Representatives from 34 Dartmouth student support offices, such as Computer Services and the Research, Writing and Information Technology center, set up displays in Baker Main Hall yesterday for the first-ever Teaching and Learning Fair, intended to demonstrate how the offices can collaborate with faculty to improve education.
The event, organized by the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, was open to students but intended primarily for faculty members. The fair replaced the dinner DCAL hosted to familiarize new faculty members with the resources available by the support staff in previous years in order to involve the entire faculty as well as students DCAL administrative assistant Diane Chamberlain said.
At the fair, Stephanie Boone, director of student writing support, outlined a pilot program for tutoring and writing assistance in French, Italian and Spanish. Modeled after RWIT and the current Writing Assistance Program, the new program will offer tutors and assistants for writing in those languages and is designed especially for writing-intensive courses. Boone said that the project, scheduled to commence in Fall term of 2008, is a unique collaborative effort.
"I don't know of any other Ivy doing this in this way," she said.
Director of Academic Computing Malcolm Brown said his office is working with the Student Assembly to develop a system for professors to record their lectures and post them online. Twenty-four faculty members have signed up to receive iPods and microphones as part of a trial for this system.
"And now we'll just let them go with it," Brown said.
Brown cited the adoption of personal response systems, or clickers, which students can use in lectures to anonymously submit answers to multiple choice questions, as a major accomplishment of his office. Using this technology, professors can monitor their classes' understanding of the material.
Representing library services, Laura Braunstein, English language and literature librarian, said faculty can act as a connection between their students and the library staff, who can in turn direct students to appropriate resources.
Cheheyl Professor of English Thomas Luxon, director of DCAL, said he believes the library staff to be a critical support organization and hopes the fair encourages faculty to work with the library staff more often.
"We underutilize our librarians terribly," he said.
Luxon said he considered this year's program an experiment to see how many people would show up. Over the course of the day, Chamberlain counted more than 100 faculty members in attendance.
Assistant Dean of Faculty Jane Carroll said she felt the fair was a success. It was helpful to have access to so much information in one place, she said, and the fair gave her ideas she can incorporate into her classes, like producing video projects.
Chamberlain said she had wanted to hold the fair during Fall term, so the community could become acquainted with Dartmouth's support offices at the beginning of the year, but was unable to utilize Baker Main Hall because of Wenda Gu's art display.
