DR. MULLER HAD LASTING IMPACT ON COLLEGE STAR PROGRAM

Although Dr. Dorothy Muller is retiring after 40 years, she talks about assisting students and faculty with the same level of enthusiasm you suspect she brought to her arrival on campus in 1977.

It was a younger, pregnant new Ph.D. who arrived in Greenville with her husband in 1976. She made ECU one of her first stops and began her career with the university as a part-time adjunct professor of reading. The following year, she was on the faculty full-time--sharing her expertise on reading in content areas, a specialty which she now acknowledges as a pre-cursor to the concepts of Universal Design for Learning which she would champion through College STAR.

Muller worked directly with students until 2006, ultimately becoming Dean of the Office of Undergraduate Studies whose mission was to support distinctive education and to provide academic support services to assist students in obtaining the best education ECU had to offer. read more

College STAR News

• College STAR/Think UDL's Lillian Nave receives North Carolina Board of Governors Appalachian State University Award

  

• College STAR leaders help Train the Trainers

  

  Thanks to a grant from the Associated Colleges of the South, Nave and Williams were able to break the concepts of Universal Design for Learning apart and demonstrate how they could benefit both faculty and students. Nave gave presentations on the What, Why and How of Learning while Williams focused on Learning Differences and Learning Variability.

• Course ReDesign Helps Faculty Engage Students

  

  When you walk away from a workshop with clear direction on how to lecture less and engage students more, you can be confident that the professional development was time well spent.

  That's exactly how Dr. Dionne Sills Busio, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Child Studies at Appalachian State, felt after May’s Course (Re) Design Institute (CRDI).

• Collaborative Quizzes Help Students Focus on What They Don’t Know

  

  Working with others in class is not a new concept, but Dr. Trina Palmer at Appalachian State is applying the idea to quizzes—in mathematics of all things.

• UDL Advocates receive Board of Governors Teaching Awards

  

  Two strong advocates of Universal Design for Learning have recently been given the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.

• Making History Come Alive

  

  Early in his career Professor René Harder Horst thought that instructors who failed to deliver a well-prepared formal lecture to their students were being “irresponsible.” This was how he had been taught in high school and college.

• Private Facebook Group Assists Faculty Communication

  

  Making and maintaining connections can be a challenge when you are one of 70 faculty members teaching a First Year Seminar at Appalachian State. But a private Facebook group organized by Lillian Nave, UDL Coordinator in the Center for Academic Excellence, has proven to be a successful way for faculty and staff scattered throughout the campus to communicate, share ideas and help each other.

• Immersive Retreat Provides Boost for First Year Seminar Faculty

  

  Sometimes you just need to get away from it all to focus on something new, and that’s exactly 18 Appalachian State faculty members did at the Wildacres retreat center in Little Switzerland, NC. It was only 30 miles from the university, but it felt like another world. The distance created an immersive opportunity to infuse their First Year Seminar (FYS) class with the principles of Universal Design for Learning.

• Saturday Experiences Continue to Give Students a Boost

  

  Building on the success of two summer B.O.O.S.T. camps, Fayetteville State has offered additional support to area middle and high school students through the Saturday Experience.

• Faculty Explore Mindful Teaching Practices

  

  “Being present” is a popular goal in this day of electronic distractions, and educators at Appalachian State University are taking it to a whole new level.   They are studying and embracing the practice of mindfulness and especially its links to Universal Design for Learning.