1st Edition
Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership A Guide to Implementing the Transparency Framework Institution-Wide to Improve Learning and Retention
This book offers a comprehensive guide to the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework that has convincingly demonstrated that implementation increases retention and improved outcomes for all students. Its premise is simple: to make learning processes explicit and equitably accessible for all students. Transparent instruction involves faculty/student discussion about several important aspects of academic work before students undertake that work, making explicit the purpose of the work, the knowledge that will be gained and its utility in students’ lives beyond college; explaining the tasks involved, the expected criteria, and providing multiple examples of real-world work applications of the specific academic discipline. The simple change of making objective and methods explicit – that faculty recognize as consistent with their teaching goals – creates substantial benefits for students and demonstrably increases such predictors of college students’ success as academic confidence, sense of belonging in college, self-awareness of skill development, and persistence. This guide presents a brief history of TILT, summarizes both past and current research on its impact on learning, and describes the three-part Transparency Framework (of purposes, tasks and criteria). The three sections of the book in turn demonstrate why and how transparent instruction works suggesting strategies for instructors who wish to adopt it; describing how educational developers and teaching centers have adopted the Framework; and concluding with examples of how several institutions have used the Framework to connect the daily work of faculty with the learning goals that departments, programs and institutions aim to demonstrate.
Foreword—Peter Felten and Ashley Finley Preface—James Rhem Acknowledgments Introduction. The Story of TILT and Its Emerging Uses in Higher Education—Mary-Ann Winkelmes Part One. The Fundamentals of Transparent Design for Faculty 1. Why it Works. Understanding the Concepts Behind Transparency in Learning and Teaching—Mary-Ann Winkelmes 2. How to Use the Transparency Framework—Mary-Ann Winkelmes 3. Faculty Voices and Perspectives on Transparent Assignment Design. FAQ’s for Implementation and Beyond—Allison Boye, Suzanne Tapp, Julie Nelson Couch, Robert D. Cox, and Lisa Garner Santa Part Two. Transparent Design for Faculty Developers 4. Transparency and Faculty Development. Getting Started and Going Further—Allison Boye and Suzanne Tapp 5. Designing Transparent Assignments in Interdisciplinary Contexts—Deandra Little and Amy Overman 6. Integrating TILT Initiatives Throughout a Center for Teaching and Learning. Educational Developer and Instructor Insights—Steven Hansen, Erin Rentschler, and Laurel Willingham-McLain 7. Using Principles from TILT for Workshop Design and Measuring the Impact of Instructional Development—Taimi Olsen, Ellen Haight, and Sara Nasrollahian Mojarad Part Three. Transparent Design Across Higher Education 8. Transparency in Faculty Development Collaborations at a Minority-Serving Research University—Katie Humphreys, Mary-Ann Winkelmes, Dan Gianoutsos, Anne Mendenhall, Erin Farrar, Melissa Bowles-Terry, Gayle Juneau-Butler, Debi Cheek, Leeann Fields, Gina M. Sully, Celeste Calkins, Ke Yu, and Sunny Gittens 9. Transparency and the Guided Pathways Model. Ensuring Equitable Learning Opportunities for Students in Community and Technical Colleges—Jennifer Whetham, Jill Darley-Vanis, Sally Heilstedt, Allison Boye, Suzanne Tapp, and Mary-Ann Winkelmes 10. Transparency to Close Opportunity Gaps in the Largest State System. A Pilot Experiment—Emily Daniell Magruder, Whitney Scott, Michael Willard, Kristina Ruiz-Mesa, and Stefanie Drew 11. Transparent Instruction in a Statewide Higher Education Network—Terri A. Tarr, Russell D. Baker, and Kathy E. Johnson 12. Assignment Design as a Site for Professional Development and Improved Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes—Jillian Kinzie and Pat Hutchings Epilogue. Final Thoughts—Allison Boye, Suzanne Tapp, and Mary-Ann Winkelmes List of Acronyms Editors and Contributors Index
Biography
Mary-Ann Winkelmes, PhD, is director of instructional development and research and an associate graduate faculty member in the Department of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a senior fellow at the Association of American Colleges & Universities. Allison Boye, Ph.D., is Founding Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Collin College. Previously, Dr. Boye was an associate director for academic and pedagogical development in the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center at Texas Tech University. Suzanne Tapp, M.A., is the executive director of the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center at Texas Tech University. Peter Felten is Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and Professor of History at Elon University. His publications include: Transforming Students: Fulfilling the Promise of Higher Education (Johns Hopkins, 2014), and Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching (Jossey-Bass, 2014).
"AAC&U has advocated for higher levels of transparency as a key principle of twenty-first century general education design. This book provides practical examples on how to turn that vision into practice at institutions and across systems. The Transparency Framework represents a strategy that has the potential to transform siloed student success efforts to scalable and sustainable models for quality and equity."
Tia Brown McNair, Vice President, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success
Association of American Colleges and Universities
"With the overarching goal of assessment being directly tied to the improvement of student learning, this book reinforces the general idea of the more information a student has about him/herself, the way they learn and the subject being studied, the more successful they will be in achieving academic success. The authors present a process (The Transparency Framework) that includes the who, what, when, where and why of what a student is expected to learn and how a faculty member can help ensure they do. Their research shows that the model is adaptable to every class size and institutional type. While not the proverbial silver bullet, it comes as close in its practical implementation of research based theories on student learning as I’ve ever seen."
Belle Wheelan, President and Chief Executive Officer
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Colleges
"Transparent Design in Higher Education Teaching and Leadership brings together evidence and examples of one of the most elegant and transformative ideas I have encountered: revising assignments to clearly include the purpose, task, and criteria fosters student success and contributes to closing achievement gaps. This practical yet visionary volume offers a unique set of resources of special value to educational developers—faculty and staff working to improve higher education from centers for teaching and learning and similar units. With cases that are adaptable to a wide range of institutional settings and goals, this book should be one of the first resources educational developers turn to when designing programs, evaluating impact, and collaborating with institutional leaders."
Cassandra Volpe Horii, Founding Director
Caltech Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach; POD Network President, 2018-19
"Who knew we could enrich and deepen learning by clearly explaining to students what they should focus on and why it matters! This book takes the mystery out of improving learning and teaching by appropriating a powerful idea hiding in plain sight to concentrate student and instructor effort on understandable, purposeful educational tasks adaptable to any classroom, lab or studio."
George D. Kuh, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Higher Education
Indiana University; Founding Director, National Survey of Student Engagement National Institute on Learning Outcomes Assessment
"How I wish I had had this book a half century ago when I began my own career as a college professor. I would have known how to be 'transparent' with my underprepared, first generation, motivated, intelligent and creative students, in ways that would have made both them and me more successful much sooner and much more intentionally."
John N. Gardner, Chair and Chief Executive Officer
John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education
