Teaching, Learning & Assessment

Teaching Consulting Teams

Purpose

To provide instructors with focused support for designing, implementing, and assessing new course teaching strategies intended to help students better meet course, programmatic (GE or MLO), and Institutional Learning Outcomes.

Overview

Each Teaching Consulting Team (TCT) will consist of 1 course instructor and 1 or 2 peer and/or senior faculty members who serve as teaching consultants. Teams will identify a specific course teaching and learning goal and an associated learning outcome the course instructor wants to address during the current semester. Teams assist the course instructor with designing, implementing, and assessing a new teaching strategy for helping students meet the identified learning outcome. Additional funding may be possible to support a student team member.

Minimum Requirements

To be considered for funding, projects must do all of the following:

  1. Involve a significant teaching and learning goal of interest to the course instructor.
  2. Identify at least one specific course learning outcome relevant to the teaching and learning goal.
  3. Implement a new course teaching strategy designed to help students better meet the course learning outcome.
  4. Team members must meet prior to and after implementation of the teaching strategy.
  5. All team members collaboratively assess student work or other artifacts using a rubric.
  6. Submit a project report to TLA for dissemination (see below).

Classroom observations are encouraged but not required.

Project types

Project Type Description Stipend\*
**Scholarship of Teaching Project \(SoTL\)** Implements and assesses a new (to the instructor) course teaching strategy. Priority will be given to projects with the future goal of publishing results in a peer-reviewed journal (stipend is not dependent on successful publication). See Understanding SoTL for guidance on setting up and implementing an SoTL project. $300/Team Member
**SoTL with Technology Project** Implements and assesses a new (to the instructor) course teaching strategy incorporating academic technology. Team is expected to consult with a CAT Instructional Designer. Priority will be given to projects with the future goal of publishing results in a peer-reviewed journal (stipend is not dependent on successful publication). See Understanding SoTL for guidance on setting up and implementing an SoTL project. $450/Team Member

*One or more team members may be associated with a relevant TLA Teaching Co-op or the Provost's Global Engagement Opportunities Grant program and receive a TCT stipend in addition to the TLA Co-op or Global Engagement stipend. In such cases, TCT team meetings must be in addition to the co-op meetings and the TCT report must be in addition to any co-op or Global Engagement Grant deliverables.

Timeline

Sping 2016

  • Monday, Sept. 14, 2015, 5 p.m.: Intent to submit proposal due
  • Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, 5 p.m.: Team proposal due
  • Monday, Oct. 26, 2015: Teams notified of acceptance
  • Monday, May. 27, 2016, 5 p.m.: Project report due (required to receive stipend)

Intent to submit proposal

Select button below to notify TLA of intent to submit a TCT proposal. Please indicate intent by deadline indicated above.

Project proposal guidelines

Proposals should be about 1-3 single-spaced pages and incorporate the items below.

  1. Team members and course(s): Identify name of course instructor; name(s) of teaching consultant(s)(no more than 2); and course department, number, and title.
  2. Teaching goal & specific learning outcome: Describe the teaching goal and identify the specific course learning outcome the new teaching strategy will address (see Writing Good Learning Objectives).
  3. Program & Institutional Learning Outcomes: Identify a) the GE outcome and/or Major Learning Outcome (MLO) AND b) the Institutional Learning Outcome (ILO) most relevant to the specific course learning outcome named above.
  4. Project Type (see above): Identify whether the proposed project is an Assessment, Technology, or Educational Research Project (see definitions above).
  5. Project Description: Provide a description of the project, including the proposed new teaching strategy and plan for assessing resulting student work. For Technology Projects, teams should consult with the CAT Director, Marc Oehlman (moehlman@csumb.edu) to determine the support the team needs from a CAT Instructional Designer. For Educational Research Projects, describe the support the team needs from UROC's Assessment and Educational Research Associate (note: UROC's Assessment and Educational Research Associate only has the capacity to work with one or two teams).
  6. Teaching & Learning Literature: Review of literature is not required but will be considered if only a subset of all proposals can be funded (see below). A basic literature review is encouraged for teams applying for an Educational Research Project with UROC's Assessment and Educational Research Associate.
  7. Educational Research Projects only: Identify potential peer-reviewed journals project results may be published in.

Submit project proposals to tla@csumb.edu by Monday, February 16, 2015.

Selection criteria

The following criteria will be used to prioritize projects for level of funding :

  1. Clarity of proposal
  2. Focus of project
  3. Support of a specific GE outcome, a Major Learning Outcome, and/or an Institutional Learning Outcome
  4. Potential interest of teaching goal to other instructors
  5. Potential impact of project on student learning
  6. Potential for sound and reliable assessment
  7. Use of technology
  8. Literature review (optional)

Project report guidelines

Project reports should be about 2-5 single-spaced pages and incorporate the following:

  1. Team members and course(s): Identify name of course instructor; name(s) of teaching consultant(s)(no more than 2); and course department, number, and title.
  2. Teaching goal & specific learning outcome: Describe the teaching goal and identify the specific course learning outcome the new teaching strategy addressed (see Writing Good Learning Objectives)..
  3. Program & Institutional Learning Outcomes: Identify a) the GE outcome and/or Major Learning Outcome (MLO) AND b) the Institutional Learning Outcome (ILO) most relevant to the specific course learning outcome named above.
  4. Project Description: Provide a detailed description of the new teaching strategy, implementation, and assessment.
  5. Assessment results: Present assessment results. Results may be quantitative and/or qualitative.
  6. Limitations: Identify limitations of project, including limitations of assessment strategy.
  7. Future work: Describe ideas for improving the teaching strategy and/or assessment.
  8. Literature cited: Provide full references for any literature cited in report.

Project reports must be submitted to tla@csumb.edu by Monday, June 8, 2015, 5 p.m. to receive a TCT stipend.

Examples of new teaching strategies

  • Create or redesign an assignment
  • Create or redesign a class activity
  • Create or redesign one or more class plans
  • Incorporate new readings and associated assignments
  • Create or redesign assessment rubrics shared with students
  • Involve students in the creation and/or use of rubrics
  • Introduce new, technology-based strategies or elements, such as “clickers, use of social media, Google Apps, a flipped-learning concept, new tool for blended or online learning instruction, etc.
  • More explicitly align a course assignment and outcome with a course outcome, General Education outcome , a Major Learning Outcome, and/or an Institutional Learning Outcome to improve student learning
  • Make significant changes to course policies to improve student learning
  • Create multiple preliminary assignments (scaffolding) to help student better prepare for and complete a major assignment

Project reports - Spring 2015

Sean Senechal, Jennifer Dyer-Seymour & Jennifer Woolfoot

Patrick Belanger & David Reichard