CSC recognized for innovation
CHADRON – Dr. Charles Snare, Chadron State College Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA), represented CSC as one of six U.S. institutions to participate in the second U.S.-China Smart Learning Conference March 18-20 in Beijing. His presentation was titled: “Professional Development of University Teachers in a Digital Age.”
Conference attendees included government officials, university and college presidents, professors, researchers, and media from both countries. All expenses were paid for participants from the American institutions Snare said.
According to Snare, in the invitation to CSC, the New Media Consortium (NMC) and Beijing Normal University (BNU) stated some of the reasons for the offer were “your library incorporates innovative strategies and it was important to both the NMC and BNU that the selected institutions be able to demonstrate a forward-thinking mindset with effective programs in place that Chinese universities can learn from.”
“It is an honor for CSC to be recognized. The feedback I obtained from the other American presenters was that they were envious of what CSC does with professional faculty development,” Snare said. “The merging of the Teaching and Learning Center and Library Learning Commons illustrates an innovative component of a comprehensive approach.”
An article by Dr. Susan Hines, former CSC associate vice president for teaching and learning technologies, about the merging of the Teaching and Learning Center and the Library Learning Commons published online by NMC brought attention to CSC and eventually resulted in the invitation for CSC to present at the international conference.
Snare said the presentation he gave was a collaborative effort among Teaching and Learning Technologies staff to review the progress made by CSC over the past 10 years.
“This didn’t happen overnight. You have to have people who are willing to turn things around, who are open to restructuring and to build on past successes, as well as failures,” Snare said. “Higher education is a complex world that needs the expertise of a set of people.”
The presentation highlighted innovations such as “The March for Best Practice,” a Teaching and Learning blog featuring a collection of CSC faculty videos highlighting ways they support student learning and teaching. The March for Best Practice is a collaborative movement first initiated at Yavapai College and now in motion at other institutions. The effort seeks to provide an opportunity for faculty to share and learn from peers.
The use of SharePoint by faculty and staff, plus the new uses they are discovering for it, was also included.
In addition, a new approach to workshop scheduling that caters to faculty schedules was covered in the presentation.
Category: Campus News, Employee Awards & Achievements