Thinking Small: Strategy for Improving Teaching and Learning

1. Thinking Small: Strategy for Improving Teaching and Learning Charles J. Ansorge University of Nebraska-Lincoln April 11, 2008

2. Using Technology to Affect Change • A strategy that has worked for me to affect change • A major focus throughout my career has been to improve my teaching and my students’ learning • Demands of career in higher ed have forced me to be more efficient with my time • Have sought tools to help accomplish teaching, research and service goals • What’s benefitted me in my efforts to achieve personal and professional goals?

3. Context for My Journey • Former department chair and currently program head for Quantitative, Qualitative and Psychometric Methods program at University of Nebraska • Teaching responsibilities include beginning and advanced statistics • Teaching includes face-to-face and distance • Asked about 15 years ago to be the campus point person for using technology effectively in the teaching and learning process • Very much involved in the TLTR movement in middle ’90s

4. More Background • Long-time fascination with technology and have been an early adopter since the 1980s • Comfortable with change; always looking for some new and improved tools that might help me teach and help my students learn • Promoting link between technology and teaching on my campus highlight of career • Early experiences with colleagues led me to believe the importance of early success • Assisting colleagues take small steps that resulted in incremental change was my most successful strategy

5. Thinking Small • Journey as a professor filled with problem solving • What’s an effective way to share course content with students? • What’s an efficient way to comment on student papers and send responses in a timely manner? • Is there a good way to test students that reduces chances of students not doing there own work? • How is it possible to schedule meetings, excluding face-to-face, with students enrolled in a distance offering that helps them feel as if they are “connected” with others in the class?

6. Solving Problems and Helping Others • The combination of problem solving interest and helping others has been a driving force for me in career • Provides motivation for my work • Finding a cure for cancer would have been nice but helping one new colleague solve a problem with technology or one student understand a statistical concept sufficient for me • The turtle may not be the swiftest in a race against a rabbit, but the turtle’s pace is generally steady and in a straight course. The rabbit hops around hither and yon. • I’m probably more a turtle than a rabbit The Tortoise and the Hare, illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 Aesop anthology

7. Lessons Learned • Great supporter of LTAs (Low-Threshold Applications) and BHWs (Brief Hybrid Workshops) • Both are consistent with my philosophy of “thinking small” or incremental change • Around eight years ago that journey as a professor intersected with Steve Gilbert and involved the pursuit of building a collection of LTAs • The collection was built over a period of years and now numbers 50 • Recently resurrected and now available on TLT website

8. Low Threshold Applications (LTAs) • Collection has moved from place to place • Began at UNL • Moved to TLT home site • Then to Maricopa Community College • Back home now on TLT server thanks to work of Lisa Star • All of the LTAs were created to be shared with others • Each of the LTAs had a different expected outcome • All were expected to be relatively easy to learn • Inexpensive • Perhaps save time during a busy work day

9. LTAs • Current location of LTA collection • http://tltgroup.wordpress.com/low-threshold-applications/ • The collection has room to grow

10. Early LTAs • Motivation forces for creating selected LTAs • LTA #1—Tracking Changes in Microsoft Word Documents • LTA #2—Instant Messenger • LTA #3—Creating a Grade Roster in Excel • LTA #5—Adding Audio Narration to PowerPoint Slides • LTA #10—Creating Low Threshold Animations for Teaching and Learning • LTA #14--Creating “Type-able” Printable Forms for Collecting Information

11. Recent “Journey” Experiences • Applying what learned related to technology • Focus for past two years has been the significant update of the two distance learning statistics classes • Have incorporated new tools to improve learning experience for students • Have switched from CD technology to DVD technology • Have incorporated the use of Adobe Connect and Adobe Presenter in my classes

12. More Experiences • Beta testing a new online assessment system on our campus that is much improved from previous software • Taping brief student-faculty encounters with the idea in mind that they might become part of an FAQ for a class • Attending the latest events and reading as many postings as possible related to the new tools and new ideas that are related to technology and teaching

13. Winding Down a Career • Is “thinking small” a good strategy to pursue? • Should the strategy be recommended to others • Is the strategy likely to result in the accomplishment of important career goals?

14. Discussion Items • Thinking big versus thinking small; where do you stand? • What strategy is most likely to affect change on a college campus? • How many big projects on campuses have made a difference and how many have resulted in a report on a shelf or in a file cabinet that have been ignored because the promoter of the project no longer is employed by the college or university? • Does career experience affect strategy for implementing change?