WCU's Commons for Teaching and Learning Excellence

Greetings,

It seems strange starting a position on campus towards the end of the academic year but there are many advantages to the timing.  I love being on campus when all the students and faculty are present. There is a palatable buzz of energy across the campus that is subdued in the summer.  I also have a chance to jump in and start interacting with faculty and staff immediately, particularly as we gear up for our Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning!

I am really looking forward to partnering with all of you to explore creative ideas for the incredible opportunities we face at WCU and to continue the great work that has and continues to be done.  We live in an exciting time for the university and I am looking forward to being a part of it!

I plan on getting out to the departments and units quickly to introduce myself and engage in conversations about your work and how the Coulter Faculty Commons is partnering with you and/or opportunities for future engagement.  I’d also like to invite you to drop by our digs in the library for a chat and a cup of coffee! We have a great team in the CFC! My door is always open.

If you have some time today or tomorrow (March 5-6), come by and meet me and join us to "attend" the EDUCAUSE Learning initiative Encore event in our meeting room.  The group watching will take place between noon and 5 pm with a conversation between the sessions.  A member of the staff has promised to bring cookies.

Registration has also started for our Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning.  The Education Development Team has done a splendid job of working with faculty and other partners across the campus in order to construct this year's program.  We hope that you will be able to join us.

And of course, any good introduction should include:

• Favorite food - chocolate, although coffee is a close second

• Favorite color - purple, fuschia, red and teal

• Favorite season - fall

• Favorite hobby - anything creative but I mostly work with polymer

I am excited to be joining all of you at WCU!  Go Cats!

~Eli

Eli Collins-Brown EdD
Director, Coulter Faculty Commons
828.227.2093

My professional e-portfolio - http://www.elicollinsbrown.com/

Eli Collins-Brown, Ed.D. – teaching, learning, technology

Eli has been working in higher education for 20+ years as a curriculum developer, instructional designer, technologist, instructor, and leader.

If you have any questions about academic issues, please do not hesitate to contact the Coulter Faculty Commons at 828-227-7196 or call the ITHelp desk to at 227-7487.

For More Information About the Services of the Coulter Faculty Commons

This year’s Summer Institute for Teaching and Learning is shaping up to be a wonderful event! This year’s theme, Hands on with High-Impact Practices, is all about helping faculty consider, develop, or redesign coursework and curricula based on George Kuh’s high-impact practices.  Faculty and staff from across WCU are involved in leading sessions.

Below are the sessions being offered this year:

- Team-Based Learning
- Service Learning and Community Engagement
-  Simulations in a Box
- Why Global Learning Cannot Wait
- We Need to Talk about Common Reads - Strategies for Student Engagement
- Project-based Learning - Designing Authentic Experiences for Students
- Undergraduate Research
- Effective Skills for Cooperative Learning Groups
- Assignment Makeover: Transforming Traditional Research Papers into Multimedia             Superstars with Hunter Library
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
- Cli-Fi - Using Literary Fiction to Teach Climate Change Science

For more information about these sessions and to register for SiTL click here.

The 2018-2019 Health Educators Academy is going to put on three learning sessions this semester. 

HHS 204: March 6th 12:15-12:45 Using Backward Design to Guide Implementation of Team-Based Learning.

HHS 204: Weds, March 27th 12 – 1: A Lunch and Learn entitled Team-Based Learning: Four S’s for Application Activity

HHS 204: Monday, April 8th 2:30-3:30: A Snack and Learn session entitled Team-Based Learning: Tips for Writing Good Multiple Choice Questions  

Teaching Online with Impact Course

The online professional development course we have often discussed in this newsletter is ready for faculty! Stakeholders of online programs were invited to review the course in late fall, and with those suggestions received and addressed, the course has been revised and is ready for faculty to enroll. For more information click here.
 

The next Third Thursday Brown Bag Session Topic - Basics of Qualtrics 

March 21, 2019
from 12-1

If you are ready to launch your first online survey or registration, but you don’t know where to begin, this is an opportunity to learn the basics of Qualtrics. Bring your humor, your mind, and your lunch to this workshop.

For more information, contact Jeanine Irons

Online Courses

Sometimes online courses don’t go as well as we’d like, and as faculty, we aren’t sure why. The CFC established a service for all Western faculty last fall in order to help faculty determine the experiences of their online students in case mid-semester adjustments are needed. The service is similar to what we have offered in traditional courses for years, but it is tailored for online students and courses.

We piloted this service last fall and faculty were pleased with the service. The process is intended to solicit student’s experiences and feelings about the course. Questions pertaining to student regulation, procrastination, preparation, etc. tend to emerge as themes that faculty can then address in ways that are helpful.

For more information please click here.

Face to Face Courses

Schedule Mid-Semester Analysis

The midterm of the semester is approaching, and faculty interested in a mid-semester course analysis should schedule with Terry Pollard or Jeanine Irons in the next few weeks. One of us, with assistance from Kelsey Woodburn, our graduate assistant, will visit your class at a time of your choosing and conduct a focus group. The process works as follows:

Contact Jeanine Irons or Terry Pollard for more information

The CFC has joined with the Distinguished Professors of WCU and the Office of Sponsored Research to launch a collaborative hub for thinking about efforts in Innovation at WCU.  We invite you to join us to share your thoughts about innovative practices, to suggest next steps, to point other members of our community to common resources, and to join in the mutual effort to continue to make WCU a vibrant part of the shaping of our region, nation, and our world.

The Next non-Virtual - Innovations at Innovations meet-up will be Friday, March 21 from 4 pm to whenever at Innovations in Dillsboro.

The presentation above was originally created for the New Faculty Orientation for Spring of 2019.  Feel free to view it in the link above.  It includes several bits of new information, but WCU instructors may find the following to be interesting:

- Our students are, in general, satisfied with the technologies at WCU

- They are increasingly bringing more devices to campus

- They would like for their instructors to use more mobile technology and laptops

- They would like to see more mobile functionality integrated with Blackboard

Jonathan Wade would be happy to give a more detailed summary to your department or working group from the data that has been gathered in national studies and in studies specific to WCU

More Resources:

CFC Automated Appointments
Quality customer service is our goal at the Coulter Faculty Commons (CFC).  So, in order to serve our faculty better, we have created a new form to request an appointment with any member of our team.  Please click here to request an appointment.

Blackboard Online Help
As the Learning Management System used at WCU, Blackboard enhances the quality of online and face-to-face instruction and is used to monitor, document, and manage online and classroom events and assignments.  The LMS Team at the CFC has put together a handy list of resources for Blackboard, tailored to meet the needs of the WCU Community.

Provost's List of Faculty Resources
The Office of the Provost provides a considerable amount of helpful information on this web page.