New Faculty Welcome and Open House
Lysandra Perez-Strumolo, FRC Director

Join us for a conversation about what it is like to teach at Ramapo.  This is an informal discussion designed to answer any questions you migtht have and to introduce the servcies available to you at the Faulty Resource Center.

-----

September 23rd, 2009, at 10:30am, in E-216

Confessions of an Online-Learning Skeptic:  What I Learned While Teaching in Cyberspace
Lysandra Perez-Strumolo, Associate Professor of Psychology

Can students learn in an online course?  How does learning online compare to face to face learning?  What is the role of the instructor in an online course?  Is this some sort of joke?  These were some of the many questions I had when I started to think about the role of online leanring in the college classroom. In this session, I will share my experiences teaching two courses fully online during the summer session of 2009.  Together, we will discuss the challenges and successes I experienced as well as the effectiveness and limitations of online teaching and learning in general. 

 ----- 

October 21^st, 2009, 10:30-11:30am, in E-216

When Students Won’t Speak…Tips for effectively engaging students in class discussion
Lysandra Perez-Strumolo, Associate Professor of Psychology, SSHS

 Why are students reluctant of unwilling to share and explore their ideas through dialogue?  In most cases, we’ll never know.  However, there are many techniques we can use to help students engage in meaningful discourse with each other.  In this session, we will discuss the challenges we often face in promoting and maintaining meaningful discussions in the classroom, and we will share several ideas for effectively engaging students in class discussion.

-----

November 4^th, 2009 10am-11:15am, in E-216

Working with Rubrics to Develop Effective Assessment of Student Learning
Carol Bonilla-Bowman, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, SSHS
Lysandra Perez-Strumolo, Associate Professor of Psychology, SSHS

In recent years, the Association of American Colleges and Universities has developed an extensive program focused on the use of rubrics for effective assessment of student learning.  This program is called the "Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education,"(VALUE), and the result has been the development of the "VALUE" rubrics.  

The VALUE rubrics were developed for use as institutional level rubrics for 15 of the AAC&U Essential Learning Outcomes (More information about these outcomes is available at: http://www.aacu.org/leap/vision.cfm).  Each VALUE rubric contains the most common and broadly shared criteria or core characteristics considered critical for judging the quality of student work in each outcome area.

In this session, we will disuss the use of rubrics for effective assessment of student learning in our courses and programs.  Carol will provide instruction for the development of effective rubrics and will lead us in a discussion of the ways we might use the VALUE rubrics to assess student learning in our programs.  

For more information about the "Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education" Program, visit:  http://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/

-----

November (Date To Be Announced)

Organizing your Re-appointment Package and Writing your Re-appointment Letters
Presenters to be Announced

Preparing a reappointment package can be an overwhelming task.  Join us for an informal discussion focused on the process of putting together your re-appointment application.  Recently tenured faculty will be discussing their approaches to this process and sharing their packages as samples. We will also discuss various approaches to preparing your teaching philosophy statement and the teaching portion of your re-appointment letter

-----

December 2^nd, 2009, 10:30am-11:30pm, in E-216

Developing Useful Learning Goals:  How our experiences with course re-design enhanced our teaching
Kay Fowler, Professor of gerontology and Women’s Studies, SSHS
Lysandra Perez-Strumolo, Associate Professor of  Psychology, SSHS

Good teaching begins with a clear plan regarding the learning outcomes you are aiming to achieve.  In this session, Kay and Lysandra will present their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in two courses.  Our discussion will focus on the process used for developing valuable learning objectives and on the ways learning objectives can effectively guide the pedagogical choices we make in designing and implementing our courses.