Enrique Zapatero,
Norfolk State University, speaks about the impact of TLT
Group and LTAs (Low Threshhold Applications) on his university.
Lynne D. Groves Instructional Technology/Curriculum Specialist, Center for
Teaching & Learning, South Central College
"The
collective resources and talent being assembled for this
initiative
(five Minute Workshops and eClips) is so rich…I was very impressed
by the constructive review for feedback
as outlined in the material links
this week. The “clinic”
approach intrigues me further. Thanks for all that
you
and the entire TLT staff contribute to our professional
growth.
I credit you with so much of what I do right
in my daily work with faculty."
Scott Langhorst
Associate
Vice President for Distributed Teaching, Learning,
and
Services, Tidewater Community College
"The colleges of the Virginia Community College System were early
adopters
of TLTRs [Teaching, Learning, and Technology
Roundtables], and as a consequence, many of our faculty (and
colleges) have become leaders in the distance learning
and instructional technology arena. Our relationship
with Steve Gilbert and others at the TLT Group has been
a "win-win" for many years. We wish the TLT Group many continued years of success!"
Ethelynda Harding Director, Teaching,
Learning, and Technology and Professor of Biology,
California State University, Fresno
"The
conference call we arranged with The TLT Group to help
Student Affairs consider how to engage and communicate with
our students, especially the large number of students who
commute, was very valuable. My colleague from Student
Affairs and the student government president left the
conference call full of ideas for what they can do next."
Ruth Kastenmayer Retired but Active Volunteer
I am happy to encourage
people in the individual member direction. I can’t imagine
anyone serious about improving quality in online instruction
not wanting immediately to join the TLT Group and Merlot.
Now that I am still active, but working only pro-bono, I
really appreciate the chance to be an individual member.
I am intending to get much more
active in the TLT Group in the near future. It seems to me
that
TLT for courses for lifelong learning for senior citizens is
an area with a lot of promise. Let me know what I can do to
help.
Gary Brown
Director, Center for
Teaching, Learning & Technology,
Washington State University
"The TLT-Group stepped into a void and is still rocketing
through the trans-dimensional CHANGE space between
exponential growth of technology, rapidly morphing
demographics, and higher educations’ educational
culture. Those who have been passengers on this voyage
with TLT-Group appreciate their benevolent companionship
as well as the illumination of their insights and
leadership. As professionals and friends, we look
forward to (and will continue to rely upon) many more
years working together."
Barbara Millis Director, Excellence in Teaching
Program, University of Nevada, Reno
“Thank you for offering the workshop
entitled Big Visions, Small Steps: Asking the Right
Questions to Improve Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Your workshop offered us a comprehensive look at many
resources and options. I particularly liked the hands-on
opportunity to learn how to quickly create surveys that
could help faculty discover new ways to improve teaching and
learning with technology in their own courses.
“We hope that attendees will not only take advantage of the
Flashlight resources, but also encourage colleagues within
their departments to use them as well. And we greatly
appreciate your efforts to enhance teaching, a crucial part
of the mission at a Land Grant institution.”
Caroline Steel Lecturer in Higher Education
(eLearning), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
"We were just
delighted with our global collaboration with the TLT group
for our recent ePortfolio workshop! We worked with the TLT
group to plan a workshop that would initiate some important
conversations around the functional uses of ePortfolios
before getting caught up with the technology aspects.
Through our virtual planning sessions we created a very
innovative, accessible and interactive format - the positive
feedback just keeps coming in!
"Using a range of technologies, including online
conferencing, Phil [TLT Group Senior Consultant Phil Long of
MIT], gave a most engaging presentation that really
stimulated participants to think beyond their prior
conceptions of ePortfolios and go beyond their comfort
zones. Steve{Ehrmann] developed ePortfolio activity sets
that worked really well with our audience and provoked rich
discussion among our diverse university community. This
resource was pivotal to the way our workshop evolved. Our
students loved the opportunity to be part of the discussion
and felt both heard and that they had contributed
significantly to the direction of group conversations.
"Everyone is
really keen to continue the conversations and several people
have approached us to get started immediately! Thanks a
million again to our totally awesome team! We look forward
to collaborating and learning some more."
[In this workshop designed
for faculty who are teaching hybrid courses] Steve Ehrmann
helped us to really think about how teaching and learning
are changing. By asking each of us to share what we
had experienced, both in the classroom and using online
learning tools, he helped us sift through the advantages and
disadvantages of different classroom activities. What
we gained will help us determine the character and extent of
hybrid instruction we should adopt in our many programs.
Nancy
Cooley Vice Provost for Distance Learning, Old Dominion
University
Steve (Gilbert),
thanks for joining us virtually yesterday. As we've heard in
the
past, faculty participants actually enjoyed the fact that
the technology
didn't work for the presenters. They also benefitted from
your humorous
approach in declaring victory and moving on. You modeled for
them another
approach many of them hadn't considered, and I expect to
hear proclamations
of victory on a regular basis. I really enjoyed meeting Lisa
(Star). She is so
knowledgeable and the participants responded well to her.
Ann Adams
Director of Information Services, Linn-Benton Community
College
"Linn-Benton Community College
participated with the TLT Group for the first time in
2001. Having Steve Gilbert visit with our technology
planning group was very energizing. We had reached a
plateau and were going in circles. Steve was able to
help us see our way through the puzzle of where to go next in
our technology improvement plans. His enthusiasm is
infectious. He clearly knows the various barriers that
educational institutions face and various ways to break
through them. His insight that there is no "one
best answer" and that each college must grow in its own
way and at its own pace made us feel that we really cold move
forward. We hope to benefit from Steve's wise counsel in
the future."
Dr.
Leora Baron Director, Academy for the Art of Teaching, Florida
International University
"Thanks again for a thoughtful and
provocative workshop! As you know, our intent in setting the TLT Symposium was twofold:
first, to give our faculty, chairpersons,
deans, and staff and opportunity to discuss and evaluate
issues that they don't normally consider
beyond the 'I have a problem' level; second, to
help our institution, through the participation of key
administrators, move into a
university-wide consideration of teaching, learning and
technology from a pedagogical
and programmatic perspective.
You have helped us move closer to
achieving both goals! From initial reactions it is clear that your hands-on, brainstorming
approach has had the desired effect. The
examples you brought from around the country and the insights
you shared from your days at FIPSE and
the Annenberg projects were invaluable in convincing
our people that the topic deserves an in-depth examination."
Dr. Kent Van Tyle Assoc. Dean, College of Pharmacy and Health
Sciences, Butler University
"Just
wanted to say thank you once again for the time and energy you
put into making our retreat such a success. I've heard many
good comments from faculty, and I believe we have stimulated
many of our folks to begin to think more about how they can
use the technology to improve their individual courses."
Sherry Clark
Board of Regents staff,
University System of Georgia
"I really
appreciated how the Flashlight process was modeled during the
workshop. Rather than telling participants what he does, the
facilitator actually coached us through developing a study. I
leave the workshop feeling I can do a study on my own!"
Beth Hammond
Mercer University
"I never
imagined I would come away with such great ideas and insight.
It was a great day and the highlight of my time at the
American Library Association conference. I will keep you
posted on what happens with our work. Thanks again for
everything."
Lisa Troyer
Assoc. Prof. of Sociology, University of Iowa
"The
Flashlight Workshop was definitely a worthwhile learning
experience for me. Dr. Ehrmann is a thoughtful and attentive
workshop leader, with a ‘learn by doing’ style that he
applies to himself as well as the workshop participants. The
Flashlight workshop made me think very carefully about the
components of teaching and learning in my classes…I believe
I'm walking away with a much-improved sense of what may need
to be evaluated in my courses, how components might or might
not be related to one another, along with instrument items
from the Current Student Inventory that I can use to assess
particular outcomes in my class. All teachers should take such
a workshop."
Pauline
M. Coffman, Ed.D.
Chair, North Park
University's Teaching, Learning & Technology Committee
"I want to
thank you again for your leadership at our faculty retreat.
You modeled a style of leadership for us that centered on
discussion and critical reflection of the use of technology
for teaching and learning. Several times you redirected
questions that exposed our thinking of technology as an end in
itself, and challenged us to know first the purposes for which
we use technology--that is, teaching and learning. Our faculty
has been given a big boost forward in our ability to think
about our use of technology in a useful and positive way.
Thank you so much."
Flashlight
Online Ethelynda Harding,
Director,
Academic Innovation Center, California State University,
Fresno
We are in the
process of implementing several strategic initiatives in
academic technology, including expanded support for online
learning, installation of technology in the classrooms and
of a
campus-wide wireless network, and the provision of centrally
leased laptops as the standard faculty workstation.
Considering the university's investments in technology, the
subscription can pay for itself by just helping to prevent
one bad decision. Access to the Flashlight survey engine
alone is worth the TLT subscription cost. It s already
apparent that the TLT subscription is one of the smartest
investments I've made.
Charles Ansorge,
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and
Editor, "LTA of the Week"
"Flashlight Online works as advertised. It’s a tool that
has saved me time and assisted me with a task that is
necessary on our campus. I plan to write about creating the
feedback survey that I created for my department and publish
the information in the TechNotes newsletter that I’ll be
publishing in about a week. If this survey saved me time
then I believe it can also do the same for other colleagues
of mine."
Marilyn
Stoner, Distance Nursing Program, California State
University, Fullerton
"To me the best description of the Flashlight Online tools is
its elegant simplicity. It is very easy to create, modify and
administer assessments online. We use the online assessment
system not only for academic assessments, but most committees
use it for evaluation of their
effectiveness and assessment of key issues. We recently used
the online assessments to create a faculty satisfaction survey
which produced an excellent response. We also use the online
tools in data collection for research, as in our ongoing study
of plagiarism and on student perceptions of turnitin.com. All
of our faculty use Flashlight to develop surveys, and to
complete projects started with other resources.
Last year we co-sponsored an assessment conference with
Flashlight and had TLT Group come to do a consult. During
the consultation, we were encouraged us to develop
"roundtables" which are representatives of all the
key departments that have anything to do with distance
education. These have been very successful, and continue to
this day. We gather everyone together IT, student services,
admissions and records, the library, etc. and discuss, and
resolve, issues for distance students.
Bottom line, CSU Fullerton has been well rewarded by the
Flashlight program."
Cheryl
L. Bielema, Ph.D.,
Instructional Development Specialist,
Flashlight Administrator, University of Missouri, St.
Louis
"Flashlight has taken our campus
by storm, in that administrators and faculty are using both
the Student Inventory and the Flashlight Online tool in unique
ways to further their goals and help with decision-making.
Here are just a few of the uses:
• Surveys for students and
alumni were conducted as the School of Optometry prepared for
accreditation in 2001.
• Information Technology
Services conducts a number of user surveys via Flashlight
Online, including students using campus computer classrooms
and faculty participating in various training programs.
• A longitudinal study of
Blackboard integration in a random sample of courses each year
asks about impact of online learning activities, benefits and
problems experienced as faculty have integrated online
components in traditional f2f or “hybrid” courses. Support
services have been instituted and/or improved based on the
data.
• College of Nursing utilizes
Flashlight Online for all their end-of-course evaluations. The
College has online programs for RN to BSN and a cooperative
Ph.D. program with other Nursing colleges in the UM System.
• Graduate students in
Education and Nursing have conducted research using Flashlight
tools. One dissertation is in progress and one has been
completed (to date).
• Faculty members in
Education and Business Administration have research projects
underway using Flashlight Online."
"Flashlight Online is one of our four or
five most important collaborative tools at Valencia
Community College. We're committed to shared governance and
that means involving our 400 faculty and 800 adjunct faculty
in decisions that matter to them. Our Faculty Council takes
the lead in making many of those decisions and we need to
see that there has been consultation. So they, and the
faculty at large, have gotten used to the idea of using
Flashlight Online surveys to solicit faculty feedback on
important questions. For example, we have a new draft
intellectual property policy and they've just put out a
survey asking for faculty feedback on important elements of
that policy. Faculty know the questions are important and
that we value their feedback, so the Council generally gets
great response rates from all our faculty, including the
adjuncts."
Dan Barron, Ph.D.,
Director School of
Library and Information Science, College of Mass
Communications and Information Studies, University of South
Carolina, Columbia
"I am a true!!!!!!!! believer in Flashlight. We have used
it for course assessment, research projects, student
feedback, etc.
It is really good stuff."
Carolyn Knieff Office of Career Services,
Bethel College
"This new
version [Flashlight Online 2.0] is awesome! I am so
impressed with how nice the survey looks and how much
quicker it was to write." Resources
Terri
Langan,
Center for Instructional Development & Delivery,Fox Valley Technical College
"As we were forming the
TLT Roundtable on campus several years ago, we found the
planning design process and documents very useful; we've used
updated versions to check ourselves and make sure we remain on
track over the years. They helped us formulate our mission and
set up workable processes for our institution. The annual TLT
conference has also given us great resources and connections,
as well as new ideas and directions." James
Kulich,
Special Assistant to the President, Elmhurst College
"Launching a technology effort on campus is a bit like
executing a pole vault. Not much is visible at first, but the
results can be dramatic. A successful pole vault hinges on a
good base - this is exactly what the TLT group provided us.
"Elmhurst College began to
investigate ways to use technology to enhance teaching and
learning as part of a larger campus technology plan. The TLT
group's summer workshop, printed materials, and conference
presentations by the two (original) Steves were most useful as
faculty leaders began to organize their efforts. Insights from
these resources really helped faculty to focus on the question
"why technology?" - to make specific technology
decisions in the context of particular pedagogical goals.
"Since those early days, the activities of the TLTR have
blended nicely with a major information literacy effort based
in the College's Library. The theme of information literacy
has provided good organizing theme for us as we move into our
technological adolescence on campus. We look forward to
continued interaction with the good folks at the TLT group as
we march forward!"
Rich Sherry,
Executive Assistant to the
President, Bethel University
"Flashlight has
been a tremendous help for us--we are using it for a variety
of tasks (for instance, surveying our Trustees regarding last
week's meeting). You folks have spurred our faculty and IT
people along and encouraged us all."
Evaluation and
Grant Assistance
Hal Abelson, co-Chair, Council on
Educational Technology
MIT
"The TLT Group worked
with us to conduct a year-long assessment study of how
educational innovations spread within institutions, and
beyond them to other institutions. This was a complex
engagement that engaged many faculty members across several
schools and departments.
"What TLT
brought to this was a solid, comprehensive perspective that
reflected their extensive experience across the whole field
of educational innovation. The resulting study and
recommendations are something that we're turning to again
and again as we go forward with educational technology
planning at MIT." [To see the iCampus study to which
Prof. Abelson refers, click
here.] Steve
Acker,
Ohio State University
"We got [the grant]! Thanks to you and the Flashlight Project
for your help on the evaluation side of “The
Statistical Concepts Buffet,” our
Pew Course Redesign grants proposal. The day you spent with
our writing team really produced some great results in our
approach to evaluation. Of course, now the real work begins-
we need to build our implementation-assessment cycle
step-by-step. We’ve got 3,200 students to satisfy. Stay
close to the phone, keep your airplane tickets at hand."
Cynthia Russell Professor, University of
Tennessee Health Sciences Center
"Your comprehensive and
timely review of our survey provided us with important
perspectives, ideas, and questions that we had not yet
considered. Although you noted that you were not a content
expert in information literacy as applied to healthcare
professionals, your comments helped us reframe our survey
content and more clearly target the survey to our typical
end user. This particular service of the TLT Group,
assisting subscribers in their evaluation efforts, is
tremendously valuable to those of us who struggle with
developing appropriate evaluative strategies."
Karen
Wells,
Vice President for Instruction, Sinclair Community
College
"The
[Flashlight] workshop provides tools that can be locally
customized to answer questions that are being asked at all
institutions of higher education. Adopting these tools (and
adapting them) can provide the data which our constituents are
demanding, e.g., students, employers, Boards of Regents,
Trustees."
Teaching and the Human Spirit
Thomas
Marino,
Anatomy and Cell Biology, Temple University,
School of Medicine
"Susan Saltrick talked about it eloquently. "Through a Dark Wood"
was a talk she gave for the TLT Group, and it was a stage in my
academic career. And in that Dark Wood appeared Steve Gilbert
and a group of folks I now call dear friends. They helped me
during my passage through that dark, dank, and dreary place.
They kept me going when I might have otherwise stopped and
quit looking for the road to sunlight. The TLT Group allowed
me to discover who I was and what kind of teacher I was to
become. They encouraged me to follow my heart. They taught me
that teaching without heart, soul, compassion, or joy was not
teaching but a job and a blunder not to make. Steve has
continually reminded us that teaching should be a passion, an
uplifting experience, and that helping students is to help
them find their gift. I continue to be grateful to Steve and
the TLT Group for helping me on my journey through the dark
wood of academia!"
PO Box
5643 Takoma Park, Maryland 20913
Phone:
301.270.8312/Fax: 301.270.8110
To talk about our work
or our organization
contact: Sally Gilbert
