Symposium on Teaching and Learning at Lehigh Highlights New Projects

On Thursday, November 29, 2007, the Lehigh Lab sponsored its first annual Symposium on Teaching and Learning at Lehigh. The theme was “rethinking” and highlighted innovations throughout the colleges in topics like assessment, use of digital resources, conducting large lecture classes, and student projects.

Attendees learned about these new, interesting, and effective approaches to teaching and learning at Lehigh by viewing posters created by LTS instructional designers and librarians who had partnered with faculty involved in these projects – see poster details below. Informal conversation with the faculty and LTS staff, and a lunchtime talk by outgoing Lehigh Lab Faculty Fellow and Professor of English Ed Gallagher rounded out the program.

The event was organized by Greg Reihman, Director of Faculty Development and Co-Director of the Lehigh Lab. “Our hope in organizing this Symposium,” said Reihman, “was to disseminate good ideas, to inspire others to try new approaches, and to recognize the work of those who have made successful changes to their teaching. We also wanted to showcase the remarkable work Ed (Gallagher) has done as our Faculty Fellow.”

Professor Gallagher’s talk highlighted the many projects he has undertaken during his two and a half years working as Faculty Fellow. “It’s always springtime in the Lehigh Lab,” said Gallagher, “It’s a place of promise and possibility.”

At the end of the talk, Gallagher and Reihman welcomed Natalie Foster, Professor of Chemistry, as the new Faculty Fellow. See accompanying newsletter article.

Approximately 110 faculty, staff, and graduate students attended the event, which was held in Linderman Library. The posters will be on display in the Media Center later this spring and Lab staff are developing a web archive that will make the Symposium events, including the posters and a video of Gallagher’s talk, available to those who were unable to attend the event.

DESCRIPTION OF THE POSTERS

Rethinking Content Delivery

• How are Lehigh faculty changing the ways they deliver information, explanations, and course content to students?
• Spotlight on the practices of Natalie Foster, Ron Yoshida, and Ed Gallagher
• Organized by Ilena Key and Peggy Kane.

Rethinking Large Lecture Courses

• What challenges do faculty face when teaching large lecture courses at Lehigh? What approaches and technologies are helping us meet these challenges?
• Spotlight on the work of Susan Szczepanski MTH 21 Natalie Foster CHM 025; Diane Hyland in PSYC 001 and PSYC 109; Gary Deleo and Jerome Licini in PHYS 011; Kathy Olson in JOUR 122; and Ziad Munson in SSP 001.
• Organized by Judd Hark, Instructional Technology Consultant

Rethinking Assessment

• How are Lehigh faculty thinking differently about assessing student learning? Has technology enabled changes in how we think about student assessment? What tools (e.g. Blackboard , MapleTA, wikis, blogs, peer review, turnitin, surveys, rubrics) do we currently have to help manage quizzes, tests, and homework?
• Organized by Robin Deily and Jason Slipp

Rethinking Research: Using Digital Libraries

• How are Lehigh faculty using digital library projects to promote student research? What resources are available to Lehigh faculty?
• Spotlight on two projects: (1) "Beyond Steel" - John Smith, John Pettegrew, Seth Moglen, Kim Carrell-Smith, Steve Cutcliffe; and (2) "History on Trial" - Ed Gallagher
• Organized by Julia Maserjian.

Rethinking Library Research: Using Library Resources for Student Research Projects

• How are Lehigh faculty using new library resources - including materials, staff members and software- to help students conduct research projects?
• Spotlight on the work of numerous faculty across different fields.
• Organized by Roseann Bowerman and Jean Johnson.

Rethinking Student Projects

• How are Lehigh faculty creating opportunities for students to create or contribute to online resources in their field?
• Spotlight on three main projects: (1) Nadine Sine's “Women in Music” Wiki, (2) Magdalena Grudzinski-Hall's “Global Citizenship Experiential Archive”, and (3) Ed Gallagher's “American Film Website,” a.k.a. the "Yearbook Project"
• Organized by Johanna Brams.

 -- Greg Reihman
 

Article posted February 2008
 

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