Faculty Collaboration Research Articles

Interrogating a collaborative instructional approach to academic literacy: the missing link in supporting students’ language learning

In Covid-19’s ‘new normal’ academics have been urged to tear down subject silos and approach teaching collaboratively with renewed interest and increased urgency. An example of this can be found in curriculum-integrated academic literacy instruction which is based on the collaboration between language and content instructors. Case studies frequently report barriers to engaging content instructors in supporting students’ language learning. However, the internal conflicts of language instructors are under-represented: little is known about their subjective experiences and emotions as they go about negotiating and accommodating a collaborative instructional approach. This paper undertakes a narrative inquiry into three language instructors’ stories of teaching discipline-specific academic literacy. In bringing to the fore their reflexive voices on authority, agency and feelings of student resistance, it explores themes around identity and collaboration and underlines a critical missing link that mediates faculty collaboration and student learning. Humanising faculty development and venturing into scholarly enquiry are then proposed as potential ways to empower language instructors to manage the emotional complexities in their collaborative engagements.

Building communities of teaching practice and data‐driven open education resources with NEON faculty mentoring networks

AbstractWith the growing availability and accessibility of big data in ecology, we face an urgent need to train the next generation of scientists in data science practices and tools. One of the biggest barriers for implementing a data‐driven curriculum in undergraduate classrooms is the lack of training and support for educators to develop their own skills and time to incorporate these principles into existing courses or develop new ones. Alongside the research goals of the NEON, providing education and training are key components for building a community of scientists and users equipped to utilize large‐scale ecological and environmental data. To address this need, the NEON data education fellows program formed as a collaborative faculty mentoring network (FMN) between scientists from NEON and university faculty interested in using NEON data and resources in their ecology classrooms. Like other FMNs, this group has two main goals: (1) to provide tools, resources, and support for faculty interested in developing data‐driven curriculum and (2) to make teaching materials that have been implemented and tested in the classroom available as open educational resources for other educators. We hosted this program using an open education and collaboration platform from the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) project. Here, we share lessons learned from facilitating five FMN cohorts and emphasize the successes, pitfalls, and opportunities for developing open education resources through community‐driven collaborations.

The Collaboration Of TOE Framework And Vocational Faculty Unair’ Support Social Media Management Team

Abstract: It is necessary to expand social media's involvement in higher education branding, especially for vocational school. This promotional and branding is consistent with the Ministry of Education and Culture's vision. All vocational education institutes are supported and urged by the Director-General of Vocational Studies to inform the public about their advantages constantly. Undoubtedly, a social media management team is needed to manage this. It should be noted that the difficulties ahead are not becoming any simpler. Therefore, it has become more important than ever to work with the leadership of the vocational faculty's social media team. The researcher assumed that TOE and leadership shamans could be sufficient to raise public awareness of the Airlangga University Vocational Faculty's increased branding efforts. Purpose: The function of social media management implementation cannot be isolated from the effect of numerous parties and instruments. The TOE framework describes the management and motivation of social media adoption as a lens. Methodology: Case studies were used in this research. This research employs qualitative methodologies in data collecting through interviews: interviews and document searches to provide a clear image of the Vocational Faculty's social media team implementation at Universitas Airlangga. Findings: Besides being supported by technological, organizational, and environmental factors, the leadership's participation is worthy of discussion. The leadership did not hesitate to discuss and decide the direction of the social media team of the Vocational Faculty of Airlangga University.

Promoting a research culture in family medicine: Five years of scholarly works and activities group.

The professional advancement of Family Medicine faculty requires contributions in the form of clinical service, teaching, and scholarly activity. While teaching and clinical work are part of the everyday routine of faculty members, a research culture can be challenging to build. Our department started a Scholarly Works and Activities Group (SWAG). The group's aim is to promote a collegial, collaborative research culture in the department. Meetings occur monthly, and faculty have the opportunity to discuss scholarly projects with peers, as well as promotion/tenure goals. Minutes from each meeting are sent to all faculty members in the department. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine if SWAG meetings impacted faculty scholarly activity. Data were collected on presentations, publications, and collaborations from Curriculum Vitae (CVs), and were compared between 5 years prior to the intervention and the 5 years since. Results indicated increased scholarly activity in the time period during the SWAG group meetings. Faculty presentations increased by 34% while faculty publications more than doubled (221% increase), with publications constituting a small Cohen's d effect size. Interestingly, faculty collaboration did not increase. Two faculty members were promoted during the 5 years study period, and the total number of faculty who published went from three to eight. Implementation of a monthly SWAG meeting led to an increase in faculty peer reviewed publications. Furthermore, two faculty members were promoted during the time of the intervention. A monthly faculty meeting, even when brief, can help promote and build a research culture.

The Field Immersion Framework: A Transformative Pedagogy for Experiential Civic Education

Emerging from faculty collaboration across disciplines, the four-stage Field Immersion Framework (FIF) marries place-based experiential learning with civic engagement to promote important transformative learning outcomes such as shifts in Worldview, Self, Epistemology, Ontology, Behavior, and Capacity. To support those outcomes, we developed this adaptable pedagogical framework for immersive courses that cultivate shared inquiry by faculty and students while fostering civic agency. The FIF positions students as explorers in communities grappling with important, unresolved issues and facilitates deep learning in the affective domain. Immersing students in the field as they experience civic issues is an emancipatory opportunity for many students, particularly those bound by geography or digital screens. We detail the FIF’s grounding in learning theory and provide examples of its implementation in varied courses and geographic settings.

Collaborative faculty development transforms evaluation at a school of osteopathic medicine: an exploratory grounded theory study

Background: Faculty development (FD) initiatives for medical educators must keep pace with educators’ expanding roles and responsibilities in the 21st century to effectively support and guide professional growth. Successful initiatives will be comprehensive and systematic, rather than episodic. Our research explores the impact of a collaborative, individualized, and focused FD program. The purpose of this pilot study is: (1) to describe the innovative design and implementation of the incipient FD program at University of the Incarnate Word School of Osteopathic Medicine (UIWSOM), San Antonio, Texas; and (2) to present insights from a preliminary process evaluation of the program’s initial launch to inform and facilitate broadscale implementation. Methods: We used a longitudinal, holistic approach to redesign the UIWSOM FD program to provide evidence-informed and experiential learning for faculty. We performed a process evaluation of the initial iteration of the FD program using an inductive qualitative research approach. We applied principles of constructivist grounded theory to analyze faculty’s responses collected during semi-structured interviews. Results: Three themes emerged from our analysis: communication, advocacy, and reciprocal learning. We found that effective communication, advocacy for faculty success, and reciprocal value between faculty and program developers undergirded the core concept of authentic engagement. Faculty’s perceptions of the quality of engagement of those implementing the program overshadowed the quality of the logistics. Conclusions: Our pilot study identified authentic engagement as critical to faculty’s positive experience of this new FD initiative. Practical implications for other health professions schools with similar FD initiatives include consideration of the relational aspects. Future studies should expand the process evaluation to determine key factors driving perceived program success for other skill domains and amongst clinical faculty, and include a long-range outcome evaluation of the fully implemented program.

Living a student-faculty partnership

Student and faculty collaborations are gaining recognition in higher education as an approach to optimise learning and the relationships embedded within education. However, existing hierarchies and power structures in academia often limit the nature of student-faculty partnerships. The student and faculty authors of this paper have an ongoing partnership within a project to address bullying in nursing education. The CRAB project (Cognitive Rehearsal to Address Bullying), is an initiative that is not only relevant for, and partnered with, students, but also initiated by them. The authors of this paper were interested in understanding what determined the success of the partnership. As a group, we reflect on the processes of collaboration, from creating innovative educational resources to co-authoring scholarly publications. Using verbatim quotes from the authors, we also explore the nature of the partnership along with the benefits and challenges from both student and faculty authors’ perspectives.

Peer Collaboration and Review: A Guide to Iterative Improvement in Learning

In typical intellectual work, scholars collaborate with colleagues by providing feedback on ideas, methods of inquiry, observations, lessons learned, and next steps. Beginning in 1994 a series of projects provided opportunities for faculty members to collaborate on teaching and learning using this general pattern of mutual exchange of feedback. Over time individuals refined the descriptions of their intellectual work in teaching and shared them with a wider range of colleagues. The work of several hundred instructors generated a conventional format for shared reflections (known as a course portfolio) through large scale workshops organized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Course portfolios include: statements of learning goals, descriptions of methods used to enhance student success, examples and summaries of students’ understanding, and plans for refining successive iterations of a course to continue enhancements in learning. These documents were reading sources for seminars and teaching conversations aimed at yielding greater success in students’ understanding, often being specific to individual fields of study.During the late 20th century and early 21st many faculty questioned the validity of students’ perceptions as a sole measure to identify the quality of teaching. At that time peer review of teaching typically consisted of a colleague observing a classroom session and writing an opinion of the presentation quality. To many observers there was no gain in substituting a teacher’s opinion of classroom performance for that of students, as neither included any evidence of how well students’ understanding was enhanced by the entire set of experiences and activities included in the instructional design of the course. When use of course portfolios increased for faculty collaboration and improvement of student success, some teachers included course portfolios as evidence of excellence to complement the required student ratings. Since promotion committees were not typically familiar with this emerging genre, department committees would forward external reviews of those portfolios as part of the promotion or evaluation materials. In this way the intellectual work in teaching became visible within the system of academic quality review.The criteria for excellence in teaching have evolved in the last 20 years beyond being knowledgeable in one’s field and well regarded by students. The key element is that a teacher uses evidence from students’ understanding as the guide to continuous, iterative inquiry into enhanced student success. This process includes arms’ length colleagues able and willing to give critical feedback on the documentation of improved learning, and it has also given rise to frameworks of judgment that guide consistency in criteria and descriptions of increasing levels of accomplishment within various components of successful instruction. In this way the original collaboration of peers helping each other develop has itself generated a reasonable way to gather independent peer review of excellence in instruction.

Striving 2.0: Faculty Collaboration and Advocacy as Strategies for Overcoming Post-Striving Organizational Priorities

Striving 2.0: Faculty Collaboration and Advocacy as Strategies for Overcoming Post-Striving Organizational Priorities

How Instructional Designers Approach Conflict with Faculty

Using a multiple case study approach, we interviewed 14 instructional designers working at different universities to explore the approaches and strategies they utilized when experiencing conflict with faculty. While past practitioner-based research has identified strategies instructional designers employ to cultivate effective and productive collaborations with faculty, there are no similar publications examining how practitioners in the field handle conflict with faculty during these collaborations. Based on an analysis of the interview data, we uncovered conflict prevention and management strategies used by instructional designers that synchronizes with three phases of a typical faculty collaboration timelines: (1) at the outset of the collaboration (2) during the collaboration; and (3) post collaboration. Results suggest an interconnectedness across the approaches and strategies. This article concludes with a discussion of our findings including future research and implications.

Elective Subjects through Faculty Collaboration

Elective Subjects through Faculty Collaboration

Basic Science Laboratory Aimed at Faculty Collaboration

Basic Science Laboratory Aimed at Faculty Collaboration

Compulsory Lecture Courses through Faculty Collaboration in First Year Education

Compulsory Lecture Courses through Faculty Collaboration in First Year Education

How Instructional Designers Approach Conflict with Faculty

Using a multiple case study approach, we interviewed 14 instructional designers working at different universities to explore the approaches and strategies they utilized when experiencing conflict with faculty. While past practitioner-based research has identified strategies instructional designers employ to cultivate effective and productive collaborations with faculty, there are no similar publications examining how practitioners in the field handle conflict with faculty during these collaborations. Based on an analysis of the interview data, we uncovered conflict prevention and management strategies used by instructional designers that synchronizes with three phases of a typical faculty collaboration timelines: (1) at the outset of the collaboration (2) during the collaboration; and (3) post collaboration. Results suggest an interconnectedness across the approaches and strategies. This article concludes with a discussion of our findings including future research and implications.

Student Evaluation of a Learning Community Model Adapted to Student and Curriculum Needs.

The Neuroscience Learning Community (LC) that Stonehill introduced to its curriculum grew out of the Great Recession of 2008 and the need for our students to gain hands-on, high-impact learning experiences, despite limited resources. This learning model was first reported in 2013, and since then it has undergone changes that were necessary due to the number of credits and amount of time required for that model. Curriculum changes are common, and Stonehill College changed its credit requirements for LCs to meet students' needs. As a result, the new Neuroscience LC model that we describe here reduced credit hours while leveraging new faculty expertise, collaborations, and new community partnerships. This paper reports student evaluations of an LC model adapted to demand fewer credits and less time, but to retain the community-based learning aspect and to increase faculty collaboration, while maintaining a high standard of learning fundamental neuroscience topics. Evaluations suggest that students valued the updated Neuroscience LC because it helped them understand neuroscience concepts and the impact of neuroscience in our world.

Systematic Review of Effective Library Instruction for Business Students

The most successful library teaching strategies for post-secondary business programs have yet to be determined. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the effectiveness of library instruction (with a focus on pedagogy) in business undergraduate and graduate programs. The researchers searched seven databases, selected studies that met the inclusion criteria, and extracted data following PRISMA guidelines. To achieve the study’s primary objective, the researchers included any library educational intervention in a business program conducted by librarians or library staff. The quality of included studies was evaluated based on a modified instrument designed to critically appraise educational interventions. The instrument consists of nine questions that relate to content, context, outcomes, study design, and methods. Thirty-five studies met the inclusion criteria and data was extracted based on subject area, content coverage, mode of instruction (in-person vs virtual), faculty collaboration, assessment strategies, and library educational interventions used to teach business students. Common educational interventions included hands-on activities, live demonstrations, active learning, group work, and lectures. The most compelling strategies include active learning, providing engaging sessions (e.g., flipped classroom), and faculty collaboration. Since most of the studies did not state clear learning outcomes, it is difficult to ascertain what type of interventions were truly effective in improving library sessions.

The first virtual ASPIRE 7 and 8 programs: preparing senior vascular trainees for FRCS and consultancy using a Post-Graduate Virtual Learning Environment

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significantly reduced educational opportunities for vascular trainees in the UK. Senior trainees preparing for their FRCS exam and future consultant interviews could not attend the usual preparation courses due to the pandemic. Learning Management Systems (LMS) have been used to good effect in undergraduate education, but to a lesser degree in post-graduate studies. Health Education England West Midlands (HEEWM) has developed a Post-Graduate Virtual Learning Environment (PGVLE). The aim of this study was to establish and evaluate a model for the delivery of the ASPIRE-7 and ASPIRE-8 post-graduate vascular courses using the PGVLE. Methods: The national two-day ASPIRE 7 and 8 courses were developed by the faculty in collaboration with the PGVLE team. Pre-course PGVLE guides for faculty and resources for candidates were generated on the PGVLE. Centralised feedback using integrated PGVLE software was gathered which, once completed, allowed autogenerated candidate and faculty certificate distribution. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of previous PGVLE use, pre-course materials/guides and the in-course lectures and mock scenarios was completed. Results: ASPIRE-7: 39 candidates attended ASPIRE-7, which was supported by 27 faculty of which 92% and 78% completed feedback, respectively. Pre-course lectures, overall educational course value and PGVLE good/excellent ratings were 91%, 100% and 97%, respectively. 90% of ASPIRE-7 faculty found the PGVLE easy to use for delivering education, despite 76% being new to using the software. ASPIRE-8: 14 candidates attended with 14 faculty, of which 79% and 36% completed feedback, respectively. The overall educational value, PGVLE and BigBlueButton (BBB) good/excellent scores were 100%. 100% of faculty found the PGVLE easy to use for delivering the educational aims. Conclusions: This study shows that the PGVLE can be used to provide robust, high quality post-graduate education programs for vascular surgeons nearing the end of their training. Its key uses are as web conferencing software, as an information repository and to both support and automate much of the governance that surrounds the administrational management to develop complex educational programs.

Collaborative Faculty Professional Development: Bringing the Classroom to the Screen

When the higher education practice of face-to-face instruction was disrupted by the COVID pandemic, faculty unaccustomed to and/or uncomfortable with online teaching needed to adapt quickly to serve their students. Fortunately, there are faculty and institutions with long histories of online teaching with much to share about the why and how of offering high-quality, deeply engaging digital learning experiences to support the success of higher education students. The paper explores the collaboration of two universities to create professional development delivered through a virtual workshop series to support faculty needs and encourage an emerging community of practice related to online teaching and learning, jointly envisioned and delivered with pilot funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Four key issues conclude the paper: (1) how can success be measured and supported, (2) how can emerging practices be disseminated beyond workshop participants, (3) how can we respond to the need for changes in how we recognize, incentivize, and reward good teaching, and (4) how do we move forward from here?

Disaster medicine and pandemic response: A novel curriculum to improve understanding of complex care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BackgroundDespite a 2009 recommendation from the AMA that disaster medicine and public health response training should be implemented in medical schools, anywhere from 31% to 47% of medical education programs lack a formalized disaster medicine curriculum. A need for disaster medicine response training for University of Alabama medical students in an appropriately socially distanced format was identified during the COVID‐19 pandemic.MethodsOur emergency medicine faculty in collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency Center for Disaster Preparedness (FEMA CDP) created and implemented a novel virtual disaster medicine and pandemic response course for third‐year medical students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The course was administered via a teleconferencing platform (Zoom, Zoom Video Communications, Inc.) in spring 2020 to more than 130 medical students.ResultsUsing pre‐ and postcourse surveys, we assessed a change in student confidence levels for their ability to explain topics covered in the course and their understanding of a chosen disaster. The students reported an average increase of 2.183 on a 5‐point scale, with a score of 5 representing “completely confident” and a score of 1 representing “not at all confident.” This course established the feasibility of a virtual instructor–led training (VILT) format for disaster medicine education and provided a template for the delivery of over 300 courses to more than 4,000 first responders and medical professionals through the FEMA CDP.ConclusionsThrough collaboration with the FEMA CDP, our UAB faculty were able to successfully deliver a novel virtual disaster‐preparedness and response course. The course resulted in subjective improvement of students’ content understanding while also establishing the feasibility and effectiveness of a VILT format that could be readily applied to future courses in undergraduate medical education and beyond.

Department Head and Faculty Collaboration during the COVID‐19 Pandemic

The Department ChairVolume 32, Issue 2 p. 24-25 Articles Department Head and Faculty Collaboration during the COVID-19 Pandemic Jeffrey Ward, Jeffrey WardSearch for more papers by this author Jeffrey Ward, Jeffrey WardSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 October 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30415Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume32, Issue2Fall 2021Pages 24-25 RelatedInformation