Institute announces first group of advanced fellows

Continuing UD's leadership role in the fast growing field of problem-based learning (PBL), University faculty and staff presented a pilot project earlier this year that offered new, cutting-edge PBL teaching techniques and active learning strategies.

The program was presented to UD and visiting educators–from Austin College and West Chester and Samford universities–during the three-day-long Advanced Session of the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education. At the conclusion, the 26 participants were named advanced fellows of the institute.

According to George Watson, physics and astronomy, over the last four years, UD has offered introductory sessions to more than 200 UD faculty members and about 65 visiting faculty.

"In those sessions," Watson said, "we introduce faculty members to active-learning strategies to facilitate student-centered learning, particularly problem-based learning (PBL), as well as suggestions and models for using instructional technology effectively in their classrooms. With this number of ITUE fellows having participated at an introductory session, we felt that it was time to offer an advanced session to help them move to the next level in their use of PBL integrated with technology."

Some topics presented during the recent advanced session involved "Problem Writing: Taking it to the Next Level," "Online Tools for Collaborative Learning," "I've Written A PBL Problem–Now How Do I Use It?" and "Assessing Student Performance in PBL Courses."

The underlying philosophies behind ITUE are that undergraduate courses should help students to:

• think critically and enhance their ability to analyze and solve real world problems;
• develop skill in gathering and evaluating information needed for solving problems;
• gain experience working cooperatively in teams and small groups; and
• acquire versatile and effective communication skills.

"ITUE has successfully brought together a diverse group of faculty members for examination of best practices in the classroom and discussion of a broad range of active learning strategies and uses of online resources for instruction," Watson said.

After their initial participation, Watson said, ITUE fellows practice what they have learned, sharing the new techniques with colleagues in their departments or units and/or serving as instructors or assistants in future ITUE sessions. These initial efforts are reinforced by individual mentoring when possible and special one-time follow-up sessions as needed.

"The advanced session," Watson said, "was designed to bring fellows back together to share what they learned with us and with each other and then to reinforce their efforts and move them to the next level by demonstrating additional methods and strategies that built on their experiences to date."

Initially, the recent advanced session was intended to be restricted to UD faculty only. However, since UD is involved in a collaborative effort with Samford University on PBL in the undergraduate setting, it was opened to a few off-campus fellows, as well.

"Now that we have tested the design and delivery of the advanced session," Watson said, "we plan to open it up internationally in the future as an opportunity for advanced practitioners of PBL to convene for sharing and training."

Watson pointed out that the faculty leaders who designed and delivered the recent advanced sessions have been working closely with the staff of the PRESENT–the faculty technology center in Information Technologies. In fact, PRESENT and IT staff members Paul Hyde, Justin Schakelman, John Hall, Debbie Jeffers and Karen Kral helped deliver an afternoon session on collaborative tools available in WebCT, the course management system that was recently adopted by UD, with faculty copresenters Ann Rucinski and Charlene Hamilton, nutrition and dietetics.

"The faculty participants are a great inspiration to us," Watson said. "At each session, we [the ITUE leaders] have the opportunity to work with some of the finest educators on our campus. The nature of our sessions is that there is a great deal of give and take. Many new ideas are presented by the faculty participants, ideas that we incorporate into our programs as well as into our classrooms."

The 2001 Winter Institute Advanced Fellows included UD faculty and staff members Ann Ardis, English and honors program; Gretchen Bauer, political science and international relations; Karen Bauer, institutional research and planning; Nancy Boyer, English Language Institute; Catherine Davies, animal and food sciences; Araya Debessay, accounting and management information systems; Carol Denson, consumer studies; Janet de Vry, Information Technologies/User Services; Richard Donham, Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center; Jane Noble-Harvey, biological sciences; Beth Haslett, communication; Carolyn Manning, nutrition and dietetics; Lori Pollock, computer and information sciences; Chandra Reedy, art history; Florence Schmieg, biological sciences; Allan Shapiro, plant and soil sciences; Harry (Tripp) Shenton, civil and environmental engineering; Nicole Vadino, sociology and criminal justice; and Judy Van Name, consumer studies.

Visiting fellows include Mark Hebert, Austin College; Kristi Arndt, Valerie McCombs, Bryan Johnson, Stephen Rubel and Julie Steward, all Samford University; and Sandra Gross, West Chester University.

ITUE is currently sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts project on PBL at UD, directed by Duch, and was intially funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

–Ed Okonowicz

Summer session set

Information on the next introductory session, scheduled from June 18-22, is available on the web at [http://www.udel.edu/inst/ jun2001/registration.html].

Those interested should e-mail [ud-itue@udel.edu] or call George Watson at 831-6677 or Barbara Duch at 831-2066.