Strategies for Building Class Community & Understanding Our Learners

As we approach the middle of the semester and beginning of the Fall 2 term, let's embrace the joy that comes from seeing students on campus, meeting to new learners in our courses, and feeling the energy of teaching the topics we love. This issue is focused on strategies for building class community and on understanding our learners. We hope you enjoy!

Culture of Care

Experts in the field of higher education (such as Drs. Rebecca Pope-Ruark and Tracie Addy) highlight the importance of faculty renewal, vitality in our work, and creating a Culture of Care. 

As we begin a new academic year in the midst of uncertain times in higher education, we focus on strategies to create a culture of care - for ourselves, for our students, and for one another. We hope the fall programming helps foster renewal, vitality, and a culture that uplifts us all.

Renewal

As we return from spring break and move into the final stretch of the spring semester, this issue focuses on renewal. A renewal of innovative teaching practices, a renewal on the future of learning, and renewal for opportunities to build and collaborate with one another. We hope you find these opportunities helpful and engaging.

Sincerely,
Your FCI Team

Supporting Our Learners

We care deeply about our learners and celebrate the unique and diverse student populations we serve (international, military, first-generation, undergraduate, graduate, online, and more). In this issue, we focus on practices to support our learners and have invited both internal and external experts to help us unpack ways to build belonging for all Park learners. We hope you find these opportunities helpful and engaging.  

Sincerely,
Your FCI Team

Park University is home to faculty, students, and staff located around the country who learn and work in multiple modalities. In this issue, we focus on creating a connected culture - in our classes and on our campuses.

During the Fall 2 term, we have invited both internal and external experts to help us unpack practices and strategies for building a connected culture among our learners and our colleagues. We hope you find these opportunities helpful and engaging.

Sincerely,

Your FCI Team

Unpacking Information in the Age of Overload
Information overload - the struggle is real! It becomes more challenging to manage, curate, and remain critical consumers of information - and to teach our students strategies for doing the same.

This Fall 2023 we have invited both internal and external experts to help us unpack the challenge from multiple perspectives, and we provide venues to further discuss and explore together. We hope you find these opportunities helpful and engaging.

Sincerely,
Your FCI Team

At Park, You Belong
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a trending topic in higher education, and rightfully so. Quickly glancing at the Fall 2021 data, Park's undergraduate student body consists of students from 58 countries, over half of the population identify their race/ethnicity as other than White, over 60% are military affiliated (active duty, veterans, dependents), and the average age of Park's undergraduate student is 30.2 years old.

At Park, non-traditional is traditional; therefore, signifying the need of inclusive teaching in the classroom. By faculty members creating an inclusive environment, we are providing a physically and psychologically safe space for students to explore their learning exemplifying to students that they belong at Park University.

This edition offers a variety of inclusive teaching and learning practices that you may reflect on or implement today. We hope you enjoy this issue, and if you have other potential topics you would like the newsletter to focus on, email us at innovate@park.edu. 

Student Learning & Engagement through Storytelling

Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed your summer and are ready for the 2022-2023 academic year. As you continue to prepare for a successful first week of class, and the rest of the term, we would like to share a creative instructional strategy that can be easily implemented into the classroom - storytelling. 

"The purpose of storytelling is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon" (Brandon Sanderson). Using this technique is a great way to build rapport with your students, help them connect to the course content, and think critically. Each of us has a story to tell, as do our students!

Are you ready to create a new story with your students this fall with storytelling in the classroom?  If so, we'd love for you to share your stories with us! We hope you enjoy this issue, and if you have other potential topics you would like the newsletter to focus on, email us at innovate@park.edu.

Highlight Your Evidence-Based Practices by Showcasing Your Scholarship
You're demonstrating innovative teaching and learning practices in the classroom; it's time for your work to shine by you sharing your effective instructional strategies through academic writing. Chick (n.d.) defines the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) as “a synthesis of teaching, learning, and research in higher education that aims to bring a scholarly lens - the curiosity, the inquiry, the rigor, the disciplinary variety - to what happens in the classroom.” We already assess our teaching and students’ learning in the classroom; SoTL takes it a step further by helping you share that information through scholarly avenues.
 
This edition offers a range of SoTL resources whether SoTL is being introduced to you or you are an expert in the area. We hope you enjoy this issue, and if you have other potential topics you would like the newsletter to focus on, email us at innovate@park.edu.  

How to Improve Work-Life Integration and Bypass Burnout
Happy New Year, and welcome back! We hope you had a relaxing winter break and are ready for Spring 2022. To keep you feeling rejuvenated this term, we're focusing on work-life integration because you are a priority to us in the Faculty Center for Innovation. We hope you enjoy this issue, and if you have other potential topics you would like the newsletter to focus on, email us at innovate@park.edu. 

From Growing to Knowing

Growth mindset revolves around three letters that make up one powerful word - yet. As educators, we can introduce and encourage a growth mindset in our students to help build their motivation and self-determination (both inside and outside of the classroom). Additionally, when it comes to academic performance, using the word 'yet' encourages students to lean from their current missteps and guide them to their future successes.

Envisioning the Future of Teaching & Learning

Welcome to the 2021-22 academic year! As the new academic year begins, we invite you to reflect upon the questions posed during this year's Fall Faculty Conference and review the cross-disciplinary Ideation Session responses HERE.

1. What skills and competencies will students need in the future?
2. If there were no limits, how could we revolutionize education at Park?
3. How can we enhance the way we organize, teach, and empower student learning at Park? What might this mean for your teaching practice?

We hope you will take these ideas that have been shared thus far back to your colleges, departments, and campus centers to continue the conversation and keep moving forward with envisioning the future of teaching and learning at Park.

Effective Feedback: Taking Learning to the Next Level

As a new month begins, we invite you to (re)assess your student feedback techniques. What would make your good feedback become great? After all, "Assessment is the engine which drives student learning" (John Cowan), so as we race towards the end of the semester, let's find ways to give our students essential feedback and watch their learning transform from good to great. We hope you enjoy this material, and look forward to continuing to share innovative teaching and learning ideas with you.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Continuous Learning

As an institution, Park is striving to understand more about our strengths and opportunities for growth in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We know that, like learning, this should be a continuous and evolving process—and one informed by perspectives outside of our walls. In this issue, we are pleased to share food for thought as we learn and grow together on our continuous journey to celebrate diversity, advocate for social justice, and create a more inclusive world.

Paving the Pathway for Park Students' Success - Student Support

If you haven't heard lately, here's a quick reminder YOU'RE AWESOME for always going above and beyond to support Park learners. This month the Faculty Center for Innovation focuses on student support and helping them achieve their goals. We hope you enjoy this material and look forward to sharing innovative teaching and learning ideas, development opportunities, and inspirational stories on how much you can impact the lives of our students.

The Power of Positivity

As a new year begins, we look ahead toward a fresh start, potential COVID vaccines on the horizon, the anticipation of spring, and a new semester with our colleagues and students - welcome to 2021! As we look ahead to new beginnings and the incredible resilience we've all demonstrated this past year, we also look to the power of positivity, hope, and the opportunity to build upon all that we've learned during these unique times. Happiness and positivity are equally contagious and represent the kind of transmission we need right now, so let's spread it like crazy! We hope you enjoy this material, and look forward to sharing innovative teaching and learning ideas with you throughout the new year.

Meaningful Mindfulness - How's Your Self-Care?

As academics, it's in our nature to over achieve leading to stress and inevitably burnout. It's time for a quick self check. How are you feeling - zealous, content, worried, fatigued? Whichever emotional response you currently identify with, let's take a moment to bring some harmony in your life and celebrate you. Close your eyes and take a deep breathe in, hold, then let it out and say to yourself, "I am awesome!"

This month, the Faculty Center for Innovation would like to focus on YOU and your self-care. After all, you deserve it. This month, and every month, we are so thankful that you are part of the Park family and for all that you do for our students; we truly are #ParkUnited and #onefamily. We hope you enjoy this material, and look forward to sharing innovative teaching and learning ideas with you throughout the year.

Communication across Modalities - "Can You Hear Me Now?"

We're nearing the end of the Fall 1 2020 semester, and as we continue to ride the pandemic wave, we encourage you to pause for a second and reflect on how you meaningfully communicate with students inside and outside the classroom. What methods of communication are you using (e.g., email, phone call, text, announcement, video, etc.)? Are those methods coming across clearly to your students?

Public speaker Rich Simmons said, "Communication is only effective when we communicate in a way that is meaningful to the recipient, not ourselves." This month, the Faculty Center for Innovation would like to share upcoming programming that touches upon effective communication strategies in all teaching and learning environments. We hope you enjoy this material, and look forward to sharing innovative teaching and learning ideas with you throughout the year.

How Engaged Are Your Students?...No, Really?

The Fall 2020 semester is underway and it's time for you to do a self check. How are your classes going? How are your students - and you - adjusting to the new classroom "normal"? As educators, we know it's imperative to actively keep our students engaged, no matter the situation. As we continue to navigate uncharted territories, we would like to share with you how Park and external instructors are keeping students engaged. We hope you enjoy this material, and look forward to sharing innovative teaching and learning ideas with you throughout the year.

New Year, New Instructional Environment

The Faculty Center for Innovation (FCI) is excited to welcome you back to a new academic year! Although the unique circumstances of 2020 led faculty across the world to quickly transition to online learning, we continue to be pragmatic Pirates and have learned, and continue to learn, how to offer quality higher education to Park's students. As we proceed instructing in a fully or partially online environment, FCI would like to share with you information on learning in a digital world. We hope you enjoy this material, and look forward to sharing innovative teaching and learning ideas with you throughout the year.