Roshini Ramachandran, Academic Administrator for Curricular Review and Revision, recently published an article in Science Magazine on how seemingly small changes in approaching a class can make a big difference to students. Roshini shares in this story an important lesson learned from an alarming course experience that helped to transform her approach to teaching.
CAT’s Learning Spaces, Design and Maintenance (LSDM) unit completed physical and audio visual system upgrades for the classrooms listed below over the summer. Our Faculty Development team created a downloadable resource guide with information about how instructors can leverage these renovations to take advantage of evidence-based strategies that enhance teaching and learning at the college level.
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT, formerly OID) and CEILS (Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences) collaborated to host an all-day, campus-wide event, Teaching at UCLA: A Symposium to Showcase Innovation and Inspire Excellence, held on March 6, 2019 at the UCLA Faculty Center. Erin Sanders O’Leary, Director of CEILS, and Adrienne Lavine, Faculty Director of CAT, welcomed the packed room. Our goal was to showcase and celebrate the breadth of teaching innovations across the UCLA campus and to illuminate how, while there are disciplinary differences in learning outcomes and teaching practices, there is much to share and learn from each other. We also highlighted progress across higher education by exposing UCLA attendees to a national leader in the field. The event was a resounding success, with 147 attendees from across the breadth of our campus.
The symposium featured an inspiring keynote talk by Dr. Andrea Greenhoot, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas. She addressed “How Redefining Teaching Can Supercharge Learning.” The event also included 14 lightning talks by UCLA faculty, all of whom have actively engaged in innovative instruction, as well as six 45-minute, hands-on workshops led by UCLA educational leaders. A panel of articulate UCLA students presented their perspectives as learners exposed to current teaching methods in a discussion of teaching practices that best enable them to learn.
Executive Vice Chancellor Scott Waugh spoke briefly at the lunch hour about our new urgency to enhance teaching that improves learning, closes learning outcome gaps, and makes good on the promise of an outstanding education for students now paying an even higher share of the cost of their education. Scott also proudly announced the new name of OID as the Center for the Advancement of Teaching, an organization whose mission he has long championed.
The schedule of events, list of speakers, and links to their talks can be found at https://teaching.uit.ucla.edu/events/teaching-symposium-innovation.
OID provides grant funding to instructors and departments to support curricular experimentation and development that improves undergraduate instruction across campus. There are two types of grants available:
Instructional Improvement Major Grants support innovation, experimentation, and development of undergraduate curricula and pedagogy. The program goal is to improve the quality of undergraduate education through pedagogical experimentation in areas such as student-centered learning, course design, diversity and inclusion in the classroom, and instructional technologies. The program especially values innovations that will have a lasting impact on undergraduate education.
There are two grant cycles per academic year, in Fall and Spring quarters, announced via campuswide calls for proposals. The AY2018-19 IIP Major Grant recipients and their respective proposal titles are these:
| DEPARTMENT | PROPOSAL TITLE | PI(S) |
|---|---|---|
| Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences | Increasing Undergraduate Comprehension of Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluids via Rotating Tank Experiments | Andrew Stewart & Gang Chen |
| Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences | Data Analysis for Climate Science | Neil Berg |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Artificially Intelligent Assessment and Learning System for Chem 17 “Preparation for General Chemistry” | Zhao Li & Yung-Ya Lin |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Evaluating the impact of learning assistants in an introductory organic chemistry sequence for life science majors | Rachel Prado & Roshini Ramachandran |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Assessment of Teaching Practices in Chemistry 153L: A laboratory course on Introduction to Protein Science – What are reasons for the performance gap in the course? Which interventions will help to reduce this gap? | Anne Hong-Hermesdorf |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Machine Learning for every chemistry professional | Anastassia Alexandrova |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Creating valid, reliable pre- and post-assessment tools to assess students’ abilities to retain, transfer, and apply acid-base chemistry concepts in general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry | Jennifer Casey, Heather Tienson-Tseng, Al Courey |
| Chemistry & Biochemistry | Utilizing application-based science education videos in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory course for life science majors | Roshini Ramachandran & Jennifer Casey |
| Communication Studies | TV News Archive User Interface Improvement | Francis Steen & Tim Groeling |
| Comparative Literature | Classroom Coding for the Humanities | David MacFadyen |
| Design | p5.js: Developing a Tool for Making Art and Design with Code | Lauren McCarthy |
| Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences | Geophysics Hawaii Volcano Field Trip | Paul Davis |
| Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Transforming Introduction to Ecology and Behavior into a more active classroom | Daniel Blumstein |
| Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Using Modern Classroom Technology in a Large, Upper-Division Class “Evolutionary Medicine” | Pamela Yeh, Benison Pang, Jessica Gregg |
| Ecology & Evolutionary Biology | Sustainable Native Gardens | Alison Lipman & Leryn Gorlitsky |
| French & Francophone Studies | Implementing Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) in the French Language Program at UCLA | Kimberly Jansma & Laurence Denie |
| Integrative Biology & Physiology | Achieving intimate research experience at scale | Roy Wollman |
| Life Sciences Core Education | A Pilot: Mobile All-in-one Virtual Reality computer station used in Laboratory Course Life Sciences LS23L | Gaston Pfluegl |
| Life Sciences Core Education | Enhancing Motivational Predictors of Student Success Across the Introductory Life Sciences Curriculum | Jeffrey Maloy & Erin Sanders O’Leary |
| Musicology | Creating Musical Community (Ethnomusicology/Music/Musicology M103) | Nina Eidsheim & Mark Kligman |
| Musicology | Videotape course: “The Reel Beatles” | David Leaf |
| Physics & Astronomy | Data-driven, Systematic, and Sustainable Transformation of Physics for Life Scientists | Ian McLean, Katsushi Arisaka, Joshua Samani, George Trammell, Elizabeth Mills, Shanna Shaked |
| Physics & Astronomy | Proposal to enhance infrastructure of 180E physics undergraduate lab | Walter Gekelman |
| Psychology | Developing a Tool to Assess the Learning Gains of the Neuroscience Curriculum | William Grisham |
| World Arts & Cultures/Dance | Legislative Theater for Racial Justice | Robert Gordon, Bryonn Bain, David Gere |
OID held its inaugural New Faculty Teaching Engagement (NFTE, pronounced “nifty”) on November 7th, 2018 at the Luskin Conference Center.
All newly appointed faculty and lecturers from the College and professional schools were invited and 41 attended. Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh, Vice Chancellor for Academic Personnel Michael Levine, and Dean and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Pat Turner welcomed the group during lunch and spoke about teaching based on their personal experiences in the classroom and from the perspectives of their current roles.
The program for the half-day event consisted of an interactive workshop on basic pedagogy and teaching at UCLA and a panel of faculty discussing the role of teaching in tenure and promotion, working with TAs, and the inherent rewards of teaching.
The goal of the event was to better prepare new faculty and lecturers to teach at UCLA. Participants had the opportunity to reflect on how they will develop and/or modify courses they are appointed to teach at UCLA and were introduced to a “toolkit” of best teaching practices to help them create inclusive classrooms that will engage students and optimize learning. Participants were also introduced to the demographics of UCLA students and aspects of teaching at UCLA, as they may differ from those at other institutions.
The day ended with a happy hour, where attendees were joined by several deans and Chancellor Gene Block.
From July 29 to August 11, 2018, OID hosted 33 faculty from Ocean University of China and Huazhong University of Science and Technology for a two-week training workshop at UCLA.
This was the fourth iteration of OID’s International Faculty Development Program and comprised the largest group to date. The program provided faculty participants with a comprehensive overview of approaches to student-centered learning at leading American universities and in-depth training in pedagogical frameworks, common practices in teaching and assessment, and cutting-edge instructional technologies. Participants were also introduced to how OID fosters interdisciplinary cooperation among administrators, department and program leaders, and faculty to promote broader campus goals. Participants not only gained greater knowledge of learning theories, but also how to deploy these theories to meet specific needs at classroom, department, and institutional levels.
The program was designed and spearheaded by Dr. Kumiko Haas, Director of Instructional Improvement Programs at OID. Special acknowledgement goes to the following OID subject matter experts and guest speakers who led workshops for the program:
Additional thanks goes to the OID staff who assisted with behind-the-scenes execution to make the program possible:
OID has been making concerted efforts to engage more proactively with faculty in order to improve teaching at UCLA. One of these efforts was a collaboration with Engineering to develop and run a pedagogy workshop series. During Fall quarter, Kumiko Haas and Michelle Gaston worked with engineering faculty to develop each session. The collaboration with OID provided a foundation in evidence-based pedagogy to support the discipline-specific expertise and experience of engineering faculty.
The result was a ten-week pedagogy workshop series held in Winter, 2018, entitled “Faculty Teaching Faculty about Teaching,” or FT^2. Each workshop listed below was led by one or more engineering faculty members, with OID’s Kumiko Haas, Michelle Gaston, Michelle Lew, and Deborah Kearney also contributing to the presentations.
| DATE | SPEAKERS | TOPICS |
|---|---|---|
| January 8, 2018 | Scott Brandenberg, Kumiko Haas | Diversity, equity and inclusion How instructors can improve outcomes for engineering students with diverse backgrounds while helping all students be prepared to succeed in a diverse workplace. |
| January 16, 2018 | Jake Schmidt, Michelle Gaston | Backwards course design Establishing learning objectives and using them as a foundation for assessments, lectures, course activities, and assignments. |
| January 22, 2018 | Hal Monbouquette | Test design Designing tests that cover a range of performance levels. |
| January 29, 2018 | Adrienne Lavine | Assessment and inclusive grading practices Criterion-based grading vs. grading on a strict curve, variations. Research showing how grading practices affect student performance. |
| February 5, 2018 | Laurent Pilon | Assessing prerequisite preparation Identifying what students need to know to succeed in your class. Assessing preparations early to inform both you and the students of preparation gaps. Providing resources to mitigate preparation gaps. |
| February 12, 2018 | Veronica Santos, Rob Candler | Active learning techniques Active learning techniques including think-pair-share and polling tools such as clickers and the UCLA online polling tool. Research and evidence about how active learning can affect student outcomes. |
| February 20, 2018 | Amit Sahai | Socratic method An approach to student centered learning using a directed question lecture style of guiding student learning. |
| February 26, 2018 | Rob Shaefer, Bill Kaiser, Don Browne | Managing active learning through group work and project teams How to form teams. How to grade team-based projects to encourage collaboration while not rewarding lack of participation. Clear rubrics that still allow creativity. Separately, a discussion about student motivation. |
| March 5, 2018 | Jenn-Ming Yang, Michelle Lew, Deborah Kearney | Technology resources for enhanced education Avoiding technology for its own sake. Finding technology that supports and enhances your teaching style and learning objectives. Building awareness of the technology resources available at UCLA. |
| March 13, 2018 | Carey Nachenberg, Sasha Sherstov, Bruce Dunn | The art of great teaching/lecturing Overcoming the hurdles of a lecture environment to truly engage students. Examples of tools and tricks that you can use. Selecting the tools that align with your teaching style. |
The 25 engineering faculty participants reported knowledge gains in every topic, as shown below. The effort was very much appreciated by the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the series will be offered again next Fall.
