Seeing Colleagues’ Teaching Work

Faculty awarded Provost’s “Experiments in Learning Innovations” grants during Fall 2014 to pursue innovative undergraduate teaching and learning at the course or curricular level were required to (1) engage in an 18-month process of designing, developing, launching, and revising teaching/learning projects in project teams that included pedagogy and technology consultants, and (2) wrap the project by providing a short statement reflecting on the project and process overall.

Happily, most faculty completing the Innovations Grant cycle opted to participate in the Provost’s April 2016 “Innovations in Teaching Showcase,” from which this monograph emerged. Faculty moving among the posters seemed to remark, most of all, on what they were gaining in hearing about colleagues’ pedagogical frameworks, teaching practices, and integration of new approaches at course and curricular levels. One comment specifically sparked the monograph idea for Ilene: “It’s unusual – and nice – that this grant has us talking with other teachers. I like learning about my colleagues’ teaching work.”  In May 2016 we sent an “Invitation to Publish” to recipients of Innovations Grants and of earlier Digital Technology Grants.

Acknowledging Colleagues’ Support

Now November 2017, we’ve arrived at publishing Innovative Learning and Teaching: Experiments Across the Disciplines through the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Services’ open book and open textbook initiative. We’ve gotten here, first of all, thanks to the combined efforts of teachers who persisted beyond grant requirements to compose these chapters, and of consultants from the Center for Educational Innovation and Academic Technology Support Services whose expertise was integral to each project.

More specifically, as co-editors we are grateful for colleagues who lightened the lift as we moved from “Let’s make a book” to “Here’s the book”:

• Danny Smith, who served as our Production Manager, converting a collection of documents into an organized, visually pleasing, accessibly-formatted monograph, and Mason Owens who coordinated the final text updates.
• The peer reviewers/first responders to manuscripts: CEI staffers Paul Baepler, Al Beitz, Paul Ching, Kris Gorman, Mary Jetter, David Langley, Jeff Lindgren, Kate Martin, Jane O’Brien, Christina Petersen, Bill Rozaitis; and longtime CEI partners Patrick Nunnally, and Tim Kamenar.
• The incredibly supportive Publishing Initiative duo of Shane Nackerud and Emma Molls whose initial warm welcome developed into ongoing support as we learned the publishing platform and moved through each development stage.

Finally, we thank Kate Martin and Rebecca Ropers-Huilman for their constancy as well as their significant editorial insights and contributions.