2004 Summer Focus Session

Bridging Communities of Research & Practice to Transform Higher Education Teaching and Learning
June 28, 2004
University of Southern California Davidson Center
Los Angeles, California

Program

Educational research is potentially a great resource for supporting learner-centered practices, but there is a disjuncture between the worlds of the educational researcher and the practitioner (whether faculty member, instructional technologist, or learning designer). A few years ago at the International Conference on Learning Sciences held in Ann Arbor, keynote speaker Linda Roberts commented on a 500+ page proceeding, saying "This is fabulous, relevant, and meaningful work... the only problem is: no one who needs it is going to read it." That is, there is not much of a bridge between research and practice.

By the same token, the bridge for practice to inform theory is also absent. Practitioners have an opportunity to situate their own practice in a research and scholarship of teaching and learning context. Practitioners could build into their project designs components, such as transformative assessment, that help advance and transform the understanding of teaching and learning with technology, but often lack the skills, methodologies or framework to do this.

At this focus session the NLII, in conjunction with theUniversity of Southern California's Center for Scholarly Technology and in affiliation with the 6th Annual International Conference of Learning Sciences hosted by University of California, Los Angeles, will work with representatives from the research and practitioner communities to seek multiple ways of describing and explaining learning in complex settings. A diverse group of practitioners and researchers will explore together how we might develop some shared language and communication pathways, and a set of processes and mechanisms to help bridge the often parallel universes of teaching/learning with technology practices in higher education (academic technologies) and teaching/learning theory (educational research.)

Work Products and Outcomes

The outcomes we would expect to result from the online focus session/workshop are that participants will:

Have an opportunity to situate their own practice in the context of research and scholarship of teaching and learning.
Identify designs and components, such as transformative assessment, that they can build into their projects to help advance and transform our collective understanding of teaching and learning with technology.
Create a shared conceptual framework that
- explains the relationships among learning, teaching, curriculum development, assessment and the use of technology.
- is based on models of learning informed by the science of learning.
Build structures, such as linked institutional communities of practice, that can bridge individual and collective practice.
Identify methodologies and models that integrate research, pedagogical practices, use of technology, and assessment practices into a framework that is accessible to both the practitioner and the researcher.

For the Bridging Community, the work products and outcomes we would expect to result from the online focus session/workshop are:

Feedback about the virtual community environment and its use before, during, and after the face-to-face meeting (to inform our community design and development efforts)
Refined definition of audience, purpose, domain, and potentially important community activities for the future.
Shared stories and scenarios for use in visioning the transformation of teaching and learning with technology.
Additional member recruitment.

For the NLII as a sponsor, the Bridging Community is a design experiment in the full utilization of virtual environments to support face-to-face and online collaboration and communication in a professional development context, to advance our knowledge about the use of technology to transform teaching and learning. Desired outcomes would include the development of virtual communities of practice on participants' campuses, and the development of robust linkages between different communities (e.g., researchers and practitioners), in addition to continued collection of data about how to effectively use these online tools, and the corresponding facilitation techniques and community support infrastructure.

Questions We Will Tackle

The following questions are representative of the issues and topics for the online focus session/workshop:

How can we characterize what is happening in higher education with respect to teaching and learning?
How could learning science researchers make a meaningful contribution to higher education teaching and learning practice?
What is the nature of the gap between research and practice?
How can we go deeper into the intersection between research and everyday practice so that we can absorb the findings of educational research and at the same time contribute to the findings of educational research?
How can research findings be made accessible to practitioners just-in-time?
How can we derive learning and instructional principles from research findings? How do we articulate them with a clarity and simplicity that make them memorable and useful to faculty in their teaching practice?
What are some accessible research and assessment methodologies that would facilitate a scholarly approach to our teaching practice, connect theory and practice, and provide an assessment framework that would give us feedback over time to inform our own practice?
How can the work being done in the scholarship of teaching and learning help bridge the gap between research and practice?
What is the underlying pedagogy in any disciplinary context, and what are the common themes that go across multiple contexts?
How can we ensure that learning research informs the design of next-generation learning and knowledge management systems?
How might virtual communities create sustained and rich connections between communities of researchers, communities of practitioners, and the learning software and services market community?

Intended Participants

Educational and learning science researchers who wish to build a bridge to practitioners, to make research more accessible and useful to practitioners, and to transform practice.
Faculty and other educational practitioners who want to inform their teaching and learning design practice with the science of learning.
Instructional technology staff, and learning designers who want to inform their learning design practice with the science of learning.
Faculty-development specialists who want to employ new strategies and approaches to engaging faculty in focusing on the scholarship of teaching and learning and in the effective use of technology.
Staff and others closely associated with teaching excellence and resource centers, involved in significant institutional improvement of teaching and learning with technology, and interested in creating institutional communities that employ educational and learning science research to inform this effort.
Educational/instructional/learning technology departmental staff who would like to foster institutional communities of practice organized around the appropriate use of technology to transform teaching and learning.
CIO's and other administrators who manage teaching excellence and resource centers, instructional technology departments, and faculty development units, and who want to foster shared institutional conceptual frameworks about the relationship between institutional mission and teaching, learning, curriculum design, assessment and use of technology, in order to align decision-making and resource allocation.
Representatives from scholarly societies who are interested in fostering attention on how the discipline may be propagated through a scholarship of teaching and learning.
Representatives from funding agencies who wish to promote institutional and disciplinary missions around research-based and technology-enabled teaching and learning practices and a general scholarship of teaching and learning.
Product managers for commercial software development (who are interested in the incorporation of research findings into the process of needs requirements analysis).
Others who are interested in participating in the development of the NLII's Bridging Community, a virtual community of practice with a domain that encompasses the transformation of instructional design and pedagogical practice through enhanced engagement with learning science research. The Bridging VCOP will focus on the use of institutional communities of practice as agents of change to transform this practice in order to facilitate the most appropriate and effective use of technology to promote learning.

ELI ELI Events ELI Events Calendar		2004 Summer Focus Session Bridging Communities of Research & Practice to Transform Higher Education Teaching and Learning June 28, 2004 University of Southern California Davidson Center Los Angeles, California Program Educational research is potentially a great resource for supporting learner-centered practices, but there is a disjuncture between the worlds of the educational researcher and the practitioner (whether faculty member, instructional technologist, or learning designer). A few years ago at the International Conference on Learning Sciences held in Ann Arbor, keynote speaker Linda Roberts commented on a 500+ page proceeding, saying "This is fabulous, relevant, and meaningful work... the only problem is: no one who needs it is going to read it." That is, there is not much of a bridge between research and practice. By the same token, the bridge for practice to inform theory is also absent. Practitioners have an opportunity to situate their own practice in a research and scholarship of teaching and learning context. Practitioners could build into their project designs components, such as transformative assessment, that help advance and transform the understanding of teaching and learning with technology, but often lack the skills, methodologies or framework to do this. At this focus session the NLII, in conjunction with theUniversity of Southern California's Center for Scholarly Technology and in affiliation with the 6th Annual International Conference of Learning Sciences hosted by University of California, Los Angeles, will work with representatives from the research and practitioner communities to seek multiple ways of describing and explaining learning in complex settings. A diverse group of practitioners and researchers will explore together how we might develop some shared language and communication pathways, and a set of processes and mechanisms to help bridge the often parallel universes of teaching/learning with technology practices in higher education (academic technologies) and teaching/learning theory (educational research.) Work Products and Outcomes The outcomes we would expect to result from the online focus session/workshop are that participants will: Have an opportunity to situate their own practice in the context of research and scholarship of teaching and learning. Identify designs and components, such as transformative assessment, that they can build into their projects to help advance and transform our collective understanding of teaching and learning with technology. Create a shared conceptual framework that explains the relationships among learning, teaching, curriculum development, assessment and the use of technology. is based on models of learning informed by the science of learning. Build structures, such as linked institutional communities of practice, that can bridge individual and collective practice. Identify methodologies and models that integrate research, pedagogical practices, use of technology, and assessment practices into a framework that is accessible to both the practitioner and the researcher. For the Bridging Community, the work products and outcomes we would expect to result from the online focus session/workshop are: Feedback about the virtual community environment and its use before, during, and after the face-to-face meeting (to inform our community design and development efforts) Refined definition of audience, purpose, domain, and potentially important community activities for the future. Shared stories and scenarios for use in visioning the transformation of teaching and learning with technology. Additional member recruitment. For the NLII as a sponsor, the Bridging Community is a design experiment in the full utilization of virtual environments to support face-to-face and online collaboration and communication in a professional development context, to advance our knowledge about the use of technology to transform teaching and learning. Desired outcomes would include the development of virtual communities of practice on participants' campuses, and the development of robust linkages between different communities (e.g., researchers and practitioners), in addition to continued collection of data about how to effectively use these online tools, and the corresponding facilitation techniques and community support infrastructure. Questions We Will Tackle The following questions are representative of the issues and topics for the online focus session/workshop: How can we characterize what is happening in higher education with respect to teaching and learning? How could learning science researchers make a meaningful contribution to higher education teaching and learning practice? What is the nature of the gap between research and practice? How can we go deeper into the intersection between research and everyday practice so that we can absorb the findings of educational research and at the same time contribute to the findings of educational research? How can research findings be made accessible to practitioners just-in-time? How can we derive learning and instructional principles from research findings? How do we articulate them with a clarity and simplicity that make them memorable and useful to faculty in their teaching practice? What are some accessible research and assessment methodologies that would facilitate a scholarly approach to our teaching practice, connect theory and practice, and provide an assessment framework that would give us feedback over time to inform our own practice? How can the work being done in the scholarship of teaching and learning help bridge the gap between research and practice? What is the underlying pedagogy in any disciplinary context, and what are the common themes that go across multiple contexts? How can we ensure that learning research informs the design of next-generation learning and knowledge management systems? How might virtual communities create sustained and rich connections between communities of researchers, communities of practitioners, and the learning software and services market community? Intended Participants Educational and learning science researchers who wish to build a bridge to practitioners, to make research more accessible and useful to practitioners, and to transform practice. Faculty and other educational practitioners who want to inform their teaching and learning design practice with the science of learning. Instructional technology staff, and learning designers who want to inform their learning design practice with the science of learning. Faculty-development specialists who want to employ new strategies and approaches to engaging faculty in focusing on the scholarship of teaching and learning and in the effective use of technology. Staff and others closely associated with teaching excellence and resource centers, involved in significant institutional improvement of teaching and learning with technology, and interested in creating institutional communities that employ educational and learning science research to inform this effort. Educational/instructional/learning technology departmental staff who would like to foster institutional communities of practice organized around the appropriate use of technology to transform teaching and learning. CIO's and other administrators who manage teaching excellence and resource centers, instructional technology departments, and faculty development units, and who want to foster shared institutional conceptual frameworks about the relationship between institutional mission and teaching, learning, curriculum design, assessment and use of technology, in order to align decision-making and resource allocation. Representatives from scholarly societies who are interested in fostering attention on how the discipline may be propagated through a scholarship of teaching and learning. Representatives from funding agencies who wish to promote institutional and disciplinary missions around research-based and technology-enabled teaching and learning practices and a general scholarship of teaching and learning. Product managers for commercial software development (who are interested in the incorporation of research findings into the process of needs requirements analysis). Others who are interested in participating in the development of the NLII's Bridging Community, a virtual community of practice with a domain that encompasses the transformation of instructional design and pedagogical practice through enhanced engagement with learning science research. The Bridging VCOP will focus on the use of institutional communities of practice as agents of change to transform this practice in order to facilitate the most appropriate and effective use of technology to promote learning.
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