Text Box: This year has been an exciting year of “firsts” for the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.  CETL acquired a home in Beeson Hall  and had the largest steering committee in its history.  Many new faculty members served.  CETL also changed its leadership model, and this year had two coordinators, Dr. Deborah Vess (History) and Dr. Cynthia Alby (Foundations and Secondary Education).  

This year CETL offered workshops every third Wednesday and on problem-based learning, classroom management, civic and moral education,  assessment, faculty evaluation, and training in GIFT feedback techniques.  Our guests included Dayna Brown (visiting ACE fellow), Harry Dangle (Georgia State), and Mary Huba (Iowa State).   Several faculty engaged in an online workshop with Dr. Sally Kuhlenschmidt and interacted with faculty from her home institution, Western Kentucky University.  CETL also inaugurated a regular informal get-together for faculty and staff on the last Friday of every month, and a series of lunches, known as the Socrates Café.  CETL distributed over 75 free copies of texts to  workshop participants, and attendance at sessions increased dramatically this year.  CETL served over 200 faculty during the year at various events.  An important new addition to our activities were incentive mini-grants to faculty for assessment projects.

In this inaugural issue of the CETL newsletter, we provide an overview of the scholarship of teaching and learning and examples of research from our own faculty.  We invite you to stop by Beeson and enjoy our reading room and its resources!  
*Note: Our newsletter is designed to be read in Internet Explorer. We have noted some difficulties with the hyperlinks and other formatting issues in Netscape.  
Text Box: A Busy Year

What did CETL accomplish during 2004-2005?

1

Incentive Mini-grants

2

What is SoTL? Examples from the field.

2-8

Electronic Course Portfolios

6

Introduction to Merlot

9

CETL activities for 2005-2006

9

Assessment in Business

10

Text Box: FDW Shifts Focus,  by Autumn Grubb
Text Box: FDW shifted its focus this year from instructional technology to assessment at the course level, and participants received a handheld Pocket PC.  Participants experimented with blogs (web log), classroom assessment techniques, and ways to utilize the Pocket PC in their assessment strategies. In  March participants presented their findings to an audience that included Vice President Anne Gormly and President Dorothy Leland. Ken McGill, Jan Andrews, Charles Martin, Dee Russell (co-chair), Steve Payne (co-chair), and Autumn Grubb served as the advisory board. Congratulations to FDW graduates Rob Viau, Meagan, Melancon, Debby MacMillan,  Melanie Devore, Gita Williams, Mary Jean Land, Douglas Goings, Jude Hirsch, Bill Wall, Noland White, Doug Oetter, Mike Gleason, and Larry Faulk.  
Interested faculty might explore the Field-Tested Learning Assessment Guide web site at http://www.flaguide.org/

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Georgia College & State University

CETL News 2005

May 2005

Volume 1, Issue 1