Category: Blog

by: Doug Ward, Associate professor of journalism, Associate director, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Kansas   Three universities in the Bay View Alliance have helped generate a national conversation about the way teaching is evaluated. The three institutions, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Kansas, are part of a project known as TEval,which is working to create a more nuanced approach to evaluating … [Read more...]

Collaborative Dynamics in Collective STEM Reform Initiatives Thursday, October 24, 2019 11:00 am PT | 12:00 pm MT | 1:00 pm CT | 2:00 pm ET Presenter: Lucas Hill, University of Wisconsin-Madison Abstract: Reform efforts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education increasingly rely on collaboration from diverse stakeholders to achieve collective change goals. The basic premise is that initiatives can achieve more collectively than through individual siloed reform … [Read more...]

By: George Rehrey - Since 2015, Indiana University Bloomington faculty from more than 28 different programs have participated in the Learning Analytics Fellows Program. Facilitated by the Center for Learning Analytics and Student Success (CLASS), the program empowers faculty to use student-information-systems data to conduct scholarly research about student success at the course, program and institutional levels. According to an article recently published in a special issue of the Journal of … [Read more...]

This week the Bay View Alliance has expanded its membership to ten universities by welcoming the University of South Florida. Lorne Whitehead, program director of the Bay View Alliance, said USF is an excellent addition to the BVA because of its dedicated efforts to improve student achievement. It has been especially effective in helping a diverse student body succeed even as it has maintained stable tuition rates. Its STEER initiative, funded by the NSF, has focused on creating a culture of … [Read more...]

Two BVA projects, TRESTLE (RAC1) and TEval (RAC4), are featured in the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase funded by the National Science Foundation.  This virtual event was held online May 13th -20th at https://stemforall2019.videohall.com.  Now in its fifth year, the showcase features over 240 federally-funded STEM education projects. Last year’s showcase has had over 81,000 unique visitors from 186 countries. The participants include researchers, practitioners, policy makers and members of the … [Read more...]

By Doug Ward CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Faculty members seem ready for a more substantive approach to evaluating teaching, but… It’s that “but” that about 30 faculty members from three Bay View Alliance universities focused on at a mini-conference here in late February. All are part of a project called TEval, which is working to develop a richer model of teaching evaluation by helping departments change their teaching culture. The project, funded by a $2.8 million National Science Foundation grant, … [Read more...]

The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, in recognition of its 125th anniversary, developed the Dean Nathan F. Dupuis Engineering Leadership in Engineering Education Award to recognize a faculty member for sustained excellence. Prof. Robert Knobel, a member of the TRESTLE network, received the award for his contributions to the faculty that specifically include his leadership in the transformation initiative in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy as part of … [Read more...]

Join authors Stephanie Chasteen (University of Colorado Boulder) and Warren Code (University of British Columbia) as they discuss the messages from their new (free, opensource) Science Education Initiative Handbook on how to effectively use discipline-based education specialists to facilitate change within departments. They will discuss who makes a good educational expert, what their role can be within a department, how to train and support them, and engaging faculty and departments in change. … [Read more...]

Indiana University’s Learning Analytics Fellows, Jennifer Meta Robinson, Logan Paul, Jill Robinson, and Ken Shan have received a Mini-Grant from the Association of American Universities. The two-year, $20,000 award will advance their “Grade Surprise” research, allowing them to create and test interventions to improve student success in large STEM course. Please see the full announcement here. … [Read more...]

BVA members, George Rehrey from Indiana University Bloomington and Marco Molinari from UC Davis, are featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education's story about data. The article, Can Data Make You a Better Teacher? can only be accessed by Chronicle subscribers, however many institutions have subscriptions allowing their faculty and staff to read it. … [Read more...]