Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement

Past Conferences

    2007-2008        2008-2009        2009-2010

2009-2010 Academic Year

Fourteenth Annual UWSP Teaching Conference
Enhancing Student Learning with Outcomes-Based Assessment
January 21, 2010
8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Dreyfus University Center Alumni Room

You are invited to the Fourteenth Annual UWSP Teaching Conference on January 21, 2010. The conference focuses on two topics that are currently before the campus as we reorganize our general education program and carefully examine how well UWSP prepares students for careers of the future: writing learning outcomes and assessing student learning.  Our keynote speaker is Dr. Paula DeHart, Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.  Dr. DeHart’s presentation, “How do learning outcomes enhance the teaching-learning experience?” provides the cornerstone for the conference events.  Dr. DeHart, recognized as an expert in the field, has given numerous presentations and workshops on developing learning outcomes and outcomes-based assessment. We are thrilled to have of one of UWSP’s own lead the upcoming conference.

To see the agenda, click here.
To see Paula DeHart's presentation, click here.

Critical Thinking: Performance Tasks
A conference open to all instructors within the UW-System
Friday, October 16, 2009
9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
in the Legacy Room of the Dreyfus University Center

Interested faculty who are unable to attend the entire conference are warmly invited to register and attend whatever part of the conference is consistent with their schedules.No expertise in teaching critical thinking and no experience with performance tasks will be assumed, although we will certainly benefit from the expertise and experience you bring. Everyone is welcome.

Preliminary Agenda                            Performance Tasks Booklet

WHAT ARE PERFORMANCE TASKS AND WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

A performance task is an actual or simulated reality-based situation that requires students to generate a product or performance in order to acquire or demonstrate mastery of identified learning outcomes.

Performance tasks are good ways to develop and assess higher-order thinking skills, such the ability to gather, interpret, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, the ability to dissect and evaluate arguments, the ability to formulate and defend theses and hypotheses, and the ability to solve complex problems.

Additionally, by providing authentic learning experiences and assessment methods, performance tasks are intrinsically meaningful to learners, and can bestow meaning and purpose upon more traditional learning activities and assessment methods (such as lessons, drills and exercises).

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE CONFERENCE?

This conference will introduce faculty to performance tasks and help faculty to reflect upon how they might use performance tasks to teach and assess high-level critical thinking skills.

Participants will leave the conference with:

1. A firm understanding of critical thinking skills

2. A solid grasp of how to develop and employ performance tasks as a teaching and assessment tool

3. The invitation to join a community of other faculty with whom they can share the performance tasks that they develop.

To view the preliminary agenda, click here.

To view a pamphlet about performance tasks prepared for the conference, click here.

Please feel free to direct any questions to Dona Warren, dwarren@uwsp.edu.

This conference is made possible by an OPID grant and support from UWSP's Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement.

Faculty College 2010
UW-Richland Center
June 1-4, 2010

Faculty College 2010, sponsored by the UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development, will be held once again at the UW-Richland campus, in Richland Center, from
June 1- 4, 2010.  The College brings together approximately 100 faculty and instructional academic staff from across the System for three days of intensive exploration of teaching, learning and curricular issues. 

This year OPID is pleased to feature an exciting lineup of workshops:      

“Decoding the Disciplines,” by Joan Middendorf and Leah Shopkow.  Joan Middendorf is a long time educational developer who serves as Associate Director of Campus Instructional Consulting Center and Adjunct Professor in Higher Education Administration at Indiana University Bloomington. Leah Shopkow is an Associate Professor of History at Indiana University Bloomington

“Looking Inside the Black Box: Exploring How Students Learn,” by Bill Cerbin, Professor of Psychology and Director of the UW-La Crosse Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning

“Inclusive Excellence in the Classroom: Creating Equitable Learning Experiences for All Students,” by Paul C. Gorski, founder of EdChange and Assistant Professor in Integrative Studies at George Mason University

“Gathering SoTL Evidence: Methods for Systematic Inquiry into Student Learning,” by Renee A. Meyers, Coordinator of the UW System Leadership Site for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

In addition, this year’s keynote speakers will be Joan Middendorf and Leah Shopkow. They will be introducing all the participants to “Decoding the Disciplines.”

All UW System institutions have been invited to nominate four participants. Those interested in attending should contact Patricia Ploetz at the Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement, phone ext. 4930 or email Patricia Ploetz by April 1, 2010. Please direct questions about Faculty College to Patricia Ploetz at ext. 4930 or email Patricia Ploetz.

2008-2009 Academic Year

An Invitation to UW-System Fine Arts Faculty to attend
Artists Training Artists:
A Collaborative Conference on Teaching and Learning through the Arts

The College of Fine Arts and Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has enjoyed a series of interdisciplinary collaborations. These efforts have produced interesting discoveries in teaching and learning principles. The UW System Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) recognized this work by funding a grant for a conference for all UW-System Arts Faculty to further explore the scholarship of teaching and learning through the arts.
All UW-System Arts faculty are invited to attend and participate in this inaugural event. Registration, all conference sessions, and meals will be provided at no cost to UW-System faculty. The program for the conference offers inspired presentations and activities by UW System Arts Faculty and other special guests. Participants will share best practices and build inter-institutional and/or inter-disciplinary communities that focus on teaching and learning through the arts.

Guest Presenters:
Robert Duke, Director of the Center for Music and Human Learning at the University of Texas-Austin.
Robert Duke is the founder of the National Forum on Research in Motor Learning and Music, a research collaborative devoted to the study of motor skill development and procedural memory consolidation.  He directs an active research program in motor skill learning and procedural memory at UT. He lectures frequently on the topics of human learning, systematic observation and evaluation, and behavior management, presenting workshops and teaching demonstrations.

Nancy Smith Fichter, Graduate Choreography and Directing, Professor Emerita, Artist-In-Residence, Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor, Florida State University. Nancy Smith Fichter retired in 1997 after a 45-year life in dance. For 33 years she was chairperson of the Department of Dance at Florida State University. Dr. Fichter has created over 90 works for FSU and other companies. She is a founder and past president of the Council of Dance Administrators, among many national honors.

OPID's Annual Spring Conference
Pedagogies of Hope: Inspiring, Understanding, and Assessing Student Learning

This year's theme is "Pedagogies of Hope: Inspiring, Understanding, and Assessing Student Learning," which invokes optimistically looking to the future as the UW System embraces initiatives devoted to liberal education, inclusive excellence, and technology. 

In addition to presentations of individual projects, campus initiatives, and institutional collaborations, recent work in the UW System on threshold concepts, signature pedagogies and media matters (digital storytelling and second life) will make up the conference program, as well as the keynote speaker, Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell. Professor Harris-Lacewell is Associate Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University. Her academic research interests include the study of African American political thought, black religious ideas and practice, and social and clinical psychology.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought.  Professor Harris-Lacewell's creative and dynamic teaching is also motivated by the practical political and racial issues of our time.   Her presence at this conference will foreground the UW System's commitment to addressing the challenges facing contemporary students, recognizing the multiple influences on student learning in the classroom and the importance of investigating them.

Thirteenth Annual UWSP Teaching Conference 
Teaching in the New General Education Environment: Target 2010

This year's conference focuses on the changes to our curriculum as we look ahead to the new General Education Program and the need for outcome-based assessment. Our plenary speaker is Terrel Rhodes,
Vice President of the Office of Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment, Association of American Colleges and Universities. His presentation, "Why Do I Have to Change When I Like It The Way It Is?" will provide a national and international context for the campus's move toward essential learning outcomes in general education. This campus move will affect all instructional faculty and academic staff.  In addition to the plenary, the conference will include a presentation by  Don Guay, Co-Chair of the the General Education Policy Review Committee. The presentations will be followed by mediated discussions leading toward department level planning for the Gen Ed changes.

Presentations:
Dr. Terrell Rhodes:  Why Do I Have To Change When I Like It The Way It IS?
Dr. Don Guay: General Education Policy Review Committee Report.

Conference materials:
A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College
http://www.greaterexpectations.org/  

College Learning for the New Global Century
http://www.aacu.org/advocacy/leap/documents/GlobalCentury_final.pdf

Achieving Equitable Educational Outcomes with All Students
http://www.aacu.org/inclusive_excellence/documents/Bauman_et_al.pdf

Liberal Education Outcomes
http://www.aacu.org/advocacy/pdfs/LEAP_Report_FINAL.pdf

Our Students' Best Work
http://www.aacu.org/publications/pdfs/StudentsBestReport.pdf

Assessing Critical Thinking: from Course to Campus 

This will be a rather informal gathering and no expertise in teaching or assessing critical thinking will be presupposed. Participants who can't attend the entire event are welcome to attend part of it. Lunch will be provided.

This conference is made possible by an OPID grant and support from UW-SP's Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement.

This conference will:

address the importance and challenges of assessing critical thinking in the context of our courses (e.g. "How can instructors assess their students' critical thinking skills?")

explore the importance and challenges of measuring the extent to which a campus'  general education requirements help students to reach critical thinking learning objectives (e.g. "How might the critical thinking outcomes embodied in a campus' general education requirements be measured?" "How might a course demonstrate that it successfully satisfies the critical thinking component of a campus' general education requirements?")

2007-2008 Academic Year

12th Annual Teaching Conference
Teaching with a Global Perspective: Preparing Students to be Global Citizens

Conference Materials:
   Building a Global Culture of Peace
   Governance in the Planetary Age
   Paths to Planetary Civilization
   The World is Changing
   Bibliography

Understanding and Enhancing Students'  First Year Experience

Conference Materials:
    Promoting Faculty Involvement in First-Year Experience Programs & Student Success Initiatives
    Aligning the First Year Experience with Faculty Roles & Rewards
    A Comprehensive First-Year Experience
    Student Success and University Quality: What Really Matters
    Tying It All Together
    Unifying Action Strategies