Center for Teaching and Learningtjrhino1.umsl.edu/resourceroom/chapter1/Five Year Review...academic...

Center for Teaching and Learning

University of Missouri – St. Louis

Center Review Self-Study

May 1-2, 2006


Self-Study 2005 - 2006

Table of Contents

Self Study Pages 3 – 32 Brief History and Operation of the Center 3 - 4 Mission Statement, Guiding Principles 4 - 6 Programs and Activities 6-14

Orientations Professional Development Conference for Graduate Teaching Assistants Campus-wide Events and Programs

Teaching, Learning and Technology Programs 14-17 UM System-wide Programs 18-19 Instructional and Consultation Opportunities 19-24 Marketing and Communication 24-25 Future Goals 25-26 CTL Staff Presentations, Publications, Honors, Awards 27-32 Appendix 1 Tab 1

Space Request Appendix 2 Tab 2

Faculty Advisory Group Appendix 3 Tab 3

Summary of Responses to 2006 Survey Appendix 4 Tab 4

Copies of 2005-2006 Promotional Materials Appendix 5 Tab 5

Budget Appendix 6 Tab 6

Curricula Vitae – Bielema, Cohen, Ebest

Center for Teaching and Learning – University of Missouri-St. Louis 2006 Self-Study Report

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Division of the Office of Academic Affairs Self Study Report 2005-2006

Brief History and Operation of the Center The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) grew out of a desire among faculty and administrators to provide professional development programs at the University of Missouri –St. Louis. The Center was formally established in October 2000 by the (then) Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the recommendation of a planning committee composed of faculty and academic colleagues from UM-St. Louis colleges, libraries, and Information Technology Services (ITS). The committee’s recommendations and priorities for CTL activities were based on a campus-wide needs assessment conducted by its members in the winter semester of 2000. Three members of the planning committee continue to serve on the CTL’s Faculty Advisory Group. The Center is a unit within the Office of Academic Affairs and operates from the director’s office in the Academic Affairs suite on the fourth floor of the University’s main administration building, Woods Hall. The director reports to Provost Glen Cope. Personnel: The work of the Center is accomplished primarily by three individuals: the Director, Dr. Margaret Cohen; the Instructional Designer, Dr. Cheryl Bielema; and an administrative assistant, Ms. Victoria Lock. Dr. Cohen was appointed as the Center’s founding director in October 2000. Her appointment as director has increased over time from .25 FTE in 2000 to the present .83 FTE. Dr. Cohen maintains .17 FTE in her academic home in the Division of Educational Psychology, Research and Evaluation in the College of Education. Following the appointment of Provost Glen Cope in August 2004 and the campus’ organizational change to a Provost model, Dr. Cohen’s title was modified to include the title, Associate Provost for Professional Development. Another change made in August 2004 was to transfer Dr. Cheryl Bielema’s campus appointment as an instructional designer from ITS’s Faculty Resource Center to her present position at the CTL. Dr. Bielema is the Center’s only full-time employee. She has an affiliate faculty appointment in the College of Education and teaches one course each semester. Ms. Locke’s appointment to the Center is .80 FTE. Her time is shared with the Office of Public Affairs. In addition, Dr. Sally Barr Ebest, Professor of English, is paid during the summer to develop, coordinate, and implement programs for Teaching Assistants. Ms. Marcia Tennill, a doctoral student, is paid as a research assistant to work one day each week as the CTL’s program evaluator. To this end, Ms. Tennill tailors an evaluation for each program to its objectives and compiles and organizes the data collected from participants. This academic year, the CTL is also supported by an undergraduate Communications major, Ms. Melissa Hernandez, who receives federal work-study support. Ms. Hernandez organizes materials in preparation for each event and helps with program registrations. The Center relies upon the expertise of two staff members in the Office of Academic Affairs: the fiscal officer and the webmaster. When additional personnel are needed to prepare materials or greet program registrants, the CTL seeks help from the Office of Volunteer Services. Curricula Vitae for Bielema, Cohen, Ebest are in Appendix 6.


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Location: The Office of Academic Affairs provides office space for Dr. Cohen in Woods Hall 221 and for Ms. Lock in 426 Woods Hall. Ms. Tennill schedules her time on campus to coincide with desk and computer availability in Academic Affairs. Dr. Bielema’s office is on the South Campus in 119 South Campus Classroom Building in space borrowed on a short-term basis from ITS. ITS recently requested that Dr. Bielema vacate the space. In December 2005 a request was made to co-locate the CTL offices and personnel in a centrally located campus space. That request is under consideration by the University Assembly Committee on Physical Facilities, Space, and General Services. Appendix 1 includes a copy of the space request. CTL programs were initially scheduled at various locations across campus as part of an effort to build awareness, interest, and commitment to professional development among campus constituencies. Advanced technology classrooms are reserved for events requiring computer and network access for participants. Presently, meeting spaces for other events are rented in the J.C. Penney Conference Center or the Millennium Student Center. Advisory Committee: A Faculty Advisory Group composed of representatives from the libraries, the part-time faculty, the graduate teaching assistants, and from each college serves in a consultative and advisory role for the CTL. Appendix 2 includes a list of current members of the Advisory Group. Deans are consulted for replacement suggestions when there is turnover on the committee. The group meets with Drs. Cohen and Bielema at least once a semester to offer suggestions and feedback on current and future programs. Members are consulted, on a needs basis, as programs are conceptualized and planned and, when possible, they serve on conference and program planning committees. Discussion initiated during an Advisory Group meeting may often be completed with email exchanges or phone calls. Revising and updating the mission statement has been accomplished in this manner. Mission Statement, Guiding Principles, and Annual Objectives The mission statement is reviewed annually and revised to be congruent with (1) current curricular and instructional issues in higher education under consideration by the Council of Deans and (2) the Action Plan of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Strategic Plan of the University of Missouri. Institutional mission is invoked at faculty orientations and welcoming remarks at select program. The work of the CTL is designed to support the campus as it progresses towards the goals of enhancing its quality programs and its civic engagement, retaining students, and supporting faculty in their responsibilities to research and scholarship. The CTL mission statement is visible on the Center web pages and reads:

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) sponsors professional development programs for faculty, graduate students, and academic leaders. The center creates opportunities for all who work with learners to meet formally and informally to learn and to support one another’s efforts to enhance the quality of undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The center's goals, also articulated on the web, are:

• To promote teaching as an important function of a public metropolitan research university.


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• To be a catalyst for achieving the campus’ retention and growth goals by promoting the values of teaching.

• To encourage strategies that engage students in active learning such as collaborative activities, group and cooperative learning, undergraduate research, service learning, and problem-based instruction.

• To promote collegiality through mentoring and sharing expertise among the faculty and teaching assistants across the University’s seven colleges and its north and south campuses.

• To promote the appropriate integration of instructional technology into the classroom to support effective teaching and aid student learning.

• To prepare future faculty in higher education by fostering interest, offering programs, and assisting departments in preparing graduate students to assume the responsibilities of teaching.

• To encourage faculty, staff, and teaching assistants to participate in disciplinary and national conversations about teaching, student learning, and professional development.

• To support the academic success of faculty across their responsibilities to teach, research, and serve (proposed as an addition March 2006).

• To support the responsibilities academic leaders have for the professional development of their colleagues (proposed as an addition March 2006).

To accomplish these goals a set of guiding principles implicitly creates a tone for the spirit of the Center’s work. These principles identify the CTL as setting an example as an organization where:

• Work is guided by effective and research-based practices. • Decisions are made reflective of campus mission and strategic planning. • Colleagues are consulted and involved in program planning and implementation. • Those who express an interest in a topic or program are included and welcomed. • Understanding the diversity of our constituents contributes to attaining campus goals. • Collaborations and partnerships broaden our audiences and program impact and allow us

to maximize scarce resources. • The outcomes of assessments and evaluations guide the continuous improvement of our

efforts.

As the campus community adapts to the changing context of higher education, the objectives that drive the work of the CTL are clarified. The changing context presently includes a focus on five themes: the learner, how the learner is engaged, technology, how faculty and students are engaged civically, and assessment. These broad CTL objectives subsume the goals listed above and include:

• Offering orientations for new full-time faculty, new part-time faculty, and teaching assistants designed to welcome newcomers to the campus community, provide them with the tools they and their students need to be successful teachers and learners, and invite their participation in continuing conversations about teaching and learning.

• Creating programs in the campus community that support the professional development and academic success of early career and veteran faculty, staff, and teaching assistants.


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• Creating programs that support the teaching, research, and civic engagement missions of UM-St. Louis.

• Supporting the professional development of early career faculty and academic leaders as they participate and become alumni of two UM System-wide initiatives.

• Creating programs that support members of the campus community as they learn about, respond to, and adapt innovations in assessment and technology for their professional work.

The CTL is concluding its sixth academic year. The Center’s early work was guided by the June 2000 faculty needs assessment reported in the Report of the Committee to Propose a Center for Teaching Excellence at UM-St. Louis. Based on the success of our efforts to orient new faculty, support junior colleagues, and guide faculty to integrate new technologies and pedagogies into their instructional work, we believe a replication of the needs assessment today would paint a picture of a campus that does provide support to its faculty. In April 2006, the Center surveyed a select group of campus colleagues: those who participated in the original needs assessment and a small group of colleagues who have participated in Center events. Most respondents to the survey acknowledged the positive effect the Center has had on their professional careers. A summary of these survey responses can be found in Appendix 3. A sample of three responses follows:

The impact on me personally has been profound….I was a first-year faculty member who had not received any real support or direction relating to teaching as a new faculty member. My experience with the NFTS program not only offered me the much needed direction and innovative methods in teaching, but also connected me to the campus and university and gave me a network of peers not available to me in my own department. The integration of … technology on campus would not have occurred as quickly or as well without the support, information and encouragement provided by the Center. At a more basic level, there are few, if any, other institutional structures that reflect the University’s commitment to the quality of teaching and instruction. This is critical to the University’s mission and for the retention of students. Without the Center, faculty would be on their own to develop and hone their skills in this most important and challenging endeavor. I've had a chance to participate in a few CTL events, and I can see that it's efforts to orient new faculty to thoughtful, quality teaching are successful. The faculty with whom I've interacted now know there is support for quality teaching on campus. This is a win-win for everyone.

Programs and Activities

As the CTL strives to develop a reputation on campus for being responsive, helpful, and effective, a review of its first five and a half years of operation will show how programs are developed and modified based on input and feedback from participants and academic leaders. CTL programming is both deliberate and opportunistic. Programming is deliberate because an organization in its formative years must intentionally invest effort in activities that will be successful and create supporters and allies. Programming is opportunistic in that activities and


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speakers may be jointly sponsored with other campus divisions or be offered without much advance planning in order to take advantage of a speaker or program, share scarce resources, increase participation, and amplify the impact of the topic. In this section CTL programs and resources are annotated following a similar outline for each: goals, brief description, changes over time, campus partners (if any), reference to data, and anticipated challenges or questions. Programmatic details about many of the CTL activities for the 2005-6 academic year are visible on our website at http://www.umsl.edu/services/ctl/. Copies of 2005-2006 promotional materials and announcements are included in Appendix 4. Three-ring binders containing promotional materials and reports on each event will be available as exhibits during the Campus Review Team’s site visit on May 1-2, 2006.

Orientations

Orienting teaching assistants and newcomers to the faculty were prominent needs identified by respondents interviewed for the 2000 Report of the Committee Report to Propose a Center for Teaching Excellence. To insure that participants complete orientations with the tools they need to begin their work, the CTL developed procedures and collaborated with other campus divisions to issue campus ID cards, temporary parking permits, and computer accounts to access email and the campus’ course management system. Academic departments, Human Resources, Institutional Safety, Admissions, and ITS are instrumental and helpful partners whose efforts help faculty and TAs begin their teaching with the communications and feedback systems necessary to interact with their students. Campus colleagues can view these online request procedures at: https://tomsawyer.umsl.edu/webapps/mygateway/acctrequest/login.cfm.

New Full Time Faculty Orientation (NFO) In August 2001 the CTL assumed responsibility for designing and offering a 1-1/2 day New Faculty Orientation to welcome and introduce new full-time faculty to offices, people, and services to support their professional success at UM-St. Louis. The program expanded to two full days beginning in August 2005. Partners include Academic Affairs, UM-St. Louis Libraries, the Chancellor, ITS, the Office of Research Administration, and the Office of Student Life. In its present form the two-day program introduces new full-time faculty to the campus with a variety of activities intended to model engaging, active learning strategies.

• Directors from key offices created and regularly revise a multiple-choice quiz that stimulates conversation about interacting with the nontraditional student population unique to our campus.

• Roundtable conversations are lead by students representing traditional and nontraditional students who are campus leaders, athletes, single parents, and/or working full and part-time.

• Volunteers from the second year faculty form a panel and build enthusiasm for UM-St. Louis and the metropolitan area with anecdotes and work-related tips learned during a year on campus.

• Shuttle buses touring newcomers stop at select colleges and locations for briefings about services and for welcome gifts.


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https://tomsawyer.umsl.edu/webapps/mygateway/acctrequest/login.cfm

• Meaningful introductions to technology, the research office, human resources, and the student center introduce key offices and personnel and help newcomers become capable users.

• Leaders from the Offices of Academic and Student Affairs join the new faculty for meals and receptions and offer gifts of welcome.

• In 2005 ITS acquired 3 MB USB flash drives for new faculty from one of its vendors. ITS colleagues worked with the CTL to load them with the campus syllabus template and instructions for using the campus course management system.

Our intent is that new faculty complete orientation having experienced a variety of instructional strategies and understanding the need to engage students in learning. We want them to be happy they are working on campus, equipped to begin their teaching and research responsibilities, and interested in returning to fall CTL programs, especially those follow-up sessions designed for them. Samples of materials distributed at New Faculty Orientation will be available on May 2.

Attending NFO is a priority for new faculty. It is mentioned in their appointment letters from the Provost and chairs and deans receive copies of the personal invitation sent to each. Average attendance over the last five years is close to 80%; those not attending are not yet in town or have previous experiences on campus. Those who join the group on day two regret not attending on day one. NFO is revised annually with feedback from the previous year’s presenters and participants. First year faculty are invited to an NFO planning session, to “meet and greet” new faculty as they arrive at orientation, and to be on the ‘panel of experienced colleagues’. Beginning in August 2006, the director of the new Center for Student Success will contribute to the agenda of each orientation. The Mercantile Library in Thomas Jefferson Library has hosted the Orientation activities in the past. In August 2006, NFO will move to the Millennium Student Center. The move will undoubtedly require flexibility and creative planning to re-create an environment that welcomes and retains the new faculty members for the duration of the program.

New Part Time Faculty Orientation (PTO) Orientations for those who teach on a part-time basis were offered for the first time in August 2001 and continue to be offered on both a Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning prior to the start of each semester (Fall, Spring, May and June summer sessions). This half-day program is unique in the UM System to UM-St. Louis. Partners include Student Affairs, the Libraries, and ITS. Faculty convene in an advanced technology classroom adjacent to the Faculty Resource Center, which is staffed by ITS. The Chancellor attends most programs and welcomes part-time faculty to the campus community by noting the contributions each can make to student success and retention.

The PTO goals are to introduce faculty to: (1) campus services which support instruction; (2) student services which can facilitate students’ learning and success; and, (3) guides for using the campus course management system, customized from Blackboard software and named MyGateway. A variety of presentation strategies are used to model effective and engaging instructional attitudes and behaviors. The non-traditional UM-St. Louis student is introduced by directors of key offices using the same quiz and format described under New Faculty Orientation. Reference Librarians and an Associate Dean with both the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Fine Arts and Communication introduce tools and offer strategies from their areas


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of expertise as they reinforce a conceptual focus on student engagement, diversity, and retention. View the schedule on the web at http://www.umsl.edu/services/ctl/orientation/porientation06.htm Content is updated each semester as changes occur in campus policies and procedures. It is challenging to reach this target audience since new, part-time faculty are hired on a needs basis each semester in many departments. Strategic to PTO enrollments are the Center’s contacts with department chairs and administrative assistants whom we rely upon to market and promote the program to new hires. Announcements on the campus’ weekly Friday Updates and email messages communicate essential program details in a format that department personnel can adapt for quick turn-around to their own constituencies. In the week following each PTO, individual chairs and deans are sent a letter detailing the orientation agenda and listing the new faculty who attended. Our records indicate that in the last three years every department in each college is referring new part-time faculty to orientations. Attendance data at programs for part-time faculty, aggregated for the academic year, is displayed below. 2006 summer session data will complete the total for AY 2005-2006. Attendance at Programs for Part-time Faculty

Academic Year Total PT Faculty Attendance at Orientation Attendance Percentage 2005 - 2006 829 65* 8% 2004 - 2005 907 72 8% 2003 - 2004 828 54 7%

* 2006 summer sessions to be included; includes mid-semester workshop Although part-time faculty are invited and encouraged to attend CTL campus-wide programs, evaluation data indicated a need to design additional programs specifically focusing on the needs of part-time faculty. To explore these needs, two focus groups were conducted with volunteer participants from the 2005 Part-Time Faculty Orientations. In response to the focus group data, the Center offered an afternoon workshop for part-time faculty in February 2006. The workshop was designed to improve students’ learning by clarifying procedural questions, demonstrating active learning strategies, and guiding faculty to increase their use of the course management system. Twelve people attended the 2-hour workshop and two others viewed the archived program recorded with Centra, a software that preserves video and audio recordings for later review from a web site. Professional Development Conference for Graduate Teaching Assistants Programming for teaching assistants was identified as a prominent campus need in the recommendations of the 2000 Report to Establish a Center for Teaching Excellence. The Graduate School partners with the CTL in this endeavor, creating pathways to consult with directors of graduate programs and to communicate with their graduate students. The Graduate School provides a small stipend for experienced Teaching Assistants to mentor new TAs during the annual August orientation program. Administrators and faculty from the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs participate as presenters and session facilitators.

UM-St. Louis’s first campus-wide TA workshop was designed and offered in August 2001. A weeklong event, this workshop helped new TAs develop a philosophy of teaching, introduced them to active learning, and demonstrated strategies for using writing to aid learning. The main sessions were led by the program coordinator, Dr. Sally Barr Ebest. Small group, discipline-


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specific breakout sessions were led by experienced TAs so that new TAs could apply the concepts to their own fields. These sessions were augmented with presentations by campus staff introducing new TAs to UM-St. Louis students and campus resources. Attendance for the first year was approximately 40.

Responding to campus feedback and participant evaluations, the 2002 workshop was shortened to two days and involved more faculty in various presentations; enrollment remained at approximately 40 TAs. The 2003 workshop was redesigned to offer a variety of presenters and sessions appealing to students in various disciplines; giving them a choice in topics; and featuring plenary addresses by key administrators. This approach--which attracted approximately 40 participants--was so successful that department chairs in the College of Arts & Sciences agreed, in 2004, to require the workshop for all new TAs. The 2004 workshop continued the same emphasis and attracted 60 participants.

In 2005 the workshop relocated from classroom spaces to the Millennium Student Center and changed its name to better represent its focus: it is now called the Professional Development Conference for Teaching Assistants. In addition, conference organizers now draw upon the expertise of Curators’ Professors of Teaching and include sessions for International TAs. Conference sessions are designed to appeal to both new and experienced TAs and incorporate increased attention to the campus's commitment to integrate teaching and technology. Attendance increased to 88 participants.

Forum for Academic Leaders Beginning in 2001 a full day program is scheduled each August to orient academic leaders to the new academic year. Chairs, directors, and associate deans routinely attend and are often joined by their deans. Beginning in 2005 new chairs and directors are invited to arrive an hour prior to the program to meet with veteran chairs for a brief orientation to administration on campus. The morning presenter is usually a representative from the UM System General Counsel’s office. The presenter educates those assembled about their legal responsibilities with illustrations of situations where the Collected Rules and Regulations were challenged or violated. These examples provide the opportunity to remind those in attendance about relying upon established policies and procedures in order to prevent future litigation. The afternoon program creates a welcome and orientation to the new academic year by focusing on new and continuing initiatives. Topics considered in 2005 included reports from the Vice Provost for Student Affairs on Retention Task Force activities and from the Graduate Dean on planning for the campus’ reaccreditation visit. Attendance documentation for the first few years of this program is unavailable. Records from the 2005 Forum for Academic Leaders show that attendance was higher than in the past two years, as illustrated in the table below. Current academic leaders will be invited to a meeting to set the agenda for the August 2006 program.

Forum for Academic Leaders Attendance Academic Year Attendance 2005 - 2006 43 2004 - 2005 21 2003 - 2004 35


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Campus-wide Events and Programs Since its inception in October 2000, the CTL has continually programmed events to meet the needs of the campus community. In response to participant feedback from events, the Center learned that fewer, more relevant programs attract and meet the needs of larger groups of campus colleagues. As illustrated in the chart below, attendance continues to increase each year, even though the Center scheduled fewer events over the past three years. Total attendance at CTL programs is 4,176. This number represents 1,024 individuals who represent every department in each college and numerous non-academic units on campus.

CTL Attendance and Number of Events 2000-2006

(Total attendance: 4,176)

7.6

5263

82.5

99.2113.3

2

27 29

5345

38

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006

Attendance (X10)Events

Programs for Graduate Students

Monthly Seminars: Monthly campus-wide brown-bag instructional seminars were offered to TAs during the 2001-2004 academic years to augment the conference presentations. Topics were designed to help graduate students prepare for their future careers by representing the issues discussed in national forums on higher education calling for improved post secondary teaching. Topics included: writing conference proposals, teaching tolerance, grading and assessing students' papers, avoiding plagiarism, democratizing your classroom, understanding why some students don't learn, why international studies matter, preparing to publish, and creating an electronic teaching portfolio. However, despite students’ interest in the topics (gleaned from the August program evaluations), the monthly programs did not attract a steady group of participants. Instead, in AY 2005-2006, the CTL programs relevant for graduate students were intentionally marketed to TAs with announcements posted electronically and with email invitations.

Preparing Future Faculty: Dr. Ebest’s programming efforts are presently devoted to designing a Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program for graduate students. TAs who attend workshops will earn credit for doing so, and these credits are listed on their transcripts. The PFF program awaits approval from participating faculty, administrators, and the university Provost. Since its inception the CTL has been placing PFF participants from the University of Missouri-Columbia with mentors at UM-St. Louis. These graduate students spend one or two days on campus


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shadowing a faculty member in their discipline and learning about faculty life at an urban research university.

Internship Opportunities: The CTL has supported the academic and professional development of graduate students. Five graduate students, four at the doctoral stage and one at the masters level, have served as research assistants or interns at the Center and have been involved in a variety of campus and UM system projects, which include:

• Review and evaluation of the 2002-2003 Fall Retreat for the New Faculty Teaching Scholars Program, a UM system initiative.

• Initiation of a process to document CTL events and attendance. • Review and assessment of CTL events and participant feedback. • Construction and implementation of an online mid-semester feedback instrument. • Research and implementation of Small Group Instructional Feedback, which supplements

the online mid-semester feedback process. • Presentation of online mid-semester feedback and Small Group Instructional Feedback at

the HELIX Conference in 2005. • Research and construction of a campus Service Learning web page. • Facilitation of focus groups for part-time faculty. • Research and implementation of an interview project to document Service Learning on

campus. • Research and construction of a workshop for undergraduate peer tutors.

The Center provides valuable opportunities and experiences for graduate students. For example, one doctoral student who was involved in the evaluation of the New Faculty Teaching Scholars Fall Retreat was subsequently hired by the UM system and has served as the primary evaluator for that program and several other UM projects over the past four years. Fall Faculty Colloquium Series New Faculty Colloquia were initially designed to continue the orientation for new faculty by convening them regularly to offer an hour-long in-depth education about a campus resource, policy, or office. Monthly programs were offered for one semester in 2001-2002 and for the academic year in 2002-2003. Although open to all faculty, neither series attracted a steady audience of participants. Instead, in consultation with the deans and with the promise of their support, the Fall Faculty Colloquium series originating in 2003 was designed to convene faculty (especially first year colleagues) around topics (1) central to students’ engagement and success and (2) essential for the professional development of the faculty. The colloquia are offered on Friday mornings for 2 – 3 hours. Each program is sponsored with a major campus division or University Senate committee. Attendance data indicate each program draws faculty, graduate students, and campus staff. Topics from this fall series that are repeated annually include Meeting the Quality and Rigor Challenge and Retaining Students, Winning UM Research Board Awards, and Preparing for Promotion and Tenure. In fall 2005 a program was added to address diversity issues in the classroom.


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Spring Programs and Colloquia While the fall topics are designed for new faculty, spring CTL programs may respond to topics suggested by fall feedback or they may address emerging issues on campus. For example, a workshop on writing philosophy of teaching and research statements was requested by pre-tenure faculty during the December program on preparing for promotion and tenure. Examples of the latter from the spring 2006 programs include a colloquium on diversity in response to the recommendation of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Diversity and a full-day consultation on assessment as a vehicle for validating the campus upcoming accreditation visit. Most of these programs were co-sponsored with campus partners and several were initiated by new partners. The Senate Committee on Assessment of Educational Outcomes rallied around the program on assessment that brought Dr. Trudy Banta (IUPUI) to campus for a day. With this committee’s support, we added a successful workshop lead by Dr. Douglas Eder (SIU-E) in April called, “How Do We Really Know What Our Students Are Learning?” This committee expressed interest in co-sponsoring with the CTL a Provost’s Forum on Assessment this term, but that interest has not yet developed into a plan. However, as this document goes to press, the CTL was contacted by the University Assembly Committee on Information Technology to assist in offering a Provost’s Forum on Innovations in Classroom Design in early May. These examples of unexpected requests are an indicator that the campus community has confidence in the CTL as a campus organization whose efforts lead to successful outcomes. The UM-St. Louis Civic Engagement Agenda Campus-wide Programs: During AY 2002 – 2003 a group of faculty, staff, administrators and students representing three campus divisions began meeting as a “Civic Engagement Group” interested in exploring the future role of the University in the community. Input from this group resulted in planning a series of four campus conversations for 2003 – 2004. The series received the “blessing” of the deans and it was announced as a 40th anniversary gift to the campus community from Academic Affairs. Financial support for the series, named “Coming of Age: UM-St. Louis at 40”, came from an unfilled endowed professorship for community collaboration and public policy. Coincidentally, 2003 – 2004 was Chancellor George’s inaugural year on campus. The series provided the new Chancellor a platform to convene the campus community around topics central to the Action Plan under discussion: student engagement and retention, engaged research in the city, and community engagement. The fourth program in the series, ‘Creating the Engaged University’, was offered in February 2005. The “Coming of Age Series” was implemented primarily by the Center for Teaching and Learning. Because of this programming, the Chancellor and others in the campus community began to turn to the CTL as the unit responsible for civic engagement. Information from the national and Missouri organizations of Campus Compact is disseminated through the CTL


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American Democracy Project: When the campus joined the American Democracy Project, an AASCU initiative, the CTL became the office to disseminate and coordinate related activities. An early opportunity that arose from this ADP involvement was a partnership with Democracy Lab, a FIPSE sponsored online program for undergraduates. Dr. Cohen received a small partnership grant to work with a graduate student in summer 2005 to develop a scoring system for the online student interactions. The CTL convened a faculty committee to plan and implement the 2005 Constitution Day Observance and will do so again for 2006. Dr. Cohen has been the contact in Academic Affairs, for example, for efforts to bring the campus newspaper

program to the campus. This spring semester, USA Today offered a limited number of newspapers to faculty who would use them as texts in their classes. Cohen identified four faculty and coordinated arrangements for campus delivery of the newspapers with USA Today and custodial staff in four buildings. Service-learning: Conceptually, community and civic engagement pull the Divisions of Academic and Student Affairs together and provide the opportunity for the CTL to promote student engagement and service-learning. Service-learning is an engaging pedagogical tool that faculty can use to create applied and active learning experiences for students. When Missouri Campus Compact funding was offered during AY 2004 – 2005 for the first time to support faculty integrating service-learning into their courses, the CTL alerted faculty to this RFP by offering a workshop each semester to introduce the organization and promote the funding opportunity. In addition, we partnered with the Des Lee Collaborative Vision in April 2005 and brought Janet Eyler (Vanderbilt University) to campus to present a workshop titled as her book, “Where is the Learning in Service-Learning?”. During the year four faculty projects were funded and the CTL won two small institutional grants. These were assigned to funding the development of service-learning web pages and to support release time for a civic-engagement faculty fellow for AY 2006 – 2007. Five UM-St. Louis proposals are presently under review for Fall 2006 Missouri Campus Compact funding.

Teaching, Learning and Technology Programs

Because the CTL was established at the same time that Blackboard was adopted as the campus’ course management system, it was natural to develop a programming focus on teaching and learning with technology. ITS and the Center have partnered to introduce sound pedagogical practices along with new technology. As a result, two campus events and three workshop series, each with a focus on teaching and learning with technology, are scheduled annually. Dr. Cheryl Bielema, the Instructional Designer with the Center for Teaching and Learning, takes the lead organizing and coordinating the first four of these activities. Teaching with Technology August Workshops A daylong program of hands-on sessions in computer classrooms is scheduled each August before classes begin for all faculty, staff, and Teaching Assistants to learn to use available technology tools. Workshops introduce new or updated software supports available for use in software such as MyGateway and Outlook, or in technology-enhanced classrooms. Originally offered the day before classes began and called Teaching with Technology Tuesday, the program was renamed, Teaching with Technology Friday, in 2005 when the fall calendar was adjusted with classes beginning on a Monday. This annual event is co-sponsored with ITS. Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference


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Members of the campus community are invited to present and attend the annual UM-St. Louis Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference each fall. A call for presentations is available as the academic year begins. Concurrent sessions are presented by campus faculty, staff, Teaching Assistants, and students and describe effective and innovative instructional practices. A Plenary Address and workshop by an invited scholar highlight the conference theme. The conference was initiated in 2002 and is co-sponsored with ITS. Planning is accomplished by a working committee of faculty and staff from the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Information Technology.

Each spring the committee convenes to review the feedback received on each presentation and on the conference and begin planning for the fall. A conference theme is adopted from national conversations in higher education that reflect a campus interest or concern. A plenary speaker is identified who can speak to the theme. The conference themes from 2002 to the present were: Creating Learner-Centered Environments, Learning Through Research, Inquiry and Civic Engagement, Engaging Strategies for Student Learning, and Supporting Learning Outcomes with Technology. Each year, the program attracts increasingly more participants, presenters, and co-sponsors, as illustrated in the chart below.

Teaching with Technology Conferences 2002-2005

Attendance and Number of Presenters

21

63

87

105

5542 37

52

76

105

124

157

0

25

50

75

100

125

150

175

2002 2003 2004 2005

ParticipantsPresentersTotal Attendance

In 2002 the conference was held on Friday and Saturday in available classroom spaces and the plenary address was made by the Robert Bliss, Dean of the Honors College. In response to evaluation data and records of attendance, a one-day format was adopted in 2003 and a plenary speaker from outside the University was identified. Deans of the Colleges and Curators’ Professors of Teaching were invited (beseeched) to help co-sponsor the invited speakers. Jim Groccia (Auburn University), Craig Nelson (Indiana University) and Dennis Jacobs (University of Notre Dame) were the plenary speakers, respectively, for 2003, 2004, and 2005. The program was moved to the Millennium Student Center in 2004. Campus vendors were invited to co-sponsor a concluding reception for the 2004 conference and, in 2005, major efforts by Jim Tom, the new Associate Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, resulted in vendors supporting the speaker, reception, and meals for conference participants. The Planning Committee will soon begin its work on the 2006 conference. Based on the success of the 2005 program, another campus division, Continuing Education and Outreach, has expressed interest in partnering with us and hosting the program in its J.C. Penney Conference Center. In addition, AVC Jim Tom has suggested expanding the conference to a regional one and moving the program off-campus. One of the first agenda items for the Planning Committee will be to review participants’ 2005 feedback so that we are responsive to input from our faculty and staff colleagues.


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Conversations about Teaching and Technology Four to eight noontime discussions about teaching and technology are facilitated during the Fall and Spring Semesters by invited faculty and staff who offer perspectives on effective practices. Topics are identified by reviewing session evaluations and consulting with previous participants . Faculty and staff who are doing innovative instruction with technology are asked to describe these innovations to colleagues. After several years of growing participation, attendance dropped off during the 2004-2005 academic year. In response, the format shifted in fall semester 2005 from monthly one-hour, noontime discussions to four two-hour workshops offered every other month. ITS co-sponsors this series with the Center for Teaching and Learning. View the most recent schedule of topics at this URL: http://www.umsl.edu/services/ctl/Teaching_and_Technology/conversations.html Provost’s Forum on Learning and Technology Three programs, billed as the Provost’s Forum on Learning and Technology, were held in the last 12 months to convene faculty and staff from all UM-St. Louis divisions to discuss how technology can improve student recruitment, learning, and retention, and increase efficiencies for instruction and research. At each session small groups of participants addressed how the campus was integrating technology and charted goals for such activity in the future. At the March 2006 forum participants worked in teams to identify strategies. Action plans centered on three initiatives: (1) to increase the study and scholarship of teaching and learning by investigating new and emerging technologies for instruction, (2) to integrate MyGateway (the customized Blackboard system) into every course taught on campus, and (3) to provide supports for faculty to be successful using technology. Currently, groups of stakeholders are studying the action plans with the goal of assigning responsibilities to various units. For example, a work group of interested faculty will revise the Faculty Tool Box. Another group plans to revise and clarify the ‘help documents’ by creating step-by-step instructions to use various MyGateway features. A third strategy is to create a Provost’s Award for Teaching with Technology. Follow-up activities to the forum are coordinated by ITS. Technology Fridays: Teaching and Learning Online Technology Fridays are 60-75 minute weekly workshops coordinated by the Faculty Resource Center, a unit within ITS. Workshops focus on a variety of issues related to using technology and the Internet in courses. CTL staff collaborate by offering at least two sessions each semester. View the current workshop schedule at https://tomsawyer.umsl.edu/webapps/mygateway/training/login.cfm Faculty Use of Technology and MyGateway The CTL partners actively with ITS to develop processes that encourage faculty use and integration of MyGateway. The number of courses using MyGateway has increased each year since the Fall Semester of 2000 when the University adopted Blackboard and customized it for use as the campus’ course management system. The graph below includes the faculty adoption rates of MyGateway in courses during the past five years. There has been a steady increase in active courses semester to semester, with the most recent fall semester showing a jump of 25 percent from the previous semester.


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An annual evaluation of MyGateway usage was proposed initially by Cheryl Bielema when her position was in ITS. Since moving to the CTL, Dr. Bielema continues to work as co-PI on this annual evaluation. Findings in the annual MyGateway Use Survey are used to generate topics for workshops, to identify improvements to the system, and to seed discussions about establishing minimal expectations for faculty using the system in each course and expectations for students’ use and participation in courses.

MyGateway Use, 2000-2005

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

F00 W01 F01 W02 F02 W03 F03 W04 F04 W05 F 05Per Semester, Year

No.

of A

ctiv

e C

ours

es

An annual longitudinal study begun in 2001 differentiates students’ experiences in “high use” and “low use” courses. Courses are placed in the two categories based on how instructors access content and administrative features and how active students are in the course site. These data indicate that compared to students in “low use courses”, students in “high use” courses report that:

• They have more opportunities to be involved in learning activities, • They are more satisfied with their courses, • They have more communication with their instructors and their peers, and • They perceive that they are learning more.

These data suggest that increased use of online assessments and activities contributes positively to student perceptions of satisfaction and learning outcomes. The MyGateway survey data have consistently supported the conclusions that the more students are exposed to MyGateway, the higher their estimation of its positive effects, and the more likely they are to continue (and complete) their education at UM-St. Louis. In fact, it is documented that the positive effects are not simply consistent based on MyGateway use, but increase as the use of MyGateway increases in the classroom and throughout the campus.


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The CTL relies upon each annual update as teaching and technology programs are planned. For example, the topics included in the Conversations about Teaching and Technology series are based on needs identified in the data. Likewise, students' comments in the most recent survey provided the rationale to design a program in the 5 X 5 Workshop Series that is titled, "Five most effective strategies for using MyGateway (according to UM-St. Louis students)".

UM System-wide Programs at UM-St. Louis

The UM Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs annually sponsors three system-wide programs: the President’s Academic Leadership Development Program, the New Faculty Teaching Scholars Program, and the President’s Administrative Leadership Development Program. The Center for Teaching and Learning assumes some responsibility on campus for the first two programs. Academic Leadership Development Program (LDP): The LDP was initiated in October 2000 following a planning year by an Advisory Committee composed of two academic leaders (chairs and deans) from each of the four UM campuses. Dr. Cohen was appointed to this committee at its inception. Dean John Hylton, College of Fine Arts and Communication, joined the committee in 2002 as the second UM-St. Louis representative. Both Cohen and Hylton were members of the first class of program participants. They confer each year with the chief academic officer of the campus, now the Provost, to review nominations and recommend UM-St. Louis participants. An average of five participants from each campus is selected annually from eligible applicants (chairs, directors, associate deans). Participants receive 360-degree feedback during a four-day leadership institute in the fall. This is followed by (1) day-long meetings that convene participants from the four campuses in January, April, and July and (2) monthly lunches that convene each campus’ participants. Cohort groups from each campus develop an understanding of the UM System goals and a cohesiveness and respect for one another’s work and disciplines that is intended to promote inter- and intra-campus leadership, collegiality, and collaboration. More program information is available on line at: http://www.umsystem.edu/ums/departments/aa/pali/leadership/index.shtml During the spring 2005 semester Dr. Cohen invited the 28 UM-St. Louis program alums to explore ways to promote interaction on campus between the six cohort groups of program participants. As a result a proposal was sent to the UM System Office of Academic Affairs and funds were received to support an LDP Alumni program. Participants have met three times this academic year to create new campus networking opportunities and to establish the group as a credible ‘sounding board’ for the Provost and the Chancellor. The 2005-2006 program participants were included in the final get-together, a social evening at a Music Department concert followed by a reception at the Chancellor’s Residence. A planning committee composed of a representative from each cohort group will be convened this spring to seek funding for and plan 2006-2007 campus activities. This group will also be consulted for program ideas for the annual August Forum for Academic Leaders’.


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New Faculty Teaching Scholars Program (NFTS): The NFTS Program was developed during the 2000-2001 academic year by a committee composed of one colleague from each UM campus working with the Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Cohen served on this planning committee. The yearlong program is designed to support the professional development

of early career faculty as they adjust to their new academic responsibilities and environments, to introduce them to innovative teaching methods, and to build collegiality. The program is dedicated to promoting the success of new faculty by providing support through conferences, retreats and monthly forums. NFTS creates a respect for the scholarship of teaching and learning in the UM System and on each campus. In its first year the program supported 100 faculty from the four UM campuses. Since then, resources are available for 60 faculty. Participants attend three system-wide retreats each year and monthly programs on campus. Monthly topics are designed to respond to participants’ interests and requests; the meeting schedule is based on participants’ common availability. Program and participant information is available on line at: http://www.umsl.edu/services/ctl/NFTS/new_facultyteaching_scholars.htm Every college, but not every department, has recommended faculty for participation. There are 10 participants in the 2005-2006 year. Forty-nine (49) of the 59 St. Louis NFTS program alumni remain on the faculty. They are beginning to move into the ranks of tenured, associate professors. One alumnus is now a member of the CTL Advisory Group. Several are invited each year to welcome newcomers to the program or to share their ‘strategies for success’ on various topics with the current group of participants. All past NFTS participants are invited to a reception to welcome the new class of NFTS participants and to attend an annual NFTS holiday gathering. As with the LDP program, a planning committee composed of an NFTS representative from each of the six cohort groups will be identified to help plan and encourage participation in the 2006-2007 activities that include program alums. An annual UM System allocation of dollars supports campus programming for NFTS participants and alums and other CTL campus-wide efforts.

Instructional and Consultation Opportunities

A goal of the Center for Teaching and Learning is to be the office contacted when faculty seek guidance in their instructional work. The CTL is taking steps to create this culture change in its communications, programs, and by creating opportunities for faculty to consult with us. We believe that consultations may be an important key to meeting campus goals. We are encouraged by the individuals and academic units taking advantage of the programs described in this section. Mid-semester Feedback System The Center for Teaching and Learning and ITS created and continue to administer an online system for faculty to receive feedback from currently enrolled students at the mid-point of the semester. The system has been in place since Winter Semester 2004. Mid-semester feedback offers faculty an opportunity to know, use, and respond to students’ sentiments while the semester is in progress so that instructors and students can benefit from adjustments and modifications made in response. Research has demonstrated that end of semester course evaluations are stronger for faculty who use and pay attention to early feedback from their students. More specifically, research reveals that implementing mid-semester feedback benefits teaching and learning by:

• Improving communication between student and instructor. • Increasing student motivation. • Improving student learning.


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• Assisting instructors in tailoring the course to student needs. • Improving end-of-semester evaluations.

Faculty have exclusive access to their students’ data and are encouraged to tell students how they plan to use their feedback in current or future semesters. Consultations are marketed to discuss the results with staff in the Center for Teaching and Learning. A small number of instructors (n = 5-6) typically request a consultation to discuss student data. Participation rates, displayed in the table below, have steadily increased with the exception of the current semester Winter/Spring 2006. The table illustrates that faculty are showing increasing interest in the system. This semester, WS 2006, suffered from less marketing than in prior semesters. We know that multiple and targeted marketing messages are indispensable as we promote new projects such as the mid-semester feedback system.

Mid-Semester Feedback System Summary Data

Semester WS 2004 FS 2004 WS 2005 FS 2005 WS 2006

# Registered courses

265 258 274 328 211

# Participating instructors

104 110 104 118 87

# Surveys submitted

1202 1273 1366 1998 1209

# Students submitting surveys

952 1025 1136 1535 975

End of Semester Feedback System An online end-of-course evaluation system is currently under development, with representatives of six academic departments, ITS, and the CTL serving on the project team. We hope to adapt the system developed for mid-semester feedback to an end of semester system that combines automated registration, email messages to both faculty and staff, and dynamic online reporting. The system sets up relational databases among the current semester’s schedule of courses, faculty assignments and student enrollments. Improvements will include a unique report generation function, and eventually, the capability of uploading multiple questionnaires from the individual departments. The College of Nursing has utilized the system for three semesters, and is currently testing a new marketing strategy to raise response rates to the online evaluations from 30-40 percent to a more desirable 60-70 percent response Small Group Instructional Feedback (SGIF) SGIF is a classroom-based strategy that provides confidential feedback to instructors about how students experience the course, the teaching strategies used, and their learning. Peer faculty or graduate student consultants conduct 30-minute sessions with the students and summarize the data for a follow-up discussion with the instructor. Several studies indicate that student feedback is most effective when the mid-semester feedback is combined with an individual consultation


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with a peer. SGIF was offered at UM-St. Louis for the first time during AY 2004 – 2005 in conjunction with the online mid-semester feedback system.

During the first semester (Fall 2004) that the SGIFs were offered, the majority of the instructors who participated were TAs. The TAs were specifically invited to participate in this program as an extension of an earlier TA workshop. This provided helpful information for the TAs regarding their teaching and gave the CTL an opportunity to establish an SGIF pilot program. Four TAs and three professors participated for a total of eight consultations. The SGIF sessions were conducted by professors from the Center for Teaching and Learning and trained graduate students. During the second semester (Spring, 2005) six SGIFs were completed for three full-time faculty offered. Motivation for the instructors to participate stemmed from a variety of sources, including suggestions from Department Chairs, an interest in professional development, or a desire to be a more effective instructor. As an example, one professor requested and participated in four consultations.

These consultations created important one-on-one discussions about teaching strategies and teaching improvements. We do not know the long-term impact of most of this feedback and did not offer SGIFs in 2005 - 2006. Because they are so time intensive, conducting SGIFs would be a responsibility assigned to a graduate student assistant intern who could work with peers in the classroom or a CTL faculty fellow interested in supporting or researching this strategy for improving teaching. Flashlight Online Flashlight Online, a survey authoring software, enables creation of surveys and provides web-based participant access. The “Current Student Inventory” consists of a collection of 500 indexed questions for use in creating surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Results from the web-accessed database can be downloaded locally for analysis. Flashlight Online can be used for research projects, to gather data for teaching and learning improvements, and to evaluate courses or educational programs. Faculty consult with the CTL as needs arise to put surveys online. College and Departmental Consultations Taking programs and workshops to departments and colleges was a strategy adopted during the 2005 – 2006 year for two reasons. First, a CTL goal was to reach faculty who did not attend CTL programs and, second, workshops tailored to department needs was a sound response to concerns that campus-wide programs lacked discipline specificity. The first program offered, “Instructional Strategies to Increase Responsibility in Students”, was developed for the College of Optometry and delivered on July 15, 2005. Next, the College of Nursing requested the workshop, “Do Unto Others: Addressing Civility in University Classrooms”, on January 10, 2006 to support faculty as they prepared for the new semester. Both of these programs were presented by CTL Director Peggy Cohen. When the winter 2006 semester began, two faculty from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature approached the CTL to help them invite a researcher presenter to the department. The CTL supported this April 5, 2006 program by paying one-third of the consultant’s honorarium, adding workshop participants to the CTL data base, and designing a feedback and evaluation form for the department’s use that day.


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In March 2006 the CTL distributed a flyer campus-wide announcing a “5 X 5 Workshop” series. The “5 X 5 Workshop” announcement offered five workshops each with five easy-to-implement strategies delivered in 45 minutes in the department or college. The first department to request a workshop was Mathematics and Computer Science who requested the workshop on Increasing Student Participation. Dr. Cohen presented this workshop during a department meeting on April 7, 2006. Individual Teaching Consultations Calls and email messages to the CTL from individuals with specific questions are increasing. Faculty are using the CTL to access information about campus supports, to identify colleagues with similar interests, to consult about a proposal or a course evaluation. Instructional design consultations have been requested by individual faculty as new online programs were developed in Nursing, Education, Continuing Education, and, most recently, Entrepreneurship and Economic Education. A future goal is to develop a system to document these inquiries. We believe they provide good evidence of the Center’s value to campus and useful information to include in program planning. Documentation, Assessment, and Evaluation of Center Activities The past five years provide a learning experience for Center staff about the most effective ways to document, assess, and evaluate the Center's activities. As the Center's activities expand, the staff realizes the importance of accurately recording attendance and gathering participant feedback. Three years ago, the Center initiated a record keeping process to document attendance and gather feedback for each Center event.

In addition to recording attendance, the Center utilizes the attendance lists for a variety of constructive purposes:

• To generate "interest groups" that can be notified about other relevant events. • To offer interested participants the opportunity to become involved in planning future

events. • To make additional resources available to those interested in a specific topic. • To connect faculty and staff across campus with similar interests.

Gathering participant feedback for each event is valuable for the Center. The feedback is useful in several ways:

• To assess the relevance of topics presented. • To determine additional interests and needs of the participants. • To plan for future topics and events.

The next step is to begin evaluating the impact of the Center and its activities on the campus community. Center staff members have started researching effective evaluation models and instruments. The goal is to move beyond the assessment of Center activities to a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the effects of the Center on faculty and staff development, on teaching practices, on student learning, and on campus engagement with the surrounding community. Other Assessment Activity


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The Center for Teaching and Learning introduced the campus community to the National Survey of Student Engagement and its data in February 2002 when George Kuh, director of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and Planning , was invited to campus to discuss

student engagement with participants in the first year of the New Faculty Teaching Scholars Program. Kuh’s presentation was broadcast by video to NFTS participants on the other three UM campuses. Kuh also met with UM-St. Louis leaders from academic affairs and student affairs. This conversation continued with campus leaders, faculty, and staff in November, 2003 when Charles Schroeder, a past Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UMC, initiated the UMSL Coming of Age Series. Schroeder helped those in attendance understand the meaning of the NSSE data collected on campus since the survey’s pilot year in 2000. When the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and Planning began its 2003 pilot study of the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, UM-St. Louis enrolled. The CTL and the Office of Academic Affairs share the fees for participating in the faculty survey. FSSE data is available for 2003 – 2005. The campus is not enrolled in either survey in 2006, but will resume participation in 2007. This data is underutilized. It should be stimulating important discussion about pedagogical practices. Program Review Coordination One of the responsibilities of the Office of Academic Affairs is oversight of the academic program review process. The University of Missouri, as required by the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, engages in a five-year cycle of reviews of programs, centers, and endowed professorships. Program Reviews are scheduled each academic year according to a schedule designated by UM-St. Louis’ academic leaders. Program reviews at UM-St. Louis have been coordinated for the last five years by Dr. Cohen who revised the guidelines and campus processes to be informative, collegial, and collaborative. Reviews are slowly changing from being conclusive and summative to a more formative process that increasingly relates to the campus’ Action Plan and emphasizes continuous improvement. The University of Missouri policy on program review is available in the Rules and Regulations, Program Assessment and Viability Audit, Executive Guideline No. 25, 7-23-87; Revised 5-16-90, Revised 12-19-02 which is available at . Reviews of programs and centers are completed in order to improve the quality of programs offered at the University. Each campus is responsible for establishing its own procedures. The process begins each fall when units scheduled for review are sent review guidelines and a schedule for the academic year’s reviews. Each program, center, or professor is responsible for constructing a Self-Study Report that will be presented to campus colleagues, administrators, and external reviewers. Self-studies are due mid-year along with recommendations for faculty colleagues to serve on the Campus Review Team and recommendations for an external reviewer from a campus on the UM-St. Louis comparator list.


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Dr. Cohen contacts external reviewers, identifies three or four faculty to serve with the reviewer on the Campus Review Team, and works with the program administrator to set a date and a schedule for the review. An administrator from the Office of Academic Affairs joins the Campus Review Team for the day. Each review team member brings unique knowledge to the process. While the external reviewer brings expertise in administering a similar unit, the faculty representatives bring to the committee important knowledge of the campus history, mission, and culture. Representation from Academic Affairs provides a resource and a liaison to the committee and, over the long-term, the Office of Academic Affairs offers oversight as academic units progress toward their goals.

All members of the Campus Review Team are responsible for assuring that the review process is a purposeful endeavor. Following a day devoted to meetings in the unit, the external reviewer submits a report, which the Campus Review Team relies upon to write its report and recommendations to the Provost. When all materials related to the review are on file, Dr. Cohen convenes a meeting to discuss the recommendations with the program administrator with the appropriate dean, associate and vice provosts. Implementing the Program Review Process is demanding, particularly in the spring semester. The campus is currently preparing for an accreditation visit and this creates a timely opportunity to examine assessment procedures and practices including program review. For program reviews to have meaning, continuous improvement processes should be in place not only to support a program or center’s work towards goal attainment, but also to create opportunities for short-term program updates. This reality exceeds the work that the CTL can accomplish without additional personnel, which could come, for example, from the Office of Institutional Research or from a faculty committee working alongside the person who coordinates the reviews.

Marketing and Communication Attracting the attention of extremely busy campus colleagues challenges the CTL to use language on printed announcements and email messages that will resonate positively and attract program participants. We routinely send drafts of programs or messages to the Advisory Group or other trusted colleagues for their reactions and suggestions as we craft an announcement. To market our programs we use both a broadcast and a targeted approach. Broadcast strategies include distributing printed program announcements and flyers to mailboxes campus-wide as each semester begins. In the last year we worked with designers in Graphic and Printing Services to create a Center for Teaching and Learning signature template for printed announcements. Some programs, such as those printed for the Professional Development Conference for Teaching Assistants and the Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference, are distributed to campus mailboxes in advance of the event. In addition to printed materials, we upload program information to the Campus Calendar that is accessed from the Campus Home Page. That gives each program ‘front page’ status on the day of the event. We also submit programs to “Friday’s Update”, the weekly electronic campus and program announcements. Programs are announced two weeks in advance. Participants are asked to register in advance for most of our programs, a request that creates an opportunity, we hope, for each to explore the CTL web pages. Finally, the week of the event the director sends an email message to the appropriate UM-St. Louis distribution list for faculty, staff, and graduate students. ITS publishes Iterations, a campus newsletter each semester. Articles are contributed to each issue by the CTL. An important objective is to maintain the CTL web pages so that they display information about current programs and so that past programs are not prominent on, for example, the home page section headlined, "News and Events". We rely upon the Academic Affairs web developer to maintain, design, and update the CTL web pages. She provides a vital function for the CTL as upcoming programs continuously replace current programs. We plan to redesign the CTL web pages and upload more material to the service-learning web pages this term.


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Targeted marketing strategies are used to alert relevant constituencies to certain programs. Distribution lists are maintained and updated for deans, associate deans, department chairs, department administrative assistants, part-time faculty, and for discrete groups of faculty such as those interested in civic engagement or those participating in the NFTS or LDP programs. Email messages are used to disseminate information or requests to these colleagues. Another targeted approach is in the correspondence we routinely send. Following each part-time faculty orientation, chairs receive a letter thanking them for encouraging new colleagues to attend orientation. The letter indicates what topics were presented and includes quotes from the faculty feedback. This letter is copied to the dean. At the end of the academic year each person who attended one or more CTL programs receives a letter listing the activities they attended or the programs they helped to present. The letter suggests that they include these professional development activities in their annual reports. Both letters are intended to send a message that professional development activities are valued and expected. It would increase our efficiency and be most helpful to attract skilled interns (graduate or undergraduate students) to work with us to improve and support these marketing efforts, communications strategies, and our web pages.

Future Goals

• Identify a central space on campus for the Center for Teaching and Learning

The Center for Teaching and Learning will meet its mission of supporting the campus community more effectively when it has (1) a central location on campus that is accessible to faculty and TAs and when (2) its offices and personnel can consolidate their work in a common space.

• Achieve financial independence and responsibility Administrative privileges to the PeopleSoft system are currently being transferred to the Center. Funds were transferred recently establishing a budget for the CTL. Previously, fiscal staff in the Office of Academic Affairs had responsibility for funds and accounting of CTL funds. With direct responsibility, budget planning and oversight will be accomplished. Appendix 5 includes initial efforts toward this goal. In addition, we plan to explore opportunities for external funding by working with the Office of Research Administration and the University Development Office.

• Review CTL survey data from April 2006 with Advisory Group We surveyed (1) colleagues on campus who were interviewed in Winter 2001 and (2) a sample of colleagues who are frequent CTL participants. This data is included as Appendix 3. The final question to both groups sought input on future CTL activities. These ideas can inform discussions of future directions for the CTL.

• Identify resources for faculty fellows and graduate interns Missouri Campus Compact funds have been received to support a Civic Engagement Faculty Fellow for AY 2006-2007. The person selected will support faculty interested in integrating service-learning pedagogy into their courses and will help others design effective implementation and assessment strategies for service-learning. A proposal to fund a graduate intern for service-learning is presently under review by Missouri Campus Compact.

• Develop a program to prepare and support peer tutors Funds from the Center for Academic Development that support Supplemental Instruction (SI) will be transferred to the CTL in FY 2007. The CTL intends to offer a program to prepare and


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support peer tutors on campus. Whether the SI program will continue in its present form is a decision that will be made in the months ahead. Two doctoral students are researching SI now and interviewing student leaders and faculty who have worked with SI with the goal of designing a program for peer tutors. It is likely that a portion of the transferred funds will be assigned to a graduate student intern who will have oversight of the program.

• Integrate responsibility for coordinating program reviews Program Review is presently the responsibility of Dr. Cohen who is supported by Ms. Lock. These activities seem separated from the work of the CTL, partially because they have an evaluative character. As the campus develops a culture of assessment, there will be more justification for the CTL to be associated with program reviews. One discussion to consider is a name change to the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.

• Identify resources to support graduate and undergraduate internships Attracting skilled interns (graduate or undergraduate students) to work with the CTL to support our marketing efforts, communications strategies, and maintain our web pages would ease our workload and offer students experiences related to their academic programs. We would be very good mentors.

• Address overlap with other units providing support for faculty in the classroom Discussions with ITS, the Faculty Resource Center and Classroom Support, the College of Education’s Technology and Learning Center, and other support units on campus would help all involved identify areas of collaboration or specialization to better serve the faculty. An initial effort a year ago was to convene units offering various orientations.

• Use FSSE data more deliberately It is important to create opportunities to understand and use these complex data to learn about pedagogical practices on campus, how they are changing, and how they compare with students’ perceptions of their academic experiences at UM-St. Louis as measured by the NSSE data.

• Introduce and support more Scholarship of Teaching and Learning During planning begun at the March 2006 Provost’s Forum, several initiatives were identified that relate to the scholarship of teaching, learning and technology. With ITS and Center leadership some of these conversations will come to fruition. They include (1) support for research on classroom innovations with technology; (2) identifying where podcasting, blogging, and wikis are useful across the disciplines; (3) investigating policy updates related to privacy issues, copyright and intellectual property issues, cognitive learning, social and legal issues; and (4) rhetorical and writing differences among discipline-specific blogs. The venue for continuing discussions of these topics may be the Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference in November 2006.

• Create additional opportunities for stakeholders to contribute CTL programming Additional opportunities for colleague input will be created as 2006-2007 programs are planned. Current academic leaders, alums of the Leadership Development Program, and alums of the New Faculty Teaching Scholars program will be invited to plan upcoming and future programs. First year faculty are routinely invited to plan the next new faculty orientation and they will be asked for feedback on program ideas that others have suggested we include in the orientation program (e.g. Alumni Association connections, colloquium on using the faculty accomplishment system, colloquium on IRB submissions).

• Consultation requests – categorize types of requests Creating a system to document the daily requests received by the CTL is a challenging assessment and evaluation activity. It would be helpful to identify a graduate student seeking an authentic problem for a course project.


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Center for Teaching and Learning Staff Presentations, Publications, Honors, Awards

Workshops Cohen, M.W. (2002, February 15). Paying attention to student motivation. It matters! Workshop presented at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Cohen, M.W. (2003, February). Do Unto Others: Civility in Today’s College Classroom. Workshop presented at the Annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Cohen, M.W., (2003, November) How’s it going? Reflecting on our work as new faculty developers. Pre-conference Workshop organized for the annual meeting of the Professional Organization Network, Denver, CO. Cohen, M.W. (2004, February 27). Learning or earning credits? Refocusing student motivation. Workshop presented at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Cohen, M.W. (2004, February 27). Increasing classroom civility. Workshop presented at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Bielema, C. and Zuniga, R. (2004, October). Evaluation of Distance Education and IT Programs. Pre-conference workshop at EDUCAUSE Conference, Denver, CO. Cohen, M.W., (2004, November) How’s It Going? Reflecting on our Work as New Faculty Developers. Pre-conference Workshop organized and facilitated at the annual meeting of the Professional Organization and Development Network, Montreal, Quebec. Bielema, C. (2004, November). Planning and Designing for the Online Learning Environment. Faculty workshop at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL. Cohen, M.W. (2005, February). Creating an Engagement Agenda at UCF. Workshop for UCF faculty at the Regional 2005 NSSE Users’ Meeting, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. Cohen, M.W. (2005, February). Do Unto Others: Addressing Civility in University Classrooms. Workshop presented at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Cohen, M.W. (2005, July 15). Instructional strategies to increase responsibility in students. Workshop presented to the faculty of the College of Optometry, University of Missouri – St. Louis. Cohen, M.W. (2005 October 27) How’s It Going? Reflecting on our work as new faculty developers. Pre-conference Workshop organized for the annual meeting of the Professional Organization Network, Milwaukee, WI.


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Cohen, M.W. (2006 February 24). Learning-Centered Teaching: Rethinking faculty and student roles. Workshop presented at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference. Columbia, MO. Cohen, M.W. (2006 March 10). Do unto others: Addressing civility in university classrooms. Effective Teaching Seminar at the Center for Teaching Excellence, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO. Presentations Groccia, J., Bieniek, R. Kaptain, L., Cohen, M.W., Short, P.M., & Graham, S.W. (2001, October) University of Missouri New Faculty Teaching Scholars: Intersecting at the university system level. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Professional Organization Development Network, St. Louis. Cohen, M.W. & Bielema, C. (2001, October) Taking charge of change in the development of a new Teaching and Learning Center. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Professional Organizational Development Network, St. Louis Cohen, M.W., Kaptain, L., Groccia, J.,Bienik, R., & Graham, S.W. (2002, January 27) University of Missouri New Faculty Teaching Scholars: A campus and university system initiative for the scholarship of teaching and system-wide collegiality. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Higher Education Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards, Phoenix, AZ. Bieniek, R., Cohen, M.W, Groccia, J., & Kaptain, L. (2002, February 16). Starting off well: Campus supports for new faculty. Presentation at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Bieniek, R., Cohen, M.W., & Kaptain, L. (2002, July) University of Missouri New Faculty Teaching Scholars: Intersecting at the university system level. Paper presented at the 2002 Conference for Carnegie Doctoral/Research Intensive Institutions, Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Ebest, S. B. (2002, November 9). Researching Your Teaching. Student Engagement: Creating Learner-Centered Environments. Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference. St. Louis, MO. Ebest, S. B. and Cohen, M. W. (2002, October 13). Using Principles of Motivation to Guide Initiatives in TA Development.” Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD) Conference. Atlanta, GA. Spielvogel, J., Bieniek, R., Cohen, M.W., & Franz, L. (2003, February). How NSSE data is and can be used: Ideas from the four campuses . Panel presentation at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Ebest, S. B. (2003, February 28). Researching Your Teaching. Teaching Renewal Conference. Columbia, MO.


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Ebest, S. B. (2003, October). Researching Your Teaching. Roundtable. 2003 POD Conference. Denver, CO. Cohen, M.W. and Miller, T. (2003, November). Integrating principles of motivation and learning into innovative courses. Paper presented at annual meeting of the International Society for Exploring Teaching Alternatives, Pittsburgh, PA. Ebest, S. B. (2003, November 7). Preparing Future Faculty: Time to Get on Board!” Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference. St. Louis, MO. Cohen, M.W. and Benoit, P. (2004, February). Preparing future faculty: Benefits and challenges. Presentation at the annual University of Missouri Teaching Renewal Conference, Columbia, MO. Starrett, D., Santanello, C., & Cohen, M.W., (2004, April 2). Effectively supporting the s

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