OU Teaching Initiatives
To fulfill our mission to "promote a university culture that values and promotes deep learning," CETL leads campus-wide teaching and learning initiatives by facilitating collaboration among administration, staff, faculty, and students. These OU Teaching Initiative pages includes a mission, team list, reports, and faculty resources.
Data-Informed Decisions Using the Student Success and Equity Dashboard
Facilitated by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Data Analytics, and Academic Affairs.
Events
Please check back for future updates or offerings.
Resources
Access the Student Success and Equity Dashboard eSpace for additional resources and activities related to this series.
About
The Student Success and Equity Dashboard is a powerful tool that will help us understand the diversity of our students, value their individual experiences and needs, and support their education and success. The Student Success and Equity Dashboard training series will engage participants in navigating the three sections of the dashboard platform. We will demonstrate how to access the dashboard, how to navigate within the dashboard, how to interpret the charts/graphics/tables, and how to find data definitions.
With an overview of the three sections and a demo of each report, participants will be equipped with background to analyze the dashboard data. We will explore how to analyze course-level data on student success and equity gaps. We will discuss simple changes faculty can make to have a big impact. Then, together with CETL guidance, faculty will use a data-informed approach for planning and implementing their course to improve student outcomes.
For individual consultations and questions, reach out to Sarah Hosch ([email protected]).
To ensure students with disabilities are “able to obtain the information as fully, equally and independently as a person without a disability[2],” faculty have an important role in producing computer-based instructional materials (websites, Moodle pages, videos, slides and documents) that meet ADA standards for web accessibility. These standards include, but are not limited to: closed captions and transcripts for videos, using software’s text formatting tools, sufficient color contrast, and descriptions for graphics and images. Implementing these standards into the material faculty create could better engage students with impairments and open more educational opportunities.
OU Digital Accessibility goes to the Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast. Christina Moore was a guest on this popular podcast in higher ed teaching. The 30-minute episode covers the basic of accessibility, with some practical places to get started and highlights of habit changes that have made the most impact.
Workshops
Presentations at Your Department
CETL and e-LIS can bring the digital accessibility discussion to your department or school. Flexible format, from 15 minutes to our normal 90-minute format.
Digital Accessibility eSpace Workshop
CETL and e-LIS have created an online, self-paced version of our on-campus workshop on digital accessibility. We have made instructional videos that go through the basics of accessibility guidelines and how they relate to documents, presentations, videos, and other web media. Experience accessibility simulators, try helpful tools, explore guides, and check your knowledge.
Brickfield provides increased accessibility on Moodle. This tool helps increase the accessibility of all materials posted to Moodle by providing resources in multiple formats, fixing accessibility issues in some types of resources, and assessing the accessibility of resources. See the Brickfield guides for faculty and one for students in e-LIS’ Digital Accessibility Help Library.
OU Resources
- Digital Accessibility Quick Note - This brief introduction to digital accessibility connects standards to common instructional material: documents, presentations, and web media.
- Digital Accessibility Checklist - Gauge your progress on creating accessible digital content and set goals for adopting accessibility best practices.
- Help Docs - Simple guides connecting accessibility standards to course material. Topics include: general quick guide, accessible documents, images, text formatting, captions and transcripts, and color. Created by e-Learning and Instructional Support at OU.
- Teaching Tips - Teaching strategies, resources and directions for making learning accessible.
- OU Syllabus Template (6/2018) Updated for accessibility, and inclusive of university policy statements, General Education, and graduate study requirements. Use syllabus template without instructions.
- Accessible APA Paper Template - Along with giving students a template guiding them on APA style, this accessible template uses heading styles to make documents easier for everyone to navigate.
- Universal Design for Learning at OU - Universal Design for Learning (UDL) seeks to design learning environments (i.e. courses, curriculum, activities) that are flexible to students’ strengths, weaknesses, and diverse backgrounds and experiences. Implementing UDL principles can reduce the need for ADA accommodations.
- Accessibility Efforts and Toolkits - University Technology Services (UTS) guidelines for faculty and other web content managers. It lists general standards for accessibility, from creating documents to captioning videos. e-Learning and Instructional Support’s ADA Help Docs break these items down further.
- Oakland University’s Web and IT Accessibility Guidelines and Procedures - UTS provides the rationale and context for web and IT accessibility efforts at Oakland University.
Simplified Guides to Accessible Instructional Materials
- 10 Tips for Creating Accessible Course Content (Sylvia, 2016)
- Web Accessibility Tutorials: PDFs, Microsoft Word, Google Drive, and more (MSU, n.d.)
- Face-to-Face Accessibility (Wichita State, 2017): Guide to how to create a face-to-face learning environment, including presentation technology and how to facilitate lectures, discussion, course communication, and assessments.
More Web Accessibility Resources
- Accessible Templates for Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
- W3C Web Accessibility initiative
- Web Accessibility Perspectives: Explore the Impact and Benefits for Everyone (W3C, 2017)
- Video Captioning Options (OU University Technology Services, 2018)
View additional digital accessibility resources.
Who Can Help?
The offices below can provide further advice and resources to faculty seeking to make their learning content as accessible as possible to students. For questions related to this webpage or additional questions, contact Christina Moore ( [email protected]), Dan Arnold ( [email protected]) or Nic Bongers ( [email protected]).[1] Ada.gov: United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. (n.d.) Information and technical assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Retrieved from ada.gov.
[2] Definition of “accessible” based on settlement agreements from the US Department of Education, as cited by Oakland University’s Web and IT Accessibility Guidelines and Procedures.
[3] See Training section of the Oakland University's Web and IT Accessibility Guidelines and Procedures
Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness Initiative: 2020 Update (September 2020)
The Provost’s Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness Initiative at Oakland University has been created to explore and examine best research-based practices for the evaluation of teaching (formative and summative). The goals of this long term project are to:
- Task Force 1 – Redesigning “Course Evaluations” Develop recommendations using research-based practices in designing and implementing “Student End of Semester Surveys” (currently referred to most frequently as “Course Evaluations”) View list of task force representatives.
- Task Force 2 – Designing Other Measurements for Teaching Effectiveness Develop recommendations for the use of multiple measures and triangulation of other evidence of teaching effectiveness for formative and summative evaluation. View list of Task Force 2 representatives.
Faculty Resources for on Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness
CETL's resources for faculty include articles, quick guides, podcast episodes, tools, activities and books.
Past Communications
“Academic integrity” is “the commitment to act with honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage in all academic work” (International Center for Academic Integrity, 2013). These values guide the behavior of students, teachers and scholars as it relates to learning, teaching, research and scholarship.
Mission of the Academic Integrity InitiativeOakland University is committed to promoting a culture that values and practices honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage in all academic work of all students, teachers and scholars.
The Academic Integrity Initiative at Oakland aims to provide:
- Resources and support to help students, faculty and staff understand and demonstrate academic integrity
- A forum and open conversation to promote a culture that values and commits to academic integrity across the campus
- Resources of best practices to help address and reduce academic misconduct
See the Academic Integrity Initiative team list.
Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Cheating: Teaching Resources. Includes a variety of resources specific to and beyond Oakland University, from teaching tips and tutorials to books and podcasts.
The OU Early Alert System is designed to help Oakland University more equitably serve our students and to close graduation gaps, particularly for first generation, low income, and under-represented minority students. The system identifies five critical student goals and five faculty strategies to engage students.
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
100 Library Drive
Rochester, Michigan 48309-4479
(location map)
(248) 370-2751
[email protected]
Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
100 Library Drive
Rochester, Michigan 48309-4479
(location map)
(248) 370-2751