|
|
||
| University Relations | ||
|
|
||
|
President’s Innovation Fund sparks creative collaboration across campus
NGCSU President David Potter established the special funding in January 2006, using state funds to help innovators on campus develop projects through one-time grants. The idea is based on North Georgia's new strategic direction, which includes leadership for innovation in teaching and learning. Many of the President’s Innovation Fund projects are already seeing tangible results, and others are just starting to develop. Potter envisioned the one-time fund to serve as a stimulant for endeavors that would later be funded through other sources, such as grants or through the university's Center of Teaching & Learning Excellence. The 14 projects listed below were selected out of the 26 submitted proposals from faculty and staff members. Potter entrusted the Institutional Identity Task Force to review the proposals and he accepted all of the committee's recommendations. The grant awards range from $2,400 to $10,000 each. For more information, contact the Office of Sponsored Programs at 706-867-3280. Redesigning Middle Grades Teacher Prep Curriculum The middle grades teacher prep project focused on ways to enhance learning. The foundation began two years ago by gaining faculty acceptance of the project, getting feedback from local school principals, and responding to student comments and concerns. Toni Bellon, along with five colleagues in teacher education – Susan Ferrell, James Badger, Robert Rogan and Barbara Dixon – spent the past year redesigning the curriculum using a “backwards design” model called Understanding by Design. This approach mirrors the current efforts in public schools to implement the new Georgia Performance Standards. A backwards design approach requires educators to tie the standards to appropriate learning assessments before choosing instructional strategies. This process encourages teachers to focus on student learning rather than their own performance. The revised curriculum was fully implemented for the first time this fall. Faculty members have already began assessing and evaluating the new curriculum, but students will need to complete an entire cycle in the new curriculum (a two-year cycle) before the full impact of it can be determined. Ongoing adjustments based on the assessments and evaluations are planned. Bellon has received positive feedback from the students who received pieces of the new curriculum and are involved in their first field placement in the public schools. Many of the public school teachers are using the new design for the first time, and Bellon’s students have been able to help their cooperating teachers in this process. Campus Cadre of Experts This venture was designed to compliment the Redesigning Middle Grades Teacher Prep Curriculum project. The funds were used to educate faculty and students about the process of backwards design and the best practices in assessment and grading. Ten members of the NGCSU School of Education faculty, along with some other faculty members, attended conferences to learn more about the processes being used by the K-12 schools in Georgia so that they could incorporate this knowledge into their courses. The project also
provided professional learning opportunities to local school systems to help
with the implementation of these processes in their schools. Materials used
for developing these skills were purchased and incorporated into coursework
for undergraduates and the advanced degree programs in the School of
Education. Approximately 200 students had the opportunity to benefit from
the funds. Faculty Survey on Peer Review of Teaching Excellence in teaching is an integral part of North Georgia’s mission. NGCSU faculty members receive feedback on their instruction through two main sources to reflect on their instruction and consider modifications: anonymous course evaluations completed by students at the end of each semester, and annual performance self-evaluation. A third widely practiced process employed by many colleges and universities domestically and internationally to provide feedback on classroom instruction is a peer review of teaching. Peer review of teaching is not, however, a process adopted by most departments at NGCSU. James Badger and Irene Kokkala sought to understand this process by conducting a survey in fall 2006 and spring 2007 investigating NGCSU faculty views on peer review of teaching. NGCSU faculty expressed some concerns about a peer review of teaching process in terms of (1) Will the observer know what to look for in the instruction of a colleague? (2) Will an instructor be required to participate in the process? and (3) Will faculty have time to participate in the process? A number of strengths inherent in the peer review process were also identified by NGCSU faculty. The peer review process was recognized to inform and help improve instruction through constructive feedback, create a reciprocal relationship of learning between the observer and instructor – informing the instructor through a post-observation discussion with the observer and providing the observer with insights about teaching through his or her observation of a colleague’s instruction, and triangulate classroom instruction with student evaluations and faculty member’s annual performance evaluations. The survey also contributed to the construction of a NGCSU faculty-informed peer observation rubric – “faculty-informed” since the rubric reflected categories NGCSU faculty determined on the survey to be particularly relevant in a peer review process. The peer review process and NGCSU faculty-informed rubric were offered to all department heads at a fall 2007 meeting for those interested in implementing a peer review process. While the rubric was presented for consideration to the department heads – be it for adoption or to foster dialogue between faculty members about teaching and student learning – the process proposed is not tied to decisions about faculty promotion and tenure, merit pay, or evaluations. The research will conclude in spring 2008 with a survey requesting feedback from those departments and faculty that implemented the NGCSU faculty-informed rubric for a peer review process. MAP (Minority Advising Program)-LEAP Tutoring The grant helped to fund the usage of an online service with www.tutor.com to provide tutoring assistance for students that was available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Tutor.com subscription was an outreach effort that made tutoring available for students during the hours when they often normally study and the remote access made it particularly useful for commuter students and athletes. All NGCSU students were eligible to use the tutoring services, as the resources remained available for the pilot program. The online resource helped to supplement the one-on-one campus tutoring services provided through the Division of Academic Support Programs and others on campus. The Athletic department committed to supporting the program by providing part of the funding for student tutors. The Honors Program also provided some funding. Retaining and placing tutors in the Corps of Cadets Study Hall also took place. The project’s aim was to enhance student success and retention. Many NGCSU students took advantage of the new services last year and have stated that they were very helpful to them. Recruitment Publications The director of Undergraduate Admissions and the director of Cadet Admissions submitted a joint proposal for funding to rectify an on-going problem regarding the “look” of the university's recruiting and marketing publications. Every department within the university was using their own design resulting in a mosaic of different “looks” and a loss of standard branding potential. The awarded funds were spent to standardize the look of our brochures, view books, and other promotional materials to facilitate the branding of the university in the public arena. A professional designer was hired to create options for a standard appearance. The two directors selected a look and presented the design to the NGCSU Leadership Council who approved it for implementation. During the past year, they have converted nearly all of the university’s marketing publications to the new, standard design; created and printed the first ever cadet view book; and worked with other university departments to use the new format. These efforts have resulted in improved and more professional branding with prospective students, centers of influence, and other constituents. LLiad, Stewart Library ILLiad is a resource sharing system designed to automate routine interlibrary loan functions. The goal of the Stewart Library’s ILLiad project was to provide NGCSU students, faculty, and staff with faster, higher quality interlibrary loan service. The project redesigned the Interlibrary Loan department of the Stewart Library and measurably increased usage of this essential library service. The online, self-service system allows users to initiate requests, monitor the progress of those requests in the system, and view items delivered electronically. With the ILLiad system, they are able to deliver needed journal articles to the users’ desktop electronically, minimize paperwork and labor for both library users and library staff, and significantly improve the turn-around time for requests. ILLiad eliminated paperwork, increased efficiency, and improved service to the end user in the NGCSU campus community In 2005, the Interlibrary Loan department of the Stewart Library was drowning in the paperwork of an outdated, inefficient system. The library director, Shawn Tonner, identified several possible solutions to the problem and encouraged Mary Poland to submit a proposal for funding to purchase of a computerized system to automate the process. Tonner and Poland, along with Shari Holtzclaw, the manager of Access Services, put together a proposal requesting grant money to purchase the ILLiad software system. The initial license for the ILLiad system was purchased in May 2006, and the installation and implementation were completed in stages. The Lending module, a behind-the-scenes function, was activated in November 2006. The Borrowing module, which features the online user interface – the public face of ILLiad, was functional in May 2007 but not in use campus-wide. The ILLiad project, better known now as the Interlibrary Loan Online system, was fully functional and in widespread use at the start of the fall semester of 2007. Jim Webb, NGCSU Information and Instructional Technology, contributed his technical and computer security expertise for the installation and implementation of the software. Josh Boyd in IIT provided additional support assistance. Barbara Seaton of the Center of Teaching and Learning Excellence consulted with Poland on the Web page design. The library staff, of course, served as guinea pigs during the initial set-up to work out any bugs in the system before it was implemented. Online Public Event Management Developing a sustainable information guide for all of North Georgia’s events open to the public took place during the summer. The resulting online resource launched the week that fall semester classes started in August. The new “Get Involved” events guide, at www.ngcsu.edu/eventsguide, is a comprehensive tool that was designed and customized to be user-friendly, up-to-date and easily accessible for all of North Georgia’s constituents. “Get Involved” – so named to establish an identity for the guide among the many calendars on NGCSU’s Web site – serves a dual purpose. The primary function is to be a highly used resource that will create more audience turn-out at events and build stronger constituency connections to the university through various fine arts, cultural and academic events. Customer service will benefit with employees being able to direct those interested in public events to the online tool. The second purpose of “Get Involved” is to create a foundation for a marketing structure in publicizing events. University Relations, which developed and manages the guide, will use the information submitted by event coordinators to develop more effective and timely event publicity. Event coordinators on campus may submit comprehensive event information through the online submission form. Every official university event open to the public that is submitted through the online form will be published. A separate Web link to the intercollegiate athletic event listings maintained by the Office of Sports Information is on the guide’s main page. Visitors may search the online guide for an event to liven up their weekend or a weeknight – musical performances, cultural events, art gallery exhibits, military parades and visiting speaker series are among the events. The guide allows for easy viewing of all events month-by-month through the “wall calendar,” which highlights the days that events are scheduled. User-friendly tools allow visitors to get involved when visiting the guide. Users may send reminders about selected events to multiple e-mail addresses, receive notification of cancellations or changes in events or download an unlimited number of events to personal calendars like Google or Yahoo! Calendars. “Get Involved” is part of NGCSU’s efforts to engage the community and region in the life of the university. Trumba Corp. developed the online event software program and stores the data on its servers. Alumni Data Mining The purpose of data mining is to compare fields in the university’s alumni and friends database to compare donors with non-donors. The grant allowed the NGCSU Foundation to purchase the needed software and to hire a company to provide instruction for learning how to do the statistical analysis for the project. Now they will be able to have this function and manage the database “in-house.” With the software they were able to correlate information fields with giving history and then determined a predictive model. This allowed them to rank the alumni according to how “warm” they are toward the college. Identifying similar characteristics are useful because they now can enhance the university’s Annual Giving program by targeting their resources better and identifying which major gift prospects should be visited first. Summary results: If they had applied the fiscal year 2006 data mining score to the fiscal year 2005 solicitation letter, they could have saved almost $5,000 with almost the same in gifts given. Using the data mining score for the FY2007 fall letter, they increased the number of first-time donors by 315% (from 46 to 145). Furthermore, overall performance was greatly improved since they could allocate spending more efficiently: · Response FY06 = 2.94% of 21,776 (641 donors) · Response FY07 = 5.28% of 14,292 (755 donors) GOLD (Graduates Of the Last Decade) Alumni Group The mission of the GOLD alumni program is to cultivate relationships between North Georgia College & State University and its newest alumni who have graduated within the past 10 years. The Office of Annual Giving guided this group toward the university’s priorities by offering a high-profile system promoting leadership opportunities that are designed to benefit new alumni, both socially and professionally, which will in turn also benefit the university by engaging interest that could lead to more and larger gifts. The GOLD group, which this year is made up of graduates from 1998 to 2007, equals one-fourth of the total alumni population. Statistics show that engaging new alumni positively affects dollars given, both in the short- and long-term. The goal is to teach the joy of philanthropy, understanding that the biggest donors often start early and develop over time. Area Coordinators, who are alumni from these class years, have worked this past year to choose event venues that are popular with new alumni, and they expect attendance to grow over time. For more information, visit www.ngcsu.edu/gold. Mountain Community Ventures After a year of researching and laying the foundation, Alice Sampson, the director of the Appalachian Studies Center at NGCSU, is beginning work this fall on the new entrepreneur endeavor, “Mountain Community Ventures.” Two years ago, Sampson attended a conference that focused on local entrepreneurship and business incubation, in which she was inspired by the work that small colleges and large universities were doing to foster student enterprise. She envisions such a program for the Appalachian Studies Center at North Georgia with the added component of businesses providing a service to the community, addressing problems seeking solutions. She plans to partner “Mountain Community Ventures” with Appalachian Community Enterprise, a nonprofit micro-lender, and other community and campus members to provide students and the community with resources necessary to create local businesses that positively impact society. It is envisioned that students who may have a good idea, but not the benefit of startup funds or access to technical assistance, will be able to see their ideas come to fruition, while assisting the Appalachian Georgia area. Through the development of several student businesses each year and in providing training to potential entrepreneurs, the plan is for Mountain Ventures to provide a service to students, the campus, and to the Appalachian community and culture. By selecting and incubating student businesses with a focus on the community of Appalachian Georgia, Mountain Ventures plans to assist the Appalachian Studies Center in reaching three of its six goals: preserve Appalachian culture; serve the region as a credible, visible, and viable resource; and collaborate with the greater Appalachian community. By involving students in a community-based setting, Mountain Ventures will assist students in achieving the five NGCSU Learning Outcomes. A related project began earlier this year. NGCSU students Brianna Brown, Misty Green and Malina Malonado won third place for their Heirloom Seeds project at the Annual Appalachian IDEAS Network Social Venture Showcase. The students collected and documented heirloom seeds from community members. This experience provided the students with an opportunity to plan, present, and discuss a social entrepreneurship concept and to meet with successful venture capitalists. The collected seeds will be marked with their histories and marketed in the future as packages for the public to purchase. When the project is fully materialized, it will provide the local community with a product that will instruct on local history and culture, while providing sustenance and a sense of place. University Press of North Georgia The new University Press of North Georgia was established and produced its first book, “Billy Roper: Visual Storyteller,” featuring the Appalachian-inspired work of the university's first artist-in-residence. The book also served as an exhibit catalog accompanying an art exhibition displayed on campus earlier this year of Roper’s works. Faculty members B. J. Robinson and Donna Gessell served as editors of the book that was written by Pam Sachant, NGCSU Fine Arts Gallery director. With a foreward by NGCSU President David Potter and an introduction by Thomas Scanlin, the publication explores the intrinsic link between the visual and the verbal in Roper’s art, and the notion of his paintings as a form of visual storytelling. Art student Charles Mitchell photographed all of the artwork included in the book. MiHyun Kim, assistant professor of art, received an Award of Excellence in the Design competition from the University & College Designers Association for designing the publication. The book was displayed at the Annual UCDA Design Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, this fall. Students enrolled in the new Introduction to Publishing course last summer, taught by Robinson, were involved with theme development, reviewed submissions and wrote editorial recommendations for the University Press’s second book, “Leadership in the Arts: The Artist as Activist in the Appalachian South,” scheduled to be printed in early 2008. Students gained insight into the many factors that are involved with the planning, developing, printing and marketing of a publication. They learned that publishing is a collaborative process, one involving scholars in specific disciplines, faculty board members who uphold the press mission, researchers, and design, production, and marketing professionals. To purchase the “Billy Roper: Visual Storyteller” book or for more information about the University Press of North Georgia, visit www.upnorthgeorgia.org. Integration of
Co-Curricular Learning Outcomes with General Education Outcomes The university is beginning to see the impact of this grant funded in spring 2006 for Holistic Undergraduate Education at NGCSU: Integration of Co-Curricular Learning Outcomes with General Education Outcomes. The award funded the participation of six people at the Association of American College & Universities Institute on General Education’s 2006 summer conference.
The primary goal of the project, which has
been accomplished, was to integrate co-curricular learning outcomes with the
five North Georgia Learning Outcomes listed below so that NGCSU has a set of
undergraduate student educational outcomes that form the basis for learning
— whether inside or outside the classroom. Additional goals included identifying assessment tools for the five North Georgia Learning Outcomes, especially within a student’s major and for those areas outside of the classroom, and enhancing faculty and staff understanding of learning outcomes and assessment. These efforts are ongoing through the work of the General Education Committee and others. As part of this initiative, the Dean of Students was added to the General Education Committee in fall 2006. The General Education Committee began focusing their attention on integrating the North Georgia Learning Outcomes throughout the core curriculum, major curriculum, and co-curriculum in 2006-07, and will continue to do in 2007-08. The directors for this project are working to develop this niche and for NGCSU to become known for this approach. Presentations were made this past year by the project directors at SACS and AAC&U conferences: Denise Young and Laura Whitaker-Lea presented “An Innovative Pathway to Student Success: Integrating Learning Outcomes in General Education, the Major, and the Co-Curriculum” at the 2006 annual meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools – Commission on Colleges, Orlando, Fla. Young, Whitaker-Lea, and Laura Getty presented “Integrating Common Learning Outcomes Across the Curriculum and the Co-Curriculum” at the 2007 General Education and Assessment Conference of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Miami, Fla. After the presentation, they were asked to write an article for “About Campus” on integrating learning outcomes throughout the entire educational experience. The article, “Bridging the Great Divide in Campus-Wide Assessment,” has been accepted and is tentatively scheduled for publication in mid-2008. Additional presentations on this topic are being made at AAC&U and SACS conferences in fall 2007. Summer Honors Program
Summer Honors
Program at North Georgia, a two-week academic and leadership experience for
talented teenagers, and hosted by North Georgia College & State University,
took place June 10-22. Forty high school students from the north Georgia
area were introduced to collegiate level academics and a strenuous
leadership curriculum. High schools students who attended were from
Cherokee, Fannin, Pickens, Murray, and Whitfield County Schools and the
Dalton City Schools. The students were introduced to the university’s Pine Valley ropes courses, where students scaled towering obstacles and tested their abilities to work together. They lived on the North Georgia campus for two weeks and previewed the college experience, being taught by university professors and mentored by undergraduate students. Thirty-eight of the
participants won merit-based competitions for program slots during their
junior year in high school, earning scholarships to cover all the Summer
Honors fees. Two private-school students who met the admission requirements
also attended. Audio/Visual Student Advisement: Podcasting As a new technology resource for his department, Chuck Robertson’s podcasting project caters to psychology majors, many who were “falling through the cracks” and not receiving the guidance they needed until they were too far into the program. The podcasts help combat the problem of too few faculty members advising large numbers of students. Podcasting is the creation of audio and video files distributed via the Internet. Users may download, or save, the files to their computers or multi-media players, such as an iPod. All psychology students are now instructed to listen to the basic advising online before they meet with their academic advisors. This allows the advisors to spend that time having a more meaningful conversation about where the students want to go in the future and how they can get there. Since the podcasts debuted in fall 2006, there have been more than 2,100 downloads and over 500 individuals have subscribed to the online advising channel. The podcasts also give students the flexibility of being able to listen to them anywhere that there is Internet access, on and off campus, including the increasingly expanding wireless areas on campus. A non-networked kiosk featuring informative QuickTime movies has also been set-up in the department for students to also use. A group of psychology students shared the project at the Apple Digital Campus Leadership Institute and a regional psychology conference last spring. Robertson is planning for future needs that may be addressed, such as short videos that answer questions, for example, about curriculum changes or getting into a specific graduate program. He also envisions the podcasting project as something that other departments on campus may be interested in pursuing in the future. After the first group of students who are exposed to the new podcast advising, graduates, he plans to do research to compare those students to the ones who recently graduated without the online advising. In the mean time, two psychology students have collected experimental data using the podcasts as learning stimuli and have found evidence that the podcasts improve learning in both majors and non-majors. |
|
This page last modified on: Thursday, 06 December 2007 15:45:37 -0500 by University Relations |
:: Disclaimer :: Accessibility |