Resources

The following may be of interest to participants in the Undergraduates Engaging In Inquiry group:

• Bruce Michelson mentioned IRIS as a mechanism for finding funding opportunities. IRIS has an alert service that allows faculty to establish parameters for searches. Searches can be run on demand or completed automatically with the results emailed to you. Here is a link to that site: http://iris.library.uiuc.edu/~iris/alert/
• The Spellings Commission was mentioned in discussions recently. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings established this commission to examine the future of higher education. The final report of the commission has the potential to influence higher ed policy for years to come. Basically, the Commission focused on undergraduate education determining that it should be more affordable, more accessible, more accountable, and of higher quality. That report is available for download at: http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/index.html
• The Association of American Colleges and Universities has made their journal available on line. In the current issue an article called Why Teacher-Scholars Matter describes a study on the value of undergraduate research in higher education. Although it will come as no surprise to participants in UEI, the study finds that undergraduate research projects have a strong positive effect on student outcomes. The article is worth reading. Author George Kuh from Indiana University is very influential in the field of higher ed. My guess is that this article will probably renew the push for additional undergraduate research opportunities for students. The article is available at: http://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-fa07/le_fa07_perspectives2.cfm
  

Indian Professors attend UIUC and Undergraduates Engaging in Enquiry

Three engineering college professors from the G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology in India were on UIUC campus last week (Oct 27-Nov 5) attending a training especially designed for them by the CTE (Dr. Laura Hahn). The GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology was estabished by the University of Illinois in 1960's in the land grant pattern. Recent vist to that university by our college of ACES Dean Dr. Robert Easter has sparked new interests and collaboration - that's what brought the Indian professors to our campus. The training "Teaching Learning Methods for Engineering Faculty for Becoming Effective Teacher and Learner in Today's Educational Environment" was sponsored by the UIUC Colleges of ACES and Engineering and the Center for Teaching Excellence. The Indian professors (Dr. A.K. Swami, Dr. C. Lal, and Dr. A. Ashok) left with very high impression on UIUC's committment and dedication to student learning. They attended the Enquiry seminar on Oct 31 and participated in the discussion. Cheelan Bo-Linn and Laura Hahn will now be visiting their university in the winter break, conduct a teaching workshop and initiate discussions about establishing a Center for Teaching Excellence there.

Survey results--NSSE

Here is the website for the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2007_Annual_Report/ I think we've mentioned the NSSE in our inquiry group. It's the best survey of students available for actually getting at engagement and learning.
Notice that the USA Today article that's linked begins with an account of undergraduate research!
Libbie Morley