2006 Annual Sharing Conference
Speed Sharing IdeasName: Anonymous
Institution: Anonymous
Idea: Intellectual Communities. Using coffee houses, computer labs, and cafes to create an environment that fosters intellectual development, interaction, and scholarship between faculty, student, and staff in various parts of university campus.
Name: Arthur L. Crawley
Institution: Louisiana State University
Idea: After Katrina, Rising from the Floods, LSU's Annual THE Forum Conference, will be on the National Grid after Hurricane Katrina instead of a three-day conference hosted in Baton Rouge, a one-day conference with cluster sites across Louisiana with speakers from across the country. Available through video-conferencing.
Name: Bill Hill
Institution: Kennesaw State University
Idea: Offering/coordinating a regional conference on best practices in teaching with a discipline focus on specific course or issue. Helps develop a campus and broader teaching community. May also generate edited book.
Name: Christy Price
Institution: Dalton State College
Idea: Have faculty give ideas like this as incentives. 1) Faculty Buy-In is our biggest problem. Faculty already feel like they are overextended so we need incentives like what we are doing right now ie: giving away televisions and gift certificates. 2) We need a faculty mentoring program where senior faculty are assigned new faculty. 3) Have FLCs create web info for all faculty to access on teaching techs.
Name: Christy Price
Institution: Dalton State College
Idea: Learning Communities for this SRFIDC group addressing topics of interest. When you post speakers list on SRFIDC, use streaming video samples of their presentation.
Name: Christy Price
Institution: Dalton State College
Idea: Is there a SRFIDC listserv already? SRFIDC needs a Best Practices section on the web page. Speakers list on web page so we can invite members. We need SRFIDC T-shirts, rain ponchos, etc. Bring in a new institutional member and give a cost break.
Name: Cynthia Alby
Institution: Georgia College & State University
Idea: A lot of faculty spend a lot of time in the car or walking/jogging, etc. If you record great teaching ideas and make those easily available to download to an MP3 player or burn to CD, faculty can learn while driving, walking, etc., time that is often wasted!
Name: Deborah M. Aycz
Institution: Broward Community College
Idea: See if we can improve the writing of chemistry students in organic lab, by linking the lab with a technical writing class. The writing students would edit the lab reports for structure, grammar, etc. The lab instructor would grade for content.
Name: Deborah Vess
Institution: Georgia College & State University
Idea: Podcasts with teaching tips. Assessment strategies. Delivered to faculty on iPods.
Name: Diane Boyd
Institution: Louisiana State University
Idea: Bright Idea for Sharing with Faculty: Building Faculty Learning Communities in Five Minutes. Ask department chairs for the first five minutes of their department meetings. In five minutes, present data about the benefits of FLCs, possible FLC types, soliciting feedback from faculty about the kinds of FLCs they'd be interested in (verbally or via brief "check the box" list). Then, offer the FLCs most interesting to faculty. If you have to leverage administration for $ or support, offer one strategic FLC (linked to your QEP for instance) and one faculty interest-driven FLC.
Name: Donna Gessell
Institution: North Georgia College & State University
Idea: How to teach and evaluate writing in ANY course, without "correcting" papers, by focusing on commonalities of writing tasks - i.e. rhetorical principles applied.
Name: Eric Main
Institution: University of Central Florida
Idea: The Class Emblem Book: A Student Project. Goals: synthesis of course content; provide evidence of critical and creative thinking. Process: 1) students select images or video of objects, artifacts, processes, behaviors, whatever. They can draw, sketch, or otherwise create images. 2) They place image at top of document and create a metaphoric title for their emblem. 3) They write a poemthat presents the main themes embodied in their image/drawing. 4) They write a full paragraph explaining the deep meanings, significance of the image. 5) The image, poem, paragraph are formatted together with graphic design. 6) The number of emblems is scalable; I use 5 to 7 from different sections of course. 7) Students post their emblem books online and respond to others using/applying the grading rubric.
Name: Harry Dangel
Institution: Georgia State University
Idea: Go Organic. Deciding when to plant (a session on documenting teaching just prior to annual evaluations), where to plant (sessions in departments tend to flourish), and how to fertilize (policies to reward teaching) are important in increasing yield.
Name: Irene Kokkala
Institution: North Georgia College & State University
Idea: We could start a Faculty Developer Exchange Program. It could be short (one week) to longer, like a whole semester. It could function as a mentoring system, professional development, etc.
Name: Jace Hargis
Institution: University of North Florida
Idea: Idea: As part of our university Transformational Learning Opportunity (TLO), we have experienced an increase in study abroad courses. So we have initiated a travel pedagogy approach. Workshops - learn comm - SoTL - websites - to help faculty understand the rigors of study abroad experiences.
Name: Jim Watkins
Institution: Sullivan University
Idea: We all believe that students learn better when they are engaged in the learning process. Likewise, faculty will be motivated to improve instruction if they are engaged in the faculty development process. So make faculty development the property of, and responsibility of the faculty using a cadre of self-motivated faculty members. Have that cadre form a faculty development initiative - then support them in any way possible.
Name: Julie Massie Clark
Institution: Delta State University
Idea: Create a community in on-line courses by requiring weekly posts, peer tutoring, and job posting on the discussion board. Students post on current events, help peers with term papers, homework, and also list possible job postings at respective companies.
Name: Karen Adsit
Institution: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Idea: Online class for faculty - how it feels to be a student. Blow out misconceptions of online learning. Five weeks structured get 7 hr. CE hours. Non credit with "grades" that means nothing.
Name: Ken Moran
Institution: Sullivan University
Idea: SALT Team - Sullivan Active Learning Training Team. (Train-the-trainer training). 9 volunteer faculty members (SALT community). 3-day training: Day 1) "Active learning" training; Day 2) Team Training Development; Day 3) "Train-the-Trainer" training. SALT trainers trained 96% faculty on the first round of training (N=228).
Name: Kevin Yee
Institution: University of Central Florida
Idea: IDEA: Make podcasting easy by providing step-by-step instructions for getting the free software and how to get the sound file to students. On the same website, provide ideas on how to use the MP3's instructionally. See example: http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/tresources/podcast.
Name: Laura Davis
Institution: Kennesaw State
Idea: In our large department of 100+ faculty, we arrange teachers into Faculty Learning Communities of 6: 2 part-timers, 2 junior faculty, and 2 tenured faculty. Each group selects a SOTL-based topic. Over the year, they provide a bibliography of the topic and collect classroom assignments and best practices. At the end of the year, these are compiled into an e-book of "best ideas" that our teachers are currently using. This is given to all faculty - particularly new part-timers hired at the last minute.
Name: Linda B. Nilson
Institution: Clemson University
Idea: Good Idea for Contest. 1) Identify all faculty interested in doing SoTL who aren't familiar with social science methodologies for this kind of research. 2) Pair each of these faculty with a social science or psychology faculty member - preferably a junior faculty - familiar with the proper research methodology to handle the data collection and analysis of the other faculty member's project. The social science/psych faculty co-authors the manuscripts, and two faculty get a co-authored publication in a cross-disciplinary relationship.
Name: Linda Noble
Institution: Kennesaw State University
Idea: Establish a year-long learning community for new department chairs facilitated by more senior chairs. The LC would start with a day-long retreat/orientation and meet monthly to address professional development needs of new chairs, read literature, etc.
Name: Lynn Boettler
Institution: Kennesay State University
Idea: Take 5! On our campuses, we have a one-two hour workshop using a format similar to speed dating. Faculty submit "best idea for teaching students." Idea should be replicable accross disciplines - teaching oriented. The teaching/learning ideas are refereed by CETL. Top ideas are chosen to present at the workshop. Ideas must have a one-page write-up describing how it can be implemented. Ideas are compiled and put into publication form by T & L Center and made available to all faculty. Make the event a tradition at the institution. The people who attend the session rotate around every 5-10 minutes and hear the selected ideas. Do less rotations than the number of ideas so there's a musical-chair effect. Make it a theme: Take 5! Participants leave with five new ideas.
Name: Martha Wicker
Institution: Clayton State University
Idea: Panel discussion on publishing. Select faculty from each discipline who have been successfully publishing. Ask them to submit questions. Select a moderator. Invite faculty. Allow time to respond to questions with Q/A at the end.
Name: Michael Herkov
Institution: University of North Florida
Idea: IDEA: Start community groups in research. Communities would be conposed of faculty from different departments, graduate students, undergradutates, and sponsored research. The team would propose and agree upon a project. DSR would then seek funding. Payoff: publication; university paid presentation fees to a conference.
Name: Michael Wood
Institution: Clayton State University
Idea: Course Innovation Societies. Faculty members teaching the same courses during a calendar year will conduct I.D. research on course taught, finding researched based ways to find precise course content and delivery methods in teaching students. (ongoing) (publication)
Name: Mike Rogers
Institution: Advanced Learning Technologies, Georgia Board of Regents
Idea: Preach, market, the concept of learning object repositories.
Name: Milt Cox
Institution: Miami University
Idea: Have a two-tiered FCL approach. First tier is a departmental FLC. Second tier is the FLC of facilitators of the department FLCs. This way you get department buy-in and a support FLC for the facilitators.
Name: Pat Senior
Institution: Broward Community College
Idea: Best Practices Ideas in the Community College. As faculty attend workshops throughout the year, gather their best practices ideas on each evaluation and by year's end compile a Best Practices CD of all facultys' responses.
Name: Paul Quick
Institution: University of Georgia
Idea: In order to encourage GTA's to do more teaching portfolios as well as to become more familiar with the services of your CTL, offer workshops that focus on a series of standard components.
Name: Paula Stanley
Institution: Radford University
Idea: Loan them (or assign them permanently) new technology equipment to try in class (laptops, clickers, etc.).
Name: Raleigh Way
Institution: Georgia Southern University
Idea: Show on the road. Offer specific in-house workshops for the different departments. Meet their needs in their space on their time.
Name: Russ Adkins
Institution: Broward Community College
Idea: Instructional Technology Faculty Associates. We engage faculty to lead mobile technology, faculty technology mentoring, e-Learning, and classroom technology initiatives. With a small, core full-time staff, our associates help us support faculty engaged in instructional technology at our three full service campuses and three instructional centers. These faculty are also "pounding the edge" in terms of innovation and best practices. Associates are compensated.
Name: Stefanie Palma
Institution: North Georgia College & State University
Idea: Suggestion: Lofty Goal. Implement PBL and collaborative learning throughout the university - starting with FLC's. Progress to Case Based Method Training - university wide. Implement faculty and departmental awards (more budget allocations for participating and implementing PBL in their respective areas of learning). Leads to university Buy-In - change from Teacher Center to Student Center - university's culture may change to be more dynamic and innovative.
Name: Steven Girardot
Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology
Idea: This is an easy and very effective way for students to thank their teachers/professors. In addition, it will give your center great publicity and marketing, and it is a nice way to reward good teaching outside of the faculty awards. Here's how it works: 1)Create a web page where students go to (we have a link on our center's site); 2) Students (current or former) go to the site and complete a short form about a teacher they want to thank; 3) The student writes his/her note (can be as short or long as desired) and he/she can include his/her name or keep it anonymous; 4) Our center reviews the submission and then sends a certificate, letter from our director, and copy of the student's note to the teacher.
Name: Tace Crouse
Institution: University of Central Florida
Idea: Overcoming Assessment Anxiety - Engaging Faculty in the Whole Process. Collaboration of all assessment offices. Classroom, program, research (including SoTL). Common terminology; clear compliance requirements. Web resources. Co-Facilitation of support, workshops, 1 to 1 sessions, program teams. GEP assessment awards. Fund teams for projects to improve assessment processes.
Name: Trish Joyce
Institution: Broward Community College
Idea: Green Ideas: Academic Marketplace. At the Welcome Back faculty meeting in August, hold a "green marketplace of ideas" to remind/introduce faculty initiatives for the academic year, such as Podcasting, Classroom Research Awards, Learning Communities, E-Mentoring, Sustainability initiatives (native planting on campus), the Campus Read, etc. This is a good recruiting tool, networking opportunity, and faculty engagement strategy.
Name: Trish Joyce
Institution: Broward Community College
Idea: "Stopping by Woods": Off-site faculty retreat. Locate a lovely conference center in a state or county park, where faculty AND student learning communities (max 100) are invited to share lunch and an afternoon "think tank" on ways to increase/engage in "deep learning." The forest invites a reflective, thoughtful, and intentional exchange, as well as ideas for future LC's. Everyone leaves with a list of possibilities for "engaging in deep learning." Campus resources for making some of the ideas happen, and initial Action Steps.
Name: Wendy Newby
Institution: Emory University
Idea: UDI/UDL. Universal Design for Instruction (Learning) uses principles of physical accessibility (universal design) to instruction environments to make all instruction accessible to a diverse student body. These principles provide a framework by which to evaluate the pedagogical practices in the classroom vis a vis differences among learners. See www.cast.org.
Page maintained by Martha Wicker
updated October 2005.