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Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement

Conferences 2009-2010

At UWSP                            UW System                        Other Places                Past Conferences



At UWSP 

Critical Thinking: Performance Tasks
A conference open to all instructors within the UW-System
Friday, October 16, 2009
9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
in the Legacy Room of the Dreyfus University Center

Interested faculty who are unable to attend the entire conference are warmly invited to register and attend whatever part of the conference is consistent with their schedules.

Registration is free and lunch will be provided.

No expertise in teaching critical thinking and no experience with performance tasks will be assumed, although we will certainly benefit from the expertise and experience you bring. Everyone is welcome.

Special Note: This conference will include a refereed poster session. If you would like to present a poster outlining a performance task you've used or are developing, please submit an abstract of your poster to caese@uwsp.edu by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 28, 2009.  Abstracts should be 250 words or less.

Preliminary Agenda                            Performance Tasks Booklet

WHAT ARE PERFORMANCE TASKS AND WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?

A performance task is an actual or simulated reality-based situation that requires students to generate a product or performance in order to acquire or demonstrate mastery of identified learning outcomes.

Performance tasks are good ways to develop and assess higher-order thinking skills, such the ability to gather, interpret, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, the ability to dissect and evaluate arguments, the ability to formulate and defend theses and hypotheses, and the ability to solve complex problems.

Additionally, by providing authentic learning experiences and assessment methods, performance tasks are intrinsically meaningful to learners, and can bestow meaning and purpose upon more traditional learning activities and assessment methods (such as lessons, drills and exercises).

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF THE CONFERENCE?

This conference will introduce faculty to performance tasks and help faculty to reflect upon how they might use performance tasks to teach and assess high-level critical thinking skills.

Participants will leave the conference with:

1. A firm understanding of critical thinking skills

2. A solid grasp of how to develop and employ performance tasks as a teaching and assessment tool

3. The invitation to join a community of other faculty with whom they can share the performance tasks that they develop.

To view the preliminary agenda, click here.

To view a pamphlet about performance tasks prepared for the conference, click here.

Please feel free to direct any questions to Dona Warren, dwarren@uwsp.edu.

This conference is made possible by an OPID grant and support from UWSP's Center for Academic Excellence and Student Engagement.

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UW System

Let Me Learn: The Tipping Point to Achieving Success with Students
A Regional Workshop for Higher Education Professionals
October 9-10, 2009
UW-Eau Claire

Why Attend the Regional Conference?
Colleges and Universities have developed excellent approaches to stem student loss from their campuses "Yet, the numbers of students who are unsuccessful, withdraw from college, or just quietly fade away remains alarmingly high." (Facilitating Student and Staff Success. College Quarterly, 9, 2).

What makes Let Me Learn the "tipping point?"
The Let Me Learn Process, identified by John Gardner in 2007 as "the next 'big idea' for enabling student success" is an advanced learning system which relies upon:

  • a powerful theoretical basis of learning and metacognition,

  • a set of practical tools (the Learning Connections Inventory, the Learner Profile, the Word Wall, the Metacognitive Drill, and the Strategy Card), and

  • fifteen years of research and application in higher education that have yielded a documented record of improving student learning, retention, and persistence.

How Will I Benefit from Attending?
You will learn how to use the Let Me Learn Process to

  • understand your learners, advisees, counselees learning needs to a depth you have not reached before

  • understand how to improve your students' persistence and achievement, and

  • build not just "classes" but learning communities and teams that achieve greater results.

Who Should Attend?
Faculty and professional staff from all academic disciplines and student affairs units will benefit from attending, as well as administrators who have a commitment to leading their administrative units to achieve greater student success.

Registration Costs: This two-day workshop fee is $195. It includes registration, two luncheons, and all workshop materials.

Keynote: The Tipping Point-the Power and Importance of Understanding Our Personal Learning Processes in order to Achieve in the 21st Century
Dr. Christine A. Johnston, Originator and Lead Researcher, LML

Click here for more information and to register.

Civic Engagement in the STEM Disciplines Across UW System Workshop
4:00pm Thursday Oct. 8th through 3:00pm Friday, Oct 9th.
Wilderness Lodge, Wisconsin Dells

The goals of this workshop are:

      -Develop a cohort of faculty across UW system using civic engagement strategies in STEM

      -Contribute to web resources to connect this cohort

      -Evaluate assessment strategies for both learning outcomes and student engagement in STEM

Registration is online and space is limited. Please forward this to others who may be interested.

Registration: http://uwp.edu/cgi/remark/3/rws3.pl?FORM=CEI_STEM_Fa09

For more information contact: Patricia Cleary at cleary@uwp.edu

14th Annual Faculty Development Conference: Problem Focused Learning
UW-Green Bay
University Union
January 21, 2010
8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Registration: http://www.uwgb.edu/outreach/facultydev/

KEYNOTE SPEAKER : DEANNA SELLNOW
She is the Gifford Blyton Endowed Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Communication at the University of Kentucky. She has published and presented her scholarship in international, national, regional, and state venues. Her work focuses on problem-based learning, service-learning, experiential education, learning style theory, teacher training, assessment, technology-enhanced learning, and gender issues in the classroom. She has conducted workshops for professional groups and university faculty across the country.  Her work with learning styles is also currently being used to help shape messages to instruct various publics during crisis events.

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Other Places

E-Learn 2009 - World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education
October 26 - 30, 2009 
Vancouver, British Columbia
Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel

E-Learn 2009 - World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education is an international conference organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) and co-sponsored by the International Journal on E-Learning.

This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the exchange of information on research, development, and applications of all topics related to e-Learning in the Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education sectors.

For more information, http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/call.htm

Association of American Colleges & Universities 2009-2010 Network Conferences
1818 R Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
www.aacu.org

AAC&U's Network for Academic Renewal offers an annual series of working conferences, collaboratively designed with AAC&U member campuses and led by experienced practitioners. In these challenging economic times, we know that our members are working hard to maintain the quality of their undergraduate programs and the momentum of their educational change initiatives. These conferences are designed to help campuses do just that.

We hope you will join colleagues from around the country who, like you, are seeking new strategies to address key issues today - general education reform, outcomes assessment, integrative and applied learning, faculty work, and creating campus cultures of ethics and integrity.

Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments
Minneapolis, Minnesota
October 1-3, 2009

Register now online
Reminder: September 3 is the deadline for special discounted rates for both the hotel and conference registration. We encourage you to register by September 3 to take advantage of the best rates.

The conference will bring together faculty, student affairs educators, academic administrators, students, and others to explore how to move education for personal and social responsibility to the center of institutional culture and academic practice. The program (pdf) will feature promising practices that develop students' civic engagement and social responsibility in both a local and global context; personal and academic integrity; ability to examine and understand differing (and often competing) perspectives; and ethical and moral reasoning.

Sessions will include:

A keynote address by Anne Colby (of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching) on "Character and Competence: Realigning the Core Commitments of Higher Education."

Perspective-Taking: The Doorway to Civic and Moral Development
(
Jos Z. Caldern, Pitzer College; Patricia Y. Gurin, University of Michigan; moderated by L. Lee Knefelkamp, Teachers College, Columbia University, and senior scholar, AAC&U)

Creating a Culture of Integrity on Campus
(
Donald L. McCabe, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; and Teresa "Teddi" Fishman, Center for Academic Integrity, Clemson University)

Town Hall Open Forum: The Democracy Movement, Student Engagement, and Higher Education's Role
Conference participants and the public are invited to discuss paths to strengthening democracy and higher education's role.

Education and Acting Well: Reflection, Judgment, Courage
(
Elizabeth K. Minnich, senior scholar, AAC&U)

The conference also features six premeeting workshops and more than sixty presentations describing best practices and campus models - half of which focus on assessing personal and social responsibility outcomes. You can learn more about the conference highlights and workshops online.

For more information, please call 202.387.3760 or write to network@aacu.org.

Integrative Learning: Addressing the Complexities
Atlanta, Georgia
October 22-24, 2009

General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities
Seattle, Washington
February 18-20, 2010

Register now online

General Education and Assessment: Maintaining Momentum, Achieving New Priorities invites fresh thinking and new approaches to help faculty, staff, and administrators maintain momentum in general education and assessment during tough times, and reaffirms a commitment to engaged liberal education as the guiding principle for campus action. Attend this meeting to learn new approaches to aligning scarce resources with an ambitious plan for general education, and ways to integrate diversity, global, civic learning, and models for advancing scientific and quantitative literacy through real-world curricula and problem-based pedagogies.

Opening Keynote Address: "Conceptualizing a Twenty-First Century Renaissance for General Education," Robert Weisbuch, President, Drew University

Plenary speakers include:
"Speaking Frankly: General Education for the Unknown," Rebecca Berryhill Jessup, Seattle University; Isiah Bingley, Seattle Community College; Megan Otis, Western Washington University; Marina Pita, University of Washington - Seattle; Wassan Singh, Highline Community College; and Gillies Malnarich and Emily Lardner, Evergreen State College

"Betting on Gravity," Ken O'Donnell, Associate Dean, Academic Program Planning, California State University, Office of the Chancellor

Learn more about the conference online.

Can't come to the meeting in Seattle, but working on general education? Learn about fifty common errors and pitfalls in general education reform in Paul L. Gaston and Jerry Gaff's book, Revising General Education—And Avoiding the Potholes: A Guide for Curricular Change.

FACULTY ROLES IN HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES
March 25-27, 2010
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Faculty know that increasing students' effort and engagement are both important to student success.  Certain curricular and pedagogical practices - including undergraduate research, service-learning, first-year and capstone projects/programs, and learning communities - by their nature require students to be actively involved in their own learning. These "high-impact" practices, when done well, engage students by helping them to make their own discoveries and connections, grapple with "big" questions whose importance they can see, and address complex problems.

From teaching integrative capstone courses, to running offices of community engagement, to leading national networks devoted to undergraduate research, faculty are at the forefront of developing, improving, and expanding the reach of these high-impact practices. What can others learn from their efforts?

Faculty Roles in High-Impact Practices will highlight the new and expanding roles that faculty are playing in developing and using high-impact practices-in and beyond the disciplines - to foster student learning. The conference is designed for faculty members seeking innovative, robust, and practical  designs  for  learning, teaching, and assessment approaches proven to deepen student engagement,  and a network of engaged colleagues. It is also geared toward administrators and others on campus looking to support and partner with faculty to advance the use of high-impact practices for more students, more intentionally, across multiple points in time. The conference thus seeks proposals highlighting models of these high-impact practices and those that address issues of faculty rewards, promotion and tenure, cost-effectiveness, and more.

AAC&U's Network for Academic Renewal invites faculty, division heads, department chairs, deans, and others to explore faculty roles in high-impact practices. Proposals from institutions of all types and sizes - public and private, two-year and four-year, large and small - are encouraged. Visit the Call for Proposals for more information.

For more information and to register, click here.

Questions about any of AAC&U's meetings? E-mail meetings@aacu.org.

Highlights of AAC&U's 2010 Annual Meeting—““THE WIT, THE WILL ... AND THE WALLET: Supporting Educational Innovation, Shaping our Global Futures""—are now online. Registration is also available online, with an "early bird" deadline of November 24, 2009. 

The meeting will be held January 20-23, 2010, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC.

Conference highlights include the following:

Pre-Conference Symposium on January 20:
The Search for VALUE: Innovation, Economic Uncertainty, and E-Portfolio Assessment
Keynote Address: Randall Bass, Georgetown University

Opening Night Forum
How We Decide: The New Science of Decision Making
Jonah Lehrer, Author

Opening Plenary
Achieving Ambitious Goals for College Completion AND for the Quality of Learning
Martha J. Kanter, Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education; Jamie P. Merisotis, President, the Lumina Foundation for Education; and Ronald A. Crutcher, President, Wheaton College

Closing Plenary
For the Common Wealth: A Vision of Liberal Education for the Future
Edward L. Ayers, President, University of Richmond

ACAD Keynote Luncheon
Business as Usual? Higher Education After the Meltdown
Andrew M. Delbanco, Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University

Women’s Networking Breakfast
Investing in Equality: Our Nation's Best Future
Michelle Cooper, Institute for Higher Education Policy

Networking Luncheon for Faculty and Administrators of Color
Talking about Race and Ethnicity in a Post-Racial America
Ram�n Guti�rrez, University of Chicago

Finally, we encourage you to make hotel reservations early, since the conference hotel often sells out well before the deadline date.  The number of the Grand Hyatt Hotel is 202-582-1234.

If we can provide any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at meetings@aacu.org or call us at 202-387-3760.

We look forward to seeing you in January.

The 3rd Annual SoTL Commons Conference 
March 10-12, 2010
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, Georgia (USA)

Registration is now open and the submission of proposals period is August 15 - October 15, 2009.  The registration fee is reduced from the last conference and can be further reduced when 4 or more people from the same institution register at the same time.The conference focuses upon SoTL in higher education.

We anticipate 10-20 countries to be represented at the conference.  Keynoters are Gary Poole (University of British Columbia, Canada), Kathleen McKinney (Illinois State University, USA), and Carolin Kreber (University of Edinburgh, UK).

For more information, go to

http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/conference/2010/index.htm

 

Expanding the Circle: Creating an Inclusive Environment in Higher Education for LBTGQ Students and Studies
February 25–28, 2010
San Francisco, California

Visit the conference website: www.ExpandingtheCircle.com.

Register by October 25 to take advantage of our early registration rate.

In this conference, we will address factors that have contributed to excluding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues from academic study and student life; and also explore strategies to make our campuses more inclusive for all students. We will examine strategies and best practices that effectively integrate LGBTQ areas of teaching and research with student life activities. This will be among the first national conferences in higher education to focus on LGBTQ concerns by seeking connections across diversities, disciplines, and academic and student affairs.

Partnering Organizations:

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
Association for College and University Religious Affairs (ACURA)
Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals
Global Fund for Women
Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education

Plenary Speakers:

John C. Hawley, Santa Clara University
L. Lee Knefelkamp, Teachers College, Columbia University
Scotty McLennan, Stanford University
Kavita N. Ramdas, Global Fund for Women
Steven Tierney, California Institute of Integral Studies

6 Pre-Conference Workshops and 35 Concurrent Interactive Sessions

For inquiries, contact ExpandingtheCircle@ciis.edu.

 

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