Weber Orientation Week

Mary-Ann Winkelmes

Director of Instructional Development and Research, UNLV

August 13, 2018

Alumni Center, Dumke Hall

Mary-Ann Winkelmes is Director of Instructional Development and Research and an Associate Graduate Faculty member in the Department of History at the University Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where her aim is to promote teaching and learning initiatives, student success, faculty development and instructional research. She also served on UNLV's Path to Tier One Executive Committee. Dr. Winkelmes is a Senior Fellow of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and a partner in the AAC&U's LEAP project—Transparency and Problem-Centered Learning. She also serves on the executive committee of the Nevada Humanities Board of Trustees.

Dr. Winkelmes (Ph.D., Harvard, 1995) has held senior leadership roles in the campus teaching centers at Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois. She has consulted and provided professional development programming for faculty through the Lilly Endowment's higher education grant-making and teacher training programs, and for teaching centers in the U.S. and abroad. She has also served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Professional Development Network in Higher Education (POD Network), and Chair of its Research Committee.

Her work to improve higher education learning and teaching, especially for historically underserved students, has been recognized nationally by the Chronicle of Higher Education and by the POD Network's Robert J. Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Educational Development. She founded and directs the Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Project (TILT Higher Ed), which promotes direct conversation between teachers and students about equitable methods of teaching and learning, and helps faculty to share data that demonstrates their collective impact on improving students' learning across institutions and countries. The beneficial impact of this project on students' learning has been the focus of publications in the National Teaching and Learning Forum, Project Information Literacy, the National Education Association's Higher Education Advocate and AAC&U’s Liberal Education and Peer Review.

Dr. Winkelmes advocates her view that research, teaching and learning are best practiced as a unified enterprise that benefits students and society in An Illinois Sampler: Teaching and Research on the Prairie. Dr. Winkelmes has edited books and published book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on: college teaching and learning,  art and architecture in Renaissance Italy, Benedictine church design and decoration, acoustics, and religious architecture. She has received numerous teaching awards as well as grants for her art historical research from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kress, Delmas, and Mellon foundations.

Click here to register.

Schedule

Workshop Descriptions

Part 1: Transparency and Its Impact on Learning           

Transparent teaching/learning practices make learning processes explicit while offering opportunities to foster students' metacognition, confidence, and sense of belonging in college in order to promote student success equitably. A 2016 AAC&U study (Winkelmes et al.) identifies transparent assignment design as a replicable teaching intervention that significantly enhances students' success, with greater gains by historically underserved students. This session reviews the study’s findings and foundational research, and it examines some sample assignments. Dr. Winkelmes invites participants to respond to this 2-question survey about student's learning by August 8.

Part 2: A Workshop for Designing Transparent Assignments         

In this session, Dr. Winkelmes will walk participants through the process of designing/revising assignments (in small work groups) to make them more transparent, relevant, and accessible for students. Participants will leave with a draft assignment or activity for one of their courses or co-curricular educational experiences and a concise set of strategies for designing transparent assignments that promote students’ learning equitably. It is not necessary to bring an existing assignment to this session. It is helpful but not necessary to attend the prior session.

Joining a TILT SoTL Project: An informal conversation

Dr. Winkelmes and Colleen Packer invite interested participants to consider a transparency-focused scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project that explores the impact of transparent instruction on Weber State students and faculty. Participants will discuss how to use TILT Higher Ed surveys, and how their own reflections might contribute to a publishable study.

The Unwritten Rules of College: How Transparent Instruction Supports Student Success Equitably

Transparent teaching/learning practices make learning processes explicit while offering opportunities to foster students' metacognition, confidence, and sense of belonging in college in order to promote student success equitably. A 2016 AAC&U study (Winkelmes et al.) identifies transparent assignment design as a replicable teaching intervention that significantly enhances students' success, with greater gains by historically underserved students. This session 1) reviews the study’s findings and foundational research, 2) examines some sample assignments, 3) walks participants through the process of designing/revising assignments (in small work groups) to make them more transparent, relevant, and accessible for students. Participants will leave with a draft assignment or activity for one of their courses or co-curricular educational experiences and a concise set of strategies for designing transparent assignments that promote students’ learning equitably. It is not necessary to bring an existing assignment to this session. Dr. Winkelmes invites participants to respond to this 2-question survey about student's learning by August 8.