Check out TLA Scholars Program proposals Oct. 29

You may have recently heard some buzz about the Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (TLA) Scholars Program. Faculty and staff who submitted proposals to the TLA Scholars Program have the opportunity to receive up to $2,000 for their educational project. Monies can be used for project materials or to share the results at a conference, in a publication or another public forum. DMU is excited to host the presentation of these project ideas to the public on Monday, Oct. 29, at 1 p.m. in Ruza Hall. 

If you haven’t heard, The TLA Scholars Program was developed as part of DMU’s Quality Initiative Project (QIP). The QIP is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and involves participation in the “Assessment Academy,” a program offered through the Higher Learning Commission, DMU’s regional accrediting agency. The TLA Scholars is just part of our QIP. The other component involves professional development in assessment.

We are in year 2 of the QIP: 

So… what else has the QIP Team been up to this year? You may remember in April, the Team hosted a town hall to discuss the updates. If you missed it, you can access the recording here. 

In April, the public health faculty learned about ways to develop assignments that prepare their students for the “real world.” Since then, the department has devised and started to implement a plan to create these assignments to ensure alignment with their program competencies.

Over the summer, College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery faculty participated in a course director training. This was a three-part series focused on developing quality multiple-choice questions, aligning questions with learning objectives and using data to evaluating student performance.

The Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program has been busy integrating formative assessment into its curriculum. To support this effort, Information Technology Services (ITS), Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and faculty collaborated to host four university-wide formative assessment workshops during the summer. Workshops involved faculty and staff showing strategies they use in their teaching, training on how to use technolgy to support formative assessment, and using rubrics to support formative feedback.  

As if this wasn’t enough to keep the campus busy, over the summer, CTL staff partnered with ITS, the Library and the Simulation Center to create a year-long calendar of workshops based on the results of the Assessment Academy survey administered earlier this year. Workshop topics range from game-based learning to reflection.  

As you can see, the QIP project is well under way! As we continue to cultivate a positive culture of assessment at DMU, please join us on Oct. 29 for the Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Scholars presentation (schedule below).

Please note: Judges who submitted projects were not in the room during the discussion of their proposals and will not be able to judge their own project.

We can’t wait to see you there!