Minutes
Present: Richard Berke, Hal Bertilson, David Blankinship, Linda Carpenter,
Bill Cerbin, Suzanne Griffith, Catherine Helgeland, Douglas Johnson, Kristin
Kleinsteiber, Lisa Kornetsky, Charles Matter, Ronald Mickel, Erika Sander, Tim
Sewall, Dave Staszak, Charlotte Stokes, Kay Taube, James Taylor, Donald Weber,
David Zierath
Absent: Kathy Ackley, Lori Carrell, Anthony Ciccone, Esther Fahm, Rex
Fuller, Terry Gibson, John Grabel, Rene Gratz, Gerald Greenfield, Nan Jordahl,
Mike Nicolai, Hal Schlais, Robert Skloot, Greg Valde
Staff: Susan Kahn, Director; Donna Silver, Program and Grants Coordinator;
Rebecca Karoff, Communications Coordinator; Holly Loomis, Program Assistant;
Renata Wilk, Student Assistant
Friday Guests: Bassam Shakhashiri, UW-Madison; Daniel Kalgren, UW-Marinette;
Stephen Meyer, UW-Parkside; Sue Patrick, UW-Barron Co.
FRIDAY MEETING
The Fall Meeting convened at 9:00 a.m. Doug Johnson of UW-River Falls welcomed
Council members. After members introduced themselves, Doug provided an overview
of the agenda.
Bassam Shakhashiri, the first guest speaker, presented to the Council on the
occasion of UTIC’s 20th anniversary. As founding Chair of UTIC twenty years
ago, he reflected on some of UTIC’s earliest initiatives, including the
first Faculty College in Marinette and the launching of Teaching Forum, as well
as on goals for the future. After handing out lightsticks in celebration of
UTIC’s anniversary, and leading the group in singing "Happy Birthday",
he provided an overview of responsibilities and the commitment to learning to
be fulfilled by university instructors at every level.
Following hearty applause, the Council took a ten-minute break and reconvened
for the next presentation of a UTIG funded project, "Building a Community
of Student Historians: A Statewide Learning Network." Sue Patrick, UW-Barron
County began with a brief history of the project, including an overview of the
preliminary training workshop provided for faculty at Eau Claire. Daniel Kalgren,
UW-Marinette, discussed participant training, the set-up of course webpages
and listservs for students, and the advantages and pitfalls of technology-enhanced
learning via a large, interinstitutional network. Stephen Meyer, UW-Parkside,
gave a detailed demonstration of the features and uses of his own course on
the web. The discussion continued with Q & A from the audience on such issues
as evaluation of student learning outcomes, time commitment by faculty, and
faculty incentives and rewards for web course development.
The Council broke up into Committee meetings for brief discussion before lunch.
The meetings resumed afterwards until approximately 2:15 p.m., at which time
the full Council reconvened for committee reports and a business meeting. The
meeting at Memorial Union adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
COMMITEE REPORTS:
Faculty Roles and Rewards Committee
Tim Sewall reported on the long-term outlook for technology and how its use
often creates more work rather than less for faculty. Three principal agendas
were addressed:
1) Preparation to put together a workshop on organizing for learning at UTIC’s
spring ’98 conference; 2) the Committee volunteered to be the planning
group for the next Department Chairs Workshop; 3) UW System representation at
the national Faculty Roles and Rewards Conference.
Professional Development Committee
Erika Sander reported first on the review of the evaluation summary for the
Department Chairs Workshop. Since Tallmann was almost unanimously popular, it
was proposed that he should return to future conferences, or that a full conference
might be devoted to legal issues. Then, in discussion of the Wisconsin Teaching
Fellows, the Committee proposed to ask campuses for 1/9 summer support for each
fellow. Next, the Committee suggested that each campus set up a Faculty Development
webpage, with a contact person and cross links to research programs and to UTIC’s
page. Erika proposed a tentative due date of March 6, 1998. Finally, the Handbook
for new UTIC Representatives was discussed, with the suggestion to put the Handbook
on the UTIC webpage.
Student Learning Committee
Cathy Helgeland reported on the Committee’s discussion on teaching students
how to learn, considering such factors as effective questioning, gender differences
and learning, exploration of scholarship on student learning, life-long learning
enhancement, and implementing theory of student learning into practice. Goals
for future initiatives included how to get UTIC involved, the suggestion that
the Grants Committee make student learning a priority, the creation of an evaluation
sheet to ask about additional ideas and requests, and a Faculty College devoted
to student learning issues.
Technology Committee
Kay Taube reported on the discussion at several recent conferences devoted to
technology, within the UW System and nationwide, and the April Conference on
Student Learning. The Committee proposed a survey of technology initiatives,
inquiries on grants ideas, and demonstration and best practices groups at the
conference. Other topics included the impact of technology on Faculty Roles
and Rewards, and becoming aware of discipline-specific projects that implement
technology.
Grants Committee
Linda Carpenter reported on the discussion about the types of information posted
on the web to date, and proposed that outcome information on UTIG grants be
posted as well, e.g., evaluation results and abstracts of final reports. The
Committee also discussed its role, particularly its accountability in terms
of grants and its lack of involvement in review, final reporting, and consequences.
They suggested taking a closer look at the guidelines to determine where there
might be discontinuities and unclear sections. Based on last year’s observer’s
report from the System Review Committee, the committee should look at the guidelines
and ensure they are consistent with the actions of the System Review Committee.
New Business
Susan closed the meeting with an update about the upcoming Technology Grants
RFP. She announced upcoming events, including the Student Learning Conference
to be held on April 3-4 in Madison; Faculty College on May 28-31, 1998; the
Vice Chancellor’s working group on UTIC; and the national Faculty Roles
and Reward Conference to be held on January 29, 1998.
COMMITTEE MINUTES:
Technology Committee Meeting
Present: Suzanne Griffith, Charles Matter, Kay Taube (Chair), Rebecca
Karoff (UTIC Staff), David Blankinship (representing Grants Committee).
Absent: Rex Fuller, Terry Gibson, John Grabel, Gerald Greenfield, Hal
Schlais (ex officio).
. S. Griffith announced she has rejoined the Technology Committee out of the
committee's concern that none of our members is also an Executive Committee
member.
. The group approved notes from the September meeting and thanked C. Matter
for serving as note-taker.
. K. Taube announced that the Wisconsin Educational Technology Conference was
very successful this year, with over 1,400 people (K-12 educators, faculty/staff
from UW institutions, WTCS, and private colleges, vendors) attending the Stevens
Point conference earlier this month.
An ITDC meeting was also held at Stevens Point (10/2-3/97); notes from this
meeting have been electronically distributed.
A Symposium on IT for Learning, co-hosted by UWEX and UWSA, was held in Madison
(11/12-13/97). Nearly 250 persons attended (K-12 educators, teams from UW institutions,
and representatives from DPI & WTCS).
In October the Board of Regents approved establishing the UW Learning Innovation
Center. The new Center will be responsible for the creation, distribution and
evaluation of digital learning products and will support faculty and learners
who use these products. UWEX Continuing Education Dean Mike Offerman will head
the Center, serving as its executive director and reporting to UW System President
Katharine Lyall through David J. Ward. The Center will be a resource to faculty/staff
from throughout the UW System.
. R. Karoff provided updates on funded technology initiatives
included in the biennial budget (technology DIN). The UWS received $2 million
for IT staff support for FY 97-99 as well as $200K for FY 97-98 and $800K for
FY 98-99 for technological improvements for faculty and instructional academic
staff. 80% of the technology funds will go to campuses for IT and curricular
reforms; 20% will be retained at UWSA and administered through the OLIT. This
money will be available through grants; RFPs will be out soon for campus-wide,
collaborative projects.
We will ask H. Schlais to use the listserv to provide more detailed information
about the technology dollars and to also update us on what happened to faculty
development funds.
We recommended 1) a UTIC Technology Committee member (s) serve on whatever review
group is established to review campus proposals and 2) asked UTIC staff to share
a copy of our Technology Conference Follow-up Survey findings with Ed Meechem,
Hal Schlais, and others who are working on developing the RFP.
. The committee discussed ideas for a technology track for the conference (D.
Blankinship distributed notes from the Conference Planning Committee meeting).
We recommended a pre-conference panel on assessment issues in learning technologies
- what we know and don't know, and what we don't even know to ask. For the conference
we recommended 1) best practices and demos and 2) the impact of technology on
faculty roles and rewards.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kay Taube
Student Learning Committee Meeting
Present: Bill Cerbin, James Taylor, Dick Berke, Cathy Helgeland, Donna
Silver, Hal Bertilson
Guest: Kathy Sanders
The committee reviewed the plans for the upcoming Student Learning Conference
scheduled for April.
Bill Cerbin reported that Lee Shulman has been invited to be a keynote speaker.
Other invitations for outside speakers will be sent pending Shulman's reply.
The committee brainstormed possible topics for conferences sessions. Some of
these include gender differences in learning, how to teach students to learn
(learning to learn), using questions effectively, what students are learning
from using new technologies, lifelong learning, dealing with learning disabilities,
Learning Theory and Practice 101.
Bill Cerbin agreed to draft a letter to campuses to help identify possible system
faculty for presentations.
The committee also discussed possible follow-up activities such as a special
grants competition, and identifying student learning as a priority for UTIG
grants.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Cerbin
Professional Development Committee
Present: R. Mickel, D. Zierath, E. Sander, K. Kleinsteiber, R. Wilk
Absent: T. Ciccone, G. Valde, E. Fahm
· The session began with a review of the Department Chairs Workshop evaluation
summaries to determine needs for workshops in the future. Two principal points
were discussed:
1. That the session presented by John Tallman, Legal and Personnel Issues at
the Department Level was indispensable and could be the focus of an entire workshop.
It was suggested that the topics that Tallman discussed could be particularly
useful to less experienced Chairs with six months to one year of experience.
It was also suggested that the more experienced Chairs could benefit from sessions
concerning Faculty Roles and Rewards.
2. That more session topics should be offered, or that smaller groups should
be formed. Erika Sander suggested forming "break-out" groups to meet
after main session, then to reconvene with main group for further discussion.
· The Committee then discussed the provision of institutional support for the
Wisconsin Teaching Fellows Program. They addressed the problem of campus support,
particularly that campus contributions should be more consistent. Erika Sander
also suggested that information from the campuses should be made readily available;
Ron Mickel and David Zierath argued, however, that isolated problems on individual
campuses might make assessment difficult. They also suggested that there should
be a greater focus on teaching and student learning, and proposed to ask campuses
for 1/9 of summer support for WTF.
· Campus-level Faculty/Staff Development Programs
The Committee discussed how to assess and make available specific development
commitments on campus (i.e. what are the deans doing), and proposed to update
the WTF link on the UTIC web page to help disseminate information to system-wide
campuses. They suggested creating a new link to Faculty/Staff programs, which
would contain a list of all programs and corresponding e-mail contacts. They
requested that the information be presented to the Committee by March 6, 1998,
in order to allow time for the Committee to prepare a demo for the UTIC Spring
meeting on March 13.
· The UTIC Handbook Draft
The Committee agreed to ask Susan Kahn about updating the Handbook; perhaps
the handbook mission statement could be made available on the UTIC web page.
Respectfully submitted,
Renata Wilk
The Office of Professional & Instructional Development (formerly the Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Council) is part of the Office of Academic Affairs, University of Wisconsin System.
This page can be reached at: http://www.uwsa.edu/opid/conf/council/nov97.htm. Last revised: May 8, 2002 .