2017: The Value and Values of the Liberal Arts

May 9-12

We will explore the full meaning of the undergraduate experience in the liberal arts with sessions ranging from innovation in the second year, to leadership development, innovative course design, team-based learning, project-based learning, to mention a few. Scholars from Oxford College, Colgate University, University of Richmond, Stetson University, Georgia College and State University, University of New Hampshire, University of Vermont, and others will lead sessions.

Keynote Address

"The Value and Values of the Liberal Arts" by Oxford College Dean Douglas A. Hicks 

Doug Hicks is Dean and the William R. Kenan Professor of Religion at Oxford College of Emory University. He formerly served on the faculty of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond, and as Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Colgate University. Hicks is author of four books, and editor of five additional volumes, on leadership, religion in politics and the workplace, and the ethical dimensions of economic issues.  In 2012, he received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV), the commonwealth's highest recognition for professors.

IPLA Inspires Creative Pedagogy

A four-day professional-development conference, the Institute for Pedagogy in the Liberal Arts (IPLA) aims to inspire creativity and foster effective teaching in the liberal arts. The format consists of successive two-day sessions where participants focus on new ideas to refresh and expand their teaching. "By having a pair of two days sessions over the four-day institute, participants have enough time to reflect deeply and apply the idea of each selected track to a course or to their teaching in general," explained Jeffery Galle, Oxford associate professor of English and director of the Center for Academic Excellence (CAE). 

Added Galle who organizes the IPLA under the auspices of the CAE, "Each year, Oxford College faculty really lead the way in this institute by sharing their passion for specific pedagogies and program features.  This institute belongs to the college and its primary emphasis upon teaching and learning. It's a privilege to be a part of this effort."

Exemplifying Oxford's emphasis on teaching excellence, the IPLA sessions typically focus on a broad range of topics, including inquiry-based learning, team-based learning, peer instruction, digital humanities, teaching/learning through technology, problem-based learning, case-based learning, methods of assessment, course design, sustainability as a pedagogical project, and a number of other issues and pedagogies used in higher education.  The focus is to produce innovative materials that apply to courses taught across the liberal arts curriculum. 

Conceived originally as one type of faculty support for Emory faculty, IPLA has grown to support the vision of Oxford College as a national model of a liberal arts intensive educational experience.  Applications to IPLA arrive from faculty in institutions across the US and at times from Europe and Canada.  

Tuesday/Wednesday

Applicants should select ONE program on Tuesday/Wednesday and ONE program for Thursday/Friday.

Engaging Students at the Highest Level with Project Based Learning

Scott Wurdinger, Minnesota State University

Participants will learn how project-based learning fits into an array of experiential methods and will also practice designing projects and creating assessment tools for their own courses. Participants will leave this workshop with a clear understanding of the theory and practice behind project-based learning, and with a set of tools for designing and assessing projects.

Using Backward Design to Introduce Team-Based Learning to Your Classroom

Henry Bayerle, Oxford College of Emory University

In this overview of team-based learning (TBL), participants will discuss SoTL research on group learning, work through a sample TBL module, and begin to create a TBL module for one of their own courses. Backward design and research on test design will facilitate the introduction of productive group work into the classroom.

Students That Change the World: Innovative Course Design for Transformative Learning

Julia Metzker, Stetson University; Cynthia Alby, Georgia College and State University; and Caralyn Zehnder, Springfield Technical College

Liberal arts colleges promise transformative learning and skills essential to the 21st century workforce such as critical and creative thinking, communication skills, information literacy, and engagement with diverse peoples. Through this scintillating hands-on workshop, participants will build innovative courses that foster transformative learning by engaging students with contemporary and enduring complex questions through high-impact practices and authentic assessment tasks.

Developing Undergraduate Research Projects: Faculty and Librarian Collaboration

Courtney Baron, Elliott Kuecker, Ellen Neufeld, Jessica Robinson, Oxford College of Emory University

This workshop highlights successful faculty and librarian collaborations at Oxford College. We will investigate research design from a multidisciplinary perspective, exploring what makes an effective research assignment in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Librarians will share ways they can help faculty design research assignments, work with students to improve the quality of research papers, and incorporate primary sources into the course curriculum. Participants will begin to create or improve an existing research assignment.

Thursday/Friday

Applicants should select ONE program on Tuesday/Wednesday and ONE program for Thursday/Friday.

Living the Liberal Arts: Sophomore Residential Seminars

David Dudrick, Colgate University

In this workshop, you'll discuss the possibilities and challenges of residential seminars, courses in which the students participating live together, as a way of constituting intellectual communities. Dudrick will relate his experience directing Colgate's Sophomore Residential Seminars (SRS) program.

Leadership and Ethics in a Liberal Arts Curriculum

Terry Price, University of Richmond

In this session, Terry Price presents his own work in ethics as a way of thinking about leadership in a liberal arts environment. Participants will have the opportunity to use their own disciplines to identify leadership problems, to discuss intellectual frames that would be useful in addressing these problems, and to recommend texts that might be taught in an undergraduate course or module on leadership.     

Sustainability Unbound

Tom Kelly, Executive Director of UNH Sustainability Institute, and Maria Woolson, College of Arts and Sciences and Honors College University of Vermont

This intensive two-day workshop will use the breadth and complexity of sustainability as a powerful context and liberating invitation for participants to explore creative approaches to pedagogy in their roles as educators, curriculum designers, scholars and mentors. Through some highly collaborative and participatory processes, participants will develop approaches to connecting diverse perspectives informed by values, disciplines and aesthetics to build collaborative approaches to teaching and learning sustainability.

LEAPing into the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Steven Jones, Georgia College and State University

You are invited to take a LEAP into the scholarship of teaching and learning. In this two-day workshop, you'll learn the fundamentals of developing a SOTL project and leave with a well-developed research question related to LEAP essential learning outcomes, a preliminary literature review, and a focused research design for your project.

Academic Technology Session

Participants developing short- or long-term projects may attend either set of two-day sessions or all four days of the institute. See the application to make your selection.

IPLA: Teaching and Learning through Technology

Scott Foster, Lisa Ward and the Oxford College Academic Technologies Team

This session invites participants to develop course ideas, teaching strategies, and communication strategies using new technologies. We'll explore 3-D printing and the Internet of Things (IoT) as well as new approaches to Educational Space Design. Finally, we'll examine new technologies that encourage collaboration between disciplines and promote cross-discipline learning.

Tuesday, May 10-Wednesday, May 11 (first 4 tracks of IPLA for faculty)

• The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): A Key to Understanding the 21st Century Learner
• Cases Across the Curriculum: Creating a Compelling Need to Know in Every Class
• Digital Liberal Arts
• Team-Based Learning: Students Taking Charge of Their Own Learning
• Feature Session: High Impact Practices Across Campus
• Delbanco Keynote (Wednesday)

Thursday, May 12-Friday, May 13 (second 4 tracks of IPLA for faculty)

• Total Immersion: Maximizing Experiential Learning for Student Success
• IPLA: Teaching and Learning Through Technology
• Curriculum for Change: Service Learning & Peace Building in the Humanities
• The Inquiry Redesign: From Course, Outcomes, to the SoTL

The 11th annual Institute for Pedagogy in the Liberal Arts includes the traditional 9 sessions, spread across the four days of the institute and an additional special session for Tuesday and Wednesday on High Impact Programs Across the Campus. Applicants should select ONE session for Tuesday and Wednesday and ONE session for Thursday and Friday.

Feature Session: High Impact Practices Across Campus

In 2015, the book "How to Be a 'HIP' College Campus: Maximizing Learning in Undergraduate Education" was published. A number of practices and programs involving the co-curricular experience of students at Oxford College of Emory University were featured in this book. This two-day session offers four 3-hour segments, each of which focuses on developing a particular program or practice. A student panel is included!

Thursday and Friday Sessions

Total Immersion: Maximizing Experiential Learning for Student Success

Jeffery Coker, Elon University

Experiential learning includes a wide variety of high-impact educational practices including student research, service-learning, study abroad, internships, and many others. This session will explore research-based pedagogies and practices for implementing and improving experiential education in a variety of forms.

IPLA: Teaching and Learning Through Technology

Scott Foster, Oxford College

This two-day session invites participants to develop course ideas, teaching strategies, and communication strategies using new technologies. We will explore 3D-Printing and the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as new approaches to Educational Space Design. Finally, we will examine new technologies that encourage collaboration between disciplines and promote cross discipline learning.

Curriculum for Change: Service Learning & Peace Building in Higher Ed

Bridgette Gunnels, Oxford College

Educating global citizens often extends beyond the core content as well as the four walls of the classroom. This session highlights how intentional curriculum development with service learning, travel and a focus on mediation and peacebuilding results in deep learning for both professor and student. Course development and practical approaches form the basis for the two days.

The Inquiry Redesign: From Course, Outcomes, to the SoTL

Catherine Swanson, McMaster University, Canada

This two day session takes participants through the process of designing or redesigning a course grounded in the inquiry guided approach to learning. We will begin by identifying student learning outcomes and link these to active learning strategies, and ideas for student assessment. We will also consider how to incorporate a SoTL project into your course to carefully and critically assess student learning.