How Well Do You Know Your Class Workloads?

Photo by Steve Corey

For many professors, it is difficult to gauge how much time their students spend on assigned tasks outside of class. How long does it take a student to read 30 pages from a textbook? Two scientific journal articles? How long would it take a student to write a 5-page, double-spaced article summary? With these difficulties in mind, two professors from Rice University have developed the Course Workload Estimator. This tool allows an instructor to enter the specifics of assignments given to students and to determine the estimated weekly workload.

We gave the estimator a try using an old syllabus from a 3-credit College Algebra course. The class had 4 exams (one of which was cumulative), approximately 20 pages of assigned reading from a textbook per week, and 50 other assignments (25 online homework assignments and 25 online quizzes). Entering this information yielded an estimated workload of 10.1 hours per week, slightly more than 3 hours of study per hour spent in class.

Although it varies by professor, most faculty members try to give students 3 to 5 hours of outside classwork per hour of class. For example, if a student is taking 12 credit hours, she would need to study somewhere between 36 and 60 hours per week in order to keep up.

Unfortunately, there is a substantial gap between teacher expectations and actual student behavior. According to the most recent National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data, UNF students report studying between 1 and 1.5 hours per credit hour weekly. Thus, the student taking 12 credit hours, would only study 12 to 18 hours per week, instead of the expected 36 to 60 hours.

Recent research has shown, however, that time spent studying is not, in and of itself, a reliable predictor of academic performance in college (Nonis & Hudson, 2006; Plant, Ericsson, Hill, & Asberg, 2004). Rather, time spent studying interacts with other factors, including ability, motivation, and the quality of studying environment, to predict academic performance. The Course Workload Estimator could be a good starting point for translating your class content into clear time-commitment expectations for your students, but more studying does not necessarily mean higher performance. It seems that course workload is no substitute for good course design and planning.

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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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Math Motivation Moderates the Effect of Math Anxiety on Math Performance

Mathematics is perhaps the most-feared school subject across education, from students in elementary schools to universities. There is a wealth of research providing evidence that math performance and math learning have negative relationships with math anxiety. Unfortunately, the more anxious one becomes about their math performance, the worse they will be at learning and performing math skills.

Math anxiety contributes to a performance gap in STEM fields for minority students and women, who report more anxiety in math-related fields than their White male counterparts. But is it really as simple as, "If math makes you nervous, you won't be as good at it"? Recent research indicates that that's not the whole story.

A 2015 study, researchers, brings some new evidence to the discussion. The authors underscore that, yes, past research has shown that math anxiety diminishes math cognition, stunting both math performance and learning. However, anxiety tends to have a curvilinear relationship with complex cognitive tasks in general, such that more anxiety correlates with increased performance, but after a certain point, increased anxiety begins to correlate with decreased performance. When this relationship is graphed it is shaped like an upside-down U (similar to a parabola, as a matter of fact).

What researchers found was that math anxiety and math performance had a curvilinear (inverse-U) relationship, but only when the students had a high intrinsic math motivation. Those with low math motivation showed the typical negative linear relationship between math anxiety and performance, that is, as anxiety increased, performance decreased. The moderating effect of motivation on the relationship between math anxiety and performance was found for both children and adult college students.

This research demonstrates that there is a a complex interaction of emotional and cognitive factors that impact learning and performance. For math, it seems, anxiety can be harnessed as a useful learning tool for those with high intrinsic motivation. Those with low intrinsic motivation around math are best to avoid panic.

Gateway Course Conference in Atlanta - Call for Applications

The Office of Faculty Enhancement invites faculty who teach, coordinate and/or develop curriculum for high enrollment courses and/or high risk gateway courses to attend an upcoming conference on gateway courses in Atlanta, GA.

The John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education will be hosting a conference on Improving Institutional and Student Performance in Gateway Courses. The conference will be held on April 3rd-5th, 2016, at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead, Atlanta, GA.

Gateway (high enrollment, high risk) courses provide unique challenges for students who may be unprepared for the rigor of the course or who may have difficulty progressing in their curriculum plan if they do not succeed. Helping students succeed in these gateway courses improves student retention and graduation.

The Office of Faculty Enhancement will support the travel and collaboration of 3-5 UNF faculty members to attend the conference and present what they have learned to the UNF faculty community. Faculty interested in attending and being a part of the UNF innovation team, contact Dan Richard at drichard@unf.edu with a brief statement of your interest in the conference and in gateway courses. Preference for funding will be given to faculty who teach gateway courses. 
Faculty interested in OFE providing travel support (funding) will need to contact drichard@unf.edu with your interest by February 29th. 

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New Education School Promotes Teacher Competency, But Questions Remain

The American public school system has long struggled to recruit and retain high-performing teachers, particularly in schools in lower income areas where there are less resources to go around yet more obstacles to learning to overcome. Another issue that needs improvement is that there there are not enough "high-performing" school teachers to begin with.

Critics believe that this is due to the lack of competency-based graduate level teacher education schools. As more and more teachers have some type of specialized graduate degree in education, with about 185,000 Master's in Education degrees awarded in 2010, issues with graduate education degrees have become more apparent. One planned school, created by outspoken teacher-education critic Arthur Levine, seeks to focus on critical competencies achieved rather than the amount of time spent in class learning how to teach.

The principal of establishing competency for educators may hold just as much value for those who teach in higher education as it does for those who teach in primary and secondary settings. Many faculty members at universities are in teaching positions because they are experts in their fields, but they are rarely required to demonstrate teaching competencies or educational standards. One group, , has proposed a competency-based system or teachers in higher education, including badges for mastering learning environments, assessment techniques, ethics, and leadership.
Digital Promise

Several problems with the school's proposed approach have yet to be reckoned with. First, the criteria for these competencies is nebulous, with no goals or practices specifically enumerated by the new school. Which competencies are critical, and what they are composed of, must be clearly delineated for both secondary and post-secondary educators.

Second, what is the best way to measure how good or competent a teacher is? Surely it has something to do with a unique ability to bring out the best in their students and to enable them to learn what they will need to succeed. However, although there are outcomes that reflect effective teaching, there is no set of accurate or quantifiable measurements to determine what effective or competent teaching is or how it is achieved. These issues are just as relevant for school-teachers as they are for higher education faculty.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the proposed school is an entirely online curriculum. This format gives freedom to future teachers to work at their own pace to achieve the competencies and skills deemed necessary to graduate, but it seems unlikely that an online learning curriculum with no social interaction between teachers and no experiences with students will prepare graduates for an extremely person-focused profession. Results remain to be seen.


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Conference on Gateway Courses: Call for Proposals

Please see the announcement below regarding a conference on student success in gateway (introductory and high failure-rate) courses. Success in such courses can be challenging for students who often arrive unprepared for the demanding nature of the courses. New strategies and technologies will be explored at this upcoming conference in Atlanta, GA.

Now is the time to submit a concurrent session proposal for the 2016 Annual JNGI Gateway Course Experience Conference. ***Deadline to submit is Jan. 11, 2016. 

The event takes place April 3 - 5, 2016 in Atlanta, GA.

Proposals should reflect the best thinking in the field of improving institutional and student performance in gateway courses - college credit-bearing and/or remedial courses that launch students into programs of study or majors. 

We invite proposals that address:

• Improving teaching and learning in historically high failure rate courses
• Creating and/or improving support for students in gateway courses
• Curricular and/or pedagogical innovation in gateway courses
• Using analytics and/or other technology to improve student success in gateway courses
• Research and assessment on gateway course issues

Hundreds of institutional leaders, faculty, student success specialists, teaching and learning technology and institutional research professionals will join us at the event.

Featuredspeakers include, Dr. Daniel Greenstein, Director of Education, Postsecondary Success, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Elaine Seymour

Director Emerita and Research Associate, Ethnography & Evaluation Research; Research Fellow, Center for STEM Learning, University of Colorado at Boulder.

***With less than one week left, there is no time like the present to submit your proposal. Registration is also open. Register by Jan. 31 and save!



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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

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.

Liberal Education, Integrative Learning Best Preparation for Uncertain Post-Grad Future

Are higher education graduates equipped to address the challenges that face an ever-changing modern Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) Challenge encourages higher-education institutions to design their curricula in ways that help graduates develop the empirical reasoning, communication skills, and critical thinking skills that will prepare them to solve complex, real-world problems.
world? The Association of American Colleges and Universities' (AAC&U)

LEAP has begun the Signature Work initiative which asks student to pursue a long-term project in which they incorporate the knowledge they have learned in courses into their own motivations to produce tangible results. Such projects last at least one semester and could be in the form of research, community service, or other forms of experiential learning. Signature Work projects force students to make connections between different fields of study and their application.

This Signature Work helps to seal in the benefits of a liberal education and prepare college students for a future which will undoubtedly be unpredictable, complex, and varied in terms of its events, experiences, and opportunities. Preparing students to react to unforeseen changes by allowing them to experience how their own knowledge can be engaged in a practical format brings meaning to their time spent in the classroom. Being able to understand the world from multiple view-points is arguably the essence of a liberal education.

Frankly Friday: The Soul of Higher Education

The Soul of Higher Education
Friday, April 10th, 2015, 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Faculty Lounge, Building 16, Room 4201
RSVP to ofe@unf.edu

In 2011, the Governor Rick Scott called on institutions of Higher Education in Florida to focus on producing more graduates in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and said that the State probably did not need more Anthropology majors. The stated goal of this reform was to produce students who have degrees where jobs are available. The increased emphasis on the college degree serving to provide job opportunities for graduates is a national trend. A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dan Berret reviews evidence that college students increasingly view the college degree as an avenue to financial success and consider less and less that a college degree serves to develop a meaningful philosophy of life. As the Florida Board of Governors focuses more on performance metrics to determine State funding, the university system has increased its focus on producing graduates with jobs. These trends challenge traditional notions of universities providing a broad liberal education for students. Come and discuss the implications of these trends and how they might affect UNF. The Office of Faculty Enhancement will provide coffee and breakfast items.
Friday, April 10th, 2015, 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Faculty Lounge, Building 16, Room 4201
RSVP to ofe@unf.edu

Call for Proposals - Transforming STEM Education Conference

STEM Education has experienced a resurgence of interest, especially in the State of Florida, as Governor Rick Scott has made jobs in STEM fields a priority.  The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) have been leading STEM education reform for over 10 years. AAC&U has issues a call for applications to an upcoming conference on transforming STEM education. See the details below.

Crossing Boundaries—Transforming STEM Education

A Network for Academic Renewal Conference
Conference Date: November 12-14, 2015
Location: Seattle, Washington


Proposals Due March 18, 2015

The Association of American Colleges and Universities and ProjectKaleidoscope are pleased to announce their Call for Proposals for the 2015 AAC&U conference Crossing Boundaries—Transforming STEM Education.  Proposals are invited and encouraged to showcase evidence-based practices that reflect any of the themes below, and that can be adapted readily to a wide range of institution types, including community colleges and minority-serving institutions.  
We look forward to your proposals in the context of the four themes listed below.

Theme I:  Integrative Undergraduate STEM Teaching and Learning
This theme invites proposals for sessions that describe cross-disciplinary, innovative approaches for enhancing undergraduate STEM learning.  Proposals should represent research and/or practices from any disciplines that focus on achieving core STEM learning outcomes and/or development of research skills.

Theme II:  Inclusive Excellence/Broadening Participation in STEM Higher Education
This theme invites proposals for sessions that highlight theory driven models and innovations directed toward the recruitment, retention, and persistence of students from historically underrepresented groups in the STEM disciplines.  A focus on the career advancement of underrepresented STEM faculty is also appropriate.

Theme III: Supporting, Rewarding, and Building Capacity of STEM Faculty
This theme will focus on specific faculty development initiatives that are easily transferable to a diverse group of faculty and/or diverse institutions of higher education. Proposals that emphasize innovative reward systems for STEM faculty are encouraged, including rewards for work in online, hybrid, or blended venues.

Theme IV: Institutional Transformation for Undergraduate STEM Education Reform
This theme invites proposals for sessions related to campus-wide institutional change efforts designed to achieve undergraduate STEM education transformation for both faculty and students.  Proposals addressing how college is training K-12 STEM teachers to prepare students for college STEM courses and curricula are encouraged.

Visit the Call for Proposals to find out how to submit a proposal to share your work at this conference.

For more information, please call 202.387.3760, or write to Siah Annand at network@aacu.org.

Frankly Friday - Class Size in an Age of Accountability

What will happen to class size in an age of accountability and focus on performance metrics?
Friday, February 13th, 2015, 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Faculty Lounge, Building 16, Room 4201
RSVP to ofe@unf.edu

The Florida Board of Governors has set performance metrics by which funding will be determined for schools in the state university system. These metrics encourage universities to provide a college degree with lower expenditure per student and higher graduation rates. Campuses across Florida (and across the united states) are adjusting to new funding models that focus measures of success on financial bottom lines. These pressures are bound to affect what happens in the classroom. The University of North Florida has as part of its brand the notion that students can expect smaller classes, compared to other alternatives. The average class size for UNF is 32. Come and discuss the implications for faculty, teaching, and learning in the context of tightening budgets. The Office of Faculty Enhancement will provide coffee and breakfast items.

Higher Order Thinking: Testing Deep Learning with Cognitive Maps

The Office of Faculty Enhancement invites faculty to attend an upcoming workshop on higher order thinking. 

Higher Order Thinking: Testing Deep Learning with Cognitive Maps
Monday, February 9th, 2015, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Student Union, 58W, 3804
RSVP at ofe@unf.edu
An essential quality of higher education is providing opportunities for students to develop higher order thinking as they approach a variety of topics. Faculty construct assignments that will challenge students to think beyond the obvious and construct complex, evidence-based, and reflective products that demonstrate this higher order thinking style. It can be difficult and time-consuming to detect subtitles of higher order thinking in student work. In this workshop, faculty will share models of assessing higher order thinking through concept maps and structured observation. Come and share your ideas about higher order learning and pick-up some time-saving tools for evaluating complex learning. 
RSVP at ofe@unf.edu

Frankly Friday Discussion - Metrics Mania in Florida

Friday, October 10th, 2014

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

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

In January 2014, the Florida Board of Governors, a ruling body over the Florida State University System, established a set of performance metrics upon which all colleges and universities will receive future funding. A summary of these metrics can be seen at this website, http://www.flbog.edu/about/budget/performance_funding.php 

The move to performance metrics was a dramatic shift from previous state funding models, which primarily used student enrollment as the basis of funding. Since that time, universities around Florida, including UNF have been investigating ways to meet these new standards. Several universities are making changes to policies and reporting practices to meet the demands of this new funding system. Many of the metrics relate to student performance and success, which will impact what faculty do in the classroom and beyond in the coming years. Come  and discuss how these changes will impact faculty at UNF and statewide. OFE will provide the coffee and pastries. 

Friday, October 10th, 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. 

Technology for STEM Education in Problem-solving Teams

Below is a link to a model of teaching STEM concepts in a technology-enhanced, problem-based learning
environment. The model uses sport performance as a model upon which to learn not only team and decision-making skills but also to learn essential science concepts in mathematics and physics.

http://catalyst-academy.org/course/analyzing-sporting-performance-a-stemx-toolkit/#!

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.

Imagine UNF Reads! Workshop

As you might be preparing your courses for the ever-approaching Fall 2013 semester, I would like to invite you to join faculty from different disciplines in thinking about how you could support student learning by using the UNF Reads! book, Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. The office of  Undergraduate Studies and the Office of Faculty Enhancement (OFE) have partnered to offer an Imagine UNF Reads! Workshop. During this workshop, faculty will share ideas about how to use concepts in the book Outliers to support learning in a variety of disciplines. Bring your draft syllabus and discuss how the concepts of determination, culture, and experience shape the most successful people in history.

Here is a video of the author explaining one of the main principles of the book.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPCOMtJL6vA

Because all Freshmen students are required to read the book before the Fall term begins, this workshop will be especially relevant to faculty teaching courses in the General Education program.

Imagine UNF Reads! Workshop
Thursday, August 8^th
9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
OFE/FA Conference Room, Building 16, Room 3108
RSVP to ofe@unf.edu

Breakfast refreshments and coffee will be provided at the workshop.

Frankly Fridays - The Erosion of the Credit Hour

You are invited you to the first installment of a new OFE event series called

Frankly Fridays

Frank Conversation about Faculty Issues"honest as a cup of joe"

Friday, February 15^th, Friday
9:30-10:30 AM
Osprey Commons Faculty Lounge (Building 16, 4^th Floor)

Topic: The Erosion of the Credit Hour
Let us know you will be there: ofe@unf.edu

Have you ever had two students with the same list of courses and credit hours but with completely different skill levels?
Have you become worn by students questioning your grading by saying, “but I passed my writing course?”

Is a measure of “time in seat” useful, or should the focus be on other measures of student success?

Students accumulate credit hours for courses taken, although the original conception of the credit hour was not for students but for faculty. Two recent Chronicle commentaries about the legacy and value of the credit hour. With a push in higher education for efficiency and movement by the State of Florida to make higher education less expensive, the credit hour is under attack.

Come discuss how these issues impact UNF and faculty in Florida.
We will meet in the new Faculty Lounge on the 4^th floor of the new dining facility, Osprey Commons.
OFE will provide the coffee and bagels.

Let us know you will be there: ofe@unf.edu