Letters from the Advisor - December 2017
Dear Arts & Sciences Faculty,
It’s amazing that 2017 is coming to an end. It has been a wild and tumultuous ride.
At ASSETT, we have made strides in promoting and facilitating teaching with technology. Our faculty fellows developed programs within units to increase the capacity for effective and transformative teaching. For example, MCDB faculty fellow Pamela Harvey teamed up with EBIO assistant professor Lisa Corwin to lead a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) focused on developing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). The CURE FLC was also supported by the TRESTLE program, a multi-institutional faculty development program directed at CU by Stephanie Chasteen. ATOC faculty fellow Kris Karnauskas developed teaching modules that emphasize quantitative analysis for general use across multiple courses. IPHY faculty fellow Jia Shi and EBIO faculty fellow Sam Flaxman developed plans for coordinating an undergraduate teaching assistant program for large enrollment courses. And ENVS and TRESTLE faculty fellow Eve Hinckley chaired a committee of faculty to identify learning goals for their introductory course for the major, develop a plan for course equivalence across semesters and instructors, and map learning goals onto the overarching programmatic goals.
There are 24 applicants representing 15 departments for the next cohort of ASSETT faculty fellows. Based on our past experience, we expect that the fellows program will help develop a more inclusive and networked community of educators focused on developing and sharing expertise about how to effectively use educational technology to advance student learning gains across a diverse set of relevant learning goals. More details about the program can be found at colorado.edu/assett/communities/ffp.
My goals remain the same: increase opportunities for faculty to share pedagogical expertise and enthusiasm in a manner that elevates our ability to educate students to become change agents and effective citizens in an increasingly challenging and sophisticated world. Our educational mission depends on bringing together scholars in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and the sciences so that we can better develop an authentic, coordinated, and relevant educational springboard for launching students into future success. In the process, ASSETT becomes a hub for developing a productive network of Arts and Sciences faculty members committed to achieving teaching excellence and lasting learning gains for our students. Through ASSETT and educational technology, we can become closer, realize the power of open educational resources, and become a more connected community built on our collective motivation for making our experiences and the experiences of our students better.