Project abstracts are included below.

Sheila Alicea, Associate Professor, Kinesiology, KINE 1311: Introduction to Kinesiology & Sports Sciences

Richard Bautch, Professor, Religious and Theological Studies, RELS 2321: Introduction to Hebrew Bible

Peter Beck, Professor, Environmental Science and Policy, FSEM 1404.03: Freshman Seminar: Sustainable Austin & ENSP 1304: Introduction to Sustainability

Emily Bernate, Assistant Professor, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, CLLC 3399: Linguistic Diversity and Multilingual Practices in the United States

Mary Brantl, Associate Professor, Visual Studies, ARTS 3349: Topic in Art History: Art + $$$$!!!!: An Exploration of Art, Value and Market

Tim Braun, Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Literature, Writing, & Rhetoric, WRIT 3310 Special Topics: Dramatic and Visual Writing

Kelley Coblentz Bautch, Professor, Religious and Theological Studies, RELS 2322: Introduction to the New Testament Online

Jena Heath, Associate Professor, Literature, Writing, & Rhetoric, JOUR 3322: Producing News Online

Lisa Holleran, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice, CRIJ 3330: Research Methods in Criminal Justice

Georgia Seminet, Associate Professor, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, CLLC 3399: Migrations and Borders

Kris Sloan, Associate Professor, Teacher Education, EDUC 2331: Learning Processes and Evaluation

Project Abstracts

Sheila Alicea, Associate Professor, Kinesiology, KINE 1311: Introduction to Kinesiology & Sports Sciences

The purpose of this course development project is to redesign KINE 1311 Introduction to Kinesiology & Sports Sciences. This is a key fundamental class for students to both learn about subdisciplines and careers in Kinesiology and determine their potential interests in this field, and also to build and develop relationships/connections with their classmates, professors, and professionals in the community. High-impact practices and integrative learning are critical in this course, and the sooner students are introduced to these ideas and have the opportunity to participate in related activities to do so, the more it will benefit their learning experience in this course and beyond. My main goal of this course redesign is to prepare to teach the course in a way that provides students a rich experience, through high-impact practices, integrative learning, and an effective use of technology. Objectives include: 1) planning activities and assignments that promote critical thinking and collaborative learning; 2) discussing ways to introduce students to the major in such a way that they learn the content related to the various subdisciplines and specific career paths they may pursue, and also learn how to best connect them to resources within the department/school and on campus; 3) learning how to effectively develop and maintain community partnerships; and 4) learning how to use Canvas and other technology/platforms more effectively. In addition, the information learned from this project will be disseminated to others who would potentially benefit.

Richard Bautch, Professor, Religious and Theological Studies, RELS 2321: Introduction to Hebrew Bible

This online course has been piloted (Spring 2019) as a flexible option to help students complete their degrees in a timely manner. Graduating seniors are taking the course, and several of our Angers students are enrolled to facilitate their study abroad. The design of the course is proving successful, and there are as well opportunities to improve it. Specifically, I hope to incorporate certain new uses of technology in the course, such as videos and podcasts that illuminate the world of the Bible and enrich the course content. Importantly, there is the opportunity to create textual exercises that allow students to “annotate” and otherwise interrogate the biblical text. Through such activities, students will expand their skill set and become better learners, and better prepared for career opportunities once they graduate from St. Edward’s University. In terms of refining this course, I anticipate that there will be other possibilities that emerge from the course evaluations of my current students and the resources that are featured at the Innovation Institute. I look forward to redesigning the online course Introduction to Hebrew Bible so that it may be a most rewarding experience for our students.  

Peter Beck, Professor, Environmental Science and Policy, FSEM 1404.03: Freshman Seminar: Sustainable Austin & ENSP 1304: Introduction to Sustainability

For this project, I propose to develop a new course, FSEM 1404: Sustainable Austin, and redesign an existing course, ENSP 1304: Introduction to Sustainability.  I have three goals for developing these courses: 1) to make the two courses distinct so that students could potentially take both courses without significant content overlap, 2) develop the FSEM course for the seminar and interdisciplinary learning community formats including devising the co-curricular component by organizing excursions, activities, guest speakers and reflective assignments and 3) incorporate differing high-impact practices in both courses such as service learning, experiential learning and collaborative assignments to increase engagement and learning retention.  The expected outcomes of this project are the development of two courses which will be taught during Fall 2019.

Emily Bernate, Assistant Professor, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, CLLC 3399: Linguistic Diversity and Multilingual Practices in the United States

The proposed online course utilizes social annotation platforms to study linguistic diversity and multilingualism in the United States through critical discourse analysis. The course would fulfil the General Education requirement of Diverse American Perspectives while also encouraging students with nontraditional schedules to explore an interest in a minority language used in the United States. By offering the course in English, students with diverse linguistic interests and experiences can gain sociolinguistic awareness that will aid them in the study of a particular language. The course can be applied towards credit in a language major or minor and will allow students to consider sociolinguistic aspects of their language of study that include language discrimination, language policies, multilingual education, and language contact situations. Given the complex nature of these topics, students would benefit from receiving this course in English rather than in their language of study; this decision also allows the course to attract a variety of majors and minors, ensuring a more diverse class experience. The Innovation Fellowship would offer support for selecting a social annotation platform and designing modules that encourage students to use a variety of text types to interact with reading assignments. The Office of Instructional Technology can provide expertise in building an interactive course sequence focused on student-directed learning through small research groups that can collaborate remotely to research topics in a minority language.   

Mary Brantl, Associate Professor, Visual Studies, ARTS 3349: Topic in Art History: Art + $$$$!!!!: An Exploration of Art, Value and Market

Art + $$$$!!!!, a totally new ARTS 3349–Topics in Art History course for Fall 2019, takes on a range of challenges, many of them common to the broader SEU community.  These include answering to students pursuing disciplinary specialization as Art History minors while, concurrently, providing a meaningful exploration of aspects of the art world for non-minors with little background in the arts (or less).  More specifically, the project’s goals subdivide as (A) including content and a significant research component for a highly diverse demographic and (B) General Education objective fulfillment. Building on an ongoing series of “Topics in Art History” redesigns, the objective of the Institute project would be development of a syllabus, drawing on alternative research methods and creative outcome delivery approaches for that research given the diverse pool of participants, embedding of Austin-based resources, while identifying creative but efficacious solutions to the course’s varied General Education responsibilities (Exploring Artistic Works; Writing Rich; Social Identities Mission Markers).

Tim Braun, Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Literature, Writing, & Rhetoric, WRIT 3310 Special Topics: Dramatic and Visual Writing

Through lecture, lab, and field study this class is an intensive examination of the short “film” and the fundamentals of dramatic and visual writing.  In recitation, each student will write two original screenplays, each being 6-8 pages. Both pieces will be cast, shot, edited, and presented to the class by each student using minimal, “do-it-yourself” means, such as smartphones.  Lectures will serve as a forum for a comprehensive examination of the “writer’s toolbox” through films and clips from features and shorts as well as the reading of scripts and essays. Fieldwork will include participation in the Austin Film Festival¨ Austin Film Society¨ and Fantastic Fest  At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:

• Identify trends and contemporary theories in dramatic and visual writing.
• Critically analyze visual rhetoric by identifying perspectives and applied concepts and methods in film, visual art, digital storytelling, and the Internet commerce. 
• Use their knowledge and analysis of visual elements in storytelling to evaluate trends and genre.  

Kelley Coblentz Bautch, Professor, Religious and Theological Studies, RELS 2322: Introduction to the New Testament Online

I seek an Innovation Fellowship so that I can revise a course RELS 2322 Introduction to the New Testament Online. I am just this semester teaching RELS 2322 as an online course and the experience and student feedback to date have been so far very positive. Now that I have some experience teaching online, I am emboldened to take the course to the next level. In particular, I would like to do more to build student learning communities and increase interaction. I would like to encourage students to do more by way of connecting with each other whether asynchronously or synchronously and to experiment (further) with different technological resources. These two aims are not mutually exclusive. In the first incarnation of RELS 2322 Online, I asked students to make several short videos presentations or posts. While the latter (written posts) were accepted, video posts were preferred. For one assignment where students videoed themselves, students were more apt to respond with comments or questions for each other. But as the semester has continued, students have opted to write posts as opposed to make short videos. I would like to find ways to incentivize further interaction among class members and to engage in trouble shooting in advance so that I can mitigate the technological challenges students might encounter or fear unnecessarily.    

Jena Heath, Associate Professor, Literature, Writing, & Rhetoric, JOUR 3322: Producing News Online

JOUR 3322: Producing News Online (JII) is required in the core of the Journalism & Digital Media Minor as a prerequisite to JOUR 3314: Digital Media Production & Design. The class follows JOUR 2321: Introduction to Journalism and, as currently constituted, sits uneasily between the two. This fellowship will give me the support I have long needed to redesign JOUR 3322, ensuring that the digital skills taught are sufficiently challenging and that consideration/discussion of the serious issues presented by the digital news ecosystem reflects current realities — realities that are changing with each passing week and which sit at the heart of our electoral system and Democratic institutions. Not only must this course provide a strong skills “bridge” between the Intro and Advanced classes, it must continue the larger conversation about what it means to be a news consumer and citizen (broadly defined) during a time of transition between a fully developed traditional news infrastructure and one that is still emerging in the digital space. My re-consideration of this course is designed to ensure that the three classes, 2321, 3322 and 3314 comprise a coherent pedagogical sequence within the core of the Journalism & Digital media minor.

Lisa Holleran, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice, CRIJ 3330: Research Methods in Criminal Justice

This proposal fits the focus areas of High-Impact Practices, Integrative Learning, and Research-Based Curricular Innovation. With a new course and new resources available through the Munday Library, this proposal stresses critical learning skills for students and opportunities to connect with real-world problems through original research. This proposal encompasses integrative learning through research partners in the class (co-authors) and technology through SORIN and ICPSR. Finally, this proposal is for Research Methods which will help students get excited about research and see how it will apply to their careers.  

Georgia Seminet, Associate Professor, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, CLLC 3399: Migrations and Borders

I am proposing a Global Perspectives general education course that also covers a social identities mission marker. To have the course count as a general education offering, I will also have to propose the course to the Global Perspectives and Social Identities committees for approval.  The topic is “Migrations and Borders,” and it will have the prefix CLLC 3399. It will count as an elective for majors and minors in Spanish, French and German as well as for any student that needs a Global Perspectives course and/or a social identities mission marker. Students will analyze film and literature and read a selection of critical articles as a way of understanding both the motivating factors of migration, as well as the cultural reactions migrants face in receiving countries. The course will be completely online, with no face-to-face meetings.

The project will entail an initial phase of research and development to refine and select the films and literature from different countries (US, France, Germany, Mexico and Central America). Films will be selected based on availability through streaming, and literature will be readily available in English translation. The course will be structured as 4-5 modules (for summer; could be adapted for a long semester), each with a different cultural/country focus, in which students will be assessed based on participation on the discussion board, two précis of critical articles, two tests online, and a final project consisting of an interview with a migrant. The interview should be filmed, possibly using Panopto, and students will then compose and film their reflection on the interview experience and how their perceptions have changed as a result of the course content.  Students will identify their interviewee as early as possible, and develop questions for the interview throughout the course based on their readings and insights.

Kris Sloan, Associate Professor, Teacher Education, EDUC 2331: Learning Processes and Evaluation

I propose to build EDUC 2331 as a highly interactive, on-line course.   Changes in the General Education Curriculum coupled with changes in the Teacher Education minor make it imperative that the Department of Teaching, Learning & Culture develop flexibility in the ways that it delivers our courses.  EDUC 2331 is part of four-course gateway into teacher education. As more students choose second minors—often times as Juniors or Seniors, our department must be able to offer students multiple pathways to quickly and efficiently fulfill their gateway courses so they can pursue teacher certification. This effort is crucial to the long-term viability of the teacher education minor at St. Edward’s.