GE FSI by Major

Committee Update on GE FSI Assessment Project

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GE FSI Responses
GE FSI by Major

UCLA Center for the Advancement of Teaching members Roshini Ramachandran, Assistant Director of Curricular Initiatives; Adrienne Lavine, Associate Vice Provost; and Marc Levis-Fitzgerald, Director of the Center for Educational Assessment, met with the GE Foundations of Scientific Inquiry (FSI) steering committee, which consists of faculty representatives from the Undergraduate Council, Faculty Executive Committee, GE Governance Committee, and GE FSI ad hoc committee. The group met to discuss progress on a project to assess UCLA’s GE FSI curriculum, with a focus on the recent UCLA-wide survey administered in Fall 2019 by CAT to collect information regarding students’ attitudes towards science (over 5000 respondents). Survey results showed that UCLA students generally have positive attitudes towards science and the utility of science in their lives, but differences can be seen in the attitudes of STEM major students, non-STEM pre-health students, and non-STEM non-pre-health students.

Elizabeth Goodhue

Welcome New Staff at CAT: Elizabeth Goodhue

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Elizabeth Goodhue

The Center for the Advancement of Teaching recently hired Elizabeth Goodhue as the new Associate Director of Faculty Engagement.

Position: Associate Director of Faculty Engagement

Prior to working for CAT: She worked for eight years in the Center for Community Learning helping faculty and graduate students develop community-engaged courses and directing the center’s academic internship program.

Education: Elizabeth got her Ph.D. in English here at UCLA, after studying at the University of Arizona for her Undergraduate education. She is originally from Tucson, AZ.

Best Part of New Job: Continuing to work with faculty and graduate students while helping CAT to imagine and realize our role campus wide. There are many contexts where this may be addressed but Beth is especially excited about developing and supporting faculty-led learning communities and opportunities to support scholarship on teaching and learning. This fall, she has been working with CAT’s Learning Spaces, Design and Maintenance (LSDM) team to gather feedback on how instructors are utilizing the flexible learning spaces they have designed. The plan is to host lunches in the new year to learn from these instructors about what features they still need help using and to support both current and prospective users who want to integrate more active learning into their courses.

Most Challenging Aspect of New Position: “Balancing the diverse needs of our campus-wide initiatives as well as the focused partnerships CAT is developing.”

Passions and Hobbies: Elizabeth is a new mom to her 7-month-old son, Alejandro! She also enjoys yoga, and walks and hikes with her dog Shelly, as well as cooking and baking delicious things.

Proudest Accomplishments: Elizabeth is immensely proud of launching a 495 course on community engaged pedagogy four years ago, which was the first pedagogy course in UCLA’s new Graduate Student Professional Development subject area. She is also very proud of her publishing about pedagogy, as well as being a new mom, and being able to simultaneously transition into both of these new and important roles at home at CAT.

Production Staff Sean Cruser and Kim Cohen

Instructional Media Production Presents at All Staff Meeting

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What do you get when you have two bright, talented, and enthusiastic people behind a camera? You get the staff of the Instructional Media Production (IMP) unit of CAT! This quarter’s CAT Unit Spotlight was on IMP, and true to the nature of their work, Sean Cruser and Kim Cohen made an entertaining video explaining a little bit about what they do and how they do it.

While IMP has been part of our department for over 40 years, their services originally began in the 1950’s and originally required a staff of 50 people. With the advancement of technology over the years, including video digitalization, their staff continually reduced to the point that their unit is able to do all this amazing work with only the two of them. There are a handful of other departments on campus that can offer similar services, but IMP remains a favorite among faculty due to their accessibility, large studio space, and high production values. For example, during their presentation, someone asked how the video production that IMP provides is different from BruinCast. The main difference is that BruinCast captures lectures of the instructors for students to review, whereas IMP creates original video content with high-end production values that can feature any desired content.

IMP offers many different kinds of video techniques that makes their service appealing. One well-known feature that the team uses extensively in their videos is the Green Screen technique, which allows them to film someone and place any desired images or text around or behind the speaker. Another interesting and favorite feature that instructors can make use of in a situation like this is to use what is called a “Learning Glass,” where they write information on a transparent blackboard that will make the words seem to magically hover in air to the viewer.

IMP’s versatility is also a major factor in their success. IMP can also offer every phase of video production from designing to archiving. They not only have the advantage of a large recording studio, they are also able to shoot on location. While the majority of content they are producing is for online courses, they also produce videos for many special events like our own Night to Honor Teaching, faculty research lectures, and even for a variety of clients outside UCLA.

Haines 118 After Renovation

Continued Collaborative Efforts for Amazing Classroom Renovations

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Haines 118 Before Renovation Haines 118 After Renovation Royce 162 Before Renovation Royce 162 After Renovation Bunche 1290B Before Renovation Bunche 1290B After Renovation Dodd 78 Before Renovation Dodd 78 After Renovation

CAT Learning Spaces has reached a milestone with their Summer Renovations in 2019!  This is the fifth consecutive year that their partnership with Facilities Management and the Department of Project Management (DPM) have successfully collaborated on renovation projects. Ten newly designed rooms brings the number of renovated rooms to 73 overall.  While summer is the most active time for the Learning Spaces Design team, it takes an entire year from the first day of Fall’s zero week to plan and coordinate the renovations.

Here is a quick description of the process from the first day of Fall quarter. After the Design team, led by Daniel Bustos, completes the Audio Visual Upgrades in each of the rooms, the Audio Visual Services (AVS) team, led by Chris Dutton, takes instructors through the new setup. If any issues are found, AVS tries to find the best accommodation for the instructor, which is usually a new accessory needed for the instructor’s own laptop. Classrooms are closely monitored for the rest of the year for any issues, with the introduction to these rooms repeating with each new quarter. For the remaining three months of the year, Facilities, DPM, and Manager of Learning Spaces, Rob Rodgers, meet to discuss the next set of rooms to be renovated. The new year starts off with a final decision on the building, which rooms to be renovated, and what the renovation will entail. Winter quarter wraps up with a rough design of each room; Spring brings about the finalization of their design; Summer takes on all of the approved work. Once completed, the cycle starts again.

Rob Rodgers was asked about the milestone and he said, “This year we expanded the concept of Active Learning to larger spaces, giving faculty the opportunity to promote student interaction in lecture halls. In future years, we hope to enable the same pedagogical concepts in auditoriums.”

Rob Rodgers and Daniel Bustos would like to thank the entire Design team for their perseverance over these last five years: Nivi Chandra, Rene Lopez, John Lisiewicz, Mark Baquirin, and Jonathan Castro. A special thanks to the team at AVS for handling and highlighting professor needs: Chris Dutton, Juan Halcon, Brett Roller, Don Roby, Bobby Parker, Paul Park, Abigail Foster, and all of the student workers!

UCLA Luskin Conference Center

Second Annual New Faculty Teaching Engagement

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The Center for the Advancement of Teaching hosted UCLA’s second annual New Faculty Teaching Engagement on September 20, 2019 to welcome all faculty and lecturers new to UCLA. This year’s event included a special session on creating inclusive classrooms, as well as three short faculty talks by Joshua Samani (Physics and Astronomy), Todd Presner (Germanic Languages, Comparative Literature, and Jewish Studies), and Genevieve Carpio (Chicana/o Studies). The day concluded with roundtable sessions featuring campus partners who lead initiatives that support teaching and learning.

We thank our partners for helping to make this year’s event such a great success. Based on data from our exit survey, 37.5% of respondents agree and 62.5% strongly agree that “In the future, faculty from my division or school should be encouraged to attend the New Faculty Teaching Engagement event.”

New Community-Engaged Pedagogy Faculty Workshops

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The Center for the Advancement of Teaching is excited to announce a new collaboration with the Center for Community Learning: Community-Engaged Pedagogy Faculty Workshops.

Join us for a lunchtime discussion with colleagues engaged in various forms of community-engaged teaching and research. Our first event will be on October 23rd from 12-1:30 in Powell 186.

MULTIPLE MODELS FOR COMMUNITY-ENGAGED TEACHING

Community-engaged pedagogy is an approach that seeks to create reciprocal value for the learner and the community. Faculty in many disciplines have embraced this pedagogy in creative ways in a wide range of courses.

In this session, you’ll hear from colleagues to illustrate various models for this community-engaged teaching and learning: client/consulting, co-learning, research, and direct service approaches. You’ll also learn about the new draft framework for community-engaged teaching under review by the Undergraduate Council.

PANELISTS:

Andy Atkeson, Economics

Jenny Jay, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Lauri Mattenson, Writing Program

Carla Suhr, Spanish and Portuguese

MODERATOR:

Shalom Staub, Center for Community Learning

Download the Workshop Series flyer

How a student’s panic attack changed my approach to teaching

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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.

Read the article in Science Magazine

New Active Learning Resource Guide with Learning Space Upgrades

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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.

FALL 2019 CLASSROOM UPGRADES

  • Royce 154 and 162: every other row of seats swivels to facilitate small group discussions and activities.
  • Royce 148: chairs on casters and tables on sliders to allow for flexible seating arrangements (pairs, small groups, seminar).
  • Haines 118 and 220: every other row of seats swivels to facilitate small group discussions and activities; dual projection (duplicate or split screen).
  • Bunche 1209B and 2209A: dual projection (duplicate or split screen); increased front space for movement, student presentations, panel discussions, or other activities.

Research Collaboration Involving CAT Demonstrated Value of Education on Food Choices and their Carbon Footprint

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A multi-disciplinary study of the role of education on food choices and climate impact included our very own Marc Levis-Fitzgerald. He was among a group of UCLA researchers led by Professor Jennifer Ayla Jay, UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering, who evaluated the impact of education on the reported dietary choices of UCLA freshmen students due to a two-quarter Cluster course. The calculated impact of those choices on the carbon footprint was significant. This research is a testament to the power of collaboration across UCLA, to the students who generously participated, and the role of education in reaching climate change targets. The full publication may be accessed by this link:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02407-8

Abstract

The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of a two-quarter freshman course series entitled “Food: A Lens for Environment and Sustainability” (Food cluster) on the carbon footprint of food choices by college freshmen attending a large public university in California. Students enrolled in the course completed a baseline questionnaire about their diets in early fall quarter and then again at follow-up, about 6 months later at the end of the winter quarter. The control group consisted of freshmen enrolled in a different course series entitled “Evolution of the Cosmos and Life” (Cosmos cluster). The instruction in the Food cluster included lecture material on general environmental science and life cycle analyses of food, an analysis of a reading comparing the environmental footprint of various types of meats, and classroom exercises to calculate the environmental footprint of typical foods. The Cosmos cluster instruction included climate change, but no information about food. While the two groups were statistically indistinguishable at baseline, throughout the period of the study, Food cluster students decreased (a) their overall dietary carbon footprint for a 2000-kcal normalized diet by 7%(p=0.062), (b) the beef component of their dietary carbon footprint by 19% (p=0.024), and (c) their reported ruminant consumption by 28% (p<0.001). At follow-up, the overall dietary footprints for Food cluster students were 4153 and 5726 g CO2-eq/day for female and male students, respectively, compared to 4943 and 6958 g CO2-eq/day for female and male Cosmos students. In the Food cluster, both genders decreased their reported ruminant meat consumption by about a serving per week, while reported ruminant meat consumption increased for males in the control group. Modest, voluntary dietary changes such as those observed in this study could play an important role in mitigating climate change. Extrapolated across the entire US population, the difference in dietary carbon footprint observed between the Food cluster and control group would amount to 33% of the reduction required for the 2013 President’s Climate Action Plan (2013).

CAT’s Learning Spaces – Classroom Technology, Design and Maintenance Upgrades La Kretz 110

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Classroom Technology, Design and Maintenance (CTDM) completed an Audio Visual system upgrade to La Kretz 110.

La Kretz 110 is one of the largest classrooms on the south side of campus with a capacity of 351 seats and was the first auditorium to receive a dual projection system in 2009. Since the room is heavily used by classes and events throughout the year, CTDM technicians had been looking for the appropriate window to upgrade the AV system without having to take the room offline from scheduling.

CTDM found this opportunity during the 2019 Spring Break. The crew worked throughout the week and installed a new digital AV system that was ready for instructors by the first day of Spring Quarter. Upgrades include a new classroom computer with a large touch screen monitor, a rotating document camera that can be accessed from multiple sides of the lectern, and a Blu-ray/DVD player. A new input cubby was also installed that included a HDMI connection as well as the standard VGA cable.

Overall, the new AV system has everything that other, larger auditoriums have received in recent renovations, e.g., Court of Sciences 24, 50, 76; Moore 100; and Haines 39. The ability to upgrade an auditorium’s entire AV system during a one week break is a first for the team and a huge success for CAT’s CTDM.