Lessons Learned: Adapting to Aid Faculty for Teaching in a Pandemic

Stephanie Cutler; Sarah E. Zappe; Thomas A. Litzinger; Cathy J. Holsing

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Faculty Development Lighting Talk Session 1: COVID-19 Focus
Tagged Division: Faculty Development Division
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37445
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/37445
Download Count: 299

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Paper Authors

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Stephanie Cutler Pennsylvania State University

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Dr. Stephanie Cutler has degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and a PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. She is an Assistant Research Professor and the Assessment and Instructional Support Specialist in the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education at Penn State as well as a co-founder of Zappe and Cutler Educational Consulting, LLC. Her primary research interests include faculty development, the peer review process, the doctoral experience, and the adoption of evidence-based teaching strategies.

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Sarah E. Zappe Pennsylvania State University

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Dr. Sarah Zappe is Research Professor and Director of Assessment and Instructional Support in the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education at Penn State. She holds a doctoral degree in educational psychology emphasizing applied measurement and testing. In her position, Sarah is responsible for developing instructional support programs for faculty, providing evaluation support for educational proposals and projects, and working with faculty to publish educational research. Her research interests primarily involve creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship education.

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Thomas A. Litzinger Pennsylvania State University

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Thomas A. Litzinger is Director of the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State. His work in engineering education involves curricular reform, teaching and learning innovations, assessment, and faculty development. Dr. Litzinger has more than 50 publications related to engineering education including lead authorship of an invited article in the 100th Anniversary issue of JEE and for an invited chapter on translation of research to practice for the first edition of the Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research. He serves as an Associate Editor for Advances in Engineering Education and on the Advisory Board for the Journal of Engineering Education. He was selected as a Fellow of ASEE in 2008 and of ASME in 2012. He holds a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Penn State, an M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from RPI, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton.

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Cathy J. Holsing Pennsylvania State University

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Cathy Holsing is the Director of the Office for Digital Learning in the College of Engineering at Penn State which promotes innovative approaches to engineering education on campus and online. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of online and digital education, and holds a Masters in Education Degree from Penn State.

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Abstract

Lessons Learned: Adapting to Aid Faculty for Teaching in a Pandemic This Lessons Learned paper outlines the post-COVID faculty development offerings from one engineering Teaching and Learning Center. As was likely the case for many Centers for Teaching and Learning in the Summer 2020, our center pivoted our intended summer programming to better address the needs of our faculty for teaching during a pandemic. Our Center is housed within the College of Engineering and provides pedagogical support to over 400 faculty. Our approach for the summer was to host multiple virtual workshop series that solicited the experiences of faculty, assessed their needs for teaching in different instructional modes, then provided both pedagogical and technological development opportunities by teaming up with our College’s digital learning office (DLO).

The first series we offered (May 2020) focused on faculty sharing their experiences and successes in the emergency transition to remote teaching in March of 2020. This series was broken into different workshops around different course contexts: Design classes, large classes, and labs. Forty-six faculty participated in this series (unique participants across all workshops). In June 2020, the University announced that the Fall 2020 would include in-person courses practicing social distancing, remote synchronous courses, remote asynchronous courses, and courses that used a mix of these modes (some students in-person and some joining remote asynchronously, for example). Following this announcement and in collaboration with DLO, we hosted a series of Townhalls where faculty could voice their concerns and highlight what they would like to receive additional development on. The Townhalls were separated into different course content types: Theory/analysis courses, Hands-on courses (like labs and design courses), and First-Year Seminars. Eighty-eight faculty attended the Townhall series (unique participants across all Townhalls). Using what we learned from the first two series, our Center and DLO offered a Summer workshop series in July 2020 that highlighted key elements for assisting faculty to prepare to teach in different modes in Fall 2020. The structure of the series was that our Center would host a workshop around the pedagogy of the topic on Tuesday, the DLO would follow-up with the digital tools needed for implementation on Thursday. The topics in the series were: student engagement, facilitating student teams, developing community, and assessment. DLO also offered an additional session on remote labs. At only our Center’s session for this, 104 faculty members (unique participants across all sessions) attended.

With this Lessons Learned paper and presentation, we hope to share our experience with the broader faculty development community. We will also share the resources generated from these sessions and our process for workshop development. We hope to be able to present our work as a lightning talk at the conference.

Citation
Format

Cutler, S., & Zappe, S. E., & Litzinger, T. A., & Holsing, C. J. (2021, July), Lessons Learned: Adapting to Aid Faculty for Teaching in a Pandemic Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37445

TY - CPAPER
AB - Lessons Learned: Adapting to Aid Faculty for Teaching in a Pandemic
This Lessons Learned paper outlines the post-COVID faculty development offerings from one engineering Teaching and Learning Center. As was likely the case for many Centers for Teaching and Learning in the Summer 2020, our center pivoted our intended summer programming to better address the needs of our faculty for teaching during a pandemic. Our Center is housed within the College of Engineering and provides pedagogical support to over 400 faculty. Our approach for the summer was to host multiple virtual workshop series that solicited the experiences of faculty, assessed their needs for teaching in different instructional modes, then provided both pedagogical and technological development opportunities by teaming up with our College’s digital learning office (DLO).

The first series we offered (May 2020) focused on faculty sharing their experiences and successes in the emergency transition to remote teaching in March of 2020. This series was broken into different workshops around different course contexts: Design classes, large classes, and labs. Forty-six faculty participated in this series (unique participants across all workshops). In June 2020, the University announced that the Fall 2020 would include in-person courses practicing social distancing, remote synchronous courses, remote asynchronous courses, and courses that used a mix of these modes (some students in-person and some joining remote asynchronously, for example). Following this announcement and in collaboration with DLO, we hosted a series of Townhalls where faculty could voice their concerns and highlight what they would like to receive additional development on. The Townhalls were separated into different course content types: Theory/analysis courses, Hands-on courses (like labs and design courses), and First-Year Seminars. Eighty-eight faculty attended the Townhall series (unique participants across all Townhalls). Using what we learned from the first two series, our Center and DLO offered a Summer workshop series in July 2020 that highlighted key elements for assisting faculty to prepare to teach in different modes in Fall 2020. The structure of the series was that our Center would host a workshop around the pedagogy of the topic on Tuesday, the DLO would follow-up with the digital tools needed for implementation on Thursday. The topics in the series were: student engagement, facilitating student teams, developing community, and assessment. DLO also offered an additional session on remote labs. At only our Center’s session for this, 104 faculty members (unique participants across all sessions) attended.

With this Lessons Learned paper and presentation, we hope to share our experience with the broader faculty development community. We will also share the resources generated from these sessions and our process for workshop development. We hope to be able to present our work as a lightning talk at the conference.
AU - Stephanie Cutler
AU - Sarah E. Zappe
AU - Thomas A. Litzinger
AU - Cathy J. Holsing
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Lessons Learned: Adapting to Aid Faculty for Teaching in a Pandemic
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/37445
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37445
ER -