Instructional Support Committee

Attending: Karen Shuman, Leslie Gregg-Jolly, David Cook-Martin, Richard Fyffe, Matt Kluber, Rebecca Stuhr, Albert Lacson, Terri Phipps

Minutes of 2 December approved.

• Description of CTS inventory regarding faculty utilization of instructional technologies.

The CTSs held TechTuesdays during the fall semester, which allowed good contact between CTSs and faculty, as well as helped build community among faculty. The CTSs are creating an inventory of projects that faculty are involved in as well as any needs they may have. The CTSs will include information from at least one member from each academic department for now and expand the database over time. The inventory is an effort to assess utilization of technology in the curriculum.

Suggestions:

• Create videos of faculty talking about innovative ways in which they use technology in their teaching, and have these videos available to all faculty.
• Invite CTSs to 1-2 faculty meetings per year, both to talk about technology and to foster communication with faculty.

• Discussion of staffing for faculty IT support including the term position created last year

While the purpose of the CTSs is to assist faculty with developing curricular technology projects, the AV Curricular Support Specialist position offers support with implementation in the classroom. Some projects, PDID for example, began as a faculty/CTS project, but have since become widely used across disciplines. The librarians and CTSs have been working to develop a more coordinated effort to support PDID related projects.

Classrooms equipped with technology should have an information sheet by the computer directing users to call the AV Support Specialist if they have problems. This sheet is missing from some rooms. The number to the AV Center is hard to find in the directory, and Stacy and Ralph's phones are not answered if they are out of the office. Leslie will ask Dan Whiteside and ITS to check classrooms over break to make sure support information is available.

Some faculty members are unclear what the duties of the AV Support Specialist are when not troubleshooting technology in the classroom. In addition to working on maintenance and prevention of problems with classroom technology, this position can assist IT and the AV center in other ways including providing technical support in conjunction with academic support assistants.

• Discussion of a series of faculty development seminars tentatively planned as pilot project for spring term.

In the past, the college held teaching colloquia throughout the year, with one member of each division presenting on a common topic at each meeting. The colloquia died out as other—more targeted—discussion groups were formed. In an effort to build community across disciplines, teaching colloquia will again be offered in spring 2010, with 3-4 meetings being planned.

Suggestions for sessions in Spring 2010:

• Classroom climate issues like inclusion and managing difficult conversations
• Using/Identifying primary sources
• Writing grant proposals
• Possibly something the writing lab about designing assignments

Suggestions for future sessions and related support:

• Competitive leaves: Invite those who have earned leave to meet with other faculty
• How to navigate relationships with students (advising, class participation)
• Create a repository for resources (sample letters of recommendation, for example)

• International travel related to teaching

The Shephard Fund was created to support international faculty travel. Current guidelines for international travel often do not cover the full airfare. ISC agrees that the associate dean should subsidize international travel expenses for meetings that support faculty members teaching, in accordance with the guidelines for the designated gift of the Shephard Funds.

Respectfully submitted,
Terri Phipps