FACULTY WORKSHOP SPRING 2023 1.10.23
AGENDA PREVIEW
Welcome & Admin Updates
New and Continuing Academic Initiatives
APPA Initiatives
Admissions & Advising Updates
Teaching & Learning Survey Fall 2022
“During my degree-earning journey, the greatest barrier to my learning has occurred when some instructors (but not many) have failed to operate the Brightspace platform properly (for making material visible in the student view), and then failed to recognize their role in this, instead blaming students... those particular experiences have remained quite memorable for me in that I found those particular courses unduly stressful, since I felt those instructors lacked interest in student success. Thus, I believe good communication between student and instructor is vital to student success in removing learning barriers.”
CTL Academy & Learning with Peers
1 Relationships matter, according to HBP’s What Makes College Valuable (1/06/2023)
Subject area tutoring and writing center assistance are available to all students for all UMPI courses via professional and peer-tutors, individually and in small groups. For more information or to schedule a tutoring appointment, contact Shawn Haskell (Tutor Coordinator), at 207-768-9461, shawn.haskell@maine.edu, in the CIL. Students can also go to https://umpi.mywconline.com to register and schedule an appointment on either the writing center or subject area tutoring schedule.
Section G -Tutoring & Writing Support:
Brightspace Updates
Practice with Potential: Essential Questions & Enduring Understandings
University of Alaska- Fairbanks- Essential Questions
University of Alaska- Fairbanks - Enduring Understandings
Examples - Duquesne University
EDU 302
PBE-centered teaching and learning strategies support equitable outcomes for all students.
EDU 364
Literacy strategies within, and across content areas provide learners with skills of critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.
Peer Evaluation Committee
University Day 2023
University Day
“Defying Expectations”
IT Updates
Career Readiness
Title III, Experiential Education and
Maine ELO Grant
Title III Strengthening Institutions Grant: Year 4
Tutoring
Student Support Services
The Writing Center
⏰Time for a Stretch Break!⏰
Welcoming
Dr. Marcia Morris
General Education &
Wicked Fellows
Quick Review:
Davis Education Foundation Grant for GenEd revision (wicked problems and experiential learning): 2022-2024
Collaboration with Shannon Sleeper/Experiential Learning initiative
May: Wicked Institute (Drs. Paul Hansted, Jay Roberts, Joe Bandy)
June: team of 6 attended the IGEA
August: Dr Ashley Finlay
presentation to campus on a new GenEd structure (“integrative” model)
October: Faculty feedback session
Dr Paul Hanstedt workshop (GenEd models; “portrait of UMPI grad”)
Dr Jay Roberts (risky teaching plus GLOs)
Aug-current: Wicked Fellows ‘round 1’ (fall 2022-spring 2023): Bill Jenkins, Judy Roe, Larry Feinstein, Teri St Pierre; Jen Lynds; Heather; Brent; Jacqui Lowman; Lea Allen
Wicked Fellows
In Bio 112, a wicked problems approach was integrated into a series of modular GLO3c assignments that built on prior assignments as they increased in scope and complexity. Biologically-relevant wicked problems included climate change, lack of safe drinking water, synthetic biology (cloning, GMOs, etc.), food insecurity, pollution, loss of biodiversity, transgender issues, and overpopulation.
Bio 112 lab: Soil Health Crisis: research in the primary literature on the microbiome of healthy soils; extracted DNA from soil samples [which we had analyzed by CosmosID]; plated soil cultures to see the bacteria and fungus living in the soil; graphed their DNA results; researched a bacteria or fungal species that was found in their sample data; and were given access to data visualization tools at CosmosID with the help of UMPI's IT department.
Mini Grant funds used for CosmosID
PSY 100: Students familiarized themselves with the concept of a behavioral "addiction" and came up with some key characteristics which they then applied to the use of smartphones and social media. As a class, they developed a survey which was administered to friends and family. I did quick analyses of their data, and while their hypotheses were not supported, the correlations they observed were all in the right direction.
Students reported in their write ups that they found this activity interesting and rewarding.
Wicked Fellows
MATH 117: .Students will collect data on aspects of overpopulation, implications of overpopulation, and solutions to overpopulation, and use these datasets to fit them to an appropriate mathematical model.
Takeaways: Some of my students did not appreciate the change - they wanted a traditional math course. You need to be flexible - not everything went perfectly as planned. It was difficult to manage some items with such a large class (26).
Eng 151: Censorship (or, what does reading ‘do’ to readers?); theories of reading/literature; current examples/topics
“Reading through the texts of this course has given me a wider understanding of my own bias when reading literature and taught me to seek understanding outside my own scope of focus…. The themes and challenges do not disappear just because they are banned or challenged. In fact, most of these pieces offer an interesting way to open your thinking about yourself and your surroundings that transcend their own time periods” (PB)
“By silencing certain aspects of our world, we can establish the potential of creating even more topics for censorship. .. The narratives discussed in this paper provide the ability to process and apply perspective, without access to them we are putting ourselves into a narrower perspective in life” (LB)
“In exploring the controversy surrounding the value of reading, I have developed a better understanding of literature as to the significance of what I read and its underlying message. Previously, I would simply read just to read, I did not take care to be intentional in what I chose to read, nor did I take the necessary time to further research and develop a proper understanding of the text, rather it was easier for me to take what I read at face value”
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Cornerstone Courses (UNV 100):
Keystone Courses (UNV 200):
Capstone Course (UNV 300?):
Disciplines/ Competencies
Integrated Model
Integrative Learning
Interdisciplinary vs integrated
Interdisciplinary= combination of two or more disciplines (ie, art and science); needs team-teaching
Integrated= ways ‘my’ field naturally connects to other fields
Call for Wicked Fellows 2023-24
Option 1: “UNV 200” pilot: a experiential course that is integrated in design. Interdisciplinary connections are welcome, as we envision these being GenEd specific courses (rather than ‘intro to the major’ courses).
Option 2: Major revision of an existing GenEd course, to bring it in alignment with the Wicked problems framework and experiential learning methodology.
Proposal of interest due: Friday, Jan 20
For potentially interested faculty, we’ll hold an ‘open house’ on Wednesday 12:30-1:30 (live and Zoom)
Reduced GLOs (to simplify assessment, and student completion)
ESSENTIAL SKILLS
WAYS OF KNOWING
Question for all faculty:
is there room for ‘creative thinking/doing’ within this framework? Should it be explicit?
Also, ‘ethical reasoning’ is embedded in Global learning, but do we want it to be explicit?
College-level Meetings