Symposium marks a decade of big strides in teaching, learning

If a UW–Madison graduate were to return to campus today after a ten-year absence, the first impression would be striking: A building boom has altered the landscape with glimmering new buildings and additions, while another wave of construction busily charges ahead.

Not as obvious to the visitor, however, would be the radical changes taking place within those walls.

A quiet revolution has been under way in the teaching and learning environment at UW–Madison that arguably is every bit as transformational as the bricks-and-mortar changes. Undergraduates not only have scores of new opportunities available to enrich their academic experience, they are taking advantage of those opportunities in remarkably high numbers.

A November 2007 report by Clare Huhn, a researcher with the Office of Academic Planning and Analysis, shows that the vast majority of UW–Madison graduates have participated in at least one outside-the-classroom academic enhancement during their time here.

Those enhancements are a mix of traditional and cutting-edge, and include living in a residential learning community, studying abroad, taking a service-learning course, engaging in research project, conducting a for-credit internship, or joining a first-year interest group.

Huhn’s results showed that 82 percent of all 2006-07 bachelor’s degree recipients had at least one of these defined enhancement experiences, and 58 percent had two or more. When the office first started tracking these experiences in 2002-03, the total number was only 69 percent.

The UW–Madison Teaching and Learning Symposium, which will hold its three-day meeting on May 21-23 in the Pyle Center, has been involved in promoting and amplifying these changes over the past 10 years. This year’s sessions will include exploring how gaming technology can be integrated into the classroom; how to enhance the community perspective in service-learning courses; how to build entrepreneurship into the undergraduate experience; and many other topics. A complete agenda can be found online.

The 2008 symposium theme is "Shaping our Future," and presentations will focus on next-generation teaching trends.

Keynote speakers include:

• Wednesday, May 21, 8:30 — 9:30 a.m.: Adam Nelson, associate professor of educational policy studies and history, will present "Teaching and Learning at Wisconsin: Three Stories From the Past and What We Can Learn From Them."
• Wednesday, May 21, 11:15 a.m. — 12:15 p.m.: Julie Underwood, dean of the School of Education, will present "Exemplary Teaching: Theory and Practice at UW–Madison."
• Thursday, May 22, 11 a.m. — noon: Chancellor John Wiley will present "Teaching and Learning in the Future University."

Other breakout sessions of note include:

• "Today’s Wired Students: Learning Preferences and Teaching Tips." During this session, participants will explore the characteristics of today’s wired undergraduates and what the research tells educators about students and their expectations for classroom technology.
• "Do Course Grades Reveal More About Faculty Than Students?" Acknowledging that differences in grade distributions across departments are often difficult to attribute to student performance, this session will examine trends and patterns in UW–Madison course grades and discuss ways to achieve more consistent grading practices.
• "Creating Effective eTEACH Presentations." A multimedia program called eTEACH is helping UW–Madison instructors free more time to work directly with their students by offering innovative and efficient new ways to deliver lectures or lab demonstrations virtually. Session leaders will provide an eTEACH demonstration and try their hand at creating a presentation that incorporates video, audio and slides.