Schedule

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Steve Cramer, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering

Moderators:
Sandra Courter, Director, Engineering Learning Center

This overview of recent research in the learning sciences will address issues of how people learn from both cognitive and socio-cultural perspectives. It will also briefly describe how this research impacts the design of learning environments. So think of the kind of classroom environment you want to set for your students and how you will communicate and model it - starting your first class day.

Panelists:
Erica Halverson, Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology

New engineering teaching assistants will move to their workshops in the Engineering Centers Building. All others may remain in 1800 Engineering Hall.

Share experiences from graduate students who have been involved with the program and see for yourself the support that is available on campus for teaching and learning. Whether you are interested in teaching strategies, assessment methods, diversity issues, or more rigorous research related to how your students are learning, you can find other graduate students with similar interests and programs to support your interests. Delta was an NSF-sponsored project but now is a regular campus program. http://www.delta.wisc.edu/

Coordinators:
Chris Pfund, Delta Associate Director
Don Gillian-Daniel, Delta Associate Director
Bob Mathieu, Astronomy, Delta Co-Faculty Advisor
Kristin Masters, Biomedical Engineering, Delta Co-Faculty Director (invited)

Facilitators:
Graduate Students with Delta Experience - to be named

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

This workshop is no longer a choice during TIP on Thursday, August 28. Instead we will continue the conversation about how people learn in a web-conference within the first two weeks of the semester. You will receive an email with details. Please choose one of the other four workshops.

Learning styles, gender, race, culture, geography, and socio-economic characteristics are among the diversity issues that influence how students learn. This interactive workshop will help you draw on the diversity of students in your class to benefit the learning of all and add adiversity learning goal to your course syllabus. You will discuss how both content and process are important to your course and discover case studies, research, and resources to develop an inclusive syllabus.

Coordinators:
Don Gillian-Daniel, Associate Director, Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning
Chris Pfund, Associate Director, Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning and Co-director of the Wisconsin Program for Scientific Teaching

While TAs have little control over their course material, they know that they are required to "cover' all the assigned material. Often this results in an over-load of information or "mental dazzle" for the undergraduate learner. This workshop will show how a philosophy of "less is more" can help to design lesson plans that will focus on key concepts and student-active teaching strategies that promote learning and measurable outcomes.

Moderators:
George Johnson, Associate Faculty Associate, Engineering Professional Development

The College of Engineering is pleased to introduce a new course management system based on Moodle, an open-source program. Compare it to Learn@UW. Whatever decision you make, your students will expect to find your syllabus and learning resources on the web. Simple planning steps and important design elements can make even your textbooks; quizzes; assignments; podcasts; and Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, or Flash documents more accessible to all students. Of course, web-based learning activities can help students learn, but designing them can be a challenge. Learn strategies to design courses with materials that meet accessibility guidelines, serve a wide range of student abilities, and accommodate a variety of web browsers and devices. eCOW2 Tutorials (see http://ecow.engr.wisc.edu/tutorials/)

Facilitators:
Paul Oliphant, Computer Aided Engineering
Joyce Tikalsky, Webmaster, Engineering External Relations

How do you know that your students know what you want them to know? You and your supervisor should discuss this question and then review the learning experiences you are planning for your course. This workshop will focus on developing a formal assessment blueprint that TAs could discuss with their faculty supervisors; this would include both formal and informal assessments to see if students are understanding the material. You will discuss how your course syllabus or webpage should include the assessment blueprint as well.

Facilitators:
Moira LaFayette, Engineering Assessment Director
Colleen Abraham-Atakpu, Graduate Student, Industrial & Systems Engineering and Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis