LTDC Historical Grant Information – 2005-2006

The UW SRS Project involves faculty and staff from four UW institutions and is designed to learn how instructors can use student response systems to actively engage students and facilitate student learning. Sixteen instructors from four UW campuses will be supported as they redesign their courses and integrate SRS-based learning activities. The impact of these SRS activities on teaching and learning will be assessed and “best practices” will be distilled and shared with other UW faculty. The project will also create a faculty development program to introduce instructors to student response systems and how to use them effectively. One of the outcomes of the project will be a Student Response System Web site for faculty, LTC staff, and faculty developers, which will include the best practices, resources on student response systems, and the faculty development program for integrating SRS into courses.

The project enhances student learning by designing enriched supplementary instructional materials that draw upon the research and teaching specializations of contributors, incorporating a breadth of disciplinary perspectives that individual instructors would otherwise find difficult to reproduce. Moreover, UWW and UWEC Learning and Technology consultants will participate throughout the project and ensure that the new curricula result in learning objects that are adaptable, focus on problem-centered, active learning approaches, employ varied learning styles, and build in assessment criteria.

Evaluation will rely on the results of student assessment, instructors’ experiences during the year, and external professional evaluation. For the latter, the project will be presented at the North Central Council of Latin Americanists (NCCLA) and at campus workshops. These presentations will also constitute part of the early dissemination effort while the final project will be made public through announcements on the UWM Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) mailing list and NCCLA newsletter.

Our rapidly changing field, the nature of available resources and our need to collaborate to provide the best opportunities for our students lends itself to the development of online resources. The need to keep materials current and relevant lends itself uniquely to a technology-driven format. We are requesting funding for the development of D2L course materials with distinct modules in various arts management topics and relevant supplementary materials, which could be used in whole or in part by all of us as well as being made available to other System schools who do not current have arts management programming. Our consistency in philosophy and Wisconsin’s traditional leadership in the field of arts management give this project potential for national significance.

We propose to work collaboratively beginning in summer, 2005 and throughout the academic year to develop course materials, modules and technology. In the spring of 2006, material developed will be tested on students at a Student Summit at UW-Green Bay. The resulting evaluations will be used to complete the project by June, 2006. Thank you for your consideration of our request.