Digital Commons at Framingham State University

Sustainability is essential for students to understand as they plan their career trajectories and look to face a uniquely challenging global economic climate and environment. This session will address the implementation of a sustainability curriculum across disciplines: economics, finance, sciences, communications, etc. The discussion will be facilitated using examples from a recent Principles of Macroeconomics course and will introduce details specific to interdisciplinary sustainability programs at other universities.

Presented by Ira Silver and a panel of students. This session explores how classroom instruction and community involvement can be integrated into a coherent and enriching academic experience. The session will explain the application of service learning in a university setting, and explore the effects of this form of instruction on students' retention of course material and conceptual understanding of the world in which they live.

Social media services such as blogging, Twitter, and Instagram have opened up new possibilities to encourage and facilitate student learning. Using examples from courses taught at FSU, this session will explore some of the opportunities and challenges that these technologies present in the classroom setting. In addition, the session will include time to discuss and brainstorm how to most effectively use social media tools in the classroom and course assignments.

For two years a team of STEM faculty at FSU have been engaged in a course redesign based on Ken Bain's conception of the Natural Critical Learning Environment. While the specific application of this approach is to STEM courses, with the intention of increasing student interest, retention and performance in STEM areas, the approach itself is widely applicable to all disciplines. We will report on our creative ideas, our pedagogical experiments, the challenges and successes, and student reactions and outcomes, and how this approach has changed us as educators.

How might the subtle differences among the terms multiculturalism, pluralism, and diversity provide teaching opportunities in the classroom? How do we (or don't we) recognize the ways that class and gender problematize these concepts, for us and our students? In this session we’ll share our pedagogical approaches to 'diversity.' Our goal will be on developing best practices for meaningfully introducing these concepts and their attendant debates to our students. Come prepared to discuss specific assignments that get students talking, thinking, and wanting to be a part of a sea change in the making.

Last fall I threw myself out of my classroom, by initiating an "à la carte menu" syllabus in a physical science General Education class. My goal was to empower students to take charge of their learning by sharing power in the classroom with them. Whether it be through class policies, assignment options or opportunities for feedback, in this learner-centered session, we'll explore data on the triumphs and disasters of fully immersing Gen Ed students into a novel and responsibility-rich classroom. This will provide a forum for faculty to share their experience of learner-centered teaching and meet others in our facilitated learning community.

If you share concerns about the high cost of college textbooks, find it difficult to find appropriate course materials at an affordable price and are curious about new sources of course content to engage students, attend this session to learn about open educational resources (OER). OER are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use and under some licenses to re-mix, improve and redistribute.

They say it's not where you are going, but how you get there that matters. Students often assume the reverse stance—focusing on the product without appreciating the process. This session will explore ways that faculty can, even within technologically complex, collaborative and creative courses, excite students about individual contributions and evolutions along the path to completing these products. Using successful task-conscious, experiential approaches in Communication Arts courses as a basis for discussion, the session will search for other techniques that could help students get the "big picture" while they integrate, synthesize, and build skills across projects, courses and disciplines.

FSU faculty members have been testing different student personal response systems (i.e. SPRS or clickers) to find a campus wide solution for all faculty. We have previously tried products from e-Instruction and Poll Everywhere. During the Fall of 2013 several faculty members tested options available from Turning Technologies. While we are using clickers to assess student understanding and receive instantaneous feedback during class, recent technology has created a wide range of new capabilities. A panel will discuss their use of hand held clickers and mobile app-based clickers for integrating questions into class discussions/lectures and using them for exams!