Supporting Duke in China: Duke Kunshan University
CIT continues to support Duke faculty participating in efforts at DKU. CIT provides consulting and assistance on planning courses and uses of technology, as well as support for faculty thinking about using new models of teaching (flipping, distance models, etc). CIT consultant Haiyan Zhou worked closely with Duke faculty member Rukmini Balu on her Fundamentals of Global Health course, helping her design a blended course using online materials and technologies to teach both on-site and remotely. Haiyan also traveled to DKU in 2014, providing on-site support for Duke faculty preparing to teach for the very first time at DKU.
Improving learning for STEM students
CIT continues to participate in Duke’s COMPASS program, part of a “five-year, $1.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to improve learning for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students, particularly underrepresented minorities, in introductory science courses.” CIT Senior Academic Technology Consultant Andrea Novicki serves as part of a team creating a STEM Teaching and Learning Collaboratory that brings together faculty, teaching assistants and learning specialists to determine best practices for teaching and learning in introductory courses.
Lesser Taught Languages
Duke continues to partner with other universities to increase the number of less commonly taught languages available on campus. The first partner, the University of Virginia, offered a Tibetan course; Jacques Pierre taught Creole for Duke. Vanderbilt University will join the collaboration in Fall 2015 with a K’iche’ Mayan course.
Students at all three universities attend a course synchronously through high-definition video conferencing tools. In addition, native speaker teaching assistants help in the classroom and with grading at each of the partner institutions. The classroom configuration, as well as online activities used during class, are set up to encourage maximum interaction across the campuses and foster a sense of community.
CIT consultant Elise Mueller helped Jacques redesign his Sakai site to make sure all materials and assignments were accessible by students and TAs at all universities. She also worked with him to use an iPad and online apps like Quizlet, PollEverywhere, and Explain Everything to increase inter-institutional student engagement during and outside of class time. Elise and Jacques worked together to develop strategies to use the teleconferencing setup as best he could for his live teaching. She’ll be providing training and info sessions for other instructors and TAs in the coming months.
Preparing future faculty — Bass Online Apprentices
CIT’s Sophia Stone continued to manage CIT’s partnership with the Graduate School’s Bass Online Apprentice Fellowship, which provides Ph.D. students hands-on experience in online college teaching by collaborating with Duke faculty to develop Coursera MOOCs. This year we provided the opportunity for seven Bass fellows to work with a project team of faculty, CIT Academic Technology Consultants, and our Online Course Associates to create global online learning experiences and to interact with learners from around the world. (read more)