TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE
Experiential and trans-disciplinary learning prepare UMass Lowell students for fulfillment and making a
difference in the world.
Co-chairs
CHARLOTTE MANDELL AND ANITA GREENWOOD
COMMITTEE MEMBERS OF SUB-GROUPS
GENERAL EDUCATION
ADVISING
FELLOWS
Alkim Akyurtlu
Andrew Harris
Ellen Keane
Margaret Knight
Jim Nehring
Art Mittler
Julie Nash
Jim Canning
Peter Gaines
Michael Graves
Whitley Kaufman
Jason Lawrence
Stephen Mishol
Jialun Qin
Adrian Cruz
Christoph Strobel
Nicole Champagne
Scott Latham
Brooke Hargreaves Heald Ken Levasseur
Richard Siegel
Fred Martin
Bridget Marshall
Donna Mellen
Sheila Riley Callahan
Jim Sherwood
James Graham Eagle
Sanjeev Manohar
Diane Hewitt
William Overstreet (Student Rep)
Shanna Thompson (Grad Student Rep)
WEBSITE
Alice Frye
Paula Haines
ADVISING SUBGROUP WORK
Goal is to increase the awareness of UML faculty of the importance of advising not only for accurate course
advising, but also as a forum to:

Discuss career opportunities

Develop the student’s connection with a member or members of the department

Make students aware of opportunities within the department for coops, internships, service learning
What has been achieved to date
For next year
Identified departments with particularly good advising
Provide a forum on advising practices
practices or ways of keeping faculty informed of rules and
regulations (examples: English, Psychology, Nursing)
Identified departments which have mechanisms of keeping
Update “general” advising information and
faculty informed of rules and regulations (Math, CS,
specific info, such as FERPA, and place on
English)
new website.
Conversation reception with Joe Cuseo on advising
Consider SKYPE advising
CLASS held advising sessions in residence halls
Encourage faculty to use something like
Doodle Polls to set up their advising sessions
Recognize good advisors at a
“Celebration of Teaching and Advising”
on Nov 7, 2013 at the ICC
Discussed the idea of evaluating advising just as we
Discussion with MSP
evaluate teaching and require service.
Discussion of the impediments to registering
Look at departments with advising holds,
how does this impact (i) accuracy of course
progress (ii) satisfaction with advising
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FACULTY FELLOWS SUBGROUP WORK
Goal is to provide collegial and monetary support to faculty who are willing to restructure a course for
increased student engagement.
What has been achieved to date:
For next year
Monty Carter and Laura Christianson have
Improving the structure of student groups and
restructured their course for more student
participation in group work.
discussion and less lecture
Migrate all course lecture materials to website.
Developing video material to provide real world
connections to the topics in the course.
Ashleigh Hillier and Andrea Dottolo working on
Pilot study to compare a restructured General
restructuring a section of General Psychology
Psychology course with the existing model –
evaluate student learning and course satisfaction.
Discussion of whether complete course change is
Recruit fellows who receive a smaller stipend, but
too ambitious
dig into one aspect of their course
WEBSITE WORK
Goal is to create a Transformative Education website which features advances and innovations in teaching
as well as providing information on curriculum design, assessment and advising
What has been achieved to date:
For next year
Alice Frye and Paula Haines have begun to explore
Website launched; Develop a repository of materials
features for the site and have investigated
including blogs, videos, rubrics and perhaps student
innovative sites at other universities.
work.
SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES FOR FY2014 UNDER CONSIDERATION

REGULAR MASTER TEACHER AND ADVISING LUNCHTIME SESSIONS (not unlike
“enlightened bites” )

CELEBRATION OF TEACHING AND ADVISING – NOV 7, 2013
Call for posters
1)Teaching innovations
2)SERVICE courses
3)Dept. Advising Practices
Awards
Dept Faculty Teaching Awards recognition; Recognition of certain department
advising efforts with description in program ; Faculty Fellows – description in the
program; Service Learning Courses

NEW FACULTY FELLOW ACTIVITIES

LAUNCH WEBSITE

ACADEMIC TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
In conjunction with our increased focused on innovative teaching, an academic technology committee will
support pedagogical change through appropriate instructional technology
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GENERAL EDUCATION
THE MODEL
Distribution requirement – addresses Breadth of Knowledge (38 credits)
3 Social Sciences (9 credits)
3 Arts and Humanities (9 credits)
3 Sciences – 2 with lab (11 credits)
Writing
College writing I and 2 (6 credits)
Mathematics
Mathematics course (3 credits)
Essential Learning Outcomes
These outcomes may be met within the major or through other courses, including gen-eds.
Courses are reviewed; consistent oversight; regular assessment
 Diversity and Cultural Awareness (DCA)
 Information literacy (IL)
 Social Responsibility and Ethical Reasoning and Action (SRE)
 Written Communication (writing intensive courses) (WC)
 Critical Thinking (CT)
 Applied and Integrative Learning (AIL)
 Quantitative Literacy (QL)
POINTS UNDER DISCUSSION
1. How many essential learning outcomes can one course have?
2. Should we consider lower SS requirements (2 rather than 3 courses) for SS majors; lower
AH requirements (2 rather than 3 courses) for AH majors.
3. Faculty MUST show how they will assess the essential learning outcome in order to gain
the designation; How can we develop regular cycle of assessment; oversight of multisection courses?
4. Will departments designate which of their courses meet Breadth of Knowledge
requirements?
5. How will we define distribution areas? – Can we include SCIENCE INTERDISCIPLINARY (as
UMA does) e.g. Human Anatomy and Physiology; Brain, Mind and Behavior. How will
interdisciplinary courses fit in to other distribution areas?
6. Should the third “science” course be broadened to STEM – Science, technology,
engineering or math?
7. What is the process for creating courses that meet essential learning outcomes? Who
reviews? Can we incentivize course development/nomination?
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