MOOC - Supported Learning Communities for Future STEM Faculty: Multiple Paths to Advance Evidence-based Teaching Across the Nation

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) has received a National Science Foundation grant to launch two massive open online courses (MOOCs) aimed at the group’s core mission of preparing graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to be future faculty who are both excellent researchers and excellent teachers.

The NSF awarded the three-year, $750,000 Widening Implementation and Demonstration of Evidence-Based Reforms (WIDER) grant with the goal of increasing the use of evidence-based teaching and learning practices of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty members at institutions of higher education.

The first MOOC, scheduled to launch in the fall of 2014, will focus on the fundamentals of evidence-based practices for undergraduate teaching and learning. Specific topics will be decided after receiving input from experts across the CIRTL Network, but according to Barnicle are likely to include: learner-centered teaching and learning practices drawn from discipline-based education research; information-access skills allowing future faculty to stay abreast of advancing knowledge; skills for fostering active and collaborative learning activities, such as problem-based teaching, peer instruction and learning communities; formative and summative classroom assessment strategies, including existing instructor-friendly instruments such as the Student Assessment of Learning Gains; and techniques for creating inclusive learning and learning through diversity.