Enhancing Liberal Arts Education in a
Technological Age Through
Collaboration
Between Diverse Universities
A Proposal to the Carnegie
Corporation of New York
Dr. Elfred A. Pinkard
Dillard University
Dr. Robert Schnabel
University of Colorado
Executive Summary
Mission - Teachers in the Information Age must inspire and
instruct a student population that is diverse in its background and needs. Students will be required to synthesize
liberal arts thinking and technological advancements to become successful
knowledge workers and citizens in the Information Age. The amount of content from which to
draw for core course curriculum is also growing and increasingly, competency in
information technology is required for the needed access to, and delivery of
curriculum content.
To address this challenge, and attain needed student outcomes, teachers will need an expanded network of resources and professional contacts. We believe that the achievement of these outcomes will be expedited through increased collaboration between universities, where collaborative teams will create teacher training programs, shared course materials and student experiences that would not have been possible had each institution worked alone. If the institutions involved are dissimilar in nature, the result will be increased value sharing for both teachers and students, who will learn to think in non-traditional and more holistic ways. Technological advances are key to, and will enable, such partnerships between institutions.
Institutional Backgrounds - Dillard University is a four-year, historically black, co-educational liberal arts institution. Since its inception in 1869, Dillard has prepared young men and women to become adept professionals and leaders of their respective communities by offering them the highest quality liberal arts education possible. Dillard has as its purpose the development of graduates who are broadly educated, culturally aware, concerned with improving the human condition, and able to meet the competitive demands of a global and technologically advanced society. As we progress into the 21st century, Dillard envisions the development of graduates who understand current and cultural issues in a global context, are effective bilingual communicators, exercise exceptional critical thinking, and competently use advanced research techniques and technologies.
The
University of Colorado at Boulder (``CU'') is a highly ranked public research
university, with many prestigious accomplishments at both the under-graduate
and graduate level (including three Nobel prize winners among its faculty).
Founded in 1876, CU houses more than 26,000 students in ten colleges and
schools. The University of
Colorado believes that its mission is to educate students in the accumulated
knowledge of humankind, while discovering new knowledge through research,
creative work and critical thought.
To that end, CU created ATLAS, the Alliance for Technology, Learning and
Society. ATLAS provides a
comprehensive approach to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to
become technologically savvy even if they have chosen a study area that is
traditionally non-technical.
Technology plays an important role on the CU Boulder campus, where teachers
are actively engaged in the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program (FTEP), and
where broadband technology is extensively deployed in classrooms, offices and
residence halls.
Proposal Goal - To develop and utilize a model that will improve collaboration between diverse, dissimilar institutions (i.e. research and liberal arts, minority and majority), enabling the enhancement of core liberal arts education in a technological age.
Strategic Objectives - Strategic objectives center around the creation of two core curricula, one in Calculus and one in Humanities, with the intent of sharing key course materials. The content, delivery approach, information technology needs, and teacher preparation for each curriculum will be designed, and then deployed during the fall and spring semesters of 2002/2003, at each campus. The process by which diverse universities such as CU and Dillard create such curricula will be articulated, evaluated, and disseminated as a model to other institutions interested in such collaborations. Student outcomes for those taking the courses will be evaluated to determine their competency in the subject matter and the portability of the materials between campuses. We will also create shared learning communities between Dillard and CU, utilizing faculty and student exchanges as a means of increasing the sharing and integration of dissimilar teaching methods and classroom experiences. Teacher training and information technology will serve as the foundations for achieving these objectives.
Activity Summary
1. Short Term Planning - Collaboration Process articulation (including assessing the strengths and demographics of students and faculty at both institutions).
2. Training - Faculty training on educational technology and pedagogy at the University of Colorado Faculty Teaching Excellence Program Summer Technology Institute.
3. Module Creation - Two core courses: Calculus II and Introduction to Humanities. Attention will be paid to teaching approaches that address diverse student backgrounds and learning styles. Evaluation methods and technological support will be planned along with course content.
4. Course Delivery - Common materials and some common course sessions via videoconference.
5. Relationship Building - Student exchanges and faculty collaboration.
6. Evaluation-Evaluation of the Collaboration Process (including faculty training) and the student learning outcomes.
7. Long Term Planning-Creation of a teaching excellence program at Dillard that includes support for faculty in adapting educational technology into instruction. Also, extension of exchange programs and further core curriculum design.
A project management plan will be developed and followed to assure completion of activities.
Products - Collaboration Process Handbook, Shared Course Materials for Two Core Courses, Publication of Evaluation Results, Project Web Site, Dissemination Workshop for Other Interested Institutions
Expected Outcomes
The following initial set of expected and measurable outcomes will be further refined in the project planning process next spring:
1. Shared development and use of course materials to improve learning on each campus in core curriculum central to a liberal education.
2. Improved effectiveness and breadth of teacher training.
3. Development of an effective collaboration process between Dillard and Colorado.
4. Impact on faculty and students involved in shared planning and learning experiences
5. Increased probability that Dillard students involved will attend graduate school at CU based on their experience at CU during the proposal time period.
Dillard
and CU would like this demonstration project to lead to a long-term
collaboration between our universities, in which we would continue core
curriculum development, increase shared student and faculty experiences, and
establish a teaching excellence program at Dillard (which would include
instruction on educational uses of technology).
Key Staff - Dr. Elfred A. Pinkard, Dillard University; Dr. Bobby Schnabel, CU
Amount
Requested - $500,000
Project
Dates - 3/1/2002 - 6/1/2003
Proposal
Rationale and Context
Both Dillard and Colorado believe that today's teachers
face new and growing challenges in their instruction of diverse students.
Students may arrive in core undergraduate classrooms with little in common
except their desire to achieve understanding in the given subject, and may end
up utilizing their core subject instruction at one or more different higher
education institutions before they complete their undergraduate education. We also
believe that content from which to plan courses is exploding, and not all
teachers are well enough instructed on how to access and deliver the
information through the technological means with which students are
increasingly facile and comfortable.
Furthermore, not all content and thinking has been well enough
synthesized to include the diverse viewpoints, critical thinking and social
context needed to achieve the multidisciplinary education needed for the
Information Age.
Dillard University believes that preparing tomorrow's 21st century graduates will require not only continued emphasis on Dillard's tradition of teaching excellence and heritage, but will also require a revitalized, broadened commitment to espousing new competencies that will enable graduates to succeed in an ever-changing global market. As such, Dillard is engaged in re-imagining the academic curriculum, re-aligning its function with the purpose of developing students who understand current and cultural issues in a global context, are effective bilingual communicators, exercise exceptional critical thinking, and competently use advanced research techniques and technologies. These competencies will drive a newly developed, five-year strategic plan that will seek to strengthen Dillard's technology infrastructure, institutionalize undergraduate research, strengthen multidisciplinary core curriculum instruction, strengthen language and literacy across all of our academic divisions, and strengthen students' ability to acquire competency in a foreign language.
For example, Dr. Lisa Brevard, Dillard's Dean of Humanities, is currently developing a multidisciplinary approach to the instruction of Humanities 200, an introductory course. By breaking down the course into eight modules, Dr. Brevard is encouraging language arts professors to collaborate with fine arts professors, music instructors to collaborate with religion instructors, and so on. She is also encouraging the teaching of Humanities courses that incorporate an African American perspective. Mrs. Heidi L. Daniels, an instructor of education technology, is engaged in technology roundtables, an effort that will inform Dillard's use and integration of technology with liberal arts teaching. In terms of undergraduate research, Dillard is in the process of developing an institutional program that will encourage undergraduate research across all academic divisions. In support of this initiative, Dillard will begin renovations and improvements of its science facilities, its library, and its classroom technologies, since many of these initiatives rely on using the latest technology in classroom instruction, web-based instruction, and in research.
Dillard's commitment to the many exciting advances now in various stages of development and initiation is driven by a long-standing history of providing access to traditionally under-represented African American males and females. Many of these students arrive at Dillard as first-generation college students, making our mission even more challenging to ensure that when these students graduate they are confident, well informed and prepared for the challenges beyond their undergraduate studies. As a growing institution that experienced a student population growth from 1,549 in 1997 to 2,137 in 2001(a 38% increase), Dillard recognizes that it possesses a unique opportunity to increase the number of African American students entering graduate studies. African American under representation does not disappear beyond graduation, particularly in graduate programs. Dillard has long recognized that it must do all that it possibly can to encourage and provide opportunities for African Americans to attend graduate schools. With 19% of our 2001 graduating class going on to graduate programs, Dillard believes it has the foundation to institutionalize the promotion of graduate studies in order to increase the number of African Americans pursuing graduate degrees.
The University of Colorado at Boulder, as one of the nation's premier learning environments, is also committed to preparing its students for the global challenges of the 21st century. A top ranked public research institution, CU is proud to be one of the 61 universities belonging to the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). CU's four main strategic areas include providing high quality learning experience to all its undergraduate students, and using modern technology to enhance all aspects of its mission and operations. In 1997, CU Boulder recognized the need for higher education to redefine how technical and intellectual preparation should be interwoven. CU also saw tremendous demand from students, who wanted to be prepared for the new world of technology when they graduated and entered a work world of new careers and industries. To address this need, the University of Colorado created ATLAS, the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society. Multidisciplinary and collaborative, ATLAS involves all of CU Boulder's schools and colleges. ATLAS has spawned a campus wide undergraduate program in Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) and a wide range of research and curriculum development projects on the effectiveness of technology in education and on technology and society. TAM currently has over 160 students enrolled, 65% of whom are women. New curriculum is being planned to extend the TAM certificate program into areas such as programming and technology systems, hence giving it an even greater technical component, should a student be interested. As part of CU-Boulder's commitment to serving the community, ATLAS also will be sharing its experience with K-12 teachers and other universities. ATLAS includes an Evaluation Research group that conducts research on the effectiveness of uses of technology in education and on the effectiveness of curricular programs involving technology.
A 65,000 square foot ATLAS Center at the heart of campus is being designed, with groundbreaking planned for 2002. The Center is designed to serve the entire campus with its technology-enhanced teaching and learning spaces and its exhibition, event and social spaces. It is estimated that at least 25% of CU Boulder students will have classes or projects in the building each semester. Additionally, ATLAS is supported by university programs that improve information technology resources on campus, ranging from providing computers to the neediest incoming students, to providing each faculty member with a new computer every three years and providing a core of disciplinary-based technology experts who assist faculty in uses of technology in teaching and research.
CU Boulder's Faculty Teaching Excellence Program (FTEP), which will be housed in the ATLAS Center, is another key ingredient in the campus' dedication to incorporating technology effectively into teaching and learning. Founded in 1986, the program operates as a part of the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. It is built on the principle that faculty learn about teaching best from one another. The global goal of FTEP is the improvement of undergraduate and graduate education. Within this overall mission, FTEP has a number of more specific objectives:
- to work with faculty to create an environment that encourages learning for both faculty and students
- to foster a professional dialogue among all faculty concerning effective learning
- to bring pedagogical research and useful teaching tips to the attention of faculty
- to engage in research on learning and teaching
Since 1998, FTEP has conducted a one or two weeklong Summer Institute for Technology, Scholarship and New Media Pedagogy. The mission of FTEP Summer Institute is to provide a supportive environment for faculty members to explore various technologies that support teaching, learning and scholarship. Roughly twenty faculty members from all disciplines of the campus participate annually in this summer institute.
The University of Colorado is committed to achieving gender and ethnic diversity in its student and faculty populations, and is eager to attract more diverse students to attend under-graduate and graduate school in Boulder. Through the office of the Associate Vice Chancellor of Diversity and Equity, CU has formed the LEAD (Leadership, Excellence, Achievement and Diversity) Alliance to offer broad support to diverse students across campus, in all disciplines of study.
Hence, CU and Dillard have separately recognized the
significant issues facing higher education today, and are in action to
revitalize liberal arts thinking and education in the Information Age. While both universities have separately
started to address these issues, we believe that together we can accomplish
things that would have been impossible separately. By combining each campus' strengths, and by establishing a
program where key faculty and students create materials and get hands-on
experience at each campus, we will create compelling outcomes that leverage
both our differences and our strengths.
In doing so, we will be relevant to Carnegie Corporation's stated goals
of strengthening the education of teachers, and stimulating an examination and
strengthening of liberal arts education.
We also believe that sharing course materials between
universities will permit faculty to spend more one-on-one time with their
students and less time creating courses.
Further, sharing course material is more efficient (materials can be
reused), and will lead to common learning outcomes for students, independent of
the campus at which they received instruction. Finally, we have the good
fortune that both institutions have core courses in calculus and humanities
that overlap to a reasonable degree in content, and where faculty at both
institutions are very interested in incorporating technology-based modules and
in partnering with another diverse institution on shared approaches and
delivery. Specifically,
through this proposal, we will partner so that we can address these issues in
non-traditional, expedited and potentially more powerful ways, by:
1. Combining faculty and students from diverse institutions to
drive creativity in curriculum design and delivery
2. Leveraging Colorado's teaching excellence program
3. Leveraging Colorado's technical infrastructure expertise
across both campuses
4. Beginning a graduate student pipeline from Dillard to CU,
which will work towards both schools' goals in this area
5. Sharing and reuse of core course materials, working towards
``portability'' goals and increased face-to-face interaction between faculty and
students
Our research has uncovered numerous examples of successful partnerships between predominantly white research institutions and HBCUs. A number of these studies explore the benefits of exchanges, including resource sharing, exposure and cultural diversity, as well as the creation of diverse student pipelines for the predominantly white university. At least one study (Mukenge, I.R., 1996, Meeting Institutional Needs by Collaboration Through Interinstitutional Exchanges) looks at factors enabling successful partnerships, including planning, knowledge of the other institution, evaluation, involvement of the entire institution in the effort, etc. Following is a brief summary of some of the other studies:
This study describes the partnership between the engineering department at Georgia Tech, and several HBCUs such as Spellman and Morehouse. The partnership program provides institutional resources from the large university to the smaller college, with the end result being the successful education of more minority engineers.
This paper describes the Management Education Alliance, a group of 15 business schools, including ten predominantly minority schools and five assisting schools. This alliance focuses on helping faculty forge ties with the business community, improving business school curriculum, and increasing the number of graduating minority students that are successfully placed in business.
This program involved faculty exchanges; the researchers found that the exchange program increased awareness of diversity issues among faculty, resulted in more attention to research about diversity issues among faculty, created more interest in hiring minority faculty, and caused a heightened desire to explore future collaborations.
We believe that our work will benefit from the results of this research, and we intend to use these studies to help guide the Dillard-Colorado partnership. It is also our belief that we will have some unique outcomes to add to the body of research that exists, as our work centers around the idea that enhanced core curriculum creation can be achieved in the Information Age if institutions work together, if they are diverse in nature, if they synthesize liberal arts and technological thinking, and if they consider instructional design and evaluation concepts in the curricula design and delivery. As we pursue this broader belief, we not only will discover new insights, but it is also our expectation that we will see many of the advantages documented in the existing research. Additionally, we know of no other formally articulated collaboration process for creating shared core course materials, and feel that this will be very helpful to institutions pursuing future partnerships.
Design and Activities
Proposed
Activities This section
expands upon the activities listed in the executive summary:
1. Short Term Planning - Collaboration Process Articulation
The first step in our proposal is to clearly articulate the process by which the two universities will collaborate. CU is a predominantly Caucasian research institution and Dillard is a largely African-American liberal arts institution, and hence have diverse student populations and instructional needs. Although the result of such collaborations will be novel and advantageous for student outcomes in the classroom, the planning process will likely present some challenges. We believe that creating and articulating a structured planning process is an essential first step before launching into discussions about course materials and delivery mechanisms. So, for example, one step in the process will be to clearly define the strengths, needs and demographics of students and faculty at both institutions. Another step will be to explicitly design the technological support needed for course delivery.
This work will be carried out by a team of key people from both Dillard and CU; the team will consist of an instructional designer, faculty members and students as content providers, technical specialists, evaluation specialists and a project manager. The design of the process will be participatory, incorporating the ideas and methods of all members. The process will be written down and agreed to during this planning process. Also, an evaluation plan will be created to study the effectiveness of the process when it is deployed during the module creation activity.
2. Faculty Training - As part of this proposal, several key Dillard faculty members will attend the CU FTEP Summer Institute for Technology, Scholarship and New Media Pedagogy in June of 2002 to receive training on educational technology and pedagogy. Selected faculty members will include the Dillard faculty involved in the creation of the shared course material, as well as members of Dillard's Technology Round Table. Their participation not only will enhance these faculty members' abilities, but also will help provide the groundwork for the creation of a faculty teaching excellence program at Dillard in the near future
3. Module Creation - Core course content and instruction will focus on two courses, Calculus II and Introduction to Humanities. These courses were chosen because:
Although specific materials will be planned next spring, we envision shared development and use of web-based modules that convey materials effectively, the use of multiple visual media both to convey existing material in new ways and to introduce new material, and creation of assessment plans to study how well students in the different institutions have mastered the material.
Each targeted course, Calculus II and Introduction to Humanities, will be broken down into lesson modules similar to Dr. Brevard's work with Humanities 200 at Dillard University, in which the course is divided into eight separate modules (with each module focusing on specific topics, i.e. art, literature, philosophy). Specific lesson modules will be selected for the collaborative process between the two institutions, allowing for ease of management and targeted lesson development.
By creating shared modules that can be used in different ways in course delivery, we believe that we can greatly improve curriculum portability, while still allowing for individual instructor creativity and campus needs. We also believe that this will help with collaboration with other universities, as we expand the footprint of this work by engaging other institutions and by enlarging the library of shared modules. So, for example, the Humanities curricula at both campuses will consist of a shared module that focuses upon African-American contributions to the humanities and arts. Of course, there will be many other such shared modules, the exact definition being produced in the planning process next year. In Calculus II, emphasis is likely to be placed on using moving and still images to help teach some difficult concepts, such as convergence of sequences, more effectively than traditional textbooks can, and on self-assessment modules. In the introductory Humanities courses, which at both institutions are broad based courses encompassing literature, music and art, the use of multimedia will combine image, sound and text to help convey the concepts, look and sound of particular eras and cultures.
Emphasis will be placed on delivery approaches that address diverse student backgrounds and learning styles. Students from classes on both campuses will participate in several shared course sessions via videoconferencing; hence, modules will be created that leverage this ``virtual'' classroom into novel student outcomes that could not have been achieved had the students remained apart. This is particularly important, and appealing, in the introductory Humanities class. In this course, student discussion is a key part of the learning experience, and by videoconferencing between two diverse universities, we will be able to introduce a diversity of perspectives into the students' and teachers' experiences that is not possible on either campus alone.
The makeup of the team creating the shared modules is the same as the team that articulated the collaboration process: faculty and students from each university serving as content providers, an instructional designer, technical specialists, evaluation specialists and project management.
4. Course Delivery - The Calculus II and Introduction to Humanities courses using the new modules will be delivered for the first time during the fall semester of 2002, and then again in the spring semester of 2003 (where improvements realized from the fall 2002 sessions can be incorporated). As mentioned above, course delivery will utilize common materials. It will also take advantage of some videoconferenced, joint sessions including students from both campuses. Faculty delivering the course modules will visit the other campus during the year, helping in the delivery and evaluation of the material.
5. Building Community - We believe that building ``learning communities'' of diverse people, who are working on common problems over a sustained period of time, is a vital part of the educational process. As relationships are formed, many benefits ensue: increased creativity, improved teamwork skills, increased confidence, and a heightened appreciation for multidisciplinary/diverse approaches. Hence, we are designing some key collaboration points into our program that are intended to build the foundation for an expanded ``learning community'' comprising Dillard and CU students and faculty.
There will be two face-to-face planning sessions in the spring of 2002, one at Dillard and one at CU that will involve both faculty and students. We are also building course modules that take advantage of videoconferencing as a way to bring students together for shared experiences in the classroom, even though they are not physically proximate on the same campus. Faculty members will travel back and forth during the delivery of the course materials. Evaluation of the entire project will be a joint endeavor between the Evaluation Research group of ATLAS at CU and Dr. Rita McMillan at Dillard. And, the leadership of the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program at CU, headed by Dr. Mary Ann Shea, will work with Dr. Pinkard, Ms. Daniels and others at Dillard to begin to establish a similar program at Dillard.
Finally, the Dillard students helping in the course module creation will be enrolled in the CU SMART (Summer Multicultural Access to Research Training) program during the summer of 2002. SMART is a 10-week summer research internship program for undergraduate students who are interested in preparing for graduate school in science, math or engineering. A goal of the SMART program is to increase diversity among Ph.D. recipients and future faculty members.
6. Long-Term Planning - The collaboration during this project will lay the groundwork for a teaching excellence program at Dillard that includes support for faculty in adapting educational technology into instruction. It will also be the start of ongoing and more extensive faculty and student exchange programs, and joint design of other core curricula. Our longer-term objectives are outlined in a subsequent section.
Timeline (Project Plan)
Activity Date
Pre-PlanningSelect Faculty Participants Syllabi Exchange Humanities Course Design (Dillard) IT Research with Technology Support Possibilities Planning on Project Management Discussions with Industrial Supporters |
October 01 - February 02 |
|
Select Student Participants SMART Program (Dillard students) Module Preparation (CU students) |
March 02 |
|
Kickoff Planning Meeting (at Dillard) with Faculty, Students, Project Mgt, IT |
March 02 |
|
Detailed Planning Process Articulation of Planning Process Creation of Core Curriculum Content Creation of Delivery Mechanisms Specification of Teacher Preparation Specification of Evaluation Methods and Outcomes IT Support (e.g., access to digital images) Key Student Collaboration Points |
March 02 - May 02 |
|
Wrap-Up Planning Meeting (at CU) with Faculty, Students, Project Mgt, IT |
Late May 02 |
|
Teacher Education Dillard Faculty Members at CU FTEP |
June 02 |
|
SMART Student Exchange (at CU) |
June 02 - August 02 |
|
Operationalize Plan IT Implementation Teacher Preparation Time Content Creation Time |
June 02 - August 02 |
|
Class Time and Evaluation Student Video Touch points Faculty Exchanges |
August 02 - May 03 |
|
Finalize Results/Output Production Evaluation Results Collaboration Process Handbook Course Curriculum Made Available |
January 03 - June 03 |
|
Results Dissemination Carnegie Foundation workshop, Project Web-site, Papers and Talks |
April 03 - June 03 (ongoing) |
Immediate Outcomes
The following short-term outcomes follow directly from the demonstration project described in this proposal:
Both Dillard and CU look forward to a long-term relationship, and hope that the demonstration project described here will be extended with additional funds in the future. Should that happen, we see the following long-term outcomes for our partnership:
Long Term Outcomes
Dissemination Plan
- The
dissemination of the experiences and results of this project will be aimed at
the broad higher education community, including research universities and
minority-serving universities. It
will aim at making it possible for other sets of diverse institutions to learn
and benefit from the experiences of this project, and enable them to share in
the critical assessment of the outcomes of the project. The dissemination plan includes:
Collaboration with Other Organizations
Departments Institution Role
Math Department Dillard module development (faculty)
Humanities Division Dillard module development (faculty)
Technology Round Table Dillard attend FTEP (faculty)
Under-Graduate Honors Pgm Dillard attend SMART (students)
Applied Math Department CU module development (faculty)
Humanities/Comparative Literature CU module development (faculty)
ATLAS CU evaluate demonstration project
FTEP CU train Dillard faculty
SMART CU provide research experience to Dillard students
ITS CU provide technology expertise
Microsoft provide software
Dell provide hardware
Educause dissemination of activities/results
We are receiving strong indication from the private sector that they're interested in, and will support projects like these:
``Partnerships
such as the one outlined in this proposal address many issues that companies
and academic institutions strive to resolve. The strengths of each institution participating in the
proposal would greatly contribute to real progress in the realm of diversity in
technical education.''
Rob Reed, Microsoft University Relations
Plans for Sustainability
Dillard and the University of Colorado share many common and complimentary goals. We are enthusiastic about this proposed demonstration project (requested by Carnegie) and its ability to lay the groundwork for a rich, long-term relationship between Dillard and CU. This relationship already is exhibiting the potential for blossoming in a variety of directions, and the leadership of both universities is committed to its success.
Ongoing programs at both universities will provide some of the support for
sustaining the programs begun in this demonstration project. The ATLAS
initiative at CU Boulder is a significant, ongoing commitment that assures
attention to innovative uses of technology in education, assessment of their
effectiveness, and outreach to minority-serving institutions. The Faculty
Teaching Excellence Program at CU Boulder also is a well-established program
that assures that training of faculty to use technology effectively in teaching
and learning will continue. Dillard is also committed to the ongoing
reexamination of the core curriculum to ensure that teaching methods and course
content remain relevant. This
demonstration project is consistent with the direction mapped in Dillard's
strategic plan and will be applied toward Dillard's efforts to integrate
technology in the classroom, expand students' global awareness, and finding
creative methods of improving the teaching of liberal arts core curriculum.
Although we are planning to integrate our learning from the demonstration
project into our permanent infrastructures, we also understand the broad scope
and nature of the educational issues we are addressing together. Hence, we believe that a larger,
long-term project, funded in the future, would provide us the opportunity to
build upon the groundwork established by the demonstration project, and
therefore have a major and sustainable impact on higher education at not only
both of our universities, but at other institutions as well.
Finally, we already see the partnership between Dillard and Colorado developing
in other directions. For example the two universities are beginning to explore
shared interests in bio-medical education and research and the potential to
establish a pipeline of Dillard undergraduates attending graduate school at
Colorado in these areas. The development of other aspects of our partnership
such as this also will contribute to the sustainability of the project for
which funding is requested from the Carnegie Corporation.
Management and Staffing Plan (resumes are in attachment)
Both Dillard
and CU have lined up an impressive team of people to staff this demonstration
project:
Project
Management - Dr. Robert Schnabel, Lucy Sanders, Dr. Elfred A. Pinkard
Evaluation
Staff - Dr. Lecia Barker, Dr. Tim Weston and Dr. Rita McMillan
CU Faculty -
Dr. Jim Curry, Dr. Anne Dougherty and Dr. Paul Gordon
Dillard
Faculty -Dr. Lisa Brevard, Dr. Peter Frempong-Mireku, Mr. Tommy S. Holton, Mrs.
Heidi L. Daniels
Dr. Lisa Pertillar Brevard is Dean of Humanities and an
Associate Professor of English and African World Studies at Dillard
University. Dr. Brevard recently
published Madame E. Azalia Hackley (1867-1922), the Spirituals and Social
Change and has been affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution as a
researcher in African American traditions since 1987. Dr. Peter Frempong-Mireku is Assistant Professor in
Mathematics at Dillard University.
Dr. Frempong is a 3rd prize recipient of the Maple Summer
Workshop for his paper Kramers and Wannier V-matrices for Computing
Partition Function of Ising Mode, is affiliated with various mathematical
associations, is a web site designer and is fluent in English, Russian and
German. Dr. Elfred Anthony Pinkard
is Associate Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dillard University. Dr. Pinkard is an experienced
administrator, who arrived at Dillard having served as Spelman College's
Director of Planning and Institutional Research, Tougaloo College's Executive
Vice President (equivalent to COO), and Paul Quinn College's Vice President for
Academic Affairs. Mr. Tommy S.
Holton is Dean of Library/Learning Resources and an Assistant Professor of
Computer Science at Dillard University.
Mr. Holton previously served Harvard University as the Manager of
Computing and Communication Services for Harvard Institute for International
Development. Dr. Rita Clay
McMillan is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Dillard University. Dr. McMillan recently joined Dillard
after serving Lowry Mays College and the graduate school of business at Texas
A&M University, where she developed and taught Marketing Management, a
``capstone'' marketing course for graduating marketing majors. Ms. Heidi Lovett Daniels is instructor
of education technology at Dillard University. Ms. Daniels has expertise in the use of technology in
classroom education, bringing her experience as a systems analyst, math
instructor and computer instructor to the development of on-line course work.
Dr. Jim Curry is one of CU
Boulder's best teachers, having achieved CU's highest teaching designation as a
President's Teaching Scholar. Jim
recently spent his sabbatical at SUN, working on educational technology, and is
a leader with respect to innovation in teaching and learning, including the
creation of web-based modules for Calculus III and Differential Equations. Dr. Anne Dougherty, the Associate Chair
of the Department of Applied Mathematics, has worked extensively with Dr.
Curry, and is an excellent teacher in her own right. Recently, Dr. Dougherty developed and organized a summer
institute for high school mathematics teachers. Dr. Paul Gordon has coordinated the humanities 1010-1020
courses for over 15 years, currently teaching the honors section of each
course. Dr. Gordon also has
experience in the use of online materials in course curricula. Dr. Lecia Barker directs the ATLAS Evaluation
and Research Group, and Dr. Tim Weston is an Evaluation and Assessment Research
Associate in that group. Both
Lecia and Tim have extensive background evaluating web-based modules and
technology curriculum, and have experience implementingboth qualitative and
quantitative data collection methods.
The successful completion of this project will require project
management across a broad spectrum of academic, technical and industrial
milestones. Ms.Lucy Sanders, who
has over 24 years of experience in the high-tech industry managing development
projects (many involving hundreds of participants in multiple global
locations), will lead the project
management activities for this proposal.
Organizational
Capacity to Implement and Administer the Proposed Activities
Both CU and Dillard have histories of successful
implementation of projects this size.
For example, CU has over 200M a year of externally funded research.
In terms of institutional capacity: Dillard University is in the midst of
planning for a capital campaign and an academic strategic plan, both of which
will feature initiatives aimed at strengthening the liberal arts curriculum
through state of the art facilities, best practices models in teaching,
institutionalized technology competency for all faculty members, strengthened
and enhanced partnerships with an increased number of different types of higher
education institutions, and development of students adept at language, research
and global awareness.
Evaluation Plan
Evaluation will be a collaborative effort between CU and Dillard. Lecia Barker and Tim Weston of the ATLAS Evaluation and Research Group and Rita McMillan of Dillard will collect data to guide and inform project directors about progress toward program objectives and to assess outcomes for both students and faculty. The ATLAS Evaluation and Research group brings expertise in the development of web-based modules and the integration of technology into traditional higher education classroom teaching.
The evaluation team will focus on the processes and activities that lead to the project's goals in terms of facilitating productive and rewarding collaboration between the universities in order to enhance liberal arts education. Evaluation questions related to the project's central goals and a preliminary data collection plan is presented in the table below.
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What is the nature of the collaboration between CU and
Dillard? |
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Data Collection Questions |
Source and Method |
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What is the collaboration medium and setting for each collaborating group (faculty, students, project managers)? How frequently do they interact? What is their perception of the quality of the collaboration? |
Observations; documentation of interaction; interviews (individual and focus group) with members of each group |
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Do faculty receive high-quality training for
integrating information technology into their teaching? |
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Data Collection Questions |
Source and Method |
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How many faculty are involved from each institution? What training do they receive? What is faculty perception of the quality of the training? Do faculty continue to use what they learned and do they integrate this knowledge into other courses? |
Records review; ; interviews with faculty, FTEP director; follow-up survey in Spring with faculty,2003 |
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How effective are the web-based course modules for
producing learning outcomes on each campus? |
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Data Collection Questions |
Source and Method |
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What is the demographic profile of students on each campus? What do students learn? What is their perception of the quality of the courses? |
Records review; interviews to learn faculty expectations; observations of videoconferences; review of classroom assessment with faculty |
Are course modules disseminated broadly? |
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Data Collection Questions |
Source and Method |
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What is the dissemination mechanism? How many downloads are requested from the web site? How many other inquiries are made? Did faculty produce usable course modules? What is the perceived quality of the modules? |
Records review; download logs; surveys; rating |
Both quantitative and qualitative techniques will be used to allow understanding of outcomes and the processes that lead to them. Evaluators will use appropriate safeguards to ensure privacy and confidentialityÑwe will acquire approval from the University of Colorado Human Subjects Committee and will obtain informed consent as needed. Appropriate analytical techniques, chosen according to the nature of the data, will be specified once variables have been more clearly identified and operationalized. Evaluation activities will follow the timing of the project work plan, increasing data collection, analysis, and reporting in the latter part of the grant period. Evaluation will be ongoing and continuous; the team will provide feedback to project managers both informally and formally to ensure timely mid-stream corrections. A final summary report will be produced as shown in the time line above.