2000-2001 Teaching Effectiveness Program

 

Community-Based Education:  Innovation in Experiential Learning 

Prof. John Wadland and Prof. Jim Struthers, Canadian Studies; Prof. John Marsh, Geography; Ian Attridge,  Environmental Lawyer (Project Host); Tamara Wilbee, Haliburton Economic Diversification Committee (Project Host); and Jennifer Bowe, Co-Director, Trent Centre for Community-Based Education
September 14, 2000; 2 hrs 

For five years now the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education has been matching students and faculty with local organizations to undertake research projects of benefit to the surrounding community.  The program has grown from involving seven students in its first year, to over 70 in 1999-2000.  As more students express interest in this opportunity to apply their skills to solve problems in our community, more faculty are being approached with requests to supervise Community Research Placement Courses. 

In this panel discussion, students, host organizations and faculty who have participated in Community-Based Education in the past will discuss the rewards and best practices emerging as the Community-Based Education Program matures. 

 

Workshop on Introduction to Intellectual Property & Copyright Issues / The Rights Stuff: The Node Learning Technologies Network

Cathy Boak and Erin Bale, the Node Learning Technologies Network
September 28, 2000; 3 hrs 

Concepts of intellectual property ownership and rights are undergoing a fundamental reexamination in light of the boom in electronic course development and delivery. Some of the questions that arise as a result are: 

• Who owns course materials? Who should have claims? 
• How are authors compensated for their work?
• What are the possible costs to faculty in terms of reputation and career?
• How are institutions compensated for their investments?
• What ownership issues arise in light of inter-institutional and global collaboration efforts? 
• What are some promising models for current practice? 

"The Rights Stuff", a three-hour workshop for participants from Trent University and Sir Sanford Fleming College, will draw on the Node's extensive research on IP issues in university and college course development and approaches to handling IP in Canadian and American institutions. Through presentation, discussion and group analysis of case studies, participants will look at the IP issues presented by new technologies and will examine the pros and cons of several approaches to handling them. 

The workshop will examine the stakes and stakeholders in electronic course development as well as the policies and practices taking shape in higher education in Canada and the U.S. Participants should come prepared to share their experiences and will leave with: 

• An understanding of the emerging issues and trends facing faculty, staff and administrators. 
• An understanding of what makes some approaches to IP ownership and rights more promising than others. 
• A representative summary of policies and practices developed or being developed at higher education institutions in Canada. 

 

Speech Visualization & Synthesis in Language Teaching & Learning

Philippe Martin, University of Toronto, and Prof. Aline Germain-Rutherford, Modern Languages 
October 12, 2000; 2 hrs 

Philippe Martin, linguist at the University of Toronto and WinPitch designer, and Aline Germain-Rutherford of Modern Languages and developer of WinPitch teaching / learning applications, will present some applications using WinPitchLTL.

The session will be broken down into three general areas: a short historical introduction on Speech synthesis and visualization in the research and teaching fields; a presentation of the technological and pedagogical characteristics of WinPitchLTL; and a presentation of concrete teaching/learning applications in 3 different contexts: in class (or in a multimedia lab), in a distance learning setting, and on line (via a learning web site that Philippe and Aline are in the process of developing). We will also draw on this software's  experimental use  in a French linguistics course  being offered this semester at Trent.

 

Intellectual Property & Copyright Issues 

October 18, 2000; 2 hrs

The purpose of this session is to provide an introduction to, and raise awareness of, the multi-facetted aspects of Intellectual Property & Copyright issues within and affecting the Trent community. Furthermore, our hope is to inspire broad-based, continuing interest in, and dialogue regarding, intellectual property management at Trent.  Finally, we wish to encourage the development of an intellectual property resource and discussion group at the University including students, employees and friends of Trent. 

Peter Lapp, Special Advisor on Distance Education, Trent (moderator)

Ken Field, Information Services, Bata Library / C.A.U.T. Intellectual Property Working Group 

The Canadian Copyright Act applies to the electronic environment as it does to the print and audio visual environments. Issues around the application of existing copyright law to the electronic environment in the context of university teaching will be explored with a brief discussion of potential future changes to existing legislation. 

Leslie Woolcott, Industry Liaison Officer

Intellectual property is the fruit of our creative and research labours.  It consists of various forms be they informal, as in a trade secret, or formal as is the case with trademarks, patents and copyright.  Discussions of intellectual property management are relatively recent at Trent but increasingly necessary in keeping with the development of both our research strengths and our research collaborations.  Operating from within the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the Industry Liaison Officer is responsible for the development and promotion of intellectual property management at Trent.  A discussion of Trent's existing intellectual property management policy will shed light on future directions. 

Janice Millard , Gifts, Cataloguing, Bata Library

The Copyright Act intends to balance the interests of the creators of intellectual property and the users of it. As an academic institution, Trent includes people on both sides of the issue. Luckily, the University, as a post-secondary institution, has a signed CANCOPY agreement which permits the copying of materials for private study and research without the necessity of gaining the permission of the copyright holder.  Learn more about this agreement and others which affect the copying of materials at Trent. 

Helen Knibb, Bell Institute for Learning Design, Sir Sandford Fleming College 

This case study outlines some of the challenges we faced at  Fleming in our efforts to adhere to the CANCOPY licence  agreement and the Canadian Copyright Act while developing print- based and on-line courses.  Contrary to expectation, the  CANCOPY agreement covered only a small percentage of the  learning resources selected by faculty. Other challenges included  long and complex negotiations with publishers; seeking clearances  on the transformation of print to digital media; developing protocols  on the embedding and/or deep linking of URLs in on-line courses;  standardising the administrative process for copyright clearances;   planning for course maintenance and accounting for royalty  payments. At times the process was time consuming, sometimes costly and occasionally overwhelming. This session reviews what  we did, what worked and areas that could work better.

 

Effective Video-Conferencing Techniques: A Collaboration Between The Instructional Development Centre, Trent  and the Bell Institute for Learning Design, Fleming 
October 31, 2000; 2 hrs

Two-way, interactive video conferencing can be a valuable medium for teaching and learning. It's a synchronous technology, allowing participants distributed between two or more sites to hear and see each other. This session presents three case studies in which video conferencing has been used to overcome the barriers of distance, reduce travel costs and travel time for faculty and create learning environments that complement the intended course outcomes.

A brief overview of the uses and applications of the technology by Peter Lapp (Special Advisor on Distance Education) will be followed by three case studies presented by Trent and Fleming faculty.

Aline Germain-Rutherford (Modern Languages, Trent) also teaches Oral French Communication in Professional Settings for the University of Wisconsin. During her last course she was linked to four sites: two in Wisconsin, one in Texas and Trent. 

Gayle McIntyre (Sir Sandford Fleming College) has taught several courses in the Aboriginal Cultural Interpretation program that focus on conservation and museum techniques. The Fleming site is connected via the Contact North bridge to First Nations students drawn from the Rainy Lake area. 

Morgan Tamplin (Computing, Anthropology, Trent) is currently teaching his first video conference course Introduction to Cyberspace to learners at Durham College. 

In closing, Helen Knibb (Learning Resource Centres, Sir Sandford Fleming College) will review ways in which video conferencing can be incorporated in face to face courses to access guest experts, visit remote locations and facilitate international student collaborations and partnerships. 

 

Teaching Large Classes 
November 3, 2000; 2 hrs 
 

Deborah Berrill (Education)
Supporting Individual Construction of Knowledge: Strategies for Breaking Large Classes into Small Groups While Still Keeping Momentum and Focus
In this presentation, I will focus on a number of strategies that I use to break large classes of 100+ students into smaller groups. The methods that I use tend to be ones that begin with individual response, to promote individual engagement with a topic and individual construction of knowledge around that topic. Then, I use grouping techniques which involve a minimum loss of classroom time, for physically moving large groups of people in itself can often take valuable teaching / learning time. The final stage is the 'take up' stage - where group responses need to be reported back to the large group. Again, if not carefully planned, this can be a heavy time- consumer. I'll summarize with principles which guide the types of grouping I use, the types of topics I choose, and the types of 'take up' or closure we do - both as a group and individually.

Al Slavin (Physics) 
Peer Instruction: An alternative to traditional lecturing in analytical courses 
Extensive research over the last twenty years into physics teaching at the university level has shown that the traditional lecture approach is largely ineffective for developing either a conceptual understanding of material or analytical skills by  students.  This talk will discuss an approach initiated by E. Mazur of Harvard University and used at Trent for the past three years that requires students to do assigned readings before the class - with class time being spent primarily in small group discussion with regular pauses for feedback to let the instructor and the students know if they understand the material.  The approach should be applicable to most analytical subjects. 

Alie Hearn (Cultural Studies)
Talk Loud and Never Turn Your Back on the Audience: Lecturing as Performance
Most professors do not consider the performative aspects of their work as lecturers. We have been saddled with the double-sided cliche that a 'true' scholar has a dull personality, and that a teacher with charisma cannot possibly be intellectually rigorous. But any person who has tried to lecture to a large class knows how important a sense of performance is to the communicative process. In this presentation I will share some insights and lingering questions about lecturing and performativity in large classes. 

 

Ivana Elbl's Multi-Media Lecture: History 200
"Portuguese Overseas Expansion ... in multimedia" 
Jointly sponsored by Otonabee College and the Instructional Development Centre
November 20, 2000; 1 hr

All interested members of the university are invited to a sample multimedia lecture in HIST 200 "European Overseas Expansion".  The purpose is to demonstrate multi-media teaching in a regular classroom setting. A twenty-minute break in the middle of the lecture will give visitors a chance to mingle with students and talk to them about their reactions to the multimedia format.

 

The Learning's in the Doing: Organizational, Instructional & Technological Infrastructure of Trent Radio
Jointly Sponsored by Trent Radio and the Instructional Development Centre

December 7, 2000; 2 hrs

• John Muir (General Manager, Trent Radio) 
• Barb Woolner (Programme Director, Trent Radio)

A person's desire to share their ideas and culture matched with a broadcast facility set-up to accommodate those aspirations can create an powerful learning experience for the individual, and help glue together a community as whole. 

The focus of the session is how and what a small organisation with meagre resources can do to develop people's skills and experience.  The goal is to go beyond helping people achieve their original broadcast aspirations to recruit those same people to manage the organisation so others can follow them.

From the development of content to delivery and technical operations, and to broader matters such as how to manage a non-profit organisation or knowing more about the character of the community in which they live, volunteers learn and practice the myriad skills of performance and organisational craft, driven by their own motivation to communicate and growing understanding of active citizenship.

 

Teaching Double-Time: Preserving Academic Integrity in Concentrated Academic Sessions 

Professor David Sheinin, History 

January 18, 2001; 2 hrs 

Drawing on my experience teaching summer courses at Trent, and focusing on lecturing strategies, assignments, marking, and skills development, this session will introduce strategies for how to provide a rich course and an appropriate academic structure in the context of a reduced session.

 

Learning Styles 
February 13, 2001; 2 hrs

We'll take people through a number of different approaches to learning styles preferences, having them identify their own learning style preferences. This is important not only for self-knowledge and understanding, but also because our own learning style preferences usually become our dominant teaching styles and we need to recognize which preferences we may be unintentionally discriminating against in our teaching.... and then learn how to include those students' styles as much as possible. 

Together we'll generate strategies for different kinds of learning style preferences and provide handouts for a highly interactive session. 

• Deborah Berrill (Education) 
• Magda Havas (Environmental & Resource Studies)

 

Showcase of Recent Trent Pedagogical Initiatives 
April 3, 2001; 3 hrs 

Zailig Pollock / English Literature 
The Agony and the Ecstasy and Something In Between: Teaching with Multi-Media 
Over the last several years I have been making increasingly extensive and (I hope) sophisticated use of multi-media resources in my teaching, primarily Power Point presentations. In my talk I would like to begin by discussing what I see as the value of such teaching resources and the danger of relying too heavily on them; in particular I will discuss their potential both to encourage and to discourage interactive learning. I would then like to demonstrate my use of such resources to achieve 3 different kinds of aims in specifically literary studies: 1.establishing the cultural/ historical background of literary periods and movements (e.g., playing Renaissance music and showing Renaissance paintings in a course on Renaissance literature); 2. exploring specific issues of literary form and context through analogies with non-literary forms of expression (e.g., showing how allusion works in the visual arts and music as well as literature); 3. actually doing literary analysis (e.g., distinguishing among levels of diction in a text). 

Aline Germain-Rutherford / Modern Languages & Literature 
French 215 at Trent: an electronic linguistics course
Thanks to an AIF grant and the new computer rooms at Bata Library, the French 215 students have been able to work this year on the acquisition of the French prosodic system. They used 2 learning Web sites, the WinPitchLTL software and a "pickup box" share file installed on the Trent server to allow them and myself to work in class and/or on-line at a distance. I will briefly present, via short quicktime video files, the environment in which students worked, as well as a sample of students' WinPitch files to see and hear their progression.  In conclusion I will present the result of a survey I did to analyze the reactions of the students working with this type of software, feedback and learning environment. 

Alan Slavin / Department of Physics & Jonathan Swallow / IDC Instructional Designer 
Just-in-time-Teaching applied with Peer Instruction using WebCT
Peer Instruction teaching approach pioneered by Mazur at Harvard University requires students to read the relevant material before each class, with the class time spent primarily in using small-group discussion to develop a conceptual understanding of the material.  One problem with this approach is that students who do not do the readings gain substantially less from the classroom discussions.   Just-in-time teaching (JITT), developed by Novak et al., addresses this problem by requiring students to use the web to answer questions on the reading prior to the class, with their answers contributing towards their grade. One other great advantage to this approach is that the instructor can review the answers just prior to class, and come prepared to address the areas of misunderstanding.  This talk discusses the use of WebCT for the implementation of JITT at Trent University, in conjunction with Peer Instruction, and some preliminary evidence for its success.  The approach keeps the time commitment acceptable.

John Earnshaw  / Department of Physics 
Disequalibreization followed by Constructionism: a Different Learning Pedagogy for a University Course 

This presentation will describe a totally different way of structuring a university course.  Educational research over the past decade has proven that the traditional structure of a university science course, focused on "the lecture" is far less effective than most professors believe.

This presentation introduces the professor as "the facilitator" who organizes group learning, initiates prior knowledge discussions, motivates students by multi lines of communications, and lets students discover not only what they are learning, but how it is happening.  It is particularly relevant for pre-service elementary teachers who are anxious about teaching science.  It will give details about the different tasks involved for the professor, and about the rewards that are possible. 

Stephen Regoczei / Computer Studies 
Advanced Multi-Media Demonstrations 

Presentations of students' projects in Computer Studies' Advanced Multi-Media: Digital Video (496 H) and Advanced Multi-Media: E-Commerce (497 H) with introduction by Stephen Regoczei.

The Stash 
Dan Saul - Information Systems and Marketing 
Mike Smart - Database Administration and Systems Engineer 
Mike Ligus - Website Development and Graphics Design 
Yon Sugiharto - Information Systems and Marketing 

We have created an online trading post for Trent University students called 'the STASH'.  It's primary role is to allow students to sell, buy, swap, and trade household items and furnishings at their own set costs. The STASH is a free service to anyone in the Peterborough area, and we hope to create a useful resource that will become an integral part of Trent University and independent living for new homeowners. The STASH provides a medium for trading, and hopes to act as a virtual marketplace here in Peterborough. 

Sabotage 
Mark Newell A series of 3 short videos produced for, focusing on, and situated within Computer Studies 496 (Advanced Multi-Media: Digital Video).