We found 104 results that contain "community engagement"

Posted on: Reading Group for Student Engagement and Success
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Posted by almost 4 years ago
My background in Scandinavian languages and literature keeps rearing its head in various ways after many years. Specifically,when it comes to folklore, magical tales, and perilous journeys toward maturation. In a way, I have become a pedagogical Ashland, of sorts, since coming to MSU in 2015. My journey, an ongoing quest if you will, has been in trying to find that one magical key, which will unlock the enchanted door to greater student interest and involvement in their general education course requirements.

Those of us who teach these courses know that, too often, many students view gen. ed. requirements as hoops to jump through. Something they must satisfy to graduate. Subjects that, they feel, have little to do with the real world, their intended majors, or envisioned careers. Scheduling and convenience more than genuine interest seem to be the determining factor for many students when they choose to enroll in such courses. Put the head down, muddle through, and get it done with as little effort as possible.

But there might be another way.

In my own ongoing quest to motivate and engage the students in my various IAH courses more effectively, I have come back to Bloom's Taxonomy again and again since first learning about it in the 2016-2017 Walter and Pauline Adams Academy cohort. More specifically, it is Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, revised by various scholars for use with 21st century students who exist in an increasingly digital world, that has been especially useful when it comes to designing assessments for my students.

For those who are interested, there are all kinds of sources online -- journal article pdfs, infographics, Youtube explainer videos, etc. -- that will be informative and helpful for anyone who might be interested in learning more. Just search for 'Bloom's Digital Taxonomy' on Google. It's that easy.

For my specific IAH courses, I organize my students into permanent student learning teams early each semester and ask them to create three collaborative projects (including a team reflection). These are due at the end of Week Five, Week 10, and Week 14. Right now, the projects include:

1) A TV Newscast/Talkshow Article Review Video in which teams are ask to locate, report on, review, and evaluate two recent journal articles pertinent to material read or viewed during the first few weeks of the course.

2) A Readers' Guide Digital Flipbook (using Flipsnack) that reviews and evaluates the usefulness of two books, two more recent journal articles, and two blogs or websites on gender and sexuality OR race and ethnicity within the context of specific course materials read or viewed during roughly the middle third of the course.

3) An Academic Poster (due at the end of Week 14) in which student teams revisit course materials and themes related to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and identity. In addition, students are asked to examine issues of power, marginalization, disparity, equity, etc. in those same sources and look at how these same issues affect our own societies/cultures of origin in the real world. Finally, student teams (in course as diverse as Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s, Horror Cinema, and the upcoming Contemporary Scandinavian and Nordic Authors) are asked to propose realistic, concrete solutions to the social problems facing us.


Anecdotally, student feedback has been largely very favorable so far. Based on remarks in their team reflections this semester (Fall 2021), students report that they enjoy these collaborative, creative projects and feel like they have considerable leeway to shape what their teams develop. Moreover, they also feel that they are learning quite a bit about the material presented as well as valuable 21st century employability skills in the process. Where their all important assignment grades are concerned, student learning teams in my courses are meeting or exceeding expectations with the work they have produced for the first two of three team projects this semester according to the grading rubrics currently in use.

Beginning in Spring 2022, I plan to give my student teams even more agency in choosing how they are assessed and will provide two possible options for each of the three collaborative projects. Right not, these will probably include:

Project #1 (Recent Journal Article Review and Evaluation)-- Powtoon Animated TV Newscast OR Infographic

Project #2 -- (Review and Evaluation of Digital Sources on Gender and Sexuality OR Race and Ethnicty in our specific course materials) Flipbook OR Podcast

Project #3 -- (Power, Marginality, Disparity, Equity in Course Materials and Real World of 21st Century Problem-Solving) Electronic Poster OR Digital Scrapbook.

Through collaborative projects like these, I am attempting to motivate and engage the students in my IAH courses more effectively, help them to think more actively and critically about the material presented as well as the various social issues that continue to plague our world, and provide them with ample opportunity to cultivate essential skills that will enable their full participation in the globalized world and economy of the 21st century. Bloom's (Revised) Digital Taxonomy, among other resources, continues to facilitate my evolving thought about how best to reach late Gen Y and Gen Z students within a general education context.

If anyone would like to talk more about all of this, offer constructive feedback, or anything else, just drop me a line. I am always looking for those magic beans that will increase student motivation and engagement, and eager to learn more along the way. Bloom's Digital Taxonomy has certainly been one of my three magical helpers in the quest to to do that.

Posted on: GenAI & Education
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Posted by about 2 years ago
We are hosting a virtual, pre-semester meeting on August 22 to start building our learning community, Navigating Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models in the Classroom. Here is the description of the learning community, which you can also find on the OFASD website: "The use of large language models, such as ChatGPT, has exploded onto the educational scene with lots of unanswered questions about its implications in the classroom. This learning community will build on the many sources of information that probe these questions, participants’ experiences in the classroom, and create plans to develop guidelines and action research around these questions."


The meeting is Tues, August 22 from 10-11:30am on Zoom. We plan to spend the first part of the meeting doing some introductions, gathering information about members' specific goals for involvement, and share some of the campus resources around generative AI, including a streamlined version of our "generative AI in the classroom" workshop. Please register here if you plan to attend so we get a general sense of how many folks will participate: https://msu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcodu6grT4iG9z6AtbgcsDydWnZ2IY4VINN


If you have to miss this one, don't worry! We also have a Teams that you can join if you want to stay updated: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/channel/19%3a6oievzPpG1-Gu3eebonZyK2vpjzfc3ANdaMoCAAqnYQ1%40thread.tacv2/General?groupId=c0bd0cf9-f952-47e1-a2e6-0221348612e2&tenantId=22177130-642f-41d9-9211-74237ad5687d
We plan to have a monthly hybrid meeting on the first Thursday of every month at 9am in the STEM building, with an optional co-working session on the third Thursday of every month at 9am.

Posted on: #iteachmsu
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Posted by over 3 years ago
Digital Humanities did a great job with this Code of Conduct they drafted for an upcoming conference. Do you have a similar document? Have you found it useful to include these sorts of items within a given event or conference (or something that's more discipline-specific)? Digital Humanities also came up with a reporting form that accompanies this document. Let me know if you'd like to see that too!
Posted on: Reading Group for Student Engagement and Success
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Posted by almost 4 years ago
Stumbled across a recent piece on Faculty Focus that provides a very handy starting point for how we might better engage our students emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively. Here's the link for those who might like to take a closer look: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/student-engagement-strategies-how-to-encourage-behavioral-emotional-and-cognitive-engagement-in-your-course/

Posted on: #iteachmsu
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Posted by over 3 years ago
In my ongoing quest to find how we might better motivate and engage our students, particularly within a general education context, I've come across a couple of interesting sources online.

Universal Design for Learning at a Glance -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1B6yQXsr0c
Provides an engaging, concise explanation of what UDL is and how it works in the (college) 'classroom.'

The Nora Project -- https://thenoraproject.ngo/mission
A fairly comprehensive website that addresses the intersection of disability and inclusivity. Geared more specifically toward teaching children, there are nevertheless various resources and approaches that might be tweaked a bit to fit the college 'classroom' in whatever form that takes right now.

Both are providing me with all sorts of ways that I can tailor (and expand the range of) student assessments moving toward and planning for AY2022-2023.



Posted on: Reading Group for Student Engagement and Success
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Posted by over 3 years ago
Well, we have reached the end of the road, at least for the 2021-2022 academic year. With that in mind, here is a list, no doubt incomplete, of possible ways we might foster and improvie student motivation, engagement, and success in the classroom:

* Digital Materials and Projects
* Provide Feedback (High Impact)
* Agency and (Assessment) Choice (Universal Learning Design)
* 21st Century Skills (Relevance and Usefulness)
* Collaborative Learning (High Impact)
* Critical (Deeper) Thinking (High Impact)
* Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy (Tasks and Feedback)
* Inclusive Pedagogy (Collaboration)
* Social Justice Pedagogy (Intersectionality, High Impact )
* Animated Explainer Videos
* Universal Design for Learning (Inclusivity)
* High Impact Practices (Feedback, Collaboration, Reflection, Capstone Project,)
* Project-based Learning/Problem-based Learning
* Digital Learning (Assessment, etc.)
* Reflective Learning
* Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) – Empower students and expand their capabilities through ownership.
* Create Accessible Content
* Cultivate DEI Practices (Foster a sense of belonging, instill respect, and promote tolerance for ALL members of the class and related ideas.)
* Envision and enact new ways of teaching (leading).
* Multiple Modes of Assessment.
* Continuous Improvement in Our Efforts and Course Design/Presentation
* Encourage students to adopt an interdisciplinary approach in their course projects.


Considerable overlap between some of these very broad points, but if we can incorporate even a few of these ideas into our work with undergrads, we might get just a bit closer to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when it comes to improved student motivation, engagement, and performance in our courses. Thank you for an interesting year everyone!

Stokes and Garth

Posted on: Digital Collaborative Learning for the 21st Century 2.0 (Learning Community for AY2023-2024)
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Posted by almost 3 years ago
Digital Collaborative Learning for the 21st Century

Co-Facilitators
Stokes Schwartz, Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities (CISAH), stokessc@msu.edu

Marohang Limbu, Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC), limbu@msu.edu

Our learning community will examine the increasing importance of digital collaborative learning for 21st-century learners, student success, and a smooth transition to global digital ecology/economy after graduation. Related pedagogical activities will include how we might utilize digital collaborative learning to a greater degree in our courses for other leading-edge pedagogical intentions. Beside the OFASD website, we will publicize our community via email at the start of the 2022-2023AY in August and September and invite interested parties to join us.

First Meeting: Friday, September 30, 2022 at 10 am for approximately 90 minutes. Upcoming meeting days/times TBA according to participant needs or preferences where possible

Recurring Zoom Meeting: https://msu.zoom.us/j/94545089588

Meeting ID: 945 4508 9588
Passcode: 851121

All who are interested in digital, collaborative, multimodal learning, and the use of technologies to enhance teaching are welcome, especially graduate students and new faculty who are interested in eventually publishing work that develops based on their participation in this learning community.

Posted on: #iteachmsu
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Posted by about 1 year ago
Hello and welcome all!

The 2024 Educator Developers Network (EDN) is shaking and baking, moving and quaking!

This is a collaborative space for anyone passionate about improving teaching through effective design, pedagogy, and technology, and anyone who provides training, consultation, instructional/learning experience design, or other learning and development support to instructors on campus. Here, anybody with an interest in enhancing education can come together, share their experiences, and mutually learn from one another. Our synchronous meetings are the 1st Tuesday of every month, were people share their department’s work, ask for advice, or celebrate success. We also communicate asynchronously in our Educator Developers Network channel.

The goals of the network are to provide a dedicated location for people to share ideas and ask questions around instructor support, learning and development, promoting useful practices and ideas to campus at large, foster community through regular meetings that highlight accomplishments and central services, and archiving and externalizing conversations. Our asynchronous discussions occur in Microsoft Teams, where we have an initial structure of channels for members to explore MSU’s Learning Management System (D2L - Brightspace), discuss course design, or seek out technology recommendations and tips. Ultimately, EDN is a place to source answers to your questions or ask for help, participate in the community, and share what you know with others!

Come share your work and ideas! Be part of a learning community with other professional in learning development, training, design, pedagogy, technology, and anyone who provides consultations and instructional/learning experience design. Come join the network!

Join the Educator Developers Network

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3ae51cb2ed28a14bee8346fa507cff42ad%40thread.skype/conversations?groupId=13506591-8eca-4a14-a674-69a08dfd6020&tenantId=22177130-642f-41d9-9211-74237ad5687d