Report From ISSoTL Conference

Darlene Redenbach (Rehab Sciences) kindly shared her reflections on the ISSoTL conference with us. This little article will also be appearing in an upcoming issue of Tapestry, the newsletter of the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG). Watch for it, and other articles about the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) Conference held in Vancouver in October at
http://www.tag.ubc.ca/resources/tapestry/

Read on! Concurrent Session 809.1
Using the Keep Toolkit to Foster Sotl, Student Learning and Institutional Change
Spencer Benson (Chair), University of Maryland; Toru Iiyoshi, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
The knowledge Media Laboratory’s KEEP Toolkit is a free, open source, adaptable, user-friendly, web-based presentation tool that can be used to document scholarship, facilitate student learning, provide mechanisms for analysis and reflection, foster professional development and encourage institutional change. In this panel we will describe the tool and its uses through case studies and illustrate how it can be used and adapted to meet the needs of institutions, faculty and students.

Spencer Benson described his use of the KEEP toolkit and Toru Iiyoshi described the tool itself. Contributors use KEEP toolkit to produce a small “snapshot” of their initiative, which may then contain links for further information. The goal is to may this form of communication easy to use (templates) and public (no cost).

The KEEP Toolkit is an open source product available free to individuals and groups. The data is housed (currently) at the Gallery of teaching and Learning by the Carnegie Foundation. The purpose is to encourage free exchange between scholars working on innovations and assessment of their teaching, a showcase for their scholarly reflections (and assessment if done) on course innovations. Participants may use the template or create their own to fill out a course portfolio. KEEP Toolkit takes the organizational work out of the activity of sharing SoTL. The site facilitates reflections, allows “publicness”. The goal is 5 fold: 1) document SoTL; 2) share SoTL; 3) make real evidence available; 4) document student reflections; 5) document change in practice over time.

I saw this toolkit as assisting the scholar in two ways. First, to provide a framework to record reflections on one’s work, including data; Second, to offer a wide range of examples in many different fields and methods to scan for ideas and see some of the data. My question was about the ethics issues involved in posting student work and using data from students as “informal” (no ethical review) subjects. This enjoys the interpretation of NOT being a publication, as much of the information is behind a password for “members.

Spencer Benson (University of Maryland) described his use of KEEP toolkit in group assignments, which brings together multiple tools (power points, film clips, papers etc). He described how he provides a clear rubric for grading, showing actual graded assignments on his snapshots at the Carnegie Gallery. I was impressed at his willingness to put his grading out to public view, justify his choices, compare grading to his rubric (which he said was efficient and time saving) and transparent. He talked about initiatives on campus to use KEEP Toolkit. The resulting course portfolio is portable, can be downloaded to a campus serves that supports the program and can be used locally. A visit to his website provides a wealth of information about SoTL.

I have already passed this site on to others, which indicates that I got a lot from this session.