curriculum design 2018 report...curriculum design workshop, july 9-20, 2018 higher education @ j-wel...

Curriculum Design Workshop Report: July 9-20, 2018

Higher Education @ J-WEL

Curriculum Design Workshop, July 9-20, 2018 Higher Education @ J-WEL Report

Table of Contents

HIGHER EDUCATION @ J-WEL 3

J-WEL WORKSHOPS 3

VISION 3

ORGANIZATION & CONTENT 4

GOALS ZERO, +1, +2, FINAL 4 J-WEL TEAM 5 PARTICIPANTS 6 PRESENTERS 7 MODULE DESCRIPTION 8 WEBSITE AND ONLINE MATERIALS 8

COMMON THEMES 8

FEEDBACK 9

MEMBERS 9

NEXT STEPS 9

APPENDIX 10

APPENDIX 1: GOALS TEMPLATES 10 APPENDIX 2: FULL GUIDE 10


Higher Education @ J-WEL

The Higher Education @ J-WEL approach is outcome-driven and high-impact. Higher Education @ J-WEL

members address their key educational goals and carry out projects with MIT input.

Led by Faculty Director Prof. Hazel Sive, the Higher Education @ J-WEL Team includes Senior Manager

Julia Reynolds-Cuéllar, and Post-Doctoral Associate Andrés F. Salazar-Gómez. The collaborative is advised

by a distinguished MIT Advisory Group: https://jwel.mit.edu/about-us/team.

J-WEL Workshops

Signature events of Higher Education @ J-WEL, J-WEL Workshops are intensive, outcome-oriented

programs held on the MIT campus. Workshops are organized by a J-WEL Team and include many MIT

Faculty, senior staff and students relevant to a particular theme of interest. Participants leave with

implementable outputs that can be scaled and contextualized for each subject, university and country.

Vision

The successful student of the future is a confident, entrepreneurial problem solver who has the tools to

form a career; resiliency across the changing face of work; and power to contribute to economic growth.

Within the landscape of developing educational approaches and technologies, the faculty of Higher

Educators is challenged to devise new, productive curriculum that will motivate students and promote

achievement and success. Higher Education @ J-WEL meets this challenge by addressing curriculum

design and implementation, with emphasis on MIT-style pedagogy, problem-solving methods, Science of

Learning, and digital tools. Well-devised curriculum is a key aspect of educational transformation that can

be shared and scaled across universities and education systems.

https://jwel.mit.edu/about-us/team


Organization & Content

The 2018 Curriculum Design Workshop was held July 9-20, 2018 Participants defined their initial goals

prior to arrival at MIT, explored documents and videos focused on pedagogy, entrepreneurship and

digital learning and submitted a pre-assessment of their current course or plans for their new course.

There were eight modules: Learning Science, Course Structure, Problem-Solving, Entrepreneurship,

Online/Digital Tools, Relevance, Inclusive Teaching, and Case Studies in MIT Education. Each module

encouraged interactive, hands-on participation. Participants were organized by their overarching

discipline as proved relevant (Computer Science, Life Science and Economics).

Courses were [re]designed at MIT, with extensive input from faculty and staff. Groups planned

implementation and implications of newly developed material for their universities.

Goals Zero, +1, +2, Final

Participant progress was measured by a Goals progression. Please see the Goals templates in Appendix 1.

This also allowed global faculty to provide feedback to their colleagues, and for Participants to track and

measure their own progress during the two-weeks.


J-WEL Team

• Prof. Hazel Sive is a professor of Biology and winner of MIT’s highest undergraduate teaching

award—MacVicar Faculty Fellowship. She serves in multiple leadership capacities across MIT.

• Julia Reynolds-Cuéllar has a Master’s in Education and experience in engineering education

reform.

• Dr. Andrés F. Salazar-Gómez is a Biomedical Engineer and Computational Neuroscientist. He is

proficient in data analysis, signal processing, machine learning and data-oriented programing.

• Nina Wu is the Program and Events Coordinator for J-WEL. Prior to joining J-WEL, Nina worked in

the Physics Department at MIT. During her tenure, she planned special events that focused on

engaging alumni and donors of the Physics department.

Two top teaching assistants contributed to the Workshop:

• Gabriel Ginorio graduated MIT in June 2018, with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering,

with concentration in Biomedical Engineering and Entrepreneurship. He is currently working full-

time on his own startup.

• Maya Jay graduated from MIT in June 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology. She is currently a

graduate student researcher at Harvard University and will begin her Ph.D. at Harvard in the Fall.

For full biographies, please see Appendix 2.


Participants

There were a total of 14 Participants from five different countries, across four continents: Chile, Uruguay,

Nigeria, Russia, and Japan. Participants represented the fields of Computer Science, Life Science and

Economics.

Please find the full list of Participants, their universities, and their redesigned courses below:

Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria

Prof. Yakubu Ibrahim, Centre Leader, Bioethics and Biosafety

Prof. H.M. Inuwa, Director, Centre for Biotechnology Research and Training, Plant Biotechnology

Prof. M.F. Ishakyu, Director, Directorate of Academic Planning and Monitoring, Establishment and Management of Plant Breeding Enterprise Prof. Junaid Kabir, Project Coordinator, Forensic Biotechnology Applications

Prof. Mohammed Nasir Shuaibu, Dean, Faculty of Life Science, Molecular Basis of Infectious Diseases and Immunology

ITMO University, Russia

Prof. Klavdiia Bochenina, Computer Science, Machine Learning

Prof. Mihail Petrov, Physics, Plasmonics

Prof. Galina Romanova, Applied and Computer Optics, Optical Systems Design

Seieki University, Japan

Prof. Tomoo Inoue, Economics, Introductory Macroeconomics

Prof. Masanori Ono, Economics, Introductory Macroeconomics

Universidad Mayor, Chile

Prof. Fernando Crespo, Científico investigador, Programming in Python for Everyone

Prof. Alex Slater, Director Escuela de Biotecnología, Programming in Python for Everyone

UTEC, Uruguay

Prof. Andrés Möller, Director of the Regional Technological Institute, Mechanics Applied to Machines

Prof. Sergio Pires, Coordinator of Mechatronics Engineering, Introduction of Mechatronics Engineering


Presenters

Thirty-six MIT faculty, senior staff or students met with and/or presented to Curriculum Design Workshop

participants, in sessions that included extend discussion and hands-on material.

Presenters included sixteen Professors, as well as, five MacVicar Faculty Fellows, 10 senior lecturers, five

program directors, and four student leaders. Presenters were subject experts in Learning Science, Course

Structure, Problem-Solving, Entrepreneurship, Online/Digital Tools, Inclusive Teaching, Computer Science,

Life Science or Economics.

• Prof. Bill Aulet, Martin Trust Center

• Sheryl Barnes, Open Learning

• Prof. Steven Bell, Biology

• Prof. Ricardo Caballero, Economics

• Lambert Chu, MIT graduate

• Prof. John Gabrieli, McGovern Institute for Brain

Research at MIT

• Prof. Lorna Gibson, Materials Science & Engineering

• Gabriel Ginorio, MIT graduate

• Dr. Scott Greenwald, MIT Media Lab

• Prof. Joseph Formaggio, Physics

• Dr. Jen French, Mathematics

• Prof. David Jerison, Mathematics

• Dr. Maxine Jonas, Biological Engineering

• Prof. Dennis Kim, Biology

• Prof. Monty Krieger, Biology

• Dr. Katrina LaCurts, Electrical Engineering &

Computer Science

• Prof. Harvey Lodish, Whitehead Institute

• Prof. Lozano-Perez, Electrical Engineering &

Computer Science

• Prof. Sanjoy Mahajan, Electrical Engineering &

Computer Science

• Prof. Scott Manalis, Biological Engineering

• Nikhil Murthy, MIT graduate

• Dr. Melanie Parker, Global Education

• Prof. James Poterba, Economics

• Dr. Carmelo Presicce, MIT Media Lab

• Dr. Sean Robinson, Physics

• Prof Sanjay Sarma, Open Learning

• Prof. Hazel Sive, Biology

• Dr. Simona Socrate, Mechanical Engineering

• Prof. Colin Stultz, Institute for Medical

Engineering and Science

• Dr. Glenda Stump, Open Learning

• Georgia Van de Zande, Pappalardo Lab

• Dr. Beth Vogel, Chemistry

• Dr. Steven Wasserman, Biological Engineering

• Dr. Caroline Werlang, Biological Engineering

• Emily Young, MIT Senior


Module Description

Topics ranged from Skills Development and Complex Problems to Relevance and Motivating Students.

Below is a summary of each module:

• Learning Science: The science behind education and learning.

• Problem-Solving: Techniques to ensure students are able to solve hard problems.

• Online/Digital Tools: Various digital and online tools and their uses in the classroom.

• Case Studies in MIT Education: MIT faculty share insights into their course design and delivery.

• Course Structure: Methods and approaches to course organization.

• Entrepreneurship: Integrating entrepreneurial thinking and ways to encourage entrepreneurship.

• Relevance: A custom module based on Participant interests.

• Inclusive Teaching: Approaches to include and support a wide array of diverse students.

Website and Online Materials

Upon their acceptance to the Workshop, each Participant was added to an online J-WEL group. The

website hosted helpful logistics information and, during the course of the Workshop, each speaker

handout and resource was added, allowing Participants to access all materials digitally.

Curriculum Design 2018 resources can be accessed for those who are members of the group and logged

on to the J-WEL website here.

Common Themes

As global faculty shared their experiences, successes and challenges, common themes emerged.

• Heavy course-loads: a majority of Participants noted that their students were required to take too

many courses, leaving little to no time to integrate homework or other outside of class time work.

• Diverse student sets: the greatest overarching challenge for Participants was to manage the

learning of students with varying levels of subject-knowledge, preparedness and, in some cases,

in sufficient knowledge of the language of instruction.

• Student motivation: also common was lack of student motivation, and the perception of higher

education as merely a process to receive a diploma/certificate.

https://jwel.mit.edu/group/curriculum-design-workshop


Feedback

A survey was sent to Participants following the conclusion of the Workshop. Findings were highly positive,

as follows.

• 100% of respondents rated the week as extremely valuable.

• 82% of respondents found the interaction with international colleagues extremely valuable.

• 82% of respondents found that a mixed group of faculty (not working in similar fields) performing

course design together ‘worked very well.’

• 82% of respondents envisioned their university sending additional faculty to future iterations of

the Workshop.

• Respondents shared that the most valuable aspects of the Week included: the ability to meet a

diverse set of peers and share views and knowledge; MIT connections and networking.

Members

The majority of Participants are from J-WEL member-universities and the Participant outcomes in the

Curriculum Design Workshop will contribute toward their larger project (of which they have defined or

are in the process defining with the J-WEL team).

Next Steps

Participants have returned home and will resume their teaching duties. During their next semester they

will begin to incorporate the changes made to their courses during the Workshop. Once they have

completed a full-semester, we will send a Post-Assessment to each Participant and provide a comparison

with their Pre-Assessment.


Appendix Appendix 1: Goals Templates https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l0mpyswuXAKQ8rWiWSxq6JdrQPpIeyNr Appendix 2: Full Guide https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NpxVdK-MVOv_kIU_4dC0ZRFX8-bySq5A/view?usp=sharing

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