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Gary Brown

Improving Teaching Will Require Strategic Thinking - Letters to the Editor - The Chroni... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...64010

change teaching

shared by Gary Brown on 09 Feb 10 - Cached
  • a rather large gap between knowledge about effective teaching practices in higher education and the use of these practices in higher education.
  • the greatest gains in STEM education are likely to come from the development of strategies to encourage faculty and administrators to implement proven instructional strategies."
  • The issue is not just one of finding better ways to motivate professors. Most professors already take their teaching responsibilities seriously and are motivated to do a good job. Improving instruction will require strategic and systematic work at all levels of the educational system.
  • Gary Brown on 09 Feb 10
     
    note the focus on systems
  • Kimberly Green on 15 Feb 10
     
    This piece raises a related issue we have been discussing at OAI -- "First, and perhaps most important, there is very little research conducted on how to promote change in instructional practices used in higher education. " How does leadership promote change? How do leaders -- such as dept chairs -- promote and manage change? How do they get, or invest in, those skills?
Theron DesRosier

While Supplies Last ... Get Yours Today! ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes - 1 views

www.downes.ca/51652

credentialing higher_education

shared by Theron DesRosier on 10 Feb 10 - Cached
  • The Chronicle ridicules the idea of corporations granting degrees, but universities should take note. When their funding falls through the floorboards, corporations will be quick to jump into the credentialing game. They won't, though, think of professors as high-paid talent. Teaching staff, like hamburger-flippers, will be disposable, because the real power is in the degree-granting monopoly, not the hoarding (or delivery) of knowledge.
Joshua Yeidel

College for $99 a Month by Kevin Carey | Washington Monthly - 1 views

www.washingtonmonthly.com/...college_for_99_a_month.php

higher_education online

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 10 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 10 Sep 09
     
    Kevin Carey pulls no punches in this story about an online startup and how its business model threatens to undermine higher education as we know it.
Joshua Yeidel

Doonesbury@Slate - Daily Briefing - 1 views

www.doonesbury.com/...index.html

web_2.0

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 22 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Oct 09
     
    "Here are top rated news and opinions reviewed by NewsTrust.net, a social news network devoted to good journalism. We rate the news based on quality, not just popularity."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 22 Oct 09
     
    A social model of news and opinion aggregation
Gary Brown

U.S. GAO - Program Evaluation: A Variety of Rigorous Methods Can Help Identify Effectiv... - 1 views

www.gao.gov/GAO-10-30

rcts alternative methodology

shared by Gary Brown on 01 Dec 09 - Cached
  • In the absence of detailed guidance, the panel defined sizable and sustained effects through case discussion
  • The Top Tier initiative's choice of broad topics (such as early childhood interventions), emphasis on long-term effects, and use of narrow evidence criteria combine to provide limited information on what is effective in achieving specific outcomes.
  • Several rigorous alternatives to randomized experiments are considered appropriate for other situations: quasi-experimental comparison group studies, statistical analyses of observational data, and--in some circumstances--in-depth case studies. The credibility of their estimates of program effects relies on how well the studies' designs rule out competing causal explanations.
  • Gary Brown on 01 Dec 09
     
    a critical resource
Peggy Collins

SoTL Resources - 1 views

cft.vanderbilt.edu/...sotl

sotl

shared by Peggy Collins on 04 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Peggy Collins on 04 Jan 11
     
    Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching-- descriptions of what SOTL is and links to many samples and resources.
Matthew Tedder

New studies highlight needs of boys in K-12, higher education - 1 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...100126091733.htm

education

shared by Matthew Tedder on 01 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Matthew Tedder on 01 Feb 10
     
    I've long suspected as much. We hear so much about how women's issue need addressing (and that's true) but let's not also neglect male issues... as much as us males don't like to even think they exist.
Nils Peterson

National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment - 1 views

learningoutcomesassessment.org/occasionalpapertwo.htm

NILOA Trudy Banta

shared by Nils Peterson on 18 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Of the various ways to assess student learning outcomes, many faculty members prefer what are called “authentic” approaches that document student performance during or at the end of a course or program of study.  Authentic assessments typically ask students to generate rather than choose a response to demonstrate what they know and can do.  In their best form, such assessments are flexible and closely aligned with teaching and learning processes, and represent some of students more meaningful educational experiences.  In this paper, assessment experts Trudy Banta, Merilee Griffin, Theresa Flateby, and Susan Kahn describe the development of several promising authentic assessment approaches. 
  • Educators and policy makers in postsecondary education are interested in assessment processes that improve student learning, and at the same time provide comparable data for the purpose of demonstrating accountability.
  • First, ePortfolios provide an in-depth, long-term view of student achievement on a range of skills and abilities instead of a quick snapshot based on a single sample of learning outcomes. Second, a system of rubrics used to evaluate student writing and depth of learning has been combined with faculty learning and team assessments, and is now being used at multiple institutions. Third, online assessment communities link local faculty members in collaborative work to develop shared norms and teaching capacity, and then link local communities with each other in a growing system of assessment.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 18 Feb 10
       
      hey, does this sound familiar? i'm guessing the portfolios are not anywhere on the Internet, but we're otherwise in good company
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Three Promising Alternatives for Assessing College Students' Knowledge and Skills
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 18 Feb 10
       
      I'm not sure they are 'alternatives' so much as 3 elements we would combine into a single strategy
Joshua Yeidel

Refining the Recipe for a Degree, Ingredient by Ingredient - Government - The Chronicle... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...125545

assessment accreditation outcomes

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 04 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Supporters of the Lumina project say it holds the promise of turning educational assessment from a process that some academics might view as a threat into one that holds a solution, while also creating more-rigorous expectations for student learning. Mr. Jones, the Utah State history-department chairman, recounted in an essay published in the American Historical Association's Perspectives on History how he once blithely told an accreditation team that "historians do not measure their effectiveness in outcomes." But he has changed his mind. The Lumina project, and others, help define what learning is achieved in the process of earning a degree, he said, moving beyond Americans' heavy reliance on the standardized student credit hour as the measure of an education. "The demand for outcomes assessment should be seized as an opportunity for us to actually talk about the habits of mind our discipline needs to instill in our students," Mr. Jones wrote. "It will do us a world of good, and it will save us from the spreadsheets of bureaucrats."
  • Joshua Yeidel on 04 Jan 11
     
    Lumina Foundation pushes a Eurpopean-style process to define education goals state- and nation-wide, with mixed success. "Chemistry, history, math, and physics have been among the most successful", whileothers have had a hard time beginning. "Supporters of the Lumina project say it holds the promise of turning educational assessment from a process that some academics might view as a threat into one that holds a solution, while also creating more-rigorous expectations for student learning. Mr. Jones, the Utah State history-department chairman, recounted in an essay published in the American Historical Association's Perspectives on History how he once blithely told an accreditation team that "historians do not measure their effectiveness in outcomes." But he has changed his mind. The Lumina project, and others, help define what learning is achieved in the process of earning a degree, he said, moving beyond Americans' heavy reliance on the standardized student credit hour as the measure of an education. "The demand for outcomes assessment should be seized as an opportunity for us to actually talk about the habits of mind our discipline needs to instill in our students," Mr. Jones wrote. "It will do us a world of good, and it will save us from the spreadsheets of bureaucrats."
Theron DesRosier

Obama proposes to raise academic standards by linking them to state benchmarks - washin... - 1 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2010022202330.html

accreditation accountability standards

shared by Theron DesRosier on 22 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Theron DesRosier on 22 Feb 10
     
    "President Obama announced Monday he will seek to raise academic standards across the country by requiring states to certify that their benchmarks for reading and mathematics put students on track for college or a career. "
  • Theron DesRosier on 22 Feb 10
     
    NCLB Revives.
Nils Peterson

Edge 313 - 1 views

www.edge.org/...edge313.html

shared by Nils Peterson on 07 Mar 10 - Cached
  • So what's the point? It's a culture. Call it the algorithmic culture. To get it, you need to be part of it, you need to come out of it. Otherwise, you spend the rest of your life dancing to the tune of other people's code. Just look at Europe where the idea of competition in the Internet space appears to focus on litigation, legislation, regulation, and criminalization.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 07 Mar 10
       
      US vs Euro thinking about the Internet
  • TIME TO START TAKING THE INTERNET SERIOUSLY 1.  No moment in technology history has ever been more exciting or dangerous than now. The Internet is like a new computer running a flashy, exciting demo. We have been entranced by this demo for fifteen years. But now it is time to get to work, and make the Internet do what we want it to.
  • Wherever computers exist, nearly everyone who writes uses a word processor. The word processor is one of history's most successful inventions. Most people call it not just useful but indispensable. Granted that the word processor is indeed indispensable, what good has it done? We say we can't do without it; but if we had to give it up, what difference would it make? Have word processors improved the quality of modern writing? What has the indispensable word processor accomplished? 4. It has increased not the quality but the quantity of our writing — "our" meaning society's as a whole. The Internet for its part has increased not the quality but the quantity of the information we see. Increasing quantity is easier than improving quality. Instead of letting the Internet solve the easy problems, it's time we got it to solve the important ones.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Modern search engines combine the functions of libraries and business directories on a global scale, in a flash: a lightning bolt of brilliant engineering. These search engines are indispensable — just like word processors. But they solve an easy problem. It has always been harder to find the right person than the right fact. Human experience and expertise are the most valuable resources on the Internet — if we could find them. Using a search engine to find (or be found by) the right person is a harder, more subtle problem than ordinary Internet search.
  • Will you store your personal information on your own personal machines, or on nameless servers far away in the Cloud, or both? Answer: in the Cloud. The Cloud (or the Internet Operating System, IOS — "Cloud 1.0") will take charge of your personal machines. It will move the information you need at any given moment onto your own cellphone, laptop, pad, pod — but will always keep charge of the master copy. When you make changes to any document, the changes will be reflected immediately in the Cloud. Many parts of this service are available already.
  • The Internet will never create a new economy based on voluntary instead of paid work — but it can help create the best economy in history, where new markets (a free market in education, for example) change the world. Good news! — the Net will destroy the university as we know it (except for a few unusually prestigious or beautiful campuses).
  • In short: it's time to think about the Internet instead of just letting it happen.
  • The traditional web site is static, but the Internet specializes in flowing, changing information. The "velocity of information" is important — not just the facts but their rate and direction of flow. Today's typical website is like a stained glass window, many small panels leaded together. There is no good way to change stained glass, and no one expects it to change. So it's not surprising that the Internet is now being overtaken by a different kind of cyberstructure. 14. The structure called a cyberstream or lifestream is better suited to the Internet than a conventional website because it shows information-in-motion, a rushing flow of fresh information instead of a stagnant pool.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 07 Mar 10
       
      jayme will like this for her timeline portfolios
  • There is no clear way to blend two standard websites together, but it's obvious how to blend two streams. You simply shuffle them together like two decks of cards, maintaining time-order — putting the earlier document first. Blending is important because we must be able to add and subtract in the Cybersphere. We add streams together by blending them. Because it's easy to blend any group of streams, it's easy to integrate stream-structured sites so we can treat the group as a unit, not as many separate points of activity; and integration is important to solving the information overload problem. We subtract streams by searching or focusing. Searching a stream for "snow" means that I subtract every stream-element that doesn't deal with snow. Subtracting the "not snow" stream from the mainstream yields a "snow" stream. Blending streams and searching them are the addition and subtraction of the new Cybersphere.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 07 Mar 10
       
      is Yahoo Pipes a precursor? Theron sent me an email, subject: "let me pipe that for you"
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 07 Mar 10
       
      Google Buzz might also be a ersion of this. It bring together items from your (multiple) public streams.
  • Internet culture is a culture of nowness. The Internet tells you what your friends are doing and the world news now, the state of the shops and markets and weather now, public opinion, trends and fashions now. The Internet connects each of us to countless sites right now — to many different places at one moment in time.
  • Once we understand the inherent bias in an instrument, we can correct it. The Internet has a large bias in favor of now. Using lifestreams (which arrange information in time instead of space), historians can assemble, argue about and gradually refine timelines of historical fact. Such timelines are not history, but they are the raw material of history.
  • Before long, all personal, familial and institutional histories will take visible form in streams.   A lifestream is tangible time:  as life flashes past on waterskis across time's ocean, a lifestream is the wake left in its trail. Dew crystallizes out of the air along cool surfaces; streams crystallize out of the Cybersphere along veins of time. As streams begin to trickle and then rush through the spring thaw in the Cybersphere, our obsession with "nowness" will recede
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 07 Mar 10
       
      barrett has been using lifestream. this guy claims to have coined it lonf ago...in any event, it is a very different picture of portfolio -- more like "not your father's" than like AAEEBL.
  • The Internet today is, after all, a machine for reinforcing our prejudices. The wider the selection of information, the more finicky we can be about choosing just what we like and ignoring the rest. On the Net we have the satisfaction of reading only opinions we already agree with, only facts (or alleged facts) we already know. You might read ten stories about ten different topics in a traditional newspaper; on the net, many people spend that same amount of time reading ten stories about the same topic. But again, once we understand the inherent bias in an instrument, we can correct it. One of the hardest, most fascinating problems of this cyber-century is how to add "drift" to the net, so that your view sometimes wanders (as your mind wanders when you're tired) into places you hadn't planned to go. Touching the machine brings the original topic back. We need help overcoming rationality sometimes, and allowing our thoughts to wander and metamorphose as they do in sleep.
Gary Brown

A Final Word on the Presidents' Student-Learning Alliance - Measuring Stick - The Chron... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...27535

accreditation.

shared by Gary Brown on 22 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • I was very pleased to see the responses to the announcement of the Presidents’ Alliance as generally welcoming (“commendable,” “laudatory initiative,” “applaud”) the shared commitment of these 71 founding institutions to do more—and do it publicly and cooperatively—with regard to gathering, reporting, and using evidence of student learning.
  • establishing institutional indicators of educational progress that could be valuable in increasing transparency may not suggest what needs changing to improve results
  • As Adelman’s implied critique of the CLA indicates, we may end up with an indicator without connections to practice.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The Presidents’ Alliance’s focus on and encouragement of institutional efforts is important to making these connections and steps in a direct way supporting improvement.
  • Second, it is hard to disagree with the notion that ultimately evidence-based improvement will occur only if faculty members are appropriately trained and encouraged to improve their classroom work with undergraduates.
  • Certainly there has to be some connection between and among various levels of assessment—classroom, program, department, and institution—in order to have evidence that serves both to aid improvement and to provide transparency and accountability.
  • Presidents’ Alliance is setting forth a common framework of “critical dimensions” that institutions can use to evaluate and extend their own efforts, efforts that would include better reporting for transparency and accountability and greater involvement of faculty.
  • there is wide variation in where institutions are in their efforts, and we have a long way to go. But what is critical here is the public commitment of these institutions to work on their campuses and together to improve the gathering and reporting of evidence of student learning and, in turn, using evidence to improve outcomes.
  • The involvement of institutions of all types will make it possible to build a more coherent and cohesive professional community in which evidence-based improvement of student learning is tangible, visible, and ongoing.
Gary Brown

Changing Higher Education: An Interview with Lloyd Armstrong, USC « Higher Ed... - 1 views

highereducationmanagement.wordpress.com/...rview-with-lloyd-armstrong-usc

outcomes change

shared by Gary Brown on 09 Mar 10 - Cached
  • There are obviously real concerns that outcomes measures are measuring the right outcomes.   However, those expressing those concerns seldom are ready to jump in to try to figure out how to measure what they think is important – a position that is ultimately untenable
  • Learning outcomes risk changing the rules of the game by actually looking at learning itself, rather than using the surrogates of wealth, history, and research.  Since we have considerable data that show that these surrogates do not correlate particularly well with learning outcomes (see e.g. Derek Bok’s Our Underachieving Colleges),
  •  As Bok pointed out, to improve learning outcomes, the faculty would have to learn to teach in new ways.  Most academic leaders would prefer not to get into a game that would require that kind of change!  In fact, at this point I believe that the real, critical, disruptive innovation in higher education is transparent learning outcomes measures.  Such measures are likely to enable the innovations discussed in the first question to transform from sustaining to disruptive.
  • Gary Brown on 09 Mar 10
     
    another executive source, but notes the critical underpinning reason we NEED to do our work.
Gary Brown

Cheating Scandal Snares Hundreds in U. of Central Florida Course - The Ticker - The Chr... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...28200

cheating

shared by Gary Brown on 10 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • evidence of widespread cheating
  • business course on strategic management,
  • I don’t condone cheating. But I think it is equally pathetic that faculty are put in situations where they feel the only option for an examination is an easy to grade multiple choice or true/false test
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Faculty all need to wake up, as virtually all test banks, and also all instructor’s manuals with homework answers, are widely available on the interne
  • I think we need to question why a class has 600 students enrolled.
  • Perhaps they are the ones being cheated.
Joshua Yeidel

Cheaters Never Win, at Least in Physics, a Professor Finds - Wired Campus - The Chronic... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...21895

cheating teaching assessment

shared by Joshua Yeidel on 18 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Joshua Yeidel on 18 Mar 10
     
    "The professor said he did find a way to greatly reduce cheating on homework in his class. He switched to a "studio" model of teaching, in which students sit in small groups working through tutorials on computers while professors and teaching assistants roam the room answering questions, rather than a traditional lecture. With lectures, he detected cheating on about 11 percent of homework problems, but now he detects copying on only about 3 percent of them. It might help that he shares findings from his study to his students, showing them that cheaters are much more likely to get C's and D's on exams than those who work out homework problems on their own. "
  • Joshua Yeidel on 18 Mar 10
     
    A physics professor figures out how to detect cheating on homework, (an assessment), triangulates with another assessment (OK, it's an exam) to determine the impact on student learning, and modifies his teaching practice, reducing cheating from 11% to 3%.
  • Gary Brown on 19 Mar 10
     
    This is a happy ending and an interesting useful outcome from assessment. There is also a kind of "duh" quality to it, but that is not a problem. What I'm pondering, though, is the time and energy expended for a 7% gain. What I hope follows is further assessment of the gains for the other 93% relative to learning and attitude toward learning, school, and the subject matter.....
Nils Peterson

YouTube - Michael Wesch - PdF2009 - The Machine is (Changing) Us - 1 views

www.youtube.com/watch

wesch

shared by Nils Peterson on 18 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Nils Peterson on 18 Sep 09
     
    Michael Wesch updates Machine is Us/ing us. 30 min video His point, our tools are changing us. Worth thinking about by us greybeards are his statistics about the number of hours of video uploaded to You Tube per day. For someone who remembers what a byte is, this is a paradigm shifting amount of data being moved and stored for free.
  • Nils Peterson on 18 Sep 09
     
    Michael Wesch updates Machine is Us/ing us. His point, our tools are changing us. Worth thinking about by us greybeards are his statistics about the number of hours of video uploaded to You Tube per day. For someone who remembers what a byte is, this is a paradigm shifting amount of data being moved and stored for free.
Gary Brown

Groups Say Governing Boards Should Be More Involved in Process - Government - The Chron... - 1 views

chronicle.com/...48632

accreditation

shared by Gary Brown on 29 Sep 09 - Cached
  • While the law is not as sweeping as many institutions and accreditors had feared it would be (accreditors, for example, won't be required to set specific standards for academic performance), the groups issuing the statement Tuesday said they want to make sure that academic institutions remain in control of the process
Nils Peterson

Facebook | Evoke - 1 views

www.facebook.com/...282530301145

shared by Nils Peterson on 19 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Here’s how to become an EVOKE mentor: 1) Sign up for the EVOKE network 2) Make a promise to yourself to visit the EVOKE network as often as you can, between now and May 12. OKAY, I’M A MENTOR! NOW WHAT? Every time you visit the EVOKE network, try to complete at least one mentor mission. Each mission takes just a few minutes – but it can have a huge impact. Your feedback and words of advice can help an EVOKE agent stay motivated and optimistic. You can inspire an EVOKE agent to stick with the tough challenges of social innovation long enough to really make a difference.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 19 Mar 10
       
      concept of building a community be enlisting mentors
  • MENTOR MISSIONS Here are some starter mentor missions. You can tackle them in any order, and complete them as many times as you want. Feel free to invent your own mentor missions – and share instructions here in the comments for others to adopt.
    • Nils Peterson
      Nils Peterson on 19 Mar 10
       
      BEFRIEND AN AGENT Browse the EVOKE agent directory ... Add the agent as your friend. WORDS OF WISDOM So share some words of wisdom CHEER 'EM ON HELPFUL RESOURCES.. share links to articles POWER UP Check to see if your agent has uploaded any videos, photos, or blog posts. BRAG TIME Tell the whole EVOKE network how proud you are Tweet or Facebook status update about your agent MAKE AN ALLIANCE Introduce your agent to a friend or colleague who you think
Peggy Collins

The enterprise implications of Google Wave | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com - 1 views

blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe

wave collaboration google

shared by Peggy Collins on 01 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Peggy Collins on 01 Oct 09
     
    "What Google has done with the Wave protocol is essentially create a new kind of social media format that is distinctively different from blogs, wikis, activity streams, RSS, or most familiar online communication models except possibly IM. Both blogs and wikis were created in the era of page-oriented Web applications and haven't changed much since. In contrast, Google Wave is designed for real-time participation and editing of shared conversations and documents and is more akin to the simultaneous multiuser experience of Google Docs than with traditional blogs and wiki editing. Though Google is sometimes criticized for missing the social aspect of the Web, that is patently not the case with waves, which are fundamentally social in nature. Participants can be added in real-time, new conversations forked off (via private replies), social media sharing is assumed to be the norm, and connection with a user's contextual server-side data is also a core feature including location, search, and more. The result is stored in a persistent document known as a wave, access to which can be embedded anywhere that HTML can be embedded, whether that's a Web page or an enterprise portal. Users can then discover and interact with the wave, joining the conversation, adding more information, etc. Google has also leveraged its investments in Google Gadgets and OpenSocial, two key technologies for spreading online services beyond the original boundaries of the sites they came from. All in all, Google Wave is a smart and well-constructed bundle of collaborative capabilities with many of the modern sensibilities we've come to expect in the Web 2.0 era including an acutely social nature, rapid interaction, and community-based technology."
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