The IDEA Center

with Virginia S. Lee

Using a variety of methods including workshops and consultations, we help institutions plan reform efforts, design and implement related faculty development programs, realize efficiencies through collaboration among units, and align organizational structures to support reform.

We also help institutions accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools plan and implement quality enhancement plans, a special type of university-wide undergraduate reform effort. use the new reaffirmation guidelines to support the learning.

with Virginia S. Lee

We have designed a series of modules that together provide a comprehensive introduction to course development with a central focus on student learning. We have presented day-long workshops as well as more extended 2-4 days retreats touching on each of modules for new faculty and graduate students, for example.

We can also present each module as a stand-alone workshop or combinations of modules depending on the need of your institution. For example, we combined the modules on writing learning outcomes, assessing student learning, and evaluating and improving instruction and presented them at a weekend retreat for faculty at a community college to prepare them for the requirements of re-accreditation.

We can also adapt the modules for curriculum (as opposed to course) development. For example, we have presented various combinations of the modules to selected faculty of academic departments as they embarked on curriculum reform in the major.

with Virginia S. Lee

Inquiry-guided learning promotes learning through students’ active investigation of questions, problems, and issues, often for which there is no one, single answer. It fosters complex student learning outcomes such as critical thinking, habits of independent inquiry, responsibility for one’s own learning, and intellectual growth and maturity. Advanced by the 1999 Boyer report as a “natural fit” for research universities, inquiry-guided learning blends faculty strength in research with contemporary understanding of how students learn. Faculty at non-research universities will also enjoy experimenting with this demanding constellation of teaching and learning strategies.

For instructors accustomed to traditional models of teaching, inquiry-guided learning requires a significant and exciting shift in perspective about the teaching and learning process. The learning outcomes it advances are more complex. And promoting learning through inquiry also suggests a broader repertoire of teaching and learning strategies and assessment methods.