Faculty Colleagues,
And now, for some good news.
The Teaching and Scholarship Hub is pleased to announce the selection of two Faculty Hub Associate projects for the academic year 2020-2021. Both projects are cross-disciplinary and have high potential to impact faculty development at the University of Richmond. Dr. Elisabeth Gruner will complete a project to advance faculty development goals in assessment and grading while Dr. Kristine Nolin and Dr. Kristine Grayson will collaborate on a project to advance faculty development in data literacy. More information about each project is provided below. Please join us in welcoming our inaugural Faculty Hub Associates!
Assessment and Grading
What are the ways in which assessment of student work results in enhanced motivation for continued learning and improvement toward learning goals? Effective teaching communicates expectations for quality work, provides useful feedback for improvement, and enhances motivation for learning and improved performance. In this faculty development project, Dr. Elisabeth Gruner (English) will examine different approaches to assessment and grading and how they impact the success of all learners. Dr. Gruner has participated in several faculty learning communities on inclusive pedagogy and mindfulness and the synergy of these efforts has included experimentation with alternative models of assessment and grading and examined their relationship to motivation for learning and student communication of what they have learned. She is experienced in designing and delivering faculty development programming and consultations in prior service as an Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and as the Inaugural Coordinator of the First Year Seminar Program. As a Faculty Hub Associate, Dr. Gruner will continue to experiment with varied approaches to assessment of student work and grading practices including portfolio grading, contract grading, and ungrading. In transforming her own courses, Dr. Gruner will generate data on assessment and grading approaches and their outcomes for students, communicate the results, facilitate faculty dialogue on assessment and grading practices, and she will develop resources to guide faculty decision-making around effective methods of assessment and grading.
Data Literacy
How do faculty prepare to help students assess the validity of data-based claims, build skills to visualize trends in data, and effectively communicate conclusions from data? Developing student competency in data literacy is important to many fields including business, government, science, healthcare, and journalism. In a collaborative faculty development project, Dr. Kristine Nolin (Chemistry) and Dr. Kristine Grayson (Biology) will support the design and execution of Hub resources to advance faculty training and expertise in data-centric teaching practices. Dr. Nolin recently completed the Data Analytics Bootcamp with the School of Professional and Continuing Studies and leads the Faculty Learning Community on Data Science/Analytics. Dr. Grayson serves as co-Principal Investigator for a nationwide network on developing, publishing, and sharing data-centric teaching resources and she engages faculty in professional development on these practices through the Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES) project and HHMI BioInteractive. As Faculty Hub Associates, Drs. Nolin and Grayson will each address new learning outcomes focused on data competency and literacy in their courses, facilitate faculty collaboration and dialogue on data literacy, and publish open educational resources on integrating data literacy objectives into campus
The Faculty Hub looks forward to hosting and assisting with these projects in the next AY.