Building a Disciplinary Commons using Course Portfolios

1
Building a Disciplinary Commons using Course
Portfolios

• Josh TenenbergJanet Ash, Donald Chinn, Ravi
  Gandham, Michael Gelotte, Richard Hoagland,
  Laurie Murphy, Brad Richards, John Staneff,
  Phyllis Topham, Jeffrey Weiss

2
Teaching behind closed doors

• College teaching is unique among the major
  professions its practitioners receive no formal
  education or supervised practice in teaching. And
  having started, they almost always teach behind
  closed doors, isolated from other teachers.

3
The Disciplinary Commons

• Faculty meet on common ground, using scholarly
  practices to investigate teaching and learning in
  their own classrooms.
• The practices and artifacts produced become
  common property, available for use and
  adaptation by others.

4
Outline

• What did we do?
• What is a Course Portfolio?
• Why do this with others?
• Why do this in a single discipline?
• How much time does this require?
• What did we learn?
• Acknowledgements

5
What did we do?

• 11 Computer Science (CS) teachers meeting
  face-to-face, monthly for ½ day throughout the
  academic year
• Location rotated among all participant home
  institutions
• Crossing borders CS faculty from different
  institutions engaged in common practices and
  common goals
• Talking about teaching as scholars and
  practitioners
• Parallel construction and mutual critique of
  Course Portfolios

6
The Disciplinary Commons A face-to-face Yackpack
7
What is a Course Portfolio?

• An organized collection of ideas and principles
  that guide the design and implementation of a
  particular course.
• Focuses on the course.
• It is NOT a student portfolio.
• It is NOT a teaching portfolio, although it can
  be part of one.

8
Sessions Portfolio Contents

• SeptCourse Objectives
• Oct Institutional and Curricular Context
• Nov Course Content
• Dec Teaching Methods
• Jan Rationale (Situated Teaching Philosophy)
• Feb Evidence of Student Learning
• Mar Grading
• Apr Self- and Peer-Observation
• May Conf. Presentation External Review
• JuneComplete Portfolio

9
Why do this with others?

• Begin with the end in mind - sharing
• A common framework elicits discipline
• Encouragement and camaraderie in the face of a
  rather large amount of work
• Building a community of resources
• And besides, it couldnt possibly be as much fun

10
Why do this in a single discipline?
11
Why do this in a single discipline?

1. Able to make assumptions about understanding
2. More emphasis on rationale for teaching choices
3. More thoughtful peer observations

12
Why do this in a single discipline?
non-traditional students
transfer students
teaching load
institutional and individual differences
semester
quarter
budgetary constraints
traditional students
running start students
13
Why do this in a single discipline?
The power of the portfolio approach is multiplied
when there are several examples available for a
single disciplinary aspect.
Course Portfolio CSCI144 Green River Community
College Java I
Course Portfolio CS 142 South Puget Sound
Community College Object-Oriented Prog I
Course Portfolio CIS 121 Pierce
College Introduction to Computer Information
Systems
Course Portfolio CS-211 Bellevue Community
College Fundamentals of Computer Science II
Course Portfolio CS-210 Bellevue Community
College Fundamentals of Computer Science I
Course Portfolio CS100 Introduction to
Computer Science
Course Portfolio CSCI161b University of Puget
Sound Introduction to Computer Science
Course Portfolio CSCE144 Pacific Lutheran
University Introduction to Computer Science
Course Portfolio Compu 142 Shoreline Community
College Intro. to Computer Programming with
Java
Course Portfolio TCSS 390 UW-Tacma Undergraduate
Seminar in CSS
Course Portfolio CIS 201c Pierce College Intro
to Java
14
Why you might want to make a Course Portfolio

• For permission to take the time
• to reflect on what you are doing
• To focus on the Big Picture
• The curriculum/program
• The course
• The teaching
• and focus on an element
• Testing, lectures, homework

15
Why you might want to make a Course Portfolio 2

• For permission to research
• From others
• On your teaching
• To Document
• To Share

16
How much time does this require?

• 128 Hours per person (average), as we did it
• Doing it as a group increased the cost due to
  meetings and travel time
• You can do this by yourself in about 80 hours
  direct time
• Benefit of group interaction far outweighs
  extra cost
• Its probably your time, so the institutional
  cost is minimal (unless .)
• Benefit to your other courses is immeasurably
  valuable!

17
What did we learn?

• There is commonality of teaching contexts and
  practices We are all in the same boat!
• Benefit from articulating and sharing your
  teaching practices Now you know why you do
  things the way you do them!
• Realize that some of your practices do not
  directly relate to course objectives A reality
  check!
• Find new ways to enhance the courses
  effectiveness from peer insights A sense of
  self-accountability and accomplishment!

18
What did we learn?
I was suprised to realize how private the
process of teaching can become . . . by making
it more public and more available to scrutiny I
am more accountable for the quality.
I think we have achieved what many teams envy
that magical balance of collaboration and
critique, competition and cooperation,
individuality and respect, work and fun.

• through our sharing we have learned a lot about
  where to set the bar on quality.

It is wonderful to be around all of these
teachers - they all know about the performance of
teaching. Teaching is a craft. They learned
it - they weren't born like that.
19
The Commons Portfolios Resources
http//depts.washington.edu/comgrnd/
20
Acknowledgements

• Sally Fincher has been a collaborator throughout
  this project. She runs a Commons in the UK.
• Funding has been provided by the Washington State
  Board of Community and Technical Colleges, the
  University of Washington Tacomas Institute of
  Technology, and the UWT Founders Endowment.
• Julie Jacob of the SBCTC and Orlando Baiocchi and
  Larry Crum from UWT have been especially
  supportive.

21
Participants and Affiliations

• Josh Tenenberg University of Washington Tacoma
• Janet Ash Green River Community College
• Donald Chinn University of Washington Tacoma
• Ravi Gandham Bellevue Community College
• Michael Gelotte Bellevue Community College
• Richard Hoagland South Puget Sound Community
  College
• Laurie Murphy Pacific Lutheran University
• Brad Richards University of Puget Sound
• John Staneff Pierce College Fort Steilacoom
• Phyllis Topham Shoreline Community College
• Jeffrey Weiss Pierce College Puyallup