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August 4th, 2016
Standing in front of the classroom as an instructor can be a lonely experience, but faculty who partner with Purdue’s IMPACT program are learning how sharing their knowledge and insights can help themselves, and others, create engaging learning environments at Purdue.
More than 100 Purdue faculty members recently attended the 2016 IMPACT symposium to share and learn from one another about the high-impact educational practices used in courses at Purdue to create meaningful student engagement and how to increase the effectiveness of learning activities in their own classrooms.
Purdue’s IMPACT program (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation) is a University-wide initiative which brings instructors together to redesign foundational courses to make them more student-centered. Since 2011, more than 200 faculty members have participated in IMPACT, during which they gather in regular cohort meetings, develop a course redesign plan and collaborate with ITaP educational technologists, faculty from the Purdue Libraries and instructional developers from the Center for Instructional Excellence.
Faculty interested in participating, or learning more about the IMPACT program, should visit the IMPACT website.
George Kuh, the symposium’s keynote speaker and the director of the National Survey of Student Engagement, (watch his keynote speech here) emphasized the need for students to reflect on their experiences in and out of the classroom, apply what they have learned to new challenges, and integrate what they are learning from different courses and out-of-class experiences.
After the presentation, faculty members split into discussion groups to talk about three themes from Kuh’s talk: fostering student success, empowering diverse learners and forging tomorrow’s workplace. The symposium planning group, comprised of Libraries faculty Clarence Maybee, the group’s chair, and Michael Flierl, and ITaP staff members Suzanne Ahlersmeyer and Sheree Buikema, saw a number of great ideas generated from the discussion groups
Buikema, an ITaP instructional designer, says faculty discussing how to foster student success emphasized the need to make learning relevant by providing practical examples and experiences – for example, by partnering with organizations to give students opportunities to engage with professionals in the field. Other items discussed included creating a culture where students worked together, giving up some instructional control to empower students to take control of their learning, and setting up clear expectations and avenues for feedback.
Faculty discussing how to empower diverse learners said it was important to motivate students by explaining the “why” behind instructional activities, says Flierl, an assistant professor with the Libraries. Also key: relating material to real-world contexts and recording lectures so students can go back and listen to them again.
Real-life activities were also the focus of discussion for faculty members looking at how to forge tomorrow’s workplace. Maybee, assistant professor of Libraries, says several faculty members described class activities and projects that helped students prepare for their professional lives after graduation. For example, one instructor developed a quantitative reasoning course so that non-majors could have a math experience more representative of what they may encounter in the workforce. Another has students in a capstone course model research and prepare literature-based presentations like they might at a conference.
Ultimately, the symposium helped remind faculty that if creating an engaging learning environment for students isn’t an easy task, it is one that can be accomplished by working together.
“I think mainly I was reminded that, from the lens of the student, every course, instructor, is part of a single broader learning environment that, if successful, should culminate in student growth,” says Ben Wiles, Purdue’s director of institutional effectiveness. “We need to continue to actively collaborate to ensure a cohesive, coherent, and productive experience for our students.”
Writer: David Stephens, technology writer, Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), 765-496-7998, steph103@purdue.edu
Last updated: July 28, 2016
Filed under: faculty_staff, general