The President and Provost’s Teaching and Learning Summit brought together a group of faculty members to discuss ideas for improving the quality of our teaching here at The Ohio State University. In addition, participants in the summit are invited to serve on an advisory council that will aid in shaping the formation of a teaching and learning institute.
Stories of Learning
Participants were invited to bring stories that recount one of their students’ best learning experiences. Faculty then engaged in sharing their own stories. From the 100+ stories, it was clear that experiential learning and a relationship with the faculty member were key aspects of what created a peak learning experience, as illustrated in these two examples below.
“…the best university learning experience I can think of was an independent study I did in undergrad. I went to an underserved low income housing community and performed blood pressure and glucose checks and education to the residents of the quarter. It was a great experience as it was completely hands-on and I felt like I was making a difference in the lives of the residents. I had to learn how to best educate the residents. I really think it is what inspired me to pursue my master’s degree and become a nurse practitioner.”
“Math course plus the math club. I thought I had a proof about something. My prof encouraged me and made me give a brown bag lunch about how my proof was wrong and a research program developed my passion for math and research was sparked. It encouraged and lead to my dissertation topic.”
Course assignments that get the student out of the classroom, including service-learning projects, fieldwork, clinical rounds, research, open-ended lab assignments among other are all examples of experiential learning that students reported as best learning experiences.
Students reported memorable learning experiences when they were given the opportunity to get to know the faculty member in a more personal way or when the faculty member took that little extra step when interacting with the students.
How Students Learn
Michele DiPietro, author of How Students Learn, shared the research behind and strategies for supporting motivation, practice and feedback and self-directed learning. Participants then generated ideas for how these concepts can be integrated further at Ohio State.
For example, in discussions around what kinds of practice and feedback enhance learning, faculty focused on:
- Quality peer feedback
- Technology resources to facilitate in class feedback
- External feedback from practitioners and experts
- Self-assessment tools
- Linking feedback to learning outcomes
- Helping faculty know when and how much feedback to provide
Year of Learning
How can summer be best used to encourage year-long learning? Participants discussed options such as expanding experiential learning, distance education, and community service among others. Each group was provided with a student example to contemplate how their learning could be enhanced. As each student had a unique situation, the recommendations were also unique. Yet across the student examples there were broad areas in which the university could consider enhancing the summer learning experience through:
- Offering more core courses
- Using distance education to reach students anywhere
- Providing research and applied experiences
- Creating more flexibly scheduled learning opportunities
- Scholarships focused on summer experiences
What Should The Teaching and Learning Institute Be?
Throughout the day participants realized that while they came from many different disciplines, their needs were very similar and saw an institute as an opportunity to bring different colleges and departments together to focus on education. Participants believed that the institute should serve all who are involved in teaching at all campuses. When considering the types of activities the institute may be involved in, ideas focused around opportunities for collaboration and consultation. Participants emphasized the importance of strengthening evaluation of teaching, as well as improving assessment of learning. Participants encouraged thought around opportunities for providing training on effective peer evaluation, as an example. Improvements in evaluation of teaching was intertwined with discussion around broadening faculty rewards to encourage these activities.
There was also recognition that analytics and research can be used to better understand how to aid students in achieving learning outcomes. Faculty wanted help in identifying evidence-based methods that they can bring to the classroom.
They saw the potential for the institute to serve as a clearinghouse of evidence-based ideas for traditional and non-traditional learning and research in support of studying teaching to improve learning. Participants desired on-demand resources that could be accessed online, as well as in-person professional development opportunities. Participants encourage a greater celebration and recognition of excellence in teaching and learning, which could come in many different forms.
The ideas are wide ranging and deserve further investigation and thought as the concept for what the institute should be is further developed.
Who Should Be Engaged?
Participants considered who should be engaged over the course of the next year as part of designing the Teaching and Learning Institute. Ideas were broad in reaching across students, faculty and administrators. Faculty were interested in meaningful ways to talk about teaching both in and outside of their departments.
The day ended on a positive note that encouraged faculty to share a comment on something that struck them during the day. Faculty walked away with ideas for their own teaching, ideas for their departments, and ideas about how the university can benefit from enhanced focus on our teaching mission. One closing comment from a participant – “We should get faculty from diverse departments in one room more often! Brain candy!!!”