but less work has focused on opportunities in graduate-level training. Also, developers have struggled with ways to make curriculum-based research broadly relevant to a community beyond the classroom (and thus authentic). Read More …

Making SoTL Accessible to Academics: a Blended Course Offered as a SPOC

Josephine Csete

How can we support academics who have an initial interest in SoTL? What may they already know and what knowledge and skills related to SoTL would they find useful, especially when they are starting out in SoTL? Do they have skills from their core discipline that are readily transferable? What questions and concerns may they have that, if addressed, can further motivate them to pursue SoTL? Can we support them in a way that is both effective as well as makes efficient use of their time investment?

Questions such as these were asked in the first stage of a two year project that led to developing, piloting and further refining an introduction to SoTL that is currently provided as a seven-hour short course offered in blended mode with two ninety minute face-to-face sessions and four hours of online effort in a small private online course (SPOC). Read More …

Preparing Students for the Fourth Industrial Revolution – A South African Perspective

Danie de Klerk, Ashwini Jadhav

A recent World Economic Forum report (WEF, 2016) outlines the vast changes the fourth industrial revolution will bring and explores the impact these changes will have on the world of work as we know it. The advent of this revolution (also known as Industry 4.0) is here and higher education, like most other sectors of society, will not go unaffected. Yet the higher education landscape remains a complex space, in a continuous state of change (Andrews & Osman, 2015; Hornsby & Osman, 2014; Maree, 2015; McGhie & du Prees, 2015). The future of present-day universities is being questioned (Arvanitakis & Hornsby, 2016) and calls for responsible citizen scholars abound (Duncan, 2016; Nichols, 2016) and the South African higher education sector is not immune to these realities. Read More …

Transition to the Profession: The Importance of Capstone Courses

Tayler Delannoy, Jessica Barabas, Jessica Booke, Pat Kostouros

There has been extensive research that demonstrates the important role that capstone courses play as a bridge or rite of passage by allowing students to transition from their university experiences to professional practice (Collier, 2000; Daspit & D’Souza, 2012; Dunlap, 2005; Durel, 1993; Todd & Magleby, 2005). These experiences increase student understanding of their chosen field and better prepare them for career options. In addition, capstone courses assist with opportunities to network with professionals already in the field. Capstone courses might include practicum, research, and community projects which assist students in gaining useful skills and knowledge. Read More …

Developing Learning Culture through Field Work – Effect of Group-Work Organization

Pernille Eidesen, Tina Dahl

Studies have shown that field work is associated with improved learning outcomes of both discipline knowledge and practical skills (e. g.(Lonergan & Andresen, 1988; Lisowski & Disinger, 1991; Kent et al., 1997; Fuller et al., 2014; Eidesen et al., 2017; Fleischner et al., 2017). Another benefit associated with field work is promotion of group interactions, both among students and between teachers and students, creating a beneficial learning environment both during the time spent outside and for the remaining classroom part of a course (Harland et al., 2006). However, how we organise the learning activities in the field, promote different learning environments, and to some extent the learning culture. Read More …

Contemplative Pedagogy – Toward a Learning Culture Supported by Mindfulness Practice?

Tatiana Eldridge-Hinmers, Silvia Wehmeier

The concept of mindfulness, as a secular contemplative practice, has gained traction in many sectors of society: in higher education we are seeing it take the form of contemplative pedagogy. Mindfulness is still a relatively new concept in universities and often mainly found in medical schools.

Contemplation practices provide a powerful pedagogy towards a present mind, foundational academic competencies, and have been seen to benefit wellbeing, social and emotional growth, performance, character development, and insight. Mindfulness practice may support a learning culture, a liberating and empowering education, by intentionally creating a space in which to see learning in its full context — scientific, cultural, political and personal. Read More …

Reciprocal Review as Educational Development: Diversifying the SoTL Landscape

Sue Fostaty Young, Meagan Troop

In our poster session, we plan to delve into the collaborative writing process currently undertaken to produce an edited volume on the ICE model (Fostaty Young & Wilson, 2000; Fostaty Young, 2005). With chapters from twelve contributors working at universities in Japan, Sweden, and Canada, who describe the diverse ways that each have adapted the ICE model of thinking, learning, and assessment into their teaching practices, this edition will foster a culture that learns through a reciprocal review process. Interestingly, while each author reported the transformative effects of the model on both their conceptions of learning and their approaches to course delivery and assessment, their uses of the model each differ from the others’. Read More …

Creating a Culture for Learning: Teaming Up! to Re-Imagine Multi-Course Teaching in Large Classes

Michelle French, Franco Taverna, Melody Neumann

At universities, knowledge is typically compartmentalized into courses or subjects, and often students do not recognize the connections between them. As well, opportunities to reinforce learning are lost due to lack of cross-course/cross-departmental curriculum design. To address this, we are developing a cross-disciplinary, interactive teaching model that will be tested in three large courses with a combined yearly enrollment of 3500 students. Specifically, we have created video case studies with a storytelling arc that spans three disciplines in biology: cell and molecular biology, physiology and neuroscience. The case studies form the basis for interactive classes in each course with small group work and teaching assistants to facilitate discussion to foster learning. A feature is the in-class use of Team Up! (developed by Dr. Neumann). Read More …

Everybody Hates Discussion Boards: Engaging Students in Critical Thinking Online and In-Person

Jennifer Gonyea

Students want to engage with material instead of listening to lectures or passively reading content (Roehl, Reddy, & Shannon, 2013); and consistently report that faculty use technology ineffectively (Burkley & Burkley, 2009; Price, 2009). Creative, integrative writing assignments that require technology meet student demands for interaction with faculty and with each other (Kotz, 2016) while assisting them in thinking critically about course content. This poster presents an assessment of both the degree of engagement between students and the level of critical thinking skills demonstrated by video log assignments that are designed to have students integrate course content, substantiate arguments, and broaden their perspectives. Read More …

The Understanding of Independence in Swedish Higher Education before and after Bologna

Jan-Olof Gullö

Within the Bologna cooperation, an overall European framework has been developed with general learning outcomes and competences for different examination levels. In the Swedish interpretation of this framework, independence is a central concept. Student’s ten-week (15 ECTS credits) bachelor essays or degree projects are, for example, called independent projects in the Swedish system of higher education. Independence is however a concept that can be understood in different ways in different contexts. Ambiguities in how independence is understood and used in practice can lead to uncertainty and may even be a barrier to student exchange and hamper international comparability in accordance with the intentions of the Bologna Declaration. Read More …

Innovative Strategies for High Impact Practices: Access, Success, and the Student-Athlete

Eric E Hall, Anthony Weaver, Caroline J Ketcham

High impact practices (HIPs), such as study abroad, internships, learning communities, and undergraduate research, have repeatedly been shown to positively affect academic success (Kuh, 2008), yet not all students have equal access to these experiences. One cohort who often have high time demands and resource constraints are student-athletes (SAs); limiting their opportunities to participate in HIPs and potentially negatively impacting their academic experiences and success. SAs face unique challenges, such as heavy time commitments to their sport including seasons that overlap multiple semesters and pressure to achieve athletic success, which can reduce access to and involvement in HIPs. Read More …

Waving a Magic Wand: An Innovative Journey for Early Career Researchers and SoTL Engagement

Melanie J Hamilton, Andy M Benoit

A growing number of faculty at colleges in Canada are developing their scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) skills. However, little is known about the college faculty experience (Simmons & Poole, 2016) of conceptualizing and developing a research proposal and the needed supports. According to Bazeley (2003), there is no single path to developing an academic research career, and most academics have different discipline paths to research experience. There are many interpretations in the literature about early career researchers (ECR); however, the European Research Commission uses the term Early-Stage researcher and defines it as “researchers in the first four years (full-time equivalent) of their research activity, including the period of research training.” (De Montfort University, 2018). Read More …

Data Analysis in Geosciences: Fostering Computational Learning

Bjarte Hannisdal, Einar Iversen

Data analysis and statistics play a key role in the geosciences, but have been nearly absent in traditional geology BSc curricula. At our department, geology students have historically been offered a one-week intensive lecture-based course at the MSc level. In 2017, the authors launched a major revision of both form and content of this course. Our goal is for students to adopt computational practices as a means of developing their expertise in solving authentic, ill-structured problems (Scherer et al., 2017, J. Geosci. Educ. 65).

As a first step we reoriented the form of instruction towards real-time problem-solving using the programming language R and the RStudio desktop interface. Read More …

Non-Biology Majors’ Preferences for Student-Led Inquiry vs. Broadly Relevant Research Experiences

Sadie Hebert, Jessamina Blum, Deena Wassenberg, Sehoya Cotner

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are laboratory experiences that involve students in five dimensions – use of scientific practices, discovery, broadly relevant work, collaboration, and iteration. Based on several learning theories including social activism, social cognitive, and situated learning, we know that participating in real-world, relevant, collaborative experiences that connect to the world outside of the classroom can lead to meaningful learning. In the CURE framework, real-world, relevant experiences come from the dimension of broadly relevant work. However, implementing the “broadly relevant work” dimension is logistically challenging in a large-enrollment, non-majors course and it is unclear if this dimension is necessary for positive student outcomes. Read More …

Divide and Conquer: Can a Short Animation Support Student Learning of Meiosis?

Melissa Hills, Kathy Davies, Carolyn Ives

Meiosis is the foundation of heredity, and a core concept in genetics. It is also one that is challenging to learn, and ingrained misconceptions are common amongst students. As meiosis is a dynamic process, traditional lecture formats alone are not effective in maximizing student learning of the concept. Meiosis, therefore, provides a useful test case to evaluate approaches to generate and sustain meaningful learning in biology. Video is frequently used as a learning tool in and out of the classroom. Students often rely on online videos on platforms such as YouTube; however, these videos can lack key detail, and some may reinforce existing misconceptions. Read More …

Mentorship as a Model for Academic Staff Competence and Culture Development

Rune Hjelsvold, Terje Stafseng

Academic competence and dedication are key components in cultivating an effective learning culture. However, non-orchestrated teaching, research, and administrative obligations limit the capabilities of faculty members to keep up with technological progressions and latest developments in their fields. Moreover, only a few studies have shown how teaching faculty, collectively and supported by higher management support, successfully contribute to the development of a learning culture.

This article studies the long-term effect of a three-year old project involving teaching faculty of five different bachelor programs in computer science. Faculty management initiated the process by inviting an expert from the software industry to work with faculty members to identify skills and knowledge, which were important in computer science practice, but were not properly addressed in the curricula. Read More …

In-Class and After-Class Interactive Learning with Smart Phone App in Engineering Higher Education

Yao Hu, Qun Hao, Ya Zhou, Yifan Huang

Classroom is the basic and critical environment for higher education in common cases. However, this traditional face-to-face teaching and learning environment can hardly draw the attention of the students if the lecturer is not talkative. Some theoretical courses are complained to be boring and some other practical courses are not easy to understand if no demonstration experiments are involved. On the other hand, students in/from East Asia are often too shy to address their opinions and questions. Due to the low lecturer/student ratio, typically less than 1:100 in some engineering courses in Universities and Colleges, most of the students gave up the chance of one-to-one communication with the lecturers even when they were confused. Read More …

Contributing to Intercultural Learning: A Chinese and Danish Collaboration

Donna Hurford, Yan Ding

We are two academic developers, one at a Chinese university and the other at a Danish university. Through the ‘International Network Project’ (Danish Ministry of Education and Research) we are intent on developing a new intercultural research partnership by exploring shared professional and academic interests. We are interested in exploring how our collaboration on these authentic, international projects (Leask, 2009) contributes to our intercultural learning and to review the potential of such international partnerships for academic developers.

Whilst academic development and its associated learning culture or cultures has a longer history in Danish than Chinese universities, identifying opportunities to better understand and develop our respective learning cultures is applicable in both contexts. Read More …

Learning to Argue Like a Scientist: A Systematic Literature Review on Socio-Scientific Argumentation

Olga Ioannidou, Andeas Hetmanek, Frank Fischer, Tina Seidel

As the world is faced with critical issues such as climate change, or the use of vaccines, the call for teaching scientific literacy to pre-service and in-service teachers and students is more prominent than ever. Socio-scientific argumentation (SSA) has been introduced to science education as an attempt to promote civic and scientific literacy (Sadler, 2007). Although teachers embraced the concept as beneficial for students’ learning, they report difficulties in teaching in SSA contexts, because they often do not feel confident and well-prepared to address the complexity of these issues (Juntunen & Aksela, 2014). Read More …

Faculty Perceptions of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in US Colleges/Schools of Pharmacy

Mohammed Islam, Reza Taheri, Sarah McBane, Rahmat Talukder

The 1990 publication of “Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate” by Ernest Boyer paved the way for the eventual birth of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Reflective of the ISSOTL 2018 conference threads, but most specifically to “An inclusive learning culture“ and ”A culture that learns”, this poster will focus on the faculty perceptions of SoTL, their engagement in SoTL, and recognition of SoTL in US colleges/schools of pharmacy. SoTL is gaining momentum within academic pharmacy, as pharmacy curricula evolve along with the profession, creating multiple opportunities for faculty to pursue scholarship (McLaughlin et al., 2013; Peeters, 2013; Mehvar 2017). Read More …

University Teachers’ Approaches to Teaching in the Context of a Pedagogical Course

Mari Karm, Anu Sarv, Airi Niilo, Ene Voolaid, Merje Miliste, James Groccia

Learning-centered approach to teaching and active student engagement becomes more and more valued in universities. Therefore, the goal of pedagogical courses should be supporting the development of learning-centered teaching. Åkerlind (2007) supports the position that the focus of teaching improvement is influenced by the teacher’s conception of teaching. If the teacher holds a content-centered approach, particular strategies are used to build up better content knowledge. On the contrary, in the learning-centered approach the purpose of teaching is to improve student learning and an emphasis is also placed on continuous improvement of one’s own teaching (Postareff & Lindblom-Ylänne, 2008, Eley, 2006). Read More …

Providing the Big Picture Makes a Curriculum Jigsaw Puzzle Easier to Negotiate

John Keating, Laura Sahm, William Joynes, Sima Purohit

Background

It can be a daunting task for an undergraduate student to comprehend the structure of their curriculum and how it relates to the profession they wish to practise post-graduation. It is akin to arriving in a new city but without a map, or trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle without access to the puzzle image. Without signposting to students the reasons underpinning the design of their curriculum, their engagement can falter and learning suffer.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) Core Competency Framework (CCF) is the cornerstone of the PSI’s programme to reform/inform training and education of undergraduate and practising Irish pharmacists. Read More …

The Changing Landscape of Capstone Experiences: Diverse Needs of Students and Institution Types

Caroline Ketcham, Anthony Weaver, Jillian Kinzie

Capstone experiences are a high impact practice that many institutions identify as ‘transformational’ experiences for their students. There is currently very little research on what constitutes a high-quality capstone experience. Particularly, what the various types of capstones experiences are and whether students from a variety of diverse backgrounds receive the transformational outcomes. This poster will highlight the 1st year outcomes of a multi-year, multi-institutional model of research on capstone experiences. Leaders guide participants through 3 years of team-oriented deep dive questions related to capstone experiences. Of primary interest is addressing how the landscape of capstone experiences is changing as our student and institutional needs continue to increase. Read More …

Promoting a Culture of Learning through a Learning Philosophy Assignment: First-Year Biology

Kelly Keus, Neil Haave

Many students inhabit a learning culture in which the dominant study strategy is to memorize-regurgitate-purge which leads to superficial learning (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). In order to promote deep learning that connects to students’ life goals, we developed a learning philosophy (LP) assignment which promotes students’ metacognition of their learning. Metacognition is known to promote student learning outcomes (Coutinho, 2007; Girash, 2014; Tanner, 2012). Our study was designed to determine whether our LP assignment promoted students’ specific learning outcomes (i.e., exam performance) and whether student construction of their LP promoted their general learning outcomes (i.e., intellectual development) as indicated by their cognitive complexity. Read More …

Strategies for Preventing Burnout and Promoting Well-Being in the Workplace

Klodiana Kolomitro, Natasha Kenny, Suzanne Le-May Sheffield

The roles of educational developers have been redefined, reimagined, and repurposed. Beach et al. (2016) have witnessed, “mounting evidence that faculty development has become a more essential support for institutional strategic initiatives”(p. 1). Pressures are high on teaching and learning centres to do more with less as educational developers are being called upon to address institutional priorities and metrics of success and are increasingly functioning as organizational change agents. This paradigm shift has positioned developers with a unique role of becoming predictive in their work by anticipating and effecting institutional changes and new directions. Read More …

Results of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) for Assessment of Clinical Competence

Nancy Krusen, Debra Rollins

The presentation reports outcomes of a first-trial objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) used to assess clinical competence. OSCEs are brief, multiple stations assessing a variety of clinical practice skills. The presentation analyzes the educational value of OSCE as a performance-based tool. The presentation supports a culture of learning, assuring skill prior to clinical practice placement. We describe task-specific checklist and global scores, descriptive statistics for seventeen OSCE stations, descriptive statistics for learner performance, phenomenological analysis of learner and rater feedback, and plans for additional research. Through formal presentation, small group discussion, and large group sharing, learners will be able to differentiate skill-specific and overall rating scales, deliberate reliability and validity of OSCE use, and seek additional resources for OSCE implementation. Read More …

Professional Development in Teaching and Learning: Interpreting Experiences and Responding to Needs

Laura Lee, Catherine O’ Mahony

This research critically evaluates survey data gathered from staff who support student learning in Higher Education, on the topic of professional development (PD) in Teaching and Learning (T&L). As coordinators of PD activities for staff and postgraduate students, we are interested in exploring the following research questions:

  • – To what extent do staff who support student learning engage in PD opportunities, including activities related to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)?
  • – What are the interests and needs of staff in relation to PD in T&L?
  • – Do factors such as employment status, position, and discipline influence the types of PD activities in T&L that staff engage in and have interest in, including activities specifically related to SoTL?
  • – Are there barriers to participation in PD opportunities?

Read More …

Lecturers’ Curational Skills in Higher Education Curriculum Development: A Research Design

Rose Leighton, Didi Griffioen

In today’s era of content abundance, education has to deal with changed practices for the dissemination of knowledge. Many digital resources are available, and they have the potential to take the place of textbooks. ‘The role of the classic textbook as the key, immutable reference point for any class subject, is rapidly fading’, says Good (2016). Educational publishers like Pearson see a decline in textbook use (Sweney, 2017), and a study at a Dutch university of applied sciences (Leighton, 2015) indicates that lecturers in higher education move away from textbooks towards a variety of materials, including powerpoint slides, websites, and videos. Read More …

How Can Use of a Shared Collaborative Whiteboard Support Discussions in Lectures?

Kristine Ludvigsen

This poster presents an intervention study of how we used Flinga, a shared online whiteboard (http://www.nordtouch.fi/) to support peer discussions in lectures. The overarching purpose of the study was to explore affordances of using Flinga to open dialogical spaces (Wegerif, 2013) in the context of lectures. When describing dialogical spaces, terms such as opening – how the dialogical space is enabled, widening – how many possible different voices and perspectives it allows for, and deepening – the extent of critical reflections on the perspectives it provides for, are crucial dimensions.

The research question that guides across two cases was: “What kind of affordances are there in collaborative whiteboard to support the dimensions of the opening, widening, and deepening dialogical spaces in lectures? Read More …

A Culture Change: Using the Five-Stage Model of Change to Transition the Campus LMS

Sara Marcketti, Ann Marie VanDerZanden

In fall 2016, it was decided that our University’s 10 year contract with the Learning Management System (LMS) would come to an end and a new LMS would be adopted. The University decided upon a fast track adoption of the new LMS: Canvas, with the product on campus July 2017, a group of 300 early adopter instructors utilizing it in fall 2017, and the entirety of campus adopting the system in Spring 2018.

Our midwestern university’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) was placed in charge of the implementation. The poster will provide detailed methods of how we smoothly transitioned the campus. Read More …

SoTL Engagement as Compared to Total Outputs for Promotion and Tenure

Sara Marcketti, Ann Marie VanDerZanden, Joshua Mitchell

Much of the research published on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has focused on one of the primary purposes of strengthening faculty teaching practices and improving student learning (Condone, Iverson, Manduca, Rutz, & Willett, 2016). While our Midwestern University values SoTL as indicated in its inclusion in the Faculty Handbook which governs faculty life, anecdotally, one often hears that those who conduct SoTL must do more to have their work “counted” towards promotion and tenure decisions. We sought to understand the association between engagement in SoTL activities and number of total outputs as counted in the promotion and tenure process. Read More …

Impact of Interdisciplinary Communities of Teachers on Enhancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Irma Meijerman

An important aspect of making SoTL an integral part of a learning culture within universities is a sustainable change owned by the teachers. Engaging teachers in SoTL, making SoTL an integral part of their approach to teaching, often means that they have to move beyond disciplinary research boundaries and get familiar with more social science research methods. SoTL- communities, where teachers collaborate with colleagues, and peer review each other’s projects, can be a driving force to support teachers in getting familiar with the approaches and methods of SoTL. Within Utrecht University, until now, very few teachers are involved in SoTL, and no institutional support or teacher development programs involving SoTL are offered. Read More …

ComPAIR: an Online Adaptive Comparative Judgement Tool for Peer Feedback and Assessment

Firas Moosvi, Hendrik Blok, Tiffany Potter, James Charbonneau, Letitia Englund, Andrew Gardener, Pan Luo, Ido Roll

Giving and receiving feedback has been identified as a key focus in redesigning assessments for long term learning (Boud, 2006) as peer feedback has been shown to improve motivation (White, 1998) and provide learning benefits (Jhangiani, 2016). However, challenges in implementation have prevented its widespread use. Leveraging the process of comparative judgement has the potential to facilitate peer feedback and assessment at scale. Performing an active comparative process facilitates students’ future learning by enabling them to go beyond identifying superficial features of a phenomenon (Bransford,1999; Schwartz,1998). Read More …

Meaningful Academic Integrity Conversations: Frameworks for Teaching and Learning

Leanne Morrow, Roxanne Ross, Asher Ghaffar

Finding effective teaching practices for engaging students in meaningful dialogue on academic integrity (AI) is a continual challenge for academic institutions. This poster presentation highlights a recent SoTL collaboration between the Student Success Centre, the Library and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary looking to explore optimal ways to create meaningful learning for students engaging with the topic of AI. Using a traditional, writing skills-based instruction framework from Babcock and Thonus, (2012) and contrasting that with a framework focusing on scenario based, moral decision-making from Bandura (2002) the goal in this SoTL project was to explore the ways in which these two distinct frameworks helped students gain a deeper understanding of AI. Read More …

Pivot Points: Maximizing the Learning Potential of a Professional Graduate Program

Phillip M Motley, Derek Lackaff

This research poster will share how we have attempted to develop an inclusive learning culture in a diverse professional graduate program in interactive media. We will draw on student interviews and programmatic evaluation data to explore (1) the role of the advising process; (2) the design of curricular and co-curricular opportunities; and (3) the messaging provided to students prior to and following admission. We reflect on facilitating meaningful learning experiences that allow students to pivot between academic and professional learning objectives, and demonstrate how best practices are not ad hoc, but programmatically designed and implemented by all faculty. Read More …

Visualizing the History of a Learning Culture

Victoria Myhand

This project is a comprehensive history of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning within the United States. I have been working with documents and visiting with noteworthy scholars who were involved in the foundation of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. We have been discussing memorable and pivotal moments during the foundation and establishment of SOTL over time, as well as specific instances which exemplify the learning culture SOTL strives to generate. I believe my project is quite serendipitous with this year’s conference theme. In discussing Toward a Learning Culture, it seems necessary to examine how the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning sprouted, and how the culture of learning and learners blossomed. Read More …

Computational Practices in Student Learning of Earth Systems

Tor Einar Møller, Laura De Luca Peña, Kristian A. Haaga, Henriette Linge, Bjarte Hannisdal

Student learning of dynamical interactions in complex Earth systems is a major challenge in geoscience education (Assaraf & Orion, 2005, J. Res. Sci. Teach. 42; Scherer et al., 2017, J. Geosci. Educ. 65). Students exposed to traditional teaching have been found to maintain their default perception of causal relationships as linear chains of events and to struggle with dynamical systems thinking (Raia, 2008, J. Geosci. Educ. 56).

The development of systems thinking goes hand-in-hand with computational thinking and practices (Weintrop et al. 2016, J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 25). Read More …

Understanding and Fostering SoTL Cultures across a Nation

Genevieve Newton, Chris Ostrowski, Monica Sanago, Janice Miller-Young

SoTL Canada is a constituency of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and we are part of the SoTL Canada executive team, elected by its membership. Formed in 2012, SoTL Canada strives to provide “a targeted opportunity for SoTL scholars to form a community to share findings and challenges, engage in opportunities for broader dissemination of SoTL work, and consider ways to catalyze SoTL initiatives at the institutional, regional, national, and international levels.” Past projects include pre-conference workshops, a special issue of New Directions in Teaching and Learning about the history and impact of SoTL across Canada, and collaborative writing groups which resulted in a special issue of the Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Read More …

Paddles and Pedagogy: Journeying Towards a Learning Culture

Kevin Nolan, Catharine White

Come hear about Coast Mountain College’s efforts to move towards a learning culture with a unique experiential professional development endeavor. Called ‘Paddles and Pedagogy’, 10 instructors and 1 faculty developer embarked on a six day sea kayak trip during which a course in experiential place-based learning was offered covering such topics as defining experiential place-based learning, why it matters, and how to design, deliver and evaluate in accordance to experiential principles. The journey was a transformative learning adventure for all involved. That this experience influenced change in teaching and connection to one another (the time travelling in the wilderness together created tight bonds with one another – we alternatively called ‘paddles and pedagogy’ ‘pooping with peers’ – come hear what happens when distance between colleagues is removed). Read More …

Learning Outcome Transformation in Course Redesigns

Ludmila Nunes, Erica Lott

How does a course redesign program impact development of a learning culture? And how can this impact be measured? We suggest that changes in learning outcomes (LO) proposed by faculty who went through an institution-wide course redesign program are: 1) an indicator of the program success; and 2) a measure of learning culture.

As Barr and Tagg (1995) conceptualized, the “shift from teaching to learning” implies that the measure of success in a learning institution shifts from a measure of quantity and quality of resources to a measure of quality of LOs. Thus, the way faculty conceptualize the LOs for their courses should reflect this change of focus towards a learning culture. Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom et al., 1956) can be used to categorize LOs into six categories that vary in terms of cognitive processes and go from concrete and simple to abstract and complex knowledge. Read More …

Technology and Teaching Methods in Geoscience Education – Results from a Worldwide Survey

Bjørn Nyberg, Henk Keers

Two important topics in university education are the use of technology and the use of teaching methods (specifically active learning methodologies versus more traditional teaching methods). These topics have received considerable attention from both educators and policy makers. However, relatively little is known about these topics, and how they are related. In particular, it is useful to know which technologies are considered important, whether there is a preferred way to teach about and with certain technologies, whether there is any correlation with other factors (such as class size, age of teacher, geographic location, topic, etc.). Moreover, these issues are likely to be dependent on the field/topic. Read More …

Advancing Culture of Learners: Forcefully Engaging into Creativity Learning

Tõnu Oja

This research is about how to better facilitate student learning in subjects assuming creative attitude (modelling, programming, photogrammetry).

Questions and Rationale

Courses aim to help students to combine knowledge about programming and skills in different GIS software use, logical thinking and model design, and to encourage them towards ability to create individualized GIS solutions. For better learning in the subjects students need support to work on their own; this can be developed by better engagement of students into specification and realization of learning process. Jang et al. (2016) found that students tend towards a semester-long trajectory of rising engagement when they perceive teachers to be autonomy supportive. Read More …

Use of a Mobile Application to Support Learning of Evidence-Based Practice in Higher Education

Nina R Olsen, Susanne G Johnson, Grete O Hole, Kristine B Titlestad, Ilona Heldal, Lillebeth Larun

Background: In this proposal, we address the challenges associated with the use of a mobile application to support learning of evidence-based practice (EBP) among students in health and social care education. Research show that students typically struggle to apply EBP in clinical settings. In partnership with students, we developed a mobile application (app), the EBPsteps, to better equip students to meet the expectations of practicing evidence-based. The app guides students through the five EBP steps (ask, search, appraise, integrate and evaluate), enables documentation of the process, and provides links to internet-based learning resource. Read More …

An Academic Developer’s Insights on Designing Fully Online Professional Development Experiences

Charina Ong

The Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL), the professional development arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS), exists to “advance cutting-edge, evidence-based, impactful teaching and learning practices in ways that support the educational vision of NUS”. Consistent with CDTL’s mission, this study investigates the potential of fully online professional development workshops to support engaging, meaningful professional development for academics, while accommodating their needs for convenience and flexibility – given the advances in learning technologies and platforms and latest research on effective online pedagogies. Read More …

Learning Code Using Tangible Aids: Making Code Engaging for All Learners

George Paravantes, Adam Thomas

Learning how to code can be challenging (Gomes & Mendes, 2007). Teaching code to students who are not interested in learning code can be even more challenging. Having students who are not engaged in a course topic or are only enrolled in a course as it is a requirement is something all post secondary instructors experience. I have been teaching code at a college in Toronto, Canada for over ten years and I have observed several consistent barriers to success that students face: a) they often believe that learning to code is out of their reach; b) they intend to put in “just enough” effort to pass; and/or c) they are only enrolled because the course is a requirement. Read More …

Does Service Learning Increase Empathy in Introductory Psychology Students?

Jocelyn Paul, Elizabeth Bowering

Service Learning (SL) is a high impact educational practice in which students work on “real world” activities with a community partner (i.e., the service component) and then reflect on that experience (i.e., the learning component). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the influence of a SL experience on the development of empathy in university students. Here, students registered in an Introductory Psychology course at a Canadian university engaged with international students new to Canada and reflected on how culture mediates human behavior. Specifically, we randomly assigned students to experiential or non-experiential (control) learning formats, with the groups otherwise treated equivalently. Read More …

A Culture of Writing Excellence for Learning, of Learners, and that Learns

Tim Peeples, Paula Rosinski

Five years ago, our university embarked on a wide-reaching Writing Excellence Initiative in an effort to transform the culture of writing across our entire campus. This endeavor is innovative in its scope and its goals, which are to alter student, faculty, and staff attitudes and behaviors toward and practices of writing broadly conceived, valuing equally writing-to-learn, writing in a discipline/profession, and writing as a citizen. The major goals aim to build and sustain a writing culture that recognizes that learning to teach writing and gaining writing expertise is an iterative, reflective, practice; that there is potential to transfer writing strategies and practices across contexts and disciplines; and that transforming a campus culture of writing is long-term and requires the dedicated work of all faculty, staff and students. Read More …

Painting a Picture of the Learning Process and Culture in Electronic vs Hand Notetaking Environments

Nichole Powell

Our collaborative laboratory environment is designed using a social constructivism model, and students work in groups to decide on the best ways to achieve the goals for each laboratory session. This often involves discussion to decide on the best method for collecting the necessary data as well as division of labor. We piloted the use of electronic laboratory notebooks as a cost saving and sustainability measure. Our observations that students working in these pilot lab sections behave differently (and develop a different learning culture) from those in paper-notebook course sections, have led us to question what is happening when students use an electronic laboratory notebook in a collaborative learning laboratory environment. We will present observations of student behaviors as well as student perspectives gained from interviews. Read More …

Positive Impact of Midterm Course Evaluation on Students

Yihong Qiu, Lijuan Wang

Student rating of teaching is popular in colleges and universities. From the administrative perspective, the aim of student rating is to help instructors improve teaching. However, due to the fact that rating is a kind of summative evaluation and usually has time lag, instructors often believe that ratings do not help to improve teaching, and they are indifferent or even disgusted with student rating. Although instructors do not recognize the value of student rating, they acknowledge that students’ feedback based on learning experience can contribute to improving teaching. Researchers have found that instructors acting upon midterm course evaluation, especially with the help of professional consultants, can actually improve the quality of teaching, because midterm course evaluation is a formative evaluation, which is essentially with “diagnosis” characteristics and a good timeliness. Read More …

Supporting Systematic Interpretation of and Engagement with Student Evaluations of Teaching

Kiruthika Ragupathi, Johan Geertsema, Adrian Lee

Student feedback for instructors (or student evaluation of teaching, SET) is widely used to make personnel decisions, yet its strength lies in the instructors’ systematic interpretation of data. The National University of Singapore (NUS) introduced SET in 1992, and a new system with richer data analysis and reporting capabilities was implemented in 2016.

Though the purpose of SET is primarily to improve teaching by informing and stimulating instructor’s reflection about the strengths and weaknesses of their teaching practice (Alhija, 2017), it has been challenging for instructors and academic leaders to systematically engage in and use SET data to inform teaching development, and thereby student learning. And yet, they receive little or no guidance from the university on this process. Read More …

Integrating Writing Resources: An Instructor’s Influence on the Student Experience

Amy Rogers

In this poster session, the influence instructor communication has on student success is reinforced. Practical instructional strategies are shared from a recent study in which instructors connect graduate students in the online classroom with institutional supports, in this case, the writing center’s tutoring service known as Paper Review.

Preliminary results are shared, revealing effective communication strategies that foster a culture for learning and an inclusive learning culture that participants may find applicable to their own instructional practice. Connections may be made between the writing support featured in this study with participants’ own resources, emphasizing the value of generating learning across departments. Read More …

Final Degree Projects Based on a Multidisciplinary Problem-Based Learning Methodology

Edorta Santos-Vizcaino, Rosa Berraondo Juaristi, María Yolanda Fernández de Aránguiz Guridi, Águeda Fernández de Aránguiz Guridi, José Ángel Ruiz Ortega, Mirari Ayerbe Díaz, Begoña Lecea Arana, Edorta Martínez de Marigorta Izaga, Rosa María Hernández Martín, Manoli Igartua Olaechea, Aiala Salvador Martínez, Karmele Colom Aristondo

Final Degree Project (FDP) is an activity that students carry out at the end of their training process, being the opportune moment for them to demonstrate their professional qualification. However, during the last years, some important aspects to be improved have been detected in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). By means of a statistical analysis (multivariate logistic regression) of the most important characteristics in FDPs, we found that most of FDPs contained knowledge of a single module of the curriculum, usually barely connected to any of the professional possibilities of the degree. Therefore, the present paper proposes an intervention to solve observed deficiencies and improve the execution dynamics of the FDP. Read More …

The Writers’ Banquet: Creating Space for Teaching-Focused Academics to Write

Claire Saunders, Tansy Jessop

This poster addresses the conference theme of building a culture for learning. We argue that developing a stronger writing culture amongst academic staff can have far-reaching impact on the wider learning culture of the university through the integration of teaching, research and writing in the academic role. Two writing interventions were implemented in our institution. Each was underpinned by a view of writing as a process rather than simply a final product, and each recognised the daily realities and pressures of academic life. Both were designed to carve out a space where there was time to think, write and share. Read More …

Problem Design in Chinese ESL and American Writing Outcomes

Petger Schaberg

While the field of Rhetoric & Composition has demonstrated a robust scholarly commitment to the implementation of pedagogies that harness a learner’s motivations and insights (Elbow and Belanoff, 1999), Writing & Rhetoric instructors can benefit from curricular insight generated in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL). SOTL researchers have made significant strides in understanding the paradox of the teacher/learner relationship, as evident in areas of inquiry as varied as Reading Compliance (Burchfield & Sappington 2000); Integrated Scholarship (Hubball and Clarke 2010); Design-Based Learning (Nelson 1984; Nelson & Sundt 1994; Ablin 2015); and Writing-to-Learn (Rivard 1994, Archer-Kuhn 2017). Read More …

Grand Challenges for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Phase I

Lauren Scharff, John Draeger, Arshad Ahmad, Jennifer Friberg

SoTL research has grown over the past three decades with a majority of the work motivated by questions focused within specific course or institutional contexts. This type of work is at the heart of SoTL. The Culture for Learning theme asks, How do we generate and sustain meaningful teaching and learning that have a lasting impact, within and across courses, programs, departments and institutions? Inspired by the success of the globally-relevant Grand Challenges of Engineering (NAE, 2008), members of the ISSoTL Advocacy and Outreach Committee believe that the time has come to establish the Grand Challenges for SoTL. Read More …

Flipping Classroom Observations: Professional Development for the Observer Instead of the Observed

Meadow Schroeder, Robin Mueller

Post-secondary institutions in Canada are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of quality instruction for student learning (Fraser & Ling, 2014). What was traditionally considered secondary to research, instruction has found increased prominence within academia. Universities have started to provide professional development for faculty in the areas of teaching and assessment (Fraser & Ling, 2014). To create a culture of learning, our University created a teaching academy made up of faculty recognized for their teaching excellence. The academy was asked to generate ways to encourage other faculty members to participate in teaching development opportunities. Read More …

Scholarly Digital Storytelling: Fostering a Culture of Learning within and beyond the Classroom

Kelly Schrum

“There’s a life after this class,” wrote a scholarly digital storytelling student. “We are creating content that is useable, valuable, shareable.”

Digital storytelling can be many things: narrative . . . interactive . . . linear . . . nonlinear . . . ethnographic. . . artistic. It can also be scholarly. In higher education, it can provide a compelling approach to reimagining academic research, intended audiences, and scholarly communication and to teaching practical digital skills. It can create authentic, meaningful learning with a lasting impact beyond the classroom.

This poster presents research on scholarly digital storytelling addressing the following questions. Read More …

Can Digital Field Notebooks Improve Geoscientific Field Learning in Extreme Environments?

Kim Senger, Ivar Nordmo

Geology is a study of spatial and temporal evolution of a wide range of processes through studying the geological record. By definition, geological studies thus inherently involve the use of sub-optimal and incomplete data sets, and thus geologically meaningful intra- and extrapolation is required between the exposed outcrops within a 3D spatial framework. In this experiment, we hypothesize that digital field notebooks can improve students’ learning in the context of field education onshore the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The digital notebooks comprise a ruggedized iPad with relevant applications, notably the FieldMove app, and were handed out to each student group prior to the fieldwork. Read More …

Perspectives on Connecting SoTL across the (Co-)Curriculum at a Small Liberal Arts College

Celeste Sharpe, Sarah Calhoun, Melissa Eblen-Zayas, Iris Jastram, Kristin Partlo, Janet Russell

Learning often blurs curricular and co-curricular lines, and scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) needs to encompass learning in all the ways that it happens and in all places that it happens. At the same time, what constitutes teaching practice has increasingly expanded beyond the sole instructor model (Iannuzzi, 2007; Bernstein and Greenhoot, 2014). In our small liberal arts college context, groups like the learning and teaching center (LTC), academic technology (AT), and reference and instruction librarians (R&I) do reflective practice and assessment during, around, and in-between courses. Read More …

Towards a More Inclusive Learning Culture: Exploring the Engagement of BAME Commuting Students

Susan Smith

The reasons for the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students’ poorer learning experience, the degree attainment gap and their reduced employability are complex and multifactorial (Richardson, 2008 a & b; Allen, 2016; Newbold et al, 2011). This inequality may be compounded in the case of those disproportionately high numbers of BAME students who also commute to the LBU campus (Thomas & Jones, 2017).

This poster outlines findings from a qualitative project at Leeds Beckett University (LBU) focusing on the commuting experience of BAME undergraduates and explores how their articulated needs have been addressed through a range of cultural, infrastructural and curricular interventions generated from ideas from the students themselves. Read More …

The Educational Development Landscape in Singapore: What Can We Learn?

Nachamma Sockalingam

Educational development differs across nations – often steered by national policies. This paper presents a snapshot of the educational development landscape in Singapore by studying Educational Development Centres (EDCs) from five Singaporean universities.

Universities in Singapore top various global rankings. The question is if this emphasis on research and rankings is paralleled in educational development efforts reflecting a culture that learns. Also, there is a lack of documentation on educational development work in Asia and in particular, Singapore. This paper is the first to scan and document the educational development landscape, as far as the Singapore context is concerned. Read More …

Role Play Discussions as an Approach to Teach Interdisciplinary Challenges in Meteorology

Harald Sodemann

Interdisciplinary problems in natural sciences can be challenging to teach. A series of innovative teaching exercises was conducted in a Master’s level course in the field of Meteorology at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen, Norway. Embracing the concept of student-active learning, students were assigned expert roles in a mockup board meeting. The students performed a role play in which they were asked to solve a challenging professional situation that touched upon different aspects they had learned about before in the lectures and from the syllabus. The role play was repeated again at the end of the course, but this time the characters in the role play were also assigned personalities which gave rise to dilemmas in terms of finding the optimal solution. Read More …

bioST@TS, a Learning Platform for Statistical Analysis and Management of Biological Data

Jonathan Soulé, Øystein Varpe, Sigrunn Eliassen

Biology is a discipline that makes extensive use of mathematical models, numerical tools, data management, and statistical analysis. In the course of their curriculum, biology students must acquire numerical skills and quantitative competence to better comprehend biological theories, systems and problems (‘Vision and Change’; AAAS 2011). However, many students do not appear to successfully translate these skills into their subject context. In the classroom, educators face the challenge to keep their audience engaged and confident when trying to apply quantitative reasoning. Even if courses in mathematics and statistical analysis are compulsory in the curriculum, they either seem maladapted to biological problems, or fail to put numerical knowledge into the biological context (Touchon et al., 2016). Read More …

International Extended Flipped Classroom: Collaborative Online Learning and Study Abroad

Kristi Straus, Wei Zuo

The “international extended flipped classroom” was conceived as part of the University of Washington (UW) Teaching & Learning Initiative. The goal was to increase global engagement for UW students through a two part process: 1) collaborative online international learning between UW and Tsinghua University in China (THU) followed by 2) a short-term study abroad program to THU. This program was designed to be accessible to students unable to participate in a longer study abroad program, promoting access and equity at UW.

In first steps, Dr. Kristi Straus modified her ENVIR 239 (Sustainability: Personal Choices, Broad Impacts) course together with faculty members teaching sustainability at THU to create shared material for our students to complete online. Read More …

SoTL and the Career Path: Academic Culture Issues within and across Institutions

Amanda Sturgill

Understanding teaching and learning is mission-critical for academics. While we have the ability to extend our skills in inquiry to our work with and for students, academics sometimes lack the incentives to do so. This poster will present the impacts on the career path for choosing SoTL work from the perspective of disciplines in the liberal arts and professional schools, with a focus on the impacts on the short-term and longer-term implications for faculty, looking at SoTL conducted in a multi-institutional context. Read More …

“We Shape Our Buildings and Afterwards the Buildings Shape Us”: Space as a Catalyst for SoTL

Briony Supple, Laura Lee

Teaching and learning spaces have been identified as integral to innovative pedagogies and to creative, student-centred curriculum design. Space is neither neutral nor innocent (McCarthy, 2015). As Winston Churchill once said during a presentation to the House of Lords: “We shape our buildings and afterwards the buildings shape us” (Churchill, 1943).

In the traditional, hierarchical construct of space, “teaching rooms and media are deliberately designed for one-way delivery” (Biggs, 2003, p. 21). However, conceptualisations of space need to consider its centrality as an overall part of the student learning experience.

While new learning spaces become proving grounds for innovative approaches to research, teaching and learning, opening up a critique of ‘older’ and more traditional spaces also provide a baseline from which critical questions can be asked about teaching approaches. Read More …

Faculty Development and Reward Structures to Promote SoTL in US 4-Year Colleges and Universities

Rahmat Talukder, Yumi So, Mohammed Islam

SoTL is a systematic research grounded in the literature, peer-reviewed, and disseminated through publication or presentation (Secret et al., 2011; McKinney, 2004). Today, the scope of SoTL has expanded beyond classroom practices and includes instructional design, curriculum development, and assessment of student learning at curriculum and programmatic level (Hubbal et al., 2013). Literature identified a gap in the understanding of what is considered as SoTL between faculty with varying experience and disciplines (Secret et al., 2011; Gurung et al., 2008). While SoTL possesses the recognized attributes of research, it is not universally accepted and faculty may not be rewarded for SoTL activities in higher education. Read More …

Science Teacher Education as an Asset and an Opportunity for Educational Development

Cathrine Tellefsen, Kristin Glørstad Tsigaridas, Andreas Görgen

Science teacher education can be a key to change toward a learning culture in higher education disciplinary departments. We show how science teacher students working as facilitators for teaching assistants can contribute to creating a culture for learning in introductory courses in mathematics, physics and biology. We use the student evaluations along with feedback from teaching assistants to show how the work has developed since 2015. We also show how the master theses of student teachers, when focused on teaching and learning in undergraduate courses, can foster development and growth in higher education. Read More …

Targeted Professional Development to Promote Inclusive Teaching by Teaching Assistants in Biology

Seth Thompson, Meaghan Stein

Research over the last decade has indicated that a diverse student population can positively contribute to better learning outcomes in undergraduate biology courses. Transforming the instructional methods at the undergraduate level to incorporate diversity and inclusion is vital for promoting an inclusive culture of student learning (Handelsman, J., Miller, S., & Pfund, C., 2007). This is particularly true in science laboratory courses, where there is often an emphasis on collaborative work. In North America, the primary instructor of laboratory classes is often a graduate or undergraduate student teaching assistant (Adams, D. J., 2009). Read More …

The Impact of Space on Teaching – Towards Spatial Literacy as a Pedagogical Concept

Rie Troelsen

Churchill once said: “We shape the buildings, and then the buildings shape us”, indicating the interplay between space and its occupants. Until now, researching this interplay has concentrated on the design of spaces for a new generation of students according to “new” views on learning (Bennett, 2006; Grummon, 2009; Jamieson, 2003; Laing & Sörö, 2016; Villano, 2010). In this exploratory, small-scale project we set out to explore how teachers are in dialogue with the learning space they are going to use for teaching – that is, how teachers shape the room and how the room then shapes their teaching.
Read More …

Writing a Master’s Thesis – Why is it So Difficult?

Ere Uibu

The University of Tartu is the only institution of higher education in Estonia which offers a postgraduate level curriculum in Nursing Science. The study form is open university part-time studies, because the student of nursing science is often a working nurse/midwife, a nurse manager or a teacher of a Health Care College, often married, with children or about to start a family. This background makes the students more likely to be at risk of poor commitment to studying, and even though the compulsory subjects will be passed, writing a master’s thesis may turn out to be “a mission impossible”. Read More …

A Sociocultural Analysis of Fostering Intercultural Understanding through Language Studies Abroad

Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Enrico Cecconi

Educators have increasingly recognized the need to provide opportunities that foster students’ intercultural understanding and prepare them for work in a complex, interconnected world (Hovland, 2014). Study abroad is one of the high-impact practices associated with powerful educational benefits such as cultural awareness, intercultural competence, and appreciation for diversity (Engberg, 2013; Kuh, 2008; Stebleton, Soria & Cherney, 2013). Studying abroad fosters exploration of linguistic and cultural traditions through academics and community engagement.

Sociocultural theories emphasize the importance of social interactions in culturally relevant activities for learning and development (e.g., Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978). When students interact with others in community-embedded programs, they learn to apply knowledge and utilize developing language skills in real-world contexts (Kinginger, 2008). Read More …

Creating an Inclusive Learning Culture by Making Online Courses Accessible to All Learners

Ann Marie VanDerZanden, Laura Bestler, Sara Marcketti

How do the course format and course content support, or limit, accessibility? This is a critical framing question to consider when designing or redesigning a course. Accessible courses and course content anticipate the potential needs of diverse learners, and remove barriers or provide alternatives so all learners can be successful. Embedding accessibility in courses is becoming increasingly more important as the population of college students becomes more diverse and these students are arriving at the university with more diverse backgrounds and abilities. A report from the U.S. Department of Education (2016) shows that in 2007-2008 and again in 2011-2012, eleven percent of college age individuals reported a disability. Read More …

Promoting Reflection about Assessment to Improve the Learning-Teaching Process

Mikel Villamañe, Ainhoa Alvarez, Mikel Larrañaga

This poster is related to the thread “A culture of learners”, more specifically, on supporting teachers and students on their assessment processes. Assessment is often the key element used to decide whether implemented actions and techniques are being effective or not, as it allows measuring the teaching and learning outcomes (Dunn et al., 2011) and to analyze how to adequately improve it. However, to be able to use the assessment as a reliable measure, a fair marking that truly reflects the student performance must be guaranteed. The first step to obtain this fairness is the standardization of the criteria (Chan, 2001) what can be obtained, for example, through the use of rubrics. Read More …

Integrate Disparities

Franziska Widmer

Bachelor students in social work at a university of applied sciences have diverse educational backgrounds. As a consequence, during a lecture, one group may feel overwhelmed whereas the other group is bored and not challenged enough.

The hypothesis of the SoTL project is thus the following: What can be done in the process of lesson preparation and during the actual lecture to address the heterogeneity of the students in order to best serve their needs and interests so that as many students as possible feel challenged, neither bored nor overwhelmed?

The goal of the project is to take material from an already existing course and rework the course based on theory. Read More …

Enhancing Student Engagement with Physics Textbooks to Frame More Meaningful Learning Experiences

Shawn M Willis, Randall E Carlson, Jessica H Dwyer

The United States Air Force Academy Department of Physics incorporates a supplemental journal to complement the calculus-based physics textbook used in each of its introductory physics courses. The journals are designed to promote deeper student examination of the material and to identify areas of student difficulty. Integrating worked examples and explanatory question sets into the journal is a teaching strategy the department implemented to encourage students to think more critically about physics concepts and establish or strengthen scaffolding. The feedback gleaned from student answers informs an instructor’s process for selecting appropriate lesson activities aimed at helping resolve student misconceptions. Read More …

Building a Culture of Reflective Practice in Athletic Therapy Students

Michelle Yeo, Mark Lafave, Jeffery Owen

Based upon an evolving culture and recent changes to professional standards in Athletic Therapy (AT) in Canada, calling for implementation of competency-based curriculum by the year 2020 (Lafave et al., 2016), the AT faculty at our institution agreed to implement a clinical presentation (CP) approach to facilitate competency-based curriculum requirements (Dornan, Boshuizen, King, & Scherpbier, 2007). This innovation to pedagogy required a re-imagination of how teaching, learning and assessment is approached (Yeo et al., 2017). Our team is currently in the midst of a longitudinal study, focusing both on student learning as well as faculty development within this curriculum transformation. Read More …

What Else Can Be Learnt in a Project-Based Course Beyond Knowledge?

Ya Zhou, Yao Hu, Yuejin Zhao, Liquan Dong, Ming Liu, Lingqin Kong

Unlike traditional, teacher-led classroom activities, students often must organize their own work and manage their own time in a project-based class. Project-based instruction differs from traditional inquiry by its emphasis on students’ collaborative or individual artifact construction to represent what is being learned. It also gives students the opportunity to explore problems and challenges that have real-world applications, increasing the possibility of long-term retention of skills and concepts. Unlike traditional course in which gaining the professional knowledge is the highest priority, there are a lot of personal and interpersonal skills involved in a project-base course. Read More …

Living Diversity – Internationalisation through the Course Open Networked Learning

Lotta Åbjörnsson, Lars Uhlin, Alastair Creelman, Maria Kvarnström

The Open Networked Learning course is organised collaboratively by educational developers at Lund University, Karolinska Institutet and Linnaeus University, Sweden, with several collaborating institutions in Sweden and abroad, including The Independent Institute of Education/Varsity College, South Africa. Inviting anyone with an interest in the area, the course mixes participants from the collaborating institutions with non-affiliated learners in small groups, working online assisted by facilitators from either of the institutions and co-facilitators who are previous course participants. This structure means each group contains a mixture of people from different cultures and contexts, providing “internationalisation at home” – a great opportunity for all. Read More …