PI: Siegfried Holzer, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Project Goals or Needs Addressed: "...our main goal really was to create a community of learners who care about and study about learning strategies, teaching strategies, implement those, share experiences and problems ... one on one or in groups or even e-mail, and as a consequence, continue small incremental improvements...."
Project Grants and Expenditures: $9000 (year 8), $8000 (year 9), speaker travel, honorariums, faculty travel to teaching and learning conferences, refreshments at campus workshops



Active Learning Workshop
read this sample workshop outline with agenda and participant feedback (PDF file)

Active Learning Article
read this paper presented at a regional ASEE meeting based on Succeed work (PDF file)
 


Invited speakers would give presentations at Virginia Tech on topics such as problem-based and cooperative learning, then the attendees would have an informal discussion with the presenters and each other. A few faculty were sent off campus to attend workshops at other institutions.

"…we have these learning community meetings or (socials) as I called them and they were very friendly, we would have [refreshments], and ... we would ask someone, again who impressed me, who implemented some of these learning strategies in a classroom to become the discussion leader."

A sampling of faculty development workshops presented as part of this project (and attendance data when available):

  • case study methods, co-sponsored by Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (36)
  • cooperative learning in Engineering, speaker Smith (46)
  • creativity and problem solving, speaker Kander (25)
  • designing a course for online delivery (20)
  • Engineering distance education, speaker Miller (28)
  • learning community meetings on effective teaching (32, 22)
  • mentoring new faculty, Felder/Brent speakers (42)
  • new engineering faculty seminar, speaker Vorster
  • principles of good practice in Engineering, co-sponsored by CEUT (62)
  • seven graduate teaching assistant (GTA) seminars