Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

   If I had the whole thing to do again, I certainly would have done a more thoughtful action research project.  I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning.  I saw a need and took some naive steps to correct it.  The learning that occurred was valuable, but I think I would have had more to offer my students had I known more about what I was doing earlier on.  

    I am still into the middle of the tenure process and it is difficult to know what to write.   I have  learned much about testing and I have much more to learn.  What I do know is that it will be necessary for all faculty to become more proficient with test bank software.  As I stated earlier, I do not believe that all faculty adopt or adapt easily to computerized test banks but it is the method that makes the most sense.  The test bank software that we have is complex, but all data management software is.  This particular software is written on an Access (Microsoft) backbone, so anyone with a data management background will be able to assist us with managing the program.  I am learning more about the program and Pat Woodbery and I have plans to educate other select faculty as we go along.   I will be given release time next year to work on an online program that will involve working with a new version of the software (hopefully with a more user friendly interface) and I am planning on learning to work with the software in online environment.  This will involve getting other faculty "online" as well.

Assessment

   I have learned much about assessment, there is much more to learn.  I am still struggling with test and question creation but it will take time. When I walked in the door, I knew absolutely nothing about test construction.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with people who know how to give marvelous feedback.

   In addition, I have been exposed to other methods of assessment.  While we have discussed alternatives in the TLA, I truly learned about assessing "did learning occur" during lab return demonstration and in the clinical site.  When students are faced with the real word scenarios, the instructor has to flesh out if the student is nervous or if they are unprepared.  Sometimes this is daunting.  It takes additional probing regarding procedures or the client's situation to discover and sometimes their fears are so substantial that their knowledge is blocked.  I am working on that assessment by asking others and observation.