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

• 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.

• TEAM-BASED LEARNING HELPS FACILITATE ENGAGEMENT

  

  Team-based learning is the key that one Fayetteville State University professor is using to open up and involve her criminal justice students  in ways that expand on the Universal Design for Learning  principle of engagement.

• Book Club brings As-U-R Students Together

  

  Book clubs have had resurgence ever since Oprah launched one 20 years ago, and the As-U-R program at Appalachian State has adopted the format for one of its seminars with great success.

• Book Club Helps Faculty “Switch” Their Perspective

  

  A virtual book club at Appalachian State served as a great jumping off point for faculty members interested in redesigning their classes to make them more accessible to students, particularly those with learning differences.

• Submit A College STAR Case Study

  

  College STAR is currently seeking dynamic proposal submissions from professors and instructors from across the nation. The proposal should br centered around  effective teaching practices and  would result in the creation of online case studies if they are approved. College STAR case studies are organized around the three principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

• Andrea Neal pens guest column for Education Week blog

  

  Andrea Neal, executive director of special programs at Fayetteville State, recently wrote a guest column for Education Week’s Finding Common Ground blog. She shared information about Bronco STAR and the support it offers students with learning differences at Fayetteville State.

• 8 is Great—And Works!

  

  Time management is a struggle for everyone but but it can be especially challenging for students with learning differences who are adapting to a new, unstructured life in college.