[CEER Internal List 133] STEM Teaching Essentials, Thursday, Nov 19 11:30 - 1:30

[Mark Urban-Lurain]

The final STEM Teaching Essentials workshop of fall semester is:

Moving Forward Using Backward Course Design: Alignment of Goals,
Instruction, and Assessment
        Presented by Dr. Cori Fata-Hartley
        Thursday, November 19, 2015 11:30 - 1:30
        1425 Biomedical Physical Sciences Building

	Lunch provided

Registration is open on the Teaching Essentials Website:
http://teachingessentials.msu.edu/


Abstract  

How will you approach planning or designing your next course?  Many STEM
instructors follow a common path-select a textbook, identify the chapters to
be covered, develop lectures, and finally, create exams.  Instructional
design methods such as Backward Design offer a more deliberate approach to
course development. Backward Design (Wiggins and McTighe, 1988) is a
conceptual framework that emphasizes the alignment of learning goals and
objectives, assessments, and instructional activities.  In the first stage,
instructors develop specific learning objectives.  What are students
expected to know, understand, or be able to do after completing the course?
Next, the instructor must determine what will serve as acceptable evidence
that students have met these objectives (assessment).  It is only after
these first two steps have been completed that the instructor develops
materials such as lectures and assignments that help student to achieve the
learning objectives. By using Backward Design, an instructor must identify
curricular priorities and assessment methods early.  When these priorities
have been identified and evaluated, the teacher may then apply the
appropriate resources and time to the most important concepts and ideas.
Workshop participants will be introduced to the principles of Backward
Design and will have the opportunity to apply those principles to their own
classes.

Cori Fata-Hartley is Assistant Dean for Curriculum Coordination in the
College of Natural Science.  She completed doctoral studies at the Medical
College of Ohio and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Molecular
Virology at University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Fata-Hartley joined MSU in
2005 and held appointments in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and served as the Interim Director for
Faculty and Instructional Development in the Office of Faculty and
Organizational Development before being appointed Assistant Dean. Throughout
her career she has participated in fellowships focused on teaching and
learning in STEM disciplines including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Teaching Fellowship, New Generation for Scientific Teaching Program while a
postdoctoral associate at UW-Madison and the American Society for
Microbiology Biology Scholars Program after joining MSU. Her efforts at MSU
have focused on improving STEM teaching and learning and increasing the
retention and academic success for a diverse group of learners.
Fata-Hartley received the 2013 All-University Individual Award for Sustained
Effort toward Excellence in Diversity in recognition of her work to promote
and foster inclusive learning environments at MSU. As Assistant Dean for
Curriculum Coordination, Fata-Hartley plays a lead role in the
implementation of the college's ongoing Biology Initiative, an effort to
improve the educational experience students pursuing life sciences degrees.
She also works with departments and programs across the college to develop
and improve curricula and the connections among them.

Mark Urban-Lurain, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Center for Engineering Education Research
Undergraduate Studies Office
College of Engineering
Michigan State University

428 S. Shaw Lane
1410 B Engineering 
East Lansing, MI  48824

517-432-2108

urban at msu.edu
www.msu.edu/~urban