TheCoulterFacultyCenter staff chose as our themethisyear:TeachingandLearning:ConnectingtoMillenials.AsweentertheimplementationphaseofWCU’sQualityEnhancementPlan,wefeelthatthisgenerationprovidesusawonderfulopportunitytocreateengagedlearningoppor-tunities.Theyareserviceorientedandseekmeaningbeyondthetraditionalclassroom.They respond to opportunities to reflect and synthesizetheirexperiences.Theydesiretobeactiveparticipantsinconstructingtheirownknowledge. WeareintheprocessofhiringaCur-riculumDesignSpecialistwhowillworkwithindividualfaculty,departmentsandprogramstodesignsuchlearningopportunitiesforstudents.Inaddition,thisworkwillpro-videwonderfulopportunitiesforfacultytoresearchtheirownteaching–toengageinaScholarshipofTeachingandLearningProject.LooksoonforacallforproposalsforSoTLGrants and a call for participation at our first everSoTLRetreatattheNantahalaVillageResortandSpainFebruarywherefacultycandelvemoredeeplyinSoTLwork.Inaddition,weareexcitedtoannouncethatWCUhasbeengiveanewprofessorship,theChancellorMyronL.“Barney”andMrs.BarbaraCoulterDistinguishedProfessorshipfortheScholar-shipofTeachingandLearningtobebasedintheCoulterFacultyCenter Ifyouarenewtotheideaofsynthesisandintegratedlearning,hereisagreatwritingactivitytousewithstudentsafteranassign-mentorasacourseevaluation:

Whatnewthingstruckyou?Whathaveyouunderstoodwithgreaterclarity?How does what we've done fit with what youhavedonebefore(anothercourse,activ-ity,extra-curricularorlifeexperience)?Ofwhatpracticalvaluewasthisexperience?

Weareheretohelpyou.ComeseeusintheFacultySandboxorinournewFacultyLoungearea”therumpusroom”inHunter172 where you will find comfortable furniture aswellascopiesoftheChronicle,theNewYorker,andassortedresourcesonteachingandlearning.

AnnA T. McFAddenProFessor And direcTor

Teach ing, Lear n ing , and ResearchFall 2007

News from the Coulter Faculty Center

Large Course Redesign: Addressing Retention Issues

From the Director’s DeskTeaching and Learning: Connecting to Millenials

When faced with a class of forty or more students, how does an instructor know that he/she is engaging them all so that they may be successful in the course and beyond? Or, concerning liberal studies courses that are taught in multiple sections, how can a department ensure that all students are being held to the same standards when the course is taught by many different instructors? The Coulter Faculty Center, in conjunction with the UNC Teaching and Learning with Technology Collaborative, is seeking to address issues inherent to large courses and multiple section courses with the Large Enrollment Course Redesign Initiative.

While all UNC campuses are involved in the large course redesign effort, specifically at Western, the goal

of the design initiative is to increase retention and lower D/F/W grade rates among freshmen and sophomores. A challenge of the large course redesign effort is to “think outside the box”, so to speak—for example, how can instructors use technology to deliver some aspects of instruction in order to cut down on face-to-face classroom instruction (freeing up much-needed classroom space on campus) but still deliver quality instruction that engages students? And how can instructors use both technological tools and innovative classroom techniques in order to engage students so that they are more likely to learn and synthesize the material, not only to successfully complete the course but also to retain the knowledge they’ve learned for use

Have you been meaning to work on your teaching portfolio but can’t seem to find the time? Then the Coulter Faculty Center’s Certificate of Professional Development in Teaching and Learning may be for you. The certificate program offers all WCU instructors a structured, concentrated way to develop and expand the scope of their teaching through the creation of materials which may be used for a variety of purposes, such as: annual review, teaching award applications,

Add to Your Vita:A Certificate for Professional Development in Teaching and Learning.

grant applications (both internal and external to WCU, including Coulter Faculty Center Microgrants), tenure, promotion, and post-tenure review.

The first step of the program is to compose a statement of teaching philosophy. Then, after a consultation with Amy Martin, who coordinates the certificate program, instructors design a personalized plan based on how they would like to improve their teaching. Activities include attending workshops, scheduling individual consultations on

Continued page 4

Continued page 6

The Coulter Faculty Center’s Commitment to Excellence in eLearning

Fall 2007 • Connections • page 2

The CFC continues to support the burgeoning growth of eLearning at WCU. For fall 2007, the WebCAT team reports a running average of 800 active, simultaneous, WebCAT users representing a 260% increase over the previous spring. This growth creates stress on fixed resource levels to support such an increase in traffic. The CFC is in the process of reconfiguring its resources, creating coalitions with other University units, and creating efficiencies in service delivery to make certain that faculty needs are met.

Under the aegis of the CFC’s four eLearning Faculty Fellows, the following initiatives explicitly address the following six initiatives.

THEWEBCATONLINEWATERCOOLER

The WebCAT Water Cooler is an online course registered to the entire WCU teaching community. In addition to its function as a repository of eLearning resources, it also serves as a communications vehicle for the exchange of shared concerns among faculty and support personnel, a vessel for WCU-created scholarship on eTeaching and eLearning, and a gateway to external resources such as MERLOT, an international database of “learning objects” to support online teaching. For 2007-2008 the WebCAT Water Cooler is off to a robust start. Since the service was launched during the summer, late-September 2007 tracking data shows nearly 2300 user sessions, with approximately 68 hours of viewing time.

THEONLINECOURSEASSESSMENTTOOL(OCAT)

This fall, OCAT is moving from a field testing to full roll-out stage. OCAT is an online assessment tool to support faculty who wish to have their online course design and teaching reviewed by a trained peer or to evaluate their own efficacy as eTeachers and designers. The CFC aims for no fewer than 20 peer assessment encounters for 2007-2008. Through presentation at meetings and conferences, OCAT will be publicized and made available beyond the WCU community. OCAT has already been presented at the 2007 UNC-TLT Conference in Raleigh and is slated for presentation this fall at the Sloan-C Conference in Orlando and at the eLearn 2007 Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education in Quebec City.

THEELEARNINg-EMENTORWEB-BASEDPEERCONSULTANCY

The CFC is in the process of developing an eLearning peer consultant-client matching service through which faculty needing pedagogical or scholarly assistance with eCourse design or instruction will have a vehicle for finding an experienced colleague who can provide help. Clients will be led through an online Web portal where they will enter their “need descriptors” and be led to the mediated pages of volunteer eMentors for whom Web sites will be set up that “walk” clients through selected online course pages and short videos of mentors discussing their interests and experiences with eTeaching. The “beta” version of the client portal page appears below.

JohnLeBaron,J.M.RobinsonDistinguishedProfessorforEducationalTechnologies

The Coulter Faculty Center’s Commitment to Excellence in eLearning

Fall 2007 • Connections • page 3

THEJAYM.ROBINSONANNUALETEACHINgAWARD

The University-wide Jay M. Robinson Award for excellence in eTeaching was awarded for the first time in 2007. From a roster of five highly-talented finalists, this award was accorded to Dr. Mary Anne Nixon, Professor of Management and International Business. All WCU teaching faculty, are eligible for consideration. A Review Panel is convened by the Jay M. Robinson Distinguished Professor for Educational Technologies who also serves on the CFC staff. Panel members are drawn from representative University constituencies. The Award carries a stipend of $1,000 and will be awarded again in 2008.

DIgITALMEDIASUPPORTThe Center is building capacity

to serve WCU faculty and staff in developing and incorporating newer digital media techniques into its teaching and scholarship. Under the supervision of a Digital Media Consultant, faculty members are supported in designing teaching strategies that capitalize on such tools as podcasts, blogs, wikis, and video. Through this service, faculty may take advantage of Western’s membership in i-Tunes University from which media may be streamed to computers and i-Pods at times and locations convenient to users. After fielding many of the same questions from faculty concerning Digital Media, the Coulter Faculty Center has started a new Digital Media Blog (DMB) available on the blog server at http://blog.wcu.edu/ digitalmedia. The DMB contains a FAQ with answers

to the most common questions we receive; there are also sections on Blogging, Streaming Video, Wikis and Portals and iPods. There are step sheets with directions on how to complete common tasks, and video instruction so you can follow along at your own pace.

If you have a request for a video or step sheet you would like to have available, please email your request to Neil Torda (torda@email.wcu.edu) and we will put it up for you as well.

THEANNUALPASSAgESELEARNINgRETREAT

From a modest afternoon workshop in 2005, the Passages to eLearning Retreat has become an annual professional development event for faculty to learn new perspectives from experts, peers, and eLearning students. In 2006, Passages was conducted at the High Hampton Country Club in Cashiers, NC, where approximately 50 WCU faculty and staff were involved. Participant evaluations rated the formal sessions highly, but particularly singled out for high value was the opportunity for informal networking. For 2007, the Maggie Valley Resort has been selected as the Passages venue. New for this year is formal program collaboration with Haywood Community College and a nominal participant fee to help defray expenses. Co-sponsoring Passages with the CFC is the Jay M. Robinson Endowment, the Division of Educational Outreach and Haywood Community College.

Professional Development in Teaching and Learning: continued

teaching and learning with CFC staff, having a Small Group Analysis and teaching observations conducted on one’s course, keeping a teaching and learning journal reflecting on certificate activities and making a commitment to participate in a project on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Program requirements should be completed within one calendar year, and once participants have completed the program they will be awarded a certificate and will be publicly recognized at the CFC’s annual faculty banquet.

If you are interested in participating in the program or would like more information, please refer to http://facctr.wcu.edu/TeachingandLearning/CPDTL.html or contact Amy Martin at x2762 or amartin@email.wcu.edu.

MEMBERSOFTHECFCSTAFF"PROBLEM-SOLVE"INATEAMBUILDINgACTIVITYLEDBYJOSHWHITMOREATTHEIRSUMMERPLANNINgRETREAT.

Phillip Garrison Joins the Team.The Coulter Faculty Center would

like to welcome Phillip Garrison to our team. Phillip will be filling Chris Snyder’s previous positions as the Director of the Student Technology Assistance Center, the co-coordinator for technology training, and instructor overseeing the JumpStart course for all incoming students, as well as member of various committees and task forces. Phillip has also been tasked to digitalize our training materials for faculty, staff, and students so that they may access online training resources “just-in-time.”

After experiencing the private sector, Phillip has come back to us; he missed Western and its people. In his previous position, Phillip was the College Support Consultant for the College of Business, where he gained experience and expertise that will be invaluable to the Center and all our clients.

Phillip has obtained both his B.S. and B.A. in Computer Information Systems and Entrepreneurship. He also completed his Master of Entrepreneurship at Western.

Please take a moment to stop and welcome Phillip to the Faculty Center.

Fall 2007 • Connections • page 4

PHILLIPgARRISONJOINSTHECFCASANINSTRUCTIONALTRAININgSPECIALIST.

Annual SoTL Faire:A conference in which faculty inform each other about their methods, research, reflection, and results in teaching and learning.

Annual Summer Institute onTeaching and Learning:WCU’s Summer Institute on Teaching and Learningis a faculty-led intensive teaching workshop that takes place over several days.

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs):Cross-disciplinary faculty groups engaging in an active, collaborative year-long program about enhancing teaching and learning.

Policies, Roles and Rewards Supporting SoTL:Demonstrate commitment to internal collaboration among individuals, projects, andprograms working to foster and support SoTL and other forms of scholarship.

Annual SoTL Award:Each academic year a member of the WCU faculty receives an award for excellence in SoTL

research.

SoTL Grants Program: Funded by a sizeable endowment, WCU’s SoTL grants program will award its first grants during the 2007–2008 academic year.

Certificate for Professional Development in Teaching and Learning (CPDTL): This voluntary certificate program allows faculty a structured, concentrated way to develop and expand the scope of their teaching through the creation of materials that may be used for a variety of purposes (such as annual review, teaching award applications, grant applications, and the tenure, promotion, and post-tenure review process).

MountainRise: A peer-reviewed, electronic journal published twice a year as a vehicle for disseminating scholarly work about college teaching and learning, MountainRise has become a significant national and international voice for the scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education.

Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Leadership Program: WCU is a member of two groups in the CASTL Leadership Program, “Policy, Assessment, and Accountability” and “System-wide Collaboration.” Our participation in the program strengthens our role as a national and international leader for SoTL and provides new opportunities for collaboration with sister institutions in the 16-member University of North Carolina system.

The

ban

yan

tree

wit

hits

ever

-spre

adin

gcanopy and its

ever-expanding system of aerial roots is the symbol of SoTL at Western Carolina University (W

CU). SoTLis that canopy

andfro

mit

gro

wth

e

roo

tso

f act

ive

inqu

iryab

out learn

ing experie

nces withstudents, teaching, experimentations, innovations, research collaboration, publication, and

dissemin

ation

.

SoTL at Western

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is alive, well, and growing at WCU. The CFC is spearheading the following initiatives.

•CarnegieAcademyfortheScholarshipofTeachingandLearning(CASTL)LeadershipProgram: John Habel, Senior Faculty Fellow for SoTL, and Robert Crow, an Instructional Developer at the Coulter Faculty Center, attended the 15th annual Improving Student Learning Conference in Dublin, Ireland and made a poster presentation, “Integrating the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Western Carolina University.” Attached to the conference was the mandatory annual meeting of one of the CASTL Leadership Program groups of which WCU is a member, “Integrating the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning into Institutional Culture: Philosophy, Policy and Infrastructure.” WCU will collaborate with other institutions in this CASTL group on two projects:• Using SoTL to understand NSSE: Collaborating

institutions: WCU, Buffalo State College, Rose-Hulman Technical Institute

• A systematic study of how administrators and faculty in selected institutions in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia define SoTL and value it. Collaborating institutions: WCU, Buffalo State, Rose-Hulman, Open University (UK)

• WCU’s other CASTL group, “System-wide Collaboration,” includes City University of New York, Miami Dade College, the University of Colorado System, the University of North Carolina System, and the University of Wisconsin System and other UNC institutions. This group held its mandatory annual meeting in early October at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Anna McFadden and Laura Cruz represented WCU.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at Western Carolina University

•SoTLRetreat: The first annual SoTL Retreat will be held February 22-23, 2008 at the Nantahala Village Resort & Spa (http://www.nvnc.com/). A SoTL Retreat subcommittee, chaired by Debra Randleman will establish an agenda for the retreat, assist with the recruiting faculty and staff participants, identify facilitators/mentors, etc. Please contact Debra Randleman if you are willing to serve on this subcommittee.

•MountainRise(http://facctr.wcu.edu/mountainrise/index.html): Laura Cruz, managing editor, has arranged for MountainRise to be included in EBSCO Host. The upcoming issue will appear soon. We are recruiting new members of the editorial board. If you are interested in serving as a reviewer or if you can recommend a person to serve as reviewer, please contact Laura Cruz or John Habel. The journal is now listed on EBSCO host and several directories of peer-reviewed journals.

•SoTLBookletintheRenaissanceinTeaching&LearningSeries: The new booklet in the series is titled “Case Studies in SoTL at WCU.” Four members of the faculty have contributed descriptions of course-based SoTL projects that can serve as models of SoTL as we implement the “Boyer” model of scholarship.

•SoTLGrants: The SoTL grants committee is developing the call for proposals for the inaugural round of SoTL grants, funded largely by the Myron and Barbara Coulter Fellowship Fund for SoTL. The call for proposals will be distributed later this semester, grant recipients will be selected in spring semester 2008, and funds will be disbursed on July 1, 2008.

Fall 2007 • Connections • page 5

Fall 2007 • Connections • page 6

in other courses? In other words, the large course redesign effort directly relates to Western’s QEP in that it addresses synthesis and engaged learning, student retention, and student graduation rates.

Four courses are currently being redesigned by instructors who have been designated Coulter Faculty Center Faculty Fellows for Large Course Redesign; the fellows are “team leaders” for the faculty within their departments who teach these courses. These courses are: Health 123-Health and Wellness (Bill Papin—Faculty Fellow), CMHC 201-Introduction to Speech Communication (Will Dulaney—Faculty Fellow), HSCC 101-Nutrition, Fitness, and Wellness (Michelle Scifers-Faculty Fellow) and CMTA 104-The Theater Experience (Claire Eye and Peter Savage—Faculty Fellows). All fellows are working closely with the Coulter Faculty Center staff as they redesign these courses.

Some of the different ideas being explored in the redesigns are: putting narrated power point lectures online

Retention Issues: Continued

(via WebCat) to be viewed outside of class time so that students may spend class time working on interactive activities and discussions based on the lectures, putting quizzes online that students may take multiple times until they master the material (and again, class time would be spent discussing the material from the quiz rather than having to devote class time to taking the quiz), streamlining syllabi and course activities so that instructors may have a “bank” of activities from which to draw (activities that meet course objectives agreed upon by all teaching different sections of the course), and using video and podcasts as a means to

deliver course content (again, freeing up class time or, potentially, freeing up classroom space as students would receive some content online and some face-to-face, rather than needing to be in the classroom three hours a week). The fellows, in consultation with the Coulter Faculty Center and their respective departments, are exploring ideas this semester and will pilot sections of the redesigned courses in the spring; assessment will consist of gathering feedback from the students about the course and analyzing assignments and activities in order to measure student learning.

Fall 2007 • Connections • page 7

Western Carolina University will have one location where all faculty, staff, and students can register for training. Human Resources, Information Technology, and Legal Services contributed funds to purchase TrainingRegister® for Western Carolina University. The software was purchased so that training compliance issues could be managed in an accurate and timely manner. With the continued progress toward completing career banding for staff and the updated AFE/TPR processes as well as the FERPA and HIPPA compliance issues, we will be able to keep up-to-date records of who has completed what training and when.

A team of people reviewed many different software packages over the course of a year and found that TrainingRegister® met the requirements of what we needed the software to accomplish at Western. Individuals will be able to register for any training opportunities they feel would help them or be of interest. The compliance training, such as FERPA, will be offered continuously, as it is online training, but the TrainingRegister® software will ultimately track whether a person completed the software or not. Faculty, staff, and students will be able to verify training they have registered for, cancel a registration, and view their training

history. There will also be an automatic email sent to the registrants prior to the training sessions to remind them of the session they have elected to attend.

TrainingRegister® is web-based software that will allow access to all faculty, staff, and students through an Internet connection. We will all be able manage our professional development through this software and know that there is a record of what we have attended.

Please look for information regarding our new TrainingRegister® web site soon. The implementation team is finalizing and testing the software prior to deployment.

Faculty Center Training

With the Coulter Faculty Center’s expanding role in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning as well as the Quality Enhancement Plan, two positions will be filled to enhance student learning at WCU.

The first position, a Curriculum Design Specialist, will be advertised in the next few weeks. A part of the QEP initiative, this position will report to the Director of the Coulter Faculty Center and will work closely with the Assistant Vice-Chancellor for undergraduate studies on the implementation of the QEP. Responsibilities will include supporting the university's strategic vision to adopt an educational model of engaged learning with service to the region; providing leadership in working with individual faculty and programs in, developing integrated curricula; promoting and advancing the QEP across the university; coordinating collaborative efforts in curriculum design with other Coulter Faculty Center staff and across the university; planning and overseeing workshops, training, seminars and other faculty

development opportunities related to curriculum design; and teaching one class per academic year.

The other position resulted from a gift to from the Spangler Foundation for the purpose of qualifying for the State’s matching grant for the Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund. Western has therefore established the Chancellor Myron L. “Barney” and Mrs. Barbara Coulter Distinguished Professorship for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The five-year fixed tem appointment will be made in eh Coulter Faculty Center at the rank of professor teaching in the traditional arts and sciences.

The individual who is chosen to be WCU’s distinguished professor in the scholarship of teaching and learning will provide leadership to expand WCU’s work in the scholarship of teaching and learning and for the field of SoTL as a whole. The successful candidate will be an individual of stature whose expertise, research, and experience will be a major factor in assisting faculty and graduate teaching assistants with their own SoTL projects

to enhance student achievement with special emphasis on the intent and purposes of WCU’s Quality Enhancement Plan. The individual will attract external funding to support SoTL initiatives for himself/herself as well as assist and involve other faculty and students in promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning. Results of these initiatives will be disseminated to Western North Carolina and the state as well as nationally and internationally to improve student achievement. The individual will play an active role in the publication of WCU’s international peer-reviewed journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning MountainRise. The individual will teach courses in the traditional arts and sciences and engage in his/her own SoTL research on his/her teaching, Another benefit to WCU will be the individual’s role in leadership for the Boyer model of scholarship on the campus and in the state. In addition, the individual will provide leadership for WCU’s participation in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Coming Soon: New Faces in the Coulter Faculty Center

NON-PROFIT ORGUS POSTAGE

PAIDCULLOWHEE NC

PERMIT NO 1Teach ing, Lear n ing , and Research

News from the Coulter Faculty Center

W e s t e r n C a r o l i n a U n i v e r s i t yH u n t e r 1 8 2 C u l l o w h e e N C 2 8 7 2 38 2 8 - 2 2 7 - 7 1 9 6 o r f a c c t r . w c u . e d u

Have a wonderful fall.

Coulter Faculty Center staff

This newsletter was produced by the Office of Publications Fall 2007. Western Carolina University is a UNC campus and an Equal Opportunity Institution. 07-161