The Shared Benefits of a College Degree

Publicly-funded education has long been considered integral to the health of our country. In 1822, James Madison noted, “learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty & dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.” He goes on to advocate for public funding of education as a path towards equal opportunity, noting “Without such Institutions, the more costly of which can scarcely be provided by individual means, none but the few whose wealth enables them to support their sons abroad can give them the fullest education… At cheaper & nearer seats of Learning parents with slender incomes may place their sons in a course of education putting them on a level with the sons of the Richest.”

How has public funding for Florida colleges fared in the past decade? According to a recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state funding has been cut 22.7% since 2008, a reduction of $2,132 per student (a glimmer of hope is that since 2015, Florida has increased funding 3.5%, or $244 per student). As a result of public finding cuts, institutions have been forced to raise tuition costs. Indeed, Florida’s universities increased tuition costs by an average of 64.3% between 2008 and 2016, a hike of $2,490 per student. Florida is not unique in this, and these data point to a worrying national trend in higher education: less state funding and more reliance on students to carry the load of the cost of college education – many by taking on substantial student loan debt.

In a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Philip Trostel argues that making cuts to higher education is easier when law-makers emphasize private, individual benefits of a college education (e.g., higher annual and lifetime income, longer life expectancy, more access to higher-quality healthcare, higher retirement accounts). When the value of higher education is framed on these individual benefits, law-makers and citizens alike often exclude discussions of the larger societal goods that result from higher education. Trostel argues that the notion of an educated populace as a public good has been completely omitted. With that omission, and the prevailing notion that private goods are best served by private means, financing of higher education has been deemed better-served by the free market, and not by public funding of universities.

Making higher education out of reach for those, as Madison suggests, with "slender incomes" has the consequence of inadvertently diminishing the "public mind" and threatening "public liberty." Shifting the narrative of the benefits of college education away from private gains to public gains might not change much in the short term. Over time, focusing on the shared social goods a society receives from college graduates can bring wider support for more public funding to achieve those aims, supporting a public that is ready to defend their public liberties.

By Greg Rousis

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Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) and Deep Learning

One of the most difficult tasks for instructors is to fully engage their students with classroom material. Encouraging a deep and lasting understanding of the underlying structure of material - also known as "deep" learning - has been shown to lead to higher quality learning outcomes than rote memorization of concepts - "surface" learning (Chin & Brown, 2000). Deep learning, however, is difficult to encourage in practice.

In order to assist teachers with this, Alan Schoenfeld, an education researcher at UCLA-Berkeley, has developed a tool called the Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) framework. Although initially designed specifically for teaching math, Dr. Schoenfeld has broadened its applicability to other fields. The TRU framework lays out five characteristics of classrooms that promote deep engagement with class material. The five dimensions of powerful classrooms are:

1. The Content
• The content of classrooms should be clear and concise and reflect the most current understanding of the subject matter at hand
2. Cognitive Demand
• The material should be difficult enough to encourage critical thinking and problem-solving, but not so difficult as to overwhelm students
3. Equitable Access to Content
• The classroom should allow for and encourage all students to engage with the material by expressing their opinions and asking questions about the content
4. Agency, Identity, and Authority
• The students themselves, rather than the teacher should be the source of the ideas being discussed
5. Use of Assessment
•  The instructor should be aware of the students' level of understanding of content and adapt the lessons to meet the students where they are as opposed to where they should be based on a set timeline

According to Schoenfeld, these dimensions are not new, but rather a condensed version of the current state of the literature on teaching. The idea behind the framework is to focus on "how students experience [the lesson], not on what the teacher is doing." This is an important distinction in that the students themselves are given the space to generate ideas and discuss their problem-solving strategies with each other rather than strictly following the teacher's lead.

The research team has provided a number of publications and presentations on the project and their findings. The main recommendation from these findings is for teachers to look carefully at the learning experiences provided for students, whether these experiences encourage "deep" learning as opposed to surface skill-based practice and whether student-level assessment can support targeted support for student misconceptions. With the right framework, teachers can find the right balance between academic challenge and enriching, engaging student learning experiences.


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How Can Profs Keep Students' Attention? Put Them in Charge

It's important for faculty to work their hardest to ensure their courses, especially when they are long or comprised of tedious or difficult subject matter, hold their students' attention and keep them engaged. Because it can be so easy for students to drift mentally in class (research purports that college students retain only 10% of material covered in lecture-based courses), it is critical that faculty employ new and creative ways to hold engagement high and get students involved and thinking critically.

Raymond Benton, Jr., a professor at Loyola University Chicago, has managed to put a new spin on an active-learning classic. In what is known as a "jigsaw classroom", students are divided into subgroups within the class, with each subgroup learning a specific topic that they then teach to the rest of the class. Each subgroup member becomes an expert in their allotted area, and the subgroups must educate each other in order to complete an overarching assignment that all groups must complete as a class.

In Benton's version, the "jigsaw classroom" puts students in control of more than learning and communicating information in a given course topic. In an example he provides, a small class of students are given three assigned readings, all of which teach student must read before class, and are randomly assigned to a reading group and a discussion group. In each reading group, the students discuss one of the three articles thoroughly, comparing their own conclusions and understandings of the article. They become experts in that one article, knowing that the other group members will ask questions about that article they will be responsible for answering. Next, they discuss what they did not fully understand about the other two articles and form a list of questions for the other groups. The students then move to discussion groups, in which article "experts" are represented equally, and ask and answer questions and engage in conversations about the articles. Students then reconvene in their original reading groups to compare the answers they received from other groups and share how they answered questions about their group's article. Finally, the professor regroups the entire class to have a class discussion debriefing what they learned about all the articles.

This method is rich with opportunities for active critical thinking and deep levels of processing that will allow students not only to pay attention, but also to engage with the course material in ways they would not remotely approach in a traditional lecture.

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Reforming Physics Education: What’s the story?

2015-2016 UNF Physics Colloquium Series presents:

Reforming Physics Education: What’s the story?
by
Dr. H. Vincent Kuo
Teaching Professor of Physics, Colorado School of Mines
Friday, April 8, 2016
2:00-2:50 p.m. 
Science & Engineering Building, Building 50, Room 1202
Refreshments will be provided

 Much has been argued in recent years for the benefits of experiential learning environments, but how are such contexts operationalized? What are the elements that can characterize such reforms? In this talk I will discuss the differences between teaching and learning environments, present some examples of what the physics education and research communities had contributed in this arena, and describe the adaptation that Colorado School of Mines had implemented, as well as identify some of the unintended consequences of our implementation.
All those interested in teaching within the STEM disciplines or those interested in teaching innovations in general are encouraged to attend.

Alternatives To Traditional Final Exams Encourage Student Engagement, Learning

When students leave college classrooms at the end of the semester, what are they really taking away with them? Too often, courses culminate in a student turning in a traditional multiple-choice final exam, quietly muttering "Thank you" to the professor, and walking out of the lecture hall having learned little of substance that will stay with them for more than a couple months. The suggestion to exchange final exams for semester 'finales' may seem far-fetched, but the idea might have practical value.

The most common reason students walk out of a course without having learned meaningfully is that they never made course material relevant to themselves. Past research indicates that students experience greater levels of motivation to learn when their teachers make content personally relevant to the students. Personalizing knowledge by putting it into one's own context is all that it takes for students to understand more deeply, rather than just hearing information, memorizing it, and regurgitating it without having ever really thought about it.

There are plenty of examples as to what a semester "finale" might look like. In general, they all focus on giving students an ultimate experience they can use to make course material personal and practical for them- something they can take with them into their future. The idea is to get students thinking,especially on the last day, so they can leave the course still mulling over what they've learned and how it can continue to apply to their intellectual life. Presenting students with just one particularly novel, perplexing question, for example, and asking them to solve it within a confined time is one way to change the final assessment paradigm. Perhaps instead of a final exam, the last day of the course could be a rubric-outlined debate or a collaborative assignment.

The point is, there is a serious lack of genuineness and creativity in the way most professors assess their students at the end of their courses. Final exams as they stand now often make the end of the semester feel more like a chore than a crescendo of an academic experience. By adding a little novelty, a little intrigue, and a little excitement, professors can create an end of the semester assessment that students will be talking about, and thinking about, long after the course is finished.

How do you add creativity and engagement in your final exams?


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Student Success Takes a Coordinated Effort

Each semester, the university admits new students. Oftentimes, students have misconceptions about their study habits and about how to succeed in college. Research indicates that Academic Support Services are particularly helpful for first-generation students, especially in their first year.

The Student Academic Center at Indiana University-Bloomington has prepared a number of videos designed to help students be better prepared to succeed in college courses and to help them navigate college in general. You might consider providing some links for students in your classes to help them succeed.

At UNF, the Academic Center or Excellence has a number o Skill Development Workshops that support students in learning good study habits and time management skills. You might refer your student to these services on the UNF campus.



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Testing Critical Thinking using Multiple Choice Questions - Part 2

The General Education Program and the Office of Faculty Enhancement invites faculty to a continuing discussion and workshop on using multiple-choice questions to assess critical thinking. 

Teaching and assessing critical thinking in student work is a priority for many faculty. Faculty typically assess critical thinking through essay test questions and lengthy assignments, both of which are time consuming to grade. Multiple choice questions are quick to grade but typically are constructed to test recall and comprehension. 

In the first workshop of this series, participants evaluated multiple-choice questions on whether they assessed two important skills associated with critical thinking, analysis and evaluation. 

In this workshop, participants will work collaboratively in crafting multiple-choice test items that assess analysis and evaluation. This event will be especially helpful to those teaching General Education courses that satisfy the Critical Thinking requirement. Participants are encouraged to bring with them 3-5 multiple choice questions that they would like to convert to critical thinking questions or that they would like to modify and enhance to assess critical thinking. 
RSVP is required, email ofe@unf.edu 

Testing Critical Thinking using Multiple Choice Questions
Friday, December 4th, 2015, 11:30-1:00 p.m.
COAS Dean's Conference Room, Bld 51, Room 3201
RSVP required, email ofe@unf.edu

Should Students Write Their Own Exams? The Benefits of Innovation

Two marketing professors are espousing the view that traditional college exams, in which a professor writes an exam to assess students' knowledge of course learning objectives, may not be the most effective way to motivate students to learn. Their proposed alternative? Students write their own exams. While it is well-known that humans learn more effectively when they must manipulate materials and ideas to create a new product, rather than simply regurgitate information, many professors would undoubtedly be uneasy with the idea of students writing and taking their own exams.

In their study, the researchers asked students to create exam questions based on a range of recently covered course materials (like most exams) and then answer the questions they had written for themselves. Students were given specific guidelines in terms of what content they needed to cover in their questions, what practical learning objectives the exam should address, and the rubric that would be used to grade the exam. The questions were meant to be predominantly multiple choice, with one short essay question. Students wrote and answered their questions and brought them to class, where the normal time used to take the exam was used instead to discuss questions and answers, during which time students could alter answers, but not questions, if they wished. Then, students turned in their exams to be graded by the professors, who graded them based on the extent to which questions covered relevant course content and learning objectives, how challenging the questions were, and the accuracy of the answers.

The results may be surprising to those outside academia, but really shouldn't surprise any professional educators. Follow-up assessment showed that this method improved student learning outcomes. Because students had been forced to utilize the material at a higher level of processing, by analyzing, evaluating, and creating course information instead of memorizing and occasionally applying it, students learned more deeply. Students were thinking critically about material in the same way their professors had to in order to create an exam that would test student knowledge fairly and comprehensively. When they were required to think like those who have mastery in the subject, they were able to better approach mastery themselves. Although students reported that this method is more challenging than traditional exams, they also reported that they were more motivated to learn as a result and that their exam experience was less stressful. Although this alternative to traditional testing in higher learning is not perfect, it is an important reminder that when faculty stop thinking about education as a static system and start incorporating viable fresh perspectives, students are able to make breakthroughs in the quality of their learning.

Making Office Hours Required for Students: The Best Bad Idea You've Ever Heard

It is well known that students who build working relationships with their professors are
more successful both in college and after graduation. One of the best ways to cultivate that relationship is the simple step of coming to a professor's office hours.

Despite the fact that office hours are theoretically beneficial for students, very few students seem to take advantage of this valuable opportunity. Office hours should be the time students are receiving much-needed mentoring that can lead to increased student engagement, leading to better performance in the course and ultimately to higher graduation rates.

Should faculty then make office hours mandatory for students? The logic behind this move is simple. Much is lost in the translation of course material and knowledge from the professor to the student during the lecture because it lacks personal and motivational factors that are typical in more personal conversations. This effect is compounded when grades and feedback are given only through writing, whether digital or analog. Making a personal connection has always been, and is still, extremely helpful to the learning process. Although practical ways to implement required office hours depend tremendously on course size, the idea that students benefit from engaging with their professors on an individual level about course topics is wholly unsurprising and is worth pursuing.

Let us know your feedback. Do you require office visits for your students? What would be some advantages or disadvantages?

Study Suggests Student Self-Assessment Is an Untapped Resource

RM Tamrakar; https://flic.kr/p/eiUxP1

Students are constantly being academically assessed,usually by professors, in the form of exams and quizzes. Students are rarely given the opportunity, however, to assess their own work. Researchers found that students who voluntarily self-assess become better able to make accurate judgement about their own work. A recent study showed that, as students continued to voluntarily self-assess their work, the judgments they made about their work became more closely aligned with those of tutors who were experts in assessment for the particular subject.

What does this imply for higher education faculty? It looks like it is a good idea to allow your students to self-assess more often. Although this study evaluated voluntary (self-selected) student self-assessment and not the effects of student self-assessment overall, it is theoretically likely that self-assessment would improve students' academic judgments of their own work regardless of whether they have chosen to self-assess on their own. Asking students to assess their own work in class or on assignments gives them a chance to develop assessment skills that they would otherwise have no opportunity to practice.

Self-assessment practice pays dividends post-graduation, when evaluation of one's own task performance does not come until after the performance is completed and cannot be taken back. Being able to accurately assess the quality of one's own work before putting it into action is critical in the real-world, where there are few second chances. Better self-assessment in college work could save professors more time, as students are better able to determine what areas need improvement before turning in completed work. 

Testing Critical Thinking using Multiple Choice Questions

Teaching and assessing critical thinking in student work is a priority for many faculty. Faculty typically assess critical thinking through essay test questions and lengthy assignments, both of which are time consuming to grade. Multiple choice questions are quick to grade but typically are constructed to test recall and comprehension. This workshop will provide guidance and practice in crafting multiple-choice test items that assess higher-order and critical thinking skills of analysis and evaluation. 
Testing Critical Thinking using Multiple Choice Questions
Friday, October 30th, 2015, 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Biology Building 59, Room 2701
RSVP to ofe@unf.edu

This event will be especially helpful to those teaching General Education courses that satisfy the Critical Thinking requirement. 
Participants are asked to post (up to 5) example critical thinking multiple choice questions prior to joining the workshop. Contact Dan Richard drichard@unf.edu for details.

Course Redesign Call For Applications - Problem-Based Learning

Course Redesign for Effective Learning (CREL) –

Problem-Based Learning Institute

The Office of Faculty Enhancement (OFE), in collaboration with Undergraduate Studies, invites full-time faculty to participate in a summer course redesign institute focused on problem-based learning. The purpose of this institute is to provide faculty with the time, resources, information, and collaborative support needed to revise and redesign a selected Fall 2015 or Spring 2016 course (or design a new course) in ways that will maximize student learning.

Deadline for Applications: Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015  

Interested faculty should complete the online application at: http://unf.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3sXvOhEs6L0V7q5

The focus of this year’s course redesign program will be Problem-based Learning (PBL). Problem-based learning is a teaching strategy in which students are presented with problems and issues that need to be resolved. As part of the learning process, students work actively in collaborative teams to address the issue. As a result, students not only learn broad-based content knowledge but develop deep, authentic critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

OFE invites UNF faculty who are interested in integrating problem-based learning into their course or to enhance the problem-based learning already implemented to apply for the CREL-PBL program. Such proposals could include student projects, research activities as part of a course, community-based learning, or other forms of group projects.

The UNF faculty selected to participate in the CREL and who produce a redesigned product will receive a $500 stipend. In addition, OFE will cover travel to the Worchester Polytechnic Institute’s 2015 Problem-Based Learning Institute, scheduled for June 25^th-27^th (travel starting on June 24^th). Faculty must participate in the WPI Institute to receive the stipend.

For information about the Problem-Based Learning Institute, visit the institute webpage at: http://wpi.edu/+2015institute

The Review Process

The proposals will be reviewed by the OFE Director in consultation with the Faculty Association’s Faculty Enhancement Committee.

Applications will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

• The proposed change represents a significant change to the structure, organization, or activities associated with the course.
• The proposed change is reasonable given the time constraints.
• The proposed change is likely to affect student learning positively.

Faculty members who have been awarded summer research and teaching grants are eligible to participate in CREL.  For those who have received a summer teaching grant, the CREL project proposal should involve a different course than that on which the summer teaching grant is based.  Preference will be given to first-time participants in OFE’s course redesign workshops. Preference will be given to faculty teaching lower division courses and for courses offered as part of the General Education program. Applications from a variety of perspectives and methods are encouraged. Selection of proposals will ensure a broad participation across disciplines on campus.

  

Preparing the CREL-PBL Project Proposal Application

Interested faculty should complete the online application at:

http://unf.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3sXvOhEs6L0V7q5

The deadline for applications is February  3^rd.

Frankly Friday - Your Best Students

Are the best students in your classroom?
Friday, November 14th, 2014

9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Faculty Lounge, Building 16, Room 4201
RSVP ofe@unf.edu

The University of North Florida has been ranked as one of the best colleges in the South by US News and World Report. The report identifies UNF as relatively selective, admitting only 53% of applicants. Despite the desirability of UNF and the recognition it receives nationally, students often see UNF as a second choice. For first-time-in-college students at UNF, according to institutional data, less than 50% graduate from UNF in 6 years. According to a report by the UNF Retention and Graduation Committee, 20% of Freshmen who leave UNF transfer to another state university. These student transfers tend to have high GPAs. This high-performing students might be leaving UNF to have a different experience at another university. The student experience at UNF might be a factor as well. A recent MIT survey asked students why they did not attend class. The students reported not attending class mostly because of unclear or low engagement lectures. Other factors included students pursuing other class-related deadlines and having poor sleep.

Come  and discuss what factors might prevent the best students from being in your classroom. Should students be required to attend class? How would this affect the student experience and student retention of top students? Dr. Albert Colom, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Services, and Dr. Jeff Coker, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, will discuss enrollment trends and student engagement at UNF. OFE will provide the coffee and pastries. 

Friday, November 14th, 2014

9:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Faculty Lounge, Building 16, Room 4201
RSVP ofe@unf.edu

Transforming STEM Education Conference

Faculty in the STEM and STEM related fields may be interested in an upcoming Association of American
Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Academic Renewal Conference focusing on Transforming STEM Education. Such conferences provide opportunities for networking and for being inspired around teaching and learning. See the details below or follow the conference link to learn more.

Transforming STEM Higher Education
A Network for Academic Renewal Conference

November 6-8, 2014
Atlanta, Georgia Register by September 24 for best conference rates.


The Association of American Colleges and Universities and Project Kaleidoscope invite you to attend the Transforming STEM Higher Education Conference. The conference will address both the importance of increasing the number of STEM baccalaureate degree earners who master complex STEM content and competencies and also the importance of enhancing STEM literacy for all students. To these ends, the conference will strategically address several dimensions of STEM higher education reform, including innovative and effective approaches to undergraduate STEM teaching and learning; strategies for measurement and evaluation; inclusive excellence; faculty professional development; and advancement of effective institutional change strategies. 

Difficult Conversations: Starting a Dialogue Across Difference

Join faculty from different disciplines for a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) panel discussion on 

Difficult Conversations: Starting a Dialogue across Difference

Wednesday, April 16th, 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Talon Room, Building 16, Room 4202

RSVP for lunch: ofe@unf.edu

Faculty from different disciplines will address how to help students have some of the most difficult conversations across differences, including those tense conversations about group work and the lack thereof, and about differences across social divides. UNF faculty will share research and tips about facilitating these discussions and the potential long-term impact of engaging students in dialogue across difference. Lunch will be provided for those who RSVP at: ofe@unf.edu

AAC&U Targets Scientific Thinking and Integrative Reasoning

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has provided funding for and has invited The deadline for applications is January 6, 2014.
proposals from scholars who are interested in becoming college campus thought and action leaders around scientific thinking and integrated reasoning. See the information below regarding the award program.



Call for Applications: 2014-2015 STIRS Scholars

As part of its ScientificThinking and Integrative Reasoning Skills (STIRS) Initiative, AAC&U will select as many as six faculty members to serve as STIRS Scholars. STIRS seeks to improve the capacity of undergraduate students to use evidence to solve problems and make decisions. Such capacities are foundational to general education and are critical for all students in all areas of study—the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities—if they are to become engaged and productive citizens.
During their term (2014-2015), STIRS Scholars will: 

• Develop the first generation of STIRS case studies (See the Call for Applications).
• Provide valuable faculty and campus perspectives on STIRS strategies for curricular change and for wider efforts to increase attention to evidence-based reasoning in the undergraduate experience.
• Form a leadership cohort within an emerging community of practice comprising colleagues committed to improving evidence-based reasoning and decision making as an outcome of undergraduate liberal education.
• Help select and mentor a second cohort of STIRS Scholars chosen to begin in early 2015.

Deadline for Application: Monday, January 6, 2014
Announcement of Selections: Friday, January 17, 2014
Faculty members teaching in any undergraduate field at any AAC&U member institution are eligible.

See the callfor applications for more information about the STIRS scholars and about how to apply.

Questions? Contact Kevin Hovland, Senior Director for Global Learning and Curricular Change, at hovland@aacu.org.