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Useful Resources for Faculty

AUR Documents

AUR TLC Faculty Development Workshops

2013 - 21 February - Using Video Conferencing Technology to Bridge Gaps and Promote Dialogue.

Last semester AUR was fortunate to receive funding for a video conferencing system from AMICAL (the association of American Higher Education Libraries located outside the US). Through the video conferencing initiative, AMICAL supports and encourages member institutions interested in integrating video conferencing collaboration with other institutions worldwide. AUR’s partner for this workshop was The American University of Cairo, which created The AUC Dialogue Project. The Dialogue project is designed to use Internet video conference technology and other forms of communication to promote dialogues between AUC students and students from a multitude of backgrounds and disciplines from all over the world.

AUR’s Faculty Development workshop was led by AUR Director of IT, Rosa Fusco, her colleague at AUC, Ahmad El Zorkani, the Multimedia Services Manager reporting to the Center for Learning and Teaching at AUC, and Dr. Mohamed I. Fahmy Menza, whose research interests lie within the field of Middle East politics and society, with a special focus on state/society relations, informal and patronage politics and the political economy of development. Dr. Menza has received several awards in the area of multidisciplinary research, including the Exeter Research Scholarship, and has provided consultancies to several development organizations, including the World Bank. He is currently teaches Arab and Global South Dialogue at AUC and development and political economy at AMIDEAST.

The presentation showcased the development of The Dialogue Project as it evolved in a number of different directions, the most significant being the establishment of several three-credit-hour courses focused upon the notion of videoconference and face-to-face dialogue. After the Jan 25 Revolution, the Project introduced two new courses that are mainly based on partnering with universities from the Arab World and the Global South, “Spring in Arab Eyes” and “South-South Dialogue”. With this new technology, AUR can bring the world to our classrooms and encourage dialogue and conversation with scholars and other institutions around the globe.

AUR’s Psychiatrist in Residence for the 2012/13 academic year is Dr. James Charney, a child and adolescent psychiatrist on the faculty of the Yale Medical School and Yale College, where he continues to teach medical student and psychiatric residents when he is in the States.

2012 - October 11: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Anxiety, Depression, and Self-Destructive Behavior


Dr. Charney reviewed the major emotional problems students may experience: anxiety and depression. These major psychiatric syndromes are often hard to distinguish–one can be depressed and not look sad, and one can be anxious but suffer primarily from depression. Both illnesses can be markedly debilitating, and neither is likely to be fixed without help. Counseling and sometimes medication can make a big difference. An important question is always “is the student safe?”. Is there anything about a student’s emotional state that puts him at risk of harming himself (or someone else). You will never put the idea in someone’s head by asking about it–and it is important to ask if you feel the situation warrents it.

2012 – September 27: Recognizing a Student in Distress--and What to Do about it


Students feel stress when they are out-of-balance emotionally, when their coping skills for new or challenging situations are being tested and don’t seem to be working. There are many indicators that a student is stressed: changes in work performance, the student becoming disorganized or erratic, grades slipping; behaviorally the student may seem withdrawn or look preoccupied or worried, show mood swings (anxious, irritable, depressed) and may tell you of problems sleeping, or concentrating, of feeling exhausted or suffering from stomach or headaches that are unexplained. Our job as teachers and advisors is not to become a counselor or therapist. But to be aware, to notice, and when concerned, take the student aside, tell him/her what you are seeing and ask about it–especially ask the student if he/she is worried about these changes. Offer support (not solutions) and encourage as much as possible the student’s feelings of control and competence.

2012 - March 8th: Interactive Lectures and Active Learning

Presented by Lisa Colletta, AUR Associate Professor of English and Director of the English Program.

This seminar examines various ways to incorporate student activities into the traditional academic lecture. The academic lecture is valuable; it remains the primary mode of teaching undergraduate students, but there are a few simple techniques professors can include at the end of class to help reinforce lecture points and to challenge students to be responsible for their own learning.

Resources:

2011 - October 17th: Roundtable Discussion on Effective Teaching

This seminar invited faculty from all disciplines to join in on a discusion and share their ideas about effective teaching techniques.The discussion included topics such as encouraging class participation, grading group projects, and writing effective lectures.

Also at issue was what, if anything, to do with those quiet students in the back row that we have on occasion.

Resources:

2011 - October 6th: Testing Online to Enhance Student Learning

Presented by Professor of Physics and Astronomy Alvise Mattei

This seminar examines the various uses of testing student learning with the use of online course management systems. Though online testing is limited in what it can test and its uses vary widely depending on disciplines, it can be an effective tool in monitoring students’ mastery of fundamental concepts. Additionally, requiring students to self-test can enhance comprehension and reinforce classroom learning.

Open or Download the Seminar Presentation in PDF

AUR TLC Publications

  • A Guide to Writing Course Learning Objectives and Program Goals (2008). Available in hard copy from the TLC.

Useful Links

Useful Publications

Reports

  • College Learning for the New Global Century (January 2007 and later editions) AAC&U. Appendix A contains a useful Guide to Effective Educational Practices (pp.53-54). Available from AUR TLC. Further details from http://www.aacu.org/ (Publications)
  • Liberal Education Outcomes: A Preliminary Report on Student Achievement in College (2005) AAC&U. The report gives an overview of national data on the importance of liberal education outcomes and how well college students are achieving these outcomes. It is designed to generate dialogue and spur implementation of more systematic ways to measure student learning outcomes across the curriculum and at incoming, milestone, and capstone levels. Available from AUR TLC. Further details from http://www.aacu.org/ (Publications)
  • Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College (2002) AAC&U. This report of the Greater Expectations National Panel calls for a new focus on excellence to better prepare students for the 21st century world. The report recommends the creation of a New Academy characterized by high expectations, a focus on learning, commitment to demonstrated achievement, intentional practices, and an engaged, practical liberal education for all students. Available from AUR TLC. Further details from http://www.aacu.org/ (Publications)
  • Contemporary Understandings of Liberal Education (1998) AAC&U. Examines the emergence of broad agreement on what students ought to learn from a liberal education and finds a strong trend toward pluralistic, collaborative, experiential, and integrative modes of learning. Also contends that outdated structures, practices, and reward systems frustrate higher education’s ability to reap the benefits of new directions in student learning. Available from AUR TLC. Further details from http://www.aacu.org/ (Publications)
  • Assessment in Cycles of Improvement: Faculty Designs for Essential Learning Outcomes, Ross Miller (2007) AAC&U. This publication features a series of reports on how selected colleges and universities foster and assess student learning in twelve liberal education outcome areas, including writing, quantitative literacy, critical thinking, ethics, intercultural knowledge, and information literacy. Moving from goals to experiences, assessments, and improvements driven by assessment data, each institutional story illustrates how complex learning can be shaped over time and across programs to bring students to higher levels of achievement of these important outcomes.

* Report descriptions taken from the AAC&U web site.

Periodicals

Peer Review provides a quarterly briefing on emerging trends and key debates in undergraduate liberal education. Each issue is focused on a specific topic, provides comprehensive analysis, and highlights changing practice on diverse campuses. Back numbers available from AUR TLC. Further details from http://www.aacu.org/ (Publications)

Books

  • How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research, Volume 2, Ernest T. Pascarella, Patrick T. Terenzini (2005) Available from AUR TLC.
  • Assessing General Education Programs, Mary J. Allen (2006) Anker, Bolton, Massachusetts Available from AUR TLC.
  • Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide, Linda Suskie (2004) Anker, Bolton, Massachusetts Available from AUR TLC.
  • Effective Grading: a Tool for Learning and Assessment , Barabara E. Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson (1998) Jossey-Bass Available from AUR TLC
  • A Guide to Outcomes Assessment in Education Abroad, Mell C. Bolen (ed.) (200&), The Forum on Education Abroad, Dickinson College. Available from AUR TLC