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Concurrent Session IX
Saturday, June 14, 10:15–11:15 AM
Educational Developers as “Insider Researchers”: Possibilities and Pitfalls
Janet Hanson: Bournemouth University, UK
Undertaking research at the universities where you work is a common situation for educational developers. However, taking on the role of “insider researcher”, while remaining in your substantive position in the organization, presents significant challenges, not only for the conduct and reporting of the research, but also for your own personal position (ie., it has both possibilities and pitfalls). This session will examine the issues that can arise when researching e-learning in the familiar setting of your own university. Participants will discuss approaches to understanding the influence of these on the conduct of research and subsequent professional practice.
Structural Constraints on Faculty Development at Chinese Universities
Fu, Anzhou: China University of Geo-Science, China (PRC); Li, Kang: Michigan State University, USA; Peng, Tao: China University of Geo-Science, China (PRC); Yang, An: Institute of Technology, China (PRC)
The structural configuration of universities in the People’s Republic of China is both centralized and bureaucratic. Arguably, it has build-in strength for top-down organizational changes in faculty development and other areas of institutional operation. But in reality, changes have rarely happened in faculty development in the last two decades or so. In this workshop we will share and invite participants to explore constraints on, and barriers to faculty development which are created by top-down structures such as those at Chinese universities. By comparing Chinese and American universities as professional bureaucracies that are both decentralized and bureaucratic (Mintzberg, 2000), we will identify appropriate approaches (e.g., structural change) for improvement of faculty development at Chinese Universities and draw implications for colleges and universities in America and other countries.
Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar
Tara Gray: New Mexico State University, USA
Much is known about how to become more prolific, and any scholar can. Participants will learn how to write daily for 15-30 minutes, organize prose quickly and well around key sentences, solicit the right feedback from the right colleagues, and use feedback effectively. Academics who have taken these steps increased productivity by a factor of four. This interactive workshop is designed for any scholar who wants to improve—even quadruple—their research productivity in just 15-30 minutes a day.
Preparing Academics to Teach in Higher Education (PATHE)
Heather Smigiel & Allan Goody, Flinders University, Australia
Programs that currently prepare academics to teach in Australian universities are diverse in content, duration and process. They are variable in quality and lack systematic sector-wide approach to their development or to the development of the staff who design and teach in them. Through national collaboration using a distributed leadership approach to project design and implementation, the PATHE project aims to identify and disseminate factors, practices and models that support effective outcomes of these programs. In this session, participant will engage in discussion of the project to seek wider contribution from colleagues across the international educational development community.
Redesigning Courses with Faculty: Views and Clues
Larry Seawright, Stephanie Allen, Jeff Fox, & John Taylor: Brigham Young University, USA
The Brigham Young University Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has been working with colleges and faculty members to improve teaching and learning in poorly rated courses. We will present two views of the process and discuss faculty reaction. The first view is from the perspective of the academic administrators and the teaching center leaders. This view will be interactively contrasted with session participants’ experiences. CTL consultants who work directly with faculty will report on faculty reaction. Participant interaction will be solicited to understand how major course-redesign efforts can succeed. Experiences will be summarized in a “lessons learned” format as modified by participant feedback.
Written Evaluations by Students: What Can They Tell Us?
Karron G. Lewis: University of Texas at Austin, USA
Researchers have investigated student end-of-course evaluations for decades, but most of the studies have focused on how students respond to the closed-ended, numeric-scaled questions. This study investigated how often students write comments, the topics of the comments, how students who write comments differ from those who don’t, and how the tone of the comments is related to overall instructor and course ratings. In this session we will review the research results, discuss ways to encourage students to provide more constructive and specific written comments, and share strategies participants have used to help faculty understand and interpret student written comments.
Time + Research = Prestige + Money; Time + Teaching ≠ Prestige or Money. Why Do Academics Bother to Develop Their Teaching?
Nicoline Herman & Francois Cilliers: Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Although good teaching requires a great deal of time and effort, it often attracts less regard or reward than other arenas of academic endeavor. Incentives for academics to improve their teaching are also typically limited. This session explores factors facilitating and hindering participation of academics in educational development activities and whether they subsequently apply what they learn in their teaching practice. The results of a research project at Stellenbosch University by the session facilitators will inform this discussion about the concepts of participation and transfer in the context of educational development.
Researching Teaching & Learning Support in Various International Settings to Develop an “Ideal Model”
Michael E. Griffiths: Brigham Young University, USA
The approaches to the improvement of teaching and learning are as diverse as the overall educational systems and countries in which they are found. Teaching and learning professionals in different countries can innovate and improve their own approaches and practices by observing and understanding the practices and paradigms that have emerged in other countries. This discussion will focus on research performed at centers of teaching and learning in the United Kingdom, in France, and in the USA.
Educational Development as Facilitator for Organizational Development Processes at Universities
Anke Diez: Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Germany/Baden-Württemberg; Edith Kröber: Universität Stuttgart, Germany/Baden-Württemberg
During the European Bologna Process, German universities began to create many new educational development units. If educational development is supposed to be efficient, the structural integration is the crucial factor. To discover how educational development should be integrated into a university strategy, it helps to know the effects of educational development programs. We will share the findings of a research study, which indicate expected effects on the individual level. But these effects will fade, if the educational development units do not support organizational development and academic-staff development processes.
Moving Beyond the Tried and True: Reframing Educational Development Methodology
Shelda Debowski: University of Western Australia, Australia
Although educational development has stimulated a deep understanding of higher education teaching and learning, it appears less focused on critiquing its own instructional methodologies. This presentation argues that stronger outcomes could be achieved by employing diverse methodologies. Drawing on examples of successful alternative approaches (including blended learning, co-production models and self-managed learning), this session will explore adult learning theory as it relates to educational developers. Participants will be offered the opportunity to critique their current practice, share examples of successful approaches, explore new strategies, and discuss the implications for preparing educational developers for their roles.