2014-15 Teaching Circles
*indicates an active (ongoing) circle
AAC&U LEAP Project
Topic Group: Fostering Engagement in the Classroom
Circle Contact: Yuan Yuan Kang (Lecturer, Natural Sciences)
Circle Contact Info: kangy@uhd.edu, 713-222-5378
Additional Members: Rachna Sadana, Adriana Visbal, John Kelly, Creshema Murray
Circle Description:
The members of this teaching circle are representing UHD in AAC&U's LEAP project entitled
“Advancing Underserved Student Success Through Faculty Intentionality in Problem-Centered
Learning.” Through a competitive process, UHD was selected as one of 7 institutions
in the nation to participate in this campus-based research project that explores the
role of problem-centered design for promoting learning, particularly integrative learning,
for underserved students. The team has successfully completed all goals as outlined
in the proposal including attending AAC&U transparency project and the summer institute
at Edmond, OK. At the institute, the team has designed an action plan (Attachment
file 1) in order to facilitate UHD’s reform on general education using transparency
methods and practices. This project will
- engage faculty in an inter-institutional learning community to develop promising
practices for increasing transparency and clarity of assignment goals and learning
expectations for students. (Attachment file 2)
- assist campuses in developing their capacity to implement and to gather direct assessments of learning using students’ own work. (Attachment file 3)
Circle Artifact(s): Kang_et_al.zip
Certification of ENGL 3302 Online Course
Topic Group: Online Course Design & Content Delivery
Circle Contact: Richard Ogle (Lecturer, English)
Circle Contact Info:ogleric@uhd.edu
Circle Description:
ENG 3302, Business and Technical Report Writing is widely taught upper division courses
taught at UHD. In the 2013-2014 academic year 42 sections of the course were taught.
To establish a standard of quality for the online course this revised and submitted
Teaching Circle submitted its course for certification by Quality Matters as a quality
course. This certified course will be used by other members of the English Department
faculty who wish to begin teaching the course online and new faculty members who want
are assigned to teach the course online.
Circle Artifact(s): NoticeofCertification.pdf
Communication Studies Teaching Circle
Topic Group: Freshman & University Seminars
Circle Contact: Ashley Archiopoli (Assistant Professor, Arts & Humanities)
Circle Contact Info:
archiopolia@uhd.edu, 713-221-5092
Additional Members: Elizabeth Hatfield, Lucas Logan, Creshema Murray
Circle Description:
Our teaching circle worked this year to improve the student experience in Communication
Freshman and Transfer Seminars. We worked together to share best practices, create
materials, and develop new topic areas for seminars. Our work this year helped to
advance the mission of communication studies as well as improving materials and activities
presented to students. This was a successful endeavor. We have attached the activity
we created and submitted to the National Communication Association (NCA) as a sample
of the work we completed this year.
Circle Artifact(s): Archiopoli_et_al_circle_artifact.pdf
Creating eStorybooks for Bilingual Children in Spanish & English
Topic Groups: Fostering Engagement in the Classroom, Online Course Design & Content Delivery
Circle Contact: Irene Chen (Professor, Urban Education)
Circle Contact Info:chenl@uhd.edu, 713-221-8038
Additional Members: Maria Bhattacharjee, Christal Burnett
Circle Description:
Three instructors (Drs. Bhattacharjee, Chen, and Burnett) will be involved with the
same group of bilingual future teachers to facilitate their process of creating the
hard-copy children’s books by paying attention to students’ literacy needs, the technical
aspects of converting hard-copies to electronic copies, and teaching reading to K-12
students by using the hard-copy and electronic books. The future teachers will gain
an interdisciplinary experience that is not possible with regular Urban Education
course structure.
Circle Artifact(s): eStorybooks.jpg
Engagement & Success in Calculus I
Topic Group: Fostering Engagement in the Classroom
Circle Contact: Sergiy Koshkin (Assistant Professor, Mathematics & Statistics)
Circle Contact Info:
koshkins@uhd.edu, 713-226-5567
Additional Members: Volodymyr Hrynkiv, Arati Pati, Ryan Pepper, Tim Redl, Plamen Simeonov, Jeong-Mi Yoon
Circle Description:
We introduced preview and pre-testing of prerequisite skills early into the course
with follow-up engagement measures for students who perform poorly, developed an online
homework master course, calculus resources webpage, and created a common final exam
component. The outcomes were surveyed based on assessment of itemized data from the
common component of the final exam, the entire final exam, course grades, and student
self-assessment of learning gains. This data gave us unique insight into influence
of different elements of the course on its outcomes, in performance and student perspective,
measure outcomes more uniformly, try new approaches and see if they worked, and develop
revisions to improve the course. They include moving integration to Calculus 2, expanding
the common component of the final exam, continuing prerequisite reviews and final
review sheets, utilizing supplemental instructors for recitation type sessions, and
making online homework explicitly influence grades.
Circle Artifact(s): teaching-circle-calc-artifact.pdf
GOVT 2305 Teaching Circle
Topic Group: Fostering Engagement in the Classroom
Circle Contact: John Osterman (Lecturer, Social Sciences)
Circle Contact Info:
osermanj@uhd.edu, 713-221-8497
Circle Description:
As a result of our work, we came to a level of awareness which we did not have before regarding how each of us taught classes and interacted with students. From this, we plan to continue to work on a plan which would produce a best practice for each course. We are considering a common text and a orientation lecture which all students would attend at the beginning of the semester.
MATH 1310 Teaching Circle
Topic Group: Fostering Engagement in the Classroom
Circle Contact: Nancy Leveille (Associate Professor, Mathematics & Statistics)
Circle Contact Info:
leveillen@uhd.edu, 713-221-2723
Additional Members: Ron Barnes, Susan Beane, Vien Nguyen
Circle Description:
As proposed, we have established a standard departmental master platform for Math
1310 that addresses new state core requirements, objectives and standards. We have
developed many course materials for the Fall 2014 semester and then revised again
for Spring 2015 to incorporate a new book as well as various improvements.
All course materials are available to all Math 1310 instructors through the MyMathLab
departmental course (available for copy from the departmental Math 1310 MyMathLab
account as ms131047798) and through bb2.uhd.edu for the Math 1310 Community of Practice
Organization.
The Math 1310 pass rate was 60 % in Spring 2014. This is the last semester before
the New MS Department Syllabus took effect with a more cohesive, organized course
and the online homework requirement. In Fall 2014, the pass rate was 66%. This is
a ten percent increase in the pass rate for the first semester with the new Syllabus
from the MS Department Precalculus Committee along with materials developed by the
Teaching Circle such as the Formula Sheet, Review Sheet, online homework, departmental
review, comprehensive departmental final, and supplemental materials. The calculators
purchased for this course have been well received by faculty and students. We hope
to have more class sets available in the future.
Circle Artifact(s): math-1310-leveille-et-al.pdf
Natural Science University Seminar Teaching Circle
Topic Group: Fostering Engagement in the Classroom
Circle Contact: Mary Jo Parker (Director, Scholars' Academy)
Circle Contact Info:
parkerm@uhd.edu, 713-221-8471
Additional Members: Lisa Morano, Rachna Sadana, Eszter Trufan
Circle Description:
The Natural Science University Seminar Teaching Circle (NSUSTC) began early in the
Fall 2014 semester prior to all participant’s first class. Why did this group form?
Drs. Morano, Sadana, and Trufan were first-time instructors of a course of this nature,
while Dr. Parker brought College Success Program course teaching experiences, she
too needed support in adapting the US course to meet the new core biological and physical
science core learning objectives. Coming together as a unit of peers seemed natural,
necessary, and supportive. The group began to ask questions of each other (as each
professor brought years of experience within their own areas of expertise to bear
upon the US course). All instructors began to share assignments as well as gauge the
success of each. Each, even after the first class 1 meeting, had stories to share
about how well students were engaging with the content. Likewise, accounts of how
best to integrate the “scientific objectives” into the course remained a thread of
discussion.
Circle Artifact(s): TC-Parker-Morano-Trufan-Sadana.pdf
Strategy Bank for Promoting Classroom Engagement & Student Success
Topic Group: Freshman & University Seminars
Circle Contact: Meghan Minard (Adjunct, Natural Sciences)
Circle Contact Info:minardm@uhd.edu, 713-221-8015
Additional Members: M. Gabriela Bowden, Poonam Gulati
Circle Description:
This teaching circle (TC) was composed of three Natural Sciences faculty members who
taught Freshman Seminars for the first time during the Fall of 2014. Members met weekly
to discuss course development and apply, design, and implement strategies that foster
student engagement and active learning in the Freshman Seminars, which directly impacted
students and improved student and teaching success at UHD. Successful and unsuccessful
strategies and activities tried in the classroom were reviewed. These strategies have
now been assembled into a “Strategy Bank” - a collection of written descriptions for
the activities performed during the semester. The Strategy Bank is composed of detailed
descriptions of in-class and out-of-class activities and teaching strategies, and
how they were applied in a Freshman Seminar course. Strategies that were successful
and unsuccessful are included, with suggestions for future use if applicable. Each
strategy includes (1) learning outcomes, (2) a summary, (3) detailed instructions
of how to implement the strategy, and (4) the outcome and overall impressions (both
positive and negative; from multiple TC members if possible). Examples of Strategy
Bank items include but are not limited to: case studies and how they were implemented/applied,
assessment strategies, handouts, web resources, and readings. Specific applications
of known strategies and best practices are included. A major goal of this TC was to
assist and benefit other faculty teaching Freshman and University Seminars in the
future, therefore, the Strategy Bank will be shared via the CTLE for all UHD faculty
members (seminar instructors and others) to use.
Circle Artifact(s): Bowden-Gulati-Minard-2014-2015 TC-Final.zip