Cool Insights from SRFIDC 2012

Furman University, SRFIDC 2012 Host

The Southern Regional Faculty and Instructional Development Consortium (SRFIDC) is an intimate group of faculty and faculty developers that meet annually to share their research and best practices in faculty development.

The consortium gathers for an intense 2½-day conference that begins around 8 in the morning and runs steady until 5 p.m. (sometimes including breakfast, lunch and dinner). In part the “intensity” is designed to build community and collegiality between members; however it is mostly because there is so much to do!

This was my first SRFIDC conference and although I was exhausted from a long weekend in south Florida, I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and its attendees. What a great group of instructors! I also gleaned a lot from the presentations. I would like to share some of the highlights here.

1. Graduate Student Orientation
   Although not a direct result of the presentation, Building a Bigger Boat: Redefining the Context of Graduate Student Development, by Western Carolina University (WCU), the presentation and other conversations during the conference inspired me to create an orientation program and packet for new GAs in the distance learning department. 
   
   I've already started a list of items to include in an orientation program and other need-to-know information. I have asked my current Graduate students to add to my list with their own wish list for GA orientation. As graduate students in the I.O. psych department they will have a lot of insight into best practices in new job orientation and training. We will develop the program together, but I have asked them to take the lead.
   
   Elements I intend to include in the orientation based on WCU’s presentation:
   - Book on teaching/ learning
   - Research projects
   - Reflective writing (perhaps in the form of the UTC Online Blog
   
   
2. Course Delivery Decisions
   Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) presented a method to aid faculty in their course delivery decisions (online, hybrid, face-to-face). The simple chart they created is the basis of that method which takes faculty through a pragmatic process of elimination by assigning delivery methods based on content and activity. The delivery method that is the best fit as well as the most frequently used to meet course objectives is the method that should (ideally) be used for a course's delivery.
   
   I believe the chart linked to above may also aid faculty in course design. It presents the design process linearly – from development of objectives to identifying content and activities and finally assessment.
    
3. Polleverywhere.com – a neat (free) tool with the potential to increase student engagement in the classroom. Robert Crow, also of WCU, shared this web-based tool with the conference. Polleverywhere allows instructors to insert polls into a slide or other presentation in the classroom or incorporate a poll into an online/hybrid course. Students can use their cell phones (via text messaging) or their computers to participate in a poll. This service is free for faculty and students up to a certain amount of participation.
   
   I have already used Polleverywhere with my book club – we are trying to decide on a location for our next meeting ☺
    
4. Online Teaching Certification
   Finally, the folks at Kennesaw State University must have read my mind … they have developed a 2-week long, hybrid, online teaching certification program. Although I am looking to develop a slightly longer course, they have given me an excellent framework to work with. I am considering offering a replica of their program to UTC faculty as my faculty development and Blackboard seminars for fall 2012.
   
   Kennesaw also has a 15-week program in online instruction. The program is facilitated by experienced online faculty. I have yet to follow up on this program with the faculty at Kennesaw, but hope to learn from their successes and find an effective structure for my own extended course in online learning for faculty. 

Needless to say, this conference was a valuable experience. I made a few contacts and look forward to make more through the year. Perhaps next year I’ll be ready to present at SRFIDC 2013.

Listening and Communication

This week I attended an employee development seminar entitle Introduction to Communication. It's the prerequisite to a Certification in Communication (32 hours of training) that I hope to complete this year. The seminar's goal was to introduce the certification program and help participants identify courses  within the program that align with their goals/needs. I found one of our introductory tasks to particularly useful.

To open the seminar the trainer asked everyone to share our reasons for attending the course and then turn to our neighbor and discuss some of the communication challenges we face and the methods we use to overcome these challenges. If I had to guess, I would say at least 75% of the participants mentioned improving their listening skills at a key reason for attending the communication seminar.

I've been told I'm a good listener, but recently I've noticed gaps in my attentiveness. Apparently, I'm not the only one. Here are some of the commonalities my partner and I listed as challenges to being a good listener:

• Making assumptions about the speaker
• Formulating an opinion before the speaker is finished sharing
• Succumbing to distractions

We then discussed how we attempted to overcome our listening shortcomings. Here are some of the methods we shared:

• Waiting until the speaker completes their thought before responding
• Summarizing the speakers thoughts and repeating it back for confirmation of understanding
• Taking notes when necessary 
• Allowing time for feedback (pause and allow the speaker/listener to digest information)
• Look for nonverbal feedback if available

I feel I utilize these methods to various degrees, but hope through writing them down and keeping them on the forefront of my mind I will be more present while listening and in turn more successful in my own communication.

Here are just a few of the courses I hope to attend for the Communication Certification:

• Giving and Receiving Feedback
• Making Meetings Work
• Communicating with Credibility and Diplomacy

Hopefully the above seminars are as fruitful as the introduction.

Do you have tools for effective communication? Do you consider yourself a good listener? Why? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Making Thinking Visible: Types of Thinking

Last week I joined a book club reading Ron Ritchhart et all’s book Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for all Learners. The first chapter discusses discipline based thinking, i.e. the types of thinking each of us use day to day to do our job successfully. The book argues that a student’s understanding of a discipline is rooted in their ability to master the disciples thinking strategies verse memorize and regurgitate facts. The book goes on to state that the teacher must know their own thinking processes before determining the types of thinking they expect from students.

Of course! It’s so simple! It makes so much sense! Teach students to think and richer understandings will result. So to get started I simply list the types of thinking I do every day in my discipline … WAM! My first roadblock. What are types of thinking? And what types of thinking do I use every day? My pencil hovers above my page, but nothing comes to mind. I realize I have never given a single thought to how I think. Of course I’ve discovered that I’m a visual/kinesthetic learner, but that’s not the question. The question is what is happening in the mind when I work, understand and learn.

I have mulled this question over in my mind for the better part of a weekend and I’ve started a short list from the reading of my Types of Thinking:

Teacher:

- Wondering and asking questions

- Making connections

- Identifying assumptions

- Building interpretations

Instructional Designer:

- Formulating plans

- Predicting

- Visualization 

- Generating possibilities 

- Evaluating evidence

This is only the beginning and I have much more “thinking” to do on this topic. My aim is to hold these thoughts in my mind while I work in an effort to be more metacognitive about my elusive thinking strategies and add/refine the list above.

After I am happy with the list of Types of Thinking I will take some time to think about what this list means for my students and my teaching. Already I am wondering how to apply these big ideas to the small dose or just in time training I do in the lab.

I’ve found Making Thinking Visible a valuable read thus far. The book club will read the next 2 chapters for mid February and I’ll add any additional thoughts on the book here.