WELCOME TO THE NinTH ANNUAL COLLABORATORY

Welcome to the ninth annual Global Citizenship Collaboratory! The Collaboratory provides a space for the Webster community to share research, collaborate across disciplines, strengthen assessment practices, and explore new directions related to teaching and learning.

This year’s Collaboratory theme, “Turning Over Stones: Uncovering Opportunities for Student Success” invites the Webster community to consider emerging pathways that support student success, enhance integrative learning, and improve retention.

Schedule at a Glance

Tuesday, May 21

8:00-10:30: Check-in/Coffee

8:30-10:15: Breakfast for Cornerstone/FYS Instructors

10:30-11:00: Opening Remarks: “Contracts Don’t Make Horses Drink”

11:00-12:00: Important Developments Plenary

12:00-1:30: Lunch

1:30-2:45: Concurrent Sessions A

1. Safe Zone: Cultivating an Inclusive Community
2. An Introduction to Using Recent Graduate Voices in Our Work

2:45-3:00: Break

3:00-4:15: Concurrent Sessions B

1. Global Learning: Opportunities and Challenges
2. Teaching and Assessing Critical Thinking and Quantitative Literacy

Wednesday, May 22

8:30-9:00: Check-in/Coffee

9:00-9:30: Meet the Artist Lecture Series as a Learning Platform to Integrate the Arts Across the Undergraduate Curriculum in Geneva

9:30-10:45: Learning Happens Everywhere: Student Perspectives on Integrative Learning Outside the Classroom

10:45-11:00: Break

11:00-12:00: Where the Flagstones End: How to Ask Questions About the Curricular Student Experience

12:00-1:30: Lunch

1:30-2:45: Concurrent Sessions C

1. Get a Piece of the P.I.E.: Problem-Based, Integrative Education at Webster
2. Office Hours Outside the Office: A Practice that Supports Student Motivation

2:45-3:00: Break

3:00-4:15: Concurrent Sessions D

1. Mapping, Modeling, and Reflecting: Self-Growth across the Undergraduate Experience
2. Assessment: What Counts as Data?

4:15-5:30: Closing Reception

Turning Over Stones: Uncovering Opportunities for Student Success

This year’s Collaboratory theme, “Turning Over Stones: Uncovering Opportunities for Student Success” invites the Webster community to consider emerging pathways that support student success, enhance integrative learning, and improve retention.

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the following:

• How can we expand opportunities for experiential and integrative learning at Webster?
• How might we streamline our assessment processes to make them efficient and useful?
• How can we leverage the GCP’s collective work to respond to institutional priorities such as retention and student success?
• What do students have to say about peer mentoring, global learning, experiential opportunities, and participating in student success initiatives?
• What can we do to enhance teaching and advising for inclusion and student success?

SCHEDULE DETAILS AND SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

Tuesday, May 21

8:00-10:30: Check-in/Coffee (East Academic Building, second floor)

8:30-10:15: Breakfast for Cornerstone/FYS Instructors: The Joys and Rigors of Teaching the First Year Seminar (EAB 261)

Scott Jensen, Professor, Dept. of Communications & Journalism

Keith Welsh, Professor, Dept. of Religious Studies

Terri Reilly, Adjunct Full Professor, Dept. of Art, Design, & Art History

Basiyr Rodney, Associate Professor, Dept. of Teacher Education

The Global Citizenship Program Committee’s recent passing of the First Year Seminar Learning Outcomes offers an opportunity to codify the seminar so it aligns with the Global Citizenship Program’s middle eight classes and the Keystone Seminar. The First Year Seminar is the gateway class into the GCP and consequently serves as the introduction to the skills and expectations of future GCP classes. This session will feature a panel of seasoned FYS instructors, each an expert in one or more of the learning outcome areas, to share their plans to apply the outcomes.

10:30-11:00: OPENING REMARKS: “Contracts Don’t Make Horses Drink” (EAB 253/262)

Bruce Umbaugh, Director, Global Citizenship Program

11:00-12:00: Important Developments Plenary (EAB 253/262)

This session will provide participants with institutional developments and updates on strategic work, helping them in their planning efforts as teachers and academic partners.

Nancy Hellerud, Vice Provost: institutional updates

Eric Rothenbuhler, Dean, School of Communications: retention initiative update

Kyle McCool, Director, Graduate Advising: Student Success Portal (Starfish)

Carla Colletti, Associate Professor, Dept. of Music: GCP Committee updates

Tara Campbell, Representative, Conservatory of Theatre Arts: Merit Recognition website

12:00-1:30: LUNCH

Lunch served in EAB 264, seating in EAB 253/262, EAB 251, and EAB 254

Summer Advising Team—Group Lunch: EAB 261

1:30-2:45: CONCURRENT SESSIONS A

A1. Safe Zone: Cultivating an Inclusive Community (EAB 251)

Mary Ann Drake, Professor, Dept. of Nursing

Olivia Haupt, Asst. Director of Student Conduct and Deputy Title IX Coordinator

Kate Parsons, Professor, Dept. of Philosophy

Julie Setele, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology & Sociology

Safe Zone is a national movement designed to raise awareness of the diverse experiences of the LGBTQ+ community and provide tools to foster inclusive spaces on college campuses. Consistent with Webster University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, Webster faculty and staff have conducted multiple workshops with faculty, staff, and student leaders since 2005. This particular workshop meets the needs of people at all knowledge levels, addressing ever-changing vocabulary, the need for intersectional analysis, how to be a better ally, and how to navigate shifting social and political environments on national and global levels.

A2. An Introduction to Using Recent Graduate Voices in Our Work (EAB 254)

Molly Stehn, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Professional Counseling

Erik Palmore, Director, Faculty Development Center

Josephine Kogbara, Webster University student

All Webster University students are invited to complete an “outcomes” survey soon after they graduate. This academic year, one Provost’s faculty fellow has been reading and coding the open-ended comments portions of this survey, while the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Faculty Development Center have been creating an online application for reviewing survey results. This session explores these efforts further. Participants will explore and classify open-ended comments about defining moments and overall recommendations to better understand survey results about student experiences and be introduced to this new application to explore recent graduate feedback about various aspect of the university. We will walk though case examples that demonstrate patterns in student experiences for improvement or celebration. The questions and ideas from attendees will be used to shape the ongoing development of this resource.

2:45-3:00: Break

3:00-4:15: CONCURRENT SESSIONS B

B1. Global Learning: Opportunities and Challenges (EAB 251)

Kate Parsons, Professor, Dept. of Philosophy

Seeing the great wonders of the world, spotting new animal species, trying strange foods, managing unfamiliar currency, navigating a foreign language…with students. Is this your dream job, or your worst nightmare? While Webster has a substantial global network and various support mechanisms to make study abroad and global learning possible, there are also considerable challenges for faculty and staff in terms of family care and obligations, finances, planning a curriculum, developing knowledge about one’s destination, not to mention the stress of being responsible for one’s students. Navigating concerns about safety when traveling as a woman, as a person of color, as LGBTQ, as a member of a religious or ethnic minority, or as a member of any other marginalized group can make the process even more daunting. This session is designed to spark open and honest conversation about the benefits and drawbacks of leading students on study abroad and global learning trips. Those who have never traveled with students are encouraged to attend, and veterans of such trips are invited to share their experiences as well.

B2. Teaching and Assessing Critical Thinking and Quantitative Literacy (EAB 254)

Carla Colletti, Associate Professor, Dept. of Music

Marissa Cope, Assessment & Accreditation Analyst, Office of Institutional Effectiveness

This session will include: 1) a brief overview of the Global Citizenship Program’s Assessment 2.0 initiative, 2) a summary of the participating departments’ plans for assessment of GCP courses, and 3) a discussion of strategies for effectively teaching and assessing these two skill areas. This session is intended primarily for faculty in departments with courses coded for Critical Thinking and/or Quantitative Literacy, though anyone is welcome to attend.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22

8:30-9:00: CHECK-IN/COFFEE (EAST ACADEMIC BUILDING, SECOND FLOOR)

9:00-9:30: Meet the Artist Lecture Series as a Learning Platform to Integrate the Arts Across the Undergraduate Curriculum in Geneva (EAB 253/262)

Julianna Sandholm-Bark, Assistant Professor and Head of Global Citizenship Program, Webster Geneva

The Meet the Artist Lecture Series was launched in March 2018 by the Global Citizenship Program on the Geneva campus in collaboration with the Media Communications department and the Webster Center of Creativity and Innovation (WCCI). As a learning platform, its main goals are to integrate the arts across disciplines and majors, to activate students’ potential for creative and innovative thinking through activities that are both cognitive and experiential – eg. curating, engaging with artists' creative process and art making, and podcasting – and to develop their capacity for lifelong learning.

This session will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of Meet the Artist’s methods, which are related to the Brechtian concept of Verfremdungseffekt, and will invite participants to share recent experiential initiatives in teaching and learning of their own with which they have experimented. The goal for participants will be to leave the discussion with new ideas to implement in their teaching.

9:30-10:45: Learning Happens Everywhere: Student Perspectives on Integrative Learning Outside the Classroom (EAB 253/262)

Justin Barton, Director, First Year Experience and Undergraduate Persistence

Kim Kleinman, Director, Undergraduate Advising

Vanika Spenser, Coordinator, First Year Experience and Undergraduate Persistence

With Webster student panelists:

• Ethan Canby
• Danielle Robinson
• Honoka Takato
• Justin Klos
• Khyle Buchanan

We know that some of the most productive sites of student learning take place outside of the classroom. How can we support our students as they integrate what they learn in their courses with their diverse co-curricular experiences? This session will share some of Webster’s own high-impact curricular and co-curricular practices—such as learning communities, peer mentoring, and student employment—and discuss how they impact both integrative learning and student retention. Our conversation will feature a student panel of Connections Leaders in order to center student voices and perspectives, and we will ask what faculty and staff can do to acknowledge and enhance the learning that “happens everywhere.”

10:45-11:00: Break

11:00-12:00: Where the Flagstones End: How to Ask Questions About the Curricular Student Experience (EAB 253/262)

Erik Palmore, Director, Faculty Development Center

In 2018-19, every first-year student took a First Year Seminar, but these students only spent 10% of their time in these classes. On the other hand, this same cohort spent 40% of their time in GCP middle-eight courses, yet our conception of the program as one of breadth and distribution makes it hard to deliver intentional student-success outcomes in the same manner we aspire to in the FYS. In this session we’ll look at the GCP middle-eight courses as a community of learning, in which a few dozen courses provide impactful opportunities for improved retention and student success. We will explore the relationships that exist with GCP coursework and student retention, with particular emphasis on the first year. Attendees will be exposed to tools and methods that allow us to identify opportunities to enhance retention and success though the curriculum, and to discuss what existing and potential research-based solutions might be appropriate for measurable challenges.

12:00-1:30: LUNCH

Lunch served in EAB 264, seating in EAB 253/262 and surrounding classrooms

1:30-2:45: CONCURRENT SESSIONS C

C1. Get a Piece of the P.I.E.: Problem-Based, Integrative Education at Webster (EAB 251)

Karla Armbruster, Professor, Dept. of English

Do you worry about students who seem to lack motivation or sense of purpose for their coursework? Do you wonder if we are doing everything we can to prepare students for the complex, rapidly changing world we all live in? Research tells us that problem-based, integrative education (P.I.E.) motivates and transforms students better than almost any other approach to learning.

In this session, you will learn more about P.I.E. and its many benefits for students. We will all share ways we use P.I.E. techniques (chances are that you do, even if you haven’t thought of it in those terms) and brainstorm new ways we might use them in the future. Finally, we will explore how we can share knowledge, skills, and resources to support and create even more P.I.E. opportunities for students in the future.

C2. Office Hours Outside the Office: A Practice that Supports Student Motivation (EAB 254)

Liza Dister, Coordinator, Faculty Development Center

Lasanthi Gamage, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Math & Computer Science

How do we best support our students in courses that our students perceive as challenging, difficult, or irrelevant to their lives? This session will address ways to support our students’ motivation, sense of competence, and self-confidence, especially in courses in which our students can feel overwhelmed. One instructor will share how she reshaped her office hours into “collaborative working hours” by hosting her office hours in a classroom, which helped boost her students’ motivation and agency while providing a supportive community focused on growth, not grades. This practice also increased her contact with students and streamlined her own work. Participants will be invited to share their own teaching practices that support student growth and will leave with ideas for implementing these practices.

Break: 2:45-3:00

3:00-4:15: CONCURRENT SESSIONS D

D1. Mapping, Modeling, and Reflecting: Self-Growth across the Undergraduate Experience (EAB 251)

Rea Bedalli, student, Psychology BA, Advertising BA, and LEADs certificate

Liza Dister, Coordinator, Faculty Development Center

Jeremy Jacobs, student, Music Direction for Musical Theatre BM, and LEADs certificate

Bruce Umbaugh, Professor, Dept. of Philosophy & Director, Global Citizenship Program

Are you concerned that despite all of the amazing experiences our students are having, they may not be integrating their learning? This session will focus on three integration strategies and how they are working in practice. We will explore:

• Mapping - To create their “portfolio-less portfolio” for assessment, students in the Philosophy Department use generative knowledge interviewing and a “personal curriculum map” in PHIL 3000, the Philosophy Proseminar.
• Modeling – After gaining a strong foundation in leadership theories, students in Webster LEADS apply that knowledge by creating their own leadership model for a leader they admire.
• Reflecting - Through a multi-step process of reflection, based on empirical theories and findings about how people learn and understand new concepts, students can better integrate study abroad experiences in their personal lives, their education at Webster, and how they present themselves professionally.

D2. Assessment: What Counts as Data? (EAB 137)

Marissa Cope, Assessment & Accreditation Analyst, Office of Institutional Effectiveness

The purpose of this session is to provide a basic overview of the assessment cycle: Plan-Do-Check-Act with a particular focus on types of data and the best methods for collecting the data needed to provide evidence for effectiveness. Data collection options and tools for course outcomes, program-level outcomes, and GCP skills will be reviewed and discussed.

4:15-5:30: Closing Reception (EAB 253/262)

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

Participants at the Collaboratory have the opportunity to network and collaborate with colleagues across disciplines, departments, and campuses. A contingent of representatives from Webster’s international campuses provides diverse perspectives and insights, and partnerships formed during the Collaboratory help strengthen Webster’s worldwide network.

HANDS-ON SESSIONS

Attendees of the Collaboratory are invited to participate in engaging sessions about student success, technology and education, teaching and learning, and various pedagogy topics.