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Transition Back to Campus | Connect Through Conversations: PLC | |
Dr. Kristen Norwood Farewell | | |
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As your time at Lindenwood comes to a close, the Learning Academy would like to thank you for your wisdom and leadership. You offered development and an abundance of resources, in all forms, to increase the use of high impact practices and incorporating innovative pedagogy in the classroom. You have had a lasting impact on the Learning Academy and the University at large.
Best wishes on your professional journey!
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LLA Fall 2021 Course Catalog | |
Are you looking for development opportunities this fall? Check out the Fall 2021 Course Catalog for an array of trainings and workshops to help you on your professional journey. | |
The R.I.S.E. Project has Officially Launched! | |
In case you missed it, August marked the launch of the R.I.S.E. Project! We are excited to officially begin year one of this multi-year project, which is a key part of the Diversify the Pride strategic initiative. | |
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This first year will focus on establishing a common framework for effective teaching and providing faculty development opportunities and resources on evidence-based strategies for designing courses and creating classroom cultures that elevate student learning.
The project was launched with special events at the Annual Adjunct Conference on August 14th and during Faculty Welcome Week. In addition to t-shirt launching by Dr. Deb Ayres, Senior Vice President for Human Resources, we kicked things off with special keynote addresses by Dr. Saundra McGuire. Dr. McGuire is the Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success and retired Assistant Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at LSU; she is a renowned teacher, mentor, academic leader, and speaker. During her talks at Lindenwood, she shared practical strategies instructors can use to help students learn how to learn—something especially important for students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and/or who are first-generation college students. According to Dr. McGuire, metacognition is the key, and when students learn some very simple strategies that they can immediately use, they see remarkable improvements in not only their grades, but their engagement.
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A recording of the session from the Adjunct Conference session is available in the Adjunct Instructor Canvas course and a recording from the Faculty Welcome Week launch is available in LinkedIn Learning. Use your Lindenwood login information to access the content (if you get an error message, you’re probably logged into LinkedIn with non-Lindenwood credentials – log out and then log back in and the links should work!). Information on logging into your LinkedIn Learning account can be found on the IT webpage.
You’ll also find Dr. McGuire’s PowerPoint in either the Adjunct Faculty Canvas shell or in LinkedIn Learning. Her book, Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation is available for check-out in the Learning Academy (LARC 009). If you’re interested in joining or leading a professional learning community that will read and discuss her book together, please contact Brittany Brown.
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In addition to keynotes, those in attendance at the launches and/or at the R.I.S.E. Project Town Hall (please refer to the LU LinkedIn Learning login instructions above) heard more about the rationale for the project, the goals of this work, and how faculty can get involved this year. | |
On Thursday, August 19th, another special guest joined us to share strategies for helping students to R.I.S.E. above academic dishonesty. Dr. Lolita Paff, Associate Professor of Business Economics at Penn State Berks gave a workshop on the reasons that motivate cheating among students as well as ways that faculty can design courses to help reduce the temptation. Find a recording of the workshop here (follow the link and login to LinkedIn Learning with LU credentials to view). | |
The Launch was only the beginning! There are many ways to get involved this year. | |
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R.I.S.E. Roundtables: These sessions led by R.I.S.E. Scholars will occur within college faculty meetings throughout the year on this schedule:
- August – October: Rigor Roundtables
- October – December: Inclusiveness Roundtables
- January – February: Support Roundtables
- February – March: Engagement Roundtables
R.I.S.E. Guides: These on-demand guides will become available on the R.I.S.E. Project website (see the navigation on the right side of the page) for each pillar on the same schedule as the roundtables. These guides cover largely the same information as the roundtable sessions – definitions of each pillar, research demonstrating its benefits, and teaching strategies for enhancing the pillar in a course.
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However, even faculty who attend roundtables will want to check these out, as there will be detailed information for teaching strategies that were only briefly touched on during the live sessions. These guides also contain practice tasks for which faculty can receive feedback if they contact their R.I.S.E. Scholar or the Learning Academy.
R.I.S.E. Scholar Consultations: Scholars are ready to talk with their colleagues about rigor, inclusiveness, support, and engagement! You can contact your R.I.S.E. Scholar to talk over ideas or teaching strategies, to request feedback on something, to request to view their teaching materials or observe their classes, to have them observe your own, or even to request that they collect informal feedback from your students on your behalf.
R.I.S.E. Research: Are you interested in studying how the small changes you make to your teaching impact your students? So are we! The Learning Academy wants to work with faculty participants on research that examines how the R.I.S.E. development impacts faculty and how teaching enhancements impact their students. Learn more here, make sure to download and use the faculty guide to R.I.S.E. research on that page, and contact Shenika Harris if you’re interested in participating or have questions.
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Student Spotlights: As part of the project, we will spotlight various Lindenwood students so that faculty can learn more about their backgrounds, identities, fears, concerns, interests, and learning experiences. We believe that better understanding who students are, how they think, and what motivates them can help faculty to reach and teach them all the more effectively. | |
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These video interviews will be shown during faculty meetings throughout the year, but will also be available on the R.I.S.E. Project website.
R.I.S.E. PLCs and Workshops: Throughout the year, watch for other R.I.S.E. related events in the Digest, the Learning Log, and on the Learning Events Calendar. Furthermore, faculty are encouraged to form professional learning communities to explore the R.I.S.E. pillars and associated teaching strategies in more depth and to share with colleagues how they teach with rigor, inclusiveness, support, and engagement in their classes. If you’re interested in joining one, but don’t know others who are, contact your R.I.S.E. Scholar or Brittany Brown for help coordinating or getting connected to a PLC.
Visit the R.I.S.E. Project website for information and resources: www.lindenwood.edu/rise-project
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Resources on Rigor that are Worth a Read | |
Abstract: Since philosophy is a notoriously difficult subject, one may think that the concept of adding rigor to a philosophy course is misguided. Isn’t reading difficult texts by Immanuel Kant or Friedrich Nietzsche enough to categorize a class as academically rigorous? | |
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This question is based on the misguided assumption that academic rigor has only to do with course content. While course content is a component of academic rigor, other aspects such as higher-order thinking, as well as how an instructor designs and grades assignments, contribute to the level of academic rigor in a course.
The author provides several ways to increase the level of academic rigor in a philosophy course based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy using examples from an introductory ethics course and then provides recommendations as to how to grade to promote academic rigor.
Promoting Equity and Student Learning: Rigor in Undergraduate Academic Experiences
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This chapter discusses rigor through an examination of academic experiences that promote college outcomes for all students, particularly for those from marginalized backgrounds or with lower academic preparation. | |
This page reviews 10 ways to add rigor to any course or learning experience. | |
Is the transition back to the office proving to be difficult? | |
In their book, Designing Your Life, Bill Burnett & Dave Evans discuss the idea of dysfunctional beliefs and reframing problem statements. For example, a dysfunctional belief could be: “I should know where I’m going!”, and the reframe is: “I won’t always know where I am going, but I can always know whether I am going in the right direction.” We can use reframing in the same way when thinking about transitioning to office hours and meetings that are now face-to-face, on campus. While many of us worked from home this last year+, distractions from co-workers were few and far between, but now that many of us are back in the office daily, we may need to reframe how we look at these distractions. In a 2021 study conducted by Puranic, Koopman, and Vaugh, they suggest that work intrusions involve a social aspect that we may have been unaware of prior to the pandemic. Their study involved 111 participants who challenged the notion that workplace intrusions harm job satisfaction. The researchers found that distractions from colleagues just might boost belonginess at work and increase job satisfaction, so next time you are interrupted by a co-worker who wants to show you a picture of their child at a gymnastics meet, try not to consider this a distraction, but an interaction that just might be beneficial for yours and your co-worker’s well-being and enjoy the few minutes of connecting with a colleague! | |
In this LinkedIn Learning feature, Garrick Chow demonstrates how adding the Google Chrome extension called Podcastle AI can expedite content consumption. The software uses text to speech technology to read content to you. Just think about the sheer number of articles and research available to us at our fingertips, it can be overwhelming. But what if you could turn any article on the web into a podcast that you could listen to on your drive, while you workout, or while walking your dog? Well, now there is! Watch this short video (less than 3 minutes) to learn how to turn your articles into podcasts for easy listening on the go. | |
Professional Development Opportunity: Connect Through Conversations | |
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Session Leaders/Presenters: Dr. Brittany Brown and Brittany Gutermuth
Date: October 7, 2021
Time: 10 - 11 a.m.
Location: Hybrid - Lindenwood Learning Academy (LARC 009)
Who Should Attend? Faculty, Staff, Adjunct Faculty, Student Employees
Registration link
Session Summary: The key principles of the course are maintaining or enhancing self-esteem, listening and responding with empathy, asking for help and encouraging involvement from others, and sharing thoughts, feelings, and rationale in order to build trust. This session will focus on self and knowing your emotions: the ability to be aware of personal feelings and moods as well as understanding the reasons for and impacts of those emotions.
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Take Advantage of the Learning Academy Library! | |
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Current titles include:
- The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson
- Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High
- Online Teaching at Its Best: Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research
- Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't
- Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How to Do It
- Everyone Communicates Few Connect: What the Most Effective People Do Differently
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These resources and others are available for check-out in LARC 009. | |
“Believe you can and you're halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt | | | | |
