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CELT

UAS Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

The Alt-Textbook Project

Free and/or low-cost textbook alternatives can have a big impact on student success.

The Alt-Textbook Project, a collaborative initiative of the Egan Library and CELT, provides faculty development and advocacy to increase awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) and the innovative teaching and learning opportunities these tools can facilitate. Students spend an average of $1,200 per year on texts, and according to a 2014 PIRG report, 7 out of 10 students have forgone purchasing college textbooks due to cost. Faculty use of OER signal an awareness of rising textbook prices and an effort to select course materials with student costs in mind.

Library faculty Jonas Lamb spearheaded the pilot Alt-Textbook Workshop series in 2015-2016, supported by Academic Innovation Funding. Five UAS faculty members (4 from Juneau, 1 from Ketchikan) from English, Education, Economics and Construction Technology completed the workshop. Each provided positive comments on the opportunity to collaborate with faculty outside of their departments, the dedicated time to explore and discover high quality and relevant open educational resources (OER) and discuss among peers the potential for adopting these resources as alternatives to traditional textbooks in their courses. Participants identified and reviewed 15 OER while also reading and providing annotations for 5 scholarly articles exploring OER in the context of pedagogy, efficacy, student engagement and scholarly communication. At least one participant indicated intent to adopt an open textbook for Fall 2016. Over the project’s first year, these efforts have saved students an estimated $20,000-30,000 on textbooks.

Project details, a resource list of OER reviewed by UAS faculty, and information about how to participate are available on the Alt-Textbook webpage.

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Julia Ivy presents on BE-EDGE

Former UAS faculty member Julia Ivy shared her BE-EDGE instrument with faculty during a CELT workshop on March 4, 2019.

Former UAS faculty member Julia Ivy shared her BE-EDGE instrument with faculty during a CELT workshop on March 4, 2019. BE-EDGE is built to enhance graduates’ employability and uses consulting cases as a framework for final projects, capstone classes, and internship theses.

Julia Ivy is a professor of strategy and international business at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, MA. Julia Ivy possesses a PhD in Psychology and a PhD in Management (Strategy), which has helped her in developing the BE-EDGE method to assist graduates in shaping their space in the job market through conducting consulting cases.

During the workshop, Dr. Ivy described the E-D-G-E steps framework for integrating a consulting case assignment into personal strategy and job crafting efforts, and she also gave examples of a variety of projects her students have developed through the program. In addition, Dr. Ivy talked about the consulting case contest she developed through her work, which has reached students at universities worldwide.

Participants in the CELT workshop discussed ways to integrate consultancy projects into the fabric of experiential learning: as a part of both curricular and as extracurricular activities; as business cases and as non-business cases; as cases with given “clients” and given “issues”, as well as independent consultancy projects. If you weren’t able to attend the workshop, you can view the recording.

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Student technology

What devices do students own? Egan Library decided to find out.

At Egan Library's Open House in September, staff asked student attendees to fill out a short, anonymous survey about the technology they own. The results:

  • 44 surveys were submitted.
  • 42 or 96% of respondents own smart phones
  • 37 (84%) own laptops
  • 15 (34%) own desktops
  • 25 (57%) own tablets
  • 1 respondent owns none of these and relies on public or friend/family computers.
  • 9 or 21% of respondents own all four devices
  • 21 (48%) own a smart phone, laptop OR desktop, and a tablet
  • 36 (86%) own both a smart phone and a laptop
  • 3 respondents own only a smart phone and a tablet
  • 2 respondents own only a smart phone
  • 1 respondent owns only a laptop

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Opening Up Undergraduate Scholarship

ScholarWorks@UA provides a platform for completed projects from UAS' URECA program.

ScholarWorks@UA is our institutional repository (IR), a partnership between UA system universities and the Arctic Supercomputing Center aimed at collecting, preserving, and disseminating the intellectual output of UA faculty, staff, and students. ScholarWorks@UA enables UAS users to highlight their best scholarly and creative work, reach a worldwide audience, facilitate collaboration, and attract faculty, staff, and students to UAS, and materials deposited in the IR are discoverable by OneSearch as well as Google Scholar. In addition to including work such as master's theses, ScholarWorks@UA provides a platform for UAS’ Undergraduate Research, Experiential & Creative Activities (URECA) program, which provides funding for students to engage in extra-curricular research and creative activities and opportunities for faculty to mentor students on projects that complement and expand upon traditional teaching and learning. Completed projects are uploaded to ScholarWorks@UA upon completion each spring.

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By Land or By Sea

Learn how Professor Reid Brewer delivers Fish Tech courses to his students.

In order to reach out students across the state of Alaska and beyond, Reid Brewer and the UAS Fisheries Technology program has started recording and loading 3-credit classes on Apple iPads. Each of the seven classes available in this format can be taken from anywhere in the state, or nation for that matter, on a UAS supplied iPad. All of the lectures, reading assignments, writing assignments, videos and exams are stored on the iPad so that no internet access is required. Each class is broken up into 8 to 12 student learning outcomes that are taught in 10 to 15 minute mini-lectures and end with self-check quizzes to make sure students are keeping pace with the information. Each class has a PDF reading assignment in the iBooks application and a writing assignment in the Pages application. Exams are accessed through the ExamSoft application and guided access locks down the iPad while students take exams. All classes have pre and post course exams to evaluate student learning, and once iPads are connected to the internet, exams are downloaded to instructors. In spring 2017, 73 students signed up for 219 Fish Tech credits on Apple iPads. Based upon end of course surveys, students enjoy the flexibility of taking classes with student led learning, the engaging self-check quizzes and at least 75% of surveyed students said that they couldn't have taken traditional face to face or semester-long distance classes.

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CELT

UAS Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Providing regional peer to peer and professional support for UAS faculty in the areas of instructional design and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
uas.celt@alaska.edu

Connect with CELT on Facebook

IDN

Instructional Design Network

Supporting faculty in the design and development of e-Learning courses

Visit the IDN site for more resources on instructional design and educational technology.

STL

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Providing opportunities for professional development and peer-to-peer learning

Visit the STL site for more in-depth resources on teaching, pedagogy, and student support.

Get involved with CELT

CELT Resources

CELT serves and supports all UAS faculty by providing professional development opportunities and collegial learning spaces around teaching and learning.

All faculty are welcome to participate in our upcoming workshops and events, shown above and tagged as IDN (Instructional Design Network) or STL (Scholarship of Teaching & Learning) according to their primary focus. If you attended a session recently and wish to provide feedback, please do so using the feedback form at right.

Faculty seeking leadership opportunities are encouraged to submit proposals for one-time or a series of workshops/events around teaching and learning. Faculty facilitators may work with their Dean/Director to craft a proposal eligible for workload credit.

CELT Personnel

Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

Phone

  • Information: 796-6557
  • Toll-Free: 1-877-465-4827

Fax

  • Fax: 796-6249

Address

Egan Library
Room 103
11066 Auke Lake Way
Juneau, AK 99801

Social Media

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Elise Tomlinson

UAS Library Dean, including the Learning, Testing, & Writing Centers, & the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT)

Phone: 907-796-6467

Email:

Egan Library, 208 - Mail Stop BE1, Juneau Campus

Juneau Campus

Education

  • Master of Public Administration, University of Alaska Southeast, 2020
  • Master of Library and Information Science, University of Hawaii Manoa, 1999
  • Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Alaska Anchorage, 1993

Courses Taught

LS110 - Library Resources and Information Literacy

LS111 - Library Information Literacy for Distance Students

Biography

Hired by the UAS Egan Library in 1999 as an Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science, Elise has worked in school, public, special, and academic libraries for the past 30 years. She received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, in 2006, and became the Regional Library Director for UAS in 2012. In 2016 she also began overseeing the Juneau campus Learning, Testing, and Writing Centers and the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT). Her position title changed to UAS Library Dean in 2018. Outside of librarianship, Elise is a painter and a photographer who exhibits regularly in Juneau. She also loves to spend time outside with her family. Come by and say hello the next time you're in the library!

Hours

Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Trudy Brown

Instructional Designer

Phone: 907-796-6557

Email:

Kaia Henrickson

Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science, Information Literacy Librarian

Phone: 907-796-6515

Email:

Egan Library, Juneau Campus

Juneau Campus

Education

  • MAT University of Alaska Southeast (2004)
  • MLIS Simmons College (2000)
  • BFA Corcoran College of Art and Design (1998)

Affiliations

American Library Association (ACRL), Alaska Library Association

Courses Taught

  • LS 110
  • LS 111

Robin Gilcrist

Associate Professor and Program Head of Construction Technology

Phone: 907-796-6141

Email:

Career Education

Technical Education Center, 223, Juneau Campus

Juneau Campus

Biography

Associate Professor, Robin Gilcrist has been teaching for the Construction Technology program on the Juneau campus since 2007. Ms. Gilcrist attended Sacramento City College way back in the last century, earning an Associate Degree in Drafting Technology. After moving to Hawaii in the early 80’s she completed a Bachelor of Art degree with an emphasis in drawing. While teaching for UAS, Ms. Gilcrist completed the UAS Masters of Educational Technology degree, which provided a foundation to build her teaching skills to offer online construction professional courses.

Ms. Gilcrist has worked as a drafter and residential designer for the past 40 years. She is a certified AutoCAD user, and maintains a General Contractor’s License with Residential Endorsement. She is also a member of the American Institute of Building Designers and local Southeast AK Home Builders Association.

Ms. Gilcrist has also been a volunteer board member on several Juneau non-profit organizations, lending her expertise in building design, planning and construction oversight. She is currently serving on the board of the Glory Hall. She works closely with the Juneau House Trust, the Juneau School District, and the City and Borough of Juneau to help facilitate the continued UAS.JHT.JSD House Build partnership.

John Ingman

Instructional Designer

Phone: 907-747-7725

Email:

Sitka Campus

Education

  • M.S. Instructional Design, Quinnipiac University
  • B.S. Music, University of Oregon

Kimberly Matsuura

Academic Support & Testing Center Supervisor / CIOS Adjunct Faculty

Phone: 907-228-4507

Email:

Paul Bldg, Ketchikan Campus

Ketchikan Campus

Education

  • Associate of Arts from Seattle Central Community College
  • Bachelor of Science in Business Management from University of Alabama Birmingham

Courses Taught

  • CIOS 100
  • CIOS 101A & 101B
  • CIOS 110A
  • CIOS 105
  • CIOS 132A
  • CIOS 135
  • CIOS 193A
  • ACCT 100
  • ACCT 222

Biography

Kimberly has managed the computer lab at UAS-Ketchikan since 2003.  Today she supports UAS faculty, students, & staff with technology needs.  Currently Kimberly supervises the Ketchikan campus Computer Lab, Testing Center, and Academic Support.