2007 Summer Institute Description
UMUC's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) hosts the Summer Faculty Leadership Institute, which brings together close to fifty faculty from Europe, Asia, and the United States. The purpose of this year's institute is to improve instruction at UMUC by focusing on two areas: Best Instructional Practices for Design and Interaction and Practical Instructional Design Principles to Improve Your Course. Hands-on activities in small groups are emphasized throughout the institute, with specific deliverables for each track.
This year's speaker was Dr. Barbara Cambridge, professor of English at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. She is a senior program officer for the Washington office of the National Council of Teachers of English and an associate for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at the Carnegie Foundation. Her most recent publications focus on establishing campus support for the scholarship of teaching and learning and on electronic portfolios for students, faculty members, and universities.
This year, for the first time, The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and the Office of Evaluation, Research and Grants (OERG) co-sponsored a competition for papers for attendees of the 2007 Summer Faculty Leadership Institute. Faculty were asked to focus on best instructional practices, while working in the context of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Among the requirements for this competition papers were the following points:
• Topic of paper is a best instructional practice (or closely related set of practices) that the faculty member has already applied in the online and/or face to face classroom
• Must include a scholarly review of the literature and findings relevant to the practice—a minimum of 3-5 scholarly resources must be cited, preferably peer-reviewed
• Should clearly demonstrate how the best practice was incorporated into the context of the overall course
• Must focus on evidence of student learning and engagement and demonstrate how the best practice might be applied by fellow faculty to improve the quality of teaching and learning
The winner of this year's competition was Dr. Ronald Benson, from the Graduate School of Management and Technology, for his paper entitled, "Discussion Question Design and Administration." Dr. Benson, who teaches in the Technology Management program, gave a lively presentation and answered questions concerning his paper on the last morning of the Institute.
Click on the links below to view the two tracks of the 2007 Summer Institute.