Survey Comments:

 2.   After reviewing the list above are there additional activities you think would be desirable or that you would take advantage of if they were offered by a CEE at Rose-Hulman?

Where do department head evaluations of teaching fit?

A searchable “knowledgeable faculty” list would be helpful.  For example, if you are new to a language like C or Matlab, it would be nice to be able to find out who on campus already knows how to do something with that language.

Seminars by recognized exceptional teachers (not administrators), from other universities and colleges.

Classroom observation by a trained person in engineering education.

The list is very comprehensive with respect to Rose faculty, but how about outreach to other places?  At many schools, the program should be centered inward, but we should outreach too.

Provide achievement awards for students who become role models in learning.

Videos of various techniques that could be accessed during non-school hours.

Video taping of lectures for self-assessment.

Video tape classes for evaluation by instructor and sources of help.

Video taping of classes to help instructors evaluate their teaching.

Release time to audit prerequisite courses or related courses, e.g. calc teachers in intro physics and vise versa; physics in statics and dynamics and vise versa, etc.

Combine e and h. Pilot web based course support (look at available products and select one that ___?  best.

Innovative ways of teaching should be researched continuously to accommodate for newer generations of students.

Need to be training for TAs (whether grad students or work study).

Internet development software needs to be licensed to faculty, e.g. an arsenal of Adobe products, Photoshop, ?, Premiere, Golive, etc.

Consultants – someone to bounce ideas off of.

Better communication about the expectations that various faculty and departments have of students would provide a more seamless (and

3.   In summary, should Rose-Hulman seek to establish a CEE that would provide some of the services you checked or mentioned above? 

Comments:

RHIT lags in preparation of computer based learning materials because we lack the software and expertise for these tasks.  We have tons of hardware but it’s not being used as effectively as it might be.

Most of the above are desirable, however I am not sure they are practical for us - time management and resources available – i.e. aa & bb – no educational faculty on campus.

I am concerned that people might not have the time to properly utilize a CEE.  Attending CEE events could potentially become a added burden.  We should ensure that CEE aids us in making more effective use of our time not something that has always been followed by programs here.

There should be a balance between ___ that faculty can learn what is ___ practice and inventing new stuff.

But, I’m worked about the “center” draining too much time/energy from the bottom line – giving time to our students, and still have time to remain active in our respective fields of expertise.

How do we pay for it.

But only if funding can be found to support it.

In principle a CEE would be a useful adjunct to RHIT.  However, the form and implementation must be carefully designed.   It is possible for such an organization to be overdone.  For example, after an initial interest, publishing monthly newsletter usually ends up with a document that few read because there isn’t much new to say.  Where I taught previously there were four lunch time programs per year and one workshop, and that seemed about right.  An additional useful function would be helping professors learn to use the web for their course materials, but this would only be needed for a couple of years as those who wanted to were trained.

It seems clear that we should have some formal structure in place for encouraging, facilitation and recognizing good teaching.

I am especially supportive of required workshops for faculty upon hiring and every 3-5 years thereafter.

Especially if teaching is our  business.

Everything I’ve indicated should be done by the administration.

But only if we aren’t looking to develop another “office” or bureaucracy.

My greatest need in the past has been for help in multimedia, web-based software.  Rose doesn’t provide support in this area.

Very important.

Absolutely necessary since we are a predominantly educational institution.

Doing some of these things will improve us and further justify our #1 ranking.  We already do many informally.

It is a great idea for Rose.  We should have one of these.  However, finding time to participate is a concern.  Also, it should generate educational research opportunities as part of its mission.

As long as it will meet our needs (fac. and students) and not just be an opportunity to brag/show off.

It appears to me we demand good teaching, but the school does nothing to actively encourage the improvement of teaching.

Investigate further.  Establish clear goals and staffing needs to accomplish objectives.  Then ask the question again.

In my experience these  have always been ineffective.

Faculty will be taken out of the classroom to talk about good teaching instead of being in the classroom teaching well.

This is a real issue.  Faculty are already overwhelmingly busy, so it may be more effective to invite some group like Pacific Crest to hold workshops several times a year for interested faculty.

If the one last (workshop) year between quarters is an example of some, it was a monumental waste of time for me.  I have never attended such an intimidating workshop.  We need much better screening.  (comment appeared on the first page).

This is very much in line with our traditions and what we think we want to become.  Can also help attract students and resources.

I think CEE is a good idea.  At the same time not all good ideas can/should be done at Rose.  My concern is that there are several other projects that should be higher priority that will likely take a backseat.

Any addition to workload is out of the question for any in our department, as we are severely understaffed and knowledge and course content is changing too rapidly.  There is no time to develop new courses which is badly needed, let alone update the ones we are not teaching.

Support for new faculty.  Exploitation of technology to support overall learning (If economy of scale is an issue for a CEE, do consider outsourcing).

I would like to see a CEE support and help current teaching methods that may have been developed elsewhere.  I find less value in trying to start our own research into the process of learning.

Research grants get more than enough emphasis.  Teaching needs more attention, especially w/ conversations across departments. 

It is a good idea, if there is very little extra time commitments required from faculty.

Teaching is suppose to be very important at Rose.

But don’t recreate the wheel. 

Internet/multimedia are critical yet require lots of work to set up.   Release time is essential for implementation.

I think this would be very useful esp. for young/new faculty.

I would be most interested in the CEE serving as an incubator for new ideas; in particular, how to use technology to make the learning/teaching process more efficient.

I prefer an organized presentation or workshop, over lunch time.   We don’t need to organize a “chat” time – can do that in dining room.

I think we have very talented students, but I think there is still more they can accomplish.

4.       Are you aware of effective CEE’s at other campuses that we should investigate as potential models for a CEE at Rose-Hulman?  Please list them below:

Project Next – preparing 21^st century math professors is a national math project that is similar to a CEE.

Ineffective at ISU

No.  People are born teachers – they cannot be taught to teach

IU has a very good program.

Bradley U in Peoria, IL.

The Writing Center at the Citadel performed CEE functions with no full-time staff devoted to CEE yet was able to bring the faculty together for useful discussion four times per year.

UW Madison seems to function well.

UW Madison

Univ. of Texas – Jim Stice, Penn State.

Carnegie Mellon – Dr. Susan Ambrose (director)

Carnegie Mellon does a fantastic job.

Iowa State

U Michigan center was doing very good research when Will McKeachy was head.  He’s dead I think, but they may still be pretty good.

USAF Academy.  I particularly liked lunch-time seminar 1x/month or so.

5.   As in any academic discipline, it is difficult to keep up with the latest developments in teaching and learning.  What ways have you found that are or might be especially helpful to you?

Discussion with colleagues at other institutions when at meetings

Membership in professional organizations.  Subscription to professional journals.  Participation (active) in professional conferences.

Conference attendance.  Portfolio rating (RosEPorfolio)

Journals, conferences, conversations with faculty at other institutions.

I don’t believe developments in teaching exist, only changes in technology.

Conference attendance.

Conference attendance (twice per year).  Appreciate professional development reimbursement.

Talking to peers.

Web pages and short emails containing links to pages.

Discussion with colleagues at conferences.

Time to study and keep informed about my field of study is most important.

Conferences to see a variety of presentation styles.  I participated in a “write to learn” workshop once and took away some useful ideas.

FIE and ASEE related type conferences.

“The Teaching Professor”, small workshops locally and at conferences like FIE.

IEEE Transactions – Education.

“Syllabus” magazine is good; I also like “The Teaching Professor”.

It is very hard to advance past Socrates.

Contact with other faculty is the best way.  Facilitating contact between departments and between schools would be helpful.

Read and listen

Workshops in the summer.

Workshop talks at FIE and ASEE

Reading journals and attending workshops – also just developing my own through trial and error.

JIT resource availability to mach need/available time.

Believe in evolution no revolution.  Be selective in adopting the latest development that helps my improve my past work rather than changing it all over.

We need to be very careful not to equate “latest developments” with improvements necessarily.

Workshops, seminars.

Reading J- Eng. Educ., Chem Eng. Educ., The Teaching Professor, Attending teaching conferences, writing articles for journals such as above.

ASEE

Attending ASEE & FIE.  Reading.

Consulting and practical experience.  Improves credibility with automatically helps keep students attention, which automatically improves teaching effectiveness.

Chronicle of Higher Education, having taught at several other schools.

Looking at other faculty websites (RHIT and other schools).  There’s more than enough information out there.  The problem is to have enough time to digest it and then use it.

Conferences and teaching/learning workshops.

Attend conferences.

Chronicle, attendance at meetings.

In some disciplines the material (knowledge) itself is also changing rapidly and should be taken into account.

Release time or summer.

Professional journals (including online ones). White papers on emerging topics.

Need release time/leaves.  Just too busy here to do it during the year with a full teaching/advising load.

Discussion with other faculty at Rose and visiting other schools.

Workshops at AAPT conferences, the New Physics Faculty Conference were both very helpful to me.

An end of summer session for profs to present/talk about teaching would be nice (no research allowed).

Teaching related newsletter.  Discussion with other faculty.

Any journal based on these ideas?

Attending conferences relate to areas I teach.

A library.  We need access to databases of relevant articles and abstracts!

Too early to tell.

Talking to other professors at conferences.  Naturally I can’t participate in everything I have indicated in 1 years time, but I could over a period of 5 years.

Attend college teaching workshops.

Chautauqua Workshop

Talking to colleagues.

Teaching Professor newsletter – brief, can scan in 5 or 10 minutes to see if anything relevant.  Often is.