Lessons Learned about Building an ASSERTive Community

Donna C. Llewellyn; William L. Hughes; Megan F. Gambs

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Conference: 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Tampa, Florida
Publication Date: June 15, 2019
Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 19, 2019
Conference Session: Faculty Development Lightning Talks
Tagged Division: Faculty Development Constituent Committee
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--33057
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/33057
Download Count: 383

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Paper Authors

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Donna C. Llewellyn Boise State University

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Donna Crystal Llewellyn received her BA (major in Mathematics and minor in Economics) with High Honors from Swarthmore College in 1980. She went on to earn an MS in Operations Research from Stanford University in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1984. After 30 years at Georgia Tech in a variety of roles, Donna became the Executive Director of the new Institute for STEM and Diversity Initiatives at Boise State University in January 2015. Donna's current interests center around education issues in general, and in particular on increasing access and success of those traditionally under-represented and/or under-served in STEM higher education.

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William L. Hughes Boise State University

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Professor William L. Hughes is the Director of the Micron School of Materials Science & Engineering at Boise State University. He also serves as the Director of the Nucleic Acid Memory Institute, where his research team reads and writes information into DNA for archival storage applications. Finally he is a faculty fellow of the College of Innovation + Design, which he cofounded at Boise State.
Professor Hughes received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. Prior to his current appointments, he served as a Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education, via the National Academy of Engineering, as well as an Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering at the California Polytechnic State University.

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Megan F. Gambs Boise State University

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Megan Gambs is the Project Manager for the Institute for STEM & Diversity Initiatives at Boise State University. She works towards improving access and success for those historically marginalized in STEM through programs with and opportunities for various stakeholder groups (e.g. students, teachers, and faculty). Her experience serving as a middle school science teacher in Nampa, Idaho, inform her work at Boise State.

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Abstract

Lessons Learned about Building an ASSERTive Community

According to our lessons learned paper there is underwhelming faculty development related to scholarship other than on how to submit and sometimes how to write proposals. This de facto service model misses out on everything before and after the proposal-writing process; which is the least important, but is often the most celebrated, rewarded, and supported phase. Inspired by national Centers for Teaching & Learning, and modeled after the emerging Communities of Transformation literature, we are piloting a Center for Transformative Research at Boise State. The vision of our Center is to build and sustain an ASSERTive community -- for Aligning Stakeholders and Structures to Enable Research Transformation. As a cohort, fifteen faculty were recruited as fellows with the goal to spend a year exploring what it means to be a scholar and how to move a bold and transformative idea forward. To minimize the energy to apply, the application process included an instagram post, twitter response, and/or haiku. To ensure university-wide accountability, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by each fellow, as well as their Provost, Vice President for Research & Economic Development, College or School Dean, and Department Chair. Once signed, each fellow was asked to complete a survey and an individual structured interview to determine their specific needs, providing validation or perhaps challenging our a priori observations of risk inhibitors at Boise State that prevent germinating bold ideas. By profiling the fellows, we were able to look at what may inhibit them from taking risks – personal attributes and beliefs, and the structural and cultural issues within their academic unit, the university, and in their academic field. Based on the survey results and individual structured interviews, an off-campus retreat was held. In addition to the off-campus retreat, on-campus workshops were custom made for the fellows and included: (a) how to germinate transformative ideas by no longer seeing ideas as precious; (b) how to become an effective collaborator by adapting the Toolbox Project; (c) how to move ideas forward by drawing on the game “Chutes & Ladders” where the chutes represent common obstacles and the ladders are shortcuts; (d) how to manage time at work, and in life; and (e) how to classify, understand, and know when and how to implement intentional versus emergent research strategies. As a culminating activity, the faculty then pitched their ideas to university and community leadership. In conjunction with the pitch event an advocate was assigned to each faculty to help connect their ideas to future resources. From our motivation to our faculty application to our custom learning community, lessons learned will be shared via a lightning talk.

Citation
Format

Llewellyn, D. C., & Hughes, W. L., & Gambs, M. F. (2019, June), Lessons Learned about Building an ASSERTive Community Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33057

TY - CPAPER
AB - Lessons Learned about Building an ASSERTive Community

According to our lessons learned paper there is underwhelming faculty development related to scholarship other than on how to submit and sometimes how to write proposals. This de facto service model misses out on everything before and after the proposal-writing process; which is the least important, but is often the most celebrated, rewarded, and supported phase. Inspired by national Centers for Teaching &amp; Learning, and modeled after the emerging Communities of Transformation literature, we are piloting a Center for Transformative Research at Boise State. The vision of our Center is to build and sustain an ASSERTive community -- for Aligning Stakeholders and Structures to Enable Research Transformation. As a cohort, fifteen faculty were recruited as fellows with the goal to spend a year exploring what it means to be a scholar and how to move a bold and transformative idea forward. To minimize the energy to apply, the application process included an instagram post, twitter response, and/or haiku. To ensure university-wide accountability, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by each fellow, as well as their Provost, Vice President for Research &amp; Economic Development, College or School Dean, and Department Chair. Once signed, each fellow was asked to complete a survey and an individual structured interview to determine their specific needs, providing validation or perhaps challenging our a priori observations of risk inhibitors at Boise State that prevent germinating bold ideas. By profiling the fellows, we were able to look at what may inhibit them from taking risks – personal attributes and beliefs, and the structural and cultural issues within their academic unit, the university, and in their academic field. Based on the survey results and individual structured interviews, an off-campus retreat was held. In addition to the off-campus retreat, on-campus workshops were custom made for the fellows and included: (a) how to germinate transformative ideas by no longer seeing ideas as precious; (b) how to become an effective collaborator by adapting the Toolbox Project; (c) how to move ideas forward by drawing on the game “Chutes &amp; Ladders” where the chutes represent common obstacles and the ladders are shortcuts; (d) how to manage time at work, and in life; and (e) how to classify, understand, and know when and how to implement intentional versus emergent research strategies. As a culminating activity, the faculty then pitched their ideas to university and community leadership. In conjunction with the pitch event an advocate was assigned to each faculty to help connect their ideas to future resources. From our motivation to our faculty application to our custom learning community, lessons learned will be shared via a lightning talk.

AU - Donna C. Llewellyn
AU - William L. Hughes
AU - Megan F. Gambs
CY - Tampa, Florida
DA - 2019/06/15
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Lessons Learned about Building an ASSERTive Community
UR - https://peer.asee.org/33057
DO - 10.18260/1-2--33057
ER -