Last autumn, Associate Professor Subbu Kumarappan, PhD, initially planned to take attendance using the polling feature in Zoom. This proved difficult however, especially for students who logged in late, had poor internet connections, or couldn't attend synchronous sessions due to illness.
Kumarappan needed a more meaningful way to engage student participation. In experimenting with TopHat and asking students to reflect briefly on key lessons at the end of each class, he saw knowledge retention and engagement increase throughout the semester, so much so that he plans to use these techniques for the rest of his teaching practice.
Assistant Professor Kelsey Thiem and Professor Mary Kite , both of the Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling at Ball State University, are conducting a study that explores faculty views and practices around sharing teaching materials. They are hoping to collect responses from a cross-disciplinary group of faculty and welcome the participation of faculty across Ohio State.
Dr. Ann Marie Davis, an assistant professor and Japanese Studies librarian, describes how she modified an annual summer seminar for K-12 teachers during COVID-19. Usually held in person, the one-week course has always emphasized student-centered, experiential and collaborative lessons. In light of the pandemic, Davis and her colleagues pivoted to virtual learning labs and mailed materials to participants in advance of the seminar.
“In our unit on tea, for example, we sent five different samples to five different groups respectively. During the lecture, the groups were sent to breakout rooms to brew, smell, taste and discuss the properties of their respective teas,” Davis says. “Similarly, for our unit on paper-folding, students received origami paper by mail. During the lecture, they went into breakout rooms to practice folding specific origami objects and discuss. Like with the tea exercise, this activity emphasized interactive, hands-on learning in small group settings.”
Dr. Melissa Quinn, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Education and Anatomy at the College of Medicine, describes how she modified in-person, hands-on anatomy labs for virtual and hybrid delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We wanted to maintain our dedication to our students and did not want them to completely feel like they would be losing a significant part of their medical education," Quinn says. "We needed to find a way to continue active participation in a virtual lab where the students would not be dissecting."
The Michael V. Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning seeks Arts & Humanities faculty to serve as subject matter experts for a Carmen-based Instructional Redesign short course to support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) in lectures, discussions, performances and studio-based teaching and Instructional Redesign efforts at Ohio State.
This short course will be a scalable, sustainable, asynchronous professional learning opportunity that both highlights the voices and experiences of a broad range of Ohio State instructors and students and evidences the value of a diverse, cross-disciplinary team of scholars.
The Drake Institute's Melinda Rhodes-DiSalvo, associate director, and Larry Hurtubise, curriculum and instructional specialist, presented at McMaster University’s 14th Annual Day in Faculty Development, hosted by the university’s health sciences faculty.
The theme of this year’s conference was Academia Disrupted: Innovations and Dilemmas Prompted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Rhodes-DiSalvo and Hurtubise shared outcomes from virtual communities of practice sponsored by the Drake Institute last spring.
Professor Craig Gibson of University Libraries recently presented at the Conference on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching , hosted by the University of Calgary Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning in May. The theme of this year’s conference was Mentorship in Higher Education, and the Drake Institute’s Faculty FIT mentoring program was highlighted throughout, including during the conference’s keynote address.
Faculty FIT offers year-long programming and support for Ohio State instructors at any level in their careers – from new faculty seeking to infuse evidence-based teaching practices into their classrooms to more experienced faculty interested in developing their expertise in educational pedagogy and mentorship skills.
The Inclusive STEM Teaching Project, a National Science Foundation grant-funded program, is hosting a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from June 15 through July 27 via edX. This six-week course is designed to advance the awareness, self-efficacy and ability of STEM faculty, postdocs, graduate students and staff to cultivate inclusive learning environments for all students.
Participants will examine issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education, reflect on their own and their students’ identities and experiences, identify and implement learner-centered structures and strategies, apply principles of evidence-based inclusive teaching, and use student learning data and feedback to inform pedagogical and curricular choices.
Join the Big READ (Read, Engage, Advocate, Discuss), a reading experience featuring a quarterly moderated book discussion. This program is hosted by the Wexner Medical Center and Health Science Colleges Anti-Racism Action Plan (ARAP) in partnership with University Libraries.
All faculty, staff and students are encouraged to participate and read each of the recommended books that address the history and long-term effects of systemic racism. Moderators from the Wexner Medical Center, Health Science Colleges, and University Libraries will lead an engaging discussion that allows for further insight into each book.
The Michael V. Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning is pleased to welcome Larry Hurtubise, M.A., PhD (ABD), who has joined the institute from the College of Pharmacy as a curriculum and instructional specialist.
Larry will serve as a consultant to faculty teams, programs, departments and units as they re-envision and refine curricula or develop new curricula at Ohio State. He is a curriculum and instruction doctoral candidate at Ohio University, where he is studying the professional identity formation of clinician educators.
After receiving a master’s degree in adult education from Ohio...
