The VCU Center for Teaching Excellence is now accepting proposals for the 2011-2012 CTE Small Grants Program. All VCU faculty are welcome to apply for up to $5000 to support projects related to their development as learning-centered teachers in alignment with the VCU strategic plan, Quest for Distinction. Proposals will be accepted until 5:00pm on Monday, October 31, 2011. For more information, visit http://www.vcu.edu/cte/programs/small_grants.htm or contact Phil Edwards at pmedwards@vcu.edu.

One of the competencies associated with the undergraduate curriculum at VCU is information fluency, acquired through coursework which helps students "navigate library-related services (on-line and on-site) as well as evaluate the legitimacy of sources of information". In an area of discussion awash with (often competing) definitions, standards, professional guidelines, and assessment approaches, what it means to be an "information fluent", lifelong-learner remains a topic of on-going debate. In this session, the first offering from the Fall 2011 CTE Brown Bag Lunch Series, we will continue the discussion about information fluency across the VCU curriculum--examining where we are and where we might go--and consider how alternative visions of the "information fluency" concept (e.g., "information literacy", "metaliteracy", "transliteracy", "cyberliteracy", "digital literacy", "media literacy", "visual literacy") might contribute to our teaching and students' learning on campus. VCU faculty, staff, and graduate students are welcome to join this informal discussion on Friday, September 2, 2011 from 12:00pm-1:00pm in 5182 Harris Hall [get directions]; pre-registration is encouraged via the VCU Training Management system or our Facebook event page, but walk-in attendees are also welcome.

The delivery of courses online is nearly as old as the web itself, but as with any innovation, some faculty members have been early adopters while others have watched the development with both interest and skepticism. As publishing and managing content on the web has become easier, and as the delivery of online courses has become increasingly more popular, more faculty members have begun exploring ways to offer their courses online.

There is a common perspective that moving a course online is primarily about designing and sequencing course content. While content is important, we also believe that recent changes on the web - toward a more social and interconnected space - have necessitated the rethinking of what it means to make the transition to online teaching and learning. The unprecedented access to information coupled with the ability by anyone to publish online are disrupting how one teaches and learns, raising questions in the minds of faculty as to whether their own practices should change.

The CTE has authored a white paper, Building from Content to Community: [Re]Thinking the Transition to Online Teaching and Learning, that is intended to serve as a resource for faculty who are teaching online or are considering making a transition. We hope this paper serves as the starting point for conversation, and invite you to share your ideas by leaving a comment.

The paper is linked here. White Paper Online VCU (May 2009).pdf

We look forward to continuing the conversation.

Much of traditional undergraduate classroom instruction at the university level focuses on content coverage, with assessments linked to comprehension of the information presented. While this may be a necessary component of learning, it does not always take into consideration the knowledge learners bring to the classroom. What does assessment look like in a learning-centered classroom? What are the characteristics of learning-centered outcomes, and are they different from traditional course objectives? What instructional practices support outcomes that are learning-centered?

Listen to this podcast, recorded on 10 November 2006, as VCU Vice Provost of Instruction, Dr. Joe Marolla engages faculty and students is a discussion of these and other questions related to assessment in a learning-centered university.

You can download the file below and listen to it on your computer, or you can subscribe to the CTE's Teaching and Learning Podcast by pasting the following URL address into iTunes: http://blog.vcu.edu/cte/index.xml

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This podcast is the first episode in a series of open forums focusing on VCU's vision for becoming a learning-centered university. This recording from October 20, 2006 features Dr. Joe Marolla, Vice Provost of Instruction at VCU discussing the question "What is a learning-centered research university?"

A reading distributed to participants at the open forum, From Teaching to Learning: A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education by Robert Barr and John Tagg, can be found here.

You can download the file below and listen to it on your computer, or you can subscribe to the CTE's Teaching and Learning Podcast by pasting the following URL address into iTunes: http://blog.vcu.edu/cte/index.xml

Download file