Marilyn Repsher Center for Teaching and Learning presents fellowships for faculty research

The Marilyn Repsher Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) recently presented Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) Fellowships to four Jacksonville University faculty members.

This year’s Fellowships were granted to:

• Dr. Laura Atkins, Assistant Professor of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, for “Active learning to enhance students’ self-efficacy in an interdisciplinary social science research method course.”
• Dr. Mini Zeng, Assistant Professor of Computing Science, Division of Science and Mathematics, College of Arts and Sciences, for “Project Management Tools Applying on a Group Learning Model.”
• Dr. Kristen Izaryk, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences (BRCHS), for “Impacts of Instructor Feedback on Student Reading Compliance.”
• Dr. Whitney George, Program Chair, Clinical Mental Health Program Associate Professor, BRCHS, for “Implementation of the Online Adult-Learner Focused Program for Students Enrolled in a Hybrid Clinically Based Graduate Program.”

“The award allows me to offer a student or two the opportunity to work on the project with me, thus giving them a hands-on learning experience,” says Dr. Izaryk, whose project is about understanding students’ academic reading habits and exploring the effectiveness of strategies to help improve students’ reading habits. “I hope to learn about how students read and what I can do as their professor to support academic reading, something that will allow me to become a better faculty member.”

The Fellowship, which sponsored by the CTL and the Provost’s Office, supports faculty members in the design, development and implementation of a research-based strategy during a spring, summer or fall course. A successful proposal must detail a research-based process of examining one’s instructional practice. This Fellowship supports research including:

• application of  innovative instructional practices/methods;
• exploration of new/different means of assessing course outcomes;
• development of team-teaching strategies within a course;
• integration of a new technology into a course as part of a broader pedagogical strategy;
• development of a new course-if the course contains significant pedagogical innovations.

“This Fellowship encourages us to discover new methodology or technology to use in our teaching, “says Dr. Zeng, who intends to compare the use of Azure DevOps and Microsoft team + Github as tools to enhance the performance of team teaching and learning.

The Marilyn Repsher CTL supports JU faculty in their pursuit of innovative and creative teaching to improve student motivation and learning by providing resources and services that support teaching, research and service endeavors. Its overriding purpose is to enhance and dignify the work of JU faculty.

Through the SOTL, the CTL supports faculty activities that:

• Foster significant and long-lasting student learning
• Enhance the practice and profession of teaching
• Develop ideas about teaching and learning that can be disseminated on campus and beyond
• Reward and publicly recognize the scholarship of Jacksonville University faculty