The Teaching Center

The Center for Excellence in Teaching (CET) was developed to assist faculty in their efforts to evaluate and improve teaching and learning at Siena. As such, it has focused on the assessment of student learning outcomes, teaching with technology in and out of the classroom, and promoting active and collaborative classroom teaching and learning strategies.

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes

The CET has supported a number of assessment related projects while coordinating the five academic departmental program reviews that are conducted each year. In addition, the CET supports a number of standardized assessment instruments that are given at the departmental level and has made available a digitized version of the Siena Course Evaluation Form. It has also created and made widely available alternative course evaluation forms—including the Siena College Course Assessment Form and the Siena College Course Engagement Form.

The CET has sponsored/conducted workshops and presentations for faculty on evaluating the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), course embedded assessment, and creating course goals and objectives (there is also a tutorial on this in the CET Archive in Blackboard).

Teaching with Technology

The CET acts as the academic administrator for the Blackboard Courseware System, the TurnItIn Plagiarism Prevention Service, and the electronic response systems (clickers) at Siena. As such, it provides training and support for faculty in these areas.
The Teaching Center shares the responsibility of overseeing and stocking the Kennedy Faculty Resource Room in the Standish Library.

In addition, the William B. Spendiff Director of the Siena College Center for Excellence in Teaching recently attended the “Learning Spaces and Technology Workshop” in order to try and formulate (along with other Siena administrators and faculty) a proposal for an ongoing plan for technology and learning at Siena. The initial (very basic) thoughts were presented to faculty in the Spring of 2006. Visits are presently being planned to area colleges that are considered leaders in this field.

Active and Collaborative Teaching

The CET has sponsored/conducted workshops and presentations for faculty on many topics relating to active and collaborative learning in and out of the classroom. For the 2005-2006 academic year, some of the topics included grant writing, student class presentations, using cases in the classroom, effective collaborative learning, student class preparation, using studio classrooms, and peer review of writing. Please forward any suggestions for future workshops/presentations to rdrake@siena.edu.

The Blackboard Online Faculty Resource Archive has over 120 articles on assessment and pedagogy. All faculty have access to this archive through their Blackboard account (If you have any questions please contact me at rdrake@siena.edu or X6821). There are also dozens of books available for loan through the Center.