UT Provost’s Teaching Fellows Initiative (De Lange Conference, Rice University)
More than a dozen of the country’s leading education experts met at Rice University October 13-14, 2014 for the biennial De Lange Conference, “Teaching in the University of Tomorrow.” This conference was presented in collaboration with Scientia, an institute for the history of science and culture, and the Center for Teaching Excellence at Rice University. Attendees included students, faculty and staff from a variety of universities attended alongside current or former presidents from Rice University, Columbia University, Rutgers University and Princeton University, the contributing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, the presidents of ITHAKA/JSTOR and edX, the co-founder and co-CEO of Coursera and more.
Davis, Ebbeler, and LaBrake presented a poster about the creation and structure of the Provost's Teaching Fellows Program.
View the poster in large format here, or read this post for more information about the conference.
Related Initiatives
Peer Teaching Observation as an Essential Element for Faculty Development
Based on a long-standing interest in peer observation in my own college, the intent of this project was to foster a broad campus discussion on the importance of this collegial practice for improving teaching and learning and enhancing faculty development.
Identifying Successful Learning Strategies in Online and Blended Classrooms
In order to better advise students, we need to have a fuller understanding of how individual students learn in various environments; what strategies tend to work best in online vs blended classrooms; and what types of students are going to profit most from the advantages—and be harmed least by the disadvantages—of each learning environment. The project will use the accompanying grant to fund a study that compares student learning strategies and success in the online and blended versions of Introduction to Ancient Rome (CC 302).
Peer Learning Assistant Program Guidelines and Curricula
The Peer Learning Assistant Program within the Department of Chemistry is a program developed with resources from the Provost Teaching Fellows program to enhance the educational experience of students taking general chemistry by training and employing Peer Learning Assistants (PLAs) to service large blended general chemistry courses. The large (300 –500 students) blended courses have replaced the straight lecture model with active, student centered, learning. Active learning requires coaching and in a large class it is impossible to implement with only one instructor and one tea