“A support model for systemic progress in teaching and
learning”
Timothy
J. Foley, Ed.D.
Director,
Client Computing & Library Services
Phone:
610-758-3997
Email:
tim.foley@lehigh.edu
Type
session: Breakout Session
Abstract
Overview
Like
many colleges and universities, Lehigh has faculty who are comfortable with
integrating technology effectively in their teaching. However, Lehigh recognizes
that many best practices developed on campus are not well understood or
replicated by other Lehigh faculty. Through Lehigh Lab, faculty, staff, and
students work and experiment together, across departments and disciplines, to
advance learning. The Lab model employs diverse project teams comprised of
representatives from faculty, instructional technology, computing, and library
services to work together on projects brought forward by faculty. Projects are
promoted at several levels: through the
highly visible classrooms that showcase projects, in the home departments of
the team members, and through the highly engaged instructional design, library,
and computing staff consultants who advise many groups. The multiplier effect
has increased the number of projects and the quality of teaching technology
projects throughout campus.
Getting Lehigh
Lab off the ground
The
initial name for Lehigh Lab was suggested by Lehigh’s president Greg Farrington
when he first heard of the concept to create a “teaching and learning” center
for the University. Once Library and
Technology Services received his approval we developed a white paper which
outlined the key components and features of the lab.
Lehigh Lab
white paper highlights
Lehigh
Lab provides a locus for faculty and student support in the advancement of
teaching, learning, and research utilizing appropriate technologies and
techniques.
The
Rationale for the Lehigh Lab:
A
number of support teams currently provide faculty and students with access to
staff and facilities for the enhancement of teaching and learning: Media
Production, Media Services, Library Services, Distance Education, Instructional
Technology, and Faculty Development. The
Lehigh Lab brings together all of the above areas in both a physical and
virtual space and provide a centralized point of contact for creating new and
innovative teaching and learning environments at Lehigh. The physical space is provided by the newly created
Objectives:
·
Provide a high-level support program to enable faculty and
students to innovate and use instructional technology tools.
·
Determine appropriate levels of resources for consulting,
development, and delivery of technology-mediated materials.
·
Provide training programs for faculty, staff, and students
to effectively use and implement technology-enhanced instruction.
·
Develop strategies and/or guidelines for the best use of
technology in instruction.
·
Implement a permanent, user-accessible database for the
storage and retrieval of digital media.
·
Develop a set of on-line resources to help faculty become
familiar with new and current technologies.
·
Develop new strategies for "adaptable classrooms"
(convergence between the real and virtual classroom).
·
Develop and implement a plan to foster the transformation of
traditional methods of learning to asynchronous and synchronous on-line
technologies.
·
Plan and develop ongoing research methods and instruments,
in collaboration with faculty, for the systematic evaluation of the
effectiveness and value of current and new instructional tools and services.
·
Design research instruments to evaluate non-traditional
approaches to instruction (e.g. laptop, wireless, and handheld technologies).
·
Facilitate faculty initiatives to improve the quality of the
Lehigh learning experience.
·
Provide print and online resources for faculty about all
aspects of teaching and learning.
·
Offer classroom observation and consultation with individual
faculty members about their teaching, on a voluntary basis.
·
Provide workshops and conferences on teaching presented by
Lehigh faculty/staff and by nationally known experts on teaching techniques.
·
Pursue external sources of support, including foundations
and corporate and public partners, for instructional technology initiatives at
Lehigh.
·
Provide state of the art media production facilities for
enhanced operational effectiveness.
·
Provide a comprehensive suite of design, development, and
production technologies.
·
Provide both centralized and distributed locations for
instructional technology support—consulting, training, and production of
materials.
To support the above objectives Lehigh
Lab consists of the following components working collaboratively:
·
Instructional Design and Development provides academic
support for the creative and effective use of technology in teaching and
learning. The primary goal of Instructional Design is to champion the
application of innovative and appropriate technologies to facilitate excellence
in the teaching, research, and other academic functions of the university.
·
Instructional Media Services brings four functional areas to
Lehigh Lab in support of the creation and delivery of technology-based
instructional materials for students, faculty and staff: Media Production, the
·
Librarians -
help faculty and students to find and evaluate information, with a focus on
effective curricular and research use of electronic resources. Projects are designed
to facilitate this process by enabling users to acquire material expeditiously,
arrange resources to suit their learning styles, and consult rare and unique
publications on their desktops in a context that allows for extensive study.
·
Research - the research function of the Lehigh Lab provides
support for faculty in the application of innovative and appropriate
technologies for excellence in research and instruction. These functions
include: assisting with the research and evaluation of innovative teaching
methodologies, consulting with faculty members during the initiation and
execution of technology-based grant projects, and training faculty in
communications and computer technologies
that facilitate research and collaboration.
·
Distance Education - The distance education contribution to
Lehigh Lab includes the following functions: expertise in the creation of
courses and programs designed to meet the needs of adult professional
audiences; the comparative analysis of satellite, videoconferencing, and
streaming media as delivery systems; the combining of delivery systems to
achieve special educational goals; the effective use of studio
classroom/control room capabilities; and techniques for dealing with the
concerns of students who do not have on-campus access to their
instructors.
·
Faculty Development sponsors teaching workshops and
conferences, offers consultation about teaching to faculty on an individual
basis, showcases faculty research, supports faculty participation in
conferences about teaching, and provides both print and online resources about
teaching to faculty.
·
Faculty Fellow – the Faculty Fellow program includes one
faculty member who has been identified as a mentor to work with others as part
of the lab on a rotating basis. The
fellow is compensated with a two course per semester reduction in his/her
teaching load. The faculty fellow also serves as a member of the steering
committee after his term as faculty fellow expires.
·
A university-wide steering committee consisting of one
faculty member from each college that meets twice a semester to monitor the
progress of Lehigh Lab as well as acting as a sounding board for their college
on what services the Lab should provide.
The Lehigh Lab Faculty Fellow chairs this committee.
Lab Organization
The chief underlying
principles of Lehigh Lab are teamwork and flexibility. The entire Lab concept is built on the notion
of support teams that bring all the necessary expertise to a specific project
or problem. Drawing expertise from all
sectors of Library and Technology Services (and beyond when necessary), the Lab
creates new teams as needed.
Lehigh
Lab’s primary goal is to facilitate innovative undergraduate and graduate
teaching that utilizes information and technology to its fullest in a learner-centered
environment, enables faculty to achieve their core teaching goals, and provides
students with the capability to tap into the world-wide reservoir of social,
economic, scientific, and political knowledge. It showcases best practices
across departments, disciplines, and colleges. A novel, scalable approach to
the strategic organization of human resources and technological infrastructure,
the Lab relies on a number of effective supporting elements:
Primary sources for curricular innovation and development
provided by Lehigh’s Libraries
Several multimedia Internet2 videoconferencing
classrooms
Cybertools, an annual faculty symposium promoting
effective use of technology offered since 2001
Strong and effective integration of assessment tools
and practices, focused on learning outcomes
Award for systemic progress in teaching and
learning
As
described in the EDUCAUSE announcement of their 2005 awards, “The Lehigh Lab is far more than the sum of
its parts. The effective integration of proven techniques, the commitment to
organize support structures around these techniques, the clear evidence of
long-term institutional resource commitment, and the incorporation of
assessment focused on learning outcomes, make the Lehigh Lab a model worthy of
emulation and deserving of the EDUCAUSE Teaching and Learning Award.”[1]
Faculty
Response
Faculty
response to Lehigh Lab is the best testimonial of its success and
effectiveness. Below are a few highlights
of faculty support letters:
Statistics
Professor,
English
Professor,
Chemistry
Professor,