Bloom's Sixth

Financing public higher education has grown increasingly challenging, with state funding for research universities declining by an average of 28 percent since 2003. What were once state-supported institutions have in many cases become quasi-private institutions to which states provide some money but still want full control. To shore up their budgets, state colleges and universities have increased the proportion of out-of-state and international…

Two recent education conferences I attended raised similar questions about developing and sustaining high-quality teaching. Things like: How do we measure the success of course transformation? How can we get buy-in from colleagues? How do we gain the support of department chairs and administrators? How do we share ideas among campuses? How do we sustain and grow communities around the idea of improving teaching? That last question was central to both conferences, one at KU and one at the University of California, Davis. Participants in the Trestle launch…

By Doug Ward Women teach a sizable majority of online courses at KU, even though men make up a sizable majority of the university’s faculty. Data provided by Laura Diede, the associate director at the Center for Online and Distance Learning, shows that of 171 online courses that CODL worked with in the 2014-15 school year, 60 percent were taught by women. That’s especially interesting when you consider that of 1,649 faculty members on the Lawrence campus that fiscal year, …

By Doug Ward Course redesign has become a crucial piece of helping college students succeed. The statistics below about enrollment and graduation rates make it clear that success is too often elusive. Course redesign is hardly the only solution to that problem, but it is a proven, tangible step that colleges and universities can take. Course redesign involves moving away from faculty-centered lectures and adopting student-centered techniques that improve learning. It usually includes online work that students do outside of class and in-…

By Doug Ward PALO ALTO, Calif. – Nearly all college faculty members want to teach well but few have both the pedagogical background to make their classes more student-centered and the incentive to do so, the Nobel laureate Carl Wieman said Monday. Carl Wieman (Stanford photo) Wieman, a physics professor at Stanford, has been a leader in promoting effective teaching practices in the sciences, primarily through his Science Education Initiative. He spoke Monday at a meeting of …

Doug Ward In this month’s Teaching Matters (There was a link, but it does not exist anymore), Mike Vitevitch writes about his experiences in having honors students give group presentations in lieu of a final exam. Vitevitch, a professor of psychology, says he was “bowled over” by the quality of the students’ work at the end of the spring semester. As he explains in the accompanying video, honors students in Introduction to Psychology tend to do very well on exams. They know the material, and Vitevitch…

We have all felt like “the other” at some point in our lives. “The other” is an outsider, someone who feels vastly different from those where they live and work. Being “the other” is uncomfortable and unsettling. It generates self-consciousness and suspicion. It drains energy. Mark Mort works with students in Biology 152. Recent events on campuses around the country have made it clear that far too many of our students feel like “the other.” For some, it’s the color of their skin. For others, their ethnicity, their sexual identity, or even their political views. They feel as if they have…

By Doug Ward In one of my favorite poems, Taylor Mali mocks sloppy writing, juvenile articulation, and the general inability to put together words in a meaningful way. That poem, “Totally like whatever, you know?,” was brought to life by Ronnie Bruce’s  animation (below), providing even more punch to Mali’s magnificent ending: Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have…

David McConnell sees both benefit and paradox in active learning. McConnell, a professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at North Carolina State University, spoke to members of the geology department at KU last week about his research into active learning and his work in helping others adopt active learning techniques in their classes. David McConnell, in a photo from his N.C. State profile…

Self and Oswald halls are the first new dorms to open at KU in nearly 50 years (There was a link, but the page no longer exist). The living spaces look much like what you’d expect from dorm rooms. The informal spaces, though, provide a modern, visually appealing take on informal, collaborative learning. (They are also great for just hanging out.) The new dorms were open for tours late last week. Here is some of what I found.