by Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings One of the Bay View Alliance’s main goals is to explore strategies that leaders can use to make evidence-based teaching practices the “new normal” in higher education. Yet, as we point out in two new reports (Huber and Hutchings, 2021a; Huber and Hutchings, 2021b), getting to this new norm involves two kinds of shift.1 One is to arrive at a point where faculty are teaching better. The other is to build a departmental culture that supports ongoing … [Read more...]
Category: News
Michael Dennin Speaks at IU’s Learning Analytics Summit: Identifying Faculty Strengths and Addressing the Transfer Function at the Institutional Level
By: Annabella Melvin Indiana University’s Center for Learning Analytics and Student Success (CLASS) recently hosted “Data-Informed Stories, Transformational Journeys: Indiana University’s 3rd Annual Learning Analytics Summit” on May 12-14, via Whova. According to George Rehrey, Director of CLASS, the purpose of the annual summit is to bring together faculty, staff, and administrators who share an interest in fostering student success through the use of big data and analytical … [Read more...]
KU psychology professor to lead the Bay View Alliance
Andrea Follmer Greenhoot, a professor of psychology and director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas, has been named director of the Bay View Alliance. She succeeds Lorne Whitehead, a professor of physics and astronomy and a special advisor on entrepreneurship, innovation and research at the University of British Columbia, who had led the BVA since its founding in 2011. Whitehead has assumed the role of immediate past director and will remain a member of the … [Read more...]
KU’s Greenhoot and Bennett Give Keynote Address at Annual Learning Analytics Summit
By Annabella Melvin University of Kansa (KU) faculty members Dea Follmer Greenhoot and Caroline Bennett were keynote speakers at this year’s Annual Learning Analytics Summit, held each year at Indiana University Bloomington. Now going into its 4th year, the purpose of the summit is to bring together faculty, staff, and administrators who share an interest in fostering student success through the use of big data and analytical tools at the course, program and institutional levels. During … [Read more...]
Changing Departmental Teaching Cultures
by Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings What is a departmental teaching culture and how does it change? This is an important question for advocates of pedagogical reform. Opportunities for individuals and small groups to learn and improve teaching are now widespread. Most universities have centers of teaching and learning that provide help for faculty in their role as teachers, and many disciplinary societies also sponsor workshops, conference sessions, journals, and other resources on … [Read more...]
Building institutional capacity for assessment
The assessment of student learning is a theme running through much of the BVA’s work. Over the last year, it has also become the centerpiece for a BVA working group in which members discuss assessment challenges and share promising developments on their own campuses. In the linked article, from the April newsletter of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, Joshua Potter, a leader and organizer of the working group, describes how the Center for Teaching Excellence at the … [Read more...]
New BVA resource for online assessment of student learning
Over the last month, BVA campuses have been collaborating to develop a concise resource for assessing student learning online, as many faculty will be doing this coming fall—and perhaps beyond. Online assessment presents a number of challenges but also opportunities to explore alternative approaches that provide rich information about what students know and that also deepen and extend their learning. The COVID pandemic makes these approaches especially timely, but they are relevant as well in … [Read more...]
The BVA Welcomes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Bay View Alliance is pleased to welcome the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a new member institution. The Bay View Alliance is an international network of research universities exploring strategies to support and sustain the widespread adoption of instructional methods leading to better student learning. Lorne Whitehead, program director of the Bay View Alliance, says “UNC is an excellent addition to the BVA because of its dedicated efforts to improve inequities in higher … [Read more...]
A Dozen-Plus Ways You Can Foster Educational Equity
Inside Higher Education features a piece by BVA members, Viji Sathy, Kelly Hogan and Calvin Sims from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill entitled, "A Dozen-Plus Ways You Can Foster Educational Equity". An excerpt from the article follows: Recently on social media, we have seen a lot of people posting ways white and non-Black people of color can support the Black Lives Matter movement. Like many of you, we’ve taken these suggestions to heart and taken action in various … [Read more...]
BVA response to #ShutDownSTEM #ShutDownAcademia
Today, as part of the observance of #ShutDownSTEM and #ShutDownAcademia, the Hub group of the Bay View Alliance, a network of ten research universities in the U.S. and Canada, affirms its commitment to foreground explicit work on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The BVA’s mission is to explore institutional change strategies to support and sustain the widespread adoption of instructional methods that lead to better learning for all students. In fall 2019 we began a transition from a general … [Read more...]