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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume X, Number 1 |
September
2004 |
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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Volume X, Number 1 |
September
2004 |
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Provost funds range of innovation projectsThis year’s Innovation in Education grants range from molecular visualization for chemistry students to an interactive Website on the history of children’s literature. Highlighted in this annual issue of the Teaching Times, the 11 projects (as in the past) come from diverse schools, departments, and campuses across the entire University. Acting on the recommendations of the Provost’s Advisory Council on Instructional Excellence (ACIE), which oversees the award process, the provost extended grants totaling more than $175,000 to fund these projects. Our 2004 ACIE award allowed us to outfit three
classrooms with an interactive audience response system (ARS). These
“just-in-time” lecture modifications have increased student interaction
and improved comprehension. Seventy one projects have been funded since the Innovation in Education Awards program got under way five years ago. Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Andrew Blair, who chairs the council, attributes the ability to attract high-caliber proposals to the provost’s sponsorship and the council’s highly-respected membership of teachers/research scholars, several of whom have been award winners and a number of whom have also been recipients of awards for excellent teaching. Blair points out that perhaps the most important criterion in selecting funded projects is the potential long-term impact on teaching and learning, both directly and as models to be adopted in other courses. Specific indicators of this impact are currently being collected through an online survey of all award recipients as part of a five-year evaluation process the council is conducting. Requests for proposals for the sixth annual round of applications will be mailed to all University faculty in October. Further information on the submission process will be available at the annual Teaching Excellence Fair, which will be held on Wednesday, October 27. The ACIE award enabled me to use Tegrity to
tape clinical experts’ lectures, thereby allowing students to simultaneously
see the speakers and their PowerPoint presentations. These taped lectures
link the basic science of genetics with real-life applications in the
health care setting. Projects completed last year will be the focus of presentations at the fair. For faculty considering proposals, Blair emphasizes, “Although a number of the proposals that have been funded are technology based, we do not view this as a program to use technology for instruction. We welcome proposals that represent a variety of approaches.” The virtual laboratory we developed with our
ACIE grant integrates instructional material for courses in Linear Algebra
in mathematics and Signal Processing in engineering. The videos and
tutorials, that can be used for classroom and Internet-based instruction,
are at www.caster.ee.pitt.edu/~producer.
If you
have an idea for an Innovation in Education project and would like some
CIDDE assistance, please contact Joanne Nicoll, associate director for
Instructional design and faculty development, as soon as possible to
discuss your idea. Nicoll will work with you to identify appropriate
staff assistance (i.e., instructional design, instructional technology,
video production, and photography) and to schedule a planning meeting
to refine your project idea. She can be reached at 624-3335 or nicoll@pitt.edu. | |||||||||||||||
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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for Instructional Development & Distance Education |
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