Dear Colleagues,

For those of you considering taking the ACUE Course in Effective Teaching in Higher Education, below is a blog written by
Amina Sadik, Professor of Basic Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Touro University Nevada.

Jim O’Connor Ph.D.
Director

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The Priceless Tools offered by Effective Teaching in Higher Education Course

When I found the second notification from Dr. O’Connor about the online course on Effective Teaching in Higher Education in collaboration with the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), I felt that I must share my enthusiasm about this course in order to encourage my colleagues to find time in their busy schedule to complete it. 
You would think that after 30 years of teaching, half of which in a medical school, I would feel that I have nothing more to learn about teaching. Far from it!
I am one of those people who think that there is always something to learn. I have mastered, and used successfully, several teaching methodologies, especially active learning strategies, and I have shared a few of them in my weekly posts and reflections during the last academic year. However, I learned several teaching strategies and teaching techniques that I have already applied and others that I plan to during this coming semester. One of my favorite modules is 2E, which was about supporting unprepared students.  Some of the techniques taught I was already practicing, however, not as effectively as I could, as I learned from the course. Those amongst us who honor the open-door policy know that unprepared students need our support outside the classroom to be successful. Nonetheless, the strategies taught in Effective Teaching in Higher Education regarding classroom and outside class practices that support student success are so enlightening, you will wish you knew about th!
 em when you first started teaching.
I think that any faculty member who cares about student learning will learn priceless lessons from the grading practices that support student success. Some of these practices reminded me of what I have learned from the famous course offered by the world-renowned medical educator and pioneer of OSCE, Dr. Harden: “Essential Skills of Medical Education”. 
One of the strengths of the Effective Teaching in Higher Education is the resources provided at the end of each module, so that one can delve into and learn even more about the topic at hand. These resources are not only articles and books but also video and blogs by those who are in the trenches of education. One of my favorites is a book Dr. McGuire, “Teach Students How to Learn,” that I purchased before the end of module 2E. It is money well spent! The other book I bought because of this course is “make it stick, The Science of Successful Learning”.
The second most important block was about Designing Courses. I know I have I designed successful courses, and yet I learned from the modules in this block as well. I cannot talk about them all. However, I must mention at least three of them here, because I was able to apply them before the end of the spring semester and was pleased to see my students reap the benefits of my newly acquired insight: “Establishing Powerful Learning”, “Aligning Assessments with Course” and “Aligning Activities and Assignments”. I used my GI lectures to apply what I was learning through this block. It was very hard, but it was so fulfilling.
If you can imagine a world where your students learn better from you, where you have the ability to evaluate and improve your assessment practices, and where you are able to write clear learning outcomes and where you are able to prepare your own effective syllabus, you should take this course without hesitation.
I end this post with a quote by Dr. Bowen when he was asked about teaching: “The magic is passion”. I am sure that you have it in you.

Amina Sadik

Dear Colleagues,

This is a second notification.

Once again, Touro University California and Touro University Nevada will offer an online course for interested faculty focused on Effective Teaching in Higher Education in collaboration
with the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE).

We just had over 30 faculty members complete the course during this academic year, and they overwhelmingly thought the course was transformative for their teaching.

The course is offered via Canvas. There will be three face-to-face meetings. The first face-to-face meeting in August will kick off the course and will be approximately 4 hours
in length. The other two face-to-face meetings will occur between blocks 1 and 2, and 2 and 3, and will be approximately 2 hours in length.

>From discussions with those who just finished the course, the amount of time commitment is 3-4 hours per unit.

Our plan is to admit 10 faculty members from TUN and 20 from TUC (the opposite of what we did this year). From TUC, we would like approximately the same number
from each of the three colleges.

I have attached the 2018-19 schedule. The 2019-20 schedule will be similar, but not identical. The schedule allows you to see the topics, as well as get a sense of the pace of the
course.

Those individuals completing the course will receive a certificate in Effective Teaching in Higher Education as well as a pin.

Also attached is an application form.

If you are interested, PLEASE COMPLETE THE APPLICATION FORM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

All applications will be vetted with your college dean.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Best wishes,

Jim O’Connor Ph.D.
Director

Attachments:

• http://western.touro.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/06/2019-20-Application-ACUE-Participant-Application-1-2.docx
• http://western.touro.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2019/06/ACUE-Course-ScheduleTouro_SuggestedCourseSequence_2018-19-3.docx

Dear Colleagues,

Below are the links for two short videos from faculty at TUC who have finished the ACUE Course on Effective Teaching in Higher Education.

Susan R Heimer, is an  Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy, Biological & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Nicole Peña, is an Assistant Professor in the  COM, OMM

Each video is approximately 2 minutes in length.

Hopefully, we will be offering this course again next year for faculty from TUC and TUN who are interested.

Jim O’Connor Ph.D.
Director

Hello, I am Rolly Kali-Rai, MBA PharmD. I am the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy. I currently am also a member of Touro Western Division’s “Cohort A”. We are the TUC/TUN inaugural cohort of the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE)’s yearlong online course, “Effective Teaching Practices”. When Dr. O’Connor came to a faculty and staff meeting of the COP to speak about his online course I was ecstatic. I had been waiting for such a course. I am new to academia and welcomed formal training and development. The ACUE course has been amazing. It does require a fair amount of time outside of work however it has been so rewarding. The course has provided me usable tips and techniques that I are readily integrated both inside and out of the class room.

One of my favorite modules of learning changed how I fundamentally look at teaching in general. I started out as a Clinical Pharmacist by training however became a hospital administrator as my career path changed. For the last 14 years I have been focused on efficiency, management, and customer service. Recently a course module titled, “Using student achievement and feedback to improve teaching”, made me rethink what I thought I knew about teaching. I learned about really listening to my customers and how their feedback changed the way I delivered my product to them and what that product looked like and how it fulfilled their needs. Teaching was more than me standing in front of a class of “eager” learners, depending on their intrinsic abilities and or desires to learn content. It was about me delivering content that was valued in a way that was received by each student and made their own. It was about empowering them with skills and knowledge while they headed down a career path that I personally love. Teaching was dynamic and it was a two way interaction. Who knew, student achievement was not a test of what they know but also a reflection of how well the message was delivered, received and incorporated into usable knowledge of their own.

The entire course has been full of gems such as the module on student feedback. Each module I walk away feeling more confidant and empowered to make change. I know when I came to Touro it was to give back but I never thought I would receive so much more in return. If you get the chance please do take the course and spend some time with Dr. O’Connor, the two together have been priceless for me. Well time to focus on next week’s module. Who knew, lifelong learning could be fun.

Participating in this course has be one of the best professional decisions I have made since coming to Touro…

I am Cathy West, MD, DrPH. I am an assistant professor in the COM and a member of Touro Western Division’s “Cohort A”. We are the TUC/TUN inaugural cohort of the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE)’s year long online course, “Effective Teaching Practices”.

For some background: There are about ten TUC faculty participating in the course, from COP, COM, and the PA program. Our course director and mentor is Jim O’Connor. There are four blocks comprising 25 modules, which are all completed online. Modules cover teaching in both the classroom and in online courses. We met up in person initially for a course launch and also have quarterly face-to-face meetings with Jim and our “classmate” colleagues.

Now to the heart of it: This ACUE course continues to inspire me and has revitalized my teaching. Preparing my learning activities has become a much more creative and informed task for me. The course itself is terrific: well-organized, relevant, and engaging. Since this is a course for educators created by expert educators, the strategies and techniques that are taught are evident in the organization and presentation of the course material itself.

I’ll walk you through one of my recent modules. We are in Block 3: Promoting Higher Order Thinking and Assessing Learning. The topic for this module is Checking for Understanding. The modules all have the same structure, which makes time management much more efficient.

Each module is organized into “chunks”; the first is Engage. It consists of an introductory video of one to two minutes that grabs your attention. Next comes the list of learning objectives. It is introduced with a sentence stating the evidence-based rationale for the module topic. The objectives list clearly introduces the specific techniques we will be learning in the module. Then we are put to work on an opening questionnaire that assesses our current understanding and experience with the techniques.

In the second “chunk”, Listen, Watch & Learn, we see the techniques in action in a classroom demonstration video of six to eight minutes. In the videos, the main points appear in the lower part of the screen as concise phrases in bold lettering. The next video is the Technique Talk, a “cartoon” style moving hand drawing each technique interspersed with faculty giving the evidence for the technique. For this module, the main point of the Technique Talk is “How you know your students are ACTUALLY learning”. Note to self—the use of short videos to introduce new material is key! We all have short attention spans when it comes to listening to a speaker…avoid the pitfall of straight lecturing for an hour! This section wraps up with the Instructor Resources, literally a treasure trove of how-to documents, specific techniques, samples, and links to articles.

In the next chunk, Deepen Thinking, we review Common Challenges and Misconceptions (a single page with succinct drop downs) and, in Observe and Analyze I, we assess (with a short quiz with the answers immediately available) a brief simulation in which an instructor tries out some of the techniques. We then watch another simulation and all address a question posted on a discussion board.

In the Practice and Reflect “chunk” we try out a new technique ourselves and write about our experience: why we chose the specific technique, successes and challenges in its implementation, the impact on student learning and engagement, and how we might modify it the next time around. We also contribute final thoughts in another discussion board and give feedback on what we learned in a brief reflection survey.

Finally, to Close Strong, we watch a one to two minute closing summary and receive a list of the references for the module.

Truth be told, this has been a lot of work. Completing each module takes longer than I expected and I have gotten behind a few times. The course is also designed primarily for university instructors who teach a course themselves, who begin and end the course with the students, and have regular frequent contact with them during the course of the semester. I may be more like those instructors than some of my colleagues because I teach many more large and small group learning activities and am a Course Coordinator. However, like many of my colleagues, because of the nature of teaching in our program, I would often not have a learning activity with students during a particular module and had to make a plan to implement a technique rather than being able to actually try it out.

Despite those few caveats, I am really enjoying the course and how it is making this such a stimulating year for me as an educator. In fact, this past week, I felt almost giddy with success in creating and implementing a new learning activity for the second year COM students. Because of my work in the ACUE course, I have so many new concepts and techniques in my teaching armamentarium and I knew I was using them every step of the way as I put this lab together.

I was able to set the students up for success in this new lab first by giving them the opportunity to choose a topic in advance of the lab (one of six sensitive/difficult conversation situations), then read an article about it and come to lab prepared to discuss that topic. I had chosen a jigsaw format to increase their engagement through student-student teaching, so to make use of the time efficiently with a lot of moving parts, I had to develop clear instructions.

Each of the six different Doctoring Groups contributed a student to each of the topic groups. The six topic groups met separately and each created a concept map and action plan, each of those on a giant Post-It that was stuck to the walls of the lecture hall. Doctoring Groups then reformed and rotated around the lecture hall together, spending ten minutes with each concept map and action plan, which was explained by their very own “expert” on the topic.

One other facilitator and I moved around the lecture hall during both parts of the lab, asking questions to help groups that were stuck and answering questions as needed. I handed out index cards to each Doctoring Group and asked students to give me feedback that would be both anonymous and voluntary. I mentioned examples such as whether they felt more confident about having these conversations on the rotations they will soon begin, whether they felt the structure of the lab was effective, and if nothing else, at least whether they thought we needed more faculty facilitators.

One third of the class did this activity each day over three days (about 45 students per session). The really good news was that I had those three tries to succeed with the lab, and I needed them!

My feedback?

Day 1: Nine index cards returned, helpful feedback about instructions (which I used to amend them for Day 2), and several very positive comments such as “The split group combining into one group was excellent”, “This was a great lab! My favorite part was the active learning aspect”.

Day 2: Nine index cards returned, mixed responses about having more preceptors, and more positive comments such as “Marvelous exercise with great topics”, “Lab was enjoyable and informative”.

Day 3: By the third day I had it right. I got back 29 index cards! A few students commented only that they preferred having only a few preceptors so that it could be student-led but nearly all the cards were very positive about what they learned (even “I liked having the opportunity to work on my public speaking skills”) and the structure of the lab (“great” and “loved it” with specific details appeared on many cards).

To finish up, If I hadn’t already been convinced of the value of the ACUE course, after this week, I can state unequivocally that participating in this course has be one of the best professional decisions I have made since coming to Touro. I am a better educator and hope to be a resource for others. I highly recommend this course to any faculty who are looking to improve the learning experiences of their students, and to increase their own sense of satisfaction and engagement in this wonderful profession of teaching.

Dear Faculty Colleagues

The Center for Innovative Learning and Teaching of Touro’s Western Division is pleased to announce that we are offering an online ACUE (Association of College and University Educators) Course in Effective Teaching Practices designed to enhance our campus commitment to faculty and student success. A limited group of (33) faculty participants will be selected to complete the nationally-recognized Certificate in Effective College Instruction endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE).  The cost to participate in the program will be funded by the Provosts’ Offices at both Touro University Nevada (TUN) and Touro University California (TUC) with no cost to you or your department.

The Course consists of 25 modules that will be completed online with a cohort of other faculty and guided by facilitators from TUC and TUN. The modules include five units of study: Designing an Effective Course and Class, Establishing a Productive Learning Environment, Using Active Learning Techniques, Promoting Higher Order Thinking, and Assessing to Inform Instruction and Promote Learning.  You can learn more about the Course and the content of each module here: http://acue.org/course/

Attached and below is a tentative schedule for the ACUE Course at Touro Western Division. ACUE will kick off the program with an in-person Course Launch on Friday, August 3rd  from which participants will complete their first module. The Course will begin on August 6, 2018 and go through April 21, 2019 with coursetakers completing approximately one online module each week.  There will be four face-to-face sessions, each following a course block.
Participants will need to spend approximately two to three hours for each unit, which will be presented using Canvas. It is important that you are willing to make a commitment to completing this course, as there are others who are on a waiting list.

The Center for Innovative Learning and Teaching (CILT) enthusiastically supports this initiative and looks forward to recognizing participants at the end of the course via a pinning ceremony.

Participants will also receive a check for $500 upon completion of the course and a certificate in Effective College Instruction.

There may be some openings available for interested faculty.

If you are interested, please email me immediately so we can place you on a wait list.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Here is the current tentative schedule:

Touro University – Nevada and California
ACUE Course in Effective Teaching Practices
Proposed Course Sequence, 2018-19

Timeframe       Module  Unit    Meeting Topic
Aug 3, 1 – 4 p.m.        Course Launch – Motivating Your Students        2d      Orientation
BLOCK 1: Establishing a Productive Learning Environment
Aug 6 – Aug 12  Connecting with Your Students   2c      Supportive Learning Environments
Aug 13 – Aug 19 Promoting a Civil Learning Environment  2b
Aug 20 – Aug 26 Engaging Underprepared Students 2e
Aug 27 – Sep 2  Helping Students Persist in Their Studies       2f
Sep 3 – Sep 9   Embracing Diversity in the Classroom     2g
Sept 10 – Oct 7 Break or Makeup Weeks
BLOCK 2: Engaging Learners
Oct 8 – Oct 14  Planning an Effective Class Session     1e      Active Learning
Oct 15 – Oct 21 Delivering an Effective Lecture 3c
Oct 22 – Oct 28 Using Active Learning Techniques        3a, 3b
Oct 29 – Nov 11
(two weeks)     Planning and Facilitating Effective Class Discussions   3d, 3e
Nov 12 – Nov 18
Developing Self-Directed Learners       4e
Nov 19 – Dec 9  Break or Makeup Weeks           Celebrate!
BLOCK 3: Promoting Higher Order Thinking & Assessing Learning
Jan 14 – Jan 27 Leading the First Day of Class  2a      Higher Order Thinking
Jan 28 – Feb 3  Using Advanced Questioning Techniques   4a
Feb 4 – Feb 10  Using Concept Maps and Other Visualization Tools        4b
Feb 11 – Feb 17 Checking for Understanding      5d      Assessing Learning
Feb 18 – Feb 24 Providing Useful Feedback       5c
Feb 25 – Mar 3  Using Student Achievement and Feedback to Improve Your Teaching 5e
Mar 4 – 10      Break or Makeup Weeks
BLOCK 4: Designing Courses
Mar 11- Mar 24  Establishing Powerful Learning Outcomes 1a      Backward Design
Aligning Assessments with Course Outcomes       1b
Aligning Activities and Assignments with Course Outcomes        1c
Mar 25 – Apr 7  Preparing an Effective Syllabus 1d      Syllabus and Course Policies
Developing Fair, Consistent and Transparent Grading Practices    5a
Developing and Using Rubrics and Checklists      5b
Apr 8 – Apr 21  Makeup Weeks
TBD     Pinning Ceremony                Celebrate!
Course Ends – All reflections due by Apr 21

Thank you,

Yvonne M. Randall
Interim Associate Dean
College of Health and Human Services, Touro University Nevada

and

Jim O’Connor Ph.D.
Director, CILT

Attachment: ACUE-Course-ScheduleTouro_SuggestedCourseSequence_2018-19-3.docx