NURSES OFFERED MULTIPLE WAYS TO DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Dr. Jan Tillman is very aware that the advanced practice nurses in her leadership course are a heterogeneous group. They are older than the traditional East Carolina University student and bring years of clinical experience to the table. They are practicing nurses, moms, dads, veterans and have varied ethnic backgrounds. So she knew from the start that they would also bring a wide variety of learning styles to the table.

When a workshop on improving student engagement and learning through course re-design was offered at ECU, she was excited to participate. The workshop had a focus on two approaches—Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the Integrated Course Design (ICD) concept created by Dee Fink. It was sponsored by the ECU Office for Faculty Excellence and College STAR (Supporting Transition Access and Retention).

Inspired by the workshop, she spent the summer of 2015 revamping the hybrid distance learning course “Interdisciplinary Leadership and Role Development for Practice Excellence” to give her students several ways to both learn and demonstrate their knowledge of leadership principles. read more

College STAR News

• 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.

• East Carolina University highlights the start of College STAR Phase 4

  

  East Carolina University recently released an article highlighting the start of phase 4 of the College STAR grant.

• ECU German Professor Shares Flipped Learning Experience

  

  Dr. Birgit Jensen, associate professor of German at ECU, recently shared her experiences with flipped learning during a podcast hosted by the Flipped Learning Network. Jensen has been teaching German at ECU for 17 years and started flipping her Beginning German courses in 2014.

• Student Support Summit Inspires Future Collaboration

  

  When dozens of committed professionals come together to share ideas the results can be amazing.    And that’s exactly what happened at a recent gathering of colleges and educational groups who focus on providing services to post-secondary students with learning differences and the faculty and staff who support them.

• Fayetteville State Eye-to-Eye Chapter Begins Second Year

  

  The Bronco STAR program at Fayetteville State is now the fourth college in the UNC system to establish an Eye-to -Eye chapter through which college students with learning differences work with similar students in middle and high school. The Fayetteville State program is in its second year and has also become a registered student organization on campus.

• Dr. Jennifer Williams joins College STAR program

  

  Dr. Jennifer Williams has joined the program as the newly created UDL Faculty Fellow, taking a pause from her role as Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education, Foundations, and Research at ECU.   She has also assumed the responsibilities of ECU College Star director Diane Majewski.   Majewski has moved to a new role with the ECU Honors College.