The Need

Budget reductions, higher faculty workloads, and elevated expectations for program outcomes have created pressures on higher education that cannot be dissipated through the efforts of individual faculty.  In short, there is a growing need for community action within higher education to improve student learning and growth across the curriculum, promote professional development of faculty and staff, and to increase organizational efficiency.

Our Response

To address this challenge, educators and engineering practitioners at the University of Idaho have joined forces to form the Scholar’s Community in 2002.  The community includes educational researchers, facilitators of faculty development activities, assessment experts, leaders of mentoring communities, and scholars of engineering design.  Major community events have included:

Learning Community Research Team

Jan-May 2003

Teaching Institute

June 2003

Mentoring Workshop

August 2003

Assessment & Evaluation Tool Workshop

March 2004

Advanced Teaching Institute

June 2004

Instructional Design Workshop Series

Sept-Nov 2004

Peer Coaching Workshop

November 2004

Communities of Practice Workshop

March 2005

 Synergistic Activities

Our members are active in the following organizations that have helped shape and been shaped by efforts of the Scholars Community at the University of Idaho.

  • Idaho Engineering Works

  • UI Capstone Design Program

  • Assessment & Evaluation Center at Washington State University

  • Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Engineering Education (CASEE)

  • Transferable Integrated Design Engineering Education (TIDEE) Consortium

  • Association of Process Education Researchers

 

Partial Support By:
Grant # EEC-0202293
Program Director Sue Kemnitzer
Grant # DUE-0088591
 

Scholarship Community Leadership Team
Steve Beyerlein      Don Elger      Dan Apple